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Introductory cross-post from the GBS gardening thread from where this thread was linked. These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago which is like months in spring gardening-time so things are a lot bigger now. guri posted:I have a long stretch of a raised bed in my courtyard and a rooftop full of containers. This is my fourth year in my house and each year I've been expanding on what I'm growing bit by bit. Started a couple compost bins last year and from this year I've been trying something like a no-dig approach in my main bed. The rooftop is much warmer so progress up there tends to be a bit quicker but in the end down in the courtyard is where things grow the healthiest. I transplanted my tomatoes last week; three types (Dark Galaxy, Costuluto Florentino, and Black Vernisage from seeds saved from last year) -- one of each down in the main garden then seven pots up on the rooftop. Plus some peas and black corn are already taking off. I never really succeed with tomatoes in containers but hopefully this year will be different. I'm pretty much all set for the season now aside from waiting for those cabbages to finish up so I can put okra seeds down there. I have a long growing season and okra doesn't really start doing anything until it warms up more so I'm not too worried about that. Might be too late but I also just now have my backup eggplant seeds sprouting after slugs swooped in and destroyed the ones I had initially started while they were outside for hardening off.
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May 8, 2018 02:20
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That looks like regarding the chamomile and fennel. If that is the leaf/herb variety, ready for the latter to completely take over that spot. Jealous of that Thai basil as well! Mine is really taking its time. I think I transplanted the ones I started indoors too early and now the direct seeded ones are doing better. This is my fennel which has popped back up for the third year now after being cut back. I honestly don't use it as an herb that often but the flowers are quite tasty and bees absolutely love it. I had a bigger spot of it on another side of the garden but it got a bit too invasive and I dug it out this year. 
guri fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Jun 7, 2018 |
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Jun 7, 2018 00:49
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mischief posted:Where did you find that trellis netting? I bought a boatload of stuff identical to it off AliExpress a few years ago and it is nowhere to be found all of a sudden. I'm growing a lot of running squash this year and will probably run out of the netting and haven't been able to find it except in crazy overpriced little 10 feet sections on Amazon. The idea of green curtains became especially popular over there after the Tohoku earthquake as a way to shade/cool the house while saving electricity so there are all kinds of variation and sizes of these nets. guri fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Jun 8, 2018 |
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Jun 8, 2018 03:07
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Speaking of picking things early as well as being able to eat stuff not available at grocery stores (at least where I am), I was very happy with this little 'ol pattypan squash. I tried to grow another variety last year with absolutely no success so even this one has made me very happy. Plus it seems more are coming up.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:00
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Hubis posted:What do you do with these things? We always get a ton from our CSA.
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Jun 14, 2018 00:43
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Some pictures of happy tomatoes up on my rooftop with a very improvised support system. The trellising has been very effective so far given how bushy the plants are getting and the heavy winds I get here. Black Vernissage, Dark Galaxy, and Costoluto Florentino. There is also some corn back there (again with some improvised support due to the winds here). It's my first time growing corn but so far everything seems to be going as it should. If I get even one ear I will consider that a success.    Also a whole bunch of blueberries.. 
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Jun 16, 2018 04:29
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It seems it is still a pretty new and unstable variety with uniform coloring but a lot of shape variations. Already in the tomatoes I have coming in there seems to be some fluted and others more conventionally shaped. Either way I am looking forward to whatever is produced.
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Jun 16, 2018 17:31
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I tried all kinds of different sprays for aphids on my ume tree but in the end just spending a morning going through each branch and squishing the drat things was the best solution. Haven't had a problem since.
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Jun 22, 2018 16:51
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On the subject of tomatoes here are my three monster bushes so far in my main garden. Tons of tomatoes popping up so far. This will be my third year trellising them like this and I've had a lot of success with it. I pretty much only pull the suckers that are going to be growing off into directions that will be annoying to deal with or when there isn't much more I can do to support a branch. Doing it like this is convenient for me because I can easily tie up parts of the plant if it suddenly needs it.  Also this morning I finally harvested one of these kalibos cabbages. Looks really pretty but the things take absolutely forever to head. I picked this one a bit small because it was shading a lot of other stuff but I will try and let the others get a bit bigger. 
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Jun 24, 2018 02:29
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Sir Lemming posted:Anyone here grow okra? My wife's garden is starting to give us some good stuff (mostly bought as baby plants from a local nursery). We have one okra plant. I realize now that that's not really enough, as we only get one pod every couple of days. I'm thinking maybe we have to freeze them until there's enough to put in a meal? Also, we have one that got too big and it's clearly too tough to eat. But I was thinking maybe we can save the seeds. Any thoughts?
