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FogHelmut posted:Just watched a rabbit osmose itself through a chain link fence to exit my yard and escape the dog. I thought that fence was secure. Time for more chicken wire. I tried for several years to rabbit-proof a privacy fence and I'm pretty sure it's impossible. I ended up with a family of them under my little dutch barn and just eventually resigned myself to it. They're really cute when they are little but they can tear a garden up in a hurry.
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May 3, 2021 13:47
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mischief posted:I tried for several years to rabbit-proof a privacy fence and I'm pretty sure it's impossible. I ended up with a family of them under my little dutch barn and just eventually resigned myself to it. It's really only a 7' length of chain link. The rest of the fence is covered in dense english ivy vines. Pretty sure nothing can get through there. Also the plastic owl does nothing.
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May 3, 2021 15:31
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So these little hops plants are taking off. One of them is already climbing on the lattice, and the other is bushy and really filling out. Kind of impressed, and excited for them to take over my entire life. 
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May 4, 2021 00:58
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FogHelmut posted:Also the plastic owl does nothing. This is true. Finally sent ours to the thrift shop. My theory is that they're modelled on juvenile owls. A few years ago we had a Barred Owl family hanging out around our house while the juveniles fledged and generally figured life out. They'd sit in one place for hours waiting for the adult to return to feed them, the local birds ignoring them the whole time. The adult otoh would get mobbed by every songbird on the place as soon as she appeared. This is one of the juveniles hanging out while a Varied Thrush rakes through the leaf litter 3 meters directly below it.  Awesome thread title. First flush of the season for the Winecap mushrooms under the blackberries. The chips I dumped on the bed last fall are fully colonized by mycellium. I might have to start feeding the bed twice a year, these things are voracious.  Had really good luck the last two years overwintering the potatoes in the garden under a thick layer of leaf mulch to keep them from freezing and just digging them as needed for the kitchen. Pulled back the mulch a couple of days ago and there's sprouts all over the bed. Opened up two trenches in the new potato bed, dug up everything in the old bed, replanted the new bed and took what was left to the basement storeroom. The freshly dug potatoes are higher quality than what we normally have after a winter of basement storage. Easiest potato season ever. Hopefully I'm not propagating some nasty virus by growing my own instead of buying new seed potatoes each year.
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May 4, 2021 05:28
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Hexigrammus posted:Hopefully I'm not propagating some nasty virus by growing my own instead of buying new seed potatoes each year. The dirty secret is that seed potatoes aren’t perfectly clean, either. If you’re growing tubers in the same ground they grew in last year, that’s as good as it gets. But it’s still definitely worth the premium for seed potatoes over supermarket spuds if you’re starting fresh.
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May 4, 2021 05:37
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I hate rabbits and understand why humans eat them. That’s all for now.
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May 4, 2021 13:52
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I have so many god damned potatoes coming up. Every single bed, even the flower beds. I nip their tops off when they break ground but I think it just makes them stronger. I feel like the last owners are playing a cruel joke but I'm pretty sure it was just a product of dementia.
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May 4, 2021 14:31
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I'm new to this but I've got these tomato plants living in buckets on my deck: The soil is 1/3 peat, 1/3 homemade compost and 1/3 organic potting soil I had around, and as far as I can tell they are very chill and happy and I am proud of them. Questions:
The peppers in the other buckets are in a different mix w/ storebought compost, potting soil and sand that an irl person recommended but they aren't taking off, not sure what's up with that but they're more of a side thing
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May 4, 2021 18:38
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My experience has been that you get better results with liquid tomato fertilizer, applied once flowers start to develop. For some reason I used to feel like buying fertilizer was cheating somehow, Probably because it gave me an excuse to be cheap, but plants need food, and container plants definitely do. Also personally i would cut then back to a few main shoots with no off shoots below 1 ft, and take off the suckers once a week, but tomato pruning has a few different philosophies.
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May 4, 2021 19:04
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poverty goat posted:I'm new to this but I've got these tomato plants living in buckets on my deck: Those are doing much better than my tomatoes! Peppers might just need more heat. There's no one right way to fertilize. You really do just kind of have to keep an eye on them and see if they show signs of needing one nutrient or another. I used earthworm castings when I was transplanting and then I side-dress with blood meal to augment the nitrogen. (This also keeps the deer and rabbits away for a bit, though it can attract dogs or raccoons.) Fish fertilizer is also a great organic solution -- gives you phosphorus and potassium as well without any fears of nute-burn. I'm excited to be out of the community garden this year because I can experiment with inorganic liquid fertilizer, though the risks of nutrient burn are obviously much greater.
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May 4, 2021 19:12
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Chad Sexington posted:Those are doing much better than my tomatoes! Peppers might just need more heat. I plant my peppers and tomatoes with blood meal and usually a fish manure of some sort and that usually takes them all the way towards the end of July. I've then sometimes used tomato fertilizer, and quickly water soluble is fine, but it can wash out too. Compost and fertilizers in the soil before planting are more reliable in my experience. Not a bad idea to have some Cal/Mag on hand for them either.
