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This year I gots me a house and I gots me some property so I'm going to try growing plants for the first time in my life. I've never even had a plastic palm. I went to our local mega mall (Wal-Mart) about a week or so ago and found these little peat pellet greenhouses. They expand when you add water to them and it's actually sort of entertaining watching them blow up. 6 bucks a pop, 72 pellets per tray, I grabbed two and some seeds, figured that would be more than plenty if not excessive. Planted one tray full of a zucchini hybrid, straight neck yellow squash, and another yellow hybrid squash. The other tray was tomatoes, 3 varieties. Five days later I have this guy in my squash box: loving sweet! I planted something and it came to life! Heres the tray a today, about a week from when I planted the seeds:  The tomatoes weren't doing poo poo though, so I decided to do something crazy. I put them on my heating pad I use for my back and set it on low. Overnight almost every one of them shot up. Cool. Here they are, looking fairly pathetic compared to the giant tomato plants I saw at a nursery yesterday. I was tempted to just buy a few flats of those and use these as an upside down pot experiment or something. Better boy hybrid, early girl hybrid and some other one, who the gently caress knows what these names mean anyway:  After my perceived success with the astonishingly fast growing squashes I went and bought three more 72 count trays, more seeds and a hoe. The hoe was $5. I haven't used it yet. It looks kind of cool. I don't have a picture of it.    Now I have two kinds of watermelon, jalepenos, sweet banana peppers, two colors of bell peppers, 3 varieties of yellow squash, that alien looking round disk white squash, 2 varieties of zucchini, butternut winter squash, broccoli, 3 tomato strains, basil, sweet basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, lavender, plain parsley, triple curly parsley, oregano, and dill all in trays. Also I'm going to be planting cucumbers, romaine lettuce, carrots, serrano chilis, some weird as gently caress thing I don't even know what is but you can eat it "kohlrabi", and three different types of onions straight in the ground. Seriously thinking of making a strawberry patch thing but I'm put off by the lack of results first year. It's possible I've gone overboard with a lead weight tied to my ankle. I don't even have the garden spot sized or tilled, but the dirt is apparently great because everyone bitches about my good dirt.
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Mar 19, 2009 22:02
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HeatherChandler posted:Hahaha, be prepared for an onslaught of zucchini--this has been said a few times but it is really true. Google 'too much zucchini'. It is the topic of some really bad humor. I've baked mass amounts of zucchini bread and forced it on random people like a twisted June Cleaver. I'm thinking of sticking with one plant or maybe two this year, unless I find a soup kitchen or something that accepts produce (or baked goods) donations. Um... quote:I asked the woman how much zucchini she had. Eighteen bushels was her reply. After recovering from my shock, I asked why she had planted so much zucchini. She answered that it was her first year for a garden and she had planted 10 hills of zucchini. I have enough to make 20 or 25 hills assuming 3 plants per hill. Holy gently caress. Maybe I won't plant this other variety, although it looks cooler than the hybrid. I guess it technically doesn't matter, if I can't use it all or even give it away it'll just rot and go back in the ground. It wouldn't be there if I hadn't planted it. I'm still waiting to wake up one morning and all of these seedling to be dead or something. When do tomato seedlings really take off compared to these little bean sprout looking things they are now?
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Mar 20, 2009 00:40
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They've been up for about 5 days I think. I was afraid the plants weren't getting enough light (In fact I know they weren't) so I went to Lowes and bought a couple cheap plug in shop lights and a case of not so cheap Sylvania "Sunstick" full spectrum bulbs. Also found a use for my HD-DVD's.
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Mar 20, 2009 05:57
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I got my lights from Lowes. Two bulb, 4 feet, $10 a pop. They didn't have bulbs labeled "grow bulb" or anything, and they only sold the Sylvania Sunstick full spectrum bulbs by the case (10) for $30. Still, it was worth it because they seem to be working great. I think I hosed up planting both my thyme and oregano. Example:  Not sure how to unfuck that mess. Also, the zucchini and squash continue to develop at an alarming rate. I'll be putting them out at the beginning of next week once the torrential rains stop and the ground dries out enough to work up an area.  Edit:Looking back at my post 4 days ago squash are some kind of crazy super mutant plant. I wish my tomato seedlings grew like that. Also I think I'm going to try and grow some giant pumpkins and squash and poo poo. The giant pumpkin seeds aren't difficult to find, but I don't see many or any references on how to grow or where to obtain giant strains of yellow or zucchini squash and the like. Google "world record squash" for a mind gently caress. I'd especially like to grow the horribly ugly warty phallic zucchini reminiscent the Asian lady is posing with. Another Edit: Also I now want to make a small knot garden thing with herbs but I'm not sure which herbs to use to get the best contrast and are also semi low growing and don't look like crap with you trim them, which is inevitable because it's all about the details. ChaoticSeven fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Mar 25, 2009 |
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Mar 25, 2009 03:55
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I wouldn't give up on the rest of the zucchini or beans. I pulled several out that hadn't done anything since I planted. The rest were all gigantic and those hadn't even sprouted. Today out of the dozen or so I pulled out of the trays for better spacing, 10 had broken ground even though the peat things were bone dry and light as a feather. Throw some heat at them.
