|
What type of plants are you interested in growing? This poll is closed. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Perennials! |
|
142 | 20.91% |
| Annuals! |
|
30 | 4.42% |
| Woody plants! |
|
62 | 9.13% |
| Succulent plants! |
|
171 | 25.18% |
| Tropical plants! |
|
60 | 8.84% |
| Non-vascular plants are the best! |
|
31 | 4.57% |
| Screw you, I'd rather eat them! |
|
183 | 26.95% |
| Total: | 679 votes | ||
|
One of the grape vines that we planted this spring had a tiny surprise for us this morning. I trimmed the buds off so the vine can focus on growing, as I'm hoping to train the vines to a trellis before the end of the year. Still, really neat to see what's coming in the future. (The buds tasted like Plant.) About a month ago, the apricot that we planted last Spring blossomed, though it seems they went unfertilized and have since fallen off. One year to fruiting seemed too good to be true, and its partner plant in the front yard didn't blossom this year anyway, so no surprise. Super pretty flowers, though. I live in Minnesota. 
|
#
¿
May 21, 2018 00:02
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:57 |
|
|
Hmm, I planted blackberries in one of our raised garden beds this spring. Am I a bad person? I could be convinced to pot them. I live in a city.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2018 02:48
|
|
|
Harry Potter on Ice posted:Mozi I forgot to ask, how do you plan on making your jade flower? I've heard its just from stress. 
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2018 21:55
|
|
|
kid sinister posted:I saw this on my Facebook feed and I want one, a Persian Carpet Flower. Maybe it's just this photo, but that plant is giving me some serious Resident Evil vibes.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2018 04:06
|
|
|
Anyone know what this flower is? Found a big bush at a park in town that was absolutely covered in monarchs and bees. There are at least three butterflies and one bee in this photo alone. Seems like a good candidate for planting in our home gardens. (Click for Big.) E: I'm in Minnesota 
ColdPie fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Sep 16, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2018 15:00
|
|
|
A few months ago people were talking about growing new jade plants. I thought I'd post a picture of the one I started growing last summer. It started as a leaf fallen off of a coworker's plant. I stuck it in some dirt on my office windowsill and 7 months later it's doing quite well. The big leaf on the right is the original leaf. I'm looking forward to it getting a trunk.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2019 15:16
|
|
|
Despite the rabbits' best efforts and the bitterly cold winter, all three of our grapevines came back real strong this spring. If you like reading words about plants, I wrote up a blog post about year 2 of my Minnesota grape growing effort with photos of each vine.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2019 15:42
|
|
|
Sir Lemming posted:Nice! I'm working on some vines myself. Ours were planted probably a little too late last year, early summer in NC, but they seem to be doing okay growing back in the new season. But as usual we've already forgotten what varieties we bought because of parent brain. I know we've got Muscadine, Niagara, and one other, but I don't remember which is which. I actually drew a map of our yard to keep track of all the plants.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2019 23:52
|
|
|
Where are you located? I've had very good luck with Wallace Woodstock, located in Wisconsin.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2019 00:36
|
|
|
Sir Lemming posted:Hey grapegoon! I'm trying to get some vines going myself and was wondering if you had any thoughts. We planted back in late Spring / early Summer 2018, probably too late really (NC, so Spring is pretty warm). But I think they established themselves pretty well anyway, because there is lots of growth this season. Ours are somewhat unorthodox, on a fence, which is probably not optimal, but we're sort of trying to achieve double purposes of making our fence look neat and also getting grapes. Cool! Congrats and good luck. I'm super new to this too, so everything I say is mostly just parroting from the book I mentioned. My understanding is the first year, you let about 3 shoots grow and mostly do whatever, to help establish the root system. Then at the start of year 2, before bud break, you either prune down to one of last year's shoots, or else prune all the way back and let a new shoot grow. Then let that one shoot go bonkers up your trellis to establish a strong trunk to begin your real crop in years 3 and 4. After that, pruning is mostly about balancing fruit vs vegetation growth. If it grows a ton of vegetation and little fruit, then prune less and leave more fruiting canes on for next year. If it grows too much low quality fruit, prune more to leave fewer fruiting canes. But one thing I've learned from doing online research, as opposed to this book which is aimed at getting maximum quality and yield, is that grapes are pretty flexible. If you screw up pruning one year, or you're focusing on covering a fence with vegetation in addition to growing fruit, then whatever. You're doing it for fun, not profit. Getting maximum quality and yield doesn't have to be the only goal. My thoughts on your particular situation is that it's probably too late to prune. I'd worry a bit about disease having an easier time