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May 4, 2021 19:37
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CancerCakes posted:My experience has been that you get better results with liquid tomato fertilizer, applied once flowers start to develop. For some reason I used to feel like buying fertilizer was cheating somehow, Probably because it gave me an excuse to be cheap, but plants need food, and container plants definitely do. Both my tomatoes are blooming already and they've been in buckets less than a month. I've read that advice before re:flowering but I feel like I probably don't need it quite yet. Right?
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May 4, 2021 19:40
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poverty goat posted:Both my tomatoes are blooming already and they've been in buckets less than a month. I've read that advice before re:flowering but I feel like I probably don't need it quite yet. Right? You can let it work it's way through the compost first. If it's good stuff, then you may find you don't even need to fertilize. It'll just depend on how the plant is doing. That's normally good advice because the timing works out with when the tomatoes are starting to fruit, and when the plant has gotten big and used up a ton of the nutrients in the soil.
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May 4, 2021 19:42
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poverty goat posted:I'm new to this but I've got these tomato plants living in buckets on my deck: Yeah as another poster mentioned, you definitely should start pruning those. Read up and decide on a method, but definitely do prune then if you want best results.
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May 4, 2021 21:34
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Help me to make a decision garden thread Context: my greenhouse structure's metal components are entirely up, and I've built my paths and beds. I have my irrigation system ready to install/lay out once the poly is on the structure. I need to add the wooden framing components now. this includes the frame ends and the baseboards on the sides. By my calculation if I were to purchase untreated 2x4s for this whole thing we'd be looking at close to $400 right now, going to pressure-treated wood for ground-contact components will increase the cost to about $500 Now I have a bunch of cedar 1x6 deck planks that I got basically for free, and I might have enough long pieces to do the side baseboards (which are necessary because they carry the wiggle wire runner which holds the poly in place). If I go that route, I will just enclose the ends with vapour barrier poly and tuck tape and spring clamps so I can get to planting and moving some of my hardier seedlings into the ground (I'm still a full month away from my last frost date). Another factor is that my area is in a heavily-restricted lockdown for at least another month. We're not allowed to have any visitors over, indoor or outdoor. As a consequence I've done 100.0% of the work for this build so far and I'm just kinda tired of working on the structure by myself, and I'm ready to get to the fun stuff. So my options are 1) Suck up the "gently caress you" lumber cost and put in the remaining day or so of effort and do the framing properly now, by myself. 2) Do the minimum amount of lumber work right now (whether I go buy treated 2x4s or use my cedar planks for my baseboards, which I'm going to go inventory now), close the ends with vapour barrier, and then do the framing later when prices drop some and I can have someone over to help me do it.
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May 5, 2021 15:35
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I'm just an idiot on the internet, but I'd say suck it up and get it done now. Lumber prices certainly don't seem to be getting any saner and I wouldn't expect them to before summer.
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May 5, 2021 16:04
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Yeah. And the 2x4s will be easier to work with, hold things better, and you don’t have to try to work on things with plants in the way. Lumber prices aren’t expected to get better before next year at the earliest, so this may just be one of those buy once cry once moments. There’s not really a good reason to duplicate labor on using the cedar either if you’re just going to switch it out this year.
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May 5, 2021 16:25
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well if I use the cedar it's just going to live there and be the permanent rot-resistant solution. I definitely have enough cedar to do all of the baseboards. Where I'm waffling on those is if a softish 1x plank will be sturdy enough. Since the answer is "maybe no?" I guess I'm headed to the lumber yard. When I was inventorying the cedar, I found a few decent 2*4s in my wood pile, so that'll take a bit of the sting off of this it. I just wish that I didn't have to do this alone. At least I mostly have the right tools for the job.
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May 5, 2021 16:48
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CommonShore posted:well if I use the cedar it's just going to live there and be the permanent rot-resistant solution. I definitely have enough cedar to do all of the baseboards. Where I'm waffling on those is if a softish 1x plank will be sturdy enough. Since the answer is "maybe no?" I guess I'm headed to the lumber yard. I'm not ultra familiar with greenhouse construction in general or your greenhouse design in particular, but if the baseboards work the way I think they do 1x seems like it should be fine as long as it's attached to the frame correctly because its purpose isn't really to stabilize the structure against force perpendicular to the baseboard anyway. A quick google also turns up a number of people using/recommending 1x for this purpose. Personally I'd use the cedar. If you realize it's not strong enough later you can either bolster it or replace it, but I suspect it will be fine and you already have the cedar. Wallet fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 5, 2021 |
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May 5, 2021 17:01
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I have volunteer mini-pumpkin plants in buckets. Do they want to climb?  
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May 5, 2021 17:49
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Well I'm $500 poorer and the lumber yard is $500 richer. Ugh. I just sucked it up and bought the treated 2x4s as this cedar is a bit splintery so it might split with any kind of cross-grain force. I'll use it for something else - possibly as siding on my wood shed.
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May 5, 2021 18:57
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Ghost Cactus posted:I have volunteer mini-pumpkin plants in buckets. Do they want to climb? You can ABSOLUTELY train them on a trellis! In the before times, I saw an amazing example of this at the state fair where minipumpkins had been trained on an arch trellis into a tunnel. It was really cool looking and I've been wanting to do that for a while now.
