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Lhet posted:Just picked up and planted a couple bare root apple trees and it looks like the forecast shows a drop to 21F with lots of snow later this week (Seattle). I'm a little worried about the cold given they aren't established at all yet. Was thinking about picking up some chicken manure and layering that then some mulch to hopefully generate some heat, but not sure if there's anything else I should consider? You could get some of those tree base wraps too. I don’t know that the snow will stick, but that would give you an air barrier too and help trap some heat around the base and keep the deluge from freezing the roots before March. Where did you pick up your trees? I’m looking to replace a few shrubs and a messed up looking tree(?) and was hoping to find a good nursery that’s hopefully less expensive than Swanson’s for it.
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Feb 9, 2021 02:09
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Long lost twins reunited at last or what???
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Feb 9, 2021 03:53
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Long lost twins reunited at last or what??? Right? Only time it’s been closer was in high school where a kid in the grade behind had almost the exact same name except for the last letter of our last names. And they were only different by a single letter of the alphabet. It was pretty strange. In plant news, all my basement peppers have gotten haircuts and chopped down to base stalk in prep for potting up and moving outside. I’ve gotten a lot of mild, a ton of Bird Aji, and a decent amount of super hots this winter. 7/10 would basement pepper again.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:08
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Long lost twins reunited at last or what??? Jhet posted:You could get some of those tree base wraps too. I don’t know that the snow will stick, but that would give you an air barrier too and help trap some heat around the base and keep the deluge from freezing the roots before March.
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Feb 9, 2021 04:50
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Lhet posted:Just picked up and planted a couple bare root apple trees and it looks like the forecast shows a drop to 21F with lots of snow later this week (Seattle). I'm a little worried about the cold given they aren't established at all yet. Was thinking about picking up some chicken manure and layering that then some mulch to hopefully generate some heat, but not sure if there's anything else I should consider? Put a nice thick layer of mulch around them, they'll be fine. I'd avoid directly composting raw chicken manure over the roots - you might end up burning them. This cold snap is probably going to hammer some of our established fruit and berry bushes - the mild winter temperatures had the buds swelling on some of them and they might be far enough along to be vulnerable to extreme (for us) cold. You could wrap the trees in burlap if the buds are swollen and starting to show colour - wrapping helps to minimize wind damage in cold conditions. The only tree I'm half way worried about is a rare, very slow growing fig but it's still nicely dormant and just got a huge pile of leaf mulch packed around it. Now I have to go out and finish putting tarps over the winter brassicas and rhutabagas. Barely had enough chopped leaves reserved for a cold snap.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:07
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Lhet posted:hahaha, yeah it seems so! Probably cheaper. Swanson’s is expensive and $45 sounds like a good price. I’ll check them out when I’m buying the shrubs.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:07
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Lhet posted:Just picked up and planted a couple bare root apple trees and it looks like the forecast shows a drop to 21F with lots of snow later this week (Seattle). I'm a little worried about the cold given they aren't established at all yet. Was thinking about picking up some chicken manure and layering that then some mulch to hopefully generate some heat, but not sure if there's anything else I should consider? They’re dormant, they don’t need anything. And they’re surely frost hardy. There’s a reason that trees are planted this time of year.
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Feb 9, 2021 11:11
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Any recs for pesticides that will kill spider mites? Got some of them on my purple zebra plant, and what we've tried so far cause a friend gave it to us a year ago, Nature's Care, doesn't seem to be doing anything  Luckily they seem to be localized to only a few of the stalks, and I'll probably do some aggressive pruning this weekend. The most I've seen upon inspection was 4 little fuckers on a single leaf, so it's not as bad as when I google spider mites, bit Sylvia(the plant) is definitely not doin super hot.
