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I have an organic garden. We just kicked off this winter's planting... the plants that came up, squash, beans, cucumbers are all really yellow / light green in the leaves. Can you guys tell me what I can spray on it to make them happy again? I put handfuls of microlife on it already.  
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Oct 9, 2012 18:19
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dhrusis posted:I have an organic garden. We just kicked off this winter's planting... the plants that came up, squash, beans, cucumbers are all really yellow / light green in the leaves. Can you guys tell me what I can spray on it to make them happy again? I put handfuls of microlife on it already. Alternatively your soil may lack nitrogen and/or minerals (excess water prevents their uptake). If you're not watering excessively then you can give them a bit of a balanced fertilizer with nitrogen and give them a spray with epsom salts.
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Oct 9, 2012 18:45
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Agreed on the overwatering. Rule of thumb is 1 inch per week. Stick your finger in a few inches and if it feels moist at all don't water and see if things improve. Microlife appears to be a balanced organic fertilizer in granule form so it may take longer to become available to the plants too.Shithouse Dave posted:I'm also in BC (sunshine coast), and my Roma tomatoes are ripening up really nicely. Unfortunately, the deer have discovered my yard and last night some rear end in a top hat venison steak waiting to happen ate a bunch of my tomatoes, the tops off the bell peppers, kicked over my teapot fountain, knocked over all the cornstalks and took a huge dump in the middle of the lawn. Fucker didn't so much as touch the blackberries I'm slowly clearing. Deer are bastards. I have a few that make a regular patrol through my neighborhood and leave free fertilizer in the same spots each time. They will mow down anything you have growing that is tender. Once the stuff at their head level is gone they will start going for the ground level lettuces and strawberry plants. Do yourself a favor and rig up some kind of fence now.
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Oct 9, 2012 19:21
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There's always the "killing two birds with one stone" option as well. e: you just might have to be Cajun to make this one work though 
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Oct 9, 2012 19:27
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The past few nights it's been well below freezing. The garden is decimated, save for the Rosemary and Oregano plants. I had thought prior to rip out the old plants and toss on a compost heap, but upon further review the tomatoes, and cuke vines are so nuked that I may simply take a spade to them to chop up and then till in the spring.
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Oct 10, 2012 00:43
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dhrusis posted:I have an organic garden. We just kicked off this winter's planting... the plants that came up, squash, beans, cucumbers are all really yellow / light green in the leaves. Can you guys tell me what I can spray on it to make them happy again? I put handfuls of microlife on it already.
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Oct 12, 2012 22:08
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Another issue could be that the compost you added was not broken down enough, if there was a lot of woody material it would be stealing the Nitrogen from the soil to decompose it, so you would wind up with stunted plants. Hey, I harvested my indian corn! 
Rule .303 fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Oct 13, 2012 |
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Oct 13, 2012 15:07
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Rule .303 posted:Hey, I harvested my indian corn! That looks so cool! I can contribute a picture too, I pulled the longest carrot of the year yesterday. This was my first year gardening, I'm definitely going to plant some different colors of heirloom carrots next year. 
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Oct 13, 2012 16:22
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Heirlooms are fun, it's like getting a present from a distant, but possibly really cool, relative. You aren't quite sure what it is until you unwrap the box, but it might be fantastic, and it might be socks with toes...two sizes too small.... I've been trying various heirloom tomatoes and they haven't had enough sun in the last couple of years to get them ripe. Nice carrot. We have too much clay around here to get pretty carrots.
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Oct 13, 2012 18:03
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Jealous of that carrot. I've been gardening for years with stupidly nice dirt and I still make lovely carrots. I finally gave up on my.... thicket of tomatoes. It reached critical mass with this last bit of warm weather and finally starting popping lines in the trellises. We had one better boy hybrid that got over 9' tall and was producing fruit bigger than my hand. That poor trellis string never stood a chance. I'm still trying to find the best solution for the string. Nylon, even UV treated, dry rots and gets torn up by the sun. Natural fibers, like jute or hemp, get done in by moisture and general weakness. I refuse to spend $50 for that stupid nylon netting but drat if it doesn't look nice. Might just switch to staking each plant next year but I worry that I'd outgrow the supports pretty quickly with the way these drat tomatoes grow. Heirlooms are nice but they're a lot of work compared to more modern plants. I always throw a couple of heirloom tomato plants in just for some neat variety but it's always pretty hit or miss on how they yield. I use a cucumber heirloom from the 1700's that is loving amazing with yield, resilience, and consistency though, so maybe it's just my poo poo luck with tomato growing. I mostly count on stable hybrids these days, but I still raise everything strictly organically and as naturally as possible. I personally think I can taste a difference. mischief fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Oct 13, 2012 |
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Oct 13, 2012 19:19
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If you're going to use string to tie up your tomatoes, have you looked into using paracord? Commercial paracord can hold a ridiculous amount of weight (550 pounds in fact), is weather resistant, and a 50 foot length can be found for about $4 on Amazon.
