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Flipperwaldt posted:Having a faint idea of what climate region you live in, it's not a thing you should worry about unless you also plan on constructing a greenhouse. Thanks, it should work pretty much the same here in Leiden. I think keeping the lettuce from drying out will be a challenge but if I can get enough buckets I could try to make a self-watering system. So many projects  PiratePing fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Feb 1, 2014 |
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Feb 1, 2014 12:40
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Big Beef City posted:Awesome advice As for my soil, I am not stuck on being organic, regenerative, or sustainable my first year. I will probably compost for subsequent years, but not the first one. As for my plant selection, in my 3x7 garden is it more reasonable for 2 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, 4 leafy lettuce plants, and maybe a few onions and herbs? I really want to plant a cucumber plant if I can, could it plant it on the west side of my bushes and try to herd it's growth along the bush line? For a vine it seems that it would only need a small amount of width if it had plenty of length to grow along.
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Feb 1, 2014 16:04
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That sounds very reasonable. For your cukes, are you shooting for pickling, or slicing fresh? In either case, look to bush varieties rather than more vine-y one. These are some bush varieties. I haven't bought from Burpee, so I can't say what quality they have (they are a big name though). I have, however, grown the 'Picklebush' for 3 years running, with mixed results.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:27
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adorai posted:I knew I was dreaming too big for my first garden, I just needed someone to tell me that. A pepper plant should do just fine in one square foot, though you're probably going to need to stake or use a small veggie cage for support. I think you could fight with the tomatoes in maybe 6ish square feet (also cages, screw trying to trellis them). 4x lettuce should be fine and you can do more than one planting. Not sure about onions, though I think the square foot method isn't difficult for them, either. Depending on your herb choices, you might want to go with planters/buckets. The cucumber idea doesn't seem crazy, so long as you'll be able to get to the fruits. So long as you go into this with a high tolerance for failure, it's going to be fine.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:29
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fine-tune posted:A pepper plant should do just fine in one square foot, though you're probably going to need to stake or use a small veggie cage for support. It also depends what kind of pepper you grow. I've had habanero type plants stay very small, and they could easily have fit within a square foot. I've had some larger pepper plants (cubanelle, maybe?) get quite large. Those would have needed a good amount of work to keep them small. Someone suggested above to grow peppers in pots on a deck - is that an option for you? Are you open to letting your vines grow outside of your garden? If so, you can plant them at the edge, and if you are careful to train them to grow away from the garden, and equally careful not to hit them with the mower, you can effectively get some more space that way. If you have a truck, you can call local horse stables to see if they have any manure to sell cheap or give away. Some may even deliver for a small fee, just to get it off of their land. You could also check with poultry and dairy facilities. What you get may not yet be composted, but you can pile it somewhere for next year. Maybe you can even use some raw - others might have more insight/advice about that. When you get manure form a commercial enterprise, you don't know what meds the animals might be on, or whether they've all metabolized completely. If that's an issue for you, just keep it in mind. I'd assume that if you let it compost for a season, anything concerning would break down, but I'm not a chemist.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:44
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You might want to figure out what the cows or horses were eating before taking any 'free' manure for composting or using in your garden: Killer Compost Reports-Contaminated Manure and Herbicide Contamination Damaging Gardens Just as a precaution. I just heard about this recently, but it doesn't surprise me all that much, to be honest.
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Feb 1, 2014 19:37
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They don't look like much but I'm inordinately excited about the blueberries I just planted in my "pots"
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Feb 1, 2014 22:55
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adorai posted:As for my soil, I am not stuck on being organic, regenerative, or sustainable my first year. I will probably compost for subsequent years, but not the first one. Whether you decide to be organic or not, buying anything except compost to add to the soil is throwing money away if you don't do a soil test first. Check with your local extension office to see how much a test costs, around here it's only $20. Adding something with a mix of fertilizers could end up giving you too much of certain nutrients that will cause problems later. It also gives you the chance to adjust pH to optimal levels.
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Feb 2, 2014 19:33
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I've got a question about seed germination. I was looking into a combo seedtray / heated mat setup (I live in Massachusetts and it's going to be cold for a while longer). I don't have any good window space for this and was going to use a lighted system. I have a fluorescent lamp setup that has two 4ft "cool white" bulbs in it already. Would this work for seed germination or would I need to get a more specific type of bulb? Am I just throwing money away here? I don't plan on using this past getting stuff germinated and growing up just big enough to put outside.
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Feb 2, 2014 22:56
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Breaky posted:I've got a question about seed germination. Cool whites work fine even if they aren't the ideal spectrum. Just make sure they are close enough that the seedlings don't get leggy, but not so close they get cooked or singed. 2-4" is usually good. You may need to stack some stuff under them to get them up close and then remove some of it as they start to grow up towards the lights.
