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Potted a few of my herbs and brought them inside just in time. Was in the 20s last night. Rescued a rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, and a tiny part of my boxwood basil. Left the purple basil in the ground and I am pretty impressed how it's handled the temps at night of late. Already a couple frosts under it's belt and it kind of just sits there looking at the globe basil plant all "what's your problem?" I've another rosemary in the garden that I may simply trim back and cover with mulch to see if it can winter that way.
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Sep 28, 2013 14:57
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I have some Okinawan Spinach that was growing really well for awhile, big green leaves. Lately, it's only growing really small leaves, most of which are kind of brown, and the vines have grown out of the pot. What can I do about this? I'd love to have big Okinawan spinach leaves again
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Sep 28, 2013 20:46
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Fog Tripper posted:Potted a few of my herbs and brought them inside just in time. Was in the 20s last night. Rescued a rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, and a tiny part of my boxwood basil. Left the purple basil in the ground and I am pretty impressed how it's handled the temps at night of late. Already a couple frosts under it's belt and it kind of just sits there looking at the globe basil plant all "what's your problem?" How rough are your winters? Or, what zone are you? Some rosemary is pretty hardy, especially in the ground (unless your plants are truly tiny babies). Mine do just fine here in MO with some mulch. So does my thyme and oregano. In fact, the oregano has reached mint-like status for invasiveness--no mulch or care or anything.
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Sep 28, 2013 22:50
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Is there a good way to take cuttings from rosemary? I have two plants that are doing really well in my garden and a couple not doing so hot. I'd like to take cuttings from the good ones and replace the lovely ones with it.
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Sep 28, 2013 22:52
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AlistairCookie posted:How rough are your winters? Or, what zone are you? Some rosemary is pretty hardy, especially in the ground (unless your plants are truly tiny babies). Mine do just fine here in MO with some mulch. So does my thyme and oregano. In fact, the oregano has reached mint-like status for invasiveness--no mulch or care or anything. We were down to -17F last winter, badly timed as no snow on the ground at that point to somewhat insulate. Last year's oregano (which should have survived a normal winter) and the rosemary died horribly. I believe we are at a zone 5b or so. Give or take. Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Sep 29, 2013 |
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Sep 29, 2013 04:12
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Alterian posted:Is there a good way to take cuttings from rosemary? I have two plants that are doing really well in my garden and a couple not doing so hot. I'd like to take cuttings from the good ones and replace the lovely ones with it. Cut a couple inches of the youngest parts, strip the leaves off the bottom half of the cutting, and root away. If you have rooting hormone, use it; rosemary takes its sweet-rear end time rooting when not doped up on plant drugs.
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Sep 29, 2013 07:35
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Thanks. I might do that soon before it gets cold. I have a sweet-rear end plant light rack I never use. I might spend the winter growing herbs indoors to fill out my garden next spring.
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Sep 29, 2013 16:10
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Molten Llama posted:Cut a couple inches of the youngest parts, strip the leaves off the bottom half of the cutting, and root away. If you have rooting hormone, use it; rosemary takes its sweet-rear end time rooting when not doped up on plant drugs.
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Sep 30, 2013 20:05
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So I finally ripped out the last of ym summer veg (except the long beans and trimmed okra, those fuckers are still going) Anyway a few weeks ago I got a bed full of new zeland spinach going, so Im finaly able to pick some leaves from every plant and use them, thay are tasty. I also have broccoli, carrots and another spinach variety that are about 5 inches tall right now. Last week I planted some radicchio, purple cabbage, rapini and an heirloom psinach, they are all sprouted little seedlings doing their best. This week I planted 2 other heirloom spinachs in another bed, hopefull they will be ready in the next few weeks to start picking. I love winter gardening way more than summer stuff because broccoli and spinach is my joint. Especially since my swiss chard plants got thinned down and now I have 5 realy big lush guys I can pick off of whenever I want. I need to find a way to get spinach to grow inside my house so I can have it year round.
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Oct 2, 2013 21:32
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I just finished my newest raised bed (which I put in the other garden thread, oops). Here it is planted out:
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Oct 3, 2013 21:01
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Aaaaaaaand snow. My grape leaves went from green and vibrant to brown dry and shriveled almost overnight. Hope they had time to harden off.
