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I've always kind of wanted an American Smoketree. They stay under 30ft tall. Think of it as maybe a native crape myrtle alternative? The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center also has a search feature that let's you screen native trees (and other plants) https://www.wildflower.org/plants/index.php Missouri Prairie Foundation too: https://grownative.org/native-plant-database/ I like Mexican Plum as a more compact flowering tree as well. Despite the name it is also native to a good chunk of the US. e: just noticed you want edible fruit - Mexican Plum checks this box but not the smoketree. Double check any fruit tree you get to make sure the variety is self-fertile - otherwise you will need at least two non-clone trees Discussion Quorum fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Oct 22, 2023 |
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Oct 22, 2023 13:15
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the yeti posted:If I don’t get shade I’d like to have produce. Pawpaw would be really cool but I gather they need canopy shade. AFAIK this is true only while it's establishing. They just establish better if they're a bit shaded. Once they're going along they'll do fine in full sun and will produce more fruits as well. OTOH you need at least 2 genetically different varieties to bear fruit, so if you've got space for one tree only then pawpaw ain't it.
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Oct 22, 2023 14:39
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I could maybe fit two individuals of whatever as long as they’re in the sub 20’ range (guessing)
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Oct 22, 2023 16:24
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Eeyo makes an excellent point. If you want something that fruits, you often need two different varieties. The word to look for is "self-fertile", which means that a tree doesn't need a second pollinator in the same family. One Green World has an American persimmon that is self-fertile, with the usual caveat that you'll get more fruit if you plant a male pollinator. My suspicion is that a well-pollinated American persimmon will produce more fruit than you actually need. Any time you're looking at a fruit tree variety, do check for "self-fertile" or its opposite, "needs another variety to pollinate". I have a self-fertile apple in my back yard (also from One Green World), but most apples do want cross-pollination.
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Oct 22, 2023 18:51
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Eeyo posted:OTOH you need at least 2 genetically different varieties to bear fruit, so if you've got space for one tree only then pawpaw ain't it. Just to expand on this, since it got mentioned twice - there are trees that require cross-pollination from a genetically distinct individual* (i.e. pawpaw, hackberry, most Asian plums), and there are others that actually have male and female trees (American persimmon and some varieties of fig). In either case you need a minimum of 2 trees of the right type to get much or any fruit. I seem to recall that apple pollination is really complicated because of the need for two varieties that blossom at the same time, but other goons are way more qualified than me to comment on that. I just do figs. Most native American varieties of plum are self-fertile, as are any fig tree you're likely to find outside California. I think crabapples are, too. Also, everyone hates Bradford pears because they are invasive and stinky. Avoid. * many fruit trees are propagated via cuttings and are clones, so simply having two trees is not enough - they need to be two different trees Discussion Quorum fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Oct 22, 2023 |
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Oct 22, 2023 18:59
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Discussion Quorum posted:I seem to recall that apple pollination is really complicated because of the need for two varieties that blossom at the same time, but other goons are way more qualified than me to comment on that. I just do figs. quote:Also, everyone hates Bradford pears because they are invasive and stinky. Avoid. Boo Bradford pears! Shame on them!
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Oct 22, 2023 20:09
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Bradford pear sucks rear end ain’t no way I’m planting that. Im familiar with some of the nuances of pollination but the genetically distinct condition is a new one for me, thanks  Discussion Quorum posted:I just do figs. You wanna talk at me about cold hardy fig, that’s on my list too. I grew up with a big one in the yard down south and miss fresh figs real bad. Been meaning to get something from the guy over at Trees of Joy but haven’t gotten to it yet. the yeti fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 22, 2023 23:57
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How cold we talking? I don't recall seeing your USDA zone. Chicago Hardy is the standard answer and they are easy to find. Trees of Joy has a zillion choices but it's not a bad idea to start with something common. You won't feel a ton of pressure to not gently caress it up - although short of overwatering to the point of root rot it's pretty hard to irreversibly gently caress up a fig tree. I live somewhere with the opposite problem, so I am much more concerned with a fig's health at 105F than 5F. If you want a massive download of fig information, Ross Raddi is both a decent source of info (I think he lives in Zone 6) and a cautionary example of what happens when you become a Fig Person (nothing wrong with that if you want 100 fig trees in your yard, mind you). Figs are like tribbles. 5 pruned branches is 5 new trees (or 5 cuttings you can trade... for 5 new trees). It can get out of control. https://www.figboss.com/post/a-hardy-fig-tree-starts-with-the-variety Figs also do great in containers - mine are in 5G food safe buckets - so moving them into a warm garage is also an option for a big cold snap.