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Feb 10, 2021 13:31
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A basic mix of water + gentle/bio soap + oil (neem oil is best because they say it has anti-pest/anti-fungal properties, but even a light veg oil would work) works against most soft-bodied pests. I use ~1 tablespoon of each in ~1 liter of water, does great against mites Only caveat is that the neem oil can be harsh against some leaves - it does nothing to lemon leaves, but has burned the underside of my avocado leaves before. You can always spray it off after a few minutes though
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Feb 10, 2021 13:48
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Nosre posted:A basic mix of water + gentle/bio soap + oil (neem oil is best because they say it has anti-pest/anti-fungal properties, but even a light veg oil would work) works against most soft-bodied pests. Oh poo poo, I think you reminded me we actually have some neem oil under our kitchen sink!  Thanks!
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Feb 10, 2021 14:11
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Coming from the cannabis industry all I really know about neem is that it's a potential cause of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. Is it okay to use on plants you're not smoking?
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Feb 10, 2021 14:18
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Organic Lube User posted:Coming from the cannabis industry all I really know about neem is that it's a potential cause of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. Is it okay to use on plants you're not smoking? Wait, what? Can you elaborate?
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Feb 10, 2021 14:20
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Organic Lube User posted:Coming from the cannabis industry all I really know about neem is that it's a potential cause of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. Is it okay to use on plants you're not smoking? Yes. It can safely be used on food plants up until the day you’re harvesting. This is for pure neem oil and not 3 in 1 pesticide sprays which will have other restrictions. Neem oil is broken down in digestion like other vegetable oils.
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Feb 10, 2021 16:41
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Nosre posted:I use ~1 tablespoon of each in ~1 liter of water, does great against mites I'm a lazy bum and I don't use it that much so I just buy it pre-diluted but there are definitely some plants that don't love it. I have also had good results using (diluted) Dr Bronner's but I don't know if that would irritate the same things neem oil does.
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Feb 11, 2021 00:03
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Looking for some help. Recently we had a Hello Fresh box for Thai Curry. It came with some fresh Thai Basil leaves in one of those herb boxes. I want to make the dish again and I've been trying to find some fresh Thai basil. Problem is I don't really have any fancy groceries around me so I figured I'd think about growing some. It looks like I can get seeds off Amazon for $6ish. https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Basil-Seeds/s?k=Thai+Basil+Seeds I thought I'd ask here if anyone has suggestions. I don't know if there's lots of Thai basil breeds out there and I need to do more to figure out which one it was. I don't know if there's a lot of taste difference between the different ones. I don't know if ordering seeds on Amazon is a good idea either. Anyone have some thoughts?
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Feb 15, 2021 03:03
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You can probably find thai basil at any local big box for less. It's an impressively easy plant to grow and makes your kitchen smell awesome.
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Feb 15, 2021 03:26
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regular Mint and peppermint into big jugs yesterday, after rain the dino kale seeds and bird-eaten beet starters go in
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Feb 15, 2021 03:27
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Earth posted:Looking for some help. Recently we had a Hello Fresh box for Thai Curry. It came with some fresh Thai Basil leaves in one of those herb boxes. I want to make the dish again and I've been trying to find some fresh Thai basil. Problem is I don't really have any fancy groceries around me so I figured I'd think about growing some. It looks like I can get seeds off Amazon for $6ish. Do you have a non-fancy grocery around? I find that most Asian grocers carry it regularly. Saying that, it’s a great smelling plant. I would recommend not buying seeds off Amazon and getting them from a seed supplier. Kitazawa has it for sure and a bunch of other normal seed places will also carry seeds. Most garden centers will have starts for it when they start to open. Big Box parking lots will be hit and miss.
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Feb 15, 2021 03:34
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It's also worth noting that, confusingly, the kind of basil most commonly used in Thai cooking is not Thai basil. The basil most commonly used in Thai recipes is กะเพรา or kaprao, which is usually called holy basil or Thai holy basil in English. Thai basil is Ocimum basilicum (v. thyrsiflora), and is the stuff with small pointy leaves that smell of anise/licorice. Holy basil is O. tenuiflorum, and has larger, slightly fuzzy leaves and a spicy scent.
