Gardening: the beets must go on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Gardening: the beets must go on

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Zeta Taskforce posted:

Translated for those of us on the other side of the pond. I honestly don't have a clue. They are likely the same species. Zucchini is a type of Cucurbita pepo as are many varieties of pumpkins. There probably isn't a way, at least until they get bigger and some of them start developing a vining habit and some stay bushy.

Oh, courgettes are zucchinis?! Wow that clears up a lot of confusion (filthy colonial checking in).

So I'm going to be moving into an apartment in the next month or so. I live pretty far south (US) so I should be able to get some stuff grown out of containers, lettuce, herbs, tomatoes if I have enough sun. One question is how hard is it to grow potatoes in containers?

Other than being late in the growing season I'm going to be there for at least 2 years. I've lived there before (same apartment complex anyway) so I'm familiar with the layout, if you're on the bottom floor you get a mostly walled in slab for a front porch, the wall is about 5' high. On the top floor you get a sort of balcony area that is the same size, both of these are used for entry to your apartment so it limits the space a bit. If I'm on the top floor I may be able to try tomatoes, on the bottom floor it won't be likely.

If I end up on the bottom floor what are some more shady options? I'm guessing spinach, lettuce, and the like; what about herbs? Onions? Leeks even?

# ¿ Apr 14, 2009 22:50

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 20:16

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

HeatherChandler posted:

I am really curious about growing stevia as well. I also prefer Splenda, but if I could grow sweetener I might switch for the sake of being cheap. How do you use the leaves? Do you dry and grind it? Can you use it raw in like tea--like boil it in?

Speaking of tea, has anyone every grown their own? I know it isn't hardy as far north as I am, but I was thinking of doing it in a container and having a use for my lights in the winter. I am really out of my depth on that, I make herbal teas sometimes but that's about it.

I understand that stevia can steep like tea, there's a guy in SA Mart selling the stuff. However he's not clear on whether he's selling the leaves or the extract (his pricing implies leaves, his description implies extract).

Seconding the 'can you grow tea', I'm a rabid tea-drinker and making my own would be kickass.

edit: Apparently Camellia Sinensis, the plant all true teas are derived from (blacks, oolongs, greens, whites) is relatively easy to grow and hardy to zone 8, the link suggests containers/indoors/lights if you're further north. Supposedly you can't harvest from it until year 3, however.
http://coffeetea.about.com/od/preparation/a/growingtea.htm

landis fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Apr 15, 2009

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 05:04

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

krushgroove posted:

Right, how much space does one need to grow their own tea? That would be totally crazy, serving friends and family your own personal tea. I know you can get your own blends made from different types already, and that's pretty cool too, considering you'd need a plantation to get your own mix.

I guess it would depend on your desired yield. Judging from the pictures of mature plants, a large container might be able to fit 2, or even 1 big one depending on whether you prune it (which I don't know if it would be beneficial to do so). I can see being able to get at least a cup's worth a week from it, though I am just guesstimating.

As for making a mix, depending on what you're talking about mixing in it, all you would need to do is process the leaves differently to get different kinds of teas. A white tea would be dried leaves right off the plant, I'm thinking all you'd need to do is stick them in the oven for a bit. Green tea would be a short steam or pan fry and then stick them in the oven. Oolong would be leave them out in the sun for a while, bring them in and let them rest, then dry them in the oven. For black tea, crush/roll it and leave it to dry in a root cellar for 2 or 3 days (longer is blacker, but can't go too long), then stick them in the oven.

You probably won't be rolling in tea but it might be enough for the occasional tin. Throwing a few leaves in with crappy store-bought tea would improve the flavor significantly, I 'spect.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 14:48

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Zeta Taskforce posted:

I was already tempted to grow my own tea, and now even more so, if I can ever manage to finish digging up my yard. One of the seed catalogues I get has a tea variety hardy to zone 7. Chances are it will never work out. First, I�m in Boston, and although I�m about a mile from the Harbor which moderates things, it�s still New England. Zone 7 is generous. Any hardiness zone map shows that I am solidly in zone 6, but it never drops below zero here due to my elevation and proximity to the water. Even if the tea grows, I am looking at a couple years minimum before harvest. Also, I prefer black tea and I have no idea how to ferment and roast the tea. That combined with the fact that there are numerous blends that I enjoy and could buy a couple pounds of those fine loose leaf teas for the cost of the plant and fertilizers, and those couple pounds will make about 40 gallons of tea. Any sane and rational person will just buy some tea. Therefore I�m going to get a tea plant and see how it goes.

