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Fog Tripper posted:I envision you dressed in camo digging a pit and lining it with pungi sticks made of bamboo with poo smeared on the tips.
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Sep 9, 2013 21:06
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Prepped my garden for next season by making three 4x8 raised beds. Ran through the ground with a tiller and put a tarp over it so everything underneath dies over the winter. I just hope I have enough stuff to plant to warrant three 4x8s. I'm not really sure what else I want to plant. I figure I can dedicate one to just corn and then figure out what to do with the rest later. Totally not related: Do any of you guys raise St. John's Wort? My parents swear by it as a tincture for various ailments and they go out to fields to harvest the stuff. I was sort of thinking of just trying to raise it myself so they don't have to go out to some field if they want to pick a bunch.
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Sep 9, 2013 21:37
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My corn this year was in a new bed and it all died and the squash around it got the powdery mildew. I think I might be done with trying to grow corn in BC.
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Sep 10, 2013 00:18
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Martytoof posted:Totally not related: Do any of you guys raise St. John's Wort? My parents swear by it as a tincture for various ailments and they go out to fields to harvest the stuff. I was sort of thinking of just trying to raise it myself so they don't have to go out to some field if they want to pick a bunch. St Johns Wort has some pretty potent active ingredients and really shouldn't be taken without medical supervision. In particular it can interfere with a LOT of medications, including statins, antiretrovirals, hormonal contraception, beta blockers, opioids and antidepressants. There is also the potential for side effects even without other medications present. Studies do suggest it can be effective in treating depression but even then a home made tincture of the stuff is going to have a highly variable concentration of active ingredients. If you want to try it to treat depression, you're better off with an assayed extract which will at least be of known concentration, but you should only do this with the full knowledge of your medical health professional. I honestly wouldn't recommend taking an unknown quantity of a potent drug without proper monitoring, and that's what you'd be doing if you took St Johns Wort.
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Sep 10, 2013 15:32
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My zucchini got overrun by squash bugs this year. It was going strong up until about two weeks ago and then I just couldn't stop the bastards. Is there any kind of pesticide or treatment to kill those fuckers? After I saw them the first time I was out there every other day for about two weeks trying to pick the eggs of the leaves with tape, and spraying the bugs with water to fall into a container of soapy water and drown. This worked for awhile but theres just too many of them. My tomatoes are still going strong though.
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Sep 10, 2013 15:38
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Fatkraken posted:St Johns Wort has some pretty potent active ingredients and really shouldn't be taken without medical supervision. In particular it can interfere with a LOT of medications, including statins, antiretrovirals, hormonal contraception, beta blockers, opioids and antidepressants. There is also the potential for side effects even without other medications present. I can appreciate all this, but they've been doing the tincture thing for a good 30 years so I'm not really going to preach to them. If it comes down to it I'll just leave them to pick it like they do now 
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Sep 10, 2013 20:19
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Martytoof posted:Totally not related: Do any of you guys raise St. John's Wort? My parents swear by it as a tincture for various ailments and they go out to fields to harvest the stuff. I was sort of thinking of just trying to raise it myself so they don't have to go out to some field if they want to pick a bunch.
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Sep 11, 2013 19:48
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OK thanks for the info guys
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Sep 11, 2013 19:54
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Yeah there's nothing wrong with it, unless you're on serious medications for potentially life-threatening illnesses. A lot of tinctures and such contain herbs that can negate or adversely react with prescription drugs, so if someone is in an adverse or ill state of health and being treated it might be important. Otherwise it'll just cause you to have a really good day. And odd-tasting burps.
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Sep 13, 2013 05:52
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I've not posted in a long time, but here is a brief summary of how my garden's doing. Weather: It went from being hot as hell (115 F) for the first half of July to being rainy every 3-4 days a week and <100 from late July through early September. Everything that wasn't already dead came back to productivity. Golden jenny Melons. My earlier planting was pretty tasty, but I only got 9 out of 2 hills. I planted some more in what was my corn bed, around 13 are going now, but the new growth is being affected by bugs or disease so they may under produce as well. Yard long beans : Still going, but producing empty pods a lot. I think i want a different variety next year. Armenian Cucumbers: By volume my biggest producer. they have been producing 5-7 10-14" cucumbers every week since mid-July. They also decided the trellis they were on was not enough for them and took over a sizable chunk of my back yard, and tried to strangle my peppers to death. Last week I was out of town and one grew to almost two feet and looked like Bam-bam's club. I made 3 jars of fridge pickles out of it. Beit Alpha Cucumbers: Were dead in July of heat and bugs. We got one good flush of 10 out of them then they kinda went into shock. We planted new ones where the melon hills were and those are growing nicely. No fruit yet. Watermelons: Got one flush of 4 5 lb watermelons out of both hills, then got a second. One hill got bugs and some kind of disease, and the other only one vine went bad. Everything bad got tossed, any surviving melons got eaten, or allowed to ripen. Tomatoes: Almost all died from heat in July, except for a determinate I haven't pulled up out of laziness. Got tons of cherry tomatoes, but all the bigger varieties were undersized, and some never did well, I think as a result of overcrowding. I planted a second set with far fewer plants for the "Cooling Summer Season", mostly of 60 day varieties, but I planted 3 Brandywines, which are 80 days. I kinda wish I'd planted them earlier, as first frost is supposed to be November 15, but who knows. Desert weather is unpredictable, last year frost didn't get my peppers until around the 20th of December. Peppers: One Habanero got eaten by hornworms, and came back after they were plucked off and squished. Pretty much all of them have a lot of flowers, so I will have another flush of peppers. Hopefully the hot peppers actually get hot this time. Asparagus: 1st season, so no harvest, but is is being tall and gangly and lacy as expected, so that's good for next year. Dead: Squash Beans Onions (most eaten) Leeks Garlic Other second sowings: Peas Beans Winter veggies just planted: Kale Broccoli Lettuce
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Sep 13, 2013 23:53
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'Taters, precious.
