Gardening: the beets must go on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Gardening: the beets must go on

buglord: Jul 31, 2010; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!; Buglord

Composting worms really, really like diced apples :stare:

e: to expand on that, they've been eating most of what I feed them in a very leisurely pace. But they've consumed these with such a quickness. Putting my ear up to the compost I can hear the noises of them moving stuff around. The little sprouts above ground show the roots being moved around.

buglord fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jul 30, 2017

# ? Jul 30, 2017 02:12

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# ? May 30, 2024 03:55

Mozi: Apr 4, 2004; Forms change so fast
Time is moving past
Memory is smoke
Gonna get wider when I die; Nap Ghost

Any other worm treat ideas?

I heard they like pineapples but they didn't go nuts when I gave them a halved one. They did like an avocado.

I'll occasionally make an alfalfa meal/kelp meal/neem meal tea and give the solid remains to the worms - they do go absolutely nuts for that stuff.

I also have a lot of mites in my worm farm but they don't seem to bother the worms at all. Help break down the food initially from what I understand. Got a selection of other bugs and critters in there as well, everyone appears to get along just fine.

# ? Jul 30, 2017 19:12

Enfys: Feb 17, 2013; The ocean is calling and I must go

Mangoes. They go absolutely nuts for mangoes. If you give them the pits, it will take them ages to actually break them down, but they will really love nesting inside them in the meantime as it creates nice little cozy air pockets.

Pineapple is highly acidic, so I wouldn't think they would like too much of that unless it was well diced and mixed with something else.

You end up with a whole ecosystem in a worm bin. Most things are fine (and necessary), but a huge increase can be a sign of conditions your worms don't like. Most mites thrive in really humid, wet, low air flow acidic environments, so exactly the kind created if you overfeed them or if the pH ends up too acidic (often due to lots of fruits or acidic vegetables).

# ? Jul 30, 2017 20:53

bee: Dec 17, 2008; Do you often sing or whistle just for fun?

My worms really seem to love banana skins.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 03:52

Fitzy Fitz: May 14, 2005

I really want to make a worm bin, but we don't have any room inside, and I don't think they'd like the 100+ temps outside..

# ? Jul 31, 2017 14:41

kedo: Nov 27, 2007

jvick posted:

I buy most of my seed's from Johnny's, and love their extensive "Growing Information" section for each item.

Thanks for this! I'd seen their logo on lots of seed packets out in the world, but I had never really focused on it. I just spent way too much money.

A question for the thread at large about row spacing and intercropping ��is there a general rule of thumb about how strictly ya'll follow planting instructions with regards to row spacing? For example, I'm going to try out some mid season carrots, radish, broccoli rabe, etc. Most of these call for rows spaced 12-18" inches apart (besides the radish). How much will I lower my total yield if I bunch them up with different plants?

For example, if instead of having carrots about a foot apart with nothing in between:

code:

CARROT                 CARROT
  |                       |
  |                       |
  |                       |
  |                       |
  |                       |
  |                       |

I instead put a different plant in between:

code:

CARROT      ONIONS      CARROT
  |            |          |
  |            |          |
  |            |          |
  |            |          |
  |            |          |
  |            |          |
  |            |          |

how much is this going to muck things up? I did a bit of reading about using radish and other small, quickly harvested plants for intercropping between rows, but I'm curious how much I can get away with putting other longer term crops in closer rows. Putting carrots a foot apart seems like a waste of space to me.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 15:35

Marchegiana: Jan 31, 2006; . . . Bitch.

Those row guidelines are for old-fashioned gardening, where you have wide, long rows so you can walk between them and hoe the weeds. If you're doing small-plot gardening you weed by hand (like square foot gardening) you can squeeze them in way tighter than that, like 16 carrots per square foot. You just need to give them enough space that they don't grow into each other.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 16:36

kedo: Nov 27, 2007

Marchegiana posted:

Those row guidelines are for old-fashioned gardening, where you have wide, long rows so you can walk between them and hoe the weeds. If you're doing small-plot gardening you weed by hand (like square foot gardening) you can squeeze them in way tighter than that, like 16 carrots per square foot. You just need to give them enough space that they don't grow into each other.

