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That Old Ganon posted:The Supersweet 100s F1 cherry tomatoes are silly, still wearing their seed cases. You can probably do the other ones as well by kneading the soil clump until it crumbles apart and the plants more or less fall out. Just don't squeeze or pinch them and prepare so you can be done putting them in soaking wet new soil in under 15 seconds or so. I've done this loads. There's risk involved, I guess. It depends how emotionally attached you are.
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Jul 2, 2022 23:21
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What does it mean when the cucumber seedling just flops over with its leaves still closed?
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Jul 4, 2022 01:09
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Visited home again this weekend. I had no idea lilies got so tall. Also weirdly the vincas I thought were on their way out look better than ever. The snapdragons got a bit tall as well and fell over from the weight, so my mom says she'll look for something to prop them up. So now I have an important question. One of the reasons I went home this weekend was to pick up the gladiolus bulbs that my mom ordered for me before my life got hosed up. I want to plant them here at my brother's house, so I picked out a spot that my grandmother had kept her garden in, she mostly grew tomatoes I think but that was like six or seven years ago anyway. It had some grass and weeds growing in it of course, but it still had some bare dirt and not fully grown in like the rest of the yard.  Yeesh, this picture quality looks way worse on the computer than it did on the phone. My battery was low and it was about 8:30 in the evening so that probably had an effect. Anyway! I got a shovel and I dug down deep and turned up all the roots from the grass/weeds growing there. But, I'm still not 100% sure what else I need to do to get the soil ready to plant these bulbs. I know there's some big chunks of dirt there that probably need to be broken up a little bit more, but I don't really have good tools to do it. I mostly have just a shovel, the little round scoop digger, and a small three pronged thing (no idea what the name is). I would kind of like for the grass to die off, but the bulbs came in the mail on Monday and that means they've been sitting around for a week. I'm not sure how long bulbs can last before they just won't grow, so I kind of want to get them in the ground sooner rather than later. Especially because the forecast is calling for rain for basically the entire second half of this week. So what else do I need to be doing to get things ready for these bulbs?
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Jul 4, 2022 01:57
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That Old Ganon posted:What does it mean when the cucumber seedling just flops over with its leaves still closed? Usually nothing good. Could be lack of water or cold shock. If it's outdoors something might have eaten the stem below the soil surface. And sometimes a new sprout just doesn't have enough reserves to open properly and start pushing out true leaves. Twelve by Pies posted:Yeesh, this picture quality looks way worse on the computer than it did on the phone. My battery was low and it was about 8:30 in the evening so that probably had an effect. Anyway! I got a shovel and I dug down deep and turned up all the roots from the grass/weeds growing there. But, I'm still not 100% sure what else I need to do to get the soil ready to plant these bulbs. I know there's some big chunks of dirt there that probably need to be broken up a little bit more, but I don't really have good tools to do it. I mostly have just a shovel, the little round scoop digger, and a small three pronged thing (no idea what the name is). I would kind of like for the grass to die off, but the bulbs came in the mail on Monday and that means they've been sitting around for a week. I'm not sure how long bulbs can last before they just won't grow, so I kind of want to get them in the ground sooner rather than later. Especially because the forecast is calling for rain for basically the entire second half of this week. Not a flower person (unless they're edible) so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Gladiolus should be planted just before the last frost so you might a bit late now. But since you have the bulbs in hand might as well go for it. I'd suggest taking the shovel and skimming the upper layer of turf off. Put it aside upside down in a pile to help kill off the grass roots. On the areas you've already turned over turn it again and pull out any root clumps, shake the dirt off them and add them to the compost pile. If you leave them chopped up in the soil the grass will return with a vengeance. The soil looks a bit heavy so if you can buy a bag or two of compost and dig it in well during a third turning. Smooth everything out and plant the bulbs. Apparently gladiolus don't compete well with weeds so and as soon as they emerge get a 3" layer of mulch around them - something like grass clippings or straw, assuming you have real straw in your area and not the weed vector horror show sold as straw here.
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Jul 4, 2022 18:49
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Chipmunks are godless and wicked creatures. I hope Alvin's pesto was bad. Spreading cat fur/dander after giving my good boy a good brushing works *really* well. Until the second after a hard rain.
