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MarshallX posted:Wonder where I could find that. Time to visit the local garden shop. I buy unscented cat litter; 20lb bag at Safeway for $4. Its a bit more dusty than garden store bags but boy is it cheap. Oil spill cleanup bags at auto part stores are also DE and are pretty cheap Another slug killer is a bowl of beer sunk flush to the ground for slugs to crawl into and drown. Sugar and yeast in water is apparently also a suitable substitute if you're not into "wasting" beer. dwoloz fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Apr 20, 2010 |
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Apr 20, 2010 06:12
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/\/\/\ Along with the beer idea, I'm saying gently caress it and spending $100 on a lovely .22 since a pellet gun doesn't kill rabbits so well. They're hellacious in my neighborhood. Unless TFR's resident BB gun expert and current thread regular Nosmoking has a great suggestion for under that $100 price point. Ammo is expensive.  I've got all of this that I plan to cram into 340 sq. feet that I just tilled the gently caress out of:
Lots of poo poo for grilling, burger dressing, stir fries, and general deep frying that would go great with cheap beer. I'm living on a houseboat this summer yet again due to work managing a campground half a mile from where my parents keep their houseboat, so guess who's getting cirrhosis and artery clogging from a poo poo load of my own lovely cooking this summer? 
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Apr 20, 2010 07:46
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TheFuglyStik posted:Along with the beer idea, I'm saying gently caress it and spending $100 on a lovely .22 since a pellet gun doesn't kill rabbits so well. They're hellacious in my neighborhood. Unless TFR's resident BB gun expert and current thread regular Nosmoking has a great suggestion for under that $100 price point. Ammo is expensive. And yet again, I sniff out an airgun mention on the internet!! First off, fence in your garden to protect it from critters. If you are unwilling to fence in your garden, you're going to have to sit there all drat day (though mostly at dawn and dusk) to get your rabbits. I suggest the Benjamin 392, a .22 caliber pump pneumatic. A round nose or wadcutter (flat point) .22 pellet at 650-675 feet per second will humanely kill a rabbit out to 30 yards or so with reasonable care taken in shot placement. The rifle can be had for around $100 on sale and a Williams peep sight is about $30 and makes the rifle much easier to shoot to its potential.  The other decent option is the Crosman Quest 1000.  I'm nowhere near as fond of the .177 as I am of the .22 for hunting and pest control of larger animals, but the Quest is a decently powerful air rifle that can be counted on to kill rabbits with heart/lung hits. The Quest 1000X comes with a simple, but "good enough" scope (fixed 4X IIRC) and it often retails on special for right around $100 and it's widely available. Or, you can go loving bonkers and spend 10X or more for your garden protection. Beeman RX-2 and RWS 48  BSA Lightning XL and Beeman R9  Air Arms TX-200 and Weirauch HW-97K  Edit: Got my seeds started in the peat pots and got the square foot gardening beds and deck containers all ready for planting this weekend.
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Apr 20, 2010 14:56
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I have two tomato plants right next to each other and one of them is big, bushy and green and the other is smaller and a bit more yellow on the edges. They are both the same type, planted at the same time and producing flowers. Why must one look sickly?
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Apr 20, 2010 16:39
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I just went through my little 5 gallon compost bucket and took out a bunch of last year's pole bean vines that weren't breaking down fast enough. My worms seem to be healthy and happy, although I wonder why they haven't started reproducing yet. It's been relatively warm for a while and I figured I'd see their little egg cocoons or baby worms by now. In any event, I should be able to use the compost for this year's pole beans when I put them out (probably around the first of May). Should be putting out my tomatoes and cucumbers around that time too. Once they're out on the porch I'm going to set up an herb garden underneath the grow lights. 
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Apr 20, 2010 17:28
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NosmoKing posted:
Fencing is something I'm considering due to all that waiting and watching. I'm going to be away for a few days at a time a lot this summer. It may not help much with the squirrels and deer, but it's better than letting every animal that wants easy food at my expense have their way. Two dogs don't do that much when we bring them in at night. I'll be on the lookout for a Benjamin 392. We've got plenty of firepower at my house, but extremely overkill .30-06, 5.56 and 7.62 flying around at 5AM might not go over so well with the neighbors.
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Apr 20, 2010 18:54
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about keeping critters out of the garden
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TheFuglyStik posted:Fencing is something I'm considering due to all that waiting and watching. If you don't want to do something pretty and permanent like MarshallX's picket fence, there's always the old standard chicken-wire and some stakes, up only when you need it. You can roll it up around a tomato stand and store it somewhere out of sight when you don't need it.