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Oct 4, 2013 17:48
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Bummer. Mine are still vibrant green, but it's a pretty low-yielding vine so I'm just waiting for the drat thing to drop its leaves so I can prune it. I want to try starting more plants from cuttings, and if I have enough vines I'm going to make some into a grapevine wreath. Also waiting for my wisteria vine to go dormant so I can prune and shape that, since whoever planted it didn't put a trellis there, but that's not a food plant.
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Oct 4, 2013 23:54
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We're trying to grow various things in the southern part of Maui. Our microclimate is desert on this part of the island; temperatures are typically 85-90 year-round with only a few days where it rains at all, and there are sometimes some harsh winds between 12-4PM every day. We're renting a cottage, so everything is in pots outside. We wait to water until the soil looks dry. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated Successful growth: Heirloom tomatoes Heirloom cherry tomatoes Chives Rosemary Italian Basil Thai Basil Mint Semi-Successful: Passion fruit (lilikoi) -- We have a purple and a yellow lilikoi vine attached to a home-made truss between their pots, and both grow very well. However, they both lose a lot of greenage to big fat caterpillars, and we've only ever gotten a single fruit off of one of them, and almost no flowers. At this point they're each about 7 feet tall. They're only a year old, so maybe we just need to wait longer and continue pruning it back Blueberry -- It doesn't want to grow very large, but it has produced a few berries. This pot has a lot of problems with weeds, we're constantly pulling new weeds Meier Lemon -- We just planted this, and it started growing like crazy. The wind sometimes blows off some of its leaves, but they grow back pretty quickly and overall the plant looks healthy. QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 20:12
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Just got home from our botanical gardens spring festival (Ausgoon) Bought a tomato seedling. Big beef tomatoes  And some fig scions: one for us, one for the in -laws. ($2 Xmas present- cant go wrong)  I heard that figs root pretty easily, does anyone have any magic tips, should I use honey to assist in getting them to root or just some good dirt?
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Oct 6, 2013 06:31
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Mizufusion posted:Bummer. Mine are still vibrant green, but it's a pretty low-yielding vine so I'm just waiting for the drat thing to drop its leaves so I can prune it. I want to try starting more plants from cuttings, and if I have enough vines I'm going to make some into a grapevine wreath. Also waiting for my wisteria vine to go dormant so I can prune and shape that, since whoever planted it didn't put a trellis there, but that's not a food plant. We are in south texas and want to plant grapes in old wine barrels cut in half next year and run them along trellises on our privacy fence. What do we need to know for setup and growth.
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Oct 7, 2013 05:50
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Errant Gin Monks posted:We are in south texas and want to plant grapes in old wine barrels cut in half next year and run them along trellises on our privacy fence. What do we need to know for setup and growth. Unfortunately I've never started them myself. The vine I have now was already growing when I moved in. When I lived with my parents, mom had a couple varieties of grapes growing along our privacy fence and they did pretty good. I think we had concord grapes and.. some green ones. We have clay-ish soil here and they seem to do alright. I don't know if she amended the soil at all before planting, but mine gets nothin'. I have no idea if I'll actually be able to root any cuttings, but I'm willing to try!
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Oct 8, 2013 03:56
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Errant Gin Monks posted:We are in south texas and want to plant grapes in old wine barrels cut in half next year and run them along trellises on our privacy fence. What do we need to know for setup and growth. From my experience growing Kiwi vines in half wine barrels, the soil level will lower after sitting in the barrel for awhile (especially true if you use lots of compost) so make sure to over-fill the barrel. I filled my half barrel completely full with 100% compost, and now after a year it is only about 2/3rds full. Grape vines can grow some really long roots. I have read that they can get as deep as 25 feet, so wine barrels might not be the best for them.
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Oct 8, 2013 04:30
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QuarkJets posted:We're trying to grow various things in the southern part of Maui. Our microclimate is desert on this part of the island; temperatures are typically 85-90 year-round with only a few days where it rains at all, and there are sometimes some harsh winds between 12-4PM every day. We're renting a cottage, so everything is in pots outside. We wait to water until the soil looks dry. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated Use big containers or pots if possible- half barrels or 17 gallon or larger plastic containers. Get some B.T. splay for caterpillars on your passion fruit. Note that the B.T. for caterpillars and the B.T. for mosquitoes and gnats are different so get the right one. I stumbled across this when looking for a particular cultivar of tomato ("Hawaiian tropic") that's supposed to be good in the desert. The didn't have it, but what they do have may be relevant to you: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed/seeds.asp For containers, you're going to have to stick to small varieties and short vined anything if you want to grow squash or melons. I've had some luck with Golden jenny melons, the vines are only 3-5 feet. I haven't tried training them though. You should contact your local extension office too- I'm sure there are quite a few differences between what works in the desert side of Hawaii and what works in the southwest. I know the wet side has way more disease problems than we do, and you may get them from proximity, bugs or agricultural products.
