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Plus_Infinity posted:I also have a question- I'm mixing in native soil with my compost/ perlite/ etc. and one of my raised beds had a ton of sandy soil beneath it. Are there any veggies that LIKE sandy soil? I can mix in some more rich dirt but I figured I'd see if there was anything that would do well in there. Strawberries LOVE sandy soil. It's their bread and butter. Mix in some ever-bearers and June bearers.
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Apr 3, 2012 14:33
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Is it better to get already started strawberry plants from a nursery? They take a year or so to start from seed, right?
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Apr 3, 2012 15:28
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Most vegetables do quite well in sandy soil. Certainly better than clay. The water retention is bad and the nutrient requirement is greater, but if you can handle those, most of your veggies will do great. I live on sand and use raised beds. I mix 1/3 sand to 1/3 compost to 1/3 stuff like manure and peat moss and biochar and other goodies then mulch on top. That way water and nutrient retention is really good and my veggies seem quite pleased with it 
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Apr 3, 2012 16:39
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Plus_Infinity posted:Is it better to get already started strawberry plants from a nursery? They take a year or so to start from seed, right? Yea I got mine from a nursery. I paid $10 for 15 plants of a single variety strawberry. I have about 30 strawberry plants now. I went a little crazy, but honestly they're so expensive at the grocery that my first few harvests will pay for themselves. You're not suppose to let June-bearers produce in their first year, but there's only a few good years of production so I'm not wasting my time. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 3, 2012 17:17
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Carrots and parsnips will do well in sandy soil too. The forecast has been taunting me lately. We just got done with a March that saw ~150% of normal precipitation, but the forecast was showing next week as clear, sunny and mid 50s. Now it's back to clouds and rain. I wouldn't bother starting strawberries from seed unless you want a specific variety that isn't available as a start. The starts are cheap enough and you'll be able to keep propagating them from runners forever. They're practically weeds in the abandoned plots at our community garden.
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Apr 3, 2012 22:32
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I did my tomatoes in peat seed starters surrounded by netting, unfortunately my first chance is to get them in the ground is this weekend, but the roots have grown outside the netting. Should I take teh netting off or leave it on? It's never been an issue before. Also, I'm moving from doing large container gardens to a raised bed, has anyone else made that transition and if so what's the biggest obstacle to overcome?
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Apr 4, 2012 02:15
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mugrim posted:Also, I'm moving from doing large container gardens to a raised bed, has anyone else made that transition and if so what's the biggest obstacle to overcome? I did this too, and have been shocked over and over again by how much dirt I have to buy.
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Apr 4, 2012 05:03
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Plus_Infinity posted:Is it better to get already started strawberry plants from a nursery? They take a year or so to start from seed, right? Yes. Much better to get them as plants rather then seeds. Strawberry seeds are tiny as hell and are a pain to deal with.
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Apr 4, 2012 05:09
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drat Your Eyes! posted:I did this too, and have been shocked over and over again by how much dirt I have to buy. I have a truck and good local soil is cheap as dirt (  ) as long as you have your own vehicle. I'm used to daily watering with tomatoes planted in five gallon containers for obvious reasons. It's part of why I had a container garden, to have something that forced me to take ten minutes out of my day or it'd die. It became relaxing and I got roughly 200 pounds of tomatoes for roughly 100 dollars. This year I'm also adding on stevia and mint, both have started nicely, but their roots aren't as adventurous as the tomatoes.
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Apr 4, 2012 05:13
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Keep your eyes open on freecycle, that's how we got some fill dirt and mixed in soil amendments from there.
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Apr 4, 2012 06:00
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Zeta Buttforce posted:I was thinking you might be a good canditate for a moss lawn.
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Apr 4, 2012 17:57
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I took some sick plants to the county extension office. My cucumbers and tomato have downy mildew. My meyer lemon has citrus leaf miner.  County extension offices sure are great though Use this resource!
