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African AIDS cum posted:Garden plot i'll be using hasn't been used in about 9 years, and is overgrown with grass and weeds, would burning it be good for the soil or should I weedwack it or do something else to get it down to dirt? Depends on the soil, but chances are good the amount of ash you create will make it too alkaline. If it's a small space weed whack it, if not brush hog it. Then get a soil test from your local ag estension to figure out what it may need, dump that on and then till it. And know that it's gonna be a very weedy first few years. This is one of the only times I use systemic herbicides. In your situation I'd wait for the weeds to sprout after tilling and then use glyphosate (round up), let it sit for a good 10 sunny days then top with compost, probably with weed barrier or cardboard underneath.
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Mar 19, 2015 17:23
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RedTonic posted:What kind of light is that? I feel like I'm looking at an X-Files scene. Lots of LED lights use blue/red leds in an attempt to have an efficient spectrum (very little green if any). Red and blue leds I believe are also more efficient (I think this is changing). 
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Mar 19, 2015 |
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Mar 19, 2015 17:33
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Duck and Cover posted:Lots of LED lights use blue/red leds in an attempt to have an efficient spectrum (very little green if any). Red and blue leds I believe are also more efficient (I think it is changing) Fascinating! Guess it makes sense that green is ignoreable.
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Mar 19, 2015 17:44
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 The light being used here is also LED.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:26
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A tomato grow-op.  Last year I had my grow lights up in a window with a lot of mints and cacti and whatnot. Turns out my neighbors all thought I was growing weed. Why else would anyone with no southern-facing windows have those lights?  I'm just grateful they didn't SWAT us or something. Now I keep my seed starting stuff in the basement, lest my nosy new neighbors narc on my mustard green sprouts.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:31
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African AIDS cum posted:Garden plot i'll be using hasn't been used in about 9 years, and is overgrown with grass and weeds, would burning it be good for the soil or should I weedwack it or do something else to get it down to dirt? Weed wack then sheet mulch.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:31
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Worst thing is thinking a glass has water in it and then drinking and realizing it's juice/milk/anything but water.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:31
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I have one of those purple LED lights for my potted plants in winter and seed starting. I got it because it had really good reviews on amazon and power is crazy expensive here so LED isn't a bad investment. Its super bright and gives my apartment a nice purple glow that is not-at-all-suspicious while I'm at work all day. Also if I look anywhere in its direction while its on then everything has a sickly green hue for about 10 seconds after I turn away. If you go to the website of the company that make it they also sell hydroponics rigs and super high quality low noise air filtration systems. Between that and me being a snarky rear end in a top hat who names his WiFi router "NYPD surveillance" I'm probably in all kinds of government databases at this point.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:38
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Weed wack then sheet mulch. Here is what I'm working with, mostly tall grass that is matted down from deer making it their bed, seems like it would be hard to weed wack it effectively? 
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Mar 19, 2015 18:54
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African AIDS cum posted:Here is what I'm working with, mostly tall grass that is matted down from deer making it their bed, seems like it would be hard to weed wack it effectively? Yeah, you're gonna need a bush hog to mow that. Or hand tools. And an 8 foot fence if you expect to have any plants left (considering that's obviously where deer are bedding down).
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Mar 19, 2015 19:28
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If you know a guy with a tractor, that would make your work much easier, too. I wouldn't recommend having at that with hand tools unless you want to develop a back condition. Definitely no personal experience with that, nosiree. 
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Mar 19, 2015 19:30
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Motronic posted:Yeah, you're gonna need a bush hog to mow that. Or hand tools. Ok I think I can borrow someones tractor for a few days, once I mow it all do I need to rake the clippings out or burn them or mulch them somehow? And then till the soil? And luckily it has a pretty high fence that should keep deer out once I make some repairs.
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Mar 19, 2015 19:40
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African AIDS cum posted:Ok I think I can borrow someones tractor for a few days, once I mow it all do I need to rake the clippings out or burn them or mulch them somehow? And then till the soil? I'd rake your clippings out and run them over a few more times to mulch them up as much as possible. Then make them the start for your compost pile. If you have the space (and it looks like you do) you can just pile them on the ground and just keep tossing your weeds/plant leftovers/kitchen vegetable scrap on it. For more containment you can try one of many other options like whacking together some wooden palettes to give yourself a couple of "stalls" so you can turn your piles. Of course if you don't want to get into all of this stuff right now just pile them up and let them rot. The bulk of your pile will be ready to use next year. As someone recently mentioned, good farmers and gardeners don't cultivate crops, they cultivate healthy soil. You get that soil in good shape and anything you throw in there is gonna grow.
