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akx.corvus posted:
 You can grow a couple in the same container and then with a gentle shaking and pulling motion you can separate their roots. Only works if they're still relatively young though, no more than about a month old
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Apr 30, 2011 01:22
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This was mentioned on the last page about nutrients that Nitrogen is for the foliage, and Phosphorus the roots and blah blah. This past semester I took a Horticulture class and during the Nutrient section our professor stressed that there is no proof to say that certain nutrients help specific parts of the plant. I tried to look through my text book to bring up a source, but I couldnt find it right away and dont feel like re-reading 30+ pages of text. But the gist of it was that in the 70s somebody did a study to find out if nutrients helped certain parts of the plant and he concluded that they did. However the study was poorly set up and the result could have been for many other random factors. There isnt much reason to buy fertilizer with only one specific nutrient in it unless you are positive your plant needs it. Don't buy them because you want a "leafier" plant, or anything like that. As far as I have learned its just hearsay. Doesnt mean a new study wont come out next month that completely proves me wrong though , just that studies show no true correlation between the canopy of a tree and nitrogen or the root system and phosphorus.
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Apr 30, 2011 04:14
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Looks like my entire flat of superhots died today. Not a hot day, they were watered, didn't get cold in the evening before I brought them in. About a month's work and $25 or so of seeds completely hosed. I'm seriously considering top dressing my garden with compost, covering it with hay, and just trying again next year. Just not in the mood anymore.
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Apr 30, 2011 05:18
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I saved this list of plant nutrients and what happens when they're deficient or in excess. http://bikemandan.com/stuff/Plant%20Nutritients.jpg Haven't ever looked at it but your post reminded me of it mischief: Disappointing, sorry to hear that. Starting from seed is especially discouraging when it doesn't work. When my seeds fail and I don't think I have time to start more I just head to the local nursery dwoloz fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Apr 30, 2011 |
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Apr 30, 2011 06:21
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Oddly enough the only plants that quit on me this year were my hot peppers. Bells are nice and all but I wanted some pizazz. My asian winged beans are on life support too. It's a shame because they look so neat and I finally had a place to put them this year.
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Apr 30, 2011 07:27
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Checking in. The hungarian wax peppers are all fruiting. Multiple 3-6 inch long peppers coming on strong. Just waiting for them to turn a bit of color then it's time to dry and grind. Fresh paprika rules. The bells... one of them is fruiting, the others are still growing like mad. San Marzanos are bushing out like crazy and there's signs of bloomage. Should have tomatoes worth showing progress on in a couple weeks.
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Apr 30, 2011 19:05
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Well, I decided to take the plunge and try to grow some veggies. After seeing people on here talk about it, I decided to try the SFG method. I like how after the initial cost of the "perfect soil" mix, in subsequent years you only need to add compost. Here's some pix: Some giant rear end root that I dug up. Its ~20' long. I cut it off when it started going under the foundation. http://i.imgur.com/0BP6P.jpg I built the board out of 1x6x8 cedar boards. I figured not having to rebuild them every year was worth a couple extra bucks. http://i.imgur.com/UPvJi.jpg The ingredients. I found Mels mix to be hard to come by. Especially the Vermiculite. Lowes carry's it, but only in these asinine 8qt bags. I cleaned out the one by me, and I was still way short of 1/3 of the whole mix. What you see here, was trip 1 to Lowes. Turns out my math skills suck. Also it doesnt help that some bags are #50, some are 2 cu/ft, some are quarts. Some tell you the square footage coverage, some dont. I'm sorry, but that shits rediculous. How can there not be a standard for this stuff? Anyways, I couldnt find 5 types of compost, so I went with cow manure. On the second trip I picked up some mushroom compost too. http://i.imgur.com/f8Q6b.jpg Roughly 1/3 filled. http://i.imgur.com/2Os6B.jpg All filled up. Couldnt find anymore Vermiculite, so I went heavy on the peat moss. http://i.imgur.com/z8zOS.jpg Grid on. I cheaped out and used some screws and string I had laying around. If it doesnt hold up, I can always replace it with nylon or something. http://i.imgur.com/7QEQE.jpg And finally some green in the picture. http://i.imgur.com/1anmE.jpg Ive got: Sweet basic x1 Zuccini squash x1 Blue Lake Bush Bean x1 Bush crop Cucumbers x1 Roma Tomatoes x3 Improved Rutgers Tomatoes x2 Red Bell Peppers x1 Romanian Sweet Peppers x1 California Wonder Peppers x3 Oregano x1 Cost so far: Lumber - ~$28 Soil mix - ~$120 Landscape Cloth - $10 (bought alot for another project) Landscape pins - $10 (see above) Plants - $24 Total - $192 Well, sorry its soo long. I would expect a thousand question coming very soon. I probably should have asked before I planted, but I was impatient. If you guys see and obvious errors, feel free to point them out. Btw, if any of you have a very keen eye, I know the box isnt square, nor is it perfectly spaced from the house. I like carpentry, it just doesnt like me.
