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This may have been asked, but anyone know about how long it would take for a bottle gourd to grow from just starting the fruit? I directly planted some in a pot and it produced a gourd I just saw (after about 50 billion flowers). But I'm in Indiana and I don't know if it would have enough time to grow to maturity before chilly weather stops it, since I think gourds like the heat. And the gourd started in a spot that's just hanging in mid-air right now, should I give the growing gourd some support?
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Aug 10, 2013 01:59
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I moved into an apartment with a decent patio, so I'm attempting to grow some stuff. I started some radishes about a week ago in 2 14" pots. A few questions about growing radishes: How frost tolerant are they? I've been reading that they can be planted several weeks before the last average frost in winter. When they're in a container are they a little less hardy? What temperature should I take them inside at? Any idea if they'd get totally messed up by taking them inside for a weekend? I'll be gone this weekend and it will be fairly cold, so I figured I'd give them a good watering and take them inside so they don't dry out too much.
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Mar 9, 2017 00:20
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I got a garlic chive plant in spring, but it doesn't seem to be doing very well. It droops during the day (it's in a pot on my wooden patio next to a south-facing wall). It probably gets light from maybe 10:00 to 3:00, so I figured not too much sun, but even if it's well-watered it just kind of droops. It's also not really grown that much since I've got it. They're supposed to be a foot tall or so? Mine's kind of tiny - hasn't really spread out at all and not really grown upwards. It's next to an alyssum, which has gone kind of crazy. Edit: some of the leaves are a bit yellow too, could that be too much water? My thyme has been doing pretty well though! Grown quite a bit and takes the heat pretty well. Tasty too! I'll be moving soon so I'm going to attempt transplanting it. I also planted some amaranth for the leaves (amaranthus tricolor), but they're a bit slow too. The big ones have maybe half a dozen leaves, but every time they get a new set of leaves the old ones kind of look brown and ratty, which is disappointing. Hopefully they'll eventually get big enough to make something. Is it a late-summer kind of thing? Maybe my wimpy amount of light just isn't enough for them to grow. Eeyo fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Jun 23, 2017 |
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Jun 23, 2017 02:20
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Drooping during the heat of the day isn't necessarily a problem. Upright plants are sturdy because of the water pressure, and they can have a hard time absorbing enough to keep up when it's really hot. Is the pot small vs the size of the plant? It's a bit short unfortunately. I got an oval one from my mother, not sure how tall but I'd guess 6-8" tall?
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Jun 23, 2017 05:20
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Coriander seed's really good too! But I'm sure you'd like to get as much leaf out of it as you can. If you haven't had it before, it's got a citrusy smell/taste. Good in curries.
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Jun 24, 2017 03:23
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Speaking of raspberries, are there any species in the Rubus genus that are poisonous/bad to eat? My girlfriend had some kind of raspberry pop up in her yard (western Michigan), but the berries are pretty tiny. Might just be an ordinary raspberry but I don't know. I suspect it's wild since it's just one or 2 canes and they've lived there for a few years already.
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Jun 30, 2017 02:06
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Sometimes they can be a bit fibrous. You can peel the outside which may help if yours is super fibrous; the interior is usually less so. Also cutting thin circles perpendicular to the stalk growth can help. That's too bad though, the stalk is usually a good part!
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Jul 3, 2017 01:58
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Shame Boner posted:When they die, yes. Some sources seem confused on whether N-fixers improve the soil while they're alive but I don't understand how that could be possible. This is why I cover crop everything with clover and chop n' drop often. Nitrogen fixing occurs in the roots of legumes in nodules, so presumably it could permeate the soil since it's already in there. I found this random thing from New Mexico State University: http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_a/A129/ posted:Nitrogen Return to the Soil and Other Crops Which is kind of surprising? I figured bean leaves and roots would have a bunch of nitrogen but apparently not really? Also this other source says that 10% of biologically available nitrogen comes from lightning, which is pretty neat. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221400061X posted:For reasons that are unclear, no eukaryotic enzymes can break the triple bond of N2. The reduction of N2 to NH3 (nitrogen fixation) is limited to prokaryotes and is catalysed by nitrogenase. Since most of the nitrogen entering the biosphere (around 100 million metric tonnes of N2 per annum) does so through nitrogenase activity (lightning contributes about 10%), those plants that associate with nitrogen-fixing bacteria have a significant selective advantage under conditions of limiting nitrogen.
