23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
The broadforks at Johnny's are junk, don't bother with them. I own one. It is cheaply made and flimsy. I had one tine break off completely and they will all bend if you catch a root or a rock. I subsequently bought this one:
This one is vastly sturdier. It is however, almost impossible to sink to the hilt into my heavy, sandy loam soil, which is actually relatively soft. Even as I jump my 190 pounds on top of it with both feet. But I have surely never broken or bent a tine on this monster.
Oddly enough, when I really want to deeply break up my veg garden soil, I use this:
This bad boy plunges 15" into the ground pretty easily. Then I just pull the steel handle backwards until the huge chunk of soil breaks free. I'll also use this tool to turn over an area of sod in the fall to prepare for a new Spring veg garden bed. It's also great for chopping through roots.
Truthfully, I never use my broadfork simply because I cannot drive it as deeply as I like, whereas my spade goes deeper easier. The spade ends up being less work even though I'm going 5 inches deeper. It is all hardcore steel construction and seems like it will last into the next millennium. This thing is a beast.
I sometimes wonder if there are broadforks available that are both sturdily made and easy enough to drive deeply into the ground.
Hi everyone, I have been thinking of concrete beds also. But have moles, so not sure how 2 rid my land of japanese beetles. How do I find the youtube I keep reading about? I love love pictures, still daydreaming here in NW Texas and have not even begun with gardening. Wanted to say hi.
"All seeds require some form of soil heat and soil heat is normally 5-10 degrees cooler than ambient air temps indoors."
This is an important comment by Dave, and often under-appreciated. The surface temperature of wet soil is *not* the ambient air temperature, but will move closer to the the dew point. That's why you feel cold when you get out of a shower! For 70F air temperature and 50% humidity, the dew point is 50F. Now, the soil at depth will be warmer, because there isn't much evaporation going on down there, but seeds start near the surface, where there is evaporation. Wind will increase evaporation, and drive the temperatures even closer to the dew point. That being said, sticking a thermometer an inch or two into the soil isn't measuring the temperature where the seeds are germinating.
As to light. I agree. Except to the extent that it heats the soil, an ungerminated seed doesn't care about light.
The thermostat I have has a small probe on a wire to stick in the soil. You put it to the seed depth and leave it there. Therefore, I am able to get a consistent read at the proper depth. If used in conjunction with a heat mat, you plug the heat mat thru the stat and it cycles on and off based on the temp read. Works well with that, but also works when I just use it with lights to measure the temp--I can then manually adjust the distance to control.
You might ask over on the Greenhouses and Garden Structures forum. I know they are sold "as is" several places including Sears and Walmart but replacement parts for them don't seem to be available anywhere in the US. They are imported from China by Mengheng Ningbo, LTD so contact them might provide a lead.
Don't know what a 5 B and 3 C are or what they are made of but you may be able to find some sort of make-do repair parts from one of the US greenhouse suppliers like Charley's or Greenhouse Megastore as they carry all sorts of parts for many other brands.
Dave
Hi we've found this extremely helpful. We have used the pellets since buying a 48 cell propagator kit with the pellets already in 5 years ago.
Since then we now buy them on-line in 2000 unit boxes and have found propagator boxes, lids and inserts suitable for the 3 sizes of pellet. It suits us because only a percentage of seeds germinate and we don't want to left with 1/2 empty propagators on our limited windowsills. Also the cleanliness suits us in our kitchen with a toddler running about.
I'm open to all suggestions and haven't historically checked whether rooting has been ideal after growing. We will definitely be making a number of incisions top to bottom before planting on, and will do this early on before the roots grow excessively out of the pellet.
I would say this though the germination success varies depending on what's to be grown, tomatoes, chillies and peppers seem to love the Jiffy 7C, Kale, Cabbage, Brussels all seem to be growing too fast and are leggy (is this bolting?) And so my question is has anyone actually noticed whether the Jiffy7C (which contains 20% peat and not just coconut coir) may be too rich for certain veg? The Jiffy7 seems much better for certain veg thus accounting possibly for some of the irregularities described above?
I also note that John Inne's potting composts get stronger as you go up through the range 1, 2, 3 etc. to feed larger plants. Clearly potting compost is less rich for a reason?