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Feb 15, 2021 06:37
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Jhet posted:Do you have a non-fancy grocery around? I find that most Asian grocers carry it regularly. There is a couple stores, but they're in the 30-45 minute drive instead of the 5-15 minute drive so it's more of an investment. Not saying I won't do it, it's just a rarer trip that requires a reason to make. Thai basil might end up being that reason to make the trip. Is there a reason to not buy on Amazon? Do they provide bad seeds? SubG posted:It's also worth noting that, confusingly, the kind of basil most commonly used in Thai cooking is not Thai basil. The basil most commonly used in Thai recipes is กะเพรา or kaprao, which is usually called holy basil or Thai holy basil in English. Good things to know. I only know Hello Fresh called it "Thai Basil" and I don't think I saved the container it came in. Looking at the photo on the recipe the basil has reddish color on the top of the stalks. Might be the Siam Queen or the Thai Red Stem here: https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_basil.html
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Feb 15, 2021 16:26
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Earth posted:Is there a reason to not buy on Amazon? Do they provide bad seeds? Seed companies will have QC on their seeds. Amazon just sells things from other places and 3rd parties and they don’t require the seeds to actually be right or even germinate. It’s one of those areas where people will pass off garbage as good. It might be fine, but the odds are worse than if you order from a garden supply or seed store. Not to mention you’ll probably pay less from one of the seed catalogs.
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Feb 15, 2021 16:44
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any reason you wouldn’t order from like eBay or Etsy or whatever? Honestly if you don’t want to do it from seed I’d just wait a couple weeks until they’re in every nursery. I’m spoiled because Mahoney’s has big selection and supply chain compared to most places in New England, but every year they’ve usually got like six varieties of basil to choose from in like four sizes all spring-summer long Or just like loving Walmart/Home Depot/Lowe’s/etc will have seeds right now. They’ll probably have Italian basil, probably either Thai or holy, probably not both. Or yes, you can find it in a grocery and rescue/propagate it. If an Asian grocer isn’t in the cards for you, I’d consider looking at Whole Foods as far as places likely to stock Thai/holy basil and have plants healthy enough to save. Maybe check online.
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Feb 15, 2021 20:32
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Yeah, my grocery store has their seed rack up and full right now too. It’s mostly the common stuff, but there were a couple things on the less common side of seeds. I might take a punt on eBay or Etsy seeds depending on reviews and what they’re selling. If it’s a good listing with a lot of information it could work out. But only for hard to find seeds and I wouldn’t count on them working out. I’ve ordered my fair share of dud seeds from all these places and I stick to more verifiable sources if possible. Especially when some of these seed places will charge all of $4 shipping for a big envelope full of seeds. No reason to risk it for seeds already available.
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Feb 15, 2021 22:04
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for the money try looking for potted/bare root plants too. EBay’s got holy basil seeds for days for 2.99+free shipping. Looks like people will sell you an established plant for anywhere from $4 to $15 to $45 to $99 it’s not a hard plant to get
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Feb 15, 2021 22:34
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Earth posted:Good things to know. I only know Hello Fresh called it "Thai Basil" and I don't think I saved the container it came in. Looking at the photo on the recipe the basil has reddish color on the top of the stalks. Might be the Siam Queen or the Thai Red Stem here: https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_basil.html Basically: in America Thai basil is used as the generic "Asian basil", although Vietnam is really the only Asian cuisine that uses Thai basil more than holy basil. Holy basil originally comes from India, but is the most commonly used basil cultivar in most of Southeast Asian cuisines, including Thailand. On the upside, if you're trying to grow only one of them Thai basil tends to be more prolific. It's a cultivar/variant of Ocimum basilicum, which is the same species as all of the larger-leafed Italian basils most Americans/Europeans think of if you say "basil" with no qualifications. In my experience Thai basil is slightly less vigorous than e.g. Genovese basil (which will absolutely take over a garden if you let it) but it still produces better than holy basil, which grows more slowly and isn't as tolerant as getting hacked back--I'll take a O. basilicum stem down to the soil when it starts getting too woody, and it'll almost always re-grow more harvestable basil (unless it's super hot, in which case it'll either give up or try to bolt), but holy basil doesn't seem to like trying to recover from that kind of aggressive pruning. As for seed sources, Kitazawa is a great source if they have what you want. I've got a couple things from them where it turned out I just didn't like the plant itself, but I've never had any problems with the quality of the seeds--like they wouldn't germinate, turned out not to be what they were sold as, or that kind of thing. Which are problems I've definitely had from the "random guy selling seeds on amazon/eBay" method. And several of the varieties of seeds I got from Kitazawa have turned out to be my favourites for gardening--one of their varieties of bok choy was super productive and resisted bolting way longer than any of my other greens last year, I've been seed saving and propagating long beans I originally got from them as seed, and the best bitter melons I've grown myself have come from Kitazawa seeds (which I've also been propagating for several years now).