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Jun 10, 2018 01:00
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So my girlfriend has a balcony that gets half a day's worth of sun in the morning. It's straight East and fairly high up so it gets it from the morning until midday. She's been growing some peas and they've finally put on some flowers, hopefully she'll get some pods before it gets too hot. Apparently they're getting some yellow leaves on the bottom, which I figured are from heat stress. After the peas have run their course, are there any good vegetables for summer/fall that wouldn't mind only half a day of sun? I guess peas again in the fall could work but that would have to wait a few months. She's got a large pot (enough to fit half about half a dozen pea plants).
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Jun 10, 2018 04:36
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I've got some choi sum plants on my balcony right now (Eastern facing). They're doing acceptably well even though they only get half a day's worth of sun. They've been drooping in the afternoon sun even though it's not hot out, I probably need to water them deeper. However, some nearby pea plants that I put in around the same time are developing powdery mildew. Can that transfer to my brassica? The choi sums are doing way better than the peas so if it can transfer I'm tempted to just destroy the pea plants. They kind of fell over after a weekend of wind so they may not do so well anyway. Also, is there much I can do against cabbage worms? Every few weeks there's new eggs on my choi sums. After an initial infestation of worms that almost killed them I've been religiously removing the eggs but it's a bit annoying. That seems to be effectively protecting the plants at least.
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Sep 23, 2018 21:02
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I'll be starting a job soon where there's a gardening club and a bunch of plots on the campus. I'm hoping that I can get use of a plot or two since I'm living in an apartment. It looks like quite a few of the plots are listed as unused, so I'm hoping my chances are good! The plots are ~10'x17' which sounds like a good size for a first real garden plot for me. My plan was to go for a few veggies, with some annual flowers in the middle in an attempt to attract insects and the like. I'm thinking of growing a mix of winter squash and zucchini, and some pole beans. What kind of spacing is typical for squash/zucchini? I was going to attempt the classic corn-bean-squash intercropping with poles in place of the corn since it's a small plot. I want to grow some blue squashes. Is it more/less difficult depending on the fruit size? I can go for the hubbard with like 15 lb squashes, a medium-sized 5 lb, or a tiny 0.5-1 lb squash.
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Mar 26, 2019 18:35
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Crakkerjakk posted:All the info you need on different methods of growing three sisters (PDF): https://images.nativeseeds.org/pdfs/3_Sisters_Garden.pdf Thanks! So is it best practice to place the beans on the perimeter of the squash plants? I was imagining that they were planted close together for some reason.
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Mar 29, 2019 15:26
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I’ll be starting up my work garden soon (after it gets tilled), so I’m trying to plan out my space. I ended up with a plot about 20x17’. I’m curious about how winter squash vines grow though. Apparently they need quite sizeable row spacings, but the inter-plant spacing is small. Do they tend to grow outwards into thin plants? I had imagined them being roughly circular with many vines, but are they more like 2 vines back to back? And do zucchini do roughly the same, or are they usually more compact? I got “long vine habit” galeux d’eysines seeds as well as some “short vine” sunshine.
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May 15, 2019 01:45
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theHUNGERian posted:I couldn't find a general gardening thread, so I'll try this thread. If I had a picture of a plant, how would I go about find the name of the plant. There is the “plants in general” thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3543738 I’ve successfully asked for plant ID there, if nobody can figure it out here.
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May 15, 2019 01:49
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Thanks for the squash advice! I’ll probably skip the galeux d’eysines then. It’s a shared space so my plot is flanked by other people’s plots, and the area in front and back is a mowed strip, so the plants sprawling out isn’t much of an option. The “short vine” needs only 6’ inter-row spacing (and produces less weight of squash) so hopefully it doesn’t go too crazy. The sunshine is some kabocha hybrid.
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May 15, 2019 16:00
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What kind of trellis should I construct for pole beans? I'm leaning towards bamboo and twine. Since there's a grass strip on the North side of my plot, I was thinking I'd construct a trellis like a lean-to, with diagonal poles on the South side, straight poles for support, and then some poles that run along the length. How wide would I need to make the trellis row?
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May 17, 2019 02:26
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My garden plot at work was finally tilled, so I was able to put in some seeds. 2 bean teepees, 3 rows of corn (a bit low but I was planning on hand-pollinating anyway so hopefully it'll work out), 2 zucchini, 2 sunshine squash, 2 rows of beets, 3 rows of carrots, a scattering of blue nigella, and a few rows of zinnias. Hopefully at least one of those things works out! I'm not sure I'll have enough time for the squash to finish, I'll just have to hope for the best on that one.
