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We just bought a house so I've started my first veggie garden! So I have at best a chartreuse thumb. Can anyone tell what's wrong with my kale (Russian red)? I'm in the Boston area. I started this indoors from seed and transplanted into my raised bed a week ago. (I did harden it off a bit, maybe not as extensively as I should have.) It was lovely and green indoors but rapidly started turning purple and then yellow. We've had plenty of rain this week. My soil is brand-new Miracle Gro raised bed soil, so it's supposed to have plenty of nutrients. 
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Apr 21, 2019 18:37
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Already had something digging holes in my garden and chewing the trellis apart. Fuckers. At least whatever it was didn't bother any of the seedlings that have sprouted.
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Apr 21, 2019 22:07
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Silent Linguist posted:We just bought a house so I've started my first veggie garden! So I have at best a chartreuse thumb. The purple is normal, the yellow is probably overwatering.
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Apr 22, 2019 00:55
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Just put in a rain barrel and was pretty pleased with myself getting all of this free glorious water! Now I wont feel as bad trying to get my dirt patch yard covered with clover/grass mix and watering in the summer. Only problem is low pressure out of the barrel. Am I better off installing some sort of pump, or should I just put some cinder blocks underneath to raise it a bit and let gravity do the work?
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Apr 22, 2019 13:41
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Depends on how you want to dispense the water. If you want to use any type of spray/overhead watering, you'll need a pump. If you want to use soaker hoses and emitters or even just a trickling hose for spot watering cinder blocks are more than enough head. If you go the soaker hose/drip emitter route you'll probably want to protect them with a T filter.
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Apr 22, 2019 16:07
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Do any of y'all have recommendations about soaker hoses on amazon? There's a surprising variety and I'm not sure how to choose. I'm planning on burying it under mulch and using it to water vegetables and melons. If it matters, I'm in Region 8B.
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Apr 22, 2019 18:57
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Corla Plankun posted:Do any of y'all have recommendations about soaker hoses on amazon? There's a surprising variety and I'm not sure how to choose. So I tried a different home improvement store, and they had Rain Bird. Rain Bird sprinklers are good, their drip irrigation stuff is...better than Raindrip. But I still found it fiddly, difficult to work with, and prone to clogging, irregularity, and so on. So I did a shitload of research and ended up reading landscaper forums and that kind of poo poo and their consensus seemed to be that Netafim's drip products were the poo poo. And they do seem to be way the gently caress better than the other ones I've tried. But eventually I decided that I just am not crazy about soaker hoses and that basic model, and spent like US$30 putting together a massively overdesigned PVC irrigation system for my raised beds and I think that ends up work better in every way I actually care about.
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Apr 22, 2019 20:45
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I use driptape in 7b under mulch. https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation/drip-tape
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Apr 22, 2019 21:52
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PVC with tiny holes in it is super cheap and works pretty well. Make like a big U with your row of vegetables and stuff down the middle. Light enough that they are pretty portable if you have multiple beds and don’t want to bury them.
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Apr 22, 2019 22:15
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Yeah, but PVC.
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Apr 22, 2019 22:18
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:PVC with tiny holes in it is super cheap and works pretty well. Crakkerjakk posted:Yeah, but PVC.
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Apr 22, 2019 22:40
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SubG posted:I can only speak from personal experience but for raised beds I've had much better luck with PVC than drip systems, both in terms of growing success and with respect to maintenance. It's one of the nastier plastics to manufacture, hard to recycle, also some concerns about leeching and contamination. Plus pvc cement is pretty nasty.
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Apr 22, 2019 23:24
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Crakkerjakk posted:It's one of the nastier plastics to manufacture, hard to recycle, also some concerns about leeching and contamination. Plus pvc cement is pretty nasty. PCV pipe manufactured before '77 is known to have leached vinyl chloride, but the manufacturing process was changed. There are a shitload of municipal water systems that use PVC mains, they're required to monitor for leaching by the EPA, and according to the EPA there are zero cases of MCL violations due to leaching involving PVC pipe made after 1977. Same thing with PVC cement. Your local home improvement store will sell you PVC cement that's rated as safe for potable water, which is a higher standard that is used for most, e.g. commercial farm irrigation systems. Out of curiosity, what kind of plastic(s) do you think are in the drip tape you're using? What kind of testing do you figure has been done on it? Go to your local Home Depot or whatever and look at the schedule 40 PVC they'll sell you. You'll find a NSF stamp on it telling you it's been rated for potable water. Is Aqua-Traxx drip tape rated for potable water?