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Oct 14, 2012 01:51
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Rule .303 posted:Hey, I harvested my indian corn! that's really pretty! Foreigner question: is it for eating, or just decoration?
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Oct 14, 2012 02:16
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Both. I bought my original seed corn as decoration from the grocery store. Indian corn is called "flint" because it is really hard, but you can eat it when it is in the milk stage and still tender, just about the time the silk is shrivelling, and you can eat it on the cob. (The other, commercial, eating corn is called "dent" because it it softer and the kernels have dents and tend to not convert the sugars to starch so quickly and is sweeter.) If you let it get mature, when the silk dies, or even wait until the ears start sagging off the stalks you can use them for decorations, or strip the husk off, let it dry a couple of weeks and shell it off the cob. I suppose I could make hominy with lye, but I just grind it for corn meal. (I don't care for hominy) I make a killer cornbread with it. I only grind a couple of cups at a time because with the germ in it it will go rancid pretty quick when you grind it for meal. I keep back a pint or so for seed for the next year. Mischief, My dad bought some wire mesh from the local concrete culvert company and bent them into 3 Ft diameter tubes and used them for tomato cages. They last forever and they hold up lots of weight.
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Oct 14, 2012 20:46
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mischief posted:Heirlooms are nice but they're a lot of work compared to more modern plants. I always throw a couple of heirloom tomato plants in just for some neat variety but it's always pretty hit or miss on how they yield. I use a cucumber heirloom from the 1700's that is loving amazing with yield, resilience, and consistency though, so maybe it's just my poo poo luck with tomato growing. I mostly count on stable hybrids these days, but I still raise everything strictly organically and as naturally as possible. I personally think I can taste a difference. Yeah, I'm gonna give it a shot next year. My boss gave me an heirloom brandywine tomato from his garden that was above and beyond every fruit or vegetable I've ever tasted. It was quite an experience.
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Oct 14, 2012 22:46
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Hey guys, I couldn't find the garden thread, so I apologize if this does not belong here. My 'butterfly garden' was taken over by these guys. Any ideas what they are? I live in California if it matters.   Thanks.
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Oct 14, 2012 23:59
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Figure I would post this here as well the foraging thread. Anyone grow mushrooms before? This is sort of gardening ... I have a tree stump on the side of my house. It was a Russian olive (a noxious weed in Colorado) I had cut down about two and a half years ago. It was right next to my foundation and just generally ugly. I did not have the stump cut out because it was going to cost almost as much as I paid to have the tree cut down. The damned thing will not die. When it was cut down we painted the top with some tree killer of some kind, I don’t remember. The thing was sending off suckers / re-generating from the stump within a few weeks. I tried to just stay ontop of picking the suckers figuring it would eventually die but it has not. Early this summer I doused all of the living branches / leaves / suckers with roundup 3 or 4 times. The leaves I sprayed would die, but new ones would just pop right up. I have a zombie Russian olive tree stump. I thought about burning it out but think this would piss of the fire department, I live in pretty much classic suburbs so that was out. Somehow I got turned on to the idea of growing mushrooms in the stump to help speed up the decay. So this is what I am trying to do! I could only find one post on the entire internet about what type of mushroom might grown in a russian olive, and it was a post on a mushroom forum from another guy in Colorado trying to do the same thing as me. They suggested that oyster mushrooms should grow in just about anything and do well in the climate so I ordered a batch of blue oyster spawn (cowbell not included). There was not any follow up on if it worked or not I have only tried to grow mushrooms once before and it was when I was a teenager trying to get my kicks.... it did not work. I’m a responsible adult now  and just want to kill this tree stump / get some tasty gourmet mushrooms. Anyone done anything like this before? I hope it works. Step one, drill around 100 1 inch holes in and around stump:  Step two, hammer in 100 wooden dowls that have blue oyster spawn growing on them:  Step three, cover spawn hole with cheese wax to keep competing fungi out (I did not have any cheese wax so I used the wife's scented candle):  Why this will work: Oyster mushrooms should grow in just about any wood and I inoculated this stump with a whole bunch of of it. The stump has good moisture content, I assume the roots are still living Why this will not work: I have no idea what I am doing. It’s a bad time of year (about to get cold so I am not sure the spawn will have adequate time to spread throughout the stump) Russian Olive tree is not totally dead. Russian Olive trees are not good for growing any mushroooms. TLDR; I am trying to grow oyster mushrooms in a old tree stump, wish me luck! Will report back in spring with results. spandexcajun fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Oct 16, 2012 |
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Oct 16, 2012 02:22
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coyo7e posted:Overwatering and/or lack of nutrients. You shouldn't be "tossing a handful of microlife" onto them, you need to mix it into the soil when you put transplants in, or get a nice layer over the whole area and then cover it with mulch and then correctly water (overwatering washes away nutrients too quickly, among other issues.) How long since you added new compost or mulch to that bed? Gardening fail. I was going to mix the microlife in, but my wife went ahead and planted a bunch of seeds before I could get to it, even though I told her. Sad. I can add mulch or even some compost on top.. would that help? I've also turned the sprinklers off and will reduce them significantly to lessen the overwatering issue... Its never been mulched but the soil is less than a year old. Its always sucked, though. Even the first batch of stuff we grew was yellow. I need to remediate it somehow, but my ag extension basically told me to gently caress off.