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Oct 8, 2013 22:19
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I was wanting to get apple trees and after careful consideration realized I really can only do one. The problem is most of the self fertile ones are not what I'm interested in. I know whole foods sometimes sells trees with three or four types grafted together, if I got a honeycrisp tree that had a pollinator branch grafted on would that even work? Who sells these things?
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Oct 9, 2013 13:19
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Maldraedior posted:I was wanting to get apple trees and after careful consideration realized I really can only do one. The problem is most of the self fertile ones are not what I'm interested in. I know whole foods sometimes sells trees with three or four types grafted together, if I got a honeycrisp tree that had a pollinator branch grafted on would that even work? Who sells these things? Pretty much every garden center where apples will grow will stock multi-graft or "fruit cocktail" trees at some point during the year. Most will gladly order one for you if they don't normally get them. If there are no garden centers or they're all buttheads, most of the catalog companies sell multi-graft too. Honeycrisp + others is pretty common. The one thing to check is the season of each of the grafts. Generally the nursery will graft appropriate varieties together so they'll blossom together and pollinate each other, but occasionally (especially on the stuff the big boxes get) you can end up with gaps.
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Oct 9, 2013 16:14
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Fozzy The Bear posted:I just finished my newest raised bed (which I put in the other garden thread, oops). Here it is planted out: And yeah I understand that they come in 6-packs at the store.
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Oct 10, 2013 22:33
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coyo7e posted:Assuming those blocks are what, 16 inches or so long? Almost everything there looks kind of crowded, except for maybe the leeks. Kale and Broccoli and Lettuce pretty much want a good 12-16" radius or so, and those peas will pull down that wire with their own weight when they get rained on or put on pods, you could have gotten away with like 2 or 3 peas there. Oh, I gave the lettuce 6 inch spacing :-( Everything else has 12-16 inches. My first time with these plants. The wire is one of my tomato cages, it has supported them over the years. I made a video of my yard start to where it is now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeDRlK0c-vs Sorry about the crappy quality, I don't know why the video stutters like that. I was using my Cannon G12. From 1.55 to 4.30 it is almost unwatchable.
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Oct 13, 2013 08:41
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AxeBreaker posted:Use big containers or pots if possible- half barrels or 17 gallon or larger plastic containers. Get some B.T. splay for caterpillars on your passion fruit. Note that the B.T. for caterpillars and the B.T. for mosquitoes and gnats are different so get the right one. I grabbed some horticulture literature at the county fair last week and got the same B.T. advice that you've suggested; thank you. My next thought was "butterfly bush", but I checked and apparently it's an invasive species. I'm still thinking that it might be worth investing in some more plants that butterflies would be attracted to, but this might just exacerbate the problem. We have a healthy bee and butterfly population, so I'm not too concerned about killing the caterpillars. We recently upgraded most of our bigger plants (the lilikoi, the lemon tree) to the biggest pots that Home Depot had. Hopefully it helps stimulate some fruit growth.
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Oct 13, 2013 22:08
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Oh, I gave the lettuce 6 inch spacing :-( Everything else has 12-16 inches. My first time with these plants. The wire is one of my tomato cages, it has supported them over the years. FWIW, you can putt out a couple before they start to crowd, and have a nice salad with fresh young lettuce.
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Oct 15, 2013 19:37
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Hello long thread. I have an apartment herb garden that is mostly dead now, I'm not sure exactly why but it being 110+ for a month probably didn't help. I've taken some cuttings of basil and have it in water to sprout, and I have a few other survivors I'm going to do the same with. Plus getting new plants. Anyway, I want to grow the herbs inside all winter but I don't think they're going to get any direct sunlight. My only window is west-northwest facing, I had everything hanging in baskets outside it. They might continue getting like an hour a day, but that room is also going to be cold. What should I do for light? I know of grow lights but I've never been able to find them here, and I really don't have anywhere to put it anyway. Will herbs be okay indoors? Also my basil seemed to have issues. It was fine for a while, then the stems got very woody and blackened toward the bottom, they stopped putting out many leaves, the ones they did were small, and there were black spots or the leaves were yellow. I have no idea what happened, they went from beautiful to gross in like two weeks. They're still alive but don't really produce anything useful. I cut off the top bits for sprouting but the rest is just a mess. Any ideas what happened? My mint and thyme all shriveled and died seemingly overnight too.
