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Peristalsis posted:Sweet! (Not the part about it dying, the part about it surviving on a few hours of sunlight per day.) Have you tasted one to see how spicy they are?
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Sep 3, 2016 23:40
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kedo posted:Have you tasted one to see how spicy they are? No, and I'm not going to. They could be quite hot.
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Sep 4, 2016 03:09
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Peristalsis posted:No, and I'm not going to. They could be quite hot. Oh goodness, God forbid
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Sep 4, 2016 04:50
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Phil Moscowitz posted:Oh goodness, God forbid I know. I could give myself the vapours.
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Sep 4, 2016 16:31
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All my salad plants have died this year, my rose bush was murdered by strange web-spinning lice that have spread to my basil, all my other herbs have weird white spots on their leaves. But the one tomato plant that survived being moved out of the seedling pots is huge and making lots of tomatoes. They're so sour I can't eat them raw, but they're ok for cooking. I guess next year I'll focus on salad stuff and more different tomatoes. Herbs and cucumbers are clearly too advanced for me.
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Sep 4, 2016 20:25
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I recently stumbled upon the revelation that you can grow your own pineapple plant from the top leaves of a pineapple. Always in the spirit of a challenge, I wanted to grow one or two for sport. It gets cold in Wisconsin and we'll probably have it in the basement until summer is here next year. I considered buying some kind of small grow light I can set on a timer to give it light w/o being by a window(drat cats). I fell on this "guide" http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/guide3.shtml Should I follow that or what should I be looking for in some small single/dual plant light?
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Sep 6, 2016 01:47
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Duxwig posted:I recently stumbled upon the revelation that you can grow your own pineapple plant from the top leaves of a pineapple. I have no advice about grow lights, but having grown 5+ pineapple plants, make sure to twist the leafy crown off the fruit, as opposed to slicing off a big chunk of fruit and crown. It reduces the chances of mold and allows it to root much faster, since it doesn't have to root through a bunch of fruit. So twist off the whole crown, then remove some of the bottom-most leaves and you should see some little stringy root nubbins. At this point some people advocate letting it dry in the air, or putting it in a glass of water, but I've always just put it directly in a pot and watered it well. After it's rooted, it likes being heavily watered and then thoroughly drying between waterings, but until then, keep it at least damp-ish. Honestly, in Wisconsin, I would've recommended starting it around May so it could have an entire summer of growth to get a good root system going, but I'm sure it will be fine. I bring mine in the house and leave them by a window in the winter and they don't really grow at all, but they survive and go dormant, and then when I take them back out the next year they start growing again.
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Sep 6, 2016 13:45
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vonnegutt posted:I have no advice about grow lights, but having grown 5+ pineapple plants, make sure to twist the leafy crown off the fruit, as opposed to slicing off a big chunk of fruit and crown. It reduces the chances of mold and allows it to root much faster, since it doesn't have to root through a bunch of fruit. Do they ever produce fruit?
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Sep 6, 2016 16:05
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Pham Nuwen posted:Do they ever produce fruit? Nah. I'm in zone 6 so my growing season isn't nearly long enough. I think some people have had luck forcing them, but I'm mainly growing it to be ornamental, so I haven't really tried.
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Sep 6, 2016 18:48
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vonnegutt posted:Nah. I'm in zone 6 so my growing season isn't nearly long enough. I think some people have had luck forcing them, but I'm mainly growing it to be ornamental, so I haven't really tried. Would it grow fruit under a grow lamp?
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Sep 6, 2016 21:18
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No idea! In Hawaii, I hear it takes between 2-3 years for a plant to get mature enough to fruit. I don't know how a growlight could compare to their native environs, but I would assume it would take at least as long.
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Sep 6, 2016 21:54
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I googled "pineapple plant" and this came up in the results. 
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Sep 6, 2016 22:04
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When pineapples first started coming back to England they were very exotic and cost about $2,000 each. People would rent them for that much just to display on the table at a fancy dinner. If you wanted to actually eat it you'd have to pay even more. Pineapples were so valuable that it made economic sense to build huge greenhouses heated by wood furnaces to grow them in England. Just like apples there used to be a lot of different varieties but they started to focus on the few types that fit well into cans for mass production.