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Apr 30, 2011 21:58
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Cross posting from the GBS gardening thread because I'm a show-off. Don't worry, I'm sure half of this will die on me over the next 2 months as revenge. So the garden plan itself changed a bit over the last few weeks. As an update, here is the current and permanent plan (since everything is either seeded, sprouted or transplanted in now):  And here's how the garden currently looks:  The raspberry and blueberry bushes:  The left box in the garden. This box is mostly broccoli (sprouting), lettuce (some sprouting, some well along) and onions with a few herbs, spinach and beets thrown in:  This plot is mostly peas, lima beans, strawberries and cabbage. Again a few herbs are thrown in plus a few peppers:  And this is the right box. This is mostly tomatoes and peppers, but it also has carrots, soy beans, bush beans, radishes, bok choy and radicchio. The tomatoes are indeterminate vining types, so I'm hoping the space between (about a foot) them is sufficient:  And finally the melon mounds. I have cantaloupe, banana melon and the longshot canary melons in these, three of each type on one each of the mounds... obviously not sprouted yet. I realized when I went out to put the seeds in that no one has ever explained to me what 'mounds' specifically are, so I guessed:  All is going pretty well so far. Something keeps munching on the spinach, but it seems to be growing faster than whatever is eating it can keep up.
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Apr 30, 2011 22:53
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When I was in Slovakia for work earlier this year, one of the engineers was telling me how she grew kiwi in her garden. Their climate is very similar to ours, so I ordered some plants from Four Seasons Nursery back in mid March. They charged my card the day I placed the order and my order still has not shipped. I emailed them two weeks ago and was told "the order is being prepared for shipment now", which clearly wasn't true since I still haven't gotten it yet. I checked online and found a ton of negative reviews for this place. I shouldn't have assumed since they have actual print catalogs that they weren't shady. Apparently they do business as Direct Gardening, House Of Wesley, Burgess Seed & Plant Co., Richard Owen Nursery, Farmer Seed & Nursery, Inter-State Nurseries, Kelly Nurseries, Royal Dutch, and Honeycreek Nurseries too, so I would suggest avoiding the lot of them. It's still not too late to plant stuff, but there's no reason they shouldn't have shipped by now. I guess hardy kiwi are prone to root rot, especially the first year, so I guess it's good I didn't have them to plant earlier this month - we've had almost two straight weeks of rain and everything is saturated.
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May 1, 2011 01:56
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Your melons are going to explode. Garden looks good though. I'm not nearly as organized (But I'm trying)  I managed to grow some banana plants from seed this year. I. Am. God. I'm also growing some cat grass in the blue tub for my kitty too  Edit: BTW this is the best weeding tool ever 
Pluto fucked around with this message at 02:13 on May 1, 2011 |
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May 1, 2011 01:57
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Pluto posted:Edit: BTW this is the best weeding tool ever Do you know what it's called? We'll be expanding our garden this year and I'm expecting that the freshly broken sod will weed like crazy.
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May 1, 2011 03:26
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It's burgin' time! 
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I heart bacon posted:Do you know what it's called? We'll be expanding our garden this year and I'm expecting that the freshly broken sod will weed like crazy. Action Hoe
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May 1, 2011 03:32
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LordOfThePants posted:When I was in Slovakia for work earlier this year, one of the engineers was telling me how she grew kiwi in her garden. Their climate is very similar to ours, so I ordered some plants from Four Seasons Nursery back in mid March. Oh yeah, all those places are fronts for the same nursery, and they suck rear end. I got suckered into ordering from the Richard Owen catalog once (they're so cheap! hard to resist) and they're really, truly, awful. I don't even remember most of what I ordered, because it didn't survive the winter with the exception of my kwanzan cherry and viburnum; neither of which have actually bloomed 3 years later because the plants were about the size of a pencil when I got them, but at least they lived. I had one other plant that survived, but wasn't even what I'd ordered. It was supposed to be a delphinium but is instead some sort of pink flowering ground cover I have yet to identify. So long story short, the garden watchdog section at the Dave's Garden website is a godsend if you're going to do mail-order.