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Apr 22, 2019 23:59
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Speaking of composting, what's the current wisdom on citrus peels in compost? I've heard various conflicting things, but I think we got confused from back when we were doing the "feeding worms" type of composting (is that what vermicomposting is?) rather than the "throw everything in a bin/pile for a few months" type. I know worms don't like to eat it so it's bad for the former type. But what about the kind where it all decomposes over time? My kids can destroy a bag of tangerines in one sitting, so this would be useful.
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Apr 23, 2019 00:23
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Sir Lemming posted:Speaking of composting, what's the current wisdom on citrus peels in compost? I've heard various conflicting things, but I think we got confused from back when we were doing the "feeding worms" type of composting (is that what vermicomposting is?) rather than the "throw everything in a bin/pile for a few months" type. I know worms don't like to eat it so it's bad for the former type. But what about the kind where it all decomposes over time? They do just fine in my compost. I think some people have claimed that the peels/pith can "hold" more "chemicals" so if you're trying to do the organic thing it might be a consideration.
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Apr 23, 2019 00:43
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SubG posted:Not unless you're living in 1977. It's LDPE, food safe. I dunno about aquatraxx, I use DripWorks. PVC still involves dioxins in it's manufacture, can have nasty stabilizers in it, and it's still a pain in the rear end to recycle. If you CAN use something more environmentally friendly, I personally would. But clearly everyone's milage may vary.
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Apr 23, 2019 01:36
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Crakkerjakk posted:It's LDPE, food safe. I dunno about aquatraxx, I use DripWorks. Where are you seeing that they claim their product is safe for potable water? I don't seen any NSF or other certification. Just making something out of polyethylene doesn't make it food safe, and rating a pipe for potable water and rating a container food safe are two different things. Crakkerjakk posted:PVC still involves dioxins in it's manufacture, can have nasty stabilizers in it, and it's still a pain in the rear end to recycle. If you CAN use something more environmentally friendly, I personally would. But clearly everyone's milage may vary. As for stabilizers being `nasty' or it being a `pain in the rear end' to recycle: again, any schedule 40 PVC you get at a home improvement store is going to be NSF certified for potable water. Which I've literally never seen on any drip irrigation product available at the consumer level. Have you? Has anyone else? And PVC is 100% recyclable. I don't even know what you're trying to imply by calling it a `pain in the rear end'.
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Apr 23, 2019 02:08
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I bought some asparagus roots from the store and planted them as soon as the I thought the soil was warm enough last weekend. They looked super dry out of the box though, almost like straw. Is that normal? Im worried that I'll dutifully water and care for that spot for 2 years to end up with nothing and then will have to try again.
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Apr 23, 2019 14:36
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I don't see how I'm going to maintain a garden with squirrels around. They're absolutely obliterating it daily. I guess I'm going to have to move all my trellis plants to their own planters and hope for the best so I can completely cage in my main planters with chicken wire.
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Apr 23, 2019 14:48
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Grand Fromage posted:I don't see how I'm going to maintain a garden with squirrels around. They're absolutely obliterating it daily. I guess I'm going to have to move all my trellis plants to their own planters and hope for the best so I can completely cage in my main planters with chicken wire. I solved this problem by giving up on the plants they want to eat.  Last year was very wet and hot so we had a bumper crop of tomatoes, but I think we were able to eat exactly 5 because the squirrels ate the rest. Thankfully they seem to ignore cucurbits, peppers, tomatillos, root vegetables and greens which make up the bulk of what we grow.I tried everything short of a cage or a gun, very little seems to work.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:01
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SubG posted:But eventually I decided that I just am not crazy about soaker hoses and that basic model, and spent like US$30 putting together a massively overdesigned PVC irrigation system for my raised beds and I think that ends up work better in every way I actually care about. Care to share (if you haven't already) the design for this? I have several raised beds that used to have drip but the previous owners' aeration process apparently tore the irrigation system in the back to hell, so now I'm looking for ways to redo it from scratch.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:10
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Grand Fromage posted:I don't see how I'm going to maintain a garden with squirrels around. They're absolutely obliterating it daily. I guess I'm going to have to move all my trellis plants to their own planters and hope for the best so I can completely cage in my main planters with chicken wire. I've had mixed luck with brushing my dog, saving the hair, and sprinkling it around the plants. Seems to work OK but not great. My plan this year is to do that and cage the tomatoes and greens. My neighbor sprayed coyote piss all over theirs, which worked, but also smelt like an overripe cat litter box and stunk up their whole yard so...
