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Re: container brambles I've got a boysenberry on my roof that does okay. It's in three 5 gallon fabric pots linked by runners that I never cut. If you're doing multiple plants though, go out of your way to get different cultivars so they're not clones. They'll pollinate and yield better
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Mar 25, 2022 01:28
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mischief posted:I used square foot gardening when I had that first tiny garden and still try to grow as much as possible vertically even with a lot of room. It makes it so much easier to not have surprise mega squash or whatever hiding in the dirt drawing in the bugs. I generally prefer to grow vertically as much as possible because it feels like a little extra routine maintenance in exchange for a lot less surprise maintenance. It's a pain to get some plants to go up, but airflow is better and pest and disease management is much, much easier. It's a nice trade-off. I was very happy the year that I successfully got watermelons growing across a big arch trellis even though that's not something I'm ever going to do again.
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Mar 25, 2022 03:01
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  blue oyster mushrooms pinning from strange plastic trees
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Mar 26, 2022 16:47
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Twelve by Pies posted:Oh yeah, tons of red clay out in this area, so I know what you're talking about. And it definitely rarely gets cold, especially since climate change has started to kick in, I don't think we've seen a low lower than 18 F or so in winter for years. It doesn't get much higher than the high 90s either, though it's not unheard of. Twelve by Pies, to begin with, order seeds from Burpee Seeds, Park Seeds, or other trustworthy catalogs. (Not Gurneys!) Burpee was founded in 1876, Park in 1868, and both of them have had reliable high-quality seeds ever since. Both companies breed their own, as well as selling other companies' hybrids. For this year, order from their web sites; in future years, you'll get those nice high-gloss catalogs that make January worth living through. There are specialty seed growers that offer more obscure seeds, "heirloom" seeds that aren't hybrids, rare seeds that your typical gardener has never heard of. But to start with, buy from Burpee or Park. Your seeds will arrive, they'll grow, and you'll be happy. P.S. Red clay sucks. Boy, howdy. (Used to live in North Carolina.)
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Mar 26, 2022 17:14
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poverty goat posted:
You must be reading my mind. I'm going to pick up spawn tomorrow. I have spent grains from brewing that I wanted to find another use for them, and mushrooms sure won't mind it. I was hoping to find some Chestnut or Wine Cap spawn, but I'm going to settle for blue oysters.
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Mar 26, 2022 17:20
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Jhet posted:You must be reading my mind. I'm going to pick up spawn tomorrow. I have spent grains from brewing that I wanted to find another use for them, and mushrooms sure won't mind it. I was hoping to find some Chestnut or Wine Cap spawn, but I'm going to settle for blue oysters. I'm working very slowly through a 50lb bag of horse oats ($20). The substrate in the buckets is aspen bedding for small animals at about $5 per bucket and it was very easy to pasteurize and set up, as far as mushroom things go. I almost went with straw, which would have been even cheaper, but a lot more work and risk of contamination. I started off some pink oyster spawn 36 hours ago and they are starting to go as well:   I'm going to have a shitload of mushrooms. Planning to try to sell some and see how that goes, and maybe branch out into shitake/lion's mane/hen of the woods if all goes well
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Mar 26, 2022 17:28
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poverty goat posted:I'm working very slowly through a 50lb bag of horse oats ($20). The substrate in the buckets is aspen bedding for small animals at about $5 per bucket and it was very easy to pasteurize and set up, as far as mushroom things go. I almost went with straw, which would have been even cheaper, but a lot more work and risk of contamination. Super awesome. My spent grain starts pasteurized, but I'll be mixing it in with some ornamental grass straw and doing some of it outside in a layered bale for growing and fruiting. This is a just for me and my screwing around with things so I'm not as worried about contamination. I also don't want to give up indoor space to it when my climate is super great for growing these things outdoors. I'll just need to trust that I can give the spawn a head start in competition. It's all byproducts of other hobbies too, so that makes me happy.
