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Any recommendations for a trellis/support for a large container? I want to grow some Ipomoea quamoclit on my balcony so I'll need some kind of trellis. Previously I've grown moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) and some kind of morning glory (most likely purpurea, I harvested some seeds from a volunteer in my comunity garden) on my balcony by just planting some bamboo poles into the pot. But that tends to be rather floppy and doesn't look all that nice. That and I make it into a pyramid shape so the growth room at the top is comparatively small. The pots are roughly 1 foot across. I don't think letting it run on the balcony rails will do so well, the rails on my balcony are black so they will get very hot during the daytime. Eeyo fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 16:17
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:42 |
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When I did a community garden 2 years ago the thistles didn't bother me too much, they were relatively easy to pull with leather gloves when young. I did have to deal with some kind of spiny solanum which was worse because it had fewer spines, but they were longer and much stiffer so they'd easily penetrate my gloves if I wasn't careful.
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Mar 15, 2021 17:15
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Platystemon posted:Chinese gooseberries, very successfully marketed by New Zealand as ‘kiwifruit’, is another edible option. Actinidia deliciosa is the commercial species. A. arguta is known as ‘hardy kiwi’ and has grape‐size fruit. Both are dioecious. I bought some hardy kiwi fruits at the grocery several years back. They are quite tasty and have completely edible and smooth skins. So it really is like a grape-shaped mini kiwi. Edit: they are pretty cold hardy too, up to zone 5-ish iirc. However I've read that they can have trouble with frost killing off early flower buds which can prevent fruiting for the year. Here's an OSU extension article about it if you're interested https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1426 Eeyo fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Mar 26, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 15:26
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Ok Comboomer posted:Tony’s awesome- he also got sent to New Caledonia in 2019, and I want to say a bunch of Oceania, but I can’t remember. Yeah he definitely went to Australia at some point. I didn't see all the New Caledonia stuff, but it was pretty neat since New Caledonia is fairly unique, ecologically. It's got a lot of fern diversity (including big tree ferns) and some early branches of flowering plants as well. It's also got Parasitaxus usta which is the only parasitic conifer. Just some wild poo poo on that island.
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Mar 29, 2021 15:49
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Has anyone done native prairie plantings? I'm planning on turning a lot of my yard into a native prairie/savannah/woodland garden (depending on how close they are to the couple of trees I have) at the house I moved in to this year. I think I'll start small and select a ~100-250 sq. ft part of the yard to get rid of and plant a seed mix in the fall. Most of my lawn is a mix of some kind of grass, dandelions, and some naturalized crocus. The place where I'm planning on starting up the native bed also has some escaped tulips, daffodils, and probably some other assorted perennials. I'm trying to get an idea of the best way to prepare the site for seeding. It sounds like I have 3 basic options: smothering the site until fall, repeatedly tilling the site over the course of the spring/summer/fall, and herbiciding the area. Since I'll be getting rid of some of my lawn, will I have to till up the sod anyway? In that case I feel like I'd be better off just repeatedly cultivating it, then I'd get the benefit of exhausting some of the seed bank.
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May 1, 2022 01:50
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I sowed a few zinnias. Any idea why the seeds appear to be coated yellow?