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Oct 16, 2013 05:14
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Yellow and black sounds like maybe too much water?
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Oct 16, 2013 09:34
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That's what I thought but I only watered when the leaves started to get droopy from dehydration, I don't know how they could be overwatered. The baskets had drain holes too.
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Oct 16, 2013 11:58
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For the sake of grow lighting, I've got two of these. They work really well and are pretty cheap. I've also tried the t-5 bulb fixtures, and they work pretty well, but for the price this one is better, more watts per $. Unfortunately the bulbs are hard to replace locally, but online is way cheaper. They worked great when I was getting my tomato and pepper seedlings ready this year. Unfortunately I started them a little too early and they got out of control.  Black spots on your basil does sound like over watering. I my plants got drenched and I didn't get the water out of the saucer, and they went yellow and black quickly. Live and learn, I guess.
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Oct 16, 2013 12:24
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I should have mentioned that basil is the only herb I can't seem to keep alive. Probably don't listen to me.
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Oct 16, 2013 12:31
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Grand Fromage posted:That's what I thought but I only watered when the leaves started to get droopy from dehydration, I don't know how they could be overwatered. The baskets had drain holes too. I've got a 5 liter pot with a bunch of basil and I give it a small splash of water (like a small drinking glass) once every two weeks or so. I'd probably have to increase that frequency if it got really hot, but currently it's constantly between 15°C-22°C where the pot is. I've only had the basil rot at the stems once and that's when I was babying (so, overwatering) it at the start. Basil also works fine with ambient light (as opposed to direct sunlight or grow lamps), if the room is otherwise light enough and the temperature is fairly stable above 15°C. It won't grow as fast, but I noticed the plants being less spindly than when they do get only a few hours of direct sunlight. Could be dependent on other circumstances though, I'm not a botanist.
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Oct 16, 2013 14:57
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Flipperwaldt posted:Leaves can droop for a number of plant-stress related reasons. You're better off looking at the soil for cues on when to water. The soil was pretty dry, but in my pots it'll be dry a while before the plant starts looking like a raisin. Hopefully these new cuttings work out. Glad to hear about ambient light, that I can do. How about other herbs? I'd like to grow thyme, mint, oregano, marjoram, and tarragon. Tarragon seems basically unkillable so far, it's the only one that survived the summer heat holocaust without any apparent ill effect.
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Oct 16, 2013 15:14
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/\/\ We grow all those herbs and more. Mint and oregano have reached weed status in my yard, for how aggressively they grow and spread. Even the thyme has started creeping all over the place. They all get part sun (a.m. sun, p.m. shade) and do just fine with no special care. A sprinkle of time release fertilizer in the spring, daily waterings during the bad heat, and that's about it. If you really like basil, and cook with it a lot, consider doing what I do and sow it from seed two or three times a year. It will bolt sooner or later (it will flower and flower and start looking lovely no matter how much you pinch the flowers), and this way you always have a nice fresh batch waiting. It grows readily and easily from seed--quickly too. I do this with cilantro as well, for the same reasons. I don't even buy coriander garden seed anymore--the coriander I get from the spice shop sprouts really readily. I found that out this year after throwing some in a pot on a whim. As for the stems turning woody and black...When the plants get big, the bottoms of the stems will get woody. The stems turning black with black spots on the leaves reminded me of the time I had a whole pot catch grey mold (Botrytis Blight) from an infected section of my peonies. Oops. Since it was a pot, I just pulled them and dumped the dirt and sowed fresh seed in new dirt. (I have to aggressively battle that bullshit in my peony bed...grrr! Those flowers are my babies!)
