Gardening: 2015-2016

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Daddy used to always contend one should plant on Good Friday,

Interesting choice of a planting date, given the way it moves around the calendar.

 

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

places near me  "  Memorial day "

This the the guidance I grew up with in northern NY.  Fair enough to gamble on setting things out earlier in May but pre-global warming,  Memorial Day was always the best guess for setting out tender plants.

[rotuts]

where I grew up, the Bat Area   it was any time at all.

 

My  mother ( in the B.A. ) liked to think she got vine-ripe tomatoes early than I did in NE.  I set my out early may but coddled them.

 

until I figures out the secret.    My NE tomatoes came in ripe  ( Early Girl ) about a week before my mothers.  she planted in Feb.

 

Why ?  after becoming a Tomato Expert   (   ) and indeed i am, the tomato blossom 'sets' based on night time temperature.  there is a hormone released

 

by the tomato.  maybe 70 0r 65 Ive forgotten.  so evening in NE got warmer before evening in the Bay Area where nights are cool.

 

however, if you really want to be a Tomato Maven, the tomato mail order houses sell a pump spray that is that hormone.  safe.

 

you spray on the blooms as soon as they open a few times   ( of course, frost might not be your friend ) and those blossoms set.  you need

 

an energetic Bee or two or a slim tiny paint brush   you fertilize the early blossoms your self.

 

voila   very early set tomatoes.  once set, they grow fine in cool weather   you then get Very Very Early Girls.

 

I did tell you I was an expert.   If I decided to get my tiller serviced  I might go back into the tomato business.

 

I used to have 3   'sets'   8 plants / set  ( a tilled separate space )   soaker hose, black plasic, concrete re-enforcing wire cage  ( home made )

 

they plants eventually got to  be 6 - 7 feet tall or more.  supported by the heavy duty cage.

 

24 plants.  enough for me, my friends and a few idiotic squirrels 

[ElainaA]

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

It's snowing.  

 Here too. But your seedlings look great! 

 

@kayb In our zone the standard is don't put tomaotes and peppers out until Memorial Day. That was my mother's advice as well as rotuts'.

Edited March 18, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[rotuts]

I used to put them out in a carefully dug trench.  they were 3 ft tall as I started them indoors on a seed-ling mat, then transplanted them into cut 1 L plastic bottles etc etc

 

so they lived until early May and were spindly.  but being the expert that I am

 

the soil was warmed w both black plastic, and remay spun fiber for heat

 

tilled and plated horizontally with just the tip turned up.  roots form along the spindly part of the tomato  you may have noticed

 

so there was a 1 foot compact root ball at the base  ( horizontally ) the two feet of spindly ness  the the turn-up last set of leaves.

 

black plastic went back done  along with the reman spun cloth and the secret  :  a Wall-O-Water for the tip area.

 

got them in 3 - 4 weeks before any one lease   

 

 

so they soon had 3 feet of roots.  on a still night you could hear them grow   a sort of low pitched squeak.

 

same as  you can hear corn grow under similar circumstances.

 

that's how they got to be over 7 feet tall

 

this was only for the first set of 8

 

all early girls, a gold standard for taste I think  from the garden

 

the tomatoes that took a lot longer to mature never did so well here as late summer and early fall rains ruined them

 

and the truly very late tomatoes suffered from pre-frost before they ever rippened.

[dcarch]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

The other day it was like 82 degrees so I went out to the greenhouse to take pictures.  I stopped to take a pic of these trees.

 

Tomatoes

 

Lettuce

 

Dill

 

More tomatoes...some brussels sprouts and some melons are in there somewhere....

 

 

Sigh.

 

 

And how do you remember which tomato is which without plant tags?

 

dcarch

 

 

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, dcarch said:

 

And how do you remember which tomato is which without plant tags?

 

dcarch

 

 

My husband has some sort of a system.  He's in charge of the greenhouse.  Keeps him occupied lol. 

 

At times I don't know what I'm planting. 

[kayb]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

2 hours ago, kayb said:

Daddy used to always contend one should plant on Good Friday,

Interesting choice of a planting date, given the way it moves around the calendar.

 

 

Daddy was a major proponent of doing things "by the signs," i.e., the phases of the moon and different astrological signs, as detailed in the Farmers Almanac, which ranked right up there with the Bible in our house. Since Easter is a moon-driven date, I guess it makes sense.

 

He also used "the signs" to determine when to go fishing, when to graft fruit trees, when to make kraut, and assorted other things. Oh, and when to kill hogs. The hams and bacon would not cure properly if the signs were wrong.

 

I'd say there's nothing to that, but he always cured good ham and bacon and made good kraut, and I don't remember the garden ever getting frozen out.

