Gardening: the beets must go on

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Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

I've heard growing tomatoes upside down in a bucket is a viable technique- what about growing other vine plants or plants that can't support their own weight? I don't think there will be anything that gets in the way of that working. Has anyone tried it with any success?

the ones I have in mind right now are runner beans and squash

# ¿ Mar 16, 2009 02:49

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 13:29

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Zeta Taskforce posted:

I don't think it will work, just because the beans need something to wrap themselves around and won't thrive just hanging down, and squash needs an amazing amount of water once it gets going, and I don't think a hanging basket could provide an adequate amount. In addition, the squash themselves will need support once they get big, or else they could pull the entire thing out.

That said, you have nothing to lose by trying it. The only downside is probably $10 of materials and your time. Go for it.

What about the wrapping around makes the beans thrive though? I thought it was because they climb to reach more sun. Is there some sort of importance in the actual holding onto things? I figure, if they are getting sun anyways they should be fine. I might have to keep pulling them off whatever they find and wrapping it back onto itself to keep it hanging.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2009 05:23

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Zeta Taskforce posted:

They wrap around things for support as well as to survive. Assuming they have nothing to wrap around, they will probably wrap themselves around each other and try in vain to grow upwards, or more likely some of them will manage to send out shoots that will manage to grow upwards and the plant�s energy will go toward these shoots that make it, and these will manage to cling to the outside of your basket and then start wrapping themselves around the wires that the basket is hanging from.

However, like I said before, you should try for yourself. Part of the fun of gardening is when you figure out how to do the impossible. When I was a kid I wanted to grow watermelon. Unfortunately this was in Northern Vermont, North East Kingdom, up in the mountains, about 20 miles from Canada. I had to find the earliest, smallest variety I could find, something like sugar baby. I started the seeds, put them in black plastic mulch and waited, and waited, and when we had our first killing frost on Labor day I had to cover them, and finally at the end of September they were ready. We had an unusually cold rainy summer and other people barely got tomatoes and I had the bragging rights that I grew watermelon. The amount of time, effort and money for what I got was a pathetic. I got about 4 watermelon; the largest was about 8 inches across. The logical thing would have been to go to the store and buy one, but still, I managed to grow it.

That's awesome :neckbeard:

You're right, I'm going to try growing a whole bunch of stuff upside down this year. I'll do beans, carrots, tomatoes. I'll try to find a container variety of cucumber and if I can do that, I'll try growing cucumber upside down too.

I obtained a commercial planter a while back(I got the flew off the back of a truck discount), and this year's sprouts are growing in it.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2dlkvfd&s=5
That picture is from two weeks ago though, right now it is covered in green. It has 18 different types of vegetables. Considering how much space I have to grow in(10x10feet), I'm going to need all the upside-down container space I can get.

I love that planter, after I pull the soil plugs when the plants are big enough I can reuse it after a little cleaning.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2009 15:04

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Cakefool posted:

Upside down? Do you mean growing from a hanging container?

Yes, just like that picture in the post above me.

Here's an MS paint of what my plans are for my garden:

-the "M" made out of circles is the walking path.
-the blue lines cutting through it will be the supports for the hanging buckets- most likely 4"X4"'s buried deep and reinforced to carry the significant weight, and as high as possible.
-Green area is the part of my yard that receives full sunlight most of the day
-Brown area is shaded at least half of the day, due to the tall fence on the side and the fact the sun travels horizontally left to right in this picture.
-Red area receives more sun then green area due to the short fence and distance from tall house.
-I'm thinking of expanding my operations to the open area beyond there, but if someone decides to mow it down there's really nothing I can do about it. And the grass is mowed down regularly back there too(by who I have no idea)

In the brown area, I'm going to plant climbing plants like different varieties of beans and peas. I have some standard home-depot seed packet breeds for that. I will need some ground cover for that area too and it will probably be carrots or leaf-vegetables like kai-laan, edible rapeseed and collards, stuff that you grow one-off and replace afterwards. During summer I might try planting heat-intolerant plants here.

In the green area, I will have bushy plants like soy bean and contained areas for one squash and chives and lettuce, but nothing too tall that it will reach the hanging plants

In the red area I will plant a row of sunflowers so i will have a "back wall" made of sunflowers, and herbs like oregano that are supposed to taste better with more sun will get that premium space

The blue hanging areas will house multiple different varieties of tomatoes and whatever experimental plants I want to try hanging upside down(i will probably use a third of the area for experimentation)

I will have an automatic irrigation system set up- normally I don't like to spend money on this sort of thing but I think the concept is really cool, and will let things keep living even if I have to go out of town. It will run one hour at the morning and the hottest part of the day, drippers for the containers and sprayers for the beds.