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Feb 2, 2014 23:33
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Breaky posted:I've got a question about seed germination. I use plant/aquarium fluorescent bulbs in cheap shop lights suspended by chains in little eye hooks in the ceiling. That way, I can raise them as necessary as the plants grow to keep them only a couple inches from the tops (so they don't get leggy). I found some seeds in a box from our old garden over the winter--they are easily 7 years old. I was pretty happy. I have about two dozen Soldaki tomato seeds. Wish me luck that one of them grows! Only tomato I've ever grown that was almost 2 lbs of thick, meaty goodness.
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Feb 3, 2014 02:32
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Well I sowed 36 cells of pepper seeds! Red, Yellow Ghost Chiles, Pale Orange Habs, Jamaican Hot Chocolate (like a deep purple Scotch bonnet or Hab), Red Hab from Grocery store, Burpee Big Thai hybrid, and mystery Frutescens-type seeds I smuggled back from Taiwan. The ones from the farmers market and grocery store could be hybrids and get weird but gonna try anyway. I'm using one of those big stacked Burpee tray kit thing so the heat mat isn't very directly heating the cells, but hopefully I'll get some good results anyway. Got 1 big-rear end CFL lamp over it, will move to west-facing windowsill later in season once it's not bitterly cold and more sunshine hits it. I'm saving the other 36 cells for quicker stuff like Basil and other herbs. That make sense? Peppers are known to be slow.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:26
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Wasn't someone else trying to grow silver vine? How did that turn out? My seeds never germinated. A bit late, but I too had bought some silver vine (from Georgia Vines, I believe)I set them up for Ziploc germination last week, but so far no luck here either.
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Feb 4, 2014 13:53
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Zratha posted:A bit late, but I too had bought some silver vine (from Georgia Vines, I believe)I set them up for Ziploc germination last week, but so far no luck here either. I did mine in a tray of seed starter mix covered with plastic wrap and only managed to grow moss. The ziploc method should be more reliable though. Let me know if anything sprouts in the next week or two since I'm interested in trying again.
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Feb 4, 2014 18:44
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I started some of my seeds last week in little peat pots and set them in clean plastic bakery and produce containers to keep the moisture in. So far my cukes and zucchini are looking great and sprouted really quickly, but some of my tomatoes got seriously moldy and I had to pitch them. Still waiting on peppers, pumpkins, beans, and tomatoes to sprout.
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Feb 5, 2014 07:55
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Should I move my blueberry containers into the garage for tonight? Last night it got down to ~24 but it was warm recently and the blueberries are in 30gallon containers of peat moss in addition to being up near the house. Tonight they are calling for 25 after a high today of only 36 so I'm more concerned about them.
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Feb 6, 2014 17:19
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Shifty Pony posted:Should I move my blueberry containers into the garage for tonight? Last night it got down to ~24 but it was warm recently and the blueberries are in 30gallon containers of peat moss in addition to being up near the house. Tonight they are calling for 25 after a high today of only 36 so I'm more concerned about them.
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Feb 6, 2014 18:46
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I ended up moving them in. They should be hardy to 0-10F but they were just transplanted last week and are not well established enough that I'm comfortable letting them hang out in the cold. I'm mainly worried about root damage.
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Feb 6, 2014 20:42
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It's seed catalog time! I want to grow some vegetables that I traditionally buy rather than the usual tomatoes-cukes-zucchini. I know garlic is hard, and asparagus (takes over a year to do anything) but are onions easy enough to grow? Potatoes?
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Feb 13, 2014 16:00
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vonnegutt posted:It's seed catalog time! I want to grow some vegetables that I traditionally buy rather than the usual tomatoes-cukes-zucchini. I know garlic is hard, and asparagus (takes over a year to do anything) but are onions easy enough to grow? Potatoes? Garlic is stupid easy to grow, you just have to wait a long time to harvest. And it's not really the right time of year to plant. You should be putting it in the ground in late Fall, like October. If you just want to do it for fun you can put some cloves in the ground now and you'll probably get something but it won't be as large as cloves planted in the Fall that had time to get established before Winter. Some extra Nitrogen fertilizer once they sprout should help them size up more. I haven't personally grown onions but I know there are several ways to do it (seeds, sets and starts). This guide looks decent: http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/onions-growing-guide Potatoes are also really easy to grow. The reason you see all kinds of crazy ways to grow them is that they'll produce under almost any conditions, even if the yield is that great. My preferences for growing them are towers and traditional hills. Cpt.Wacky fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 16:35
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vonnegutt posted:It's seed catalog time! I want to grow some vegetables that I traditionally buy rather than the usual tomatoes-cukes-zucchini. I know garlic is hard, and asparagus (takes over a year to do anything) but are onions easy enough to grow? Potatoes? Echoing that garlic is stupid easy, but you missed your planting window. Plant cloves around Halloween, mulch, around 4th of July when the tops have half died back, pull up garlic. Simple as that. No special soil, no anything. Potatoes are good. They like acidic, loose soil. I mixed some sand into my potato bed. Plant an "early" variety as soon as the ground has thawed and you'll have enough growing season for a fall harvest of another early variety. I like to do a purple variety (Purple Majesty) and Red Gold first, then plant Yukons over the whole space after they're done for November harvest. If you only grow one, Yukon Golds are the best (I think). Good producers, good storage.
