23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

bart, If the plants are of some size, then they need to be broken in more slowly. With my setup they can be out all day from the get-go when the weather is suitable....you don't shade newly germinated seedlings that are garden sown!

This post was edited by wayne_5 on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 21:42

I'm a working stiff too. When I start hardening off my plants, I set them outside on partly sunny or cloudy days and have them right next to the house. That way they only get a few hours of direct sunlight. I bring them in at night for the first week or two. I gradually (every couple of days) move them further away from the house so they get more sunlight.

Hi woohooman, I'm from Southern California, the Inland Empire.
Everyone, thanks for your help, I decided to just take out the plant. I'm gonna plant more cucumber seeds in that container but this time I'm gonna put the container outdoors. Hopefully that'll help.

Oh. ok. Much like the climate I'm in.

was hoping you'd have let it go and see if any of the suggested remedies helped. Can always learn by failing.

Good luck with the new ones.

For what it's worth, SWC's sound great on paper(especially her in SoCal), but they sound like everything needs to be prefect to be effective. If I was to try one, I wouldn't use anything but the famed 5-1-1 mix discussed so frequently in the container forum. I would think that root rot might be a problem and the 5-1-1 is designed to eliminate that problem as much as possible. Healthy roots, healthy plant... in most cases.

Kevin

I have counted seeds from time to time, most companies are generally pretty accurate, but every time I order from Baker Creek they are well over quoted counts and sometimes double.

Started my petunia seeds today and found that Pinetree shorted me 30% on one package. I also believe they will correct the shortage. Pelleted seeds are expensive.

Of course the recommendations are going to seem generic because they are computer generated. You can't expect a personalized interpretation when the test facility probably is testing 20,000 to 30,000 samples per month in the Spring.

Most soil fertilizer recommendations are based on a 6.66" depth of soil mainly because that figure computes to 2,000,000 lb. of soil and makes those computer generated recommendations work. If you til deeper or more shallow you probably should be making adjustments to the recommendation because you are either concentrating or dilution the lime and fertilizer that you apply.

I got the test results back yesterday. They are much easier to understand now. Years ago you had to be a scientist to understand the results!

It's in pretty good condition.

PH-6
Sufficient on everything, put P is excessive.

I can pull the P down a little since I planted a cover crop of annual rye if I mow it and remove it. I was planning on turning it under.

They are recommending 15-0-15, 6lb's per 300' of row.

I bought several bags of 17-17-17 last fall that was on sale, and have them stored in the barn, bummer.

Thanks sunnibel! My girls crack me up when NE Kansas has snow! I try to entice them (to come out of their heated coop) by moving their treats (BOS) out into their run......... Nuthin' doin'!

You'd think that snow was razor blades!

Hopefully your girls will find some soft dirt real soon!

Thanks, cugal! Yup, snow is gone, just waiting to be sure the morning lay is done, then I think we'll all spend some quality time outside. Might even hit the 60s today, dare I hope. If only I could teach the chickens to hunt voles, it would be a perfect setup.

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
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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.