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Oct 16, 2012 03:20
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dhrusis posted:Gardening fail. I was going to mix the microlife in, but my wife went ahead and planted a bunch of seeds before I could get to it, even though I told her. Sad.
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Oct 16, 2012 06:15
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Balls. Is there any hope for a melon plant that got attacked by whiteflies and apparently ended up frozen in time? I've got a bunch of set fruit that isn't developing further, and one big melon that should have ripened probably a week or two ago but hasn't progressed. The plant's putting out healthy-looking new growth, but the existing fruit is stopped dead in its tracks. Nothing's rotting, either, it's just growing or ripening. I tried side-dressing it with a PK-weighted fert to no apparent effect.
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Oct 17, 2012 22:10
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Molten Llama posted:Balls. What type of melon? What's your location (relative), and what's your temperature highs, lows, and averages? Rain/irrigation? If you're in Arizona or California (or another southwestern state but mainly those two), there's a chance that your melons have contracted the Cucurbit Yellowing Stunting Disorder Virus from your whitefly infestation, which is the vector for the virus. But in general, your local agriculture/horticulture extension office can help you tremendously with problems like these. It is what they are paid to do, and are almost always free unless expensive tests are necessary (which you don't have to agree to have anyways).
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Oct 18, 2012 01:42
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spandexcajun posted:Zombie tree mushrooms Very interested in the results of this It would be my guess that mushrooms wouldn't be very successful since the tree is still alive. But who knows, maybe it'll work
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Oct 18, 2012 05:11
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oh wow, I've just worked out why the tree stump in my yard has little holes in it! I guess a previous tenant decided to grow mushrooms on it. I'm going to look around it for signs of mushrooms tomorrow.
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Oct 18, 2012 07:43
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Shithouse Dave posted:oh wow, I've just worked out why the tree stump in my yard has little holes in it! I guess a previous tenant decided to grow mushrooms on it. I'm going to look around it for signs of mushrooms tomorrow. Maybe, but they likely were just trying to decompose it faster. With stump remover, you drill holes into the stump and pour in the stump remover followed by hot water to speed up the decomposition.
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Oct 18, 2012 12:12
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spandexcajun posted:TLDR; I am trying to grow oyster mushrooms in a old tree stump, wish me luck! Will report back in spring with results. You could try depriving the whole area of light, too. That should discourage new growth and the fungi won't need it.
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Oct 18, 2012 19:07
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Also could try rubber banding a big clear plastic bag around the stump. It'll make it very hot and humid (most plants would die this way, not sure about zombie tree)
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Oct 19, 2012 03:11
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Yay fall. Should I be adding mulch/compost to my raised garden and tilling it in now, or in the spring?
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Oct 21, 2012 16:47
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BlackHattingMachine posted:If you're in Arizona or California (or another southwestern state but mainly those two), there's a chance that your melons have contracted the Cucurbit Yellowing Stunting Disorder Virus from your whitefly infestation, which is the vector for the virus. Your impression appears to be dead on. I'm just outside Phoenix and I currently have a spectacular, textbook case of interveinal chlorosis midvine on my early-planted cantaloupe, and stunted growth on the later-planted honeydew. I'll try contacting the generally useless Maricopa County Extension to see if they're doing any kind of surveillance or testing for CYSD. I never got to eat any drat melons. 
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Oct 22, 2012 22:54
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Molten Llama posted:
No melons AND you're in Maricopa County? poo poo's rough amigo. Generally white flies are simply a nuisance pest, but can be vectors for other diseases. There's not a lot of good control for them, at least ones that aren't strong/expensive chemicals, but there are alternatives. Here's a very local and pertinent website for you: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov11/cotton1111.htm Scroll down a ways and you'll see cantaloupe specific talk, not just cotton, but it's all applicable. From there, you can go many places to further investigate your issues.