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May 5, 2021 19:18
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Solkanar512 posted:You can ABSOLUTELY train them on a trellis! In the before times, I saw an amazing example of this at the state fair where minipumpkins had been trained on an arch trellis into a tunnel. It was really cool looking and I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Awesome - I’ll figure something out for them to climb. Thank you!
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May 5, 2021 19:22
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Ghost Cactus posted:Awesome - I’ll figure something out for them to climb. Thank you! You just need to make little pouches for the pumpkins to grow bigger into so they don't get too heavy and fall off the vine. There's lots of options out there for squashes and melons to help with your search. They will still try to take over the yard, but it'll be really pretty too.
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May 5, 2021 19:35
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Jhet posted:You just need to make little pouches for the pumpkins to grow bigger into so they don't get too heavy and fall off the vine. There's lots of options out there for squashes and melons to help with your search. I will say for the mini pumpkins, there weren't any slings used in the display and they tend to be really light anyway. Anything larger and I would agree.
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May 5, 2021 20:33
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The classic was old lads nicking their wives bras to support melons at the allotment
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May 5, 2021 22:51
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panty hose with runs in them are good to sacrifice to the melon gods.
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May 5, 2021 23:15
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Thank you for all the ideas! I am all for a pumpkin yard takeover. I’ll think about pumpkin hammock options for if/when they fruit.
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May 5, 2021 23:44
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First year trying gardening. I'm excited to see a bunch of people growing hops in here. That's what got me to take a crack at it, and I've got a question. I planted two rizhomes in different raised beds, identical soil and afaik conditions. Both are centennial. This guy popped up first and looks happy.  This one about a week behind the first and seems much more yellow. Also twice as tall. Inexperienced googling says yellow means it wants something, maybe nutrients or different conditions. Should I sweat it yet or start trying stuff?
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May 6, 2021 01:15
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The second one doesn’t look unhappy to me, so I wouldn’t worry about it, but I don’t know hops specifically, so take that with a grain of salt.
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May 6, 2021 01:30
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Aphids are eating my basil leaves, what do I do at least I think they are, there's black soot on some leaves and I think that means aphids
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May 6, 2021 01:46
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Release a swarm of ladybugs
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May 6, 2021 01:58
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ladybug summoning circle GOOO
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May 6, 2021 02:00
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HIJK posted:Aphids are eating my basil leaves, what do I do A spray of water and Dawn or similar dish washing soap has always worked for me. Spray once a day for 1-3 days and they'll be long gone.
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May 6, 2021 02:03
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I brought home a maypop that I know has mites earlier this week. I’ve used chemical weapons once and I’ll do it again. 
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May 6, 2021 02:14
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A bit of trouble shooting and trial and error and I have the end frames 3/4 finished now. I'll make doors on a rainy day. Will finish the wood work tomorrow and put the poly on Friday night or Saturday, then the water works shortly thereafter. Then I'll have a greenhouse!
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May 6, 2021 03:01
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bunnies and slugs are absolute terrorists. I planted like 6 pepper plants and about 6 tomato plants and 2 cantaloupe and only 1 heirloom tomato plant is left standing now. what the actual gently caress you fuckers. its a bad spot to try to fence in and its literally the only high sun spot in my yard so i cant move it. mother fuckers.
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May 6, 2021 03:11
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honda whisperer posted:First year trying gardening. I'm excited to see a bunch of people growing hops in here. That's what got me to take a crack at it, and I've got a question. I planted two rizhomes in different raised beds, identical soil and afaik conditions. Both are centennial. Don't sweat it. If you provide a well composted and nutrient rich soil to start, your hops will be fine. You can add more compost right on top tomorrow if you're unsure. They'll be happy if you do, but you know your soil better than I do from a picture. Hops will often come out a little yellow too, it just means it didn't get as much light as the other one yet. You don't worry about color of the leaves and bines until it's put out some distance. In about a week or two you'll want to hack off all those first bines as they'll be hollow and be both bad at production and be more of a resource drain than anything else. It's the biggest thing I learned from the growers, this is important and not at all intuitive. The second round of bines you'll leave and train up your trellis or twine. You may need to spend more time training on the metal there, but if you use twine they'll twirl themselves around it in the pattern. Once you get them training on the metal though they should hold on okay. They just won't latch on like they do to the twine. Hops are cool, and Centennial are prolific growers and adapt really well to conditions. They also taste great.
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May 6, 2021 05:45
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 I did clean up my tomatoes a little but one has this little offshoot cooking it's first tomato, plus some blooms that are all going to grow straight into the dirt and are definitely in the prune zone. Should I cut my losses and snip the whole thing or can I save that little tomato
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May 6, 2021 12:12
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Look at my cool wild ginger flowers.  We had a couple days of 75 degrees and higher and now are back to a week or more of sixties at best so of course all the tomatoes and peppers I put out stopped growing. At least my perennials are doing well.
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May 6, 2021 16:26
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