Gardening: 2015-2016

[Chris Hennes]

Spring is springing here, but to my dismay my mint has been overrun by aphids... but the war is on now!

 

 

Those are about to be some very well-fed ladybugs.

[KennethT]

Chris, where did you get your ladybugs?  Do garden shops near you carry them, or did you get them online?

[Chris Hennes]

My favorite place: 1500 Live Ladybugs - Good Bugs - Ladybugs - Guaranteed Live Delivery!

[KennethT]

Rau ram rooting update: check out these roots!  (also, btw, check out the thai and genovese basil... these guys are ready for the main garden whenever I get around to putting them there!)

[kbjesq]

For you northern folks (and anyone else who cares to respond) how are you growing micro greens? Inside? In one of those aero garden things? Something else? This sounds stupid because I live in Florida but between the rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, river rats (like muskrats, I think), moles, armadillos, birds, and other vermin, plus the salt air and sandy soil (I live on a barrier island) it's really hard to successfully grow anything to the point of harvest, unless you have a lot of time to devote to natural pest control or you are willing to use chemicals. So I'm thinking of trying a few containers this spring (it's in the 80s during the day now) and micro greens piqued my interest. I've seen a few people discussing them in dinner/lunch threads. I could possibly put them inside near a south facing window 

[ElainaA]

On February 10, 2016 at 3:00 PM, ElainaA said:

@kbjesq

Here is my post from 2/10. I grow them inside in a (really cheap!) plastic container  -  they take about 2-3 weeks to get to usable size. When they get their first real leaves (or maybe 2 - if I'm not impatient) I cut them off. i get 3-4 servings from a planting. Some years i am organized enough to start another batch before the first is over but not this year. I mainly use them over salad but there are many other possibilities. I get my seed from PineTree Gardens - their "Kitchen sink mix" but there are many other suppliers. (A lot of them give you much less seed for lots more money though.)

 

My winter garden - micro greens. They should be ready to use next week. This batch is not doing so well I have the choice of either putting them by a sunny window where i am unable to protect them from our new kitten walking on them and pulling them up to eat or putting them in a protected space where they get less sun. I have opted for the latter.

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Smithy]

42 minutes ago, kbjesq said:

For you northern folks (and anyone else who cares to respond) how are you growing micro greens? Inside? In one of those aero garden things? Something else? This sounds stupid because I live in Florida but between the rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, river rats (like muskrats, I think), moles, armadillos, birds, and other vermin, plus the salt air and sandy soil (I live on a barrier island) it's really hard to successfully grow anything to the point of harvest, unless you have a lot of time to devote to natural pest control or you are willing to use chemicals. So I'm thinking of trying a few containers this spring (it's in the 80s during the day now) and micro greens piqued my interest. I've seen a few people discussing them in dinner/lunch threads. I could possibly put them inside near a south facing window 

 

@kbjesq, you may be interested in checking out this topic for outdoor gardening in Florida: The Hydroponic Garden Project. It's been a while since @Jason Perlow updated, but he may have solved much of the varmint problem with this approach. 

[rotuts]

I live in NE, hot humid mid summers.  snow  1 April, and frost in the fall

 

four things changed my gardening year and extended it at least a month on each side.

 

here is shade cloth, which completely prevented bolting of lettuce mid summer :

 

propagation mats :

 

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11202270&KPID=9515254&pla=pla_9515254

 

they warm your seedling trays to the temp you like   lettuce likes 72    the above is just an example  the mat is solid and the version I had had a probe you put in the

 

water under the seedling 6 packs in the tray and gave the mat feedback for the temp you wanted

 

and Reemay ground cover :

 

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/Reemay/row_covers_cloches

 

for tomatoes  ( the first six out of 24 )  Wall-o-water :

 

wall-o-water

 

they are relatively expensive  so I used 4 - 6 for the first  tomatoes I set out.   Reemay cloth went over these.

 

[KennethT]

I've been looking to get back to growing a tomato plant in my apartment - specifically, a Goose Creek heirloom variety.  I grew it once many years ago using a start from Laurel's and had pretty good success - the fruits were probably the tastiest I've ever had, but I lost about half of them to blossom end rot (BER).  A couple years ago, I tried again but started the plant from seed since Laurel's didn't carry it that year.  Unfortunately, I lost every fruit to BER and after a month or two, I just decided it wasn't worth the effort.

 

Most people say that BER is caused by a lack of calcium - which is technically true... but in my hydro environment, I know that there is plenty of available calcium - I think my problem came from my root system not being able to supply enough of the calcium to the plant as the plant was rapidly growing.

 

So, now I've been thinking about grafting a Goose Creek scion to a more efficient rootstock...  It seems that there are quite a few rootstock seeds on the market, and they all seem to have similar claims to vigor, mold/mildew resistance, disease resistance, etc...

 

Can anyone recommend a specific rootstock plant for me to try? Rootstock seeds seem to be quite a bit more expensive than standard seeds, so I'd hate to just buy some at random to try....

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Perhaps you can find some Goose Creek plants for sale already grafted?  Burpee sells grafted tomato plants, though not this variety.  I grew Burpee grafted Rutgers last summer with much success.