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Oct 16, 2013 15:51
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QuarkJets posted:I grabbed some horticulture literature at the county fair last week and got the same B.T. advice that you've suggested; thank you. My next thought was "butterfly bush", but I checked and apparently it's an invasive species. I'm still thinking that it might be worth investing in some more plants that butterflies would be attracted to, but this might just exacerbate the problem. We have a healthy bee and butterfly population, so I'm not too concerned about killing the caterpillars. BT has to be eaten, and it will only kill larvae, so you're not going to kill anything that isn't a pest if you only spray the plants you want to protect. You don't want to see Swallowtail butterflies, their caterpillars eat citrus. Bees > butterflies and moths, in my book. Also, for most plants you should be thinking very large for your pots- I use 17 gallon storage bins with holes drilled in the bottom for peppers.
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Oct 16, 2013 17:19
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So it's mid-October and my tomatoes are finally getting ripe at a rate of more than one or two a day. Maybe next year I'll plant them sooner.  On the plus side, it must be good weather for them still, because some of the plants are in flower again. I'm thinking of picking up some plastic sheeting next time I'm at the hardware store to make some sort of greenhouse/cold frame. If I can keep tomatoes growing into November or December, I will be very happy. Any advice for doing this cheaply? The bed is up against a fence on one side, but it does get pretty breezy out here due to our proximity to the bay, especially during winter.
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Oct 18, 2013 02:03
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Mizufusion posted:So it's mid-October and my tomatoes are finally getting ripe at a rate of more than one or two a day. Maybe next year I'll plant them sooner. You won't be able to make something that is warm enough to keep them growing out of regular old plastic sheeting. Once the weather gets colder they may still produce flowers but there's no way they will mature in time. It's better to break off the flowers and any excess vegetation so that the plant puts more energy into maturing the fruit that's already there. Tunnels are still a nice season extender for cold-hardy crops like leafy greens though. You can also bring them green and semi-ripe fruit indoors and they should continue to ripen. I put them on cookie racks stem side down in a single layer in my kitchen to ripen faster, while other people will store them wrapped in tissue or newspaper in 2-3 layers in the garage for longer keeping.
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Oct 18, 2013 03:54
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Mizufusion posted:So it's mid-October and my tomatoes are finally getting ripe at a rate of more than one or two a day. Maybe next year I'll plant them sooner. I agree you probably will not be able to get production into December with just sheeting. I live up near Sacramento and I am building a small greenhouse around our garden. I got the idea from this YouTube video. There are a few great how-to videos you can check out. You could make a great little something using PVC. For my greenhouse, since we already have some established plants and it's a bit of a distance I raised the two sides 2' so that it's still manageable to walk under. I should have it finished by the end of the week and will post pictures once I'm done. I also found an old wood burning stove on Craigslist for $80 that I hope to use for heat with just some smoldering wood. My goal isn't necessarily to produce tomatoes all winter, but provide a non-freezing environment for some winter veggies and my fiance's succulents.  by jvick125, on Flickr by jvick125, on Flickr
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Oct 22, 2013 02:40
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Is anyone familiar with "giant leeks"? I bought 1 at the chinese grocery store that can only be described as such. Like 3 inches diameter, not super long. More of a perfect cylinder shape and not at all bulb-like. Or maybe it's some other Allium species. I'd love to find seeds for such a thing for next spring.
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Oct 23, 2013 19:34
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Comb Your Beard posted:Is anyone familiar with "giant leeks"? I bought 1 at the chinese grocery store that can only be described as such. Like 3 inches diameter, not super long. More of a perfect cylinder shape and not at all bulb-like. Or maybe it's some other Allium species. I'd love to find seeds for such a thing for next spring. Is it something like this? http://www.diggers.com.au/shop/product/S124/LEEK%20ELEPHANT.aspx I tried them last season but leaf miners got them when they were still young, so I can't speak to growing them really.
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Oct 24, 2013 11:24
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It looks like I have melonworm on my zucchini plants. Does that seem correct?  What is the best control option? They are really tearing up the flowers something awful. I am getting rid of them every time I see them but the fuckers hide and blend in very well until they start leaving silk behind. I do not have any bee activity (ugh hand pollination) and temperature is getting low enough that the morning holds no risk of them visiting... Is there a viable pesticide option?
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Oct 24, 2013 14:21
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I use diatomaceous earth for hard to see leaf-eaters. It's actually a natural stone, comprised of the fossilized remains of diatoms. For us humans it's no more dangerous than talcum powder but for bugs it's like shards of glass that just tears them up and dehydrates them to death. Bugs have to crawl through it to be affected so sprinkling it only on the leaves and not the flowers won't affect any pollinators that happen by.
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Oct 25, 2013 02:43
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