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Apr 20, 2010 23:57
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It pays to shop around. Even driving to another town. I got some round up (Glyphosate) and a 5L spray pack. I ended up getting 1L round up from the local rural supply store for $19 as opposed to the hardware store in another town at $54. Got the spray pack at the hardware store for $20. At the rural supply store it would have been over $60. Talk about disparate prices! Confirm / deny. glyphosate disrupts the chlorophyll processes in the plant essentially causing it to die. This would be useless on seeds / roots, wouldn't it? I mostly got it for the yard which I have been fighting a war with weeds on (and losing) but would like to use it to 'purify' my vegie garden before re-planting. Also Cats. What sort of fence can I put up to keep them out of the garden? It only needs to be on two sides as the other two sides are garage and ridiculously over engineered 6' steel fence. The light comes in from the unfenced sides pretty well. Generally the issue is too much heat / light in the warmer months and I am considering encasing in shade cloth.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image.
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Apr 22, 2010 02:24
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puffin posted:Extremely nice CS, I'm jealous and I see you're a fellow rebar treillis afficionado. They do work better than cages for my space. Actually fence posts but no practical difference I guess. Last year I built this big pyramid out of bamboo for my cucumbers but it was pretty well shot by the end of the season.
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Apr 22, 2010 04:38
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General_Failure posted:Confirm / deny. glyphosate disrupts the chlorophyll processes in the plant essentially causing it to die. This would be useless on seeds / roots, wouldn't it? Wikipedia |
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Apr 22, 2010 11:46
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posted:
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Richard Noggin posted:quotes. Thanks for that. I vaguely understand it too. Might read up on the affecting animal enzymes bit too. I knew it did I just want to know what it did to me... I mean does to people who accidentally get it all over themself.
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Apr 22, 2010 13:17
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Costello Jello posted:If you don't want to do something pretty and permanent like MarshallX's picket fence, there's always the old standard chicken-wire and some stakes, up only when you need it. You can roll it up around a tomato stand and store it somewhere out of sight when you don't need it. This is what I used for the past 2 years. 1x2 pressure treated built into a vague fence shape and wrapped in chicken wire.
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Apr 22, 2010 14:23
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Having a tomato problem. No bugs on the plants.   The lettuce is really starting to lettuce it up 
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Apr 22, 2010 17:01
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I'd like some advice. Two weeks ago I planted some pre-sprouted habanero chili plants into a pot to grow next to my window. The tag says they should be planted a foot apart, here you see I crammed six into a pot. In the last few weeks they've thrived though. Should I consider buying two more pots and putting two in each? (3 pots, two plants in each). As it stands, they have plenty of sunlight next to my window. The coldest they get is 70* and on warm days they go outside to the porch. The second question is about aphids. I noticed a few of those buggers on my babies. Should I grab some repellent? Should I dump some ladybugs into the pot? Pick them off with tweezers? Or let them be? Bonus shot of a 7th plant that randomly sprouted last week:  edit/ I want to stress that I'm not a gardener. I got these on a whim but after two weeks, I'm sort of attached and want what's best for the baby peppers Dignity Van Houten fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Apr 22, 2010 |
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Apr 22, 2010 22:18
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Peppers like to be crowded but not that much. Give them a little room and prune them right once they're taller and you should be quite pleased with the yield. Keep them in the sun and keep them warm and they'll be happy. For the aphids a mild detergent mixture sprayed under the leaves is usually effective. mischief fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Apr 22, 2010 |
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Apr 22, 2010 22:36
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Richard Noggin posted:Shade cloth is more like window screening...hint hint. If you think you can use window-screen material for a shade cloth, double it up. Shade cloth is a bit more than window screen. NosmoKing posted:I suggest the Benjamin 392, a .22 caliber pump pneumatic. A round nose or wadcutter (flat point) .22 pellet at 650-675 feet per second will humanely kill a rabbit out to 30 yards or so with reasonable care taken in shot placement. The rifle can be had for around $100 on sale and a Williams peep sight is about $30 and makes the rifle much easier to shoot to its potential. If you're REALLY into some  damage to pests though, get a nice high-FPS .177 air rifle, and then take a pocket knife and put a little "X" across the tip of each pellet you're going to fire. Instant hollow point.