 

That being said the flavor of Rutgers was good but not up to Mountain Magic, so Mountain Magic is what I've gone back to for this year.  I recommend Mountain Magic to everyone.  It's resistant to just about anything.

[Martin Fisher]

6 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

That being said the flavor of Rutgers was good but not up to Mountain Magic, so Mountain Magic is what I've gone back to for this year.  I recommend Mountain Magic to everyone.  It's resistant to just about anything.

 

I'm growing it for the first time this year.

[Wayne]

19 hours ago, rotuts said:

 

 

here is shade cloth, which completely prevented bolting of lettuce mid summer :

 

 

 

 

I've employed a number of strategies to create microclimates to increase my growing season for lettuces including your shade method. I haven't tried misting so I'll give it a go.

I've also transplanted established lettuce plant which puts off bolting for 1-2 weeks as the plants re-establish themselves.

Got to keep that lettuce happy and productive .

 

[shain]

Macadamia tree is in full bloom. It also smell superb.

 

 

The bees seem to agree.

Edited April 1, 2016 by shain (log)

[haresfur]

On 3/18/2016 at 11:06 AM, blue_dolphin said:

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

 

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.

 

Where I live, tomatoes don't go in until Melbourne Cup Day 

[Shelby]

Just came in from the garden.  Had plans to plant all afternoon but it's so windy that it was blowing the seeds (peas) out of my hand.  I knew there was NO way I could plant little seeds like lettuce.  There's always tomorrow

 

I did get 300 onions, a packet of beans and a packet of peas in.

 

I think cocktail hour shall come early today.....

[dcarch]

This is my system I use for my tomatoes.

Double- wall insulating greenhouse panels for a quick install / removal demountable greenhouse. The greenhouse is put together using clear packing tape. It is very stronge even for high wind.

 

Takes no room to store.

 

dcarch

 

 

[ElainaA]

No outdoor gardening here today. This is what my garlic bed looks like

 

 

More snow forecast for Monday and Tuesday. April snow is actually pretty usual here but the winter was so mild that plants are way ahead of their usual schedule. I think the garlic will survive. Sadly, the daffodils decided to start blooming last week. Both the blooms and the not-yet-opened buds were frozen. 

 

[rotuts]

this AM  at 8 its 17 degrees F :

 

 

 

maybe the first daffodil will make it, the second looks pretty bad.

[Shelby]

Gah, it is SO windy here.  Fires are raging again.  Need rain please

 

I was able to get out on Monday and plant lettuce, spinach, collards and brussels sprouts.  We will see if anything grows.

 

Yesterday I picked the first asparagus of the year. 

[Toliver]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

Gah, it is SO windy here.  Fires are raging again.  Need rain please

 

I was able to get out on Monday and plant lettuce, spinach, collards and brussels sprouts.  We will see if anything grows.

 

Yesterday I picked the first asparagus of the year. 

We're going to have a week full of storms traveling through here...I hope they head in your direction, Shelby!

 

And I hope you get your spiders again once your garden starts growing.

[Okanagancook]

My wild asparagus plants are doing well, another week or so before I get my measly few stalks.  The Armstrong asparagus will be in the stores later this week!  Yippee.  Armstrong is about 65 km's to the north here and the flow of asparagus usually lasts three weeks.  I'm starting to look for ways to have them everyday.

 

It has been a little cool here.  We had a big rain yesterday, which we need.  Mountain runoff hasn't started yet and the snow is still visible on the surrounding mountains which is why it is so cool.  But, good for my lettuce plants and the arugula should be ready to eat in a week. 

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

It's 95 here at the moment.  My plants are shriveling....

But we have a small chance of rain on Friday and an excellent chance Saturday -  bring it on!

 

[ElainaA]

5 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

It's 95 here at the moment.  My plants are shriveling....

But we have a small chance of rain on Friday and an excellent chance Saturday -  bring it on!

 

I'd be very happy to send you some water. Please come and take it away!  (This was taken today - April 6.!) Why can't Mother Nature just even things up? 

 

Edited April 7, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[blue_dolphin]

4 hours ago, ElainaA said:

Why can't Mother Nature just even things up?

 

I can't complain about the weather here, it's almost always exceedingly pleasant and enables the growing of all sorts of edible plants but amen to balancing things out a little!

[liuzhou]

Spring has sprung here and this morning I found these have sprung on my balcony farm. Chinese chives. I wouldn't blame you if you aren't amazingly impressed, but I am happy. Most of the seeds I buy locally never germinate.

 

 

I managed to kill off my mint last year. No mean feat. But I bought a bunch in my local market and managed to tease two stems into rooting. They appear to be taking and I'm seeing new growth.

 

 

My year old "Facing Heaven Chilli" plants are looking leafy but no sign of fruit, yet.

 

 

I am highly envious of all of you who have gardens, yards, farms etc. I do have space for a few more ornamental plants growing, all food based. A lime tree in a pot is doing well, the lemon less so. And I have been nurturing an avocado for two years. But I have no expectations that they will ever fruit. Yet they amuse me.

Edited April 7, 2016 by liuzhou (log)