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Feb 16, 2021 01:52
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RED Gardens has me thinking about building a pretty large 600+ square foot polytunnel greenhouse because it would help me with the short growing season and protect many of my plants from deer. Explain to me why this is dumb and how I should do it. I've found an in-province supplier who sells custom poly tarps for greenhouses.
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Feb 16, 2021 20:59
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CommonShore posted:RED Gardens has me thinking about building a pretty large 600+ square foot polytunnel greenhouse because it would help me with the short growing season and protect many of my plants from deer. You should do it and it's not dumb at all. Unless you have 900 sq ft for a backyard. Then you should maybe build some cold frames instead.
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Feb 17, 2021 01:52
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Yeah do it. My brother in law up in White Horse has a greenhouse, and he's growing tomatoes, zucchinis and hot peppers quite successfully. If you're far enough north, for a lot of vegetables it's the only way.
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Feb 17, 2021 09:06
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CommonShore posted:RED Gardens has me thinking about building a pretty large 600+ square foot polytunnel greenhouse because it would help me with the short growing season and protect many of my plants from deer. Not dumb at all. How you do it depends on your budget. 6 mil vapour barrier, pvc conduit, rebar, and greenhouse clips from AliExpress work fine for cheap tunnels but they aren't as sturdy as wood, metal, and thicker greenhouse poly and you have to put up up with white lettering. You have to pay attention to ventilation in the summer so you don't pre-cook your crops. Patrick Doolan makes extensive use of polytunnels to extend his Zone 5 growing season and talks a bit about building them.
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Feb 17, 2021 17:14
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Hexigrammus posted:Not dumb at all. How you do it depends on your budget. 6 mil vapour barrier, pvc conduit, rebar, and greenhouse clips from AliExpress work fine for cheap tunnels but they aren't as sturdy as wood, metal, and thicker greenhouse poly and you have to put up up with white lettering. You have to pay attention to ventilation in the summer so you don't pre-cook your crops. Yeah I'm Zone 3 Hardy. It was -35C last night (worried about my fall planted saplings  ). The place that supplies the ply sells 12 and 20 mil and I think for hte size of a tunnel I'd want it would only be about $500 for the poly (plus the gas for a 6 hour round trip in my truck RIP).I have the skills, tools, and space to do the wood construction on my own. I might even go bigger than 800 feet actually. Once the snow starts to recede I'll maybe get out there and start measuring things. I'll check out the channel!
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Feb 17, 2021 17:39
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Ok here's one for you I'm doing actual planning and scheduling in my garden for the first time this year, using a spread sheet to calculate when I should plant/transplant things based on estimated germination/maturity times. How far in advance of last frost do all of you typically start your tomatoes? Because in past years I've started them in early March, always just going by feel, but my spreadsheet is telling me to start early May (with a June 7 last frost) no matter how I crunch the numbers, whether working backwards from the 80 day maturity time targeted from late July or using other logics based on the frost date for transplant. What's the hole in my logic here?
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Feb 19, 2021 19:59
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CommonShore posted:Ok here's one for you I'm starting mine today, along with peppers and eggplant. Will transplant from trays to smallish pots in a month, then plant out another month or so after. I want them big before it gets warm/sunny enough for then to start fruiting. (zone 7b, NYC)
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Feb 19, 2021 20:06
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CommonShore posted:Ok here's one for you Most of my seed packets say how early before the average last frost to plant. My hot peppers say 10 weeks, some tomatoes say 8 weeks, some say 6 weeks, etc. Already got little baby peppers, sun gold tomatoes and tomatillos under the growlight, since last frost is mid-April here.
