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Abbeh posted:(Awww inducing baby rabbits) Goddamn, they are cute, aren't they? Made me feel badly about hating them so very much. We have a sturdy chicken wire fence so that they can't kill our garden before it even begins, but I have found that once the tomatoes and peppers get taller, they do leave them alone. The squirrels have been mercifully leaving everything alone this year--after decimating my neighbor's tomatoes last year no less. But the chipmunks. Oh, those motherfucking chipmunks. Can't fence them out. The feeder hole they use to get into the garden is located at least 6 feet away. They have holes all in my carrots and potatoes and they gently caress things up daily. Every day I go out there and another carrot has been chewed on, or the tops taken off. I'm pulling potatoes this weekend and if I find chewed on potatoes I will blow a gasket. I don't know what to do about them. I keep wishing a black rat snake would take up residence in my yard to deal with them. We have a good red tailed hawk population, but they seem to be more interested in other prey. (Maybe they're the reason the squirrels are in check.) I try to plug up the chipmunk holes with large rocks, but a day or two later they manage to get them out. I've run the hose down their holes to try and flush them out and make them want to relocate and that doesn't help. I even tried dumping some Decon (and I really hate using poison like that) down their main hole (don't worry, the kids can't get to it). But I don't think they went for it. My main crop of carrots still have another month or so to go, and the second sewing will need a couple weeks beyond that. (My third sewing will winter in the ground and I will pull them as needed; they are still tiny babies.) At this rate, I'm going to have to cut my losses and pull them all as baby carrots just so I don't lose the whole damned thing. At least that will make the kids happy, I guess. Two nights ago, I decided to pull the most dead looking potato plant a little early to see what was going on under there. I pulled one plant and got two sad little acorn sized potatoes. I freaked out, and pulled it's neighbor. Lo and behold, that one had over a pound of lovely purple potatoes! So I hold out hope that the dud plant was a one-off. I made purple chips for the kids, much to their delight. And polyfractal, I concur with theacox. Your write up was amazing, and I feel your pain. Actual advice tidbit: Raise your beds more to improve drainage and lay down straw as soon as you plant to minimize soil splash back on the plants. (Our old yard had drainage issues and once we took that garden up to a full 12 inches above the grass, it was like a miracle.) But lots comes down to luck as well, I think. May luck be on your side next spring. AlistairCookie fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 15:47
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AlistairCookie posted:I keep wishing a black rat snake would take up residence in my yard to deal with them. My dad told me that when he was growing up on a farm in Illinois (in the early 50's), his dad got a sack of snakes from the county extension office or somewhere like that to deal with their rat problem. I guess it worked wonders, so you might check with your state's agricultural services, to see if some program like that still exists.
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Jul 25, 2013 15:55
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Abbeh posted:
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Jul 25, 2013 19:16
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Totally TWISTED posted:Do tell us what asparagus pee tastes like Don't kink shame  So I always find myself with a lot of cherry and plum pits, apple seeds, gourd seeds, etc, and I was toying with the idea of going all Johnny Appleseed and just strewing them around the (extensive -- rust belt) abandoned property that's near my house. Maybe with no cultivation I could eventually still get something out of it. Any input? If I throw gourds out there will things like pumpkins or cucumbers be ruined by cross pollination? On the other hand I've been growing these random gourds and based on the current growth and some baseless assumptions I think I could make a few bucks doing some etsy type stuff and selling them. Plus the native bees have been really blowing up since I planted them.
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Jul 25, 2013 22:55
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SniperWoreConverse posted:Don't kink shame Cross pollination only matters for cucurbits if you are planning to save seed. You want to keep cross pollination between varieties within the same species (pepo, maxima, moschata, etc). Usually this is done by separating them with a reasonable distance like several hundred feet? I don't remember the exact amount that was recommended. Cherry, plum and apple won't grow true from seed so you'll get totally new varieties. For apples the odds are they will be more like crabapples than anything but that is how some new varieties are created. I'm not sure about cherry and plum but it should be similar with them reverting to the more natural and wild parent's genetics. If it doesn't take much effort for you to sow the seeds and you can set your expectations low then go for it. Apple trees from seed without a dwarf rootstock will eventually get huge, assuming they survive that long.