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Jul 8, 2018 02:12
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SubG posted:Okra
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Jul 9, 2018 01:14
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SubG posted:And in non-capsaicin pepper news, I think I might get six or eight sichuan peppercorns out of my Zanthoxylum simulans plant this year.
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Jul 11, 2018 00:54
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GrAviTy84 posted:Hm. Never considered growing these. Nice. I wonder if I can germinate some of the black pits from Sichuan peppercorns. Actually when I first moved into my house and was cleaning up the garden there was a prickly twig sticking up that for whatever reason I didn't pull up with the rest of stuff. It turned out to be some variation of the plant but the leaves were more peppery than mouth-numbing. I still left it alone for a couple years, hoping that I might get some peppercorns out of it. Butterflies loved it but peppercorns never showed up and the thing got absurdly large which, with its thorns, was a big dangerous pain in the rear end. Finally chopping it down and getting rid of the pieces was a nightmare.
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Jul 11, 2018 10:27
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Pretty sure the head trapped inside is trying to escape and screaming in agony.
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Jul 19, 2018 01:35
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Looks like caterpillars. I've had the same thing with eggplants and this year my tomatoes. And speaking of ground cherries, I think I need to give up on trying tomatillos. This year is my second time trying to grow them and the second time without a properly fertilized fruit. I have two plants right next to to each other that have gotten pretty large and both are covered with bees but still not a single fruit.
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Jul 26, 2018 10:29
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Hexigrammus posted:The kimchi recipe calls for Korean salted shrimp. I have to do a bit more research on these - I'm pretty sure these are euphausids, a.k.a. krill. Technically, I suppose you can call them shrimp but in my mind they're more "plankton". I'm sure these little bits of self-propelled eyeballs are critical for a good batch of kimchi. Since other people have been posting tomato photos -- I've been getting a nice steady supply recently. This is a photo from a week or so ago. I had been picking the bigger ones a little early to get them away from the caterpillar threat but I think it should be safe now as I haven't seen much damage on these plants.  
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Aug 1, 2018 02:30
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I end up using a lot chopped up in stir fries or blended for curries.
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Aug 5, 2018 00:55
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SubG posted:Behold the majesty of my entire crop of Sichuan peppercorns this season:  Also an update my (mostly) unpruned tomatoes. It's hard to capture the scale but the bushes are towering over me at this point. I'm still managing to keep it all supported without too much effort and they have survived pretty serious downpours and wind. Now that the heat has become a bit less oppressive they have also started flowering and fruiting again. I grew those Dark Galaxy tomatoes this year which look pretty but have been very unproductive for me compared to the other two varieties. A shame because the few fruit I have gotten are delicious.   And recently my birds eye chilies are going crazy. This is after harvesting a handful of them and now it is starting to flower again. 
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Aug 16, 2018 02:32
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For tomatoes I usually just leave a fruit on the plant to mature a bit past the point where I would normally harvest it. Then squeeze out the seeds, rinse them under water, rub off the slime and stuff, then let them dry completely and seal them in a bag.
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Aug 27, 2018 15:35
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The majority of what I grow comes from Baker Creek. I've had no problems with germination but have had a few duds in terms of production which can most likely be traced back to my location and that most seeds they offer are adapted for mostly US climates. That said I've also grown a few things where something from Baker Creek worked out while seeds of the same variety but from another seed supplier didn't produce at all.
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Aug 28, 2018 05:07
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Starting to clean up the garden and putting down seeds for fall and winter. There are still a few tomato stragglers ripening but eggplant and okra are both now producing better and more regularly than they had been through the summer. Around mid-summer I also put down a couple cucamelon seeds to see what would happen that late and that is also now starting to take off. Now these winged beans are doing well. I bought the seeds in Japan and planted them pretty late but it turns out my timing couldn't have been better.  I've started cutting down most of my molokhia. This always does well for me and this year I grew it from seed I saved. I usually eat the seed pods when they are young so don't end up with a lot of ones mature enough for seeds but I've been making a point recently to keep at least a handful.  And a couple of these Dark Galaxy tomatoes now finally ripening. I think I mentioned before that these barely produced at all for me. As cool looking as they are and good as they taste I probably won't grow them again. Between the three plants I grew I got only maybe five tomatoes.
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Sep 23, 2018 02:39
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. I actually have some tomatoes now fruiting from plants that popped up from compost last September. A couple birdseye chili plants I didn't pull up also starting flowering and fruiting again just last month.