getting into the wound, due to the warm weather. You're also effectively wasting all of the effort the plant put into growing those leaves, before it got a chance to produce and store any energy from them. I'd let them go as they will this year. Maybe even let one or two flower clusters grow and mature into fruit, if you're feeling it. Then late next winter or early next spring, when buds are maybe just starting to form, prune off whichever of the trunks looks weaker or uglier on your fence. Or heck, just let both grow. According to the book, sending up one new trunk per year is a common style in cold weather areas, to help guard against super cold weather killing the typical one trunk. Bud break here happened just last week. My shoots are growing roughly an inch per day. My longest vine is about 4" so far, it's the same one as in my previous post. If my notes are to be believed, it is a Marquette grape.  P.S. gently caress rabbits.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2019 01:10
|
|
|
Fwiw if you're waffling, I think you should snip it off. Especially if it's low down and you have pest problems and no protection set up. E: Also, just curious, what varieties are you growing? ColdPie fucked around with this message at 14:46 on May 17, 2019 |
|
#
¿
May 17, 2019 14:31
|
|
|
Oppression posted:Just moved into a neighborhood where all my immediate neighbors have common buckthorn in place as hedges or decorative shrubs. My yard had 3 of them as shrubs as well. Time to start an education plan and probably will have to offer to do the work to replace them myself in order for some of them to get on board. Ouch. I spent 3 afternoons helping the city clear buckthorn from a small lake. I think we made it a quarter way around the lake in all that time. That stuff is rampant.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2019 11:00
|
|
|
On May 16th, my grapevines were about 4" long: Today, 26 days later, they're over four feet tall. That's an increase of about 44 inches, or almost two inches every day on average! The leaves are really huge, much larger than my outstretched hand. No flower clusters yet, which is fine because this year is about vegetative growth. All of the vines are starting to get lateral shoots, which is cool. Some of those will become next year's fruiting canes. A couple more inches to go before they hit the top wire of the trellis. The two new plantings are doing well. One of them put out four or five flower clusters, which I snipped off. The other had three buds at the start of spring, but only one actually broke into a shoot, unfortunately. But that one shoot is doing fine. I learned these two varieties are less cold-hardy than the other three. I've done some research on how to prevent winter damage, but I'm not sure if I actually want to go through the effort. Apparently you're supposed to take the vines down from the trellis and bury them over winter... But a more recent document I read said that did more harm than good in their studies. Maybe just a different trellis training system is the right answer here. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2019 01:45
|
|
|
Hi thread. Is my apricot tree saveable? It's just entering its third summer. The first year it grew fine. Last year it grew quite well, most of the growth in this picture was from last year. This year it's struggling to put out even a single decent leaf. We did have a very cold winter, and a very late spring frost, so I wonder if it's largely due to winter damage. Anything I can do to help it out this year? Just let it do its thing and hope it springs back next year?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2019 00:03
|
|
|
kid sinister posted:That's... pretty bad. Metaphorically speaking, your tree is on the ropes. I wouldn't touch it this year and hope for the best. At this young, even if it does survive, you'll be able to train it into the shape you want. That being said, right now I'd be looking up nurseries to replace it. Platystemon posted:If you wait to see how the apricot tree does, you can buy a bare root tree next winter for cheap. Thanks. I got it mail order bare root from a place in Wisconsin. I think they're like $20. I don't know if I'll bother, though, if I don't know what went wrong. Seems weird to me that it'd be fine for two years and die on the third.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2019 11:25
|
|
|
Platystemon posted:Besides the cold, something that could have put it on death’s doorstep is waterlogged soil. Hubis posted:You could also get a small soil auger (basically a drill bit for dirt), drill a series of holes in lines radially outward from the tree, and packing them with calcined clay. This is a standard way of improving drainage around established trees, though this one might be too far gone/need more immediate relief. Thanks again. Drainage does sound like a likely problem. I've never done any aeration or other treatment to the lawn. To be honest, I don't think I have the interest in doing that much work to try to save a tree that's probably already dead. These apricot varieties are not self-fruitful, so I actually have a second apricot in our other (sloped) yard which is so far doing well. If it survives a few more years and seems healthy, maybe I'll replace this dead one, and do something about the drainage before I plant it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2019 14:25
|
|
|