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Mar 19, 2015 20:12
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Be careful with the location of the compost pile. It will attract not only mice but those deer as well. Deer will keep coming back to spots they know have food.
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Mar 19, 2015 20:29
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ashez2ashes posted:Be careful with the location of the compost pile. It will attract not only mice but those deer as well. Deer will keep coming back to spots they know have food. Yeah I'm not sure if a compost pile is a good idea for here since there are bears as well and a bear would make short work of the wire fence
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Mar 19, 2015 20:35
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RedTonic posted:What kind of light is that? I feel like I'm looking at an X-Files scene. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MU049W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is extremely bright. That picture I posted was taken with the regular lights on but the camera had to compensate so much that it makes it look like the rest of the room is dark.
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Mar 19, 2015 21:39
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That's a serious bulb... I'm just using wide-spectrum fluorescents. Anybody know anything about growing eggplant? I'm trying it for the first time this year and I'm not exactly sure where I'm putting it yet...
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Mar 19, 2015 22:22
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That's not a grow light, that's a tractor beam! I've treated eggplants like tomatoes and peppers in the past. It's part of the nightshade family (so 'maters and 'taters) and seems to share the same preferences as tomatoes and vulnerabilities, too. Full sun for best yield, partial shade reduces yield, abandon all hope if you only have dappled/partial sun, and a cage is a fine idea to keep the plant from flopping over.
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Mar 19, 2015 23:06
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African AIDS cum posted:Ok I think I can borrow someones tractor for a few days, once I mow it all do I need to rake the clippings out or burn them or mulch them somehow? And then till the soil? Mow up the weeds real good. If you can get your hands on a chisel plow, do that up and down, then sideways back and forth. Let the dirt dry out for a few days (2-3), then rake all that you mowed up back over the area and roto till it same as you plowed it, up down, back and forth. If you want to add any compost or soil amendments, do that before you till. Good luck with the deer and the bears. I hope you like venison. Been meaning to post this for a couple days. Death to snails... 
jvick fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Mar 20, 2015 |
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Mar 20, 2015 17:31
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jvick posted:Been meaning to post this for a couple days. Death to snails...
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Mar 21, 2015 09:13
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If you do compost your lawn clipping make sure you have not been using any chemical treatments. Fungicide or insecticide can last a long term, and stunt or damage pant growth. [edit] oh, i see what he was refering too. he should be fine. Other people however do need to be aware of that.
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Mar 21, 2015 13:42
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jvick posted:Been meaning to post this for a couple days. Death to snails... Yes. gently caress snails. After I put down the bait I counted over three dozen dead before I gave up counting. Every time I go out I see more too. I think that I'm going to have to replace the tomato they attacked because other pests are moving in on it due to all the damaged greenery. I decided to do a test tray to see if my seeds were any good after not exactly being stored carefully and everything sprouted. Edit: this is what is chomping on the afflicted tomato, if you can make it out in this artistically out of focus photo 
Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Mar 21, 2015 |
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Mar 21, 2015 13:45
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Death to cutworms! A couple years ago they mowed down almost all my starts. I need to take a picture of my basement set-up. My bekana and mizuna are up and running. Kinda leggy (maybe on the heating pads too long, so I've moved them off). Now I have a little desk fan near them to help them become stocky and strong. Got some dwarf French double blossom marigolds, stock, and King Richard leeks already up, too. Actually, does anyone have any advice for leeks? That's something I haven't grown before. I figured I can treat them like scallions but they require some mounding up at some point, right? A bunch of my seeds were out in the non-temperature controlled mudroom, so I'm hoping that against the odds, most of those will still germinate. If not, I haven't lost much time, since I'm starting a couple weeks ahead of time this year.
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Mar 21, 2015 17:35
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ghetto wormhole posted:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MU049W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Aaaaand ordered the smallest of those bulbs, because I am a Serious Urban Gardener. Also because there's no better way to get street cred than to make the neighbors think I'm growing pot, right? Thanks for the eggplant advice, RedTonic. I haven't decided where to put them but my entire front yard is full sun so I'm not concerned. And gently caress all garden pests but especially snails.
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Mar 21, 2015 17:56
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Does anyone have advice on getting okra seeds to germinate? I tried just sticking them in peat pellets and out of six seeds, only one sprouted and it had the misfortune of growing downward. I've read some about having to maybe break the seed's outer shell, but all the advice was contradictory, so I'm not sure what do with my second attempt.