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Apr 23, 2019 15:27
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Grand Fromage posted:I don't see how I'm going to maintain a garden with squirrels around. They're absolutely obliterating it daily. I guess I'm going to have to move all my trellis plants to their own planters and hope for the best so I can completely cage in my main planters with chicken wire. I have a feral cat that I take care of that lives in my yard and in the neighborhood. It's supposed to kill rats and mice and does, but it also keeps squirrels and rabbits away from my garden. See if your area has a feral cat program, or if you live in the country, just get an outdoor cat or two (spade or neutered is best)? Only things that don't seem to care are the opossum, occasional skunk, and all of the birds. But it leaves my garden in better shape and the squirrels just sit in the nearby trees and chatter at the cat.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:28
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Please don't get a feral/outdoor cat. In addition to scaring off squirrels they're going to kill other small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:32
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My lazy cat takes care of the squirrels but it's the bunnies who really appreciate me taking the time to plant stuff for them. If someone leaves the gate open it's just RIP garden when the deer get in
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Apr 23, 2019 15:34
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We've finally finished our fence so I hopefully won't have to worry about deer this year, but the rabbits are already doing a number on the most vulnerable plants (snap peas planted on the fence). I guess somebody's gotta be the front line.Fitzy Fitz posted:Please don't get a feral/outdoor cat. I mean they're gonna do that anyway, right? Sounds like not the worst idea to me. Especially since I really can't keep a cat in the house due to allergies, toddlers who also have allergies, etc. Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 15:35
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I don't want to be sanctimonious because I do things that are bad for the environment too, but cats kill significantly more animals than people realize. Most are not brought back home.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:42
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I know my local animal humane society has a feral cat program you can sign up for if you do want to go that route. I think they spade/neuter them and you provide food shelter for them. But yeah expect bird populations to drop nearby as well.
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Apr 23, 2019 15:45
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BaseballPCHiker posted:I bought some asparagus roots from the store and planted them as soon as the I thought the soil was warm enough last weekend. They looked super dry out of the box though, almost like straw. Is that normal? Im worried that I'll dutifully water and care for that spot for 2 years to end up with nothing and then will have to try again. Asparagus roots normally do look terrible when you bring them home. Our asparagus patch has 25 plants that arrived as roots and all came up even though some of them looked bad enough I though I'd need to replant them the next year. They should be poking up in a month or two so you'll know then whether they were viable or need replanting. kedo posted:I solved this problem by giving up on the plants they want to eat. You guys are freaking me out. We've just had the alien invasive European black squirrel establish itself in our locale and those buggers are 2-3x bigger than the native red squirrels. The reds occassionally muck around in the orchard but leave the garden alone. If the black squirrels have a taste for tomatoes there will be violence. Watching a red squirrel move through the canopy is like watching a ballet dancer. Watching a black squirrel move is like admiring the aerodynamic qualities of a brick.
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Apr 23, 2019 16:14
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BaseballPCHiker posted:My neighbor sprayed coyote piss all over theirs, which worked, but also smelt like an overripe cat litter box and stunk up their whole yard so... I tried this with fox piss, but it had literally zero effect. I once sprayed it, walked inside, shut the door, looked out the window and a squirrel was already in the raised bed, eating a tomato.