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Apr 4, 2012 19:28
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Yesterday I opened the front door to check the mail and some nice neighbour had left a bag of strawberry runners for me! They look like small offshoots of larger or older plants. I have a great sandy sunny bed out back to put them in, is there anything I should know about planting runner strawbs, or can I just bung them straight in the ground? They all seem to have good root systems going on. I'm on the west coast of Canada, zone 7b (I think). Usually I bemoan the lack of privacy in my back yard, but in this instance the fact that the whole town watches me garden paid off Also, does Canada have county extension offices or something like it? I'm a pretty recent immigrant so there's heaps of services I don't know about.
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Apr 4, 2012 22:01
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The deer around here love strawberries and decimated my crop last year. Plan ahead to protect them somehow.
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Apr 4, 2012 22:39
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Shithouse Dave posted:Yesterday I opened the front door to check the mail and some nice neighbour had left a bag of strawberry runners for me! They look like small offshoots of larger or older plants. I have a great sandy sunny bed out back to put them in, is there anything I should know about planting runner strawbs, or can I just bung them straight in the ground? They all seem to have good root systems going on. I'm on the west coast of Canada, zone 7b (I think). Soak the roots in water for half an hour then just plant them up to the crown in loose, well drained soil. Water regularly and provide a small amount of balanced fertilizer later in the spring.
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Apr 4, 2012 22:53
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I bought some Zucchini plants at the local nursery. They came in the normal square box, but there are two plants per box. Am I supposed to plant the pair and then kill one? How does this work?
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Apr 5, 2012 01:25
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Corla Plankun posted:I bought some Zucchini plants at the local nursery. They came in the normal square box, but there are two plants per box. Am I supposed to plant the pair and then kill one? How does this work?
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Apr 5, 2012 01:36
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Last year I started with basically the same plant and about halfway through the season they both shriveled up and died so I thought they might have strangled eachother. The internet promised me more zukes than I could conceivably eat, so I was really really disappointed.
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Apr 5, 2012 03:18
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Night 2 of FORK, RED PEPPER, and GARLIC ASSAULT to prevent cats. You can see two of their prior dig sites in the pic.
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Apr 5, 2012 03:19
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 When the planting dates said end of February / beginning of March, I assumed I would have nice seedlings ready for transplant by the end of April. Not tomatoes growing at the beginning of April. My peppers are now flowering as well. Problem is that flowering and fruiting plants are not as easy to transplant as seedlings. cowofwar fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 05:09
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Welp, cat still took a poo poo in my garden, despite forks pepper and garlic. I guess I gotta put up a little fence to see if that'll deter this fucker.
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Apr 5, 2012 15:22
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dhrusis posted:Welp, cat still took a poo poo in my garden, despite forks pepper and garlic. I guess I gotta put up a little fence to see if that'll deter this fucker. What's worse, the tinfoil would act like a mirror and, given the wrong conditions, could cause the sun to fry everything you've got. Tinfoil is probably a terrible idea, forget I mentioned it. *Also these, but I think you'd need at least two (face them back to back in the middle of the garden, bonus points if you paint them to look like soldiers) and they're fairly expensive. I've used them before, though, and they work. Scares the hell out of any cats that come near (and you too, when you inevitably forget they're there and walk in front of one).
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Apr 5, 2012 15:55
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Just buy four 4' $1 garden stakes from homedepot, drive them in the corners, surround the plot with deer netting and zap strap the netting to the stakes. Stop messing around with idiotic stuff like plastic forks. I did it for my 150 square foot garden and it cost me $10 and keeps out the rabbits, deer, cats, etc..
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Apr 5, 2012 17:47
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I'm curious how many here water with their hose. And if you do water with your hose, it is a "drinking water safe" hose/
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Apr 5, 2012 19:05
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I've always watered with my hose. Never had any issues with it. I'm not sure about the quality of the hose, it came with the house.. But it's old lookin and in a rental, so it's probably low quality. Even the drip hose gets connected to the regular hose. How else would you do it?
