23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

cool idea
I agree with sunnibel7...need to speed it up. Less time for each exposure.
Seedlings need the light RIGHT on top of them. This video is good to show how seedling reach for light (which wasn't there)
Love the sound track
Keep the experiment going

Thanks all and I aggree it needs to be sped up by at least 2-3x. It was neat when I just put a regular desktop lamp with a standard 40 watt bulb and saw the seedlings go to it in the darkness of the main lights.

I think the next one I will make them dance in sync by moving the light around every hour or so lol. But next one will be with my grow light, right now it is all taken up by my other plants waiting to go out in May, so I got to wait.

But I guess in the meantime it would be fun to do some experiment light tricks to make them move with my extra seeds and even find some music to sync with the movement.

Thanks again all for watching and advice.

-Mr Beno

Thanks for your post! But you don't have to tell me, trust me my friend... Was just using it as an example...

Joe

metal roofing installation can be used for roofing for rain water harvesting and its better to use water for other household purposes, than drinking...

I have never had any trouble with these varmints until last year, when they took everything I had except for just a few of my zucchini, acorns and butternuts. My pumpkins and patti pans were a total loss. Unfortunately, having never had any issues I wasn't prepared during or after, so I didn't remove the afflicted vines, or perform any of the other post-event actions. I am terrified of what might happen this year.

Tromboncino, butternut and Long Island are all moschata. That means woody stems and no SVB. They all die of frost in October. I see from wikipedia that there is a number of edible pumpkin types which are moschata, it may be worth for me to expand into pumpkins, since most of our squash ends up in soup anyway.

I would love to hear any suggestion to this too!

I have shrubs over 6 feet away (and trees over 12 feet away) from a raised bed. Underneath the bed, a thick layer of newspaper plus two layers of thick weed barrier from Costco. After a season, the roots still came through all layers just like your photo. I really wanted this to work because this is the only raised bed that's on flat ground...

I would dig it over to break up the roots. There's no sense leaving that space open.

My first question is which direction is which? Like, is the elm N, S, E or W of the garden? That will let me better picture where all the shadows are going to go over the seasons. But from my experience removing limbs from a tree that was shading my old garden, getting those two limbs gone will indeed make your garden much better. You may not ever get the results you would with a garden with no shade, but you may get good enough.

I'm not sure what about your set up you don't like visually, but it will soften up its hard lines once you have plants growing in it. You could put decorative finials on the the posts I suppose. A couple of clumps of ornamental grass outside the fence to give the winter a bit of interest without competing too much with the garden? A happy scarecrow or some garden decoration? It looks good to me. Cheers!

It looks like you put the garden in the shadiest part of your yard, and then attempted to grow plants that need a lot of sun.

Cutting the branches will help. You should also move the tomatoes, and maybe the cukes, to the beds farthest from the trees. Grow the lettuce and parsley in the shadiest bed, and the rest in between.

If your tomatoes still don't do well, focus next year on vegies that like part shade -- kale, chard, broccoli, etc.

For your fence, I think it needs some vegetation :). I would grow climbing beans and nasturtiums (edible leaves and flowers) in the sunny areas, and runner beans like 'Painted Lady' on the shadier side/s. Careful you do not get the bush varieties of nasturtiums and beans :).

In our zone, the best performers and favorite to my taste are: Blue Lake, Northwestern, and Fortex. I purchase Northwestern and Fortex seeds.

My favorite is Blue Lake. Though a bit late, they do exceptional well in our weather. Each year I save a few Blue Lake, and allow them to either self seed, or scattered to another bed. What's interesting is... though being open pollinated, they came out true after years of group planting of 4 beans. I'm not a bean expert so not sure why... but they just do.

I haven't learnt how to do canning yet so my rating is only for fresh eating.

I agree that Fortex is an excellent snap bean. It is not especially high yielding however.

Jim

I don't think many of us here have experience with tropical tree crops. I have attempted to grow some of those on the list in north florida with not good results other than citrus.

Such a different set of challenges! I don't know what varieties of trees you can choose from ,but a friend had a dwarf date tree (at least I assumed it was a dwarf) that did well for her for years. It was in a really sunny spot in her house. So other kinds might do well too. Maybe ask at the nursery?
I would also stick with heavy mulch if you can to keep the soil from drying too fast.

Thanks both of you I will be carefull, speaking of watering though, what is the average amount of water and how often for a 3 week old sedling to be watered with organic potting mix?

