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dwoloz posted:Be careful with terra cotta pots; they wick moisture out of the soil like crazy. Its best, in my humble opinion, to save the terra cotta pots for succulents only or put some kind of lining on it. Oh trust me, I know allllllll about them, and I'm not a fan. All of the ones you see in my pics are left from the previous owners of our house, including those massive "architectural" ones that various large-scale plants are in. I have literally busted up and had disposed of like 8 of those massive 6 cubic foot terracotta pots. And as an extra bonus, with the calcium content of the water out here, it makes these neato bandito ugly as poo poo calcification stains on any unglazed pottery and eventually tears the pots apart. I'm attempting to transplant what I can into other accomidations, but as far as a seasonal herb is concerned I don't care. Oh, and all irrigation at the house is on a timer anyway. Guess I should've said that first.
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Mar 7, 2011 07:04
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I got some bunching onions from a nursery as something to transplant (don't really have space, experience, or stuff to grow from seeds) and I was wondering how to do it. I searched google but I haven't really had any luck getting a definite answer on what to do. Do I plant the whole bunch, or should I break them up? How deep should I plant them? How will they multiply? I've grown some tomatoes and bell peppers for a couple years before this and I've grown herbs, but never any underground vegetables like this.
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Mar 7, 2011 09:34
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Now that the season is ramping up for us Northern Hemisphere types, will anyone be tracking thier progress on MyFolia.com? Or is that site just "so last year"? If anyone is interested, my member name is El_Bano.
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Mar 7, 2011 22:17
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I was not even aware such a website existed  Right now im half way through regrowing my lawn, the old one was bumpy and mossy and terrible, and currently its all dead but digging it over is proving to be a massive job, might have to rent some sort of machinery to do the job.
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Mar 7, 2011 23:16
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El Bano posted:Now that the season is ramping up for us Northern Hemisphere types, will anyone be tracking thier progress on MyFolia.com? Or is that site just "so last year"? If anyone is interested, my member name is El_Bano. I'm planning on keeping better track of my garden with it this year.
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Mar 8, 2011 00:50
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It's burgin' time! 
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El Bano posted:Now that the season is ramping up for us Northern Hemisphere types, will anyone be tracking thier progress on MyFolia.com? Or is that site just "so last year"? If anyone is interested, my member name is El_Bano. I am new to both myfolia and SA in the last year, but intend on updating both from time to time. It's a bit  for me to get emails from myfolia that tell me my last frost date is in 78 days and my first frost is 240 days.
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Mar 8, 2011 04:49
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I have another question, about tomatoes. How do I prune them, and is there any way to prevent them from getting so leggy? I know it has something to do with what you feed them and that you prune unnecessary stems from the stalk, but I don't know which ones are unnecessary. Is it the ones that come out between the stem and the stalk? I ask because I planted a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, and I want them to do well.
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Mar 9, 2011 03:46
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Devoyniche posted:I have another question, about tomatoes. How do I prune them, and is there any way to prevent them from getting so leggy? I know it has something to do with what you feed them and that you prune unnecessary stems from the stalk, but I don't know which ones are unnecessary. Is it the ones that come out between the stem and the stalk? Adult plants won't get too leggy unless they don't get enough light, or you over-fertilize (especially with nitrogen). If you're talking about seedlings, they need a lot of light as well, but you can just plant them deeper when you transplant them outside. If they're too spindly, bury them up to the cotyledons, they'll root up to there.