In not-dying-fruit-tree news, our grapes are doing pretty great. All three of last year's vines have exceeded the height of the trellis and I've headed them. They're now growing their lateral shoots, which will become next year's fruiting canes. The bad news is two of the three trunks seem to be “bull canes.” These are overly vigorous shoots. They’re extra thick and have very long distances between the leaf nodes. Compare the picture of the normal Marquette cane pictured above with the Bluebell bull cane pictured below. Especially notice the length of the internodes, and the number and size of the leaves.  According to my research, bull canes should be avoided both for fruiting canes and for trunks. They're less fruitful, and less cold-hardy due to the extra thickness taking longer to harden off for winter. I'm going to continue training them as normal, but I'm mentally prepared for them to die over winter, and I'm definitely training new trunks next spring to replace them even if they survive. I wrote a blog post about this if you're interested in reading a little more.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2019 15:08
|
|
|
Sir Lemming posted:So one of my grape vines just did this: I cut the tops off of mine. This is supposed to force the plant to start growing lateral shoots, which will be next year's fruiting canes. When pruning, expect at least an inch of dieback, so don't cut too close to any nodes you want to keep. For your vine, I'd wait until the top is a little stronger. One source I read suggests that the trunk be at least 1/4" in diameter at the top trellis wire before pruning off the top.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2019 22:51
|
|
|
FizFashizzle posted:please tell me how to plant... cilantro tia Bury cilantro seeds under 1/4" of soil in at least partial sun. Water every day. Repeat when it starts to bolt.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2019 14:45
|
|
|
Hooray, the Japanese beetles have returned.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2019 01:19
|
|
|
Found this cool mushroom in our yard, about 5" tall. It's been a very wet year, so lots of mushrooms around the neighborhood. This is the first time I've seen this particular variety though. Poking around mushroom ID sites didn't lead my anywhere. Neat! (Click for big.)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2019 16:35
|
|
|
Sure does, and now my phone's "recently viewed websites" looks like a bunch of cocks in various stages of excitement.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2019 21:53
|
|
|
I like 3 or 4
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2019 19:15
|
|
|
Do fruit plants go in the "veggie and herb gardening" (i.e. edible?) thread or in the "plants in general" (i.e. non-edible?) thread??? O what to do. Our grapevines are putting out shitloads of flower clusters!! The new shoots are growing at a rate of inches per day. I left about 10 buds on each cane, and each of the three vines has four canes, so that's about 120 fruiting buds. With 2-3 clusters emerging per shoot, that's about 240-360 bunches of grapes in total?! Based on some literature I've read, I'm a little worried I might've overcropped them (grown too much fruit). However, they were super vigorous last year, growing from a single bud down by the ground all the way to a full trunk with four or five fruiting canes per vine. So I think cropping on the high end for each species is appropriate. I might cluster thin (remove fruit clusters before they set) depending on how many leaves end up on each shoot. I have a 3-wire trellis, and I have some canes on each wire, so I can see whether they grow best going up or down the trellis. So far they seem to like growing up. Also I'm a huge nerd, so I drew diagrams of how I pruned each vine, including bud count and location, so I have a record of how they grow each year. 
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2020 13:10
|
|
|
One of our grapevines is blooming!!! The flowers are so un-dramatic for such a dramatic fruit.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2020 21:58
|
|
|
My wife made a bouquet out of some flowers we have growing in our gardens.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2020 15:22
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:That is gorgeous! Are those roses or peonies and do you have any idea what variety? I really like the shape and color. They are peonies. No idea on the variety, the plant came with the house. If it helps, the leaves in that photo are from the same plant.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2020 14:05
|
|
|
You're in the right place.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 21, 2020 13:21
|
|
|
This is my favorite view in the garden right now.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2020 14:10
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:57 |
|
|
 Something super cool happened! Last year, my wife grew some hollyhocks from seed. The plants did very well, and the colors that happened to come up were red and white. They came up again this year, alongside a bunch of new plants from the seeds dropped by last year's flowers. I was going to go weed them out of the garden bed, but my wife stopped me with an idea. What if the new plants were a hybrid? What color would their flowers be? Red? White? Some of both? Striped? Pink? So we decided to let them grow. This past weekend one of the offspring finally blossomed!  It's pink! loving wild, man! Genetics in action.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2020 20:41
|
|