http://www.jungseed.com/dp3.asp?c=&sku=12261

Yep, I found a great supplier of high quality tea and damnit I'm going to grow my own cuz that's how I roll :downs:

. It seems though that you can container grow it and bring it inside when it gets cold, so maybe you can pull it off. (edit: I see you mentioned this VVV)

As for making black tea, :eng101:

it's not actually fermented even though the oxidization process is commonly called that. It would take some experimentation to get it right, but basically you hand roll/crush it (I imagine that rubbing the leaves in between your palms until they're rolled up and bruised would work), dry it in a dark cool place for a couple days, then put it in the oven at 250 F for about 20 minutes to stop the oxidization.

(I really want to do this and really think its viable :haw:

)

krushgroove posted:

drat landis you've researched this all out

Ever since discovering Real Tea (shameless plug for my favoritest tea place evar) I've turned into a horrible, elitist even, tea nerd :neckbeard:

.

If I may be permitted to nerd out a bit.

I got a cup of tea on a whim at a Barnes and Noble coffee shop one day. It was really great, and opening the cup I discovered a new tea bag I hadn't seen before, it was pyramid-shaped with big pieces of leaves in it. I bought a couple tins and really enjoyed tea for the first time in my life, even going so far as to buy a Brita filter and electric kettle for work (the water here is horrible, you could solder with it srsly).

That is, until I discovered Adagio teas. Thing is for a tea to taste really great you need the wholest leaf possible and the leaf needs room to expand. Tea bags are meh because they are the dust and fannings of real tea, crammed into a tiny bag. Plus this adds extra processing steps which effects the cost. By getting the tea kit from Adagio I discovered an easy way to infuse loose tea and a ready reasonably-priced source of high quality tea. Before, with the bagged tea tins I bought from Barnes and Noble I was paying about $.23 per cup. Now I'm paying about $.19 per cup, $.08 per cup if I infuse my leaves twice (I may try three times today) which I've decided to do from now on because the second cup tastes just as good.

A note about caffeine. Black tea has the most caffeine, then oolong, then green, then white. However, it is to coffee what a whole grain muffin is to a krispy kreme (I still enjoy coffee occasionally); a more 'hearty' caffeine that releases over a longer period of time, refreshing and relaxing the drinker. If you're caffeine sensitive, infuse the tea for about 30 seconds, drain, then infuse again for real. This will significantly reduce the amount of caffeine, and it also means that my second cup won't cause the jitters.

Edit:
A note on antioxidants and the health benefits of green tea. Further research has shown that all teas (from Camellia anyway) provide effectively the same health benefits, the focus on green tea has been merely due to old Chinese wisdom and it was the initial tea tested.

Here's my tea cabinet at work (crappy cell phone pics):

Click here for the full 1600x1200 image.
I fill the jug at the sink and use it to fill my Brita pitcher. The water here is pretty horrible so I get the added benefit of drinkable water at my desk.

Click here for the full 1600x1200 image.
Makin' some tea. Lapsang Souchong today, a black tea with a delightfully smoky flavor.

Click here for the full 1600x1200 image.
Tea comes out the bottom once you push in a plastic thingamajig by setting it on your cup. My cup looks big but it's actually not much more than a regular coffee mug. (Notice my effeminate IT professional hands that haven't been marred by awesome gardening yet.)

No sweeteners, nothing but pure tea. I like my tea black just like my metal :rock:

...mmmmm...

edit:

imaginaryfriend posted:

I love stevia and was excited when I saw it at one of the gardening centers. This is my first time growing it, so I don't have a lot of info to give.

I've been eating the leaves fresh and have also boiled them into iced tea. I wonder if they would be good in sun tea. I love to pick a leaf of stevia and a leaf of mint and eat them together as a sweet little treat.

