23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I think a few hours is fine. The commercial process for lettuce is called seed "priming", and it's a little more complicated than just soaking. That's where the seeds are soaked just long enough to start the metabolic activity required for sprouting, but not enough to actually make it sprout. The seed is then dried slightly to allow for a bit of storage time, and uniform planting. This process works against both photo-dormancy and thermo-dormancy, which are big problems for commercial lettuce growers. I'm not sure, but I think the priming process it may also soften the seed coat a bit, allowing for easier emergence.

You can read all about it here.

Lettuce seeds sprout quickly when soaked. I soak all my lettuce seeds before planting. They usually sprout in 24 hrs or less. During the winter months sprouting took a little more than 24 hrs while temps were in the mid to low sixties.

LOL Miss Moose! Nancy

Miss Moose, years ago, I overheard my daughter's young friend telling her that if you ate pink PlayDoh it would make your poop pink. As far as I know, my daughter never tested that info herself :) But I don't doubt her friend was reporting first hand knowledge. Oh, yes, they were an interesting pair, never a dull moment when they got together.

Since your new bed can't possibly have any active soil micro-herd, no soil food web of bacteria, developed yet to convert the added organic fertilizer then no, you don't need to worry about any "burn" issues, a minor concern anyway.

Of course it won't do much for the plants either and that is the real issue. Until the soil food web has a chance to develop and that takes time and more time, the nutrients aren't available to the plants. You might want to do some research into how dry/granular organic fertilizers work (vs. liquid organics) and what you have to do to tide the plants over until the soil food web develops.

Dave

Thanks for the info Dave. I'm not sure exactly what's in the soil, but this isn't a brand new garden plot. It's a 14x14 plot in a community garden, and I don't know what has been grown in that plot since it opened 2 years ago. I probably should've done a soil test before planting. Another gardener there told me that a couple had rented 3 plots in a row last year, including mine, but didn't tell me what was grown or added to the soil. If I see him again I'll ask him if he recalls what was there... though even that prob wouldn't be as good as a soil test.

Now that I think of it, was my terminology incorrect when I said I made a raised garden bed? It's just a 3x14 wide bed raised about 6" above the walking paths. It's not enclosed with boards or anything... Just sloping down to the paths on each side.

I earn nothing from Ron's seeds. I was a member of the Seed Savers Exchange for over 25 years before leaving. And, I've been with Gardenweb for a good many years. I met Ron three or four years ago. He is legit. I've been to his place. We've even featured him as a speaker at a Green Country Seed Savers meeting.

I would recommend forbearance. Let me tell you a true story from my early days with the SSE. We had rules about seed exchanges. I did quite a few exchanges, in both directions. There was one fellow, out in California, who didn't really follow those rules. I kept getting requests from him. Instead of the cash amount requested, he always sent me a couple of packets of tomato seeds in exchange for what he wanted. He didn't clearly communicate by writing either. I think, maybe, once I sent him his request. After that I ignored him. I pitched the seed in the trash. After all, I had never heard of any of those varieties and, obviously, this fellow was not working on all pistons.

Go forward a couple of years. Now he's no longer in the SSE. I bet I wasn't the only one who treated him that way. Yet, EVERY SINGLE variety he introduced and was grown out has continued being grown by people who received it or passed it to others. They were all excellent and he had developed them himself. He just, sort of...colored outside the lines. You can look it up under CA BR D in the older yearbooks.

wertack zone 7-B SC, Actually, you are on the right track to developing your own strain of okra. That is exactly how you develop desired traits in any variety of plant, or in cattle, horses, or dogs, for that matter. Keep up what you are doing, and within a decade or so, you will have many specific, highly desired, results pinned down and ready for your own seed distribution. Keep up the good work.

I don't know how we got off on this Licensing tangent during a friendly okra discussion, but where I come from there is no such thing as a Master Electrician, or for that matter, a Master of any trade. In the Mid- West folks show a little more humility; we simply call ourselves Journeymen Inside Wiremen, or Contractors.

I'm not one to boast, and would rather not reply at all, but since you have asked me so bluntly; I have run Electrical crews all over the State of Oklahoma, and a few crews out of State. I was a lighting crew foreman at Minnesota Power and Light, a cable tray foreman at Shady Point Powerhouse in Panama, Oklahoma, a panel crew foreman at Boeing, in Seattle, a control wiring foreman at Boeing in Everette, a scrubber foreman on the air quality controls at the Tulsa trash burner, The Chief Electrician at Clean America Corporation in Haskell, The Construction Maintenance Administrator III for the entire Northeast Region of the State, for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and a pretty darn good hand at fitting in and doing my job as a journeyman electrician anywhere they sent me to work. When I do a thing, I do it as best I can.

I've pretty much done anything I've set my mind to all of my life.

I have a six year college degree in Education, and Industrial Arts, plus an additional four years of trade school; all the while holding down full time employment, and attending night school. I have a Teaching Degree, Teaching Certification, and a Teaching license, I taught High School for three years. I had a class D water and sewer license, I had a fork lift operator's License, I had a JLG license, I had a backhoe operator license, a Hilti license, eight State Electrical Journeyman's licenses, I am a certified welder, I had a refrigeration gas reclaiming license, a plumbing license, a boiler repair license, and have a heck of a pension and 401K.