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Mar 9, 2011 03:56
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It should be noted that, yes, you can bury the stalk of tomato plants past what it was previously growing at but this doesn't apply to most plants, you'll kill them this way. Anything in the solanaceae family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant) root extremeley well from cuttings and by burying it deeper, it just forms new roots. This is the principle behind a potato tower and it is also how you can easily propogate more toamto plants from cuttings Regarding tomato pruning: There are two different types of tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate. Determinate varieties are bushy and are best left unpruned. They will fruit all at once then die back. Indeterminate varieties are "vining" and can be left unpruned or pruned. Although they're described as vining, they don't naturally climb so manual training (ie tying) is necessary. They should be provided a stake, cage, trellis or other setup 6-8ft tall. They will fruit successively until cold weather or disease kills them. Tomato plants produce suckers, offshoots from a stalk. These occur at each leaf node. One pruning method is to have one central/leader stalk and remove all suckers. I prefer this method and believe it yields the most fruit in small spaces. Instead of a few large plants, you'd instead have lots of compact single stalk plants. Another method has been coined as "Missouri" pruning. Its similar to the above but instead of removing the entire sucker, you keep the leaves. The theory is that with more leaves, the plant can take in more sun energy and produce more fruit. The drawback to this is that these leaves you kept will now eventually form suckers of their own; its just more pruning to be done. Pruning can also just be done how the grower sees fit. Perhaps you want a bigger plant so you let a couple suckers grow but pinch off the rest. Its up to you but the more suckers you remove, the more the plant is going to focus on fruit production  When the end of your tomato season is nearing, its best to "top" the plant: cut off the leading tips of all stalks so they cannot grow any further (and of course also pinch any suckers if there are any). This will force the plant to focus only on ripening the remaining fruit. Hopefully youll ripen most of it before a frost but if not, you can ripen the fruit in a sunny window dwoloz fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Mar 9, 2011 |
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Mar 9, 2011 04:57
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dwoloz posted:They will fruit successively until cold weather or disease kills them. When I lived in 7b, it was such a pain keeping tomato plants healthy and fruiting throughout the entire long growing season. I tried to be good about area rotation, watching for fungus, etc. but inevitably they'd have issues by August or September, and it was a pain trying to be life support. Eventually I gave up, and started a second batch of seedlings to plant around the middle of July, and then I'd easily have producing tomato plants until October without all the hassle.
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Mar 9, 2011 17:38
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Speaking of life support, I think I have to give up on at least half of my seedlings.. They were all doing fine, until I went out for the weekend, and my roommate neglected to water them.. for the second week in a row. 
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Mar 10, 2011 05:59
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Mizufusion posted:Speaking of life support, I think I have to give up on at least half of my seedlings.. They were all doing fine, until I went out for the weekend, and my roommate neglected to water them.. for the second week in a row. You shouldn’t have to water every day. If you’re out for just the weekend, if you give them a really good soaking before you leave, they should be fine. If they are still germinating, a humidity dome should keep things moist enough for a couple days.
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Mar 10, 2011 17:18
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Speaking of life support. I have a few pots of tomatoes I left out on the patio over the winter that are beginning to grow again. I can't seem to kill a tomato plant.
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Mar 10, 2011 17:25
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I did it, I did it! Baby's first raised bed: As you can see my dirt is mostly sand, so I'm going to dig a bunch of my half-finished* compost into it. I have enough scrap lumber to make two more beds, and I think that's plenty for a first garden. Is the Square Foot Garden book worth buying? *It's 99% horse manure and spoiled hay, and it never got hot enough to stay alive during the winter. It froze/thawed all winter, at least.
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Mar 10, 2011 18:18
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You'll want to only plant in finished compost. When material is still decomposing, it is taking nitrogen away. Once it is finished, it releases that nitrogen back out. Consider also lining the bed with plastic. It will extend the life of your wood quite a few years Check the library for the square foot gardening book, it should be there I havent read the book but I believe the basic premise is that you lay your beds out in a square foot grid then the book tells you what you can plant in each square foot (ie one tomato plant, two pepper plants, 8 lettuce, whatever). It all sounds too anal retentive for my liking. I just plant things as closely as Im comfortable with and stop planting when I can't see the soil anymore 
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Mar 10, 2011 20:54
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Zeta Taskforce posted:You shouldn’t have to water every day. If you’re out for just the weekend, if you give them a really good soaking before you leave, they should be fine. If they are still germinating, a humidity dome should keep things moist enough for a couple days. I don't have a dome, and I did give them a good soak before I left on Thursday. I wasn't planning to be gone all weekend, but when I came back Sunday afternoon the tray was nearly bone dry. Things were way easier when I actually had a yard. I could get drat near anything to grow if it was sowed directly into the ground, even in lovely clay soil. I'm trying to be positive about it, though. I saved some of the seedlings and transplanted the ones that looked like they'd make it into a larger container. Got some fresh starter mix and planted some new things. Going to try wax beans, more squashes, cabbage, lettuce, and cucumber. The dollar store had seeds super cheap the other day so I bough a bunch to experiment with.
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Mar 11, 2011 02:10
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dwoloz posted:Hopefully youll ripen most of it before a frost but if not, you can ripen the fruit in a sunny window This is a good way to rot tomatoes. If you wrap them individually in newspaper and toss them in a cardboard box with a ripe banana (prolific ethylene source) they will be ripe in no time at all, with minimal rot. At the very least, keep them out of the sun.