[KennethT]

Here's an update on my garden.  So far, the Yu Choi, Genovese Basil and Thai Basil have sprouted.  I am waiting for the sawtooth coriander to sprout (the package says it usually takes 3 weeks), and the lettuces have not sprouted - but that may be because the seeds are a couple years old, or I may have overwatered the rockwool cubes and drowned them.  I'll try them again next week.

 

Here's a photo of what has sprouted so far:

The Yu choi is in the back, then the thai basil, then the genovese basil.  After taking the photo, I thinned the basils by plucking the smaller ones out of the cube.  Even as infants, they are both extremely aromatic!

 

Here's a shot of the yu choi that shows the roots.  Next week, I'll transplant it into the main garden:

 

Today I also clipped a stem of the rau ram starter plant I have in order to propagate it.  The first thing you need for good results is this:

This is rooting hormone.  This bottle is a few years old... hopefully it's still good!

 

So the basic steps are as follows - first prep: prepare the rockwool cube and sterilize your sharpest knife or scissors with isopropyl alcohol.  Then cut off most of the leaves below the top few, keeping track of the node locations - this is because you want to cut the stem just below the bottom node.  Then dip about an inch of the bottom of the stem into the rooting hormone as soon as it's cut so you don't allow air to get in.  Then insert the stem into the cube, and sit in a ziplock bag (to maintain humidity), keeping the bag open just a little bit at the top so you don't get mold.  The cube will hold enough water to support the stem for about a week, by which time you should have some roots.  At that time, you can moisten the block with a spray bottle and over the next few days open the bag more and more to slowly get it used to a lower humidity environment.  Then into the bucket garden at a nutrient level of about 350-450ppm nutrient.

 

[Tere]

Planted the last two fruit trees this weekend and got all the berries into the ground. And all the veg beds are dug over. Produce a go go!

[HungryChris]

Today was the day I was hoping to see the first signs of lettuce or Brussels sprouts plants emerging. This may be a total do-over. Oh, well, hope springs eternal and nothing ventured....

HC

Edited March 21, 2016 by HungryChris (log)

[ElainaA]

42 minutes ago, HungryChris said:

Today was the day I was hoping to see the first signs of lettuce or Brussels sprouts plants emerging. This may be a total do-over. Oh, well, hope springs eternal and nothing ventured....

HC

 

I was going to "like" this but that hardly seems the correct term - empathize with perhaps? I've experienced this - it is a real bummer. Mother Nature is a highly unpredictable lady. More so now than in the past.

[Anna N]

@ElainaA, @rotuts, and @KennethT

 

Thank you for answering my question about reusing the soil. Things move slowly in my world but today I was able to pull out as much of the stem and root material as reasonable, add a layer of fresh soil and I am ready to replant. 

[Wayne]

My earliest sign that the gardening season is getting started.: garlic is coming along nicely.

[rotuts]

@HungryChris   

 

look into Remay Spun garden cover.   a must in NE.  can be used over and over   Spring and Fall

 

it adds at least a month to your goring season each end

 

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/The-Joys-of-Remay.html

 

http://www.amazon.com/Reemay-Garden-Blanket-67-100/dp/B001FA9SNE

 

[Tere]

Discovered hubby had taken some photos on the camera so can't resist sharing all our hard work!

 

Entrance to the veggy plot, with from left to right 3 lingonberries 3 whimberries, 3 cranberries, 3 more whimberries and 3 blueberries. And a lot of ericacious mulch! We are at about 6 - 6.5 in terms of pH. Hopefully that will be low enough with a little help. Rhododendron and camellia do OK here, so fingers crossed!

 

Better pic of the beds, the fruit cage, and the 6 baby fruit trees we plan to train on the warmest point, the wall of the cart barn. The furthest bed is asparagus, the nearest is intended for cut flowers for the house and the holiday lets (and is currently hosting some prunings from the various trees, because why not. The pond to the left is natural - our water supply is a natural spring which comes up just under the green hexagonal building you can see in the middle distance. Currently a pair of mallard ducks are in residence - they told us off loudly about all the digging

 

[Okanagancook]

Tere, your garden beds look lovely.

 

Here in the Okanagan it is spring. The grass is getting green and most of the trees are budding.  The apricots will be in blossom soon. 

 

I planted my peas, radish and greens Feb 22nd and everything is up!  The garlic is doing nicely and again, such good luck with all of them coming up.  Planted my onion sets (not as many as Selby though).  We put in some carrots, beets and more peas yesterday.  The greenhouse has my seedlings trying to germinate plus I planted some zucchini, cucumber, butter lettuce and basil seeds.  I love this time of year.

 

 

[Toliver]

On 3/18/2016 at 0:39 PM, dcarch said:

 

And how do you remember which tomato is which without plant tags?