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May 1, 2011 05:31
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I heart bacon posted:Do you know what it's called? We'll be expanding our garden this year and I'm expecting that the freshly broken sod will weed like crazy. Action Hoe (Like has been mentioned) Saddle Hoe and my favorite, Hula Hoe Nothing works better on getting all that drat grass that blows in.
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May 1, 2011 06:38
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Radishes! Rocket! Mint! Every year, I get excited about growing things. Every year, my plants die horrible deaths. This year I'm only going to grow the above three because they're the only plants which have survived my horticidal tendencies in the past. The only problem is that we get no sun whatsoever on our roof. I'm a youth worker in the middle of the city and we're surrounded by tower blocks on all sides. Growing edibles will be a great project (another reason for only planting the above three, so the kids don't witness how terrible I am at keeping things alive) but only if the plants can survive continual shade. This is, obviously, going to be a container garden, and not large containers at that. If none of the plants above will be OK with shade, can anyone tell me some that would and that would fit into our other requirements? We're in London, so warmer than most of the rest of the UK.
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May 1, 2011 22:41
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Aeglowyn posted:Radishes! Rocket! Mint! If you're only planning on growing those three things, and in small quantities, you could consider just buying a 4 foot grow light and grow them inside.
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May 1, 2011 23:06
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A flying piece of posted:If you're only planning on growing those three things, and in small quantities, you could consider just buying a 4 foot grow light and grow them inside. Sadly this is being done on a budget of zero pounds and zero pence, so that can't happen.
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May 1, 2011 23:13
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What can I put on squash to prevent blossom rot? I'm not over watering, maybe even under-watering, and where I live we are in a drought with days in the upper 80s to mid to upper 90s, and some humidity - though today and recently it has been a bit cooler. The squash fruit out, then they start to shrivel up and get a black spot at the blossom end. Also, I think this is related to the temperatures, but my tomato plants have stopped growing. Some of them have I guess, either septoria leaf spot or altaria leaf spot - the leaves get a dark brown spot, then turn yellow and eventually die, as far as I know this is a soil born fungus, is there a fungicide that can stop this? Like, could I treat the leaves then try and mulch heavily so the soil doesn't splash up on the leaves, or are the plants a lost cause? I have had this happen before but it never stunted the growth of the plants like this has.
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May 1, 2011 23:41
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Devoyniche posted:What can I put on squash to prevent blossom rot? I'm not over watering, maybe even under-watering, and where I live we are in a drought with days in the upper 80s to mid to upper 90s, and some humidity - though today and recently it has been a bit cooler. The squash fruit out, then they start to shrivel up and get a black spot at the blossom end. Tomato early blight? http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato%20early%20blight&qscrl=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1366&bih=653 dwoloz fucked around with this message at 01:07 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 01:03
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Aeglowyn posted:Radishes! Rocket! Mint! All three of those tolerate shade. Other salad greens might do well too dwoloz fucked around with this message at 01:08 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 01:05
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I plant my rocket along the shady side of a wall and it grows better the more shade it gets. By July you can tell where the sun peeks over the top and around the corner by the speed of regrowth(I trim it down to the ground when the leaves are 2-4cm.)
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May 2, 2011 02:29
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Aeglowyn posted:Sadly this is being done on a budget of zero pounds and zero pence, so that can't happen. Have you ever tried planting supermarket garlic? If you've got some in the back of your fridge that's sprouting away, pot it up and put it outside. Garlic is pretty hard to kill and forms an everlasting patch (or for you, an everlasting pot). I would give raspberry canes a shot too, we have really old ones fighting back in the shady parts of my garden. You can pick them up fairly cheap in Wilkinsons IIRC. Poundland and the 99p store both have a good range of gardening stuff in at the moment, I know that's not zero pounds, but it's cheap cheap cheap. From tomorrow I'm going to be back in Southwark. I've got a couple of spare butternut squash plants and loads of plant pots you could have. I'd just have to truck them in from Slough which wouldn't be too much hassle. Chuck me a PM if you want anything.