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Jul 25, 2013 23:56
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We just had our first very exciting pest experience. Most of our transplants are doing great. Cucumbers, squash, beans, and corn have been growing like crazy. The watermelons, cantaloupes and okra have been going pretty slow though. Anyway, the squash started yellowing around Monday. I thought we'd been overwatering so we let them dry out for a few days. Well on Thursday my wife finds out about squash vine borers! Turns out we'd been attacked by the drat things! Every drat vine had a bore hole. Internet said that if we removed the borers the plants should recover so armed with a pairing knife and some tweezers we removed a borer grub from every plant. Couldn't believe that poo poo. All the damaged parts are buried now and getting extra water to help them reroot. I hope they come around because I was so proud of how awesome they were doing, probably more than anything else out there!
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Jul 26, 2013 22:12
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Pulled my garlic yesterday. Despite doing nearly everything wrong I got a pretty good crop and it took practically no effort.
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Jul 28, 2013 02:26
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AlistairCookie posted:
Actual additional advice: If doing raised boxes and are lining the bottom with weed barrier cloth be sure that the cloth will actually allow water to pass through. Ask why I know this? I am going to have one hell of a time next spring removing that poo poo that would not allow my soil to drain properly. Lots of amending to do as well. It is amazing to go out to the garden and the dirt is blowing away on the surface as it is dry as a bone, but 2 inches under is like a swamp.
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Jul 28, 2013 18:29
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Fog Tripper posted:Actual additional advice: If doing raised boxes and are lining the bottom with weed barrier cloth be sure that the cloth will actually allow water to pass through. Ask why I know this? I was going to remove the weed barrier cloth off the bottom of our older box, but got lazy and said gently caress that. The new box is just cardboard, and boy am I glad I did it that way.
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Jul 28, 2013 19:26
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Pulled my garlic yesterday. Despite doing nearly everything wrong I got a pretty good crop and it took practically no effort. I pulled mine out too. Noticed for the first time that about half of my garlic is softneck (I thought I only planted hardneck that I harvested last year) - only now do I realize the folly of pulling sprouting garlic out of my compost bin and planting it with the rest of my garlic a few years ago. It was undoubtedly sofneck from the grocery store, and then for the last 2 years the softneck bulbs have probably been the larger bulbs in the harvest, so have been more likely to get selected as seed garlic, so now 3 years later, its half of my garlic harvest. Comparing the size of the softneck and the hardneck bulbs in the harvest, softneck is definitely a lot bigger in general. But the flavor of the hardneck is spicier and yummier - this fall I think I will plant them separately and space the hardnecks a little farther apart to see if it helps the bulbs get a little bigger. I also need to finish off using LAST year's garlic harvest in the next month (about 10 bulbs left)- time to make some roasted garlic and pesto!
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Jul 28, 2013 23:16
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Corn. My corn seems to have taken off despite me basically murdering it this year. It's taller than me and doing really well. It just popped some seed pods (?) on top which are quickly drying out and falling to ground. If I want to plant next year, should I be collecting these, or should I be using kernels I get off the cob or what? I basically planted thee from a foil packet I bought at the local hardware store which were obviously kernels, so I'm assuming I need to save a few kernels. Not sure what, if anything, I should be doing with these little flaky seed things though. My Zucchini is going gangbusters too. Pulled big one the size of my forearm before I looked up that you're supposed to pull them when they're substantially smaller. Picking the rest when they get to be the size of my outstretched hand now.
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Jul 29, 2013 00:18
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Martytoof posted:My Zucchini is going gangbusters too. Pulled big one the size of my forearm before I looked up that you're supposed to pull them when they're substantially smaller. Picking the rest when they get to be the size of my outstretched hand now. With the zucchini, the large ones are good for stuffing, but that's about it. Otherwise it's fit for the compost. The good thing about them though is that as long as you keep picking them the plants will keep growing them.
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Jul 29, 2013 00:23
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Pulled my garlic yesterday. Despite doing nearly everything wrong I got a pretty good crop and it took practically no effort. Can you do anything with the greens?
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Jul 29, 2013 00:48
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Martytoof posted:Corn.
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Jul 29, 2013 01:24
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coyo7e posted:Why are you growing corn if you are not eating its 'seed pods'? I think they are referring to the tassels and anthers (male parts). If so, no.....those are not seeds. The anthers pollinate the plants around them when they fall/blow off and land on the silk from the ears (female parts, develop into what you eat which are the seeds you would save).
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Jul 29, 2013 02:08
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Motronic posted:I think they are referring to the tassels and anthers (male parts). This. Also, for those of you planting one or two rows of sweet corn and wondering why your results are usually poor, it's probably because of the wind pollination. More plants in a given area normally equals better wind pollination by default.