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Nov 20, 2018 15:34
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I've been pretty lazy this year about cleaning up plants from the summer and it has been interesting to see what is surviving so far through the winter in my climate. A couple eggplants that were planted very late just recently died after some snow but one plant is still surviving. Tomatoes which popped up from the compost in September are still surviving and I am occasionally harvesting unripe fruit from the plants for stir fries. Most surprisingly my birdseye chilies have also not died off completely yet. In my main garden I've cut back two of my chili plants and one of the younger tomatoes and covered them with a plastic bottle just as an experiment to see how long I can keep them going. Winter where I am is relatively mild and so far all are nice and green so it will be interesting to see how they do. On an unrelated note has anyone grown oak(?) from fallen acorns? Last spring I gathered a lot of them from a forest intending to make a jelly with them but I never got around to it and now I noticed that pretty much all of them have sprouted. I don't think I have space anymore in my main bed for another tree but was thinking about trying to replant a few of them in big containers.
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Jan 4, 2019 14:29
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Nice. Where they were in my house it was probably about equivalent to being in the fridge but maybe I'll still try putting a couple in there. My actual garden space is also pretty limited so I'll just give it a go with large containers. My workplace is more out in in the countryside so I'll bring some also out there try planting. Thankfully where I am I don't have to worry about squirrels digging them up or anything.
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Jan 4, 2019 15:58
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What do people do in terms of reusing potting mixes for container gardens? I have no problem growing things in my main garden/bed but when it comes to containers I still haven't nailed down the perfect formula and this year I really want to get it right. Last year for the most part I mixed the old potting soil with a fresh batch and a bit of compost. My plan this year when it comes time is to just dump all of the soil from my containers into a bin and mix 40% or so compost and organic matter into it. I haven't really had any problems with specific diseases or anything so not too worried about passing anything like that along. Is that about right? It seems silly because I feel most people have little problem growing in containers while growing in actual soil creates issues but I have the exact opposite problem.
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Jan 23, 2019 14:51
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Thank you for input regarding soil in containers. I'll probably just keep doing basically what I've been doing but up the amount of compost I'm adding. This will be the year for proper growth out of all of these drat containers.
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Jan 26, 2019 16:18
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Anyone have any advice on growing garlic on the Gulf coast? We don't have a real winter here and I'm never sure when I'm supposed to plant it or what I'm supposed to do with it. Also is it worth it to try and grow celery?
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Feb 10, 2019 15:42
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My peppers and tomatoes have sprouted but the peppers haven't grown beyond sprouts since then. It's been a few weeks now since they sprouted and they are on a heated mat and under grow lights but they are just sitting there. The sprouts look healthy enough so I am not worried yet but still weird. My eggplants, however, four varieties in total, have not sprouted at all after nearly two weeks. I left two eggplants in containers at the end of the season last year; one I tried covering and keeping warm and the other just out in the elements. The one I tried to keep covered showed some signs of new leafy growth last month then kind of browned again. The other, to my surprise, has started growing again recently. No new growth yet on the bird's eye chili I tried to overwinter though the stems are still green. guri fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 15:25
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bengy81 posted:Please explain how you grow fennel! For the life of me I've never been able to get a root big enough to eat, and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
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Jun 17, 2019 01:16
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Tons of rain is in the forecast from tomorrow so I went ahead and harvested a whole lot of blueberries. This bush is in either its third or fourth spring and this is definitely the biggest harvest I've gotten with tons still ripening on the bush. I could have had a similar harvest last year but the birds were all over the thing. This year I tossed a net over the bush and obviously it made a huge difference. I ended up with nearly half a kilo. I'm curious to hear people's onions on pruning. I've read that without pruning generally a good year will be followed by a poor one but for the most part I've just been letting this go wild and it has been fine. It is pressed right up against a rosemary bush; I keep it mulched, toss some compost around it, and trim it very lightly.   And since I am posting photos here is my bird's eye chili I started from seeds last year saved from a store. Despite being rather compact it did great last year then survived the winter covered in plastic wrap and is now destroying it again. Between two small plants in the container I have around forty peppers while still being able to harvest a few young green every couple days. 
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Jun 25, 2019 07:58
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I have a big problem with aphids on my ume tree. In the early spring I tried absolutely everything; spraying them off with the hose twice a day, absolutely soaking the entire tree with a neem oil mix or garlic/pepper spray. I covered the thing in DE or made a water spray with it to cover the undersides of the leaves. I've gone through branch by branch squishing them morning and night. They're in cahoots with the ants and absolutely nothing works. Eventually ladybugs moved in and helped with the problem for a while but the ants have been super active again recently and I noticed some very high up, unreachable branches are absolutely bogged down with aphids again. After my experience this year I'd also love to hear a solution. Despite my garden being almost entirely organic I'm thinking I'll need to attack the problem early next year via any means before it gets out of hand again.
