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Seasoned gardener here. Just moved into a renters house and the Landlord said it was cool to grow a Vegtable garden. So I ripped up a 6x5 section of grass. And in the process of planting the whole garden. My neighbor told me that nobody has planted there in over 20 years. So when digging up the soil ( 6a soil zone) for almost a foot and a half deep was practically top soil. The whole yard gets unbelieveble amounts of sunlight. So sunny plants ahoy! Here is some pics of my garden: please excuse the horrible camera shots.  And a birds eye view -Top left to right: Huskee cherry tomato. Rutgers Tomato -Bottom left to right: Sweet banana pepper, Hot banana pepper  For the unused spaces i will plant Pickle bush, kale, and jalepenos. I recently found a old garden plot on the corner of the house 4x4 foot or 4x5. If the soil is good i will Till it and plant zukes and eggplants. For the rest of the garden i will pot: strawberries, chives, red pepper, heirloom tomato plant. possibly a snap pea plant. and herbs. I will try to update more photos later. If anyone has any suggestions for what kind of peppers to grow let me know. Its a tossup at this point. Thinking red bell pepper's.
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May 24, 2013 21:14
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Totally TWISTED posted:Can you name them in the same way that people name stars in the sky? Or is there an official fda.gov/nameyournewpotato.htm type thing? I doubt there's anything official. It's unlikely you randomly get something identical to someone else and it would take a genetic comparison to be sure. Wikipedia has more about Plant Breeder's Rights than I ever wanted to know.
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May 24, 2013 22:06
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Polish_Persuasion posted:If anyone has any suggestions for what kind of peppers to grow let me know. Its a tossup at this point. Thinking red bell pepper's. I'd ask other gardeners in your area what is most productive. For my part, I've had less luck with Bell Peppers than almost any other variety. Banana type peppers tend to be very productive for me, and I had decent luck with some other, larger sweet pepper last year, whose name escapes me at the moment. Cubanelle, maybe? It kind of depends what you want to do with it, too. Bells are good for eating raw, poblanos/anchos are good for making Chile(s?) Rellenos, Anaheims are supposed to be good for making ristras, many kinds are good for pickling, cayennes are good for drying and making pepper powder, etc. I also had pretty good luck last year with Jimmy Nardellos and Red Marconis (or at least with one of them (I kind of lost track of what was platned where), but it may be hard to find seedlings of odd varieties.
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May 25, 2013 16:25
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Peristalsis posted:I also had pretty good luck last year with Jimmy Nardellos and Red Marconis (or at least with one of them (I kind of lost track of what was platned where), but it may be hard to find seedlings of odd varieties. Seed Savers Exchange is shipping transplants right now if you can't find them locally, Jimmy Nardello's is actually one that they have. http://www.seedsavers.org/onlinestore/Pepper-Transplants/Jimmy-Nardellos-Sweet_2.html I just put in 9 tomato and 9 pepper transplants from SSE today and the peppers especially looked really nice and healthy.
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May 25, 2013 22:30
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For better or worse I ordered some True Potato Seed last night from New World Seeds. I got the Maris Piper, Magic Dragons (egg-sized and all colors) and Mt St Helens (red skin and flesh). I'm not sure how the Maris Piper seeds work but I always hear it used in British recipes so why not? I also got the Physalis Peruviana seeds. It's commonly known as the Cape gooseberry and several other names. Looks like an interesting berry/fruit.
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May 26, 2013 01:09
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Has anyone grown (or eaten) fava beans? I thought I'd give it a try, but I looked in a nursery with a big seed collection, as well as two hardware stores, and nobody had seeds for them. The internet says they'll grow here (Wisconsin), so I don't see any reason they wouldn't be available, unless they're really a pain to grow, or the beans themselves are just gross to eat or something.
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May 26, 2013 03:33
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Peristalsis posted:Has anyone grown (or eaten) fava beans? I thought I'd give it a try, but I looked in a nursery with a big seed collection, as well as two hardware stores, and nobody had seeds for them. The internet says they'll grow here (Wisconsin), so I don't see any reason they wouldn't be available, unless they're really a pain to grow, or the beans themselves are just gross to eat or something. I haven't grown them but a few folks in my community garden have. My understanding is that there are different varieties for use as a cover crop or producing beans. With the beans you have to remove them from the pod and then shell them. Unless they're really young that extra layer will not taste so good.