The water here is very hard and somewhat alkaline(ph 8 or so), in my experiments it made potted tomatoes with peat moss soil go white with PH shock after about three weeks of watering and no flushing out. But outside it rains sometimes and should be alright, right?

I live in zone 8 and the last frost is around this time. summers are very hot. I don't know what grows really well around here especially in these conditions, but I figure if I go with a lot of variety, something's bound to not die.

So that's my plan- if there's anything obviously wrong or that would work better I would love to hear it. I can forsee some problems in the future with the sun not getting to plants due to shading, and plants trying to expand past my limited spaces.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2009 20:09

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

kid sinister posted:

It's not the offshoots that are the problem, it's the overall distance from the roots. The farther the plant has to transport nutrients to a fruit, the smaller that fruit will be. Tomatoes naturally are a low growing vine that will layer itself as it spreads. Each spot that touches the ground will produce new roots to help send nutrients along. You can see this growing habit on tomato vines easily, just look for the little white bumps on the vines. But humans don't let tomatoes grow this way: they prop them up in cages to maximize garden space and keep the fruit out of reach of 'visitors'.

Cakefool, you're right, you plant them very young. You start them in the bucket turned upside-down, then when they got enough of a rootball to hold the dirt in place so that it won't pour out the hole, you turn the bucket over and hang it.

I wonder if you can keep an upside down tomato, but let it touch the ground and send out bottom roots too. It would be like a tomato stalagmite :aaaaa:

I am definitely reserving one tomato bucket for this, this year. For science.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2009 03:22

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

The Big One posted:

Does anyone know what this little guy might be?

It's a money plant!

http://www.examiner.com/x-2485-SF-Gardening-Examiner~y2009m2d13-Grow-your-own-Money-Plant

# ¿ Jul 10, 2009 16:38

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

handbags at dawn posted:

Help! I ended up with two Mortgage Lifter tomato plants this year. I've never grown tomatoes before - well, not grown anything before - but my daughter wanted to grow some things this year. So I have a couple of very happy and productive cucumber plants and some happy cantaloupe vines. But the tomatoes are not doing as well. (Or are they? I really can't tell.)

Here are the bastards:

The top part is healthy:

But below the top not all is so nice looking:

They get a full day's direct sunlight every day, I water them in the morning, a little at noon, and then again after work. I am in southern Oklahoma, so it's been hot. I've only seen two blossoms near the top once about two weeks ago and then no more since then.

Am I over/under watering them? Is the pot too small? My daughter wants to have a full garden in the backyard next year, so I suspect I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.

i'm still rather new at this myself too, but my un-expert opinion is that there's something missing with the soil not the lower leaves themselves(i am looking at the green top of the plant, it looks leggy and sparse, unless it's supposed to be that way). when was the last time you fertilized? do you let the dirt dry out a little while before you water again?

there's several guides available on the internet for diagnosing tomato problems. i like the ones with pictures since descriptions with words like "chlorotic" mean nothing to me.
heres one
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/Garden/02949.html

this one is more focused on specific element deficiencies, i think more useful for someone with only a handful of plants since those problems are probably more common.
http://4e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=t&id=289
skimming over this guide, it looks like a nitrogen deficiency.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2009 02:16

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

plasticbugs posted:

I had no real concept of how tall these things grow when I planted it. I put a 3 foot stake in the ground when they started and thought that was sufficient.

Today, I learned an important lesson: Use a MUCH taller stake. One vine was up to about 8 feet (leaning on my fence). I tied it up to the fence yesterday, but it was so much higher than the fence that the top of the vine finally bent over and crimped at the tie-off point.

So, my option now is to just leave it bent like that or un-tie it and hope that it doesn't crimp somewhere else as it bends back towards the ground. Wow, what a mess. Any suggestions there? Should I leave the crimp and hope for the best?

On a positive note, the thing is flowering and developing tomatoes like crazy.

assuming im reading that post right, i would just tie the tomato plant to the fence in lots of different places and guide it to grow sideways

EDIT: if you do that, bring some branches down to the dirt and they will root!

Banana Factory fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Jul 17, 2009

# ¿ Jul 16, 2009 23:53

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

FuzzyDunlop posted:

I hate to admit it, but I'm starting to get tired of the tomatoes. Not eating them, of course, but rather the worrying that always seems to accompany growing them. Every year, it's some new blight or fungus or wilt, every year I wrangle to keep my huge heirlooms (probably eight feet now) confined in my tiny garden space, every year I feel like I stop enjoying them around this time of year and just worry, worry, worry. So I'm thinking next year, maybe I will switch things up, go with only determinate. Something hardy and bred to fight off disease that I can find easily at the garden center. It's not as flashy as growing heirlooms, but honestly, I am getting tired of dealing with all the problems they have.