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Apr 5, 2012 20:51
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I've never met a hose I didn't consider "drinking water safe" on a hot day, and I've made it 35 years so far. I doubt anyone would get away with selling a hose you couldn't drink out of; in West Virginia where I grew up, kids are taught how to drink sideways out of a hose starting at about age 2.
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Apr 5, 2012 22:08
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From what I found after a brief search, the concern seems to be that hoses made with PVC may use lead as a stabilizer. In theory lead could leach out in standing water in a hose. If you're really concerned then run the hose long enough to clear out the standing water before drinking or watering a garden with it. And watering without a hose? Fill a watering can from a spigot. It makes you very mindful of how much water you use since you've got to lug it to the garden every time.
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Apr 5, 2012 22:25
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I think I started my tomatoes in too small of a container... i may have to try again. Sun flowers got a little dry while I was out for a long weekend, older picture but they look a little better..  Some peppers sprouted, some didnt. Should I start over?
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Apr 5, 2012 22:43
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See how they have long stalks between the soil and leaves? That's called "leggy" and usually not good (one exception is leek starts). It happens when the light source is too far away and the seedlings stretch up to reach it. You really want that light source down within 1-2" inches of the leaves because it's nowhere near as bright as real sunlight. Starting over depends on your growing season. If it's pretty short or starting soon then you'll probably have to buy starts instead.
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Apr 5, 2012 23:05
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Corla Plankun posted:I bought some Zucchini plants at the local nursery. They came in the normal square box, but there are two plants per box. Am I supposed to plant the pair and then kill one? How does this work? cowofwar posted:General instructions are plant 4 seeds per mound and then thin to 2. Corla Plankun posted:Last year I started with basically the same plant and about halfway through the season they both shriveled up and died so I thought they might have strangled eachother. The internet promised me more zukes than I could conceivably eat, so I was really really disappointed. I just planted some seeds a week or two ago, now I have about 4 seedlings coming up, probably followed by a few more... I wasn't expecting them all to sprout, or for them to sprout this quickly or grow this big. Can I separate them out into separate pots at any stage? Or can I transplant them en masse and just tie the stems/leaves around so the leaves get equal light? Or are they boned as is and I'll just have to kill all but one?  e: Also that semi-clear plastic tub setup on the previous page looks interesting, our balcony gets zero light (which is why all our plants died once we moved in) so I'm going to set up an Intensive Care Unit on the study window, which is the only room that gets any light at all. I'll built a shelf and chuck some stuff on it like the zucchini and whatever else doesn't die in the next week. Would the zucchini do well in a clear plastic tub like that, but quite long and narrow? Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Apr 6, 2012 |
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Apr 6, 2012 00:58
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You can bury part of the stems of leggy tomatoes and they'll root just fine. But yeah, them's some tall rear end tomatoes. With the sunflowers they're really best directly sown. They're terrifically tough plants and don't really need the extra protection of starting inside. Have fun the next year though when you've got "volunteer" sunflowers popping up all over the garden! Edit: Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Or are they boned as is and I'll just have to kill all but one? 4 plants enter, one plant leaves! You'll save yourself a lot of headache for not a lot of benefit, unless you're really confident you can tease the plants apart for transplanting. I promise it's not worth the work though.
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Apr 6, 2012 00:58
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I never thought it would happen with this crazy weather, but there's a frost warning for Friday night in my area. I have strawberries, raspberry, blackberry, spinach, and romaine in pots and tomatoes, broccoli, and snap peas out in the garden. Is there anything I should bring in and how do I protect my tomaters?