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Jul 5, 2022 18:56
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Hexigrammus posted:On the areas you've already turned over turn it again and pull out any root clumps, shake the dirt off them and add them to the compost pile. If you leave them chopped up in the soil the grass will return with a vengeance. Ah, I didn't know that about the grass, I'll pull those out. I do have a couple of bags of potting soil here, I know this is outdoors and I'd probably rather have topsoil, but unfortunately my budget is extremely limited right now and this is already kind of scuffed anyway. From what I saw potting soil should work okay even if it's not in a container, it's just not ideal. I have no idea if I have real straw here or not, but I'll just grab some grass clippings when my brother mows the lawn at some point, that or I'll grab a bucket or two of mulch from the mulch pile back at home when I go to visit.
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Jul 5, 2022 19:49
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Looking to identify a pest that clips a few leaves or small branches from my pepper plants each night. Doesn't strip a plant, just a snip here, and a snip there. Not a tomato hornworm; not a rodent. What are the other candidates?
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Jul 5, 2022 20:18
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Are the leaves/branches left behind, or do they vanish?
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Jul 5, 2022 22:16
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Mostly left behind. A lot of the small stems or leaves are cut and left to fall to the ground, which I discover each morning. Some of my smaller plants keep getting clipped right in two, effectively topping them over and over.
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Jul 5, 2022 22:24
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Pioneer42 posted:Mostly left behind. A lot of the small stems or leaves are cut and left to fall to the ground, which I discover each morning. Some of my smaller plants keep getting clipped right in two, effectively topping them over and over.
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Jul 5, 2022 22:51
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Well, that rules out deer, who would be chomping off leaves and branches but then eating them. Ditto other rodents. Anybody else got ideas? Voles will clip poo poo off and only manage to drag half of it under a nearby bush or whatever, or at least the little fuckers in my garden will.
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Jul 5, 2022 22:59
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Pioneer42 posted:Mostly left behind. A lot of the small stems or leaves are cut and left to fall to the ground, which I discover each morning. Some of my smaller plants keep getting clipped right in two, effectively topping them over and over. Had one year where I came out and caught a robin in the process of murdering all my okra seedlings. I saw him just take one apart and then immediately turn to the next one and do the same. Went over to the bed, scaring him off, and it looked like he'd just gone down the row snipping up the seedlings, leaving the parts where they fell.
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Jul 5, 2022 23:10
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Pioneer42 posted:Looking to identify a pest that clips a few leaves or small branches from my pepper plants each night. Doesn't strip a plant, just a snip here, and a snip there. Not a tomato hornworm; not a rodent. What are the other candidates? Do your neighbors have cats? That sounds like some bullshit a cat would get up to. As others have said another strong option is birds. We had one year that a mockingbird would literally poke one tiny hole in every loving tomato the second it turned red and I could never catch him. Just buckets of off tomatoes with the same little "V" shaped hole in them. Whatever it is doesn't sound like it is eating the plants so that's at least a start. I'd do better with pictures. The plants themselves and the dirt around them if possible.
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Jul 6, 2022 00:28
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To celebrate finally having read this entire thread (and the landscaping and newest horticulture threads) here's a picture of today's dill harvest with some of the flowers that I got up in the background: I left some dill in there to reseed itself too. Unfortunately, I planted so much dill to make kosher pickles and the beetles got my cucumbers before I could get more than a dozen off them. So this dill is going to a friend's cocktail bar to garnish a carrot juice/coconut milk/gin cocktail (!). Also it's been 95 every day for weeks with NO rain so every single tomato that's coming in has blossom end rot despite daily deep waterings, calcium and occasional fertilizing. My Thai bird chiles are coming in, and hilariously my rainbow chard is still glossy, bright, rich and beautiful despite heat-tolerant "southern curly" mustard greens and bok choy bolting or just frying in the heat. Chioggia beets are almost ready and I don't know what I did to deserve it but they are the most iridescent pink and white perfect rings and sweet as candy directly out of the ground. Second round of radishes, bok choy, and some collards just went in the new bed (where the trellised kabocha will shade them until it's not murder sun time outside). I actually couldn't have been happier with my first vegetable garden!
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Jul 6, 2022 01:35
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You are eating food that you made happen. Isn't it wonderful?