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 02:40
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coyo7e posted:However old sail-cloth is a really, really great shade cloth which can keep pests off your stuff as well as protect against freak frosts. It's also so burly you can throw it into the washer/dryer when it gets fugly. Aren't Coypu just glorified rats? nothing like that should be so big.
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Apr 23, 2010 04:34
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Glorified rats the size of medium dogs that eat lollipops! Click here for the full 504x756 image.
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Apr 23, 2010 16:05
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Ugh, nutria! Can anyone help solve this mystery? Something is eating my plants but very slowly. I saw a few aphids early on but after taking care of those haven't seen any back. I have my planter netted down with the sides firmly stapled so nothing is going to get under the net like a raccoon without it being obvious because they'd have to rip up the net to get in. I have been using DE for snails but I've only seen a couple total, and none actually in the planter. The way the plants have been disappearing is subtle. No spots on leaves, no holes in the leaves. Yesterday I saw there was a little chomp on the end of one of my crook-neck squashes, and this morning the leaves were eaten down to the stem. But none of my other veggies were touched, and I have about 12 plants in that planter right now, maybe more. There was another squash on the other side of the little hill of dirt and it wasn't touched. The net wasn't disturbed, and I couldn't find anything like caterpillars or snails or even snail trails. So what is eating them?
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Apr 23, 2010 17:51
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I too have a leaf-eating problem... I just transplanted outside to containers my precious tomato plants I started from seed, but when I got home and excitedly went to check on them, all the leaves were gone from their little stems. I'm gardening on a 13th floor balcony, so it had to have been birds. Are there any good ways to scare off or otherwise keep birds away? *edit* My tiny basil's leaves were nibbled away too... I don't know how viable this balcony gardening thing's gonna be if this happens on the first day. eso fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 22:49
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Abbeh posted:Glorified rats the size of medium dogs that eat lollipops! Gah! It's right on the edge of cute, but then you see those feet. And that tail! Hand me the .22.
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Apr 23, 2010 23:00
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eso posted:I too have a leaf-eating problem... Awww, that's so sad. Gardening tears your heart out. Well, I would have said try the netting but I am not sure it's keeping the birds out for me. I have a hard time imagining them working in the middle of the night. The netting is about 6" above the plants right now, so how could they reach it?
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Apr 24, 2010 01:17
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I decided to be daring and plant some veggies this year, make a little porch garden. Of course I'm totally clueless since I've never really been successful, even when planting in a larger garden (but that was more due to various animals eating everything) So I have cucumbers:  Some sort of squash:  And tomatoes:   I'm guessing since they're so tall that I should transplant them deeper, but that has to wait until tomorrow because I'm out of pots and dirt. Any other tips?
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Apr 24, 2010 17:23
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I'm in Houston...zone 9a. At the moment I have a slew of herbs, some beans, sweet potatoes, ginger, and some peppers going. This is my first time with non-ornamental sweet potatoes, but I am pretty sure they are fairly hands off and easy. This is also my first attempt at beans, and I really don't know if it will be a success or not. I just started a worm compost on my patio. I live in an apartment, but I get a great amount of sun. I am familiar with composting, but this is my first time with vermicomposting. I got my worms Friday morning, and so far things are good, though I didn't realize how hot it would get on my patio so I spent a little time today providing them with more shade. Any one out there have any tips for me in regards to making sure my worm compost is happy?
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Apr 25, 2010 06:43
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KariOhki posted:
You really can't keep tomato plants in clusters like that or they can tangle and grow crooked. Also, each one should end up in a container that holds at least 2 gallons of dirt. I usually grow mine in 5+ gallon pots just so they don't topple over.
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Apr 25, 2010 09:32
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Well, the first set was just the starter pots, those are gonna be thinned out to one plant. And...that's lots of dirt. Hm. I might end up with one in the end, but I guess I'll end up letting these plants die off instead.
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Apr 25, 2010 15:38
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Well, my basil plant is dead. I bought a starter a couple of weeks ago and put it outside with all my other plants, but it started to look a little wilty after a few days so I brought it inside since nighttime temps decided to shoot back down into the low 40s/high 30s. It looked fine in my kitchen next to the aloe vera that's been happily growing for a year, but suddenly the leaves turned a dark brown, wilted over, and died in the space of about a day. It looked like some sort of white fuzzy mold had climbed up on one leaf and then infected the whole plant. When I picked up the pot (terracotta), almost one whole side of the pot--on the OUTSIDE--was covered in the same light white fuzz. Scrubbing the pot got rid of it, and the aloe vera next to it (also in a terracotta pot) was completely unaffected. What sort of fungus or mold would grow on the outside of a pot, indoors? Was it an infected basil plant before I even bought it? To be on the safe side, should I toss the dirt the basil was growing in so if I reuse the pot, the same horrible plague won't strike again?