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Apr 6, 2012 01:09
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cowofwar posted:Just buy four 4' $1 garden stakes from homedepot, drive them in the corners, surround the plot with deer netting and zap strap the netting to the stakes. Stop messing around with idiotic stuff like plastic forks. I did it for my 150 square foot garden and it cost me $10 and keeps out the rabbits, deer, cats, etc.. I did this. its ghetto but i'm testing it out tonight. thanks for the advice. Oh, and jackpot -- thanks for your recommendations as well :-D
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Apr 6, 2012 01:32
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cheese eats mouse posted:I never thought it would happen with this crazy weather, but there's a frost warning for Friday night in my area. I have strawberries, raspberry, blackberry, spinach, and romaine in pots and tomatoes, broccoli, and snap peas out in the garden. Is there anything I should bring in and how do I protect my tomaters?
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Apr 6, 2012 01:33
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mischief posted:4 plants enter, one plant leaves! You'll save yourself a lot of headache for not a lot of benefit, unless you're really confident you can tease the plants apart for transplanting. I promise it's not worth the work though. Oh man. I'm not an experienced gardener (if I put up a photo of the 8 plants we have dying/completely dead, you'd understand) but that makes me sad. Should I just pull out the 3 that aren't as big and plant another 4 seeds in a different, larger pot? They'll probably sprout the same in a week or so anyway..
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Apr 6, 2012 01:49
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Most hoses have lead in them and are most definitely not safe to drink from which I personally extrapolate to not use on my garden. Consumer Reports found lead levels 10-100x the safe levels. Running the water for awhile helps but it's not worth the risk in my opinion. I don't want that crap going into my soil and then my plants then me. I only buy drinking water safe hoses.
Socratic Moron fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Apr 6, 2012 |
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Apr 6, 2012 03:11
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Oh man. I'm not an experienced gardener (if I put up a photo of the 8 plants we have dying/completely dead, you'd understand) but that makes me sad. Should I just pull out the 3 that aren't as big and plant another 4 seeds in a different, larger pot? They'll probably sprout the same in a week or so anyway.. Don't be sad. Plants want to be thinned. None of them will grow to their full potential if you don't thin them. Pull the smaller ones that germinated later and you'll end up with the most vigorous plants. I tend to do more starts than I'll need because inevitably some of them don't do as well and I can pick only the best ones for transplanting. If they all do well then you can usually give them away easily enough.
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Apr 6, 2012 22:47
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Don't be sad. Plants want to be thinned. None of them will grow to their full potential if you don't thin them. Pull the smaller ones that germinated later and you'll end up with the most vigorous plants. I tend to do more starts than I'll need because inevitably some of them don't do as well and I can pick only the best ones for transplanting. If they all do well then you can usually give them away easily enough. If you plant multiple in a seed starter puck and a few of them sprout, should you just thin before planting in bigger pots or should you make the effort to pluck them apart and then plant them separately? Works out to be a seed wasting issue, which I don't see as a huge deal, but was just checking on what the best practice is. The ones I pluck out don't tend to grow as fast afterwards because the root systems were damaged. Also, anyone know how many arugula sprouts I should let live in 1 seed starter puck when planting?
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Apr 7, 2012 04:59
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Best practice is to thin. Pulling them apart and all the rest of it is just overkill, especially for really common plants. I can see being a little more thorough with some starts of relatively expensive seeds, like super hot peppers or the new big deal in tomatoes, but for some bog common stuff it's just not worth the trouble. Additionally, it's not "wasting" seeds if you select against seeds that perform poorly. It's just the way of things. Understand that nature is pretty ruthless and you'll do fine. And don't name your sprouts.
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Apr 7, 2012 05:15
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My poor station wagon looked like a lowrider on the trip home from Lowes. Four cylinder engines aren't made for hauling cubic yards of compost at a time. Now I have to make two more trips for peat and vermiculite, all while hoping my struts don't give out on me. Luckily that first load was the heaviest by far.  Glad to finally start breaking ground on the beds so I can get those seeds I started in the ground this week, though.
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Apr 7, 2012 21:57
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