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Feb 19, 2021 20:23
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CommonShore posted:Ok here's one for you I started mine last week for z8a maritime. They won't go into the ground until May at the earliest, but I like to grow them big before transplant to make for a longer fruiting season. When I was in the Midwest (z5-6) we'd start them in March to go in around May 15-31 depending on where we were exactly. Peppers I'll start even earlier for the very long 120d types (January), and then put them into larger pots twice. 12" tall plants seem to recover better to transplanting and the weather change. Honestly, I think the problem is the 80d mark from germination. You want to add at least 4 weeks to the front end for tomatoes (I do 6-8 weeks). I've always taken that day count to be days since transplanting outside. Ideal conditions will hit that 80d from germination, but growing outside is anything but ideal conditions.
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Feb 19, 2021 20:33
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I'm in z4b and I'll be starting in the next couple of weeks (a few things this weekend). I really need more lights so I can get started a bit earlier. I brought two peppers in in the fall, so I'm hoping they will hit the ground running. This year I'm going to war with the squash vine borer. Last year they killed all of my summer squash and nearly killed my winter, but I cut them out. Not this time you bastards! I think our non food beds are gonna look nice(r) this year. We planted a lot of self sowing annuals last year and 300 bulbs in the fall. Our prairie patch should really take off.
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Feb 19, 2021 20:47
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We harvested out first Spacemaster cucumber from the new plant. It starts  Since the tomato bush isn't doing very well in the tent, and I'm not a big tomato person anyway, I'm gonna yank it and plant another cucumber so that we can have two plants on rotation. I'm just gonna spend the rest of my life hand-pollinating cucumbers every morning. The Fordhook lima bean has loads of little buds and some flowers, so I'm hoping that it starts blowing up soon. We planted it about two months ago, so it's almost time to produce.
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Feb 19, 2021 21:18
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ok sounds good! I'll continue with my initial plan of a mid-march planting for an early june transplant, but this year I'll keep better records of what I actually did and when things start to happen
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Feb 19, 2021 23:15
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Just planted in trays, 5x each: 3 types of tomatoes (Early Girl, Yellow Pear, Paul Robeson) Generic sweet frying peppers Little Thai eggplants Habaneros Jalapenos Cayenne I also have long beans, nasturtiums, and a bunch of herbs to start in a month, and some lettuce and mustard to direct sow when it's warm enough. And I will probably get some strawberry seeds, which I forgot to buy earlier. I will only be able to keep two of each of these to maturity, because I'm limited by doing this in containers on a roof. Using a total of 12 7-gallon felt bags for the tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplant, and beans, with everything else in 1-gallon pots, I'm looking at having to buy like 16 cubic feet of potting soil on top of what I already have, which is gonna run me around $200. And then I have to lug all that dirt up two flights of stairs and then down a flight of fire escape stairs.
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Feb 20, 2021 00:07
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showbiz_liz posted:Little Thai eggplants Anyway, I started some seeds last week. Pretty much the usual stuff: couple kinds of tomato, couple kinds of cuke, Japanese eggplant, bunch of peppers. Gonna try growing some ají amarillos this year, which is a little unusual--I grow a bunch of C. annuum and C. chinense peppers, but typically not C. baccatum. Also starting some tepins, which are a cultivar of C. annuum but not one I usually grow (habs and Thai birds are the two cultivars that I grow every year I can, just because they're the ones I use the most in the kitchen). Like last year I'm anticipating growing proportionally more from direct sowing than in most past years--local nurseries are open this year, but I'm not planning doing any in-person shopping for seedlings.
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Feb 20, 2021 01:10
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Finally found a youtuber who is dealing with conditions similar to mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHbaW1Ea_O4 that he's growing poo poo in this ungodly cold snap we've had is bonkers, let alone in a passive greenhouse.
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Feb 20, 2021 16:04
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