Gardening: (2016– )

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

As you travel across the country I am sure you encounter the agricultural checkpoints to try to halt import of crud. Arizona/California border especially - stop every car.

They appear to be understaffed along I-8, but yes - they're there.

 

Thanks for the info on the white flies. It doesn't sound like something I could have done inside my house, either. At any rate, those large potted plants are gone and the only living things are a couple of Christmas cacti and a peace lily that thrive under the care of our house-sitter.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I've always controlled white fly with yellow sticky traps, available from mail-order nurseries (and Amazon, of course). I have one on a tomato plant right now that's almost full and I should replace it with a fresh one. The other 2 tomatoes don't seem to have a problem, or at least a problem yet. It's inevitable, though. The biggest problem I have is leaf miners--the leaves look terrible but it's mostly cosmetic right now, at least until the entire plant is affected. By then the tomatoes will have been harvested. Nice little tomato--Siberian--from Seed Savers. The terminal "n" is important to distinguish it from a variety that is much less flavorful that we cold-climate season gardeners remember as not worth planting. I plant only determinate varieties because I have to grow them in pots under the portal to keep them from rotting from too much rain, although I suppose I could plant tomatoes in the ground during the winter when it rarely rains. Too late to do that this year, but I'll think about it next time around. The rain stops more or less in October, so it would be possible. January is our coldest month but even then it doesn't freeze.

 

I remember that when we traveled from Florida to the Southwest in the '50s when I was a kid, we were surprised to find that there were agricultural controls in Arizona to prevent med fly. I also remember my folks giving up some grapefruit and oranges. Some things never change.

[weinoo]

55 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

I remember that when we traveled from Florida to the Southwest in the '50s when I was a kid, we were surprised to find that there were agricultural controls in Arizona to prevent med fly. I also remember my folks giving up some grapefruit and oranges. Some things never change.

 

When I lived in San Jose, we had a couple of years where they attempted to eradicate the fruit fly with insecticides - dispersed from teams of helicopters!

 

They assured us it was perfectly safe for humans (allegedly using malathion, if memory serves me correctly); however, we were advised to cover our cars for the  possible damage to the car's paint.

 

Sounded like we were in a scene from Apocalypse Now; all that was  missing was Ride of the Valkyries blasting in the distance.

[rotuts]

I grew up in CA

 

N of SJ ( a bit )

 

we had Meyer Lemon trees, orange trees etc

 

at some point  a state agricultural worker would

 

put a FF trap in each of our trees and and any citrus trees

 

here and there

 

then comeback and check

 

if there was as critter in a trap

 

all the fruit was confiscated and incinerated.

[heidih]

This showed up today, I am sure many of you also have community gardens for those who don't have their own space. I've seen this one for years driving by to DMV (yuck) or re-routed getting on the bridge or to County electronics recycle center. It always makes me smile. My ability is limited but it inspired me to go for some different seeds and try some vegetables here this year - depending on water restrictiions. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/travel/los-angeles-san-pedro-community-garden

Edited February 2, 2022 by heidih (log)

[TicTac]

On 2/1/2022 at 7:50 PM, heidih said:

This showed up today, I am sure many of you also have community gardens for those who don't have their own space. I've seen this one for years driving by to DMV (yuck) or re-routed getting on the bridge or to County electronics recycle center. It always makes me smile. My ability is limited but it inspired me to go for some different seeds and try some vegetables here this year - depending on water restrictiions. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/travel/los-angeles-san-pedro-community-garden

Love community gardens.  I have seen a few pop up under the electrical tower fields here (do they benefit from the constant buzz/hum!?) as well as a local one behind a church.  At one point I thought about joining the local one (our back yard faces North and has tons of trees due to the ravine) - but then I just said fuck it and built a huge garden on my front lawn (plan is to get rid of all the grass eventually - devilish creation!).  The neighbors seem to like to pause on their walks and converse while observing it evolve.  I simply love being able to share produce (especially seeds!) with interested parties.

 

 

[heidih]

Here gardening undr power lines is a thing as well. Chea0 land not used for little else. Many smaller commercial nurseries use that land. 

I applaud your move to turniing the ridiculous "lawn" area to beautoful use.  Look forward to seeing your progress.