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Mar 25, 2009 05:03
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Do squash stems work like tomatoes? IE, can you plant squashlings right up to the bottom leaves for the same reasons?
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Mar 28, 2009 01:33
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Zeta Taskforce posted:The reason you can plant tomatoes deep is because their stems will produce roots whereever they are buried. Most plants, including squash will not do this. You should plant them a little deeper, perhaps half an inch deeper than they were as a transplant, but you don't want to go right up to the bottom leaves. For this reason, tomatoes are somewhat forgiving if they didn't have enough light as seedlings and they got leggy, but squash isn't forgiving at all. Ah, I thought I might be able to because of something I read about squash pests. Whichever one that burrows into the stem and basically hollows it out, you can dig the bug out and then bury the stem all the past the affected area and it's supposed to root from there.
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Mar 28, 2009 21:31
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Well, I've been busy. Transplanted tomatoes:   I've tilled. My God how I've tilled. Also I've picked out thirty billion grass root balls. First picture is my tomato patch. I get restless and wasted money on tomato seedlings from Lowes about a week ago. Planted them out, and we promptly experienced torrential rains that had 12 of them under water for 3 days and the others leaning over with dirt over the leaves, sometimes leaves buried under the dirt. I kept going out and brushing the dirt off and propping them back up, dug a drainage ditch that got most of the water off the south end. Then we had two nights of 35 degree temps. Sweet.  Still, for the horror show they've been through most of them still look at least "not close to death".  Here be beds of the following: cabbage, broccoli, leaf lettuce x 2, carrots, kale, 1 row of kohlrabi because I didn't realize how little those 20 cent packages contained, and something I forget the name of offhand, another leaf vegetable cultivar was "neon lights" or something.    Finally, my big ole' pile o' mulch. I can get as much of it as I want from a nearby city for free with them loading it and me providing the trailer and forking it out by hand. That part sucks cock. This is one 16 foot trailer load. Looks to be a pretty good mix of hardwood and pine needles/conifer trees. It's all from limbs so no heartwood that would take a long time to break down. I've heard thats good.  I've started working on the newspaper then mulch thing for the pathways between beds and rows, I'll have an update on how that looks tomorrow if it doesn't pour down rain all day. ChaoticSeven fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Mar 31, 2009 |
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Mar 31, 2009 02:52
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I used a rear tine rototiller I borrowed from a family member. You haven't seen the whole area yet...I'll get a picture tomorrow. I spent all day today getting another load of mulch and spreading it on the pathways and intersections. Looks like I'll need at least another trailer load. I do plan on melons, and have two varieties started already. Also I'm seriously contemplating trying to raise one of those gently caress off huge pumpkins, but to do it seriously takes a 30 foot in diameter circle per plant, serious attention paid to pruning, fruit selection, stem to vine angle (seriously) and of course super specific fertilizer schedules. Maybe I'll just grow some normals. By the way, my property ends pretty close to that mulch pile, the pile might even be over the line. Just kill the squirrel. Theres millions of them and they will gently caress your garden up if they take a mind to do it.
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Apr 1, 2009 02:25
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Man. I think I'm taking tomorrow off. Not a whole lot left I can now anyway. Other than mulch. I have a bromeliad I bought a couple weeks ago. The bloom is up, but hasn't folded out. But the leaves are starting to curl under on the tips. Doesn't look good. Any ideas on that? Looks like I'll have to do more tilling if I want to set out winter squash, watermelon, okra, pink eye purple hull peas and cucumbers. And I do. gently caress. Mulching and some more mulching followed by a side dish of mulching. Also put in a whole bed of kohlrobi and a bed of radishes that I'll probably just give away as I don't really like radishes, except for a few slices in a salad or wilted lettuce.    Zucchini, The Beginning 
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Apr 1, 2009 23:51
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I haven't been watering it in the cup because when I bought another brom from a nursery the old lady said "Now some people will tell you to water these in the cup, but that'll just rot your plant." So I've been doing it the normal way...These leaves are definitely not supposed to curl under, it's curling in a "I'm a dying plant" way.