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May 2, 2011 15:14
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A flying piece of posted:So the garden plan itself changed a bit over the last few weeks. As an update, here is the current and permanent plan (since everything is either seeded, sprouted or transplanted in now): You might want to rethink the strawberries if you want to stay very organized. They're perennial and self-spread by stolons, so they won't stay in one spot in your box next year. As for the nutrient talk, one thing people don't remember is pH. Most crop plants like a neutral pH, but there are some oddballs like blueberries that like acidic soil. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 19:43 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 19:32
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WORMS.  Anybody doing the whole vermiculture thing? I just started yesterday (I picked up a 1lb box of them), and I've got them in a plastic bin. Worms: check Moist newspaper bedding: check Veggie/fruit table scraps: check Has anybody built any interesting boxes for their worms? I'd like to have as much of a maintenance-free setup as possible, with multiple progressive chambers so the worms will simply move from one area to the next as the food-supply changes locations. So far, everything I've seen is single-area in nature, although the tub-on-tub setup may suit my needs. However, because the plastic won't breathe the way wood does, I may end up with sludge at the bottom that I wouldn't otherwise encounter in a wood box. Anyway, ideas?
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May 2, 2011 19:52
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kid sinister posted:You might want to rethink the strawberries if you want to stay very organized. They're perennial and self-spread by stolons, so they won't stay in one spot in your box next year. ... but I'll be alright if I just cut off the stolons, right?
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May 2, 2011 19:56
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How do I prepare the ground before I install a raised bed? I'll be putting them in my dad's back garden which is all turfed with grass. Do I need to dig up the grass and prepare the soil, or can the bed go right on top? The bed frames are going to be no more than 1ft tall.
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May 2, 2011 20:35
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Umbriago posted:How do I prepare the ground before I install a raised bed? I'll be putting them in my dad's back garden which is all turfed with grass. Do I need to dig up the grass and prepare the soil, or can the bed go right on top? The bed frames are going to be no more than 1ft tall. I just built mine last week. I just went all scorched earth on it with my weed eater. Then I put down landscape fabric. Some places recommend putting some type of wire mesh down next to keep groundhogs and such at bay. Your choice. After that just fill with soil mixture of your choice. Especially if yours is 12" deep, your plants are going to be growing in that 12" of soil, so it doesnt really matter whether the original soil is tilled or not.
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May 2, 2011 20:45
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mrglynis posted:I just built mine last week. I just went all scorched earth on it with my weed eater. Then I put down landscape fabric. Some places recommend putting some type of wire mesh down next to keep groundhogs and such at bay. Your choice. After that just fill with soil mixture of your choice. Especially if yours is 12" deep, your plants are going to be growing in that 12" of soil, so it doesnt really matter whether the original soil is tilled or not. But will the roots need any further space to grow down into? Or will 12" be enough room for them? Also no need to worry about groundhogs, I'm in England. e: I'm growing this like courgettes, bell peppers, squashes, lettuces Umbriago fucked around with this message at 21:09 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 20:49
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Umbriago posted:But will the roots need any further space to grow down into? Or will 12" be enough room for them? Well this is my first time doing this as well. I doing the Square foot gardening. According to old Mel all you need is 6". Thats how deep mine is. According to him most plants dont go down as much as they go out. I'm sure that there are certain varieties that do root down that deep, I just dont know which ones they are. I'm sure you could Google those veggies and come up with a better answer than I can give you.
