23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Snowing in Rockville too. That was unexpected!

Hey y'all, don't know how many of you know there is a mid-atlantic forum here too and those folks are planning a meetup/plant swap for spring. Don't know if I can make it to Burtonsville, but maybe some of you are interested?

Here is a link that might be useful: Maryland swap thread

Lights are blue or white LEDs (I'll have to look for specifics in the morning). I typically keep the lights very close to the plants once they start to come up. The containers I use are 4-pack cells bought from the local garden center.
I think I'll just stick to direct sowing or using volunteers for my brassicas from now on. It's too much work and space to have these things keep dying.

Good idea. Hard to go wrong with direct sowing. Brassica lends itself very well to winter-sowing.

Why waste energy on lights when you can pickle and store fresh stuff in a cellar?

Better lift that pot up and drill a bunch of holes in it. Most veggies do not like"wet" feet, especially peppers. You could also drill them at the very bottom on the sides.

Kevin

The pot pictured above has a bottom that is approximately 2" smaller in diameter than the top, so it's 23" at the top and 21" at the bottom

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So it has over 23 DRY GALLONS of volume.

I rest my case with digdirt (Dave) . He wrote :
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" ...You have a 9-10 gallon pot so you could do 2 plants in it but they will be smaller than normal and will require more feeding and more watering than if just 1 plant was in it. .."
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Now how many peppers you want to plant int it, it is your choice.

This post was edited by seysonn on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 5:12

It's under a T5 grow light. None of the other plants are leggy. I wondered if it was just characteristic of the plant.

This is my first try with tomatillos, too, and mine started out a bit leggy as well. I potted them up, burying the stem as with tomatoes, and now they are happy as can be. I have kept the lights so low they almost touch since then and that seems to be helping as well.

You've asked this question before and it has been answered. See the link below. As I said in your other post, all garlic grows well here (I'm about 20 miles SW of Detroit). It's just a matter of your personal taste preferences and whether you like them hot and garlic-y or if you like them more mild.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic

i'm in a similar zone to you and i planted my garlic on the 15th of october. it has really taken off now (we have had a warm spring):

but the time for choosing your variety is in the fall. perhaps you could find some later in the summer at a farmers market and then save the largest cloves of ta type you like.

This post was edited by jonathanpassey on Sun, Mar 30, 14 at 22:07

I would like a built in screen to use with compost or worm castings. I would put a container underneath to capture the sifted material. This should easily lift out for cleaning. That would be on one end. On the other end of a long table, I would want a sink with a sprayer. I would also want a shelf above the main work area with cup hooks for having my tools within easy reach. I would not include garden tools as that is a very personal thing, everybody has their own favorites. I think the power strip is an awesome idea.

Now, my creative juices are running but too bad I have far too many things to do this year.

Great ideas! Keep them coming! Thanks!
We are now thinking of building to order, offering many of these things as options! Nancy

If you are working with a new garden I would use the spacing you listed.
If bean get too crowded the blossoms won't get pollinated.

Radishes can go in around the tomatoes at planting time. They will be harvested before the tomatoes crowd the area. Beets can probably do the same. This will free up some space.

CoState extension has a nice fact sheet on this. See link below.

This sheet make the good point that seed storage is greatly aided by making them, and keeping them dry. The latter is where a freezer has an advantage, as the air in the freezer is especially dry. But when I store my seed in the fridge, I do so with seed packages in a plastic zipper bag that has some dessicant envelopes in it. Also (and this is important!) DO NOT open that plastic zipper bag while the contents are cold. Water vapor from the air will immediately condense on the seeds. Only open that bag after the contents have warmed up thoroughly. Then take the seeds, zip it back up, and throw it back in the fridge.

It is important to understand that seeds themselves are hydroscopic. That means they automatically absob water, which is certainly a survival trait. So the dessicant is important. You need something to absorb the water vapor at least as fast as the seeds do. Common DIY dessicants are rice grains and powdered milk, but I suspect silica gel works better.