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Mar 26, 2022 17:53
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Jhet posted:Super awesome. My spent grain starts pasteurized, but I'll be mixing it in with some ornamental grass straw and doing some of it outside in a layered bale for growing and fruiting. This is a just for me and my screwing around with things so I'm not as worried about contamination. I also don't want to give up indoor space to it when my climate is super great for growing these things outdoors. I'll just need to trust that I can give the spawn a head start in competition. It's all byproducts of other hobbies too, so that makes me happy. My spring/fall climate is not great or terrible so I will probably stick a couple of buckets outside to see how it compares, but I don't think it's quite humid enough to do it without micromanaging them a bit. And I already have a room full of grow tents and climate control so what's one more? The plants might even benefit a bit from the uptick in CO2.
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Mar 26, 2022 18:00
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kafkasgoldfish posted:Every time I give squash or zucchini a chance with a small patch, they end up taking over the entire garden. And at some point when I'm not looking, they start making plans to jump the fence and take over my neighbor's garden patch as well. They know no bounds.
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Mar 26, 2022 18:06
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poverty goat posted:I'm working very slowly through a 50lb bag of horse oats ($20). The substrate in the buckets is aspen bedding for small animals at about $5 per bucket and it was very easy to pasteurize and set up, as far as mushroom things go. I almost went with straw, which would have been even cheaper, but a lot more work and risk of contamination. I'm super into this and want to try it as well thanks for sharing any info
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Mar 26, 2022 18:16
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:I'm super into this and want to try it as well thanks for sharing any info I'm mostly following this tek as far as bucket setup https://grocycle.com/growing-mushrooms-in-buckets/ e: Right now they're in a slightly bigger than 2x4 mini greenhouse w/ a DIY humidifier, averaging about 85% RH, and a filtered exhaust fan hacked together from a 120mm PC fan and some 3d prints running 3 min out of every 10 or so for fresh air exchange and they seem very happy about it overall ee: Horse oats are not the BEST grain because they are harder to sterilize, but they are cheap as gently caress, so here's the oat tek I have followed w/ no contamination issues so far. This is where most of the costs will crop up if you don't DIY, & I could easily have spent more on spawn than I spent on the PC already. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/21121313/fpart/all poverty goat fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Mar 26, 2022 |
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Mar 26, 2022 18:46
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Arsenic Lupin posted:(Not Gurneys!) lol my mom orders from them too It's fine, the order was already placed a couple of days ago and everything she ordered for me was bulbs, no seeds or live plants, and they were fairly cheap so whatever happens happens. I know how stubborn my mom is, if I try to tell her to order from other places she'll just say "Well I've been ordering from them for years and it's been fine!" and that'll be the end of that. I'll just order from better places on my own in the future. 
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Mar 28, 2022 01:23
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Woops, found these guys in my garden bed and freaked out and threw them away. Turns out they're actually figeater beetle grubs which eat decomposing plant matter. They actually help compost your soil. I thought they were the bad kind to eat your plant roots. But I guess that makes sense because I currently don't have anything growing. Anyway you can identify these because you might live in the southwest, and they're really huge, and they crawl on their backs. The adults are the big bumbling beetles that fly around during the daytime and crash into things. 
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Mar 30, 2022 02:50
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  harvesting first flush today maybe, about a month after i decided to grow some shrooms. lol they're a little leggy because there wasn't enough fresh air exchange the first few days, and they're white because I keep forgetting to leave the lights on for them, but we'll get there
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Mar 30, 2022 13:49
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Whoa that looks like an awesome harvest!
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Mar 30, 2022 13:54
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poverty goat posted:
What are you using as substrate?
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Mar 30, 2022 13:58
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Arven posted:What are you using as substrate? aspen pet bedding
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Mar 30, 2022 13:58
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Are mushrooms one of those “garden” plants that taste significantly better than store bought or is about getting different types that you can find at the store.