 

dcarch

My mom was always a STWIP planter when it came to her tomatoes - STWIP - So That's What I Planted! 

Then one year she said she was too old to take care of the growing of the 'maters. So an older brother of mine took to planting 'maters in some of her planter pots and would never tell her what kind he planted so the STWIP method continues to this day. As long as he plants some cherry or pear 'maters for her, she's happy. 

[dcarch]

On 3/21/2016 at 3:06 PM, Toliver said:

My mom was always a STWIP planter when it came to her tomatoes - STWIP - So That's What I Planted! 

Then one year she said she was too old to take care of the growing of the 'maters. So an older brother of mine took to planting 'maters in some of her planter pots and would never tell her what kind he planted so the STWIP method continues to this day. As long as he plants some cherry or pear 'maters for her, she's happy. 

Shame on you people!  

 

My system:

 

dcarch

Edited March 22, 2016 by dcarch (log)

[ElainaA]

@dcarch  How many varieties of tomato are you starting? My friends think I'm crazy because I'm doing 13 kinds - this looks like more. How many plants, total? It look like you start your seeds directly in beer cups - I start (tomorrow!) in seed trays and transfer to beer cups when they have 2 sets of true leaves. Looking at your set up I'm questioning the need for the two step process. 

My major problem is that, like most little boys, our half-grown kitten loves playing in the dirt. We are still discussing ways to keep him away from the seed trays and,later, the plants.

Edited March 22, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Shelby]

On March 21, 2016 at 2:06 PM, Toliver said:

My mom was always a STWIP planter when it came to her tomatoes - STWIP - So That's What I Planted! 

Then one year she said she was too old to take care of the growing of the 'maters. So an older brother of mine took to planting 'maters in some of her planter pots and would never tell her what kind he planted so the STWIP method continues to this day. As long as he plants some cherry or pear 'maters for her, she's happy. 

I'd like this 3 times if I could lol.  Yep, I know all the varieties are there....they just might not get planted next to each other...I don't care.  It's all good as long as they produce.  I LOVE the STWIP.  Totally introducing this to Ronnie (with props to Toliver of course  )

[dcarch]

4 hours ago, ElainaA said:

@dcarch  How many varieties of tomato are you starting? My friends think I'm crazy because I'm doing 13 kinds - this looks like more. How many plants, total? It look like you start your seeds directly in beer cups - I start (tomorrow!) in seed trays and transfer to beer cups when they have 2 sets of true leaves. Looking at your set up I'm questioning the need for the two step process. ---------

 

I am not sure how many varieties. I keep on trying new ones. I think I have about 80 plants. I should have lots to dehydrate and to make tomato powder.

 

dcarch

[Tere]

Tomorrow I start a 10 week volunteer course that is funded by something or other at the local community garden. I thought it wise as I have not grown even a tomato plant before

[Thanks for the Crepes]

My leek root end that I cut off too close to the roots right before thinking of planting it is coming up! I discovered a squirrel or something had dug it up the next day, but fortunately decided it wasn't good to eat, so I just replanted it, and now it has leaves popping up. Kind of weird and creepy to think that something is watching you bury something in a container on your deck, and then comes to steal it.   That had to be what happened, I think, because if the would be thief had found it by scent, they should have known they wouldn't like to eat it.

 

Thanks again, @dcarchfor the idea of planting scallion root trimmings. Fresh food from trash. I it.

[Wayne]

9 hours ago, Tere said:

Tomorrow I start a 10 week volunteer course that is funded by something or other at the local community garden. I thought it wise as I have not grown even a tomato plant before

 

Wise. Even if you're an experienced gardener it's a good idea. Every area has it's 'quirks' of climate, soil, diseases, problem

wildlife...... Better to beat the learning curve.

 

Mine are clayey poor draining soil, powdery mildew, squirrels and rabbits. Yet when I gardened 20 km. / 15 miles away it was

well drained alkaline soil, deer and raccoons.

 

[Wayne]

On ‎23‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 2:12 PM, cyalexa said:

Re. expensive celery 

 

Last spring I cut the bottom 1.5 inches off of a stalk of purchased (most likely organic) celery and put it in a bowl with just enough water to cover the bottom half. A couple days later I planted it in an unused corner of my herb garden. I began harvesting ribs in the early fall and have not purchased celery since. Before out first hard frost I dug the plant up, potted it, and put it our little greenhouse. It is still producing. It is entirely possible that it would get enough sun in a east- or south- facing window of a house or apartment. I find the flavor of my homegrown celery too strong to eat raw unless cut very, very small but it is great for cooking and I have an abundance of celery leaves. 

 

I realize that not everyone has the room or inclination to try to grow celery but if you do, give it a try. 

 

I tried this and it worked very well. Thanks.

I don't use much celery so this seems like an ideal solution.