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Mar 21, 2015 19:04
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Has anyone used a normal "daylight" led bulb as a grow light before? My wife wanted more indoor plants that the cats wouldn't eat and after research I bought a bundle of 3 citrus trees and a banana tree (all dwarf, and made for potting of course). We got south facing windows and can put them outside for 3 months of the year but when they are inside, especially during winter, they are going to need a lot of supplemental lights. However, having giant T5s randomly throughout the house kind of breaks up the whole point of having pretty plants throughout the house, so I'm setting up growlights behind the plants that can be timered for 5-8 hours every day. When looking at the available grow lights I found some $20 100w equivalent 10 year LED bulbs that are 5000k spectrum and 1600 lumens. All of that looks very correct for setting up a simple spotlight behind and slightly higher than each tree. It's not super efficient or anything but it's cheaper on the electric, wouldn't heat up the house during spring/fall and in the winter I can swap out true grow lights to give some heat to the plants. Anyone know why this wouldn't work?
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Mar 21, 2015 20:07
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Cimber posted:If you do compost your lawn clipping make sure you have not been using any chemical treatments. Fungicide or insecticide can last a long term, and stunt or damage pant growth. How long is long term? I've considered seeing if some local mowing services would dump their clippings in my yard for me to compost. If I did this, I could certainly let them cook for a year before I used them - would that be enough to break down any chemical crap in the grass? What about using fresh clippings to mulch over plots for winter - would they still be problematic in the spring?
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Mar 21, 2015 20:26
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Peristalsis posted:How long is long term? I wouldn't put it in anything that I was eating. Lawn clippings from places you don't know are potentially really horrible. People put all sorts of crazy crap on their lawn, more fertilizer than you'd ever want, more weed killer and herbicides. A year of really good hot composting would likely burn out any seeds but artificial chemicals can live a long time in soils, to the point where they potentially really never go away. Pouring them on your plants might end up burning the roots because of too much nitrogen or it might have a weed killer herbicide that could kill off anything it touches. I'm nervous enough about run off from my neighbors lawns, saving a couple bucks likely wouldn't be worth the risk unless you know exactly what the grass was treated with and when... and if you find a lawn company that desperate to dump clippings (assuming they aren't doing it as a favor for you) it likely means the city/county has told them they don't want it in their own yard waste/compost pits.... and that's a terrifying thought.
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Mar 21, 2015 20:47
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Peristalsis posted:If I did this, I could certainly let them cook for a year before I used them - would that be enough to break down any chemical crap in the grass? What about using fresh clippings to mulch over plots for winter - would they still be problematic in the spring? No, that's definitely not good enough. "Long term" meaning you need to use clipping form a lawn that hasn't been treated for a few years. The clippings from a recently treated lawn will never be okay because a lot of the herbicies and fungicides used aren't going to break down in a compost.....like pretty much ever...and will just contaminate everything else you put in there as well as the area around it from runoff. Fresh clippings for overwintering that have been treated will simply serve to leech any chemicals on them into your soil.
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Mar 21, 2015 21:08
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I'm assuming that I need to just replace this snail and little caterpillar (were those cutworms?) ravaged tomato? Another planted at the same time 
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Mar 21, 2015 21:38
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Cross-post from the Plants in General thread, at the recommendation of a fellow goon. We bought a house last summer with an apple tree in the backyard. The apples either fell before they were ripe or they were lovely, small, tasteless apples. I wonder if pruning the tree will help? I read a few guides around but the information in those is inconsistent at best.  This is the result of my attempt to prune the lower branches. If it doesn't help with the fruits, I'll at least be able to walk around/under the tree.  This is what I hope it ends up looking like. Lots of room under the tree, but a flat and low top half and easily accessible fruits. Is this doable at all? Should only a few branches per season? Finally, is this pale green film thing something to be worried about? 
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Mar 22, 2015 00:58
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Well.......not sure where you are, but with the snow on the ground it appears you jumped the gun on pruning. Also, that tree looks pretty old. Most apple varieties don't produce well for more than a decade and a half. You'll also need to do a whole lot more work up higher to clean out all of that rampant inside growth. The idea of pruning a fruit tree is to remove enough to leave the bare minimum for what is necessary for a full harvest of "market size" fruit on the tree so that it's energy isn't going into a bunch of extra fruit that is bringing down the average size. As to the "green stuff" it's moss and lichen, which is in indication that the tree is distressed and is exacerbated when the canopy is too closed (as yours is). Some is unavoidable, but it looks like it's pretty well covered. There's not much you can do about it other than pruning the tree properly and hoping, but my experience with apple trees would have me cutting that thing to the ground at the end of this summer if a pruning doesn't make drastic improvements. You can get another pretty inexpensively and have it producing in a few years.