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May 2, 2011 21:23
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Hi all, I'm XVIII on the Folia group, but since I lost all my forums account details, I've only been lurking here til now. Here's my garden so far (I'll post some pics when I find a camera): It's in the back garden of a terraced house, which was pretty much all paved. I built a raised bed down one side using wood from a pallet and containing it from below with some old hollow core doors that were left out there, so it's about 6" deep with pretty good drainage. I'll give a trip report as the season progresses, but as I'm renting I wanted to do something that could be taken out if we had to move house. The other square bed was part of the garden and was kind of a clay mix that was either a rubbish pit or outhouse back in the day, because when I dug the pit for the apple tree I found Victorian pottery shards (yay Time Team!) and it stunk to high heaven. I'll probably pick up some tomato and hot pepper plants when they're more readily available and do those in pots along the wall, but otherwise it's done for the year. Aeglowyn posted:Sadly this is being done on a budget of zero pounds and zero pence, so that can't happen. Seconding madlilnerd's supermarket garlic idea, it's pretty amazing how quickly they sprout. If you want a nice big satisfying plant with a decent little crop to harvest, you can try supermarket potatoes as well. I've done them from Tesco Charlottes and Exquisas and they turned out quite nice for a small crop of new potatoes. Just let two of them sprout and pop them in one of those jute carrier bags full of compost for three months or longer. If you're careful you can steal potatoes from the sides of the bag without harming the plants which will keep producing. The only drawback is you can't reuse the compost or pot for potatoes a second time, but you can use it for something else. Wilkinson is good for compost, their own brand is £1 for 15L. ASDA's currently got 47L grow bags for £2.50. If you want to do flowers, go for perennials to get the most bang for your buck. I have some seeds left over that I'd be happy to send if you want some, mainly cabbage, lettuce, sunflower, tomato, courgette, a few herbs, and some random flowers. Also, I wouldn't recommend blackberries if you live anywhere near a vacant lot/park that has brambles. They'll be more mature and will produce all the blackberries you could ever want without all those bastard canes invading your garden. I picked 6 or 7 pints of blackberries from a nearby park last year, though most passersby looked at me like I was insane. I pity the fool who forgets how to forage. MolierePumpsMyNads fucked around with this message at 21:40 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 21:32
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Haha, big is exactly what we don't want! Sorry for not mentioning that we're also a bit tight on space. I will definitely try the garlic idea, though. That should be popular.
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May 2, 2011 23:37
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What happened to my rosemary?   Basically the entire plant looks like this.
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May 3, 2011 01:07
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Umbriago posted:But will the roots need any further space to grow down into? Or will 12" be enough room for them? 12 inches will be plenty. Just lay down a plastic weed barrier and roll with it.
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May 3, 2011 01:56
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Papercut posted:What happened to my rosemary? My rosemary has been doing weird things like this too. Yours looks fungal
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May 3, 2011 03:10
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My rosemary went funny too. Give it a hard pruning and let it dry out a bit in the sun. Also check for spider mites.
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May 3, 2011 05:39
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So... I think I went a bit overboard with buying seeds this spring. I wanted to try container gardening, as I just moved and considering that, it seemed like a decently easy thing to do. Now though, I've realized that I've bought about 20 different varieties of herbs and veggies and I need to either cut back on what I plant or have a few varieties sharing a container to save money and space. Does anyone know any general pairs of plants that do well together in the same space? I'm assuming most herbs can't really go with anything else since they all seem to be rather aggressive with their growth. Unfortunately, my bag of seeds got packed away in a box during moving yesterday, so I can't tell you exact varieties until I find it tomorrow.
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May 3, 2011 05:46
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dwoloz posted:My rosemary has been doing weird things like this too. Yours looks fungal Yeah, I checked all over the plant and couldn't find any pests, so I figure it must be fungus (I live in a really foggy area). I think I'll just put in another lavender instead, I need more flowers in the area anyway.
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May 3, 2011 06:19
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I am totally new to gardening but have recently decided I want to start growing vegetables. I live in an apartment (unit? I don't really know what you would call it) that has a quite small courtyard area at the front like 5m by 6m and looking around online, the EarthTainer looks like a good project- first to assemble and then to start planting. My number one priority would be growing some tomato plants but as I live in Australia I won't be planting those for quite a few months I think. If I was to finish a few EarthTainers this month I'm not certain what I would like to plant at this time of year but Cabbage, Broccoli, Radishes or Kale all seem like good options (going by the Gardenate website). Does any of this sound crazy, has anyone tried constructing and using EarthTainers?
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May 3, 2011 14:08
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neogeo0823 posted:So... I think I went a bit overboard with buying seeds this spring. I wanted to try container gardening, as I just moved and considering that, it seemed like a decently easy thing to do. Now though, I've realized that I've bought about 20 different varieties of herbs and veggies and I need to either cut back on what I plant or have a few varieties sharing a container to save money and space. Companion Planting: http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html As far as growth goes, just make sure you're not putting something like bush tomatoes and a smaller plant in the same container... the tomatoes will shade out the smaller plant. Plant tall plants with other tall plants and so on. Also pay attention to the spacing. If you have an 18 inch container, you can probably get away with planting 3 plants in that container that need to be 12 inches apart in a triangle shape with the seeds near the outside.
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May 3, 2011 14:20
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A flying piece of posted:... but I'll be alright if I just cut off the stolons, right? You will. Better yet, just replant the colony plants over by the old plants.
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May 3, 2011 15:41
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