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Jul 29, 2013 02:36
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Awesome, thanks guys. I would starve if left to grow my own food without the internet, apparently. Is there any point in manually helping the pollination by placing some of the anthers in stragetic areas then or should I just let nature run its course? Because obviously I can be trusted to do what's in nature's best interest 
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Jul 29, 2013 |
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Jul 29, 2013 07:13
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Dragon carrots and dragon tongue beans, my daughter really likes dragons.    Everything else also seems to be doing well, aside from corn that was a failure and the few dozen kohlrabi I sacrificed to the slugs. My zucchini is producing but showing signs of powdery mildew despite not watering the leaves and not watering in the evening so I sprayed it with a baking soda spray and hope to keep it under control.
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Jul 29, 2013 07:54
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/\/\ Those look amazing! I have some rainbow carrots, "Cosmic Purple" (which are purple on the outside and orange on the inside), and "Purple Haze" (which are purple all the way through.) What do the "Dragon" carrots look like inside? Also, tell me about your beans. I assume you shell them? What are they like on the inside? What do they compare to, eating wise?
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Jul 29, 2013 13:41
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Martytoof posted:Is there any point in manually helping the pollination by placing some of the anthers in stragetic areas then or should I just let nature run its course? Because obviously I can be trusted to do what's in nature's best interest Absolutely. If your patch is small/otherwise not shaped well you can simply shake the stalks and watch the pollen fall. The anthers will not release until you see the corn silk down below - each piece of silk goes to an individual kernel, and each silk needs to be pollinated - that's why your ears look sparse and weird when they aren't pollinated completely. So basically look for silk and then give a stalk or two a shake. If there is dust coming off the tassels then shake them all. (If not, try again the next day.) Once they start releasing pollen, keep shaking every day until they stop dropping pollen. I would suggest doing this when there is no wind if your patch is small, that way you won't have your pollen blowing away uselessly. And we're talking about grabbing a stalk about halfway up and moving it back and for a few inches for 4 or 5 seconds, not beating the crap out of it. Motronic fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jul 29, 2013 |
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Jul 29, 2013 16:23
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Hummingbirds posted:Can you do anything with the greens? I have no idea. I know that people eat the garlic scapes from hardneck varieties. The greens could probably be used like a green onion after peeling a few layers but I left mine on the bulbs to dry out.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:05
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I know that people eat the garlic scapes from hardneck varieties. They make the best drat pesto I've ever had.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:16
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Motronic posted:Absolutely. If your patch is small/otherwise not shaped well you can simply shake the stalks and watch the pollen fall. The anthers will not release until you see the corn silk down below - each piece of silk goes to an individual kernel, and each silk needs to be pollinated - that's why your ears look sparse and weird when they aren't pollinated completely. Brilliant, merci!
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Jul 29, 2013 17:22
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I have no idea. I know that people eat the garlic scapes from hardneck varieties. The greens could probably be used like a green onion after peeling a few layers but I left mine on the bulbs to dry out. FYI, softneck is better for storing for long periods, while hardneck has more flavor.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:43
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ The purple dragons I grew were pretty much the same as your description of the cosmic purple -- purple outside, orange inside (and the purple colour cooks out). This website seems to suggest that the purple dragon might be more adapted to northern climates. coyo7e posted:Garlic scapes are delicious however, the hardneck scapes are often VERY woody and really take a bit of diligence to make them tender enough to eat without spitting out a wad of 'wood'. Softneck scapes are not as tough. What I've read is that you should harvest the scapes on hardnecks as soon as they begin to curl, or alternately once they've curled into their first loop. None of the scapes I've harvested at that point have been woody, although I always chop them pretty finely or else blend them, so maybe I just didn't notice.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:54
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Motronic posted:Absolutely. If your patch is small/otherwise not shaped well you can simply shake the stalks and watch the pollen fall. The anthers will not release until you see the corn silk down below - each piece of silk goes to an individual kernel, and each silk needs to be pollinated - that's why your ears look sparse and weird when they aren't pollinated completely. Thanks! so THAT'S why our corn looked really hosed up this year. Also, we harvested it too late so it was all weird and starchy. Next year or next time, maybe,
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Jul 29, 2013 18:03
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Lead out in cuffs posted:What I've read is that you should harvest the scapes on hardnecks as soon as they begin to curl, or alternately once they've curled into their first loop. None of the scapes I've harvested at that point have been woody, although I always chop them pretty finely or else blend them, so maybe I just didn't notice. Yeah - my hardneck garlic scapes are tender enough to break off with my thumbnail instead of needing a knife - not woody at all, unless you wait too long to harvest them. I didn't even know softneck garlic COULD make a scape - I know mine never have. The greens (leaves) taste like garlic-y grass. You can use them as garnish or light seasoning on pasta, but I don't think the flavor is good enough to bother - they just go into my compost pile.\ Edit: storage wise, my hardneck garlic from last year is finally starting to sprout in my basement - 11 months is pretty good storage.
