Gardening: the beets must go on

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

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Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

SubG posted:

What kind of spider? I've currently got a momma oxyopid sitting on an egg sac in the trellis I built for my Chinese longbeans:

There are a lot of Oxyopidae and Salticidae around, which are pretty aggressive visual hunters that hop around the leaves, so they're presumably killing garden pests. There are also a fair number of small Araneidae, which are orb weavers and so presumably are mostly catching flying insects.

A lot of those orb weavers take care of ant problems for me as well. A couple good ones can almost completely wipe out a colony of small sized ants over a couple weeks.

# ¿ May 31, 2014 17:00

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 01:38

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

So, I planted 4 Honey Berry plants yesterday. They are similar to blueberries apparently without being as finicky. They end up in long living 3-8' bushes that produce up to 7lbs of berries each, ripening all within 2 weeks just before strawberries. Should be interesting if nothing else.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 13:09

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

AlistairCookie posted:

/\/\
Best of luck with those. I tried unsuccessfully for years to get mine to cooperate with no luck. One got really tall and leggy and would bloom super early. The other was short and squat and would bloom weeks later. They were supposed to cross pollinate each other. I finally scrapped them. If yours end up doing anything, I would love to hear about it.

I planted these. I really wanted them to work too, because of the part shade tolerance and not being soil picky like blueberries. I pulled them out last season and gave up.

Yeah, those are the two varieties I have. I left room on either side for another variety to be added if they end up blooming at the wrong times, but I'll wait a season or two before acting on that impulse.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 03:12

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

drat I wish there was a way to reduce the mosquito population that didn't involve a ton of spraying or risk to my fruits. We are at that glorious time where every 2 days we are picking a pound or more of blackberries and I'm being eaten alive when I do it.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 13:05

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

ashez2ashes posted:

Well, I guess it's time to start staring at my blueberries hoping that they'll revive.

I'm debating dragging my blueberry containers inside until they leaf out. They should have more than enough cold hours this year already.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 04:53

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Has anyone used a normal "daylight" led bulb as a grow light before? My wife wanted more indoor plants that the cats wouldn't eat and after research I bought a bundle of 3 citrus trees and a banana tree (all dwarf, and made for potting of course). We got south facing windows and can put them outside for 3 months of the year but when they are inside, especially during winter, they are going to need a lot of supplemental lights. However, having giant T5s randomly throughout the house kind of breaks up the whole point of having pretty plants throughout the house, so I'm setting up growlights behind the plants that can be timered for 5-8 hours every day.

When looking at the available grow lights I found some $20 100w equivalent 10 year LED bulbs that are 5000k spectrum and 1600 lumens. All of that looks very correct for setting up a simple spotlight behind and slightly higher than each tree. It's not super efficient or anything but it's cheaper on the electric, wouldn't heat up the house during spring/fall and in the winter I can swap out true grow lights to give some heat to the plants.

Anyone know why this wouldn't work?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 20:07

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Peristalsis posted:

How long is long term?

I've considered seeing if some local mowing services would dump their clippings in my yard for me to compost. If I did this, I could certainly let them cook for a year before I used them - would that be enough to break down any chemical crap in the grass? What about using fresh clippings to mulch over plots for winter - would they still be problematic in the spring?

I wouldn't put it in anything that I was eating. Lawn clippings from places you don't know are potentially really horrible. People put all sorts of crazy crap on their lawn, more fertilizer than you'd ever want, more weed killer and herbicides. A year of really good hot composting would likely burn out any seeds but artificial chemicals can live a long time in soils, to the point where they potentially really never go away. Pouring them on your plants might end up burning the roots because of too much nitrogen or it might have a weed killer herbicide that could kill off anything it touches. I'm nervous enough about run off from my neighbors lawns, saving a couple bucks likely wouldn't be worth the risk unless you know exactly what the grass was treated with and when... and if you find a lawn company that desperate to dump clippings (assuming they aren't doing it as a favor for you) it likely means the city/county has told them they don't want it in their own yard waste/compost pits.... and that's a terrifying thought.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 20:47

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Spending $400 (ok more like $500) on huge indoor pots for trees is totally a rational thing to do and is just encouraging my wife's nesting instincts, right? It's totally not a way too expensive setup that only feeds my veggie and fruit gardening addictions. I need reassurance people!

# ¿ Mar 23, 2015 01:43

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Duck and Cover posted:

My grow light alone cost that much. That being said I'm not the shining example of frugality.