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Apr 23, 2019 16:14
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Speaking of pests whats the jam to keep the fat robins out of my raspberries!? I was thinking some sort of mesh or net but I really don't want to deal with a dumb robin stuck in a net. It would at least keep the neighbors out I guess Hexigrammus posted:Watching a red squirrel move through the canopy is like watching a ballet dancer. Watching a black squirrel move is like admiring the aerodynamic qualities of a brick.  kedo posted:I tried this with fox piss, but it had literally zero effect. I once sprayed it, walked inside, shut the door, looked out the window and a squirrel was already in the raised bed, eating a tomato. that was so nice of kedo, fox piss vinaigrette is my favorite!
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Apr 23, 2019 16:29
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Squirrels are most active for us during a certain time of day (late morning). I happen to be home so I chase then when I can. Most times they run when I open the door or bang a stick on the deck, the more bold ones make me walk out though. My neighbors probably think I’m crazy. We have a community garden plot for all of the plants that keep getting destroyed at home by squirrels or slugs. We tried slug bait but I don’t have a great solution on the squirrels. Everyone in this neighborhood lets their cats outdoors so there are like 4 neighbor cats that patrol our backyard which sort of helps but they dig up our empty beds so we can’t really start seeds in ground very well, the cats won’t leave the beds alone until there are starters or bigger in them.
Yiggy fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 16:35
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https://www.daisy.com/product/PowerLine-Model-901/?itemnumber=990901-001 https://www.realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/jamaican-jerk-squirrel-recipe
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Apr 23, 2019 17:54
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I've heard most squirrels go after tomatoes for the water content, not necessarily the flavor. So having a birdbath or some other source of potable water may keep them satisfied enough to leave your tomatoes alone.
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Apr 23, 2019 18:26
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Please don't get a feral/outdoor cat. I live in a large city with a rat problem. They’re quite useful and I have no issue having a natural predator for those species that don’t otherwise have a predator in my yard and alley. Maybe you do have a problem with that, but it will run off the small rodents and really don’t get as many birds and miscellanies as you’d think as you’re feeding it. I don’t think my bird population is going to suffer as there are frequently dozens of them. It’s not completely dissimilar to releasing ladybugs to deal with aphids, but the scale is different.
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Apr 23, 2019 18:27
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SubG posted:Ah. The first three of the five products on the page you linked were Aqua-Traxx. Because PVC is so durable, it is difficult to recycle (and also because of the high Chlorine content). If even small amounts are mixed in with other plastics it degrades into HCl and Cl which ruins most of the other stuff being recycled, so it has to be recycled completely separate from other plastics. And because it sinks in water it's hard to remove from the way we recycle most PET. It'd considered a contaminant in normal plastic recycling waste streams. https://www.ecomena.org/recycling-pvc/ Crakkerjakk fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 18:37
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Jhet posted:I live in a large city with a rat problem. They’re quite useful and I have no issue having a natural predator for those species that don’t otherwise have a predator in my yard and alley. Research has shown that feeding doesn't actually reduce their hunting activity. It's for sport/fun, and they leave most of their kills on the spot without eating them. Outdoor cats kill something like a billion birds every year in the US, and they actually kill far more reptiles and amphibians than that -- they're pretty bad for the environment, even if they make our lives easier. I'm not trying to say you're a jerk for having an outdoor cat or anything, but it's still a practice that we should be phasing (how the gently caress did i misspell this) out rather than encouraging. Fitzy Fitz fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 18:47
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Any hot tips on hydroponics? I’ve got a nice side room that’s used for storage and I’ve been gripped with an anarchic urge to become more self reliant.
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Apr 23, 2019 19:05
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I get that. But without a predator the city ecosystem has been overrun for a very long time. We also have problems with coyotes, so the cats aren’t even without a predator. I’m a big fan of birds and other small critters too, but there needs to be balance in the food chain and the rodents aren’t supposed to be on the top. I’m just looking for some balance in my ecosystem and there would be a problem if everyone had an outdoor cat without balance too. My guess is that if squirrels and rabbits are extra prolific, it’s because they don’t have a natural predator to keep populations at a reasonable level. That said, I plant extra things in places I know they’ll run across first and those got left alone last year too. So we’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks when I put the rest outside. They’ve left the collards, peas, and garlic alone so far, but it’s still early.
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Apr 23, 2019 19:12
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I just went and threw stones at the rats that were about 3 feet away from my useless tart of a cat.
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Apr 23, 2019 19:14
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