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Jul 30, 2013 00:26
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Tad SG posted:Yeah - my hardneck garlic scapes are tender enough to break off with my thumbnail instead of needing a knife - not woody at all, unless you wait too long to harvest them. I didn't even know softneck garlic COULD make a scape - I know mine never have. 
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Jul 30, 2013 05:58
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Polyfractal: I get you. I'm still waiting for the rain to stop. Everything drowned. I got one tomato and one strawberry, both about the size of my thumb above the bend. I gave up. It even killed my mint. How does that even happen. If I plant with better soil drainage next year, I know it will be a drought summer.
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Jul 30, 2013 07:09
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ The carrots are purple on the outside, yellow and orange on the inside.  We ate the beans last night, and didn't shell them. I believe my wife cooked them and let them cool, then made a bean salad. It was delicious, they have a similar taste to green beans. Sadly, they lose the purple streaks when you cook them and end up being yellow...
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Jul 30, 2013 10:44
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/\/\ Thanks. I'm not surprised they lost their color upon cooking...many of the neater veggies do. Smidgen of Pidgeons posted:It even killed my mint. Good God man. You had mint that died?  In our garden news, we pulled the purple potatoes last night since rains were supposed to come today. (And boy did they! ) Some of the tops were still green and growing, just a bit, and I was going to let them go another week, but meh. I'll take a pic later with the real camera. I was pleased! We got 10lbs from 2lbs of seed potatoes. I'm sure it could have been better, since we did have 2-3 plants that were a complete bust underground, but not bad. I'm going to make a small batch of purple fries today for the kids out of the ones that got marred during harvest. (Mr. Cookie stuck the pitchfork straight through two of them,  , and a few more got banged up a bit on the outside.) I picked through and pulled about a dozen chits out of the lot. I have them in a large sour cream container with paper towels and a couple holes poked in the lid in the fridge. Will that keep them until spring? What are my odds that they grow well? They are all about 1-1.5in in diameter. Pics!  This is about 8/10 lbs total, after taking out the damaged ones to cook, and the chits for saving.  
AlistairCookie fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jul 30, 2013 |
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Jul 30, 2013 13:59
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It looks like our squash surgery was successful. Three of our 11 plants have flowers now, although they're still pretty small. Some of our tomatoes and peppers are starting to pick up more fruit too, and the cukes are getting ready to flower. I'm just hoping we didn't get too late a start and we actually get some production. We just started staking everything with bamboo this weekend. Tepees for the cucumbers and a lattice for the tomatoes. It's starting to get exciting!
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Jul 30, 2013 15:37
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AlistairCookie posted:
My in laws are in town and I was talking gardening with them. They had a bad chipmunk problem that they solved by taking one of those giant bucket planters(like 2 foot deep 3 foot wide metal guys) and building ramps up the sides with dirt. Then they added a foot of water and competely covered the surface with sunflowers seeds. Turns out the little bastards can't swim on account of they can't float.
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Jul 31, 2013 04:36
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Maldraedior posted:My in laws are in town and I was talking gardening with them. They had a bad chipmunk problem that they solved by taking one of those giant bucket planters(like 2 foot deep 3 foot wide metal guys) and building ramps up the sides with dirt. Then they added a foot of water and competely covered the surface with sunflowers seeds. Turns out the little bastards can't swim on account of they can't float. So it's a chipmunk murder pond. That's pretty loving dark. I spent the evening cleaning up my tomatoes. Last year I had about 18 starts planted and it was too many. This year I only did 6. But... my compost had a ton of viable seeds and so there were volunteers everywhere. Since most of the hop rhizomes didn't take off this year I left some of the volunteers to grow and now I've got even more tomato plants than last year. 