I would welcome any input and and wish everyone the best for the coming season xx
I've had good germination rates with the peat pellets. I too, learned from trial and error. What I do now is after the peat pellets are good and wet and have expanded, I cut off the bottom netting before planting the seeds. Once the seeds have germinated and I'm ready to pot up, I cut off as much of the netting as I can without disturbing the roots.
Also keep in mind that peat does not have any nutrients for the seedlings. You're either going to need to give them plant food and or repot them in potting soil.
No sweat box. I soaked them overnight first and then put them on my potting soil, and then a little soil over the top. I left them on my counter before, and then I moved one to above my UPS since it's warm, but still nothing. The rest of them I moved to a west facing window, still nothing. Top of my fridge is stone cold, so can't put them there. Mine seeds are also Ping Tung. I will restart this weekend.
Would you recommend putting them in a moist towel and in a ziplock and then put that ziplock on top of my warm UPS until they germinate then them move them to soil?
When there is uncertainty on a later than normal seed germination, I will usually plant a second box/container.....Having too many plants is a lesser problem than not having any or enough.
And, FWIW, last year I had problems getting eggplant to germinate due to low temperatures. The second planting had excellent germination.
I do see snakes (lots of garter snakes, as well as some green snakes and milk snakes) in my garden, but never in the veggies. I think they prefer areas near the stone walls where they can hide if they feel threatened and where there are lots of voles and mice. In my veggie garden there are fewer areas to hide and it's more open, which I think is less comfortable for the snakes. I live in an area where there are no poisonous snakes and in general temperatures and soils are cooler than they might be in many other parts of the county. So I don't need to be scared of our snakes, and they tend to hang out in more open areas where they can warm up but I usually see them before I get close enough to scare them.
Good point, Dave. Good discussion and debate for thought...
I guess it all comes down to what works for you. I had a horrible aphid problem in my artichoke garden. That is why this post caught my eye. My pesticide guy told me that ants collect aphids and milk them on the plants. I did read up on this and there is a lot of information on the subject outside of what my Master Gardener friend and pest guy told me. But as a personal testimonial, instead of treating my artichoke plants for aphids and after my pest guy sprayed the path for ants, the problem was drastically reduced.
As for house plants, this is very unusual and is the first time I've heard about aphids colonizing on indoor plants. If pesticide does not nip it in the bud, I would wash the plants daily until the problems is under control.
Gail
With clear plastic, one has to keep a pretty close eye on things, IME. It heats things up a lot in the sun and it radiates a fair amount of heat away on cold nights and so a night-time fabric cover over or under the plastic may be needed, and you'll need to open it up on sunny days. I've cooked plants to the soil line when a plastic cover on a low tunnel got blown partly closed.
IME your best bet would be to use plastic to warm the soil before planting, but use hoops with spun-bond row cover (Agribon is one brand) over it to grow crops. You can leave the spun-bond row cover on all the time; it heats the air up less than plastic and also loses less heat at night. On nights that it might get cold, cover with old sheets over the spun-bond row cover. There are a variety of plants that don't mind coolish temperatures such as spinach and a variety of other greens, peas, and potatoes, and they would be better to start early than things like tomatoes and peppers which are damaged by low temperatures.
(Keep in mind that I am a fair amount north of you, so my experiences may be different than yours, but I have stated plants early with row cover fabric and harvested peppers and tomatoes into November this year, 2 or 3 weeks after we started getting frosts.)
You can find a great deal of info on Andean root vegetables here, this person is probably one of the most experienced on the U.S. Pacific coast:
wettingthebeds blog
Zeedman thanks for the link, it's going to be another interesting year, growing samples of Oca, Crosne and hopefully some Yacon. All in containers this year, moving them to the greenhouse in the fall to finish off. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is fast becoming a motto of mine :).
Annette
Doing sq foot with what mix? Mel's Mix? If so it is often too acidic and needs the pH adjusted. A soil test as suggested will tell you what and how much to add. Plus it can be too high in N for some crops or you may be adding too much fertilizer for root crops. Excess N causes heavy top growth with minimal root crop development.
Something eating the carrots is a whole different issue.
Dave
I have had some success with carrots in a variation of Mel's mix. I just add an extra share of vermiculite, and if your PH is off, then some lime may help. I haven't had to do that yet though.