Yeah, but I spent another $400 or so on lights so that's not really helping much. After doing way too much research, throwing out a bunch of really old/bad info on leds and other things that no longer apply and almost giving up on figuring out what to do I decided on buying 3 6500k Comp Fluorescent lights and then supplementing them with a hand full of can lights with those daylight LEDs to add a few extra thousand lumens. The real advantage of the cans is that I can swap in a hot light or two during winter for those plants nearest to cold windows and then swap back to energy efficient leds when things get more reasonable. If ~13-15k lumens isn't enough then I guess the plants won't thrive because that's already going to make my house way too bright.

What I really want/need is a sun room built on the back of my kitchen to grow plants in..... and that's not going to happen.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2015 05:48

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

I have to rant about how much Gurney's pisses me off sometimes. This is the second time they just have decided to not send stuff in my order for no reason. They are often so slow to ship that they miss the planting window and so they just don't send crap until the fall. It's really frustrating.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2015 04:18

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

You guys and you're southern living... I'm still 3-4 weeks away from my frost date. Got a lot already going though. The blackberries are all tied up on the wires, onions are in the ground and I even am taking a gamble on some early green beans to see if they work out. The lettuce is already sprouting too.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2015 04:53

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Can anyone identify these eggs that were on the bottom of one of my apple tree leaves?

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 03:53

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

ghetto wormhole posted:

I'm in 5b and you're all making me feel like I'm super behind schedule. The unusually warm spring isn't helping but with my luck it'll get down to 25 or something two weeks from now.

Welcome to spring gardening. I think I finally am happy with where I'm at but even dedicating way too much time to it I feel like I could have already put down another row of onion.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 13:02

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Wow strawberries are early this year. We will pass our freeze date in about 3 more days and we already have a couple handfuls of ripe strawberries. Well, we had, I should say.

# ¿ May 11, 2015 18:13

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

AlistairCookie posted:

I killed one! I killed a squirrel, and I don't feel bad. Shot it (powderless cartridge, 22, quiet little pop, safe for suburbia). I'm done with trapping and relocating; it's a declaration of war.

>DIY & Hobbies > Veggie and Herb Gardening - gently caress Squirrels

There's gotta be a thread somewhere in SA that'll teach you to skin and cook squirrel, right? I say get those tomatoes back, one way or another.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2015 15:14

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Totally TWISTED posted:

Tell me about using railroad ties soaked in creosote for a vegetable garden. And what I'm actually asking is about railroad ties that look to be 50 years old in a 3 bed setup that this old house that we bought came with.

At first I was thinking they may be ok because of how long they appear to have been there but doing some research online I am now heavily leaning towards not using them. This of course means I need to remove them and put it entirely new beds (which I have now done twice at other houses).

Am I being paranoid and I should use them or should I be rid of them?

I wouldn't use them around anything I want to eat and I wouldn't use any dirt that has been around them for any length of time to grow anything I would eat.

Dig out 6-12" below the lowest timber, remove the timbers and replace with something else and then fill it in with the new compost mix.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2015 05:27

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Shifty Pony posted:

I wholeheartedly support everyone planting blueberries.

Garden blueberries are so much better than store bought it is ridiculous. It is perhaps as big a difference as store bought tomatoes and garden tomatoes.

Do you hate these people and want them to suffer? Blueberries are like the hardest thing in the world to keep alive! I've got some in pots and that's pretty much the only way I could ever imagine keeping them healthy.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 03:19

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Falco posted:

We bought a house two years ago that had 4 barely established blueberry plants, and they are going super strong with minimal effort.

You must have magical soil that doesn't work well with most plants then. I've had so much trouble trying to keep the PH levels of my soil down for them that they have hardly been worth it.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 12:49

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

So, I'm overwintering my potted citrus plants, which seem to be going mostly well, indoors under some pretty good lights. Should I fertilize for the winter since they will be in a pretty good situation for growth or wait until spring?

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 19:54

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

You could tie yourself to applying gypsum every year until the soil is properly amended, that's an option even if it isn't an overly good one.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 14:25

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 01:38

Anubis: Oct 9, 2003; It's hard to keep sand out of ears this big.; Fun Shoe

Shifty Pony posted:

My blueberries are growing like gangbusters in 30 gallon pots (sawed in half barrels) filled with pure peat moss with a good six inches or so of decaying pine bark mulch. A less extreme approach is to go 50/50 soil and peat moss.

First year I picked the flowers off but second year they were quite productive. We'll see how they do this spring, I have high hopes (and new plans to keep out the birds).

Yeah the only major problem that stunted my blueberries was I brought them inside during winter the first year. Most (all?) of them need a minimum number of cold hours during winter or they get really wonky.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 14:49

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

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