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Apr 2, 2009 01:50
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Anubis posted:Is there a support group I can join for people who can't seem to stop buying plants in the spring? I just came back from the store with 3 Roma tomato plants (although those were planned) and 2 more blackberry plants. Someone help me, this needs to stop! If you find it let me know. I'd never owned a plant two or three weeks ago...  I got rained out yesterday.  Looks like most of the tomatoes I put out last week are going to bite it from those cold nights and too much rain. Better Boys and the Super Boys fared the worst, the Arkansas Travelers still look nice and green even though they were smaller and more tender looking plants when I got the 9 packs. I also sunburned my tomato seedlings, won't know how bad until a few more days I suspect. Also working on tomato cages... ChaoticSeven fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Apr 3, 2009 |
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Apr 3, 2009 21:27
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HeatherChandler posted:So how about this weather? We are on a tornado watch tonight, and snow through Wednesday. Salad germinated like crazy quicker than I expected so I went ahead and drug it in. All my tomatoes and peppers have been potted up and zucchini and cukes germinating--and snow?. Just doesn't feel right! I think it sucks. Gathered up everything that would fit over a tomato plant, picked the ones that still looked like they had a reasonable chance of thriving and stuck em'. We'll see who makes it. 
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Apr 7, 2009 01:17
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Well, my bromeliad is looking better. However, my caladium has taken a sudden death spiral. Almost all of the leaves are turning crinkly and shriveling up, usually from the edges inward. It also sort of looks like they're fading, they don't have the contrast they did. My other one is doing great and it gets the same amount of light and water as this one.
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Apr 8, 2009 05:42
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The tomatoes are growing much faster in the last week.
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Apr 10, 2009 18:03
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Made some tomato cages and staked them. Made a small trellis out of a day bed spring support thing, and started a gently caress off huge one from bamboo. 
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Apr 16, 2009 01:14
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kid sinister posted:For everyone recommending container gardening, keep in mind that you will have to water those plants more frequently than if they were planted in the ground, especially any tomatoes or anything in the squash family. That EarthTainer is a good idea, but it would seem to be a bitch to set up the wicking action properly. I would especially check to see whether your self-watering pots would be more cost-effective than regular pots with an automated watering system, though admittedly this probably won't be the case unless you intend to do quite a lot of container gardening. quote:On the 9th April 2009 Anandita Dutta Tamuly, a 26 year old Indian woman, ate 51 Naga Jolokia peppers in two minutes. [14] The attempt took place in Jorhat, India and is expected to be accepted into the Guinness World Records. Celebrity chef and restaurateur, Gordon Ramsay, was present. How can people do that? Shouldn't there be physical damage?
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Apr 20, 2009 16:52
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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.
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Apr 20, 2009 17:26
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Update. Corn  Leaf Lettuce  Tomatoes, foot for scale. Sized 14EE.  Cucumber tower, bamboo.  Lil' bebe cucumbers at the foot of the tower  Cabbages. Notice the hugeness of plants. I'm scared. 
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May 2, 2009 02:28
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I made it. Went out and cut the bamboo, stripped it and tied it together with jute "garden twine". This promptly stretched out and made the knots loose. The bamboo was too wiggly and I didn't like it. So I pre-drilled screw holes and screwed it all the way around and added UV resistant zip ties on the pieces that run upwards on the sides. It's now plenty sturdy I think. I'm not sure how many seasons it'll hold up but I'd imagine it's good for at least this year and the next. It's cool enough I don't mind the effort. Hopefully the cucumbers completely encase it so I can sit in a chair in the shade later this summer.
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May 2, 2009 05:37
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I went out and killed my firstborn children today. They paid the price for ambition.
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May 11, 2009 01:41
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I've got harlequin bugs in my cabbage!
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May 16, 2009 21:38
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HeatherChandler posted:My spoiled tomatoes now have 750 thread count sheets covering them, since I just discovered the matching pillowcases have gone walkies. Probably wherever my extra blankets I had planned to use went. So 3 layers of sheets, and I put a gallon of hot water in each. It is pretty toasty in there, but then again, the sun is still out. I don't have any light on that side of the yard so I had to get it done while I could see, although I might go out with a flashlight and refill the bottles before I go to bed. Neato. Remember back about a month ago when I covered all my tomatoes with random crap from around the house? Well, it hit 32 that night and every one of my plants survived in the end. They looked crappy for a long time, but I believe that was in large part due to the obscene amounts of rain we've gotten here the past month. It's rained, literally, every day but one out of the past 30 days in varying amounts. The funny thing is, my scrawniest "might die any day" Rutgers heirloom plant is the first one with a tomato I noticed and it's already about the size of a mature cherry tomato. I don't know if the plant will even make it long enough for the fruit to ripen. Really weird.