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Jun 12, 2019 03:41
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Crakkerjakk posted:Does anyone know of a watering timer that can do intervals of more than a week? I'd like to set up something for my trees that does every 2 weeks-1 month. This is more of a curiosity/joke suggestion, but I wonder if it would work to hook 2 up in series and adjust the timing so that they're only both on once every few weeks? The accuracy and repeatability would need to be somewhat OK (like repeatable to like 10% the watering time or something). For example, you could set one to every 3 days and the other to every 5 days. On the 15th day they should line up. But if it's 3 days +/- 1 hour then that may not work since they wouldn't actually line up. edit: Or 1 week and 2 days (or 3 days or 4) for 2 weeks/3 weeks/1 month Eeyo fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 03:02
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Elder Postsman posted:I was cutting back some brush and found this on the side of my yard this morning. Those look like raspberries to me. The powdery white canes are a sign of raspberries I believe. The fruit also looks more raspberry like to me at least.
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Jun 28, 2019 02:48
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What do people do about weed seedlings in plots? I've started in a communal garden this year, and a lot of the time the plots are fallow and get full of weeds. It was pretty cleared out when it was tilled, but I think the soil was just full of pigweed seeds because there's this fine carpet of slightly red seedlings (and red underneath the leaves) popping up everywhere (not to mention thistles and smartweed and a few others). Do I need to be on top of removing everything I don't want as soon as possible? It's easy enough to disrupt the bad seedlings between my squashes and around some of my slightly bigger plants, but the big problem is my rows of carrots/beets. They have a short spacing and the beet/carrot seedlings are still tiny.
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Jun 30, 2019 22:14
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Maybe I'll just try do do like a row or half a row or something at a time. It's seriously like every square inch has a few seedlings in some spots. Hopefully I can tell the bad stuff apart from my beets and carrots.
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Jul 1, 2019 01:59
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How well do winter radishes hold up to frosts? I’m looking at planting around early August which would have them mature around the first frost date here. I figure I’ll have to wait out very hot (90+?) weather before sowing regardless though. Can they survive a bit of frost and keep going, or is it best to plant them at the right time regardless of weather? I’m assuming germination will be more difficult if it’s very hot.
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Jul 15, 2019 14:12
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Hexigrammus posted:Don`t know if it`s the same with regular radish but daikon radish will stand in the garden (zone 8) through the winter as long as you pile a fluffy mulch on to keep the exposed top of the root from freezing. Ok thanks! I’d be growing watermelon radish, so more similar to Daikon than the spring radishes. It looks like I may get a break in he heat, so if I can get some good weather I won’t have to worry too much about fall frost. Edit: for germination temp, I’m assuming that’s soil temperature? Does the soil usually track the air temperature or is it slightly cooler? Eeyo fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 19:04
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What’s the best way to sharpen stuff like hoes? I’m assuming a sharper hoe will help with weeding. I’m in a shared space so all the hoes are both slightly rusty or extra dull.
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Jul 27, 2019 15:01
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Does anyone else have their radish seedlings fall over sometimes when they're watered? I just kind of gently nudged them back upright, hopefully they don't mind! The mounds they're on seem to get dry quite quickly and it's been warm (mid to high eighties) so I've been watering them like every day. Would mulching between the mounds help with water retention in raised parts? They're like a few inches high so I think they just drain really quickly.
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Aug 3, 2019 18:14
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How can I tell when my carrots are big enough to harvest? They’ve somehow survived the heat wave and the occasional deer nibble, but I’m not sure of the best method here. Will they mind if I move some of the soil on top to check? Should I chop down my zucchini plant if it’s got some kind of downy mildew? Or is it something that doesn’t spread very much?
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Aug 13, 2019 18:59
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Hexigrammus posted:Yes, the carrots will be fine if you brush away a little soil to check the tops, then brush it back. How big they need to be when harvested depends on the variety - some get bigger than others. If you harvest too soon, no problem - baby carrots! If you leave them too long they might get woody, but some varieties don`t do that until they start flowering the next spring (they`re biannuals). Thanks, I guess I'll pull it out tomorrow! I've got a winter squash with a single squash, so hopefully it'll make it. Unfortunately I'm in a shared space and one of the plots maybe 30m away is totally infested with some kind of wilt, does it travel that far?
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Aug 14, 2019 00:24
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Yeah I had a rough year too, but it looks like things are coming around a bit. For me, I couldn't start until a week and a half into June. We had actually cool weather so germination was slow and inconsistent, then that heat spell which set everything back (except my zinnias). Plus I wasn't prepared for the weeds, there was so much purslane it really kind of messed everything up. But now I've got some decent radish patches going and the beans have finally recovered from the heat and started producing. But now I know better what worked and what didn't, so I should be able to get more stuff with less effort next year.