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Mar 30, 2022 21:47
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i think they do taste better if you grow them but the difference is not as significant as with something like a tomato
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Mar 30, 2022 21:52
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GordonComstock posted:Are mushrooms one of those “garden” plants that taste significantly better than store bought or is about getting different types that you can find at the store. They certainly can taste better, but it's also about being able to find high quality mushrooms of different varieties. You can find generic oysters in a lot of places now, but a lot of places in the US it's still really tough to find anything that's not a button mushroom or portabella that has seen better days. And it's going to be much fresher and full of flavor if you grow them yourself. And sometimes even a lot cheaper. E: I got my spawn into a straw sandwich on Monday, but no pictures because everyone's seen small bales of straw grass before. I picked up Blue Oyster and Queen Oyster spawn, and I'm screwing around with stepping up some of the fresh mycelium from the cinnamon caps that I bought to eat.
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Mar 30, 2022 21:52
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GordonComstock posted:Are mushrooms one of those “garden” plants that taste significantly better than store bought or is about getting different types that you can find at the store. Im not sure that they taste better per say but growing your own is so extremely satisfying especially if you can manage to grow them off your own kitchen and yard waste. Plus it forces you to make more mushroom centric dishes as they come to maturity. Mushroom tacos baby!
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Mar 30, 2022 22:00
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silicone thrills posted:Im not sure that they taste better per say but growing your own is so extremely satisfying especially if you can manage to grow them off your own kitchen and yard waste. Plus it forces you to make more mushroom centric dishes as they come to maturity. I fried some up in butter w/ garlic, salt and pepper for lunch and they were delicious, but I can't compare to storebought because the stores here don't sell oyster mushrooms. But I'm mostly in it because meat is loving expensive right now and mushroom poo poo is not, so why not
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Mar 30, 2022 22:12
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GordonComstock posted:Are mushrooms one of those “garden” plants that taste significantly better than store bought or is about getting different types that you can find at the store. Wild mushrooms are way tastier than store bought, but I feel like some flavor is lost in translation when we grow them. Also, they aren't plants! More closely related to animals than plants, but not real close to either.
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Mar 30, 2022 22:31
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Jhet posted:Super awesome. My spent grain starts pasteurized, but I'll be mixing it in with some ornamental grass straw and doing some of it outside in a layered bale for growing and fruiting. This is a just for me and my screwing around with things so I'm not as worried about contamination. I also don't want to give up indoor space to it when my climate is super great for growing these things outdoors. I'll just need to trust that I can give the spawn a head start in competition. It's all byproducts of other hobbies too, so that makes me happy. I have spent grain from brewing and would love to try this, but I have an indelicate question: how do you keep rats out of your set-up? I live in an old suburb very close to a major city center so while I do have my own backyard and front yard, rats are a huge problem and you have to stay one step ahead with protecting your compost and garden veggies from becoming rat magnets. I found that I can't put spent grains in my compost without basically inviting every rat in a 10 block radius to my house.
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Mar 30, 2022 22:51
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triwolf posted:I have spent grain from brewing and would love to try this, but I have an indelicate question: how do you keep rats out of your set-up? I live in an old suburb very close to a major city center so while I do have my own backyard and front yard, rats are a huge problem and you have to stay one step ahead with protecting your compost and garden veggies from becoming rat magnets. I found that I can't put spent grains in my compost without basically inviting every rat in a 10 block radius to my house. I had rats with out having compost - living in a city. Im not sure there's anything to be done about it other than just not think about it.