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Jul 31, 2013 06:16
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TehSaurus posted:It looks like our squash surgery was successful. Three of our 11 plants have flowers now, although they're still pretty small. Some of our tomatoes and peppers are starting to pick up more fruit too, and the cukes are getting ready to flower. I'm just hoping we didn't get too late a start and we actually get some production. We just started staking everything with bamboo this weekend. Tepees for the cucumbers and a lattice for the tomatoes. It's starting to get exciting! My cucumbers have fruit and flowers on them right now, and so do my tomatoes. I'm not worried about it because we have a couple more months of growing time here. Hell, I've even been starting other seeds this week. I was at the hardware store yesterday to pick up more soil and some ornamental plants, and saw that they had soybean seeds there. No idea how well they'll do here, but it's well within the planting time listed on the package and I'm willing to give it a shot. The cucumbers are growing on a makeshift teepee-thing that I made with sticks from my yard. We have some scrubby little volunteer trees growing, so I pruned the smaller, straighter branches and tied them together to make supports. I also found some old plastic fencing behind the shed for some of them. Free stuff is the best stuff. Cpt.Wacky posted:I spent the evening cleaning up my tomatoes. Last year I had about 18 starts planted and it was too many. This year I only did 6. But... my compost had a ton of viable seeds and so there were volunteers everywhere. Since most of the hop rhizomes didn't take off this year I left some of the volunteers to grow and now I've got even more tomato plants than last year. When I was a kid, my mom grew tons of tomatoes. One year we had so many that I was selling little baskets of cherry tomatoes at my lemonade stand. There were so many volunteer plants that we ended up selling some of those, too. I think we gave a bunch to friends too. So many tomatoes. 
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Jul 31, 2013 14:41
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My tomato plants actually did too well, I have had to tie them off and stake them twice, they keep collapsing under their own weight. I've got a ton of green tomatoes, but only about 4 red ones so far. Zucchini are doing well, no huge avalanche of them so far, but getting 2 or 3 every few days so far. Cucumbers are doing ok, nothing harvested yet, but should be getting some soon. They would be doing a lot better if I had actually setup a trellis instead of a tomato cage with some stakes. Pole beans are a loss, I overcrowded them and didn't have the heart to thin them out and they all mostly died off.
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Jul 31, 2013 17:09
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Tomato plants are cropping well and I've got one tomato that's a little ahead of everyone else: You can see my figure-eights with an extra twist there too. It seems to be working better than the simple loops I used last year.
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Aug 1, 2013 04:33
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    My peppers seem to be doing pretty well.
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Aug 1, 2013 18:44
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We didn't know what the hell we were doing and planted strawberries, beans, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, some herbs, lettuce, tomatos, corn. We planted everything about 2-3 weeks late, and I didn't fertilize the soil for about 2 months. Now I do fertilze but yeah, I missed out on some growth I think. Also we planted in last year's soil for some plants and didn't wash the containers. Since my wife did all the planting I considered it her garden and didn't water. She only watered sporadically which REALLY didn't help. I took over watering duties a month in. Status: -corn grew fine but was not all pollinated. I picked it too late so it was all starchy. Four large pots with corn in them == four smallish cobs. Not worth the effort! -beans looking good once it started running up the poles. Two died due to transplant shock + heatwave about a month ago. No actual BEANS on the beans yet. Is this bad? -tomatoes looking good. some have burned? bits but on the whole they're growing and looking ok although pretty small. -eggplants growing well. God drat they're easy! -Strawberries all have small brown dried out husks of fruit on them. I suspect I hosed that up. -squash has flowers on it and has grown lots and lots of leaves but I don't see any fruit. Is that an issue? do I need to doctor the flowers, which haven't opened yet? do I need to pollinate them somehow? -most of the cucumbers died really early on and we replanted more which died in the heatwave but one is ok, and has two small cucumbers on it. Lessons learned: -Move stuff into shady parts of the garden during heatwaves. Heatwave killed off about 6+ pots worth of plants. -water every single day. -fertilize! wash pots! use new soil! -use mulch. The stuff I have in the pots is not great at retaining moisture. I'm also making compost and have been since maybe Feb, and it's just not there yet. I carried on adding and mixing stuff, and when I got a proper compost container everything dried out, and I haven't been watering my heap much. I think it needs way more water since it's dust-dry on the bottom. I should also have put a waterproof tarp underneath it instead of cardboard because I suspect that when I add water, it puts all the nutrients into the ground?
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Aug 1, 2013 19:27
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SpannerX posted:My peppers seem to be doing pretty well. Lovely Peppers are so rewarding to grow in my opinion.
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Aug 1, 2013 20:21
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