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Feb 13, 2014 17:14
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vonnegutt posted:It's seed catalog time! I want to grow some vegetables that I traditionally buy rather than the usual tomatoes-cukes-zucchini. I know garlic is hard, and asparagus (takes over a year to do anything) but are onions easy enough to grow? Potatoes? I had good luck growing onions from seed last year, but you do have to get the right kind for your region (long day/medium day/short day), and they do take a while to grow to full size. I started them indoors several weeks ahead of time, then transplanted the live plants outdoors when it was planting time. I also had good luck with potatoes, but I planted them from tubers, not from seed. Sweet potatoes did well for me, too: http://madisonsweetpotatoproject.org/how-it-works/. Unless you won't be living in the same place for a while, I don't know why you'd pass on asparagus. You can get a set of crowns to plant at a nursery, and if you can give them several years, pick free asparagus almost forever (supposedly, the plants can live 15+ years). I planted some crowns last year, and will try some from seed this time around.
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Feb 13, 2014 18:46
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AlistairCookie posted:Echoing that garlic is stupid easy, but you missed your planting window. Plant cloves around Halloween, mulch, around 4th of July when the tops have half died back, pull up garlic. Simple as that. No special soil, no anything. Also scapes are a delicacy.
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Feb 13, 2014 23:46
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Some close-ups from my year-old heirloom tomato plants, both unknown variety. It's so interesting (to me) to watch how the differences present themselves. Based only on the green growth I'd have trouble differentiating the two, but check out the little fruitlettes... This little guy has looked like a ball-clump from the start, and for some reason he's growing laterally now. Compared to...  Who's always looked like a little garlic bulb. Plants are cool.
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Feb 14, 2014 00:58
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coyo7e posted:This is true however, if you don't remove the scapes when they begin to flower, you won't have the largest bulbs possible unless you really have been feeding the hell out of them. Oh yeah! Forgot about the scapes. Scape pesto all the way. We did let a few of ours go to flower and I planted a pot full of bulbils. Just for curiosity's sake--to see if they grow a large, single clove like they're supposed to.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:27
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Peristalsis posted:Unless you won't be living in the same place for a while, I don't know why you'd pass on asparagus. You can get a set of crowns to plant at a nursery, and if you can give them several years, pick free asparagus almost forever (supposedly, the plants can live 15+ years). I planted some crowns last year, and will try some from seed this time around. Ah, okay, I was misinformed about garlic. I thought that it, like asparagus, had to have at least a year to itself before it started producing. Knowing it's just a fall bulb crop like daffodils is super simple. As for asparagus, we just moved in about 2 years ago and haven't decided on a permanent garden spot yet. We've got an open spot we've tilled up for summer stuff but are planning some more permanent beds after clearing out some shrubs and improving the soil a bit. I might try a sweet potato hill in a tractor tire. Has anyone else used a giant old tire as a cheap raised bed?
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Feb 14, 2014 15:45
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I let a whole row of rapini flower and let the bees have at it, in return they have given me an entire row of seed pods. In the next few weeks they will be ready to collect. If any goons want some rapini seeds let me know, I will mail them to you. I also have a good collection of red and green asian long beans I harvested last year to plant, if I have any extra I am willing to send those out as well. And I have Malali melon seeds, they were awesome but I saved the seeds from 3 fruit and am willing to send some of those out. Let me know if you want some guys and girls!
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Feb 14, 2014 22:06
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So, finally got all the seeds in and the germination setup! Looks like it holds the soil at 70F during the night and around 80F during the day. Going by earlier discussion in the thread it seemed like now was a good time to start peppers from seed and tomatoes 2-3 weeks later. I'm in USDA 5b and there's a snowstorm hitting as we speak so it feels strange. Anyone else in the new england area germinating yet?