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Jul 6, 2022 05:20
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I also got a micro grant for establishing pollinator gardens locally that offset the cost of the soil and seeds, so it's especially sweet
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Jul 6, 2022 10:31
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SubG posted:How early in the morning are you checking the plants? Because I've had birds that would clip plants, particularly when they're small, for no apparent reason. I assume they're either going after insects on the plant or maybe confusing the leaf petioles (the "stems" of the leaves) for caterpillars or something else they might want to eat. mischief posted:Do your neighbors have cats? That sounds like some bullshit a cat would get up to. As others have said another strong option is birds. We had one year that a mockingbird would literally poke one tiny hole in every loving tomato the second it turned red and I could never catch him. Just buckets of off tomatoes with the same little "V" shaped hole in them. Whatever it is doesn't sound like it is eating the plants so that's at least a start. I've gone out at night a few times to inspect with a flashlight, but it seems to be happening very early morning before I check them around 8am. Birds may be a good candidate, but we do have some neighborhood cats roaming. I've caught birds steeling tiny seedlings for what I assume is nest building in the past, but that is different from the sample carnage from this morning: 
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Jul 6, 2022 16:21
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Is this the best place to post lawn-care questions? If not, where?
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Jul 6, 2022 16:36
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FWIW, that's not what my plant-eating cat does. She bites the leaves. She has no interest at all in the stems. e: Dust the ground around your plants with flour, or with lime if you've already got some. Post pictures of footprints in the morning. ee: Absolutely post your lawn care stuff here; there's also a horticulture thread, but you'd be welcome either place. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 16:48
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Pioneer42 posted:I've gone out at night a few times to inspect with a flashlight, but it seems to be happening very early morning before I check them around 8am. Birds may be a good candidate, but we do have some neighborhood cats roaming. I've caught birds steeling tiny seedlings for what I assume is nest building in the past, but that is different from the sample carnage from this morning: First thing I'd look at is making sure they have enough water, especially with superhots like that I've always had really bad issues with leaf drop if the plants are too hot or too dry. Doesn't look like any critter damage I've seen but there's always some new fresh problem to solve with a garden.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:53
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I see my drat rear end rabbits biting the tops off everything and change their minds; sunflowers, peppers, fruit trees, blueberries.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:59
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Every year my blueberries are stolen by birds, but for some reason this year they've completely left them alone! I have so many blueberries!
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Jul 6, 2022 17:11
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My inaugural run with blueberries has been a disaster. Smaller lowbush varieties I got are alive, but have not grown at all. One highbush berry has fruit, but they are extremely small and hard — maybe from not having anyone to cross-pollinate with. Other highbush berry hasn't put out flowers or fruit and has some kind of leaf spot disease. I'm guessing it's the soil. I amended with a low pH soil mix when planting and have added sulfur periodically, but there's a lot of clay in that part of the yard, so I'm guessing they became rootbound. I've still got a pile of compost from a delivery in the spring, so I think come fall I'm just going to rip everything up and amend the whole area instead of just the spots for the berries. In brighter news, I am close to harvesting my first mammoth sunflower. There are a healthy number of ripe seeds visible, but the head hasn't turned yellow or sagged yet. Just hoping I'm able to grab it before the birds demolish it.
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Jul 6, 2022 18:02
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Pioneer42 posted:I've gone out at night a few times to inspect with a flashlight, but it seems to be happening very early morning before I check them around 8am. Birds may be a good candidate, but we do have some neighborhood cats roaming. I've caught birds steeling tiny seedlings for what I assume is nest building in the past, but that is different from the sample carnage from this morning: This looks 100% like what voles do to my plants, for what it's worth.
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Jul 6, 2022 18:36
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Ahh, the eternal question: why are my cucumber leaves yellow? Under watering? Over watering? Nutrient deficient? I suspect the last... We've had plenty of rain the past week, but not what I'd call too much, and no other plant seems to be suffering except this one row of cukes (also the same ones that just refuse to grow tall... There's like 8 cuke flower buds per vine but the vines aren't even a foot tall/long.) Going to try to make some compost tea for them, probably better then some crap miracle grow style fertilizer, yeah? I've still got a pile of last year's compost , and it must be pretty good cause like five volunteer tomato plants are growing in it from some stray seeds just from crappy grocery store tomatoes from last winter. DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Jul 8, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 14:45
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mischief posted:First thing I'd look at is making sure they have enough water, especially with superhots like that I've always had really bad issues with leaf drop if the plants are too hot or too dry. Doesn't look like any critter damage I've seen but there's always some new fresh problem to solve with a garden. Wallet posted:This looks 100% like what voles do to my plants, for what it's worth.