Nice. I have a roughly 2.5'x11.25' bed I'm going to fill up with veggies, so that sounds like I can pack it waaaaay tighter than I have it planned at the moment.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 16:40

Enfys: Feb 17, 2013; The ocean is calling and I must go

If you are using a raised bed, you can also get away with much tighter spacing as well.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 17:19

kedo: Nov 27, 2007

Enfys posted:

If you are using a raised bed, you can also get away with much tighter spacing as well.

I am! It sounds like my minimum spacing is really the recommended spacing per plant? So if it's about 1.5 inches around each carrot my "rows" could realistically be about 2 inches apart?

# ? Jul 31, 2017 17:51

Marchegiana: Jan 31, 2006; . . . Bitch.

Pretty much. Ignore row spacing and just use plant spacing.

# ? Jul 31, 2017 18:36

Mozi: Apr 4, 2004; Forms change so fast
Time is moving past
Memory is smoke
Gonna get wider when I die; Nap Ghost

Enfys posted:

You end up with a whole ecosystem in a worm bin. Most things are fine (and necessary), but a huge increase can be a sign of conditions your worms don't like. Most mites thrive in really humid, wet, low air flow acidic environments, so exactly the kind created if you overfeed them or if the pH ends up too acidic (often due to lots of fruits or acidic vegetables).

Hm! I probably have a little of that going on, then. Thanks for the tip!

# ? Jul 31, 2017 19:13

kedo: Nov 27, 2007

Marchegiana posted:

Pretty much. Ignore row spacing and just use plant spacing.

Aweeesome.

# ? Aug 1, 2017 00:42

turing_test: Feb 27, 2013

I'm trying to sprout some mint and some basil from cuttings (I've never done this before). I trimmed the lower leaves off of my cuttings and the basil seems to be growing tiny roots, but the mint isn't going anywhere (it's been about a week and I've been changing the water every other day). The cuttings are all sitting under a grow lamp that's on for 24 hours a day (I'm also not sure if I should get a timer for the lamp).

Am I doing something wrong? The mint looks exactly the same as when I cut it (nice / green / crisp) so I don't think it's rotting, it's just not doing anything.

# ? Aug 4, 2017 03:37

Mozi: Apr 4, 2004; Forms change so fast
Time is moving past
Memory is smoke
Gonna get wider when I die; Nap Ghost

Does anybody know what kind of pepper plant this is? I got a random bag of seeds I'm growing, got a banana pepper and a couple of jalapenos, and this thing... The peppers all have these strange fleshy growths on the bottom.

# ? Aug 4, 2017 12:54

Catpain Slack: Apr 1, 2014; BAAAAAAH

turing_test posted:

I'm trying to sprout some mint and some basil from cuttings (I've never done this before). I trimmed the lower leaves off of my cuttings and the basil seems to be growing tiny roots, but the mint isn't going anywhere (it's been about a week and I've been changing the water every other day). The cuttings are all sitting under a grow lamp that's on for 24 hours a day (I'm also not sure if I should get a timer for the lamp).

Am I doing something wrong? The mint looks exactly the same as when I cut it (nice / green / crisp) so I don't think it's rotting, it's just not doing anything.

Indirect light might be more suitable for propagating cuttings. Also, sometimes it takes a long rear end time for roots to start growing, as long as the cutting isn't shrivelling up and dying all you can do is wait.

# ? Aug 4, 2017 20:52

PokeJoe: Aug 24, 2004; hail cgatan

turing_test posted:

I'm trying to sprout some mint and some basil from cuttings (I've never done this before). I trimmed the lower leaves off of my cuttings and the basil seems to be growing tiny roots, but the mint isn't going anywhere (it's been about a week and I've been changing the water every other day). The cuttings are all sitting under a grow lamp that's on for 24 hours a day (I'm also not sure if I should get a timer for the lamp).

Am I doing something wrong? The mint looks exactly the same as when I cut it (nice / green / crisp) so I don't think it's rotting, it's just not doing anything.

I had the same problem with a mint cutting. I ended up just sticking the end of it in the pot of another plant I had and left it alone for a week or so. I noticed it hadn't really wilted by then so I pulled it out and it had some roots. I put it in its own pot and its doing fine.

