|
Tremors posted:Does anybody have any recommended heat mats or lamps for starting seeds? I want to grow a few hot peppers from seed this year and realize I need to get on that soon. I suspect most of the heating mats sold in the garden shops come off the same manufacturing line with different silk screening. My main mat is a Hydrofarm Jump-Start. No complaints so far, it hasn't burnt down the house and I've had it so long I can't remember when I bought it. Overflow/backup is the top of the hot water tank and tbh I can't see a difference in results. Benagain posted:I was going to smother the grass with carboard but I read that cuts down on soil air quailty too much. Probably depends on your soil type. I have very sandy soil and this is my go-to method now for planting new areas - a couple of layers of cardboard with a heaping mound of compost and clean soil on top. As long as things are kept moist the soil mycorrhiza breaks down the cardboard before the second planting season. Just be sure to use only plain brown cardboard with no plastic labels, tape, metal staples or other foreign objects that will come back to haunt you.
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2023 01:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 03:33 |
|
|
Hexigrammus posted:I suspect most of the heating mats sold in the garden shops come off the same manufacturing line with different silk screening. My main mat is a Hydrofarm Jump-Start. No complaints so far, it hasn't burnt down the house and I've had it so long I can't remember when I bought it. Overflow/backup is the top of the hot water tank and tbh I can't see a difference in results. Oh I figured as much. I just didn't know if there was a best pick from the three styles I see are common: just plugs into an outlet, plugs into an outlet with an inline dial for temperature, or comes with a thermostat & probe to manage temperature.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2023 13:58
|
|
|
Temperature control is nice but not even necessary for germinating peppers
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2023 14:53
|
|
|
Tremors posted:Oh I figured as much. I just didn't know if there was a best pick from the three styles I see are common: just plugs into an outlet, plugs into an outlet with an inline dial for temperature, or comes with a thermostat & probe to manage temperature. I use Vivosun mats for peppers. I also use Vivosun thermostats with the little probes but it's really overkill if you're just trying to pop nightshade seeds.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2023 15:28
|
|
|
My crocuses are coming up in New Hampshire. Seems a bit early for my zone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2023 18:31
|
|
|
Unhappy today as I discovered that some animal ate and/or broke all the shoots on my huckleberry this week. I suspected a rabbit was trying to murder my ferns, but this is new damage and they were chewed clean off and most of the leaves also eaten.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2023 01:34
|
|
|
For what it's worth I've never seen any difference (like literally any) between my starts that use heated mats and the ones that I just put in those little cheapo starter cell greenhouses. I start everything in my family room, which is usually around 60ish degrees until it starts getting warmer out. The soil temperature under those plastic starters (when I've bothered to check) is usually around 70 degrees. I still use the mats because I have them, but I haven't bought more because I'm not convinced they're all that useful unless you're germinating in a very cold room or growing something that requires warmer temperatures.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2023 03:59
|
|
|
I germinate in my basement under grow light and the difference in temperature between 60F and 80F if remarkable
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2023 04:05
|
|
|
I use my hotbed set to around 80 degrees until the peppers/tomatoes germinate and then turn it back down for the other seeds. I end up with 2’ tall peppers and tomatoes when it’s time to transplant. I will say that the temperature control is really useful if you’re trying to jumpstart seeds that need a small boost in temp, but won’t germinate if it’s too hot. But you can just use the same kind of $10 temperature controlled used in lizard terrariums.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2023 06:08
|
|
|
Heatmat isn't necessary but peppers sprout much faster when I use one in my basement. e: Finished building my new and improved raised bed this morning. Bumped up my gardening surface area another 18 square feet and another foot in depth. Now just ordered a few cubic yards of leafgro to fill it up and some hardwood mulch for my paths. Shopping for a prefab trellis for the north end of the new bed. I hope I've never given who has asked the impression that growing vegetables for fun is in any way a sustainable practice. This poo poo is expensive! Cheaper than a lot of hobbies still I guess. Chad Sexington fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Feb 16, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2023 14:48
|
|
|
so I have encountered opposition on my quest to grow tomatoes- They're loving huge and I was shocked but I guess it is a common post. Unfortunately while researching them I have discovered that they turn into cool looking moths so I'm not sure what to do with them. The couple of big ones I found have a reprieve in a container full of spinach my wife was letting go bad, but I'm not sure if I should do them in or not.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 03:23
|
|
|