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Sep 6, 2016 23:19
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I love plant and food history.
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Sep 7, 2016 01:02
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I love plant and food history. Build a Pineapple Pit! E: http://heligan.com/explore/news/the-story-of-the-10000-pineapple/ Hubis fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 11:50
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Wow, all I'll need is several years' worth of manure and I, too, can eat a pineapple.
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Sep 7, 2016 15:44
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Hubis posted:Build a Pineapple Pit! That's amazing. I was thinking about how I could do the same thing (I live in Wisconsin), but even though I have access to manure from a local horse stable, I don't see myself hauling it to my house and shoveling it into pits in the middle of winter.
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Sep 7, 2016 15:49
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Peristalsis posted:That's amazing. I was thinking about how I could do the same thing (I live in Wisconsin), but even though I have access to manure from a local horse stable, I don't see myself hauling it to my house and shoveling it into pits in the middle of winter. That is pretty neat and clever. You'd be much better off doing it with a rocket mass heater these days though.
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Sep 7, 2016 17:00
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One thing I won't do next year with my peppers is put smaller Capsicum chinense peppers in the same pot as the bigger and more robust Capsicum annuum peppers. Ideally you rarely double up any pot but I'm trying to be space efficient. I'm saving the seeds from a Home Depot Serrano plant. Thing is crazy robust and nice heat for eating raw, should be good genetics for next generation.
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Sep 9, 2016 17:23
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I got a dehydrator for Christmas last year, and I've had fun drying and grinding up peppers to make chile powder and paprika. However, the instructions with the unit say that herbs should be dried on the lowest setting for 20 - 24 hours. I've tried this, and it doesn't dry them out in that time frame. I tried a higher setting, and it dries them out, but turns them into flavorless parchment. I don't know if that's because the time was too long on that heat, or because the heat was just too high. I've tried with several kinds of basil and some sage, I think. Has anyone had more luck than this with drying herbs? I'd love to start drying my own, but this approach is going nowhere fast. Maybe herbs just aren't suited to a dehydrator, and are better off air-dried. Or maybe I need to wait for drier weather, so the dehydrator doesn't have to fight so hard with the ambient humidity.Cpt.Wacky posted:That is pretty neat and clever. You'd be much better off doing it with a rocket mass heater these days though. Wow, I've never heard of rocket mass heaters before. They look pretty cool, but I can't see burning wood to keep a greenhouse warm-ish through the Wisconsin winter, either. I have wondered if I could put a greenhouse just outside my house, and run the exhaust from my furnace and water heater into it. It seems like that should be a continuous supply of warm-to-hot air that's just going to waste right now, and lots of carbon dioxide for the plants to use. But, I worry about the other chemicals that could be in the exhaust - carbon monoxide from imperfect burning, and whatever trace substances are in liquid propane that would end up in the outflow. I don't want to end up giving myself mercury poisoning just to be able to get a couple of lettuce plants in January. And, of course, that could end up making the air in the greenhouse so saturated with carbon dioxide that it's not safe for people to enter it. Maybe I could build a robot for that part. Peristalsis fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Sep 9, 2016 |
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Sep 9, 2016 17:59
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Peristalsis posted:I got a dehydrator for Christmas last year, and I've had fun drying and grinding up peppers to make chile powder and paprika. However, the instructions with the unit say that herbs should be dried on the lowest setting for 20 - 24 hours. I've tried this, and it doesn't dry them out in that time frame. I tried a higher setting, and it dries them out, but turns them into flavorless parchment. I don't know if that's because the time was too long on that heat, or because the heat was just too high. I've tried with several kinds of basil and some sage, I think. Has anyone had more luck than this with drying herbs? I'd love to start drying my own, but this approach is going nowhere fast. Maybe herbs just aren't suited to a dehydrator, and are better off air-dried. Or maybe I need to wait for drier weather, so the dehydrator doesn't have to fight so hard with the ambient humidity. You would also need to be very, very careful you didn't create opportunities for exhaust blockages by doing that
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Sep 9, 2016 19:12
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Hubis posted:You would also need to be very, very careful you didn't create opportunities for exhaust blockages by doing that Yeah, it just kind of seems like a bad idea, which is one reason I've never pursued it.