I'm not sure about this, but I think the main trick for freezing seeds is to make sure that they are first well dried. Freezing a seed that is not dried will damage it.

Just throwing a resealed paper seed package in the fridge is probably not a smart thing to do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Storing Flower and Vegetable Seeds

I have onion seeds I've kept in the freezer for 5 years and they still germinate well.
Onions usually last only one or 2 years.

By the way, leaving it in a pile was not an option, since it's in the front of my house and needed to go, some way or another. I can either move it to the back yard or spread it out.

I'd spread it out broadly as a mulch. I put fresh wood chips down every year and it soon disappears into my heavy clay soil, which is improving over the years! No pests, no problem with nitrogen, nothing but positive benefits.

I grow in raised beds too. I do remove the grass, place a sheet of weedblock, and then lay a foundation of cardboard 2 layers thick. I still get 3 or 4 shoots of grass through the year but its easier to manage this way. 8" in plenty. I'm getting along quite will with 6" deep beds :)

Good luck!

LC

Plants usually need more then 8 inches for the root system. So you have two choices - dig in or raise high. When I started my garden where I live now there was no even lawn loam. It was fill - gravel, bricks and clay/sand with 2 inches of top soil on top. I couldn't afford to build high beds and buy all the soil I need for them, so I dug about a foot deep, sifted out rocks and derbies from clay/sand and mixed what left with compost and pit moss I bought. Then I built additional 10 inches wooden beds on top. I placed about 5 inches of gravel I sifted out on the bottom of my holes for drainage, then placed turf I dug from the lawn grass down, roots up and then filled the rest with the soil mix I made. Yea... That was a big job. But at the time I didn't see any other options - I was just starting the garden and didn't want to invest much in the project with unknown outcome).

maynard: Hope you don't feel like you were lambasted here. The 3 posters other than me that replied are 3 of the most knowledgeable and respectful people on GW.

I was confused also. You said, "My tomatoes and pepper seedlings were planted about two months ago," From that, I assumed they were about 4 months old(sow, 8 weeks growing, and then PLANTED SEEDLINGS 2 months ago(key words). LOL... even here in SoCal, 2 month PLANTED seedlings would have been way too early to let the kids out to play.

Anyhow, like rhizo1 said, should have getting them weak doses shortly after the first leaves.

And like others hinted, there can be other factors like temps, light, and pot size. If you're still a few weeks away, you might want to "pot up." Get them into a bit larger pot(scratch root ball first), water thoroughly, and then start hardening them off for the next week on warm days. After that first week of hardening, you may want to give them some weak doses of ferts. For the remaining weeks, get them as much direct sun as possible as long as the temps aren't too cold.

Hope your view of GW hasn't been tainted. There are some really great folk here(especially those that replied) and I don't know where I'd be personally without them.

Happy gardening!

Kevin

If the potting mix has had slow-release fertilizer added, I start supplementing after about 4 weeks. If no fertilizer has been added, I supplement a few days after germination with weak soluble fertilizer.
2 month-old-seedlings would need to be in 4" pots at the minimum, but 1-gallon pots are preferable.

Snails and slugs make holes like the ones in your photo.

I hate to say it, but that fabric isn't going to let in enough light for strawberries.

Dave is right....check with the manufacturer. By the way, it's important to mix only what you need for any garden product. Some things (insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides for example) begin to lose efficacy soon after mixing.

A few years ago I bought a packet of Sea Magic (?), and mixed it up into the concentrate as stated on the packet. I used it all that summer but had some left over, so I put it on a shelf in my basement that stays a constant 60* and no sunlight. I used it the following summer, but toward the end of the summer it really smelled funky, so I no longer used it as a foilar spray and only as a soil drench with no ill effects. I now use the Neptune's Harvest and put the gallon jug on the same shelf in the basement, I'm a believer in the constant cool temperature and no sunlight.

I think that's the red blush.

My lettuce seeds germinated and now growing in cold frame. In Another week or so I will transplant them into 4" pots and eventually into the garden. Chards are emerging in cold frame too. Cold frame is dandy in early spring and late fall.