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Mar 11, 2011 03:03
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I find they ripen faster in the sun. To each their own I suppose
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Mar 11, 2011 06:22
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I've been looking at myfolia but it seems that most of the features require a paid upgrade. Can anyone tell me if it's worth doing in your opinion? I just want some reminders about when I should starting my plants so I don't screw things up like last year. Here's a seed starter shelf that I made last month (way ahead of time), I'm in 5B so the last frost is still 2.5 months out  
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Mar 11, 2011 19:57
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SolidElectronics posted:I've been looking at myfolia but it seems that most of the features require a paid upgrade. Can anyone tell me if it's worth doing in your opinion? I just want some reminders about when I should starting my plants so I don't screw things up like last year. If you are not interested in paying for any service (neither am I) you might take a look at GrowVeg.com. They give you a 30 day trial which is really nice. You can layout your garden and get a detailed report about when to plant for your given region. From there I just put the planting info on a Google calendar. Another option which I highly recommend is to look up your state's cooperative extension website, typically run by one of the universities. I looked up Missouri's (because they are in zone 5) and found their site . These state cooperative extensions have invaluable information for your locality and are well worth an afternoon of reading.
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Mar 12, 2011 14:25
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VikingKitten posted:I did it, I did it! Baby's first raised bed: Congratulations! I'm also looking to build a raised bed for my fiance, however most guides recommend using cedar or redwood, which can be pretty expensive. Will using regular pressure treated wood work, or just rot out in a year or two? EDIT: nevermind I should have read the thread =x
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Mar 13, 2011 19:44
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Sock The Great posted:Congratulations! I'm also looking to build a raised bed for my fiance, however most guides recommend using cedar or redwood, which can be pretty expensive. Well, mine are made from a pile of random lumber I found behind my barn. They used to be deck boards - maybe they're treated? Either way I'm going to line the inside of the wood with some plastic so hopefully they'll last longer. When they rot, I'll just disassemble the walls and spread the (hopefully) wonderful soil into the neighboring sand. Buying redwood was a huge barrier to entry for me. NOT CHEAP.
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Mar 13, 2011 21:03
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I always read you shouldn't use pressure treated wood in gardens because it has arsenic that can leech into your soil.
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Mar 13, 2011 21:52
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Alterian posted:I always read you shouldn't use pressure treated wood in gardens because it has arsenic that can leech into your soil. The risk is pretty much nil. This article explains it well. http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/pressure-treated-wood-in-beds.aspx Also, that article doesn't mention that CCA pressure-treated lumber has been banned since 2003 anyway, so if you are using newer wood, you are good to go.
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Mar 13, 2011 22:20
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Did someone say raised beds? Built this guy yesterday from raw cedar. It was a bit more than I planned on spending but it looks great and so I have decided it was worth it. For reference, I used the following: 6 - 2x6x8 unfinished cedar 1 - 4x4x8 cedar stud cut into 4 2ft lengths Total cost was $80 and another $10 for some Coors Light. I'm having a cubic yard of soil delivered at the end of the month to fill it.
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Mar 14, 2011 17:44
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I took in my first harvest today - 8 individual leaves of leafy greens. Haha. Anyway, the lettuce was incredibly bitter. It been in the 30-60 outside so I expected the lettuce to be very sweet. Any thoughts?
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Mar 14, 2011 19:03
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Id again really encourage anyone building a raised bed from wood to either line it with plastic (cut up garbage bags, etc) and/or coat it with protective oil. You'll thank yourself later. Wet soil against bare wood will last maybe 3-4 seasons before rotting. Think about using masonry also. Pieces of broken up sidewalk/patio/driveway, bricks, pavers, cinder blocks, etc. You can get them free or cheap on Craigslist and they'll last indefinitely and can be easily configured to any bed shape you want. noodles: What kind of greens are they? Is it going to seed (aka bolting)? dwoloz fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 14, 2011 |
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Mar 14, 2011 22:58
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It's mesclun mix and spinach. Not bolting... Like I said, I only managed to get 8 leaves total off of 5 plants and they're still not at full production yet but like I said, very bitter.
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Mar 15, 2011 00:35
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Cross-posting from GWS for max effect... Mint-loving goons... Should I plant it in a container to, well, contain it? I understand it's invasive. The idea of a mint lawn is pretty sweet, but I don't want it to take over my garden. I have options. I need opinions. Thanks in advance.
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Mar 15, 2011 03:02
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In my experience, mint takes up exactly as much space as you allow it. Last time I had some it was kept in check by mulch, other plants, and heavy shade, but it still tried to take over a corner of the garden. But now that you've mentioned it, I really want to plant some..