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Sep 9, 2016 19:18
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I have a really small basil plant that has been attacked by whiteflies. Any recommendations?
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Sep 10, 2016 18:50
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Guacamayo posted:I have a really small basil plant that has been attacked by whiteflies. Any recommendations? Insecticidal soap spray!
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Sep 12, 2016 19:47
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Just went into the backyard to say hello to a cat fighting our cats at the window, decided to pick some snow peas and there's snails loving everywhere eating my vegetables. What's the best option to nuke them? I'm not some sort of organic or natural farmer.
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Sep 24, 2016 16:00
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What have people used successfully to mark garden rows/beds? In the past, I tried the little metal signs you by at the garden store that have some permanent marker thing with them, but they're pretty small, and they fade. I've also used little plastic tags, but the animals or wind or something seems to scatter them. This year, I tried using construction stakes that I wrote on with a wood burner. It worked okay, but (not surprisingly) the buried part of the wood rotted away on many of the stakes. I guess I could try dipping them in some sort of preservative before putting them in the ground (wood stain, lacquer, etc.), but I don't want to poison the soil just to tell my banana peppers from my Hungarian wax peppers. Is there a good, eco-friendly stain or something I could use on them? I could try to find cedar stakes, but I doubt that they exist, and they would probably be very expensive if they did. Or is there some completely different approach that works well for most people? Peristalsis fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Sep 24, 2016 |
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Sep 24, 2016 17:47
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Spookydonut posted:Just went into the backyard to say hello to a cat fighting our cats at the window, decided to pick some snow peas and there's snails loving everywhere eating my vegetables. What's the best option to nuke them? I'm not some sort of organic or natural farmer. At least some iron(III) phosphate based molluscicides are actually allowed in organic farming and have been very effective in my garden.
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Sep 24, 2016 18:00
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Peristalsis posted:What have people used successfully to mark garden rows/beds? Keep a map of what you planted where?
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Sep 24, 2016 19:01
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Spookydonut posted:Just went into the backyard to say hello to a cat fighting our cats at the window, decided to pick some snow peas and there's snails loving everywhere eating my vegetables. What's the best option to nuke them? I'm not some sort of organic or natural farmer. Have you tried filling a cat food tin half full of beer and leaving it there overnight?
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Sep 25, 2016 03:28
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Spookydonut posted:Just went into the backyard to say hello to a cat fighting our cats at the window, decided to pick some snow peas and there's snails loving everywhere eating my vegetables. What's the best option to nuke them? I'm not some sort of organic or natural farmer. I use iron phosphate pellets, Home Depot has the brand Sluggo. You just sprinkle it around whatever you want to protect. Bonus its organic.
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Sep 25, 2016 04:22
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Peristalsis posted:What have people used successfully to mark garden rows/beds? The only thing that we've found to last is China Marker or a grease pen on some sort of plastic or metal tag. We usually cut up old large yogurt containers.
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Sep 25, 2016 06:34
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Fozzy The Bear posted:I use iron phosphate pellets, Home Depot has the brand Sluggo. You just sprinkle it around whatever you want to protect. Bonus its organic. Although from what I was reading, apparently it's not because it's full of unlisted EDTA and it's likely to get removed from the organic approved list as a result. I mean if you aren't a commercial scale farmer an/or aren't using a tone of it/sprinkling the pellets on your ice cream, it's probably quite fine. Still way less toxic than other solutions (although not nearly as satisfying as the beer bowl method!)
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Sep 25, 2016 14:11
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I actually go outside at night and kill snails and slugs myself. I also kill aphids with my fingers. Obviously not practical for large-scale problems, but I prefer it to spreading pesticides.
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Sep 25, 2016 16:53
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Hubis posted:Although from what I was reading, apparently it's not because it's full of unlisted EDTA and it's likely to get removed from the organic approved list as a result. drat, yeah, just read up on it :-( I was reading how it gets ingested by earthworms too and kills them off. I guess it is time to stop using it.