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May 26, 2013 04:19
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Man, I cannot win versus earwigs and other pests. Got oil traps out, each one catches 5 or 6 earwigs a night, but when I go out around 10 there are still 2-3 munching on new foliage. I am close to breaking down and using some organic pesticide. Also, my broccoli are about a month late on forming heads. I am wondering if they are short the necessary nitrogen, as the bottom leaves keep turning yellow. They look healthy otherwise, though. Also, it's weird to think that I'm having nitrogen problems as I've been using Fox Farm's Grow Big on them for about two months. Maybe they just grow slower than they should. Any ideas?
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May 26, 2013 21:55
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Peristalsis posted:Has anyone grown (or eaten) fava beans? I thought I'd give it a try, but I looked in a nursery with a big seed collection, as well as two hardware stores, and nobody had seeds for them. The internet says they'll grow here (Wisconsin), so I don't see any reason they wouldn't be available, unless they're really a pain to grow, or the beans themselves are just gross to eat or something. I heard they're great with a nice chianti and a perfectly cooked human liver  You might be able to find seed online - I did a quick google of it and apparently Amazon has some (though Hirt's Gardens)and so does victoryseeds.com.
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May 26, 2013 22:10
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Fava beans and broad beans are the same thing, so you could look for that as well, much like butter beans and lima beans are the same plant. Here's the wiki on them
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May 26, 2013 23:01
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All this potato talk makes me want to share about an interesting sport that's popped up in one of my potato buckets. We had a mid twenties freeze and it killed all except one of my potato vines down to the ground. One of the potato vines from the "Let's just throw in all the red skinned potatoes I forgot the name of" buckets isn't even frost damaged, while every other potato has been killed to the ground. I'm going to wait for that vine to split, and take some cuttings to be sure I get the right potato. Given how common late freezes are around here, I could really use a frost resistant variety.
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May 27, 2013 20:09
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Belloq posted:Any ideas?  Full disclosure, im a crazy hippie
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May 27, 2013 21:28
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I put together a new compost pile about a month ago. I had some more junk to add in today so I uncovered it and started turning the pile. There were some wispy puffs as I turned it and I just assumed it was some kind of mold spores going nuts on the top. As I got deeper into the pile I realized it was steam. I got a thermometer and it measured 109 F! My first hot compost pile!  It was built out of alternating layers of last years rotten apples and sawdust/fine wood chips. I watered it really well and let it sit, turning it once or twice since then. It's still a little too wet and smells kind of lovely because of it but I can't leave it uncovered since we're still getting a bit of rain. I'm just going to keep turning it every day and uncovered it if the forecast looks clear. My tomatoes outgrew their 5-gallon bottle cloches so I had to take those off. One plant was actually growing up out of the bottle. The tunnel seems to be keeping things above 50 at night and 80+ during the daytime so they should be OK now. Still no sign of life from my new hop rhizomes yet. I really hope they didn't dry out in the fridge before I got them planted. The one from last year is doing well with 3 of the 4 vines already trained onto strings.
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May 28, 2013 05:42
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Feckin' birds again!  Need to come up with a cage for my zucchini pots. Those are the only ones they go for 
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May 28, 2013 21:08
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alright kids. Garden is done. I think i have a Farmville in real life going on here! I extended the bed to a 6x9 foot. To add in 2 ground eggplants and a failing Zuke plant. and threw the pots in the back.  and a side shot!  Right now in the pots I have: (from cut off bottom plant on up) #1. Beefstake heirloom #2: Black chocolate (?) bell peppers #1: Japanese Ichiban Eggplant #1 Jalepenos - #1 chili sauce plant (no joke i can't remember the name of that plant that i can toss in the chili. neighbor gave it to me) #2 kale #2 Thai Peppers (see how it grows in Midwestern weather) #1 weak sauce Zuke #4 basil #1 Cilantro - #1 thyme - #1 lime basil. really concerned about this zuke plant:  However it just turned into a monsooon here so i am confident that with the 80F weather about to hit this week my plants will really perk up. I also got a strawberry plant on a shepards hook:  Also planted a cucumber bush. and a thai pepper next to it. I netted most of it and i will continue fortifying my Farm-vile. I also am caging all my Zukes and Eggplants. If anyone has suggestions on how to cage them right let me know. I think if all my plants survive i will have so much Veggies!! let me know if i can mail some or something. Updates to follow!
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May 28, 2013 21:33
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We had a late cold snap here. I covered my plants, and I think I saved all the tomatoes, but some of my peppers are looking pretty rough. Does this kind of damage mean the plants are done for, and I'm wasting garden space by letting them remain here?   Sorry for the crappy quality, I can go out and try again if necessary. I'm inferring that, because the tops of the plants (meristems?) are shriveled and dead, that the plant won't grow any more - is that true?