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Oct 23, 2023 01:35
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Discussion Quorum posted:How cold we talking? I don't recall seeing your USDA zone. Chicago Hardy is the standard answer and they are easy to find. Trees of Joy has a zillion choices but it's not a bad idea to start with something common. You won't feel a ton of pressure to not gently caress it up - although short of overwatering to the point of root rot it's pretty hard to irreversibly gently caress up a fig tree. 6a-6b (right on a border area), and yeah, the one I grew up with was more like a thicket of suckers than one big tree, it's thrived on neglect under a big oak tree for 40some years now ,in 7b mind you. I didn't realize they took to containers, it's been a while since I read up on them but I had the impression it was tricky. That would make wintering them easier though for sure. the yeti fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 02:42
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They're happier in the ground but take to containers just fine. Between being fast growers and having a dormancy period, they're amenable to Some people even take a hybrid approach - they plant the tree in a container but drill a bunch of holes in the sides towards the bottom (the bottom itself needs to be solid for this to work). They plant the bucket halfway in the ground and let the roots grow out. Then, once the tree goes dormant, they cut the roots with a shovel and move the bucket inside.
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Oct 23, 2023 03:01
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Discussion Quorum posted:* many fruit trees are propagated via cuttings and are clones, so simply having two trees is not enough - they need to be two different trees 2 different cultivars, specifically.
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Oct 25, 2023 05:17
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Good point although potato/potahto, in that any given cultivar is a giant clone army So if you buy two different Granny Smith trees from two different sources, you still have two copies of the same tree
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Oct 26, 2023 12:57
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That’s interesting, I would have guessed cultivars from different suppliers would be somewhat genetically distinct but I guess there’s no reason for that to be the case is there
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Oct 26, 2023 13:04
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plants are just fuckin' weird
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Oct 26, 2023 14:18
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the yeti posted:That’s interesting, I would have guessed cultivars from different suppliers would be somewhat genetically distinct but I guess there’s no reason for that to be the case is there No, they are propagated vegetatively through grafting or rooting cuttings so they are actually the same plant. Some of my old fashioned roses are from the 1830’s and are I guess technically 200 year old plants? But you get into a ship of Theseus kind of thing somewhere along the line.
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Oct 26, 2023 14:48
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Oh yeah, like, all the pothos cuttings or whatever will all be genetically identical to the original plant they were cut from (unless there's some kind of neat mutation I guess, which is where we get fun cultivars from, right?). So we pretty much all have the same pothos plant, just different pieces of it. IIRC pothos doesn't even form flowers unless it's dosed with some hormone it's incapable of producing itself, so it's got pretty much no genetic diversity at all.
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Oct 26, 2023 16:06
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Yeah it takes a long time to evaluate the fruit, and most crosses don't turn out that great for one reason or another. So like one variety is several decades of work to get to market, so it's not like you can just make another honeycrisp or whatever. This site from UMN goes over their timeline: https://mnhardy.umn.edu/apples Interesting note about granny smith, it's not even a cross, it was just a random seedling that just happened to be a useful fruit. So it's extra not able to be reproduced.
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Oct 26, 2023 16:09
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I just planted some american hazelnuts, so i'm curious if I'll get hit by the "everything is a clone" stick. I've read in some places they need genetically different varieties to bear fruit, and some places just say that it's wind pollinated so you just need another plant to get that done. And I have no idea how the nursery propagated them, they could have used cuttings or started from seed. I'll find out in a couple years!
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Oct 26, 2023 16:12
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Eeyo posted:Yeah it takes a long time to evaluate the fruit, and most crosses don't turn out that great for one reason or another. So like one variety is several decades of work to get to market, so it's not like you can just make another honeycrisp or whatever. That's how pretty much every apple is discovered because they don't reliably come true from seed. You find new apple varieties by just planting a fuckton of apple trees and see if any of them are any good then graft them onto good rootstocks. You can somewhat up your chances by ensuring X tree with desirable qualities pollinates Y tree with desirable qualities and hopefully some of those offspring will be a nice and desirable cross, but a bunch of them will be nothing like their parents. Even in a university setting stuff gets messed up. For a long time people thought Honeycrisp was a hybrid of the two varieties the researchers intended to cross...until someone looked at the DNA and found it was actually the product of two completely different cultivars.
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Oct 26, 2023 17:40
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Last show from the pitcher plants this year. The moss/bog planters did great. I think I need to let them dry out some and move them under cover so that they don't stay too wet all winter.
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Oct 27, 2023 17:18
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Some of my old fashioned roses are from the 1830’s and are I guess technically 200 year old plants? But you get into a ship of Theseus kind of thing somewhere along the line.