I usually toss them out for the birds. They're probably a great snack. They're very common, which means there's no shortage of the moths.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 03:27
|
|
|
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2017/08/23/hungry-hornwormsquote:Simply fry caterpillars for four minutes in hot oil, taking care not to rupture the creature’s cuticle. This delicacy is described as tasting just like those fried green tomatoes with a hint of shrimp and the consistency of soft shell crabs
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 03:28
|
|
|
Cut them in half and put them in your bird feeder. Suffer not the worms to live. They will literally disappear your tomato plants overnight. Edit: Well that's enough internet for today.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 03:28
|
|
|
mischief posted:Suffer not the worms to live. They will literally disappear your tomato plants overnight. Yes, I drown them. Unless you see them with passengers. Then pick them off but put them somewhere so the parasitic wasps can finish their noble work. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 15:40
|
|
|
Last year I kept a sacrifice tomato plant away from my main garden and put some hornworms there. The rest got fed to my chickens and ducks.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 15:53
|
|
|
Tremors posted:Does anybody have any recommended heat mats or lamps for starting seeds? I want to grow a few hot peppers from seed this year and realize I need to get on that soon. I have a Vivosun and it's worked well for me, not necessarily saying it's the best one available or anything. However, last year I started my first seeds, then life basically got in the way of being able to nurture them or do much else, so they all died and I was stuck buying starts from a nursery. Recently I started all my superhot pepper seeds for this year, and when I grabbed my heat mat it was warm. Oops, I never unplugged it  . The nice thing is, that means it can be plugged in for literally a solid year without burning your house down. So that's a plus.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 16:07
|
|
|
What in the world; that is probably the biggest chonker of a cat that I've ever seen.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2023 19:52
|
|
|
I completely understand the desire to be as no-kill as possible, but horn worms are a major tomato pest and they'll utterly devastate your plants. You pretty much need to either kill them or accept that you're gardening for the moths and not yourself. A big infestation will leave exactly zero usable plants. Something to keep in mind with home gardening is that you're creating an unusually massive bounty for certain pests that love these plants and it's really hard to actually create the fabled balanced ecosystem of prey and predators, especially if you want to have any harvests left for yourself. You don't need to carpet bomb your garden with indiscriminate pesticides, but some degree of management is unavoidable.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2023 00:07
|
|
|
We had a very wet winter and the hydrangeas I killed off by being too anxious to go out and water them are putting out new shoots! Also my antique freesia, English bluebells, hyacinths, and daffodils I bought from Old House Gardens last year are putting up healthy shoots.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2023 00:18
|
|
|
Paradoxish posted:I completely understand the desire to be as no-kill as possible, but horn worms are a major tomato pest and they'll utterly devastate your plants. You pretty much need to either kill them or accept that you're gardening for the moths and not yourself. A big infestation will leave exactly zero usable plants. lol I learned this lesson last year planting (native! great for pollinators!) purple passionfruit. which was great for the native caterpillars that devoured my vines entirely before they got established
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
Hello thread! I need your help please. I have a potted bamboo palm that was inside but it's gotten infested with scale. I've moved it outside and given it a throughough wiping down with rubbing alcohol to remove as many of the scales as I can. But now the wood laminate floor in my house near where the pot was is very sticky. I've tried to use a steam mop on it, and then a citrus based degreasing spray on it to clean it up, but it's still sticky. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2023 04:42
|
|
|
Hello thread. I wanted to pop in and say hi as a newly container vegetable gardener. Living in Mesa aka Zone 9b. If you have any tips or tricks for lower valley desert growing you'd care to share i'm all ears. Hopefully I won't need to much help once I get automated water and a temp shade setup for middle of summer. Cheers! sterster fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Feb 20, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2023 23:22
|
|
|
If you haven’t yet, check out the San Diego Seed Company. They put out a lot of YouTube videos about what to plant in zone 9&10 all through the year. I moved to zone 8b Georgia in fall of 2021 so I’m still learning a lot. Last year all the neighbors pretty much quit gardening at all through July and August. They just let their plants rot and then start their fall crops at the end of August. We have many more humidity-related diseases here but that might still be a good strategy for you. If you plant a couple early varieties you can get a harvest before the worst of the heat and then plant more for early fall. I would imagine that you can do all the cool weather crops that I can all through the fall and winter. It’s really fantastic to have your own fresh veg in the middle of winter, all those brassicas and mustards… yum!