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May 18, 2009 01:30
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What would cause tiny baby tomatoes to crack wide open from the bottom up? I've had several do this since yesterday afternoon. The ground is still very moist. Maybe theres just been too much water and now that it hasn't rained in a whole 4 day span they aren't used to it?
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May 20, 2009 22:52
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Well, the ground hasn't been dry here for a long, long long time. So I guess it was too much water. Hopefully all of the first crop doesn't do this...
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May 21, 2009 00:47
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Harvested several kohlrabi today and yesterday, serrano, bells and jalepenos all have fruits growing. Most of the tomato plants are getting loaded with fruit as well. The corn is getting close to waist high. I'm 6' 6" as a reference. I heard "knee high by the fourth of july" was a good place to be so I guess I'm doing ok there. One problem has reared it's head with a several tomato plants though. They started wilting out of nowhere, one was one of my biggest and healthiest plant. I looked all over for bugs and found nothing. I finally got down on my hands and knees and looked at the base of the plant and noticed there was a whitish discoloration and a whole main "branch" of the stem was sunken and shriveled in that area. I pulled the plant and broke apart the stem and found no obvious parasites. Hopefully it doesn't spread because it murdered the affected plants before I really even noticed it was happening. Oh yeah, I noticed one of my broccoli plants finally has a head forming, thought it would never happen.
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May 29, 2009 01:59
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Haven't updated in a while and things are happening, so. Excessive amounts of pictures. First head of brocolli  Swiss Chard  First serrano pepper  First jalepeno pepper  First and second bell pepper  Lettuce  Corn  Cucumbers  Kohlrabi  Purple Hull Peas  Zucchini and squash. Had to replant these 4 times. First time, transplants died. The second and third birds and squirrels ate all the seeds. The fourth time I put like 8 to 10 seeds in each hill and managed to get at least one plant established in most of the hills.  First squash 
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May 30, 2009 02:43
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Costello Jello posted:Looks great. How do you water it? I haven't. Excessive rainfall has kept it too wet ever since I planted it. When I do start watering I'll probably use some cheap sprinklers. I'd like to use some kind of drip system but I don't think I could afford to buy enough parts for such a relatively large plot.
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May 30, 2009 16:58
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Honestly, I don't know how much it would cost. I've seen kits for something like 100 feet that ran $100 or so. That wouldn't really cover what I've got going. It'd be nice for water savings as I'm sure it will get expensive as soon as the weather gets hot and dry, since my soil is nice and sandy and dries out a lot quicker than most. Maybe I could just rig up the tomatoes, since a lot of the central part of the garden is lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and such that will be vacant when the weather turns hot. Which it is starting to. That would leave just the cucumbers and squash in the middle, which are all close together and wouldn't require a whole lot of tape or piping or whatever it is. Oh yeah, I'm 99% sure what killed 3 of my tomato plants was southern blight. It's a fungus and is aided by overly moist conditions (check) and mildy warm temperatures (check). Unfortunately everything on the internets says you're just hosed if it occurs and to not plant anything in that area but corn for the next two years. It can spread up to three feet through the soil and attacks just about everything but corn. I'm just hoping the dryer conditions we've finally gotten will keep it from spreading out further. The swiss chard really does look outlandish, the colors are sort of surreal compared to the surroundings. The variety I bought was called northern lights. Harvested some kale for the first time today, I nibbled a little (haven't tried it before) and it has a really "green" taste to it. Not sure exactly what to do with it, but I think I'll try something called Crispy Kale tomorrow. You toss the kale in olive oil and apple cider vinegar, toast it in the oven till crispy then salt it with sea salt. 
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May 31, 2009 05:52
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Corn shot silks out like overnight. Squash had giant rear end orange flowers this morning. I picked some of the bigger peppers so maybe the plants can get a bit bigger, they seemed to be too small to have so many and numerous peppers on them. How close are these size wise to being "big enough"? Also bonus kohlrabi. Not sure how big these are supposed to be either.
