23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I'll be planting warm weather vegetables in mid April, weather permitting. That means I'll be able to look at a ten day forecast and see NO night temperatures below 55 degrees
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If I had to do that( Night lows 55F+) I would have to wait til July.

Here I will be happy with 42F+ night lows. Tomatoes can even tolerate 38F+. But peppers maybe 45F+

Mother earth news has a free planting guide where you put in your zip code and it tells you when to plant what. You can put in your email and they'll send you notices to your email. It's kind of cool.

Here is a link that might be useful: mother earth plant guide

Truth be told, I never bought garlic anyway, except when I worked out of the country for 8 months several years ago. I have always used my own garlic for seed. In my opinion garlic adapts to a site and gets bigger over time. But now I will pay attention.

I also grow everything from seed, similarly to avoid importing disease. But garlic is surprising. I never had a problem, in any soil and with any Michigan season.

Hello,

I'm a new wannabe garlic grower. I just came across this forum thread. I realize it's a little old, but I really appreciate all the good information presented.

Tom,
Would you have any interest in getting together and sharing some knowledge? Maybe, I could come help you harvest for a day and pick your brain as we work. I'm located in Minneapolis. 541-515-4429

Thanks,
Randy

Agree with everybody above. I've tried doing what you want to do as far as planting real close together. Some people say this is ok, but I found better production when I gave each plant the proper spacing.

Either do what slimy or zach suggests or snip one like rhizo suggests.

In either case, I would get them out of those 2" peat containers and into some 3" or 4" containers. Peat pots suck past germination and a month is a long ways away.

Kevin

Thin them to one per 4 inch pot, cut it at soil level.

Yes I cut them back then covered them with about six inches of compost and a foot of straw :)

Lucky you. Around here, it's a struggle to get even kale to overwinter.

Fertilizer can travel as far as water can. And generally, water does not travel horizontally very far.

What you can do is to put a plastic barier , similar to what they use between grass and garden beds. They are about 6-8" wide and come in rolls, sold at garden center @ HD and elsewhere. Alternatively, you can use a 9/16 x 6" cedar board, the ones are used to make fence with.
As I said, water tends to go down by the force of gravity. UNLESS the bed is flooded.

Also depends on the type of fertilizer. Water souable fertilizers will spread/dissipate out further than a dry granular one will even when it gets wet.

Ideally legumes should be planted as far away from routinely fertilized crops as possible - like a separate area - but that isn't always practical. When it isn't then choose granular supplements rather than liquids or as suggested, some sort of barrier between.

Many gardeners use flowers or other run-off trapping crops between the crops with very different needs but if your space is really limited then that would be a waste of space.

Dave

I sowed my first seeds today...broccoli, cauliflower, butterhead lettuce, and spinach...inside.

About 12 days later it will be time for tomatoes and peppers.

"When an electric fixture is malfunctioning, one should stop using it immediately. The fluorescent bulbs should last for thousands of hours. But his fixture burns it in no time, he puts in another bulb and the problem persists and he leaves the light on. So whose fault is it ?"

Agree. If something is clearly wrong, the last thing one should do is leave the fixture plugged in and unattended.

There's not a whole lot of difference in T12/T8 fixtures at this point. There's only a few ballast manufacturers and they sell to everyone. Pick the one with the best reflectors (as that's going to be the biggest determiner of performance), and if you're seeing problems in the first couple of weeks, return the damn thing.

Let me tell you how I deal with slugs/snail(Assuming that it is your problem too)

1) HUNTING: Nothing works more effectively than just finding and destroying them. ESPECIALLY early on so that they cannot multiply. Get one of those sharp pointed bamboo skews, just skew them one after another as if you would skew shrimps. (GRIN) . Put it somewhere on a sunny place. Hopefully some birds may enjoy them or they will become SUN DRIED slugs. hehe

2) use nylon netting around and over your seedlings. Make sure that it is well pinned down.

3) Slug baits of all kinds work fine. But they are expensive. Here is what I do: Make my own mix"

--- 1 parts slug bait
--- 4 parts used coffee grounds
--- 2-3 parts play/mortar sand; has to be a little rough. Dry is better.
--- ground egg shell : NOT too fine. You want it to have sharp
points

There you have it; You can use it more generously as opposed to pure expensive sluggo. This year I will add some crushed floor dri(DE) as well.

Slugs have a tender belly. That is how slugo works, by tearing it down. Sand, eggshell, any sharp matter can also damage their belly and you will see them bleeding while running away.

Your ultimate goal should be to destroy them, not deter them. As you continue doing this the population will be reduced, and there will be less muliplication. BUT always be on the look out. not just around the vegetable garden, but everywhere in your yard. HUNT THEM. a salt shake can also work instead bamboo skewer.

Zeedman, I think you may have hit on my real problem!!! There are constantly finches landing in the beds, right next to the plants and poking around. I've always suspected them too, but couldn't believe it.

Maybe it's the birds!!

My local nursery has gotten in their onion/potato sets as well as asparagus crowns (even had 2yr old crowns). Big box stores had 1yr crowns... found some at Home Depot a week ago that I may take back after seeing the crowns from the nursery place. The nursery crowns had growing points on them... were larger and not as dry. Price was comparable
$4 for 3 crowns @ box stores vs $1.30 per crown at nursery.

Wow, older crowns would be great! I might call around to a few other nurseries too. My one here in town is pretty small scale. Thanks for all the advice!

this is spawn, not spores. Typically, span is fully colonized sawdust.

Sorry, i misunderstood. Certainly, spawn will be quicker than spores, but 55 gal isn't small, it'll still take a few weeks.. Depending.. Research Paul Stamets, you will find all the information you need to know from his books,etc. Still, i would probably use smaller containers, not only for quicker colonization, but you are not leaving all your food on one plate. What happens if that 55 gal gets contaminated, it's garbage. What happens if a few of your 50 gal containers get contaminated, you still have the other 40! Plus, it's easier sterilizing small amounts of soil.

My local feed and seed store has certified seed potatoes for $1 a pound, but if you buy a fifty pound bag they are $.60 a pound.

They carry about 8 varieties that are suggested for our area. Standards like red Pontiac and Yukon Gold.

They grow better than the ones that I have ordered from seed catalogs before.

I have also planted grocery store spuds and they have always done well. I have some Yukon gold from the store that I plan to plant as soon as the ground gets dry enough. I bought them two weeks ago and when I got them out of the cupboard Sunday they had inch long sprouts all over them.

producing seed potato costs serious money. Retailers can sell them as a loss leader to attract buyers, or as a favour to customers.

I grow from supermarket spuds every year, but if I want different varieties, only online dealers offer them. Remember that you can always buy online once, and then save tubers for the next year. That will make the cost per lb. go way down.