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Jun 29, 2019 15:06
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Late winter or so I added a layer of compost to the soil of my main bed that wasn't entirely broken down. I was a little worried because it had a lot of woody bits and stuff but it seems the results ended up being a lot more positive than I expected. The more broken down parts were pushed down to the bottom with rain and the woody bits ( twigs, leaves, etc) stayed on the top layer to form a mulch just like I would normally lay down anyway. And some tomato observations. I can't remember if I mentioned it in this thread but I've been doing an experiment this year. Usually I grow a few tomato plants in my main bed where it is partial shade then more in containers up on my rooftop. The rooftop ones produce earlier but lose their steam very quickly and suffer through summer barely producing. The partially shaded ones however produce a lot later but are much more prolific, keep going through the season, and are overall much more healthy. I know you can't really compare containers to actual soil but this year I put several containers down in the same partially shaded area to see how they would do. So far they haven't produced while my main bed ones are full of fruits but the plants themselves look a lot healthier. I realized I did make one mistake in my selection for varieties in the experiment because they (black brandywine and beefsteak) seem to produce later in general than the other varieties I've been growing and are more familiar with (costoluto Florentino and San Marzano -- both of which I have in my main bed and the rooftop containers). I think I should have tried the latter two varieties for my experiment but too late now.  Main bed tomatoes and all of their friends. Every year I think I'll be able to have their height under control and every year I am proven wrong. This year I at least still have them mostly under control.  The main bed is full of these clusters of costoluto Florentino and a few San Marzano; there would be a lot more of the latter but the main stem broke during a wind storm a few weeks back.  A couple of the partially shaded plants.  and up on the rooftop in full sun.
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Jul 15, 2019 09:44
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Comb Your Beard posted:Is there a way to encourage a mint plant to make new nice leafy stems in the late summer and the fall? Cut it back and keep it healthy maybe? Mine went to poo poo.
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Jul 24, 2019 16:04
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Costoluto Fiorentino tomatoes have been doing amazing for me this year. Every couple days recently I've been picking several baseball sized fruit and more keep coming. I'm also growing them at my work in a new raised bed and while they are smaller than the ones at my house each plant has been absolutely loaded. A few from today at my house.  and the other day at my work. The odd one out is a true black brandywine which, while delicious, has not been productive at all in this climate.
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Aug 13, 2019 10:01
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I use my birds eye chilis fresh until I get overwhelmed by the amount at which point I start drying the excess in the sun.
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Aug 16, 2019 00:06
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I grew black vernissage the past two years both in containers and in the ground and I agree. They were early and prolific but taste was just okay. Last year I had a bit problem with what seems to be internal blossom end rot (not sure exactly but I've seen that term brought up -- there were some somewhat hardened black areas on the inside) on a lot of them. For the record last year I also grew dark galaxy of which from two plants (one in a container and one in the ground) I got a whole three tomatoes. The three I got were delicious but I wasn't left wanting to try growing them again.
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Aug 17, 2019 14:38
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double post
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Aug 17, 2019 14:39
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Off to a bad start this year. I started tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants at different times throughout the past month and had no problem getting things to sprout but after that.. nothing. I've put some in different places to see if it makes a difference; windowsill, heat mat, outside (it's been around 60-65 the past couple weeks), outside in a cold frame.. Nothing has budged. Even varieties in years past that would be going along perfectly by this time. Tried doing another round after the first and same thing. The only tomato seedling that has started growing its second set of leaves is one that I popped out of the started pot because it wasn't looking healthy and just stuck in a proper container outside because I figured there wasn't much to lose. That is the only one that has started growing.. That makes me think that the potting mix I used was just poo poo for seed starting. As an experiment I took out a few other seedlings and put them into proper containers today and started yet another round of tomatoes using a potting mix I've used before. It's much later than I would typically start seeds but I have a pretty long growing season so here's hoping for the best.
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Apr 13, 2020 02:49
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SubG posted:I think the only real failures that I have to report from their seeds is holy basil. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Do any of those asian greens tolerate long, hot, humid, gulf coast summers? Much as I love all the summer vegetables, I miss greens during the summer. Does anyone follow any of the KNF (Korean Natural Farming) methods? I brew a lot of makgeolli at home so have plenty of water from washing rice and recently started trying to do the LAB stuff (a lacto ferment from fermented rice water mixed with milk then left to further ferment). I'm not super deep into a lot of permaculture or other hardcore gardening methods but among the things LAB is apparently good for is the compost pile. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or the mixture I added or what but I dumped some into both my mostly finished compost bin and my ongoing on and in both cases the breakdown of materials accelerated greatly. It was really interesting.
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May 26, 2020 13:42
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 01:35 |
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SubG posted:And yesterday spotted the first ripe Sichuan peppercorn of the season: 
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May 26, 2020 13:50
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