But you can also dry the leaves and grind them to use as a powder. We don't really have enough plants yet to mess with stuff like that yet. I'm hoping our plant will take off and get really big... but it hasn't yet. Here's a close up:

Also, you can definitely grow tea at home if you like herbal tea. (I've never tried to grow a tea plant.) We have catnip and 5 kinds of mint that I make tea out of. I used to have lavender too which made lovely tea.

And finally, anyone interested in growing microgreens should really give it a try. It's fast, easy, cheap and they are delicious and amazingly nutritious. Basically it's all the goodness of the fully grown plant but in tiny baby form. So the nutrients and taste are multiplied. Yum!!!!

I may have to copy this...

landis fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Apr 15, 2009

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 17:32

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Zeta Taskforce posted:

My reading of that is that they are not tropical, but instead have characteristics of both being temperate and subtropical. The best tea growing regions are on the highlands of China and India, and Japan, Taiwan, and Kenya grow quite a bit too. Based on where the most prolific tea gardens are I would imaging that they don�t like it either bitterly cold or sweltering. If you can�t plant it outside in the ground, rather than growing it as a houseplant, I think you will do better putting it in a big pot, keep it on a deck, and bring it in late fall after it gets cold but before it gets sub-zero bitterly cold, and bring it in to an attic or unheated garage, and once the crocuses come out, bring it back outdoors.

I believe the tea grown in Kenya is actually red tea (a completely different plant) but I could be completely wrong here.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 17:35

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Zeta Taskforce posted:

http://www.kenya-information-guide.com/kenya-tea.html

It reads like the Kenyan Chamber of Commerce, but they grow black tea there. Red tea is mostly grown in South Africa.

Serves me right for not researching my 'facts'. Actually, after I posted that and went back to read the wikipedia Roobios page in more detail it clearly says there it's primarily grown in South Africa.

krushgroove posted:

Jesus we have enough for a tea thread here.

Landis, I thought I was a tea nerd (only as a Yank in Brit-land) but you, sir, are the master. I bow to your superior tea-nerdiness.

indeed

landis fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Apr 15, 2009

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 17:50

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

imaginaryfriend posted:

I'm down for the Goons in Communes idea. We're quite proud of ourselves! (Well, I am... I notice the rest of them are keeping their heads down. Lurkers!)
And yes, there is talk of a biodiesel factory in our future. How'd you know?!

You just cut them about an inch above the dirt with sharp scissors. It's super simple. I often just grab a bunch with my hands and rip them out though... I'm lazy.

I intend to get a new batch going this weekend (maybe sooner). I'll post a quick lesson in microgreen gardening when I do.

I'd like to hear about both of those.

Actually, the homesteading thread might could use some of this wisdom. I'm looking very seriously at biodiesel myself, maybe a sub forum of sustainable living.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2009 23:33

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

osukeith161 posted:

On to the questions. Has anyone ever constructed an EarthTainer? Or any other container where the capillary action takes the water up into the container? I am going to try to make some out of large buckets (instead of the rubbermaid container to try and save some money). Are there any disadvantages to this self-watering setup? I understand I could get root rot, but what else are the major things I should be aware of? Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to what businesses to call to find used buckets? I know people have suggested bakeries, any other good ones? Thanks for any help.

Watch out for roots growing into your capillary fabric, also cotton rope works really well for this.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2009 14:17

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

ChaoticSeven posted:

How can people do that? Shouldn't there be physical damage?

Sort of. It doesn't take much to knock you on your rear end relatively speaking, lethal doses are possible but you'd have to eat a whole lot more chile than that. She'll have nausea, diarrhea and a potential higher risk of cancer (this only by eating a lot of it every single day of her life), but it's not like capsaicin is acidic or something. What makes us taste the heat is the way it binds to our receptors, not the 'physical' function of the stuff itself.

If it reacted like I think you're implying, it wouldn't make a good deterrent for gardening purposes because it would injure the plant or adversely effect the soil.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2009 17:09

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

^^^ Sprinkling dried and powdered hot pepper on plants or the soil can also help.

ChaoticSeven posted:

I was thinking of the time my Mom cut up a ton of peppers without gloves and got actual blisters. Her hands were beet red. I heard second hand stories about the same type of thing.