Thanks again,
-Mr Beno

It isn't a formula, a fixed amount, or a set schedule. The plant's environment is a flexible thing so watering needs to flex accordingly. Failing to do that quickly leads to over-watering.

It is as the plant needs it. You determine that by sticking your finger deep into the soil and if it feels at all damp then you don't water. When in doubt you don't water. When the air temps are low you don't water. If the leaf and stem turgidity appears healthy you don't water.

More seedlings are killed by OVER-watering than by anything else.

Dave

If they sit in wet, cold soil for too long you may have a problem, but the snow won't do harm on its own.

Thanks folks! There was a recent post (which I'd overlooked) on this topic, however their potatoes had already sprouted........ Supposed to be in the 60s by midweek, so I'm hoping mother nature is done with her tricks! We need the moisture badly, but I prefer rain to snow........ ;)

Seed variety...inadequate K at fruiting time...cool weather...

...these can all affect wall thickness.

Thanks Donnabaskets! I have moved them inside and will try the fertilizer. :)

Update - 8 days later
Lovage:

Rhubarb:

The pot got rotated when I was moving stuff around. In case you thought it grew a middle stem since 8 days ago - it didn't.

Other perennial plants returning to life

Garlic:

One of the small chives pot.

Tarragon pot:

I didn't realize this tarragon isn't right tarragon so I was disappointed and threw it away in a dry corner and forgot about it. It died and very dry. Imagine the surprise when I cleaned my balcony.

Strawberry patch
.

To: MelissaHess
No idea. Most people don't recommend containerizing the rhubarbs and lovages. I prefer to attempt them anyways and see what works and what isn't. I don't have a yard so no real options. So far they seem to do well in there but I didn't grow a rhubarb in ground before so I can't compare them.

And yes I heard about the winter-like spring over there! Hope it warms up quickly for you to start gardening.

To: stuffradio
Starting seeds are fine and all but why don't you try to split your rhubarb crowns so you will have multiples? It's faster than starting them from seeds (I'm told you have to wait two years for good harvest if using seed route.) Heard you're supposed to do it when it's in dormancy so little late for crown-splitting anyways. Just a thought.

I don't know lovage but it looks a lot like angelica, maybe they are related?

The biggest rhubarb I've ever seen was in the PNW, the region is made-to-order for it. Too bad you don't have in-ground space. No vacant lots in your area?

That sounds like a good plan :).

If they don't bolt, then they will probably continue to grow until next spring -- is which case they might need the space!

I grow leeks every year, but I have only dealt with them where the seed is planted in December or January and the starts planted out in the early spring. Your summer-sown, fall-transplanted ones are a mystery to me. I don't know what they will do but I am very curious to find out :).

If they do start to make a stalk, I suggest you harvest them immediately. Long before the flower develops, the layers of the leek convert to one woody core and a thin outer covering. You can still use them in stock and stuff, but they are not leeky-textured and tender.

Wait!!!

Just chop off the tops and eat them, then transplant the bottom 1/2 in inch of the stalk, plus the roots to the new location. They will regrow from the stump, and are not likely to bolt once they have been cut back so aggressively.

You can have (halve?) your leeks and eat them, too.

Neuro - Google 'cauliflower buttoning' for more details on what causes it to happen and why it was suggested to pitch these and start fresh transplants. Assuming you have time as we don't know your zone.

Then make your own decision if you think your plants suffered any of those causes. Since we can't see the plants or how severe the damage was all we can provide is best guesses.

Dave

I've found that even if some damage occurs at a young age, when a plant grows out of it and thrives, it almost always produces well. The only exception I can think of is for onions, where early stress can cause them to bolt later on, even if they appear to be growing well.

Some studies have even shown that plants affected by stress (especially at the cotyledon stage) produce better than normal. But, I don't recommend beating your plants up to prove this....

As far as cauliflower buttoning goes, in my experience it always occurs due to heat stress when the plant starts to head.

-Mark

All that space. Why not grow everything. Great idea. Wish I had that yard

We are trying to do even more stuff. We might get one or two cows, we'll have some chickens soon, and my niece got a Sheep we'll have. There is a patch of lawn that's about 45 feet wide and 90 feet long I'm working on improving. I will also be increasing my Garlic yield year by year in hopes of being able to sell $2,000 worth a year and get farm status. If all goes well, the year after this year I should be growing about 1,000+ garlic plants.