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Oct 23, 2012 00:30
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Fog Tripper posted:Yay fall. I always add compost in the fall. Mulching or growing a cover crop (I like winter rye in NC) will greatly reduce the amount of weeding/recovering of garden you have to do next year. If you grow a good cover crop you just till the poo poo in in Spring and start planting again with even healthier dirt. We fried up the last of the green tomatoes tonight with a spicy remoulade and oh my god I can hear myself getting fatter. So delicious. Tomatoes are so much work but the final product is the most awesome thing a garden can produce. All I really learned this year is that I'm still lazy, I still need to plant more variety each year, I need to buy my own tiller finally, I need to plant less cucumbers, and I need to find some good loving string for my trellises or just scrap the whole thing and buy some plastic stakes. mischief fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 01:51
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Crossposting from GWS, but the warm weather has made my silverbeet and spinach explode, just picked them right back to stop them going to seed. Gonna make so much spanakopita tonight.
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Oct 23, 2012 06:47
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Can anyone tell me what this plant is? It's growing among a spot where I planted mesclun mix and spinach, but it doesn't look like an edible plant to me. The base of the stem is woody and the leaves are a little fuzzy to the touch. Just want to make sure it's a weed before I pull it out.  
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Oct 24, 2012 22:55
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how realistic is it to grow an indoor herb garden? I've heard that parsley works well because you can snip it off and it keeps growing - others have to be re-seeded which makes me wonder if they're worth the effort. I'd love to have something modest (mostly artifically lit because of the layout of my apartment) that would let me use fresh herbs in my cooking every now and then. getting sick of buying a bunch of herbs for just a recipe and having nothing to do with the rest - and my place could use some green! 
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Oct 26, 2012 02:02
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Guitarchitect posted:how realistic is it to grow an indoor herb garden? I've heard that parsley works well because you can snip it off and it keeps growing - others have to be re-seeded which makes me wonder if they're worth the effort. I'd love to have something modest (mostly artifically lit because of the layout of my apartment) that would let me use fresh herbs in my cooking every now and then. getting sick of buying a bunch of herbs for just a recipe and having nothing to do with the rest - and my place could use some green! 
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Oct 26, 2012 02:11
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 Probably the last harvest of ripe tomatoes for me this year. The green ones are from my community garden plot, mostly cherry and stupice, which had no protection. The rest are from my poly tunnel at home. It seems to work really well as a greenhouse to extend the season.
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Oct 26, 2012 03:08
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Acceptableloss posted:Can anyone tell me what this plant is? It's growing among a spot where I planted mesclun mix and spinach, but it doesn't look like an edible plant to me. The base of the stem is woody and the leaves are a little fuzzy to the touch.
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Oct 26, 2012 18:35
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Ok I have two 4x8 plots that need to be winterized on the cheap. I live in middle Tennessee so it should be a pretty mild winter with maybe a few days of a couple inches of snow. I don't even know if that matters. Help. Don't forget: cheap.
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Oct 26, 2012 18:55
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Cardboard and rocks. A bale of hay spread out on top if you want. Wind can blow it around but wetting it down helps. Seeds may sprout but they aren't a big deal.
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Oct 26, 2012 19:41
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Acceptableloss posted:Can anyone tell me what this plant is? It's growing among a spot where I planted mesclun mix and spinach, but it doesn't look like an edible plant to me. The base of the stem is woody and the leaves are a little fuzzy to the touch. Looks like a radish to me. My daikons have leaves like that
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Oct 28, 2012 02:18
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spandexcajun posted:Figure I would post this here as well the foraging thread. Anyone grow mushrooms before? Good luck! I've had very spotty luck growing mushrooms, but I'm eager to try again, once we get settled into our new place. My impression is that, unless you stick with consumer-friendly, kids' project type of mushroom kits, it's very hit-or-miss. I did get some shiitakes to grow from a commercial sawdust log in the spring, but the promised second bloom never came (some other fungus got into the log). Still, it was a blast, and a couple of vendors have some cool looking stuff available. Even if you don't care to buy anything, it's fun to look at the catalogs of Fungi Perfecti and Field and Forest.
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Oct 29, 2012 03:56
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cowofwar posted:I had an herb garden growing fine indoors earlier this year. Had plants seeded in bins together in a greenhouse tray under two fluorescent lights and it worked really well. Just grabbed herbs whenever I needed them. how often did you need to replant, if at all? what were you growing?
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Nov 4, 2012 16:10
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