Ah, I've handled hot peppers before gloveless and not had actual blisters but I did have varying levels of discomfort anywhere from mild to extreme. I even rubbed my eye once (never ever again I don't care how bad it itches, oh man). I've never heard of anyone getting blisters, that sounds more like an allergic reaction.

That being said, pepper spray does cause inflammation and can cause chemical burn (and therefore blistering) under prolonged exposure, like using an oil-based lotion on a sprayed area instead of or before washing/decontaminating it. I dunno, maybe it has to do with tolerance or the mucous layer in the stomach (since mucous isn't living tissue, as distinct from the membrane itself). In my area we eat chile peppers on everything, the hotter the better. We even have a local ice cream shop that makes a thick green chile shake. I've never been sprayed with pepper spray though, and I've never eaten nor seen anyone eat 51 Naga Jolokia. That woman is in for a bad night, I know that much; but the damage shouldn't be permanent as long as her body flushes it all out in a couple hours (it likely will, yeesh).

landis fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Apr 20, 2009

# ¿ Apr 20, 2009 21:38

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

krushgroove posted:

Yeah I can just imagine Buddhist monks defending their bonsai from ninja gardeners with these things. A lot of medieval weapons came from gardening implements actually.

On a more on-topic note, my cress has reached approximately 1 inch in height, and the other microgreens I planted out a week and a half ago (or so) have started sprouting. I'll be getting more seed packets next week, stocking up for the summer. There's like 3000 seeds in a cress seed packet, that's enough for a while

A lot of ninja weapons were inspired by garden tools... in theory.

I really want a hori hori now, I just replanted a small tree and that sucker would have made it three times faster.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2009 16:06

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Anyone got tips on propagating tree clippings?

# ¿ May 1, 2009 19:02

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

kid sinister posted:

That depends heavily on the tree species. Which one are your clippings?

Maple is one of them. I don't know the other, but I don't have any clippings yet. I was going to take some.

# ¿ May 2, 2009 17:52

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

I got a bunch of tomatoes ready for transplanting into hanging pots. Any tips? I was thinking of using regular pots with the hole in the bottom, and using some sort of wire slip harness underneath the lip to hold them. Should I get cheesecloth or some sort of screen to hold in the soil around the stem?

# ¿ May 21, 2009 04:29

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

ChaoticSeven posted:

Haven't updated in a while and things are happening, so. Excessive amounts of pictures.

Awesome garden, makes me sad I'm stuck in containers for a while.

# ¿ May 30, 2009 16:38

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Zeta Taskforce posted:

Johnny Appleseed

I always knew there was more to the story, I didn't have a source for feeling that way but it felt glossed over.

Applejack (what I know as fermented cider) is really really good (we don't have a drunk smiley?!).

# ¿ Jul 14, 2009 17:10

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

coyo7e posted:

You can thank Disney for that, in large I believe. Johnny Appleseed was a pretty badass mofo, and a lot more savvy than people assume from popular myth.

Applejack's a liquor though, iirc? Cider tends to come in around the same range of alcohol as a beer or maybe a wine (with the same amount of range, I've had ciders that're thin as Coors, and others that hit you like you pounded a homebrew,) there're few things that're refreshing like a good strong pint of apple or pear cider (I recommend Wyder's, for the initiate) on a hot, hot day.

Come to think of it, if I had a crabapple tree I'd probably try my hand at making some cider.. When I was a kid we'd leave fallen pears in 5-gallon buckets for a few days-weeks, then throw them into the chicken coop for slops and laugh at drunk chickens (which is also one of my family's favorite recipes, involving wine and golden raisins and all kinds of wonderful stuff.)

I think it's just slang/semantics. In my family, we called it applejack to indicate what was ok to give the kids. It's very likely the source of that usage wasn't anything in normal vernacular.

NosmoKing posted:

Our horse would eat apples that fell off a tree in his pasture. Drunk horses are not as funny as you'd think. At least he was mostly a happy drunk.

Hah, oh man you just reminded me of the stories my granddad used to tell of that sort of thing. He kept horses up until I was in junior high.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2009 17:22

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

coyo7e posted:

You buy applejack at the liquor store, the last bottle I had was 40 proof.