# ? Aug 4, 2017 22:10

Lawman 0: Aug 17, 2010

Hey veggie thread: how long does it take for bell peppers to mature to full size?

# ? Aug 4, 2017 23:10

turing_test: Feb 27, 2013

PokeJoe posted:

I had the same problem with a mint cutting. I ended up just sticking the end of it in the pot of another plant I had and left it alone for a week or so. I noticed it hadn't really wilted by then so I pulled it out and it had some roots. I put it in its own pot and its doing fine.

I have a spare pot and some soil so I'll give this a shot.

Thanks very much for the suggestions!

# ? Aug 4, 2017 23:22

Dwanyelle: Jan 13, 2008; ISRAEL DOESN'T HAVE CIVILIANS THEY'RE ALL VALID TARGETS
I'm a huge dickbag ignore me

Heya, so I recently started a garden, but something is munching on the leaves of my black eyed peas. I've heard that you can mix like, Dawn with water to make an inseticide, is that ok? Will I be able to eat food from plants I've sprayed with this? Should I get non scented Dawn? Thank you.

# ? Aug 5, 2017 16:41

POOL IS CLOSED: Jul 14, 2011; I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.; Pillbug

Thalantos posted:

Heya, so I recently started a garden, but something is munching on the leaves of my black eyed peas. I've heard that you can mix like, Dawn with water to make an inseticide, is that ok? Will I be able to eat food from plants I've sprayed with this? Should I get non scented Dawn? Thank you.

any hand soap is fine. definitely dilute it. spray in the morning while it's still cool. insecticidal soap works on contact and only while wet.

# ? Aug 5, 2017 17:52

Hubis: May 18, 2003; Boy, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines...

Thalantos posted:

Heya, so I recently started a garden, but something is munching on the leaves of my black eyed peas. I've heard that you can mix like, Dawn with water to make an inseticide, is that ok? Will I be able to eat food from plants I've sprayed with this? Should I get non scented Dawn? Thank you.

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

any hand soap is fine. definitely dilute it. spray in the morning while it's still cool. insecticidal soap works on contact and only while wet.

no don't

# ? Aug 6, 2017 02:12

POOL IS CLOSED: Jul 14, 2011; I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.; Pillbug

Hubis posted:

no don't

i actually haven't seen this information before. huh!

on the other hand, i've also never had bad results with regular dish soap, so i don't know what to think.

# ? Aug 6, 2017 02:24

Hubis: May 18, 2003; Boy, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines...

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

i actually haven't seen this information before. huh!

on the other hand, i've also never had bad results with regular dish soap, so i don't know what to think.

If you're squirting it with a spray bottle, the pressure of the spray is often enough to dislodge aphids and they have a tough time climbing back up. You might see equivalent results just using tap water (or a hose).

# ? Aug 6, 2017 02:30

Reztes: Jun 20, 2003

I started a container herb garden a few weeks ago (near Riverside, California), and I'm just noticing critters arriving. I've never had a garden before, so I have no idea what I'm looking at or how harmful or not these are.

My dill plant had a bunch of these caterpillars hanging out, presumably munching on the leaves:

These guys are definitely just gonna eat all my dill, right? There are few enough right now that I could just remove them by hand, but I saw a couple of local gardening guides suggest dill attracts species that grow into helpful pollinators, so maybe I let them be, and just grow enough dill to stay ahead of them?

Then I have this guy chilling near the top of my cilantro:

and these damaged leaves and black specs below:

Is the big guy eating those leaves, or eating whatever is eating those leaves? The cilantro has bolted, and I read somewhere that flowering cilantro tends to attract beneficial predatory insects to help control aphids, etc. I just have no idea what I'm looking at!

Reztes fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Aug 7, 2017

# ? Aug 7, 2017 01:43

Reztes: Jun 20, 2003

Welp the caterpillars started to migrate over to a new young parsley plant, so they had to be purged :black101:

Meanwhile, cilantro seems to also have aphids, but looks like it has now also attracted some lacewings or something else predatory which has started going to town on them. This is pretty cool, like there's a whole lil' ecosystem starting up in my formerly desolate concrete patio. Plus these cilantro flowers are pretty :3:

I'm planning to stagger planting the seeds from this guy in another couple of pots a week or two apart to have edible leaves reliably, and maybe grow enough to get a usable amount of coriander eventually.