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Sep 25, 2016 23:46
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Could I please get some recommendations for chili peppers to grow next year? This year I got a black Hungarian chili, super chili and a scotch bonnet and they've done pretty well. I'm after something that will do well in a pot or container that I can grow indoors, not anything spicier than a scotch bonnet with nice/interesting flavours. The two I'm thinking of at the moment are lemon drop peppers and Bulgarian carrot peppers, was just wondering if anyone had any other suggestions? Thanks.
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Sep 26, 2016 15:40
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Fozzy The Bear posted:I use iron phosphate pellets, Home Depot has the brand Sluggo. You just sprinkle it around whatever you want to protect. Bonus its organic. Just don't put it near transplants or germinating seeds. I applied Sluggo earlier this year and a freak overnight rain rinsed it into the soil. Every single plant stem at the soil line turned spindly and the plant fell over and eventually failed. A few plants were unaffected; but it caused my first sowing of clover, cilantro, carrots, spinach, and lettuce to all fail. Lesson learned. Despite my deep mulch, in the end I decided to simply do nothing and let my garden's healthy population of centipedes and ground beetles take care of things. The situation didn't take long to balance its self out, so it was more of a lesson in patience than anything else. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Sep 26, 2016 |
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Sep 26, 2016 18:28
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Ebola Dog posted:Could I please get some recommendations for chili peppers to grow next year? This year I got a black Hungarian chili, super chili and a scotch bonnet and they've done pretty well. I'm after something that will do well in a pot or container that I can grow indoors, not anything spicier than a scotch bonnet with nice/interesting flavours. I think I'm going to grow some Aurora peppers next year, just because they have wonderful colors. This year I have black Hungarian and Banana peppers.
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Sep 26, 2016 20:53
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Ebola Dog posted:Could I please get some recommendations for chili peppers to grow next year? This year I got a black Hungarian chili, super chili and a scotch bonnet and they've done pretty well. I'm after something that will do well in a pot or container that I can grow indoors, not anything spicier than a scotch bonnet with nice/interesting flavours. The only pepper I've ever seen advertised as particularly good for growing indoors is the Fatalii, but it sounds like you don't want to go that hot. And they seem to have removed that claim from the web site (maybe it's still on the seed packet?). I've grown lemon peppers before, and was impressed that they really did smell and taste pretty lemony. They weren't very big peppers, but I had heavy production from the plants, so maybe they'd still produce enough indoors to be worth trying. I'm growing alma paprika peppers this year, then drying them and grinding them into paprika after I pick them. The paprika has an interesting flavor - very different from the years-old jar of McCormick's paprika in our cupboard. It has been a fun experiment, but they haven't really thrived, and I have no idea how they would do inside. There are other varieties of paprika peppers, too - maybe one of them would do better. In the past, I've also had good production from cayennes, and I assume they can also be dried and ground into cayenne chili powder, if you want to try this with something spicier or more likely to produce heavily. I use a dehydrator I received for Christmas last year, but if your climate is dry-ish, you could probably just air dry most peppers.
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Sep 26, 2016 21:15
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I've had such poor luck with peppers outside in the PNW that I'm seriously considering an LED grow light setup and keeping them indoors. I finally got some production out of jalapeno and marconi rosso, but it's not looking likely that they'll ripen fully. If it works for weed, then why not? Re: sluggo, thanks for mentioning the EDTA issue. I am really regretting recommending it to people now. I plant a little extra to account for slug losses, and use trap boards occasionally. Here's a good video on soil that explains some concepts that I've been feeling intuitively over the last few years. Basically, focus on growing the life in your soil and the plants will take care of themselves. Her idea of a permanent, perennial, low-growing cover crop is very interesting and I think I'll give it a try on some newer ground in my garden that didn't produce very well after a half-assed sheet mulching to kill the grass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzthQyMaQaQ
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Sep 26, 2016 23:15
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I actually go outside at night and kill snails and slugs myself. I also kill aphids with my fingers. Go all the way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0qjbOeJkF8
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Sep 27, 2016 01:49
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