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Apr 25, 2010 19:02
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It's always a good idea to dispose of fungal potting medium, just to be safe.
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Apr 26, 2010 02:41
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By "dispose of" you mean "incinerate" right? (I hope.)
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Apr 26, 2010 17:32
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I'd sterilize that pot as well, personally. Fungal spores can be quite tenacious. What I've done in the past is soak the pot overnight in a 1:10 bleach and water solution. If it's a plastic pot, you can then scrub once, rinse with water and let dry. If it's terracotta, it can hold some of the bleach to leach out later and change pH, so you should soak it again the next day in a plain water solution, before letting dry.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:59
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Unfortunately, I have started getting buds on my spinach, so I guess it's time to plow it over. I am getting flies around my boxes that look something like the one in this photo: http://www.fotothing.com/photos/406/406bfbbe86c3185bb6d617e3f09bbafe_344.jpg Is this a problem? Right now, I don't have any fruit type plants going, only root and leaf plants, but when my cukes and tomatos come in, will these flies cause a problem?
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Apr 28, 2010 18:50
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It was kinda nice yesterday so I put my cucumbers out and wound them up a trellis, figuring they had to go outside since they were getting flowers already and that there shouldn't be that many more chilly nights left. Then I come home from work at 9 PM and see the frost advisory. They're a total loss. gently caress YOU, WISCONSIN AND YOUR RANDOM WEATHER. 
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Apr 28, 2010 21:19
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El Bano posted:fly guy Green bottle fly? I don't believe they're harmful to plants.
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Apr 28, 2010 21:53
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Chajara posted:Then I come home from work at 9 PM and see the frost advisory. They're a total loss. gently caress YOU, WISCONSIN AND YOUR RANDOM WEATHER. My weather this week (MA): Thursday night - low of 29, possible snow. Saturday - high of 84.  with any luck Saturday will be planting day, though it's been raining for two days, so who knows. gently caress if this weather makes any sense.
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Apr 28, 2010 22:51
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Slung Blade posted:By "dispose of" you mean "incinerate" right? El Bano posted:Unfortunately, I have started getting buds on my spinach, so I guess it's time to plow it over. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Apr 29, 2010 |
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Apr 29, 2010 00:11
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935 posted:I want to stress that I'm not a gardener. I got these on a whim but after two weeks, I'm sort of attached and want what's best for the baby peppers
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Apr 29, 2010 01:47
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I'd like some advice on my egglpants...I put them into the ground aaaages ago, and they've really thrived. The problem is, that they're not really producing much fruit. There are 6 plants in total... and they've grown HUGE. Some reaching 5 feet tall. They've been covered in flowers for about 2 months now. We've only really had 2 good fruit off them. Mostly the flowers drop off, or the fruit has little holes in it - and then when you cut it open, it's rotting from the inside out!!
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Apr 30, 2010 05:00
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clam posted:I'd like some advice on my egglpants...I put them into the ground aaaages ago, and they've really thrived. The problem is, that they're not really producing much fruit. There are 6 plants in total... and they've grown HUGE. Some reaching 5 feet tall. They've been covered in flowers for about 2 months now. We've only really had 2 good fruit off them. Mostly the flowers drop off, or the fruit has little holes in it - and then when you cut it open, it's rotting from the inside out!! I don't know much about eggplants but that sounds very similar to what can happen if you fertilize tomatoes with too much nitrogen and not enough phosphorus and potassium. Have you fertilized them at all? From the growth it sounds like they are getting consistent water, I see recommended is 2" a week, is that consistent? But, if I had to guess site unseen, I'd put money on blossom end rot which is normally due to a lack of calcium in the ground.
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Apr 30, 2010 14:13
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Sounds like they're trying to set and not getting pollinated. Pick up some marigolds or some other kind of flower from your local market to bring some more bees your way, might help. Also make your watering consistent. If you water irregularly it can cause problems, as Anubis pointed out.
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Apr 30, 2010 14:17
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I want to remove a small (~5" diameter at the trunk) cherry tree from my yard, because it's growing sideways and taking up prime garden area. Can I just cut it at the base or will it regrow? I plan to build a planter box in the area after the removal, so do I need to worry about getting rid of the roots or will the ground reclaim them naturally?
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May 2, 2010 05:26
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