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Feb 15, 2014 16:38
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Finally got my soil test results back. Check out that nitrogen reading  That explains why the leaves on my "test" squash the last fall never got a healthy green look to them.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:21
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Shifty Pony posted:Finally got my soil test results back. Well good thing you can fix that. Inoculums of nitrogen fixers for your soil cant hurt either.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:29
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I'm thinking about going with ammonium sulfate to bring the N up and the pH down. Adding nearly a pound and a half of 20-0-0 ammonium sulfate to a 200 sq ft plot to hit the 1.4 lbs N per 1000 sq ft suggestion is pretty comical though.
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Feb 15, 2014 22:08
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Started my peppers and tomatoes today. Going with habaneros, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes red and black, and a paste tomato. Here's hoping.
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Feb 15, 2014 22:18
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SpannerX posted:Started my peppers and tomatoes today. Going with habaneros, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes red and black, and a paste tomato. Here's hoping. Im starting right now too. When's your last frost date?
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Feb 15, 2014 23:00
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Fizting around with "plans" for my garden space. How does this look? It is done with a sqft planner but that was just because anything row based wanted either money or my info. Anything in a line is a row (potatoes, onions). (click for big) The plan would be to train the cucumbers out onto angled racks that will be leaning against the fence, about 4ft away. I really like cucumbers, if you couldn't tell already, and part of the onion rows would be shallots because I want to give them a whack but not go too esoteric on a first garden round. I hope I'm not trying to jam too much in there. Maybe I should cut the zucchini and squash down to three mounds? The flowers are there both as bee attractants and because fresh flowers are pretty 
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Feb 18, 2014 01:38
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Shifty Pony posted:Maybe I should cut the zucchini and squash down to three mounds? 4 zucchini and 4 more summer squash is insane unless you're trying to feed an army, imo. Your peppers might want a little more space too depending on how well they do. Are you leaving room for access to weed and harvest?
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Feb 18, 2014 06:20
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I'm going to go with 4 zucchini and 4 squash, personally, because that's what I did last year. By the time my plants were really starting to put out veggies, all but two of the plants had died to squash vine borers. ARGH!!! Two plants was perfect for the three of us that were eating them.
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Feb 18, 2014 09:36
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just da posted:I'm going to go with 4 zucchini and 4 squash, personally, because that's what I did last year. By the time my plants were really starting to put out veggies, all but two of the plants had died to squash vine borers. ARGH!!! Ok, that's more reasonable with the potential pest problems and the rule of thumb being 1 plant per person max.
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Feb 18, 2014 15:46
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Cpt.Wacky posted:4 zucchini and 4 more summer squash is insane unless you're trying to feed an army, imo. Your peppers might want a little more space too depending on how well they do. I'm kind of counting on one or two of them not making it really. It sounds silly but I want something in the garden that will result in "oh no, I have been too successful and cannot eat all of this!" pride even if everything else doesn't produce anything. One less zucchini may happen as well because I know they sprawl like crazy. If by some strange luck they all make it then I'll start sneaking squash and zucchini onto neighbors' doorsteps under cover of night or something and as an emergency plan there are a bunch people in the neighborhood with chickens that will devour any overproduction (and get me free eggs). I may go with an 18" spacing on the peppers. For weed (and kitty) control I'm going with landscape cloth and leaf mulch, but there won't be any areas in the layout that will be hard to get to to get the persistent weeds. The most difficult area will be between the peppers and the tomatoes and that is the section that will best lend itself to passive control.
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Feb 18, 2014 16:23
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Spring's coming, and since garden space is scare in Washington D.C. (A single community garden in my neighborhood, with 18 plots on 5 year leases  ), I'm looking towards the alternative of semi-indoor gardening, and thought I'd see if you guys had anything to say about it.I have a back porch, but it only get 2-3 hours of sunlight a day due to the adjacent buildings. With this in mind I was thinking of building some planter boxes in a spot that gets the light, and then supplementing them with some simple grow lights. Because of the way my porch is, hanging them should be simple enough. Does anyone have any experience using grow lights in a situation like this?
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Feb 19, 2014 20:07
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Fart Car '97 posted:Spring's coming, and since garden space is scare in Washington D.C. (A single community garden in my neighborhood, with 18 plots on 5 year leases 5 year leases is pretty ridiculous. Is there any space nearby that you could use to grow outside, even in containers? Maybe make a deal with a neighbor? A container system like an earthbox can be pretty productive and compact, and it's DIYable too. If you really just need to grow *something* then supplementing with artificial light will work for some stuff like herbs and greens.
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Feb 19, 2014 23:51
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