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May 29, 2013 00:06
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Peristalsis posted:I'm inferring that, because the tops of the plants (meristems?) are shriveled and dead, that the plant won't grow any more - is that true? In my amateur pepper-growing opinion, they'll be fine. Certainly don't rip them out or anything. They'll branch out from around the break (this has happened to mine before)
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May 29, 2013 02:11
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Finally got my tomatoes and peppers in the beds. I didn't have nearly enough potting soil to fill it in, and I knew this would be a problem, but had trouble convincing the boyfriend to get more. Oh well. I'm going to see about getting more soil soon enough. My city has a program where you can pick up free compost, but I need to get something to transport it in, and coerce my roommate with the SUV to help me out. Also thinking of ripping out some of my lettuce. One patch is doing okay, but it gets a lot more sun than I thought it would, and gets wilted during the day if I don't water a lot. Some of it is starting to bolt, too. The other patch gets more shade and was looking pretty good, but the bugs ate most of it and some animal ripped up a couple heads a while back. Every day I pick bugs off the lettuce, but there always seems to be the same drat amount of them the next day. It's mostly caterpillars, but there are some aphids. I've been introducing ladybugs to the bed and some of them stick around, but it's not enough. Today there were at least half a dozen yellow jackets buzzing around the lettuce bed, making it impossible to water, but I think they were eating caterpillars!  They were crawling around and under the leaves and chewing on something that looked like squishy bugs. Unfortunately it also meant I couldn't water very efficiently or pick anything or hunt down caterpillars. drat.
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May 29, 2013 04:31
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Mizufusion posted:Today there were at least half a dozen yellow jackets buzzing around the lettuce bed, making it impossible to water, but I think they were eating caterpillars! Maybe they were laying eggs on the caterpillars.  Also, a goon seed trade would be great. Does that exist? Would anyone want to do that?
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May 29, 2013 04:46
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Ectral posted:
I see your idea and I raise it with Goon harvest trade? Is that possible to ship fresh fruit/veggies in coolers? Also seed trade sounds dope.
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May 29, 2013 05:11
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We started a compost bin late last year. We tilled the compost in with the expansion to our garden. Last week, we noticed a bunch of sprouts in the part where the compost had been mixed in. They looked squash-like, but there were way more than what we had put in as seeds. I figured out that they were probably pumpkins. I remember my wife had dumped a few pumpkin seeds in the bin by accident. We had to perform many plant abortions, but we kept a couple for growing. Still, there are quite a few other mysterious seedlings. I am certain at least a couple are peppers and there are a couple of stray tomato seedlings as well. I guess we learned a lesson about making our own compost.
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May 29, 2013 17:47
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^^^^^ If you aren't tumbling the compost or using a worm bed, then yeah, anything with seeds will grow out of your compost next year. Watch out for potato chunks too, any with eyes will sprout. My parents has a beautiful volunteer zucchini come out of their compost last year and I harvested a couple.. Until I realized that they all smelled like rotting garbage when you split them open!  It's been raining pretty much solid for two or three weeks, which put a pretty big damper in my plans to get my starts into the ground in a timely manner. I snuck out ther other day before work and put them into the ground before it began raining again, and then a couple days ago a co-worker brought in a bunch of tomato and tomatillo volunteers since she'd tossed all of her old fruit into her compost bin last Fall. Scored three nice-looking tomatillos (that's them on the close-right.) Also my royal burgundy bush beans (started in a ziploc and paper towel, and put into the dirt as soon as they had a 1/2" long sprig coming out) all crowned finally, allaying my fears. My scarlet runner beans got chewed on by slugs pretty bad when I first put them in and I've yet to have a night where it wasn't raining, so I was unable to use any beer traps, and I couldn't find any copper wire or scraps to do anything before pay day.. I need to get a taller trellis for the runner beans though, and ASAP. The beds aren't very clean and pristine right now, I madly mowed and weed-eated the edges of them the other day during a sunny lull in the rain, to get rid of anywhere for the slugs to hide.    edit: one thing I forgot, two or three of my "red fire" leaf lettuce starts are dead, they simply "melted" overnight. I seem to have this happen with about 1 in 5 lettuce starts and have no real idea why it's occurring - this year one melted literally overnight, before I was able to put them into the ground the next morning. The second one died a few days after being put in the ground, no marks from slugs or bugs (I think the slugs don't like the rough cedar from the newer beds, as they went for the stuff in the older, weathered-wood beds first and ignored everything else) aside from a couple torn leaves from transplanting. Nether myself or my housemate are really interested in tons of lettuce outside of making "Korean tacos" and such, but I am starting to wonder why they turn to mush, sometimes. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 18:08 on May 29, 2013 |
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May 29, 2013 17:53
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Since we've had no spring to speak of here and I grew tired of having to move my plants around the kitchen all the time, I built myself a shelf for the only other south facing window I have. Then I found some desklamps in the attic, so in a complete grower cargocult move, I put them on there with a couple of Ikea Sparsam 20W/2100 Lumen/2700K CFL bulbs. I put a timer on them that turns them on roughly two hours before sundown and off around midnight. Since I know nothing about growing stuff under lamps, I can only wonder: is this going to make any difference at all? Any suggestions to improve on it, apart from buying actual grow lamps? Any (more) benefit in having the lamps on 24/7? 