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Oct 27, 2023 19:01
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are there any good beginner-intermediate books/videos/resources on growing succulents from seed? light googling has only turned up extremely basic guides that are more like an Ikea instruction manual and don't explain anything beyond the literal physical actions to take. I figured a general-purpose succulent book could do the trick, but the ones I've looked through at B&N were either 85% focused on aesthetics (which is cool, just not what I'm after yet) or they completely ignore seeds in favor of (admittedly simpler) propagation methods just for background info, I'm interested in growing from seeds because it's the only way to get my hands on some of the species I'd like to take a crack at. the site I bought the seeds from does have guides for individual species' seeds, but they're much as I described above: essentially a checklist of between 5-10 steps, possibly with specific temperature recommendations, without any further detail on the science or processes. no info on what could go wrong (besides overwatering, which, duh), what to look out for in <x> conditions, best practices regarding heat and humidity, what type of medium is best for starting seeds, transferring from seed starting conditions to individual pots, etc. any help is appreciated my kind goon friends. Fitzy Fitz posted:Last show from the pitcher plants this year. The moss/bog planters did great. I think I need to let them dry out some and move them under cover so that they don't stay too wet all winter. these are gorgeous e: maybe I should have asked this in the gardening thread? idk, and I'm sorry indigi fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Nov 1, 2023 22:33
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I don't know if this is quite the correct place, but does anyone have experience with the Kratky hydroponic method? I have basement space and need a hobby so I don't cabin fever meltdown over the winter and this seems cheap and fun.
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Nov 2, 2023 09:15
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Marsupial Ape posted:I don't know if this is quite the correct place, but does anyone have experience with the Kratky hydroponic method? I have basement space and need a hobby so I don't cabin fever meltdown over the winter and this seems cheap and fun. It's low effort and low material cost. Key here is making sure to keep the water/nutrients topped up regularly, and also keeping a good temperature in the water to let the plants grow. Basements are likely to need some sort of heat. Regular shop lights are good enough to grow greens, anything that flowers/fruits is possibly going to need a better grow light to succeed well. Buy some liquid hydroponic nutrients and some pipettes or a way to measure the additions. You'll have to look up the mix rates for whichever nutrients you buy.
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Nov 2, 2023 17:31
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Jhet posted:It's low effort and low material cost. Key here is making sure to keep the water/nutrients topped up regularly, and also keeping a good temperature in the water to let the plants grow. Basements are likely to need some sort of heat. Regular shop lights are good enough to grow greens, anything that flowers/fruits is possibly going to need a better grow light to succeed well. Buy some liquid hydroponic nutrients and some pipettes or a way to measure the additions. You'll have to look up the mix rates for whichever nutrients you buy. Thank you, I should have made it clear that I already understood the basic principles. What I was curious about people’s personal experiences, maybe get some fun insights. Anyway, got my peas germinating under a grow light I cludged together out of an old lamp and microphone boom. Feels good.
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Nov 5, 2023 03:32
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My mom has three sanseviera that she brings inside once the weather turns. They've started to grow clusters of offshoots that I'm going to have to end up shearing off into their own pots. Does anyone have a go-to source on Amazon or elsewhere for a multipack of simple plastic pots with saucers? I don't know what size I'll need just yet, but six inches should hold even the biggest babies for a little while.
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Nov 9, 2023 05:35
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Sir Lemming posted:Welp, I went ahead and did the cut test on my 2 fig trees and unfortunately it does look like they've died down to just above the base. I'm still not sure why this happened -- it wasn't a harsh winter by any means, and pretty much everything else has survived just fine. I guess I'll just take my chances on the shoots and cut the rest away. Following up on this from months ago, I'm happy to report that after cutting them down to just a few inches, the fig trees both grew to a very respectable height (at least 5 feet) and even produced some figs! I'll just have to protect them better this winter. I wish I'd taken pictures right before our first frost happened a few weeks ago, but I'm still proud of how tall they got.  
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Nov 17, 2023 23:12
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Do we have a hydroponics thread? I've been playing with a couple inexpensive aerogardens I got off Marketplace. 3d printed holders and some cheap sponges and they're happily growing basil, parsley, dill, and a bunch of lettuce. I'm kind of hooked.
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Nov 18, 2023 00:02
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Hypnolobster posted:Do we have a hydroponics thread? I've been playing with a couple inexpensive aerogardens I got off Marketplace. 3d printed holders and some cheap sponges and they're happily growing basil, parsley, dill, and a bunch of lettuce. I'm kind of hooked. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3856830&perpage=40&pagenumber=1&noseen=1 It sees very rare posts. Aero gardens are cool though and great for indoor herb gardens and greens. Fruiting plants will hate it for light needs, but you could manage the nutrients with the system still. Peppers will get too big and leggy without extra lights.