# ? Aug 8, 2017 17:07

POOL IS CLOSED: Jul 14, 2011; I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.; Pillbug

Black swallowtails and monarchs are known to like parsley, dill, carrots, celery, and fennel, I'm pretty sure.

# ? Aug 8, 2017 17:11

Enfys: Feb 17, 2013; The ocean is calling and I must go

Anytime I try to grow coriander, it ends up swarming with aphids and bolting

# ? Aug 8, 2017 22:32

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

Something got into my garden last night and ate the top half of every last one of my parsnips. Here are some images of the damage.

I'm pretty sure all those eaten plants used to be twice that tall.

Any idea what did this? I might almost guess deer since something also knocked over one of my tomato plants (it's mostly okay). Only, I haven't seen any deer since we moved here in January. I have seen a groundhog around a few times the past 60 days. I lost a bunch of almost ripe tomatoes too. All that's left are green ones.

At least it left the zucchini and cucumbers alone.

LLSix fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Aug 9, 2017

# ? Aug 8, 2017 23:44

cheese: Jan 7, 2004; Shop around for doctors! Always fucking shop for doctors. Doctors are stupid assholes. And they get by because people are cowed by their mystical bullshit quality of being able to maintain a 3.0 GPA at some Guatemalan medical college for 3 semesters. Find one that makes sense.

When it doubt, its Deer.

# ? Aug 9, 2017 01:06

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Yeah especially with those grid lines undisturbed and no scat or pawprints, it was deer.

Enfys posted:

Anytime I try to grow coriander, it ends up swarming with aphids and bolting

Uhh isn't it cilantro until it bolts, when it becomes coriander?

# ? Aug 9, 2017 03:56

Hubis: May 18, 2003; Boy, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines...

coyo7e posted:

Yeah especially with those grid lines undisturbed and no scat or pawprints, it was deer.

Uhh isn't it cilantro until it bolts, when it becomes coriander?

Some people call it "coriander leaves"

# ? Aug 9, 2017 14:43

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Could anyone help id these peppers? I have a pretty good idea about everything else I'm growing but this was just labeled "chili" so I've no idea what kind it actually is.

And whatever he hell this is, growing next to my habanero:

I used to have basil and some other herbs there last season but that doesn't look/smell like it. Could be just junk.

LLSix posted:

Something got into my garden last night and ate the top half of every last one of my parsnips. Here are some images of the damage.

...

You got me, I was very hungry

# ? Aug 9, 2017 18:47

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Hubis posted:

Some people call it "coriander leaves"

Only people from the UK and we all know they have to give everything a nonsensical name.

# ? Aug 9, 2017 20:24

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

My friend harvested some interesting radishes this year.

https://imgur.com/gallery/kfiJD

But it doesn't beat that one time I planted carrots and pulled up a rabbit. https://imgur.com/gallery/zXIc7

Suspect Bucket fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Aug 11, 2017

# ? Aug 11, 2017 00:54

buglord: Jul 31, 2010; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!; Buglord

Suspect Bucket posted:

But it doesn't beat that one time I planted carrots and pulled up a rabbit. https://imgur.com/gallery/zXIc7

wait what

this is a statue right? :ohdear:

# ? Aug 11, 2017 01:48

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

buglord posted:

wait what

this is a statue right?

Yes, duh. It was a small garden statuette that got buried and lost, then found by a carrot.

# ? Aug 11, 2017 02:06

buglord: Jul 31, 2010; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!; Buglord

I've seen some things weirdly preserved by just the right conditions. Seeing it reminded me of my taphonomy classes :stonk:

# ? Aug 11, 2017 02:23

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

buglord posted:

I've seen some things weirdly preserved by just the right conditions. Seeing it reminded me of my taphonomy classes

I take it back, a mummified rabbit was totally what I grew because that's sick as fuuuuuuuck

# ? Aug 11, 2017 03:50

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# ? May 30, 2024 03:55

coyo7e: Aug 23, 2007; by zen death robot

Jesus how do you miss stuff like that at radish depth

# ? Aug 11, 2017 07:17

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