23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
A followup to my previous comments. Mo. is a big state you didn't say where you were in the state. I am 50 miles east of NE corner of state. The early crops such as peas, radishes. lettuce, spinach turnips beets etc. I plant real early and will plant a small area of each so if the early crop fails, I still have a crop. I plant in wide rows except for peas. I will plant an area of 30 inches wide by 12- 16 inches. that will give you several meals of each crop. and if the weather turns bad, you may lose a few seeds. but so what. The old timers will say around here " if you don't get snow on your first planting, you planted it late"
I don't do any special prep Kevin. I just buy some good size sweet potatoes, cut them in half length-wise and set them cut side down in a shallow container of potting mix, perlite, vermiculite, sand whatever is handy and keep it damp. I set the containers under the shelves in the shade in the GH. Snip them off at skin level when 4-6" tall and soil is ready to plant. I don't bother with rooting the slips themselves first but some do.
Dave
Hmm. I tried that a couple years ago and the damn thing just rotted from the inside out. But I put them out in the sun... Might've that been the problem? I thinK I used a mix of compost and potting mix.
Kevin
This post was edited by woohooman on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 11:58
Width/Length of the containers? 25 gallon containers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Gallon size isn't all that important since they only need about 12" of depth. But you should be able to evenly space several plants 8-10" apart or around the container somehow.
For example, 10 gallon grow bags made for potatoes call for 3-4 plants. They are 12-14" deep and 22" wide side to side. That assumes careful watering and extra feedings.
Dave
I think my totes last year were 18 gallons. I put 3 seed potatoes in each of them. I ran out of potting soil and one was full about 8" the other....let me think...12-18" maybe? Anyways....
I got bored of watering them and dumped them all out in early July (I still had my main, in-ground potatoes anyways). I was surprised to get a meal or two's worth of new potatoes. If they had stayed in those buckets for the rest of the summer, I would have gotten a pretty good harvest out of them I think.
One study I had heard about but have not really gone back to look over noted that drip irrigation did not really reduce (conserve) the amount of water used, but it did produce healthier plants with a greater harvest, I always thought it was something interesting to contemplate.
Well, what I was TRYING to get across, was that many rules and regulations were being changed so that it's OK to get rid of that water soaking lawn and go against all those HOA rules for front yards. Including growing veges in containers.
I wasn't trying to bring up arguments on Ca agriculture! Nancy
I start tomato and pepper seedlings in an unheated greenhouse with heat mats. I'm not sure exactly what temperature it is right around the plants, but with the warm soil and a plastic dome cover over them, they do very well. The ambient air in the greenhouse gets into the 40s at night, but never below freezing. If I'm worried about things getting too cold, I put a frost blanket over the plastic dome.
During the day, things warm up fast. Leaving the plastic cover on is an efficient way to kill all the seedlings. Also the heat mats are on a thermostat so they turn themselves off.
Hope that helps!
Tomato and pepper seedlings are more flexible than more mature plants. I routinely let my greenhouse go down to 35 degrees at night, BUT the next day, I make sure they go back up over 100 degrees in bright sunshine. Low night temp slows growth significantly. High temps the next day reverses this effect. The way to look at this is number of hours at temperature below 65 must be countered by the same number of hours at a comparable temperature above 65. So if my plants go down to 35, that is 30 degrees below 65, then the next day, I make sure they get the same number of hours at 95 degrees. This is really easy to do, just watch the weather daily and adjust the ventilation to set the temperature in the greenhouse as needed. Bright sunshine can bring my greenhouse to 120 degrees when the outside temperature is only 40 degrees. So the range of temperatures you can work with is from 35F to 120F. Don't go above or below this range for healthy seedlings.
There is one warning however for capsicum chinense peppers. They are more sensitive to low temperatures than most of the other pepper species. I make a point to ensure C. Chinense don't go below 45 degrees. This is because the seedlings will stop growing and won't start again until they have about 2 weeks of temps above 75 degrees. Bell peppers and most cayenne/jalapeno types are not sensitive to cold in this way.
As mentioned above, letting tomato plants get below 45 degrees for short periods of time can increase production. Dig around on the net and you can find some articles from the 1930's that document this effect.
Thanks for all the good information. I think I'll try the Sarah's Choice again. It seemed to be fairly compact and never got powdery mildew or any other disease. It seems like a good choice for a container, and that's the only way I can grow something in my yard. I've had great luck with sugar baby watermelons in another whisky barrel. I will just need to be much more careful about watering and watching for signs of cracking.
Any of the Jersey varieties is the most common recommendation every time this question comes up - Jersey Knight, Jersey Supreme, Jersey Giant, etc. 2-3x the production over most other varieties. I grow all 3 and the only difference is the maturity dates. Jersey Giant is likely more tolerant of your cooler weather.
Purple Passion is also popular.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Asparagus discussions
Pnbrown, have you tried the white skinned / purple-fleshed Asian sweet potatoes? I share your preference for the white and yellow fleshed sweet potatoes, and the purple - while smaller - has similar qualities. They are long season (far too long for my climate) but should do very well in Florida. Chances are you could find stock in Asian markets; several markets near me are selling them now.
If you would like to try them & can't find them locally, send me an email. They dry out faster than commercial varieties, so you would want to start slips shortly after you acquire them.
Yeah, that's a good thought, Zeedman, Asian markets. I guess a trip to downtown Orlando will be in orderâ¦I have not tried the purple-fleshed ones, but have heard the flavor is rather different from what we are used to.
Looks like I found someone to send me some tubers of Hayman, which is exiting.
I wouldn't use fresh horse manure in spring. But if it possible, you can buy compost(probably by truckload, depending on the size of the garden it is much cheaper) and still do your garden next spring - just start as much early as you can, to let soil settle before you plant.
From what I've heard at two different farms in my area, but not from my own personal experience, is that adding the horse manure directly to the garden is too harsh for plants early the following season. Is there a spot you can let the manure compost before adding it to the garden?
Another method you can try, and this is what I do in my own garden, is leaf/kitchen composting. With enough turning and watering, it will turn to garden-ready soil in weeks, and should not be potent enough to burn your plants, at all.
Yes, Elisa, there is a lot of pee-is-good and pee-is-bad, but not a lot of easily available wisdom about when and how. I mean, chemical fertilizer is good and bad, depending when and how you use it. I'm just beginning to get a clue. What I'm concluding is that for composting (whether in a separate pit or in-situ in an unplanted bed), it's good. Really good. As long as there is natural leaching to prevent salt buildup. That points to winter. As a fertilizer for active crops, some care is needed, as in a lot of dilution, but might be useful. That's for summer. But it's looking like you can use a lot more of it in the winter than you should in the summer. Let's all drink heartily in the winter.
I'd really like some soil biochemistry experts to weigh in here, though. We're talkin' biochemistry.
I was going to try growing artichokes in Zone 6b NY.... I knew it was not a sure thing at all for success, but it sounds extremely difficult... am I wasting my time?
If I don't have success getting blooms this year could I get them to survive the winter with mulch?
Peter- I think they are much easier anywhere they can be true perrenials, like Zones 8+. The reason those of us in colder zones go to the trouble of vernalizing them is because they need to have had a winter to trigger blooming, and since they might die in a truly cold winter, vernalizing the new plants gives the best chance of success.
They might make it through a mild winter up your way with a lot of mulch, might not. Are you wasting your time? Depends on how much you find you enjoy the process or the plants. They are quite beautiful even if you never get a choke.