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Jun 3, 2009 03:24
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My damned peppers aren't hot at all. I don't mean "lol look at how tough my mouth is you pussy" while eating habeneros not hot. I mean they are literally funny shaped green bell peppers as far as heat is concerned. Not even a tingle, nothing. Jalapenos and serranos both. I found a jalepeno this morning I'd missed somehow and it was almost 3 inches long and big around as my giant thumb. I just ate it seeds and all, funny shaped bell. Maybe it's just the fact they were so small and we had so much excess rainfall. I think I'm just going to pick every single pepper and bloom off all the plants and let them start over. Edit: I found a hot jalepeno. I picked it off and just chomped down on it like the others and it was hot. So I got a drink of water. Also look at this loving mutant squash, if I eat this it'll probably give me cancer or something: 
ChaoticSeven fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jun 4, 2009 |
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Jun 4, 2009 20:13
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Sunburned tomatoes: Leave the burned foliage, is what I've read. Climbing cucumbers: Just about anything. You can by cheap nylon netting and string it up, build something out of bamboo like I did, get a length of wire fencing and attach each end to some metal fence posts. Or just let them climb around willy nilly. Spent all afternoon today tilling and hoeing. Man, I need to sharpen my hoe or something, the whole edge is like the blunt side of a butter knife. Got me some broccoli and a bell pepper I picked off, the plant was so small the pepper was bowing the while thing over.  
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Jun 7, 2009 03:32
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Well, poo poo just got real in the garden. There are several squash and zucchini plants producing now, and probably that many again that will start to kick in soon. All the squash and zuch in the picture is from the course of 4 days. Yes, really. Going to need some squash and zucchini recipes it seems. Half the lettuce was ready today so I cut it's heads off. Thats 6 heads of cabbage you see, the one on top is a loving monstrosity of cole genetics. You can't tell well from the picture, but it's approaching 3/4's of a basketball size. And this is all before my tomato, corn, peas or cucumber plants have produced a single ripe fruit. Should be interesting in a couple more weeks. 
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Jun 13, 2009 18:03
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Anubis posted:A huge storm is destroying my garden as I type. How did this turn out? If you had your tomatoes caged up with concrete wire cages mine withstood some crazy rear end winds just recently with no ill effects. Most of my corn was ready for harvest today, so I did. I never had to spray this stuff with anything insecticidal or fungicidal which is something of a miracle I think in the south. Probably has something to do with how early I got it out. Quite a bit earlier than the real deal farmers. Peaches and Cream sweet corn. Booya. 
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Jun 16, 2009 23:57
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I don't think there is a drat thing I can do about it, either.
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My cucumbers started rolling in the last couple days so I needed to do something with them. Made a couple jars of pickled jalapeņos as well. The pickles are the "quick pack" where you have to keep them in the fridge. I'd rather keep them not in the fridge, how hard is that? Maybe a canning thread with recipes or what not would be good here or in Goons with Spoons. Having cooking stuff strewn about inspired me to try something I've never done: Make a pie. Lemon Meringue mother fuckers, the left over filling was amazing. I'm glad I decided to buy to some cooking stuff a few months ago, till then I really only had a 10 inch non stick from Wal-Mart for scrambling eggs. It was sad. 
ChaoticSeven fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Jun 22, 2009 |
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Jun 21, 2009 23:22
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I bought the lemons from Kroger, go make a pie. I used this : http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lemon-meringue-pie-recipe/index.html But it fails to mention bringing the filling back up to a boil after adding the lemon juice, butter and lemon zest. I let it boil and stirred it for a full two minutes after that. I found that tip in the comments, apparently if you don't do that you'll end up with Lemon Soup Meringue Pie. Mines in the cooling process so I guess we'll see how it turns out in a few hours... P.S. I bought the crust from Kroger too.
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Jun 22, 2009 02:59
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frumpus posted:Snakes. Probably isn't even around anymore. Not only is it harmless to the garden, it's beneficial if you have like, a mole or small children problem. I found this critter on a tomato plant. Should I nuke these from orbit?  
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Jun 24, 2009 23:54
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I just shook the entire plant briskly every morning. Seemed to do the trick as my plants are loaded beyond anyone elses around here. I've heard of using an electric toothbrush, touched to stem of the blossom or blossom itself works well. You need to get out there early though, tomato pollen goes sterile above something really crazy. 75F? At what point does one have too many cucumbers? This is just a couple days after making 7lbs of fridge pickles and giving a couple more lbs away. Also look, I finally have a few tomatoes. I picked them a wee bit early as all the ones I've left on the vine have been a magic beacon for avian and other disasters. That big one is 1 pound 4 ounces. 
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Jun 26, 2009 02:42
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Wow, that fucker is huge. I have a several on a few of my plants but I can't find them, even looking early in the morning. I may be overlooking them simply because I wasn't expecting something of that size. My vote is a simple squashing.
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Jun 28, 2009 00:02
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Well, the tomato plants are really kicking un as far as ripe fruit production goes. Too bad I found out yesterday I have to work out of state for 3 months or longer. Thats what I get for ambition. 
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Jul 10, 2009 03:12
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