Come to think of it, I've only ever seen applejack since in a store. I'm sure it was my granddad just using it as his own form of slang, making me sound like an idiot on the internet years after.

To be clear, that sentence wasn't meant to imply that we gave applejack to kids.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2009 18:47

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Omg you guys check this out. Zeta Taskforce specifically but some of you may remember a short discussion about growing tea in the beginning of the thread.

I'm so gonna try this, and now is the perfect time to start for me.

quote:

Plant seeds immediately in a jar three-quarters full of moist
vermiculite. Cover jar with lid or saran (with rubber band). Place jar
in warm (not hot) place, and check periodically for roots along sides
or in bottom of jar. Remove sprouted seedlings and plant in pots.
Return unsprouted seeds to jar, replace top, and watch for more roots.
Seeds will not all sprout at the same time.

...

For planting, Camellia sinensis likes well-drained and sandy soil
that is on the acidic side. If you are going to grow your tea in a
container, add some sphagnum moss to the potting mix. You'll need some
patience, too. Your plant should be around 3 years old before you
start harvesting leaves.

Germination sounds pretty typical really. The guy mentions the best way is to propagate cuttings from existing plants, but I don't know of anyone who has a tea plant.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2010 18:36

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Marchegiana posted:

You might be able to find Camellia sinensis at a (good) nursery local to you if you look around a bit, though they're a lot harder to find than the C. japonica and C. sasquana species. Also the season for planting Camellia is when they're blooming, generally late fall through winter, so they might be harder to find now (except for the japonica species, which can be planted until spring) If you want to mail-order I know there's a specialty camellia nursery in NC, you can see their selection of sinensis here.

Camellia are really beautiful plants, I have a 5 year old C. japonica (Professor Sargent, a double-flowering red variety that blooms mid-spring) and last fall I planted a 1 year old C. sasquana (Yuletide, puts out red flowers at Christmas). If you're zone 7 or above you can just grow them in the ground, just be sure to give them some filtered sun protection during the midday and keep their roots mulched and odds are they'll do great.

I live in a small town in New Mexico. Apparently we have a thriving bamboo nursery somewhere but I very much doubt that the only nursery in town that I know of that isn't specifically for landscapers has any camellia sinensis

(but I'm still going to go look anyway).

I just ordered two packets of seeds from here. There's a small plant being offered here too but I'm glad I didn't get it because your link is cheaper with older plants, thanks for that.

I'm definitely going to give germination a shot (obviously) but I'll most likely buy a plant or three at some point as well. I'm anxious to try making tea.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2010 22:10

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Anybody know about anything about white LED spectrums? Wikipedia sez that they are like fluorescent tubes.

I ask cause drat.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2010 19:19

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

madlilnerd posted:

Went out properly for the first time this year and did my spring dig-over. God I've missed digging with the sunshine on my back.

Finally got round to harvesting the last of the leeks in plot 2! There was 1.7kg of them.
Any ideas what to do with a glut of leeks? At the moment I'm thinking of letting my dad take them to church so anyone can take them, or cutting them up and freezing them in ziplock bags.

Don't know what I'm growing this year, but it's not going to be leeks.

Leek Rings! Like onion rings but with leeks. You can make a whole mess of them and bring them to a party or something.

landis fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Mar 6, 2010

# ¿ Mar 6, 2010 17:23

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Guess what arrived in the mail yesterday.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2010 00:39

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Richard Noggin posted:

I'm growing some of those in my litter box. No, really, what are they?

Camellia Sinensis otherwise known as tea. It's going to be quite the experiment for me.

And yes, my first thought was gerbil turds or something.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2010 01:01

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

There's mold on my camellia sinensis seeds! What do I do? :ohdear:

# ¿ Apr 7, 2010 17:12

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

On the seeds. They're still in their little baggy and they've acquired a powdery coating.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2010 17:22

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 20:16

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Yeah, they're not squishy or anything. How should I get the crud off before I try to plant them? These are large seeds, like hard nuts, maybe rinse them in warm water with a spot of bleach followed by another rinse in just water or something?

# ¿ Apr 7, 2010 17:36

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