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2023 00:10
|
|
|
Any tips or specific recommendations for rain collection for a large garden? Our garage in our new place is 4 or 5 feet away from the garden and I am replacing a bunch of the gutters on it soon and thought it might be cool to collect rainwater into a big barrel there for the garden. We live in WI, so we get lots of rain and it makes sense to me. Relatedly, what about fencing to keep the raccoons, deer, and rabbits out? The garden is really big (10' x 40') so I'll need a fair bit of fencing. I'm trying to strike a balance between aesthetics and function. Also don't want it to interfere with tilling, mowing, and be a pain to get in and out of.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 01:13
|
|
|
Just remember that deer can jump over six feet high.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 01:24
|
|
|
I have a couple of lawns and both have become really loving mossy and I need to deal with it. From what I've been reading around the internet, I need to: 1. Apply moss killer (I'll use Evergreen 4 in 1) 2. Have it rain, then wait 2 weeks or so for the moss to die and blacken 3. Cut the grass 4. Scarify - I intend to buy an electric scarifier since I looked at renting and it's around the same price 5. Rake - the scarifier I intend to get does this 6. Seed Does this look correct? And if so, how do I know what seeds are appropriate? I'm in the UK, if it comes to suppliers. Also the lawn is pretty patchy as it is, so could do with more blades of grass in it. I assume that's the right terminology. Sir Sidney Poitier fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 7, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 12:36
|
|
|
Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I have a couple of lawns and both have become really loving mossy and I need to deal with it. From what I've been reading around the internet, I need to: You don’t need to kill the moss, just break up the ground really well at least a couple inches down with a tiller or fork, maybe add some composted bark or something to lighten your soil, and then proceed with replanting grass however you want to go about that. Getting a soil test done and correcting the pH is probably also a good idea especially if your soil is quite acidic.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 16:05
|
|
|
Douche4Sale posted:Any tips or specific recommendations for rain collection for a large garden? Our garage in our new place is 4 or 5 feet away from the garden and I am replacing a bunch of the gutters on it soon and thought it might be cool to collect rainwater into a big barrel there for the garden. We live in WI, so we get lots of rain and it makes sense to me. When I lived in a single detached house in the city I set up a system that used multiple food-grade barrels that came from different downspouts and which were elevated at different relative heights on blocks so I could siphon between them to move water around with little trouble beyond moving a hose. I was running 4 220 litre barrels for something like a 400 sqft garden + containers but I also live in a semiarid climate. I also found it more convenient to use watering cans with my rain barrels than any kind of hose. I think that if I were to set up a new rain barrel system I'd have multiple collection/storage containers which feed into some kind of lower/wider open tub that's set up for easy can dipping. Oh and make sure to have some kind of mosquito netting for your barrels too. I got my barrels from a Rainbarrel.ca fundraising event. It looks like they have an American sister organization. I 100% endorse their products. They're far superior in quality to any basic barrel you'll get in a store, and they're like half the price. Just make sure to buy a small tube of silicon for sealing the spouts both inside and out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 16:20
|
|
|
CommonShore posted:When I lived in a single detached house in the city I set up a system that used multiple food-grade barrels that came from different downspouts and which were elevated at different relative heights on blocks so I could siphon between them to move water around with little trouble beyond moving a hose. I was running 4 220 litre barrels for something like a 400 sqft garden + containers but I also live in a semiarid climate. Oh thanks, I hadn't even considered having some sort of larger trough that a few barrels feed into. I actually really like that, because I imagine my kids would be able to play with the water there too. Thanks for the Rainbarrel.ca rec, they don't have anything in WI right now, but I'll keep an eye there or look for something similar. I got an awesome composter for like $50 through the state conservation program that is incredible, so I know how well those types of deals work. And I had not thought about mosquito netting for some reason. I'm assuming that is probably the best course of action since I'll be using it on vegetables.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 17:02
|
|
|
Douche4Sale posted:Oh thanks, I hadn't even considered having some sort of larger trough that a few barrels feed into. I actually really like that, because I imagine my kids would be able to play with the water there too. Thanks for the Rainbarrel.ca rec, they don't have anything in WI right now, but I'll keep an eye there or look for something similar. I got an awesome composter for like $50 through the state conservation program that is incredible, so I know how well those types of deals work. While they're full in the summer in Wisconsin you're going to want to get mosquito treatments (bits or disks). Even with netting they will find a way in and out. And BTi is a naturally occurring bacteria that will keep your barrels' mosquito romance hotel from being romantic. Not that it'll keep the mosquitos away, but maybe you won't have a cloud of them in your garden as frequently.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 17:17
|
|
|
Douche4Sale posted:Oh thanks, I hadn't even considered having some sort of larger trough that a few barrels feed into. I actually really like that, because I imagine my kids would be able to play with the water there too. Thanks for the Rainbarrel.ca rec, they don't have anything in WI right now, but I'll keep an eye there or look for something similar. I got an awesome composter for like $50 through the state conservation program that is incredible, so I know how well those types of deals work. Definitely keep an eye on the rain barrel site. They tend to do annual sales which get advertised in the spring and then delivered a bit later. The same orgs in my area to offer them every year.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 17:26
|
|
|
Sir Sidney Poitier posted:I have a couple of lawns and both have become really loving mossy and I need to deal with it. From what I've been reading around the internet, I need to: Just grow a moss lawn? (I mean, I live in what's basically a temperate rainforest with a city built on top, so moss in the grass or moss instead of grass is pretty normal here.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2023 18:03
|
|
|
Is anyone here really familiar with growing grapes? I'm curious about how the soil should be and recommended fertilizers.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 03:28
|
|
|
Lead out in cuffs posted:Just grow a moss lawn? Is there any reason not to? Our lawns struggle enough with our big dog zooming around kicking up clods of turf.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 08:30
|
|
|
I love moss. It actually feels nice and looks nicer than grass. Idk why anyone would want to get rid of it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 20:10
|
|
|
how does one "grow" a moss lawn without just waiting for moss? most of our backyard is heavily shaded such that grass barely grows and i would love to blanket it in moss
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 20:18
|
|
|
Spray a moss slurry on it
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 20:34
|
|
|
I grab moss from my trees and strategically place it on bare spots and it usually takes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 21:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 03:33 |
|
|
Well I guess I've solved my problem with no effort and no money spent?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2023 21:54
|
|