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Jul 7, 2022 14:58
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Spraying castor oil works for voles. What worked even better was a few years ago when I applied it more heavily than the recommended "surface spraying" rate and tilled it in. Haven't seen vole damage since... and they were really bad before. This is what I used: https://a.co/d/7xHfeIo . I forget the dilution rate and I'm too lazy to look it up, but it was pretty similar to lots of other sprays...a couple tablespoons per gallon with a squirt of dish soap or whatever.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:35
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Pioneer42 posted:I have the garden wrapped in 1" chicken wire. I suppose a vole could still get through, and most of the damage happens at the lower levels. The larger plants and those I overwintered have not had the same problems. Are there any scare tactics that might work for rodents, or should I just resort to trapping? It seems very likely that voles could get through 1" chicken wire. The only limiting factor is the size of their skull. Mine used to live (or at least hide) under the porch and I haven't really had any issues with them since I took off all the skirts and closed the underside off with 1/4" hardware cloth to 12 inches down.
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Jul 8, 2022 16:02
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Wallet posted:It seems very likely that voles could get through 1" chicken wire. The only limiting factor is the size of their skull. Also, chicken wire is only good for keeping chickens IN. Not keeping predators out or anything else. Hardware cloth is the real answer here. Whether it for your garden or chicken enclosure.
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Jul 8, 2022 16:13
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Rats can get through a hole the size of a quarter, mice a dime. 1“ for a vole would probably be doable.
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Jul 8, 2022 20:47
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Speaking of chickens, can you guys recommend me your preferred chicken manure-based fertilizer?
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Jul 8, 2022 21:17
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So kind of funny story, the spot I picked to plant my flowers I thought was the place where my grandmother grew her garden. My brother came in yesterday and went "Oh yeah, I saw you digging in the yard the other day, are you planning on planting something there?" I said that I'd already planted them since it was the spot where the garden used to be. He went "Uh, no it's not, that's the spot where they dug up the septic tank a few months ago." Maybe this is good for the flowers? 
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Jul 8, 2022 22:54
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My MIL told us at the end of a growing season several years ago that they had experienced septic tank issues. Their garden is downhill. We'd been eating poo vegetables all summer.
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Jul 9, 2022 16:22
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I mean, I use blood meal all the time as a fertilizer, so I traffic mostly in blood vegetables.
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Jul 9, 2022 16:32
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mischief posted:My MIL told us at the end of a growing season several years ago that they had experienced septic tank issues. Their garden is downhill. A decade or more ago I did some work at a combined cycle power plant in the Mexican desert. Where do you get water for steam turbines in the desert? They also had a sewage treatment plant on site, that serviced the surrounding area. The water was treated and used in the turbines. The "sludge" as they called it was trucked away and used to fertilize fields. I'm not saying that's why Chi-Chi's caused a hepatitis outbreak, but I'm also not saying that's not why Chi-Chi's caused a hepatitis outbreak.
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Jul 9, 2022 16:40
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Chad Sexington posted:I mean, I use blood meal all the time as a fertilizer, so I traffic mostly in blood vegetables. I also traffic mostly in blood and bone vegetables but poo tomatoes was a little bit bridge too far for us. They were delicious though.
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Jul 9, 2022 16:46
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My whole garden is fueled by "biosolid" compost from the city. Poo is good. Just be sure it's treated properly beforehand...
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Jul 9, 2022 16:52
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I made a big batch of rabbit turd tea this winter and fertilized all of my bonsai with it in the spring. Seems to have worked well enough
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Jul 9, 2022 17:02
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In super off grid permaculture type spots people will use a composting bucket toilet with sawdust, seal it off for a year or more when it's full (I forget the exact time recommendations), and use it as compost. I've never done it but it's a cool concept. Rabbit poop is ready as is. Chicken poop will melt a compost pile real fast and make some really good poo poo as long as it has some time to compost. Poop rules
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Jul 9, 2022 17:09
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You can compost just about any biosolids as long as you get it up to temp and then let it sit for like 2 years. The big thing is that most places just say - don't do it - because most home gardeners aren't going to get a thermometer to monitor their compost and cycle it correctly. I've spent a stupid amount of time researching how to compost my corn cat litter and not do something stupid like give myself toxoplasmosis. I'm building a fully separate compost pile for it and then going to designate it for just companion plants like various anti pest flowers and such.
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Jul 9, 2022 21:05
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