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May 11, 2022 23:10
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I can't help much with indoor stuff, I've only got a handful of house plants. What kind of temperatures does it get in the daytime/evening? I had decent luck growing things on my East-facing balcony in my old apartment, but the biggest problem was the heat. I'm in suburban IL, so 90F+ weather is relatively common, plus our landlords made our balconies out of very dark brown composite (they deserve to burn in hell for this decision) so the heat was a very big stress on the plants. But if your balcony is lighter colored and the temperature is buffered by the coast then it may not be much issue. One other issue is pests. I remember one of the brassicas I grew got totally demolished by cabbage moths. My suspicion is that since there's only like a few plants on the balcony, when the moth gets there it just lays all its eggs and then your plant gets totally inundated by the caterpillars. IDK if this will be much help, but here's a list of what I tried to grow on the balcony over the years (all grown from seed): Cynoglossum amabile (Chinese forget-me-not, chinese hound's tongue). Gives a good long showing of light blue flowers (some varieties have purple I believe), and big, soft, light-green leaves. Worked pretty well, but definitely prefers cooler temperatures. Tolerates the half-sun pretty well. Only problem is that the seed has burs so it's a real pain in the rear end to keep them off yourself. Those things will stick to your jeans even. Ipomoea alba (moonflower). Really nice flowers; big, pure-white morning glory like flowers. Neat looking seed pods. Usually described as having a pleasant fragrance but mine really didn't smell like much. Heart-shaped leaves on a vine. Worked pretty well. Averaged a bloom every night (they open starting in the evening) for maybe a month or so, can't remember how long. Only real trouble I had was heat stress, and taming the vine. You'll definitely need a trellis or need to figure out how to keep it in check. Ipomoea purpurea (morning glory). Smaller, purple flowers on a vine. Quite similar to moonflower, but everything's scaled down and more colored. I found volunteer morning glories in a community garden I was a part of so I saved the seeds. Mine was probably a bit more weedy than a cultivated variety. The flowers lasted until the morning sun/heat came up and then they drop really fast. Again, taming the vining habit is the most difficult. Popular with the hummingbirds. Ipomoea quamoclit (cypress vine). Dainty, needle-like leaves (hence the name) on a vine. Tiny red flowers, much smaller than morning glory. This one didn't do so well for me, even though I thought it would adapt. Maybe it just got too crowded in that pot (shared it with a morning glory), or the heat was too much, or I just got a less robust plant. Or the watering regimen? It definitely flowered, but only grew to about 1/4 to 1/2 the size of the morning glory vines, dropping a lot of leaves on the way. Phaseolus coccineus (runner bean). Small, bright red flowers on a vine. This one was a bust for me, just too hot for it. They really like it cooler so the sun burnt up the plant and any time it tried to set beans it just gave up on them. Could work with a more temperate location. Raphanus caudatus (rat's tail radish). Radish plant grown for edible pods rather than roots. I was actually surprised by how much I liked the look of the plant. Big robust leaves, the typical 4-petaled Brassicaceae flower, but with a nice splash of purple. I thought it looked pretty nice, plus I got to eat the pods. Definitely a thing to grow in the spring or fall since it's quick growing and won't like the heat. Seemed to do fine with only half a day's sun. Brassica rapa (turnips). Grew this one for food so idk about the flowers. Worked ok, got a few turnip bulbs and some greens out of it early in the season before it got really hot. Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (blue porterweed). Nicely textured leaves, small purplish flowers that grow on a long-lasting spike. This one worked really well for me. It not only has shade tolerance (good since I got half a day's sun), but it also good heat tolerance. Probably minded the heat the least out of everything I grew. Plus it flowered for a long time and was popular with the hummingbirds. N.B. it's invasive in some places, but I believe that it's not really invasive up north where it's cold and grown as an annual. Could be wrong about that one. I think I also tried to grow some kind of choi sum but I can't remember how well that worked. I think that's the one that got wrecked by cabbage moths. When I grew the turnips and the rat's tail radish I just checked the leaves every day to kill the eggs or the hatched caterpillars. Seemed to keep them at bay. Had a bit of an issue with leaf miners on the radish but wasn't too bad in the end. Here's the porterweed and the rat's tail radish:   Bonus picture: This guy (Charidotella bicolor, the golden tortoise beetle) stopped by my balcony one day. Convolvulaceae is the host plant for it. Just a brilliant gold bug, it was incredible to see up close. 
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May 12, 2022 03:12
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Yeah the balcony space would be a better place to start things from seed, if you don't mind doing annual or annual-ish plants. Plants with an annual lifecycle are evolved to germinate, grow, and flower within a year so they'll give good results quickly. You can often save the seeds too, but of course you'll be working with a pretty small genetic pool.
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May 12, 2022 04:42
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Looks nice! The place I moved into last winter is kind of a mess landscape/garden wise. I think I need to make peace with a lot of it looking like poo poo for many years until I can slowly tame the beds again.
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May 13, 2022 21:14
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Has anyone dealt with common buckthorn removal? Just ID'd it in my yard, I've got one tree (probably 15-ish feet high) and suckers around the perimeter of the house. For the tree I'll cut it down in the fall and apply herbicide to the stump. However, what's the best way to deal with suckers? The previous owners just cut down some buckthorns a while ago, but apparently when you cut them down they just pop up suckers. I've got a bunch of small, ~1' sprouts clustered in various areas that are tied into bigger roots, which were presumably from a big bush at some point. I can pull up the suckers, but it's pretty hard since they're all tied into a pretty big root system, and there's no way I'll get out the roots.