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Sep 16, 2013 03:47
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Well, I've just had a bumper crop... Of Black Widow spiders! I just spent the last hour stomping round my backyard with a can of Raid Spider and Scorpion and a flyswatter, with a flashlight for visibility. I musta killed 15 adults and a ton more immature and male ones. Ugh, I should have done it earlier, my propane smoker got all webbed up and won't light. Yes, I was trying to kill one with fire, what of it? I could have used a weed burner on some of them, well if they hadn't infested all the propane tanks. I almost walked right into a big one between my raised beds. It was one of 3 momma spiders. Goddamn, I hate Black Widow spiders.
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Sep 16, 2013 04:27
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I just pulled my potatoes, good crop and only a few with live slugs inside. I'm not sure the best way to save seed potatoes for next year, my garage is used as a workshop and I don't want them exposed to spray paints and poo poo, and the fridge might be too damp. And recommendations?
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Sep 16, 2013 10:24
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Fatkraken posted:I just pulled my potatoes, good crop and only a few with live slugs inside. I'm not sure the best way to save seed potatoes for next year, my garage is used as a workshop and I don't want them exposed to spray paints and poo poo, and the fridge might be too damp. And recommendations?
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Sep 17, 2013 01:23
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One thing I didn't anticipate when I started my garden is how the sunlight changes over the seasons. Not only are the days getting shorter, but the angle of the sun has shifted enough that one of my beds gets little to no direct sun currently. Thankfully I was only growing leafy things there so they aren't suffering. I let some of my lettuces bolt and seed the area, and now I have a second crop growing. Also started planting carrots, herbs, and other cool weather crops this week, since we still have a couple months of good weather to look forward to.
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Sep 17, 2013 02:13
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I am inordinately excited about my winter squash and zucchini crops. yeah yeah doesn't look like much but they are growing like crazy and it is the inaugural plants in the garden. Being in central Texas means a crazy long growing season so I should get decent production out of them before frost hits.
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Sep 17, 2013 04:05
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Uh, even in Texas winter squash are a spring start, they are like 110 days. They just don't get ripe till fall and keep all winter. You can grow short cucubrits in fall though, if that's what you mean.
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Sep 17, 2013 17:37
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coyo7e posted:You don't have a pantry? No. I've got kitchen cupboards, but I was under the impression you're meant to store seed potatoes in fairly cold conditions, the cupboards get nearly as warm as the rest of the house. Anyway I bumped into my neighbour and she's more than happy to store them in her garage. I was told transferring them into egg cartons will help keep them dry and stop them rotting
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Sep 17, 2013 17:50
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AxeBreaker posted:Uh, even in Texas winter squash are a spring start, they are like 110 days. They just don't get ripe till fall and keep all winter. I should have been more specific: They are a fall crop of summer squash. Yes with the 50 days to harvest I'm running a risk having planted them the first week in Sept but the seeds were a dollar and I can't plant winter vegetables yet or they will get toasted. The hope is last year's weather pattern holds and the first frost comes as late as possible.
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Sep 17, 2013 20:18
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Yeah, I'm having the same issues with my tomatoes- 3/4 of them are 60 days, planted mid august, the rest are brandywines from the same time and those take 20 days more. If frost hits earlier than average I will be dealing with a ton of green tomatoes. Last year it came over a month late, and didn't get my peppers until nearly Christmas. We did plant some kale and lettuce and broccoli but we are North of you, and at 2000 feet.
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Sep 18, 2013 19:13
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There are worse things than green tomatoes. Our plants are still in heavy production, (I supplement them with the tears I weep over our water bill) so in about a month I am anticipating quite a bit of green ones. Fried green tomatoes are a classic, and delicious. You can combine them with tomatillos in a verde sauce. They also make excellent pickles, if you do the home canning thing. E: Grammar AlistairCookie fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 20:15
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Happy first frost, everyone!
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Sep 20, 2013 02:02
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What is this frost you speak of? It's not even cold here! I live in Sunnyvale (appropriately named) and it was like 80F today. It's zone 10a here according to the USDA and our first frost date is sometime in late November/December. Last frost is late January/February. If we even get frost, that is. We're right at the south end of the San Francisco Bay, which creates a little micro-climate and does weird things to our weather. I'm still planting things right now and harvesting summer crops. I also have a ton of green tomatoes, but they have plenty of time to ripen so I'm not worried. 