I have sat for many State Exams, passing them all, and worked twenty some odd years, as a licensed Union Journeyman Electrician in Newark, New Jersey, Malone, Plattsburgh, and New York City, in New York, Allentown, Hamburg, Temple, Reading, and Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, Duluth, Minnesota, Denver, Colorado, Des Moines, Iowa, Idaho City, Idaho, Whitehall, Wisconsin, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, Auburn, Algona-Pacific, Maple Valley, Everette, Renton, Tacoma, and Seattle, Washington, Butte Montana, Cheyenne, Wyoming, South Burlington, Vermont, Lexington, Kentucky,Tulsa, Vinita, Bartlesville, Panama, Poteau, Chouteau, Muskogee, Tahlequah, Taft, Fort Gibson, Hulbert, Moodys, Bixby, Glenpool, Broken Arrow, Haskell, Pryor, Wagoner, and Liberty, Oklahoma. .

I am a member of Local Union # 584 out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was also a member of Local # 46 out of Seattle Washington. I am a 4th generation Electrician, and a third generation Union Electrician. My family has been working in the trade since my great granddad set the first power lines along the tracks of the Missouri Railroad in the late eighteen hundreds.

I personally, have worked five power houses; GRDA Unit I, and Unit II, Minnesota Power and Light, Shady Point, and Fort Howard Coal Generation.

I have also worked the Lone Star Concrete Limestone Mine, and Processing Plant in Pryor. I've worked 12 hours per night, 7 nights per week, turn arounds and shut downs, at DX, and Sunoco oil refineries in Tulsa. I've worked 15 hour days, 7 days per week, at three International airports; Newark, Denver, and Tulsa, and two municipal runway lighting jobs. I've worked two chemical plants; Mobay, and Dow Corning, one hazardous waste treatment plant; called, Clean America Corporation, four paper mills: Gold Bond, Fort Howard, Boise Cascade, and Kimberly Clark. I've run work at Boeing Satellite Tracking Division, the Boeing Engineering building, and Boeing Aerospace and Defense, including work in the Stealth Bomber facility, Cruise Missile plant, and Black Hawk Helicopter production facility during the first Gulf War. I've worked in the hanger where Air force One was being built for Ronald Reagan; though it was not delivered until Bush Sr. was in office. I've wired three Pratt Whitney jet propulsion turbine electric power generators. I've worked at Control Data Cybernetics in Kansas City, where I hard wired the first Cray Computer main frames there in 1986, I wired 65 substations on the 77 acre roof of the GM Fairfax Facility. I've wired four State Prisons; Eddie Warrior, Jess Dunn, Bare Hill, and NEOCC, then, I re-wired Muskogee CCC after it was fire bombed. I wired the Tulsa County Jail (David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center), did work at Washington State University, Pacific Rim Diesel, Northeastern State University, Tulsa Community College, Tulsa University School of Law, AB Jewel Water Treatment Plant, City Centre, at the Palomino, in Seattle, wired the sound and light stage for David Copperfield, and installed the CATV set up for an Alice Cooper concert at the Seattle Civic Center in 1990. I wired sound and light for a Garth Brooks, and a Reba McEntire concert in Tahlequah, wired traffic lights and train signals for the Seattle transit railway tunnel, wired the Seattle King Dome remodel, and worked way too many other jobs to list here. (I have four pages of one line entries on my work history at the Social Security office).

I specialized in motor controls, bridge cranes, synchronous motors, program logic controls, accumulators, conveyors, rewinders, flexopress machines, optic fences, palletizers, bar-code readers, motor control centers, panel wiring, conduit bending, data highway, video surveillance, 3 phase motors, and all phases of electrical work. (I don't do residential wiring).

I know of at least 12 States that have reciprocity in licensing. I have carried a State Journeyman Inside Wireman License in Oklahoma, Washington State, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Minnesota, Vermont, and carried Journeyman work permits and City Licences, in Newark, New York City, Plattsburgh, Seattle, Duluth, Tulsa, White Hall, Lancaster, Hamburg, Tahlequah, Muskogee, Kansas City, Riverside, Summerset, Allen Town, Lancaster, and any other of the dozens of cities I've worked in.

After that, I set out to rest for a while, and take up gardening. Developing, and selling, okra seeds is a very small part of what I do; it's more of a hobby than anything else. Growing produce, and providing for my family of six is my main drive. Okra is just what I do for fun.

I third Dave's advice. Stacking them will allow you space to grow 'deeper rooted' veggies, but I also agree with Nancy Jane and others that using them directly on the native soil will allow anything 'deeper rooted' the space to grow out.

I have nine of these and love them. My oldest is four years old and looks as new as the one added in March. I do amend and dig the native soil underneath before filling them. I have had great success with tomatoes and peppers in my beds along with greens, edamame, cukes, garlic, and many more veggies and herbs. Sometimes the corner pieces could have been sanded better, making it a bit of a challenge to slide the boards in but overall they are easy to put together and sturdy.

vanisle, that's how I always got on here. It didn't work last night.

Those are good suggestions about bookmarking and search engines, but they don't bear on what happened last night. The site was down, no matter how you tried to get to it. But yes, miss_moose, it is gratifying that the GW staff is paying attention to us and being responsive.

That's fascinating. Good discussion. Thank you. I guess your original question was about disposable diapers, but the ramifications of that question go well beyond them.

Isn't that so true! I myself was really shocked to come to this conclusion! I think this knowledge should remain in healthy circulation in the community. I wish there was a way to de-salinate the diaper-gel. My husband mentioned vinegar which might do the trick, but then it would be very acidic, and I almost wonder if it would liquify the diaper-gel. I honestly got curious yesterday and tore apart an unused diaper, shook out the crystals and now have about 2 cups of gel. I'll add vinegar to it and see if it completely breaks down. If not, then perhaps the acidic properties could be neutralized with calcium carbonate, as other neutralizers are just basically