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Aug 25, 2019 22:36
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Feral Integral posted:Hope this is the right place for a greenhouse question: Is there a way to put up a screen to just block them? Then you don’t have the possibility of squirrels or birds.
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Aug 28, 2019 14:02
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When should I harvest winter radishes? I’ve got a few that are quite large already. I tried a small one earlier since a squirrel or something took a bite out of it but it was pretty hot and a little bitter. Do they tend to get more mild with colder weather?
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Sep 18, 2019 14:17
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I'm trying to grow some rat's tail radishes on my balcony, hopefully they'll get enough sun to make something. I had some pretty old seeds (packed for 2016), but I planted four and all four of them popped right up. The biggest problem so far has been that they produced a very long stem in the beginning, and then started falling over when they got a crown of true leaves. They seem to have thickened up and stabilized though. I planted them a month ago and they're already starting to bolt, which was a bit faster than I expected! I'm also trying some runner beans, but I'm less sure I'll get anything productive out of them. They've already vined to about 5' at least, but the sun's about half the day on my balcony. Last year I had a community garden on my work's campus so unfortunately I got locked out of growing in the ground this year.
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May 23, 2020 18:15
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Arrgytehpirate posted:That looks cool. What type of radish is it? Like it's definitely a spring radish and not a winter radish right?
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May 26, 2020 03:26
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Rubicon posted:First time owning a house, so first time to try growing my own food. I ordered some asian radishes from Amazon and am hoping to make some Kimchi out of them, but the seeds are growing differently from each other. Could just be radish that bolted ("bolting" just meaning putting out flower stalks). If they got significant heat then it's not impossible they just bolted early. Maybe if they weren't bred carefully you could have got some weird radishes too. Were they the "winter" (aka daikon, mu, watermelon) radishes, or "spring" radishes? If they're winter varieties (the best kind to make kimchi out of) you're probably too early even. Radishes quite like cooler weather, so you'll typically plan backwards from the expected last frost date to figure out planting time. So if your variety takes 60 days then find when 60 days before the average last frost is and plant them then, which may be late summer. You'll want to harvest them around the frost time. For spring radishes you can also do a quick crop as it gets colder. They typically will take much less time to develop and are smaller. You can do the same thing, just wait for early fall-ish and throw them in the ground. Eeyo fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 27, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 03:10
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Quiet Feet posted:Hi gardening thread! I bought/planted some plants from a local nursery It was 80 the last couple of days but it looks like we're going to hit a couple of days with lows in the mid-40s early next week. Do I need to be concerned? I have kale, cauliflower, tomatoes, zucchini and sweet peppers, fwiw. The kale and cauliflower will be fine, most brassicas are pretty cold tolerant (something like kale can withstand frosts at the end of the year, but will eventually get killed with sustained sub-freezing temps). The others prefer warmer weather. A frost would for sure kill them, but I'd guess that they could survive a cold night or two if they're hardened off and are fully integrated into their spot.
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May 28, 2020 18:58
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This morning I found a spider had curled up one of my bean leaves and made a little spider home on my runner beans. I figure it won't eat the plant, but would it hurt it at all? I don't care too much about spiders and it might even kill some bad insects, but it may also kill some good ones.
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May 30, 2020 15:03
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DrBouvenstein posted:I have two kinds of radishes, one is some sort of generic "red" version, and the other are watermelon radishes. Did you plant them at the same time? The watermelons will take longer, being a "winter" variety. Often people just start them in late summer/early fall so they get a lot of the cooler weather. So you'd just grow them to harvest around the first frost time.
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Jun 13, 2020 17:37
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DrBouvenstein posted:Oh drat, I don't know that. Maybe the seed packet said that and I didn't notice. I'll try again planting them in mid September (I'm zone 5a, so if they take 30 to 45 days in cool weather, that should be a little before first frost for most years) and see if I get myself some late fall vegetables along with my potatoes. Does the packet say 30-45 days? Last year when I was shopping for watermelon radish they were more like 60 days.
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Jun 14, 2020 22:43
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So I'll have a bunch of yard waste at the end of the season, in this case a bunch of native aster plants and some old raspberry/blackberry canes. What kind of machine can handle that? Do I need something more like a wood chipper, or would that kind of stuff be light enough for a leaf mulcher? It would be nice to at least break it down a bit so I spend less on tossing it, or possibly compost it (not sure if I can kill off all the seeds though).
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Oct 1, 2022 00:47
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