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Nov 18, 2023 00:13
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I have a little aerogarden kit and its like the basil zone where the basil roots take over the whole water container and kill everything else and eventually itself ftw. Good slow motion 4x simulator irl.
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Nov 18, 2023 00:55
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Hypnolobster posted:Do we have a hydroponics thread? I've been playing with a couple inexpensive aerogardens I got off Marketplace. 3d printed holders and some cheap sponges and they're happily growing basil, parsley, dill, and a bunch of lettuce. I'm kind of hooked. you’re gonna get a lot more advice and a lot more activity in the CC weed hydro thread, a lot of the principles and basics and rules apply to vegetables/etc and a lot of the ppl there do both weed and veg/etc.
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Nov 18, 2023 22:27
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Any milkweed goons here? We went to our local native plant sale and picked up a small butterfly milkweed (A. tuberosa), which I promptly put on our heavily shaded patio and forgot for about a week. By the time I remembered, it had turned yellow and even putting it in full sun couldn't revive it. I wrote it off as dead and ignored it, but 2 weeks later I can see that the roots still look alive. A little research has revealed that these things can go dormant if the photoperiod is too short and that only a chill period will revive it. So the question is - what do I do with this until spring? Go ahead and plant it in the ground? Should I put in the the fridge until it actually gets cold out? Things are just starting to cool off for us, but it could be another month before we see any truly sustained "cold." Last year we saw temps of 80+F until Christmas (at which point we plunged overnight into a weeklong hard freeze, all the plants really loved that).
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Nov 19, 2023 14:43
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Discussion Quorum posted:Any milkweed goons here? We went to our local native plant sale and picked up a small butterfly milkweed (A. tuberosa), which I promptly put on our heavily shaded patio and forgot for about a week. By the time I remembered, it had turned yellow and even putting it in full sun couldn't revive it. I wrote it off as dead and ignored it, but 2 weeks later I can see that the roots still look alive. A little research has revealed that these things can go dormant if the photoperiod is too short and that only a chill period will revive it. I'd probably just put it in the ground and mulch around it; milkweed is pretty durable.
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Nov 19, 2023 17:24
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It does not(!) like being transplanted once it's established a tap root though
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Nov 19, 2023 17:51
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Real hurthling! posted:I have a little aerogarden kit and its like the basil zone where the basil roots take over the whole water container and kill everything else and eventually itself ftw. Good slow motion 4x simulator irl.
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Nov 19, 2023 18:30
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Discussion Quorum posted:A little research has revealed that these things can go dormant if the photoperiod is too short and that only a chill period will revive it. Apropos of chill periods, I procrastinated on moving my succulents and tropicals indoors and now all of my euphorbs (at least the ones that didn’t get a bit of frostbite) think it’s spring and are throwing out hella growth tips in the basement 
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Nov 19, 2023 18:37
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I bought a tiny phalaenopsis which has been a bit of an experiment in seeing if it will survive in its current pot on my desk at work. I had some issues with it being waterlogged which has led to it having its roots rot, trying to grow some more and then having them rot as well. I think I've now got the moisture issue solved but is it worth watering it now before it attempts to put out more roots? Or should I just keep an eye on it until I see more roots (or it gives up and dies)? I promise I have happy phalaenopsises at home this one has just been an experiment which has gone a little badly so far.
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Nov 22, 2023 10:53
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Well, uh, what are you doing with it? What's its watering schedule like? I've got a phal on my desk at work right now that gets diffuse light from a large eastern window and I give it a bath each week where I fill the pot with water and let it sit for a few hours, then lift the inner pot and dump the water. This has been my phal routine for quite some time and none of them have died (I have 3 total) but I haven't had much success in getting them to flower which is, I believe, a light/temperature thing?
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Nov 22, 2023 15:35
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If it's in sphagnum moss, change that out for bark mix or water culture if you're feeling frisky. Rinse the roots off really well and be generous about pruning off anything rotting. I almost never water my dumpster phals right after after repotting, I wait a few days for them to dry out then soak them and drain well. Flowering is induced by cold - I keep mine by the window and we had a really cold snap in October so they're already putting out spikes. Some people stick them in the garage or other partially conditioned space over a weekend to trigger flowers. Make sure you feed it appropriately if you're going to induce flowers and it's been having to regrow a lot- we had a cold snap in May this year that unexpectedly triggered flowers and I didn't feed one enough. It did replace old leaves like normal, but they were both small and kind of sad looking.
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Nov 22, 2023 18:31
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Oh I've already figured out the problem that was keeping it waterlogged, it was that water was sitting in the inner pot. The question was more whether watering it currently will do it any good if it doesn't have any roots currently. I assume it will try to grow some more at some point, and these ones should survive now that I've worked out the issue.
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Nov 23, 2023 13:24
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