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Mar 30, 2022 22:59
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triwolf posted:I have spent grain from brewing and would love to try this, but I have an indelicate question: how do you keep rats out of your set-up? I live in an old suburb very close to a major city center so while I do have my own backyard and front yard, rats are a huge problem and you have to stay one step ahead with protecting your compost and garden veggies from becoming rat magnets. I found that I can't put spent grains in my compost without basically inviting every rat in a 10 block radius to my house. I don't bother that much. The neighborhood is full of dogs and the rats seem to mostly stay away in my little corner of the city. It doesn't hurt that I have a dog that would love to chase down and dig out rats. Even then, you're going to have rodents or animals visiting. You just turn your compost regularly, and dig it out regularly. When you inevitably find rats in your compost you deal with them the same way humans have done for thousands of years. Something pointy or something heavy. They liked to dig under my compost when we lived in Chicago and spawn more demon rats no matter what I'd try. You can raise it above the ground and use chicken wire like you would in a feed barn on a farm, but it's not perfect. So I'll just expect to lose some of the mushrooms. I just tossed the bales in some space under some shrubs that's out of the way and I'll roll the dice with what I get. I figure that mushrooms grow in forests and parks all over here, why not just leave it to nature to figure out the rest. With my spent grain I just dig holes in my raised beds and bury it under 6" of dirt in troughs most of the time. Other times I just put it in the city compost bins.
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Mar 30, 2022 23:53
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I'm pretty sure my compost pile did attract rats at one point. The rats attracted a weasel though, so for a while we had a garden weasel.
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Mar 31, 2022 02:52
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It's my first spring in this new house, and we're looking to make modifications to the yard. There's a large semi-circle area with bark and weed mat in place, which is where the previous owners kept a trampoline. We're looking to plant a bunch of flowers and vegetables in there instead. Obviously I'm going to need to dump a ton of soil on there, but my question is should I remove the buried weed mat? That's going to get in the way of the roots, right? How about the bark? Do I need to scrape it all off, or can that just be buried?  
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Mar 31, 2022 15:44
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Your garden fabric you’ll want to remove. Otherwise you’ll be angry with it anytime you try to plant anything. The wood chips look small enough that they can get mixed in, but you could also move them into other garden beds to add more mulch on top. Then you’ll have a nice spot ready for the top soil and have a chance to have a really nice spot for your plants. It’s more work now, but it really does payoff in a healthy soil structure.
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Mar 31, 2022 15:56
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Yeah remove the fabric and let some oxygen get in there. You probably don't need to add too much to that to get something to grow, provided that there's more than just superficial soil depth. Don't even worry about the bark for a second.
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Mar 31, 2022 16:07
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Definitely get rid of the fabric. It doesn't do much to prevent weeds and it fucks with oxygen exchange which causes rot to happen instead of normal decomposition in the soil as well as driving out beneficial microfauna. If the mulch comes along when you pull off the fabric I'd set it off to the side and put it back on top afterwards instead of mixing it in, but it's not the end of the world if it gets mixed in given the state of it. If there's decent access to your yard filling it probably isn't much of a project. Obviously you can get soil in bags, but that's likely a big enough area that it's worth calling a landscaping place and having them dump a load of loam. You might get away with not adding soil but I would be worried about it turning into a pond seasonally. If you're going to want to put edging in doing it before you fill would be ideal since you can probably skip all the digging. (I like the concrete stuff that's designed for the edgers to interlock–Lowes had the best deals on it last time I bought some and it was easy enough to have them deliver a couple pallets.) Wallet fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Mar 31, 2022 |
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Mar 31, 2022 16:53
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Went outside to check on some bulbs that haven't come up. Found out that the peas and sweet peas had, and that the apple I ordered was leafing out. Spent a few minutes weeding (@#$@#$ Himalayan blackberries), came in, scolded self for being so exhausted from five minutes work. Time actually elapsed: close to half an hour. Yes, that's not a lot for most of you, but it is for me. Spring!
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Mar 31, 2022 17:54
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I planted my persimmon trees this week!  Hopefully they take... I did my best to mix up the soil with compost. One spot had really good loamy soil, but the other spot was mostly clay... I tried to break up the clay chunks with a pitchfork and mix in the compost, so hopefully that's enough. The trees are on a slope, so they should drain well, and they'll get tons of sun all day long. I just hope they tolerate the winters here. Virginia is borderline for their hardiness zone.