I'm also thinking about planting some squash and zucchini in my big containers, now that the tomato production has slowed due to disease, and since we'll be boiling hot well into October. I will have to get creative with the garden space, though. But now that the borage is blooming its rear end off and the bees are abundant, at least I wouldn't have to worry so much about pollination like I did last year.

I need some new baby plants to coo and fawn over.

for what it's worth, right now i have an upside down tomato and two right-side-up tomatoes sitting in pots on the ground. the hanging tomato doesn't get even a tenth of the bugs and poo poo eating at it then the ground level tomatoes get. sure, flying bugs can still lay eggs on it but all this crawling ground stuff like grasshoppers and slugs, can't reach up there.

they also don't get as big as ten feet, which may be good or bad in your opinion.

determinate tomatoes means you're going to be eating nothing but tomatoes for a week and nothing before and after that. if that isn't going to make you hate tomatoes i will eat this post.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2009 14:53

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

FuzzyDunlop posted:

Banana Factory, I'm really into putting up my tomatoes as sauce and salsa, so the issue with determinate production doesn't sound entirely terrible to me. We're lucky to have some good farmer's markets around, so I could easily satisfy my heirloom craving in the meantime.

I did have my heirlooms in containers last year, the trouble was 1.) keeping them upright and 2.) they still got a shitload of fungus diseases. I have thought of ways to keep them from falling over, like using wire and stakes to pin down the containers, but they still grew just as large last year as my ground-planted ones this year. But the fungus...oh the fungus. I've been spraying milk like crazy, but these Georgia summers are just awful for disease.

well if you are making tomato sauces then go for it

how big were the pots you used? i've never had a tipping problem- i'm using 15 inch pots right now. they are barely too heavy for me to pick up alone, so nothing should tip them over. they are also big enough i can stick tomato cages in the pot itself. letting the tomato leaves sit in the dirt and wet(when they fall over)might be a cause for fungus. i don't know what georgia summers are like but the north carolina summers are pretty nice for tomatoes.

you could also prune suckers and all the other growth tips once the plant gets big enough, so it diverts more energy into fruit production.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2009 15:33

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

plasticbugs posted:

A hungry opossum is eating all of my ripened tomatoes. He's very picky and goes after only the ones that are perfectly ripe.

Last weekend when he climbed the vine, he broke off a branch with two nice bunches of green tomatoes.

To combat this, I've been picking the tomatoes a few days before they're fully ripe and this seems to be working, but I'd rather not have to be so vigilant.

Is there an easy way to keep this thing away from my tomatoes without doing something extreme like netting off my plant, or trapping, or poisoning the little fucker?

Depending on your local area, animal control may provide free trap rentals and animal pickup if you have an animal complaint. Putting a ripe tomato in one of those animal traps shouldn't be that extreme of a measure, especially if it's only one possum.

I've never heard of any other methods that are effective at getting rid of possums other then the ones you listed right there.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2009 20:40

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Forbidden Donut posted:

I have a question regarding my roma tomatoes. I have a couple of plants in containers and the plants themselves seem really healthy and started putting out some tomatoes a few weeks ago. For a while they were getting bigger and everything seemed to be fine, but now they've kind of stopped growing and they're still putting out lots of new flowers. Is this something I should be concerned about or am I just being impatient. I had read that it could be due to lack of pruning? I'll try to get a picture on here of their current state in a while. Any tips are appreciated.

Here are some pics of the plant in question

Click here for the full 1368x1026 image.

And a close up of some of the fruit

Click here for the full 1368x1026 image.

I think it's just because your pot is only so big. i think if you transplant, then the tomato will grow more. but if it's putting out fruit like that, then i wouldn't fix something that isn't broken

I wish my tomatoes looked like yours. Mine are under constant assault from hordes of insects and it shows. Every day I have to pick off worms. I found out I could just remove the hornworm eggs before they hatch, and I've been removing a few every day.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2009 07:03

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Richard Noggin posted:

I wouldn't transplant while it's flowering/fruiting, but yeah, that pot is too small. You also know to leave any hornworms with white spots on them, right? Those are wasp eggs that feed off the hornworm, eventually killing it when they come out of the cocoon. They'll spread to other hornworms, killing them as well.

If I ever saw a hornworm like that I would keep it in a jar with some leaves from weeds till those eggs hatched. that said, i've never seen any such thing. I keep the porch lights on at night sometimes to make frogs congregate around my garden but beyond that i've never seen evidence of beneficial animals lurking around my place.

I just realized those porch lights might be attracting the hornworm's moth too. Maybe I should try leaving them off.

Richard Noggin posted:

Oh sweet jesus I hope that's fake.

yeah, me too. Too bad it isn't

# ¿ Aug 7, 2009 20:49

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

The grasshoppers around here are getting bigger and developing new colors on their bright green bodies. They became less of a problem when we cut back a lot of the weeds near my container garden- now the new growth just about matches the rate of destruction. I saw one today with what looks like a giant boner coming out it's back end and loving racing stripes. Screw grasshoppers.