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Mar 15, 2011 03:23
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So my vegetable production teacher told me not to buy or start any plants this year. He is just giving me a ton from class because he said he doesn't want to plant them. SWEET!!! That is 108 cole crops. I can't wait for the Heirloom tomatoes. We staked up some ones tonight that were about 1 1/2 foot - 2 foot tall. Bigdee4933 fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Mar 15, 2011 |
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Mar 15, 2011 03:25
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[quote="Bigdee4933"] So my vegetable production teacher told me not to buy or start any plants this year. He is just giving me a ton from class because he said he doesn't want to plant them. SWEET!!! Free plants are the best plants!
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Mar 15, 2011 03:28
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noodlesinabag posted:It's mesclun mix and spinach. Not bolting... Like I said, I only managed to get 8 leaves total off of 5 plants and they're still not at full production yet but like I said, very bitter. dwoloz fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Mar 15, 2011 |
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Mar 15, 2011 03:41
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theacox posted:Cross-posting from GWS for max effect... Where I'm from, you never ever ever ever ever put mint in the ground.
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Mar 15, 2011 16:16
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I kinda missed out on an opportunity I think. I live in Ohio and wanted to start some seeds indoors, however being the middle of March, did I miss out on this? I was thinking of green and red bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots. Please tell me I'm not too late.
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Mar 15, 2011 21:00
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mAlfunkti0n posted:I kinda missed out on an opportunity I think. I live in Ohio and wanted to start some seeds indoors, however being the middle of March, did I miss out on this? I was thinking of green and red bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots. Please tell me I'm not too late. Not at all. Most people get anxious and start things too early anyway. When would you be planting them? Mid may? You're fine. Carrots should never be transplanted though, BTW. Direct seed those. I've started a bunch of flowers that need more time, but have not started any tomatoes yet. Might this weekend.
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Mar 15, 2011 21:08
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Not at all. Most people get anxious and start things too early anyway. When would you be planting them? Mid may? You're fine. Carrots should never be transplanted though, BTW. Direct seed those. OK great. I have never actually had a garden before, but we moved last year and have 5 acres, so I really wanted to make use of a little bit of the property (since we had zero before). Nothing big, but just something to get started. Edit : The other question, do you guys buy seeds locally or from an online catalog? mAlfunkti0n fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Mar 15, 2011 |
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Mar 15, 2011 21:11
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mAlfunkti0n posted:OK great. I have never actually had a garden before, but we moved last year and have 5 acres, so I really wanted to make use of a little bit of the property (since we had zero before). Nothing big, but just something to get started. If you just want to cut your teeth on gardening, I would say buy locally. Just hit up your local nurseries, etc and see what they have. Pick some stuff you like and have at it. This will also give you an opportunity to get the low-down on what grows well in your area. But, if there's some specific variety of something you want to grow, online is the way to go. This year we got our veggie seeds from this place in Missouri: http://rareseeds.com/ Man, and do I envy you. If I had 5 acres I'd buy a tiller and go berserk. Alleric fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Mar 16, 2011 |
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Mar 16, 2011 15:50
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mAlfunkti0n posted:OK great. I have never actually had a garden before, but we moved last year and have 5 acres, so I really wanted to make use of a little bit of the property (since we had zero before). Nothing big, but just something to get started. At this point, you’re not too late to start tomatoes and peppers, but you don’t want to push it back indefinitely either. In the south they can practically wake up in the morning and decide that they want to start a garden and there will be something that will grow just fine practically the entire year. We have less wiggle room and have smaller windows to work with. If you want to start seeds, I would look at what your locally owned garden centers and nurseries are selling. I go to Home Depot all the time, I will buy potting soil, hoses and fertilizer and things like that there, but with seeds, they tend to stock the same stuff in Orlando as Seattle as Cleveland. They will have 2 kinds of spinach, 3 main season tomatoes and probably one kind of cherry tomato seed that they hope will kind of do OK everywhere. Your local place will have stuff that they know does well there. If there is anything really cool and unique you see in a catalogue, then go for it. We are not talking massive amounts of money to order a few seeds, you have plenty of space to try out different stuff. But keep in mind that this is peak season for seed companies and between processing and shipping times, that might mean the date you plant them might drift back to early April. They will grow, you will still get stuff, but they will be behind the curve. Or you can just buy plants in a couple months too.
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Mar 16, 2011 16:47
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Thanks for the info from both of you! I will be heading out tomorrow to a local nursery to browse and buy some seeds. Looking forward to enjoying the garden this year, good health food will be great to have in the back yard!
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Mar 16, 2011 19:31
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