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Mar 31, 2022 18:12
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Went outside to check on some bulbs that haven't come up. Found out that the peas and sweet peas had, and that the apple I ordered was leafing out. Spent a few minutes weeding (@#$@#$ Himalayan blackberries), came in, scolded self for being so exhausted from five minutes work. Screw that. Weeding Himalayan blackberries is a full workout. Sorry about them coming back up again twice more this year and next year too. I’ve been picking all the slugs and snails off my greens where I’m just either going to only grow them in large elevated containers or just stop trying to grow them all together. I’m down to about half the gai lan I planted already. At least they’re mostly ignoring my horned mustards.
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Mar 31, 2022 18:51
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Went outside to check on some bulbs that haven't come up. Found out that the peas and sweet peas had, and that the apple I ordered was leafing out. Spent a few minutes weeding (@#$@#$ Himalayan blackberries), came in, scolded self for being so exhausted from five minutes work. Biggest danger of WFH with a garden. "Oh, I'll just pop out real quick to check on the blueberries..." Next thing I know I'm on the other side of the yard trimming a green giant and realizing I'm 10 minutes late for a call.
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Mar 31, 2022 19:41
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Question: I got seedlings sprouted and ready to transplant for cucumbers, Swiss chard, leeks, thyme and oregano. It is not time yet for outside here in Kentucky. I'm looking to put them into larger pots. I mixed together 2 parts coconut coir and 1 part vermiculite for medium. Is that gonna do it? Am I missing something? The seedlings loved coir so I figured I'd stick with that. Does it need fertilizing?
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Mar 31, 2022 20:16
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Soul Dentist posted:Question: I got seedlings sprouted and ready to transplant for cucumbers, Swiss chard, leeks, thyme and oregano. It is not time yet for outside here in Kentucky. I'm looking to put them into larger pots. I mixed together 2 parts coconut coir and 1 part vermiculite for medium. Is that gonna do it? Am I missing something? The seedlings loved coir so I figured I'd stick with that. Does it need fertilizing? I'd add in a bit of perlite, and I kinda prefer peat to coir, but that should be fine. For potting on seedlings any kind of potting medium should do.
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Apr 1, 2022 00:55
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My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. Guess I'll end up going to a nursery to get something a bit more sturdy.
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Apr 1, 2022 00:59
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NZAmoeba posted:It's my first spring in this new house, and we're looking to make modifications to the yard. Yeah as others have said, definitely get rid of the weed mat. The bark can be worked into the soil, but it'll take a while (years) to compost, and potentially lock up nutrients in the meantime. I'd put it aside and use it as mulch. Putting soil is probably the way, though ideally what you want is some compost-rich "vegetable blend" sort of thing. Or even just buy straight compost and work it in. Whatever you get, you should dig down a bit and work it all in. I'd double dig it.
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Apr 1, 2022 01:04
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Soul Dentist posted:Question: I got seedlings sprouted and ready to transplant for cucumbers, Swiss chard, leeks, thyme and oregano. It is not time yet for outside here in Kentucky. I'm looking to put them into larger pots. I mixed together 2 parts coconut coir and 1 part vermiculite for medium. Is that gonna do it? Am I missing something? The seedlings loved coir so I figured I'd stick with that. Does it need fertilizing? If you use a more inert medium like coco coir, then fertilize. You can just grab a bag of potting soil and use that instead and not bother with nutrients until you're putting it in the ground. Nukelear v.2 posted:My first season gardening not going so great. Spent the couple months growing Brandywine's from seeds and moved them outside last week. Queue a massive storm with 40mph winds and all my little tomato plants were smashed to bits. Was only worried about the cold, didn't even think about storms knocking my garden out. I'm sorry for your plant loss. But yeah, welcome to gardening. Weather is a harsh lesson that we can't really always solve. Nice nurseries will have good variety for tomatoes at least, and they'll have beefsteak varieties that will do you well. Still plenty of time for it to recover at least.
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Apr 1, 2022 01:10
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