This is really not a good area to do gardening in, right next to a swamp in North Carolina. I'm starting to get suspicious that the copious amounts of frogs around here eat my plants too, since they don't seem to take care of any of the goddamn bugs.

Banana Factory fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Aug 11, 2009

# ¿ Aug 11, 2009 04:10

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

kalicki posted:

Anyone do much indoor gardening? Moving from a house in Florida with a year round garden outside to an apartment in DC with no south facing window is a bit of a difference, but I'd still like to have some fresh stuff.

Currently thinking of getting a planter or two with a fluorescent grow light of some kind for some herbs and greens.

Probably basil, thyme, maybe parsley or cilantro, whatever, I can figure that out.

About the greens though, any recommendations on what works well indoors, and preferably can be harvested continuously, and doesn't grow too big? Of course, also has to taste good, I don't want to waste my time on anything even close to iceberg lettuce. Thanks.

You should probably focus on herbs like the ones you listed, where you harvest the leaves which renew themselves much faster then fruits will. oregano, sage, marjoram, rosemary are other herbs that can be grown in container indoors. I don't know how the flavor will be impacted, not having full sunlight and all though.

For leafy greens, you should look up "microgreens" in google. It might be perfect for your situation.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2009 06:54

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

Shazzner posted:

My garden has been doing great but I was wonder if any knew what this was:

Click here for the full 768x576 image.

And this:

Click here for the full 768x576 image.

I figured they're bug eggs. Anyone had some ideas or suggestions to take care of them?

Speaking of bugs check out this coolass one:

Click here for the full 768x576 image.

try a 50% solution of isopropyl alcohol in a spraybottle. Spraying the plant shouldn't hurt it and won't leave residue, but it kills bugs great, especially when there's too much to remove by hand.

edit: Also spraying grasshoppers with it means drunk grasshoppers before they eventually die. I'm not sure if this makes me a horrible person for enjoying watching them.

Banana Factory fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Aug 19, 2009

# ¿ Aug 19, 2009 01:49

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

hepscat posted:

Anyone thinking of planting for fall yet? I had a little accident with two big planters of leafy greens (drip irrigation went wonky, long weekend, flooded plants ) so I replanted them with lettuces and some carrots. But I vaguely remember from my childhood my mother saying carrots get sweeter when the weather gets colder. When would be the optimal time to start planting for a cooldown?

Probably as soon as you can put a seed down and it doesn't die. If you want to get a head start, just construct a semi-shade over the seeds and they should survive until it gets cool enough to grow on their own.

For the fall I'm planting Swiss Chard, collards, Kai-laan, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi and whatever other leafy green I can get ahold of that isn't iceberg lettuce. I am excited about the prospect of planting fractal broccoli this season.

What sort of cold can collard greens tolerate? I read somewhere it is the most cold-tolerant leafy green vegetable out there. Can I plant it during the winter when it goes to 0F every night?

Anyways right now in my garden, I noticed that on my bell pepper plant the only sad little bell it had filled with worms and fell off. It was the final straw for me.

I'm opting for the final solution to my bug problem. I went to the crafts section of wal-mart and I bought some nylon net with large-ish holes of the kind they use in fancy dresses. the holes are exactly too small for everything that is destroying my crops, but big enough that it doesn't block much light. Now I'm sewing the cloth together into bags that can fit over the plants. gently caress you grasshoppers. And gently caress you too, worms.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2009 18:59

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 13:29

Banana Factory: Mar 14, 2009

I have three tomato plants now, one cherry tomato, one "Mr. Stripey", and one "better boy"

They all have varying problems of dropping flowers. I feed the plants a complete fertilizer and water them every day. Their soil has lots of organic matter and perlite to keep it fluffy. They occasionally get attacked by hornworms but I am getting better at finding them before they do too much damage. It's hot around here but not too hot for growing tomatoes, I don't think. They are outdoors in pots and they are very big pots and they get a ton of direct sun. All three get the same soil, water, and fertilizer.

Mr. Stripey has not made a single tomato yet, every flower blossoms and falls right off. It has a reasonable number of blossoms, too. It grows a ton of branches just fine.

Better Boy has has occasional tomatoes over the course of this year. Something always ruins them, but at least it has them. It has two tomatoes and they haven't been ruined yet. Fingers are crossed. It grows branches very slowly.

Cherry tomato plant has 3 or 4 tomatoes on the plant at any given time. But I know it should have more for its size. Entire clusters of flowers produce between zero and one tomatoes. It is by far the most successful tomato plant, but a single hornworm stripped the entire plant and it's starting over now.

So what is wrong with these plants?

# ¿ Aug 30, 2009 14:41

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