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May 15, 2022 01:53
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No but I've been considering it. As far as I've read they tend to acclimate better if they start out the first few years in part shade, which I'm not sure I want to deal with. You also need at least 2 varieties with similar pollen producing seasons to set fruit properly. I'm going to add a bunch of edible landscaping plants in the near future. Going to grow a hedgerow of american hazelnut (tiny nuts, but it's native and has nice fall colors), some hardy kiwis on the West side of my house, and then either pawpaw, or honeyberry/some kind of native berry on my south lawn. I thought about apples but dealing with all the diseases and stuff kinda put me off it.
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Aug 14, 2023 21:40
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For my future kiwi planting I was thinking of trying some raised beds. That side of my house is a bunch of rocks and then a steep hill down to the next house, so I'm not sure if I can get a very good planting without doing beds of some sort. I'm not sure if they'd do so well long term like that though. They'd only get half a day's sun too.
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Aug 14, 2023 22:47
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Yeah they're a neat looking tree imo. Pretty hardy too, there's a park here in suburban chicago with a lot of them, probably planted in the 50s or 60s. They're actually deciduous so they drop their needles in the fall. Here's a shot of one of the ones at the park with browned out needles, and some of their pinecones. 
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Aug 22, 2023 20:55
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There are tree cops? I got a letter from the lawn cops recently since I didn’t mow my lawn for a month after my ankle got sprained. It was probably one of the rich dipshits that live next door but I’ll never know.
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Sep 27, 2023 21:14
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You might try looking up the nearest university that has an agricultural extension, see if they've published any info on it. The Morton Arboretum has searchable info on lots of tree (and shrub/plant) species. They're based in Chicago but grow quite a lot of trees not native to Chicago (they have a large collection of magnolias for example). You can apply filters like tolerances, soil conditions, height, etc. https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/
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Oct 21, 2023 20:47
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I think most areas won't mark sewer lines, at least mine did not for my recent dig request.
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Oct 21, 2023 22:25
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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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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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For monarchs make sure you’re cultivating plenty of food for the southward migration. Some monarch scientists think fall nectar sources are as important as milkweed during their breeding season. And as for pollinators, you may need to give them some homes as well. I know more about the more northerly species, but there’s probably tons of solitary bees, and they need cover and plant resources (old plant stems, leaves for leaf cutter bees, leaf and plant litter for cover). Pollen is also an incredibly important resource, so you may want to get some plants that are good pollen resources. I know there are a couple plants up north that bees love that only give pollen (shrubby st john’s wort). IDK about down south. Interestingly milkweed pollen isn’t very useful for bees. Instead of individual pollen grains, milkweed makes gigantic pollen sacks that attach to bee (or other insect) legs and then get scooped up by the next flower they visit. Supposedly monarchs are pretty terrible pollinators of milkweed, they just eat the leaves and take the nectar and not much else.
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Nov 28, 2023 05:59
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Discussion Quorum posted:I am aw aware, and I have a number of things that should bloom into late fall - Mexican hat and prairie coneflowers, prairie verbena, mistflower, black-eyed Susan. The mistflower was covered in monarchs when we visited the arboretum in early November. My Henry Duelberg (Salvia farinacea) is still blooming today, and my Turk's cap was until just recently. Heck yeah sounds great! I’ve got some of those aggressive seeders in my garden and I may live to regret it. They were leftover from the previous owner and I’m not sure how they got there in the first place. But I wanted natives and they’re definitely that! There’s like a 10 foot radius of heart leaved asters that are popping up in my lawn. They get mowed and don’t seem to mind that much, then produce a teeny tiny cluster of flowers at the end of the season it’s weird.
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Nov 29, 2023 01:15
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For care of fiddle leaf figs, do I prune it at some point? My wife and I “planted” one during our wedding union ceremony about 4 years ago. I Re-potted it once and it’s doing pretty good, just dropping leaves occasionally, but the new growth more than keeps up with it.
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Nov 30, 2023 05:02
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:42 |
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I think I used this site before for plant ID: https://plant.id There’s also pl@ntnet but I remember it having more coverage of European species but maybe that’s wrong. And you can look on iNaturalist for more samples of a species, that should help with the double checking. There’s also the subreddit whatsthisplant https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisplant/ that’s pretty active if you have some better photos.
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Dec 8, 2023 20:15
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