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May 29, 2013 19:28
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Flipperwaldt posted:Since we've had no spring to speak of here and I grew tired of having to move my plants around the kitchen all the time, I built myself a shelf for the only other south facing window I have. Then I found some desklamps in the attic, so in a complete grower cargocult move, I put them on there with a couple of Ikea Sparsam 20W/2100 Lumen/2700K CFL bulbs. I put a timer on them that turns them on roughly two hours before sundown and off around midnight. I'd go with a higher number K cfl 6500 or so. That is closer to daylight. Edit: posting from phone. Pain in rear end.
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May 29, 2013 19:39
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Goddamn my garden has the best salad ever. Every night, I go out and get a bucket of chicory leaf, arugula, and a lettuce mixture from seed savers exchange and it was fantastic. Tonight I added some beet greens and it was even better. I couldn't be happier that I planted so many drat beets.
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May 29, 2013 19:44
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I am finally getting back into my garden .. my last one was pretty much a total failure, so I decided raised beds this time around. Late start, and I am buying most this year .. but still getting back into it. Two 4' x 8' x 10" beds, soil being delivered this weekend. Also building some small boxes to go inside/outside for herbs. Really trying to get my act together this time.
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May 29, 2013 20:39
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SpannerX posted:I'd go with a higher number K cfl 6500 or so. That is closer to daylight. 
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May 29, 2013 21:10
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Flipperwaldt posted:Since I know nothing about growing stuff under lamps, I can only wonder: is this going to make any difference at all? Any suggestions to improve on it, apart from buying actual grow lamps? Any (more) benefit in having the lamps on 24/7? Yes, it's going to make a difference even with less than ideal bulbs. You've got them at about the right distance but I wouldn't move them any farther away. In general plants need both light and dark. What I remember reading said that the leaves grow in the light (day time) and the roots grow in the dark (night time), so if you have too much of one or the other it will make for an unhealthy plant. Many specific types of plant will respond to certain conditions of light too. For example, spinach will start bolting when the days get longer. I used to use a timer for my good germin' rig and 12 on/12 off settings, but this year I've just been turning it on when I get up and off when I go to bed, so I guess they're getting more than 12 hours light but not 24. It's also good because it makes me look at the plants more regularly and notice sooner when they need water or more vertical room to grow. You may also want to get a small oscillating fan for them. They really do much better with some airflow and the force of the wind on them makes for thicker, tougher stems. coyo7e posted:^^^^^ If you aren't tumbling the compost or using a worm bed, then yeah, anything with seeds will grow out of your compost next year. Watch out for potato chunks too, any with eyes will sprout. My parents has a beautiful volunteer zucchini come out of their compost last year and I harvested a couple.. Until I realized that they all smelled like rotting garbage when you split them open! I've been seeing a ton of seeds sprouting in my beds from the cold, lazy compost I added earlier this year. It doesn't bother me at all but I'm hoping the new hotter pile will kill most of the seeds in my future compost.
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May 29, 2013 21:43
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You don't need to buy sodium lamps or real grow stuff, you can just get some natural-range aquarium fluorescents. At the Home Depot or whatever, you should be able to pick up a 4' housing and two bulbs for $30. I grew tomatoes under one in the winter. They flowered in about double the normal time and the fruits were tiny, but they were otherwise healthy. Fluorescents should be able to handle herbs and other greenery fine. I assume you can get a compact bulb that puts out the correct levels of blue and red light, I think that would make a difference.