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Sep 20, 2013 02:42
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AlistairCookie posted:There are worse things than green tomatoes. Our plants are still in heavy production, (I supplement them with the tears I weep over our water bill) so in about a month I am anticipating quite a bit of green ones.  Next year I will start a couple months earlier since I already have my beds where I want them and stuff. I've been pretty unhappy with my tomato output overall though, I didn't add any amendments or anything last year and they just exploded. I suspect my indigo tomato had a lovely graft, because this year it was basically a cherry tomato, rather than 3 or 4 inches. Powdery mildew hit my (and everyone else in the neighborhood's) squash about a month ago and the plants look awful, yet they're still gamely producing nice fruit. I need to try lemon cucumbers and eggplant more seriously next year with a lot of food for them, last year I got 0 eggplants, this year I got 1, so while it's a big improvement percentile-wise, I suspect I'm missing something -possibly they need to grow in groups to pollinate? My lemon cuke was just super pale and small, although again it was an improvement over last year. Scarlet beans were fun but I think I'll go with snow peas again in the future, I prefer them to the large inedible pods although the seeds are nice if you cook them up. I'll probably save a pod or two and maybe grow these in pots along my fence or something and ignore them next year, see how they do.
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Sep 20, 2013 15:49
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Mizufusion posted:What is this frost you speak of? Mountains of eastern Utah. Zuke bit it as well as our cukes. Most everything else (besides the herbs) had a rough year in any event, and are probably happy to have been put out of their misery. next spring I am going to wait until end of may and simply buy the largest potted veggies. Late frost and now early frost really hosed this year. Added to the drought and 90º+ temps for weeks on end. Focusing now on figuring out where to plant/train the grapes I have coming in the spring.
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Sep 22, 2013 17:15
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Is all blossom end rot caused by a lack of calcium? About half of my yellow summer squash fruits have it, and now some of the crenshaw melons are getting it. With both, it seems the first set of fruit will be fine, then the second or third on the same plant will have the rot. Everything is getting enough water.
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Sep 22, 2013 19:40
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/\/\ Yes. Always. Add more calcium to the soil after the first set of fruit. They've used up what was there with the first round of fruiting.
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Sep 22, 2013 21:16
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ What's the recommended way of adding calcium at that point.
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Sep 23, 2013 00:43
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The bones of your enemies.
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Sep 23, 2013 01:45
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I usually crush up eggshells and sprinkle them on top the soil after I've planted everything. It's also supposed to help keep slugs and snails away because they're sharp and pokey. Not sure that it would help you much now, though.
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Sep 23, 2013 09:06
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I use Tums (calcium carbonate). Seriously. I stick one in the ground per plant, every 3-4 weeks or so. Cheap and easy, and the Ca releases quickly with watering. Or, you can use a veggie specific time release fertilizer that has calcium in it--like Miracle Gro, and apply every 6 weeks or so. (Remember the key phrase with those is "feeds up to three months"; I don't find in my soil time releases last any more than 6 or 8 weeks tops.) Eggshells absolutely work (and I've read about the snail/slug thing, but have no first hand experience), but they take time to break down. Excellent for working into the soil in the fall for the following year. Same thing with gypsum. Breaks up clay, is nothing but calcium, but is slow release.
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Sep 23, 2013 13:49
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Yeah, I'm just rolling in shitloads of eggshells into compost now for use this spring.
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Sep 23, 2013 13:52
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Oh good. We go through about a dozen eggs a week and dump the shells into our compost bin. I also sprinkled some bone meal (not from my enemies) onto the ground mid summer. Hopefully, it dissolved in time.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:01
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I'm having friends over next week to get them to stuff their faces with my bell peppers. Most of the peppers seem ready for picking now. Should I store them in the refrigerator or leave them on the plants? I'm asking because one of them went from being all yellow to getting a dark brown tinge that I'm not familiar with. The pepper still feels taut, not mushy.  Is it rotting from the inside? I tried to google what happens with peppers if you leave them on for too long, but I only get results about people who want to pick them early.
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Sep 24, 2013 14:40
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Anyone got a tried and true approach to getting Szechuan peppercorns to germinate?
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Sep 24, 2013 23:19
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Breaky posted:Yeah, I'm just rolling in shitloads of eggshells into compost now for use this spring.
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Sep 27, 2013 04:06
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coyo7e posted:If you microwave the shells they dry out and crumble like crazy, and it also kills off any bullshit hiding on them. Didn't know that, thanks for the tip!
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Sep 27, 2013 12:01
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Grafting has just taken a turn for the weird. The TomTato.
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Sep 27, 2013 22:29
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Blight's dream plant.
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Sep 28, 2013 00:11
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Make it a tomato/jalapeno plant and I'm in for some salsa. Tomalepano.
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Sep 28, 2013 04:57
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