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Mar 22, 2015 02:19
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Does any one have an easy, cheap DUI composting solution? I've seen a few more on the net, and wondered if there were any other ways that goons use. Right now I already have a big sealable plastic container with holes drilled in it... it's about half fully at this point. I just toss stuff in, roll it around twice a week, and that's it. Soon I might be moving to a place with an actual backyard, and will no longer be confined by hiding my composter in a small corner and only being able to container garden about 3-4 plants. So I was wondering about ways to build bigger ones. Right now the idea I had was basically like one of these: Except my plan would be to screw something in to one of the boards that I could wrap wire around/through to be able to open it up, dump everything out, and shovel back on to sift it around (Feels like this would be easier, and also not make me have to mess with tying wire through the compost). My main thing I was wondering was if I would need to have this lifted from the ground. I could get pallets from work to try to do this... and would try to put something beneath to catch any compost tea for use... but I didn't know if this was a good idea or what. I'm incredibly new to gardening (just started last year, only grew red leaf lettuce, poblano peppers, hot banana peppers, and cherry tomatoes) and just wanted to make sure I don't do some kind of huge gently caress up at the new house, and attract a bunch of snakes or whatever from my composting. There is a big great dane that loves and is curious about everything so I would rather not somehow have a danger zone for her to have to avoid (and yes I won't let her near the garden or compost in general, just don't want to ENCOURAGE snakes or anything to gather). Thanks for any help to my dumb question, I'm just a crappy brand new gardening goon that knows little to nothing (Except for an unending hatred of loving horn worms). MaxDuo fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 22, 2015 06:29
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MaxDuo posted:Does any one have an easy, cheap DUI composting solution? I've seen a few more on the net, and wondered if there were any other ways that goons use. Right now I already have a big sealable plastic container with holes drilled in it... it's about half fully at this point. I just toss stuff in, roll it around twice a week, and that's it. Thanks for this, I was about to come in here and post the same thing. I am moving in with my girlfriend soon, who has a backyard and some raised beds. What kind of container is it, just a bucket? I'm interested in a low cost, low to medium volume DIY composting bin that's dog proof. I've done container gardening before, but soon I'll be plunging headfirst into hopefully year round gardening. I've bookmarked the thread, but would be keen to know some good newbie resources on gardening that garden goons prefer. I plan on heading to the local nursery to consult with them on what to plant when, etc depending on my zone (Western MD). Planet X fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 22, 2015 15:25
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My compost is literally three pieces of rebar and some chicken wire in a hoop. I think it cost about $10. You can make composting into a really complicated affair or you can just let nature do its thing.
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Mar 22, 2015 16:21
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Is ACQ treated lumber acceptable for use in planter boxes and compost bins?
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Mar 22, 2015 20:33
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RedTonic posted:Actually, does anyone have any advice for leeks? That's something I haven't grown before. I figured I can treat them like scallions but they require some mounding up at some point, right? Are you growing them from seeds or buying starts? I started my leek seeds a couple of weeks ago when I put in my onion seeds, though I don't now if they have to be started then. I've never done anything but transplant them and treat them like onions. I think mounding up dirt around them is supposed to keep more of their stems white or something, but I'm not sophisticated enough to know if this matters to the final flavor or is just an aesthetic thing. The potato leek soup I've had that was made with my non-mounded leeks has always tasted fine to me. Mine don't get as big as the ones in the store - maybe that's related to my lack of mounding, too. Edit: Sorry, just saw that you already planted seeds. If you mound them and stuff, let me know if it makes a difference for you, but I think you can just grow them without worrying about it, if you don't have time to fuss over them. Peristalsis fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Mar 22, 2015 |
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Mar 22, 2015 23:01
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I have a slow, cool compost pile hanging out in a corner of my yard; it doesn't get big enough to stay hot but it does break stuff down in time. The worms love it. I started a trash-can-with-holes-in-it bin, but it filled with weeds, yard waste and chicken poop so fast that I barely turned it before it got too heavy and awkward to deal with. Compost happens naturally; you just gotta poke it every so often. But I do like peoples' pallet compost bins. When done well they look very neat and tidy while also being useful.
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Mar 23, 2015 00:25
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Spending $400 (ok more like $500) on huge indoor pots for trees is totally a rational thing to do and is just encouraging my wife's nesting instincts, right? It's totally not a way too expensive setup that only feeds my veggie and fruit gardening addictions. I need reassurance people!
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Mar 23, 2015 01:43
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Anubis posted:Spending $400 (ok more like $500) on huge indoor pots for trees is totally a rational thing to do and is just encouraging my wife's nesting instincts, right? It's totally not a way too expensive setup that only feeds my veggie and fruit gardening addictions. I need reassurance people! My grow light alone cost that much. That being said I'm not the shining example of frugality.
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Mar 23, 2015 02:01
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