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May 29, 2013 22:11
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Yes, it's going to make a difference even with less than ideal bulbs. You've got them at about the right distance but I wouldn't move them any farther away. In general plants need both light and dark. What I remember reading said that the leaves grow in the light (day time) and the roots grow in the dark (night time), so if you have too much of one or the other it will make for an unhealthy plant. Many specific types of plant will respond to certain conditions of light too. For example, spinach will start bolting when the days get longer. I'll think a bit more about how to program the timer exactly. Due to the position of the surrounding buildings and the orientation of the window, the hours of direct sunlight through it are fairly constant throughout the year (about six hours a day), so if I can supplement that to approaching 12 hours, that seems about right to me. Good point about the fan, I'm sure I have enough crap lying around to whip something up. Thanks, that was enlightening. agarjogger posted:You don't need to buy sodium lamps or real grow stuff, you can just get some natural-range aquarium fluorescents. At the Home Depot or whatever, you should be able to pick up a 4' housing and two bulbs for $30. I grew tomatoes under one in the winter. They flowered in about double the normal time and the fruits were tiny, but they were otherwise healthy. Fluorescents should be able to handle herbs and other greenery fine. I assume you can get a compact bulb that puts out the correct levels of blue and red light, I think that would make a difference. I love tiny tomatoes though  so maybe I should shell out for this.
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May 29, 2013 23:21
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Hah, no they were tiny versions of cherry tomatoes, so they were more like tic-tac tomatoes. The vines and leaves were appropriate size though, so the lights definitely worked.
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May 30, 2013 02:33
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Nice little intro video for people planting root crops. I always thought that buying beet starts sounded ludicrous. http://www.territorialseed.com/product/video_root_crops_2010
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May 30, 2013 20:51
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So my wasp buddies are getting a little out of control and have taken over most of my (weedy) lawn, in addition to my salad bed. Turns out they have a big nest in the shed, so we had to put up traps and whatnot. Sorry little dudes! Good news is that I got more soil for my tomatoes and peppers, and it's not full of wood chips like the last bag. I also repotted my serrano plant because it was getting rootbound. Debated putting it in the bed with the jalapenos, but I don't think there will be enough room for all of them.
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May 30, 2013 23:38
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God drat, I have harvested almost a gallon of small tomatoes this week. Unfortunately, not all of the small tomatoes were supposed to be small, just 95%. The Juliets and Stupices are production monsters. Abu rawan and homestead are producing undersize right now. The black cherry's are the right size and delicious, but the Juliets are crowding them out. My cucubrits seem to need help being fertilized, but the main issue seems to be a dearth of female flowers. I just wish the bees would do their job!
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May 31, 2013 03:22
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Something's eating my bush beans (slightly, not major yet), but REALLY attacking my borage. This is the first year I've planted borage, it's growing well but something is enjoying it. We've had so much torrential rain and wind here in the Midwest, I'm surprised the bugs can even stay on the leaves long enough to eat holes in them. Supposed to have a dry weekend, maybe I can finally get out and inspect the plants and yard.
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May 31, 2013 03:58
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AxeBreaker posted:God drat, I have harvested almost a gallon of small tomatoes this week. Unfortunately, not all of the small tomatoes were supposed to be small, just 95%. The Juliets and Stupices are production monsters. Abu rawan and homestead are producing undersize right now. The black cherry's are the right size and delicious, but the Juliets are crowding them out. Where do you live and/or how long has your plant been alive? Sometimes i destest living in the midwest due to our short growing season  On another note, We have been getting pummeled with rain (which makes my water bill go down! Check one for the lazy gardener) and my cucumber bush seedling...dissapeared. I looked for the leaves in the rain out. but its like aliens took them. the stem isnt even there. Bizzarre.
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May 31, 2013 16:09
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My garden is complete! The fun bit will be keeping up with the weeding when I have a baby due in two weeks, but I'm encouraged by the fact that I really only had to weed twice last year before the plants got big enough to drown everything else out. Growing so far are three rows of potatoes (one brown two red), chinese cabbage, romaine and regular lettuce, and the onions we always uncover every spring that we apparently miss harvesting in the fall. I'm starting to think the best way to grow them is to plant them in the fall and leave them alone. On the far side of the potatoes is going to be my attempt to curtail the yearly squash/cucumber explosion, we're going to build an A frame and try to trellis everything up it. Just gotta put up the deer netting and set up the sprinklers and I'm good to grow!
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May 31, 2013 16:55
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Frilled Lizard posted:Something's eating my bush beans (slightly, not major yet), but REALLY attacking my borage.
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May 31, 2013 23:24
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My Trinidad Scorpion has flowers already. 
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Jun 1, 2013 01:01
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mischief posted:My Trinidad Scorpion has flowers already. That sounds like it's going to be hot. I love watching the Hippy Seed Co. guys on youtube. I don't think I'd want to go that hot, ever, but it sounds interesting.
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Jun 1, 2013 01:15
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