[KennethT]

Finally able to get my grocery store Thai basil to root. I was starting to worry about it! Now transplanted into a small amount of coir.

 

[haresfur]

The Roma tomatoes and basil are doing ok. So there is this:

 

But we have had a cool summer so far and I fear they are going to suffer with this week's heat. The warrigal greens look nice but the leaves are quite small. Do you think they should be thinned? The volunteer in the yard looks good so I've been watering it to see if it will take over.

 

 

The red shiso was doing very well in spring but seems to need shade but not too much shade so I moved it behind the red gum tree.

 

Finally, my bullhorn pepper didn't make it another year so I planted some sort of capsicum in there. Then multiple other seedlings sprouted along with some green shiso. It looks lush so I just left it to do what it wants. Probably won't get any peppers.

[KennethT]

Finally! My kaffir lime tree has finally started a new flush of foliage. This is the tree that was a bit rootbound and I wound up thinning the roots and replanting in New coir. It was dormant for quite a while so I was starting to worry about it.

 

 

 

[Martin Fisher]

My gardening days are pretty much over.

But, Kenny can help me grow a few of my favorites in addition to what he'll be growing.

One of them is Matchbox Pepper, they're a small tasty hot pepper that's great fresh or pickled.

I love them pickled!

https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/matchbox-organic-hot-pepper-3866

 

[kayb]

Those peppers look like they'd be good candied.

[Martin Fisher]

On 2/22/2022 at 6:08 AM, kayb said:

Those peppers look like they'd be good candied.

Yes, they are!

[KennethT]

My kaffir lime tree is starting to fill out nicely again.  Once the new growth completely matures, I'll prune the long arms again to bring it in even more...

 

 

Here's an update on the rooted grocery store Thai basil and my laksa leaf (rau ram) - I didn't have much time so I didn't get to transplant the TB into a large container so it stalled for like a week, but now it's feeling much happier.  Once it gets a bit bigger, I'll move it into a 1 gallon fabric pot.  The main laksa plant is way too woody, so I cloned 5 tips and they're now doing well in their own cup - it's a fast grower, so it should be transplanted into a fabric pot in a week or two.

 

[heidih]

Brave little lime - congrats.  It is so dang windy here. Between that and thunderstroms I may lose a lot of citrus blossoms. They had really popped after the more gentle rains about 2 months ago. 

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Brave little lime - congrats.  It is so dang windy here. Between that and thunderstroms I may lose a lot of citrus blossoms. They had really popped after the more gentle rains about 2 months ago. 

I've been pinching off the blossoms (there's been a flush of them lately) because I have really no use for kaffir limes and I'd rather have more vegetative growth.

[heidih]

33 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I've been pinching off the blossoms (there's been a flush of them lately) because I have really no use for kaffir limes and I'd rather have more vegetative growth.

Make sense with Kaffir imes. I want fruit I use a lot of ciktrus in cooking and baking. I refuse to oay for it when I can see the trees from my windows.  Just sorta mourning my Meyer lemn source.

[gfweb]

Planted tomato seeds today  🙂

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

I've been pinching off the blossoms (there's been a flush of them lately) because I have really no use for kaffir limes and I'd rather have more vegetative growth.

Pop the blossoms in some ethanol to make an extract!

[heidih]

50 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Pop the blossoms in some ethanol to make an extract!

Make a nice tisane as well.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Pop the blossoms in some ethanol to make an extract!

 

53 minutes ago, heidih said:

Make a nice tisane as well.

You should smell my fingers once I'm done pinching off!!!  Really fragrant

[TicTac]

15 hours ago, KennethT said:

 

You should smell my fingers once I'm done pinching off!!!  Really fragrant

Creepy

 

🤣

[gulfporter]

After a one year hiatus, Yes! We Have Some Bananas!

 

Noticed them the other day; my gardener Jose' says 100 dais, mas o menos.  Looks like a bumper crop. 

 

 

[heidih]

Lovely. Couple houses down the hill have them and they always make me smile. Do you cook with the blossoms when abundant? 

[gulfporter]

4 minutes ago, heidih said:

Lovely. Couple houses down the hill have them and they always make me smile. Do you cook with the blossoms when abundant? 

No...never knew that was a thing.  We let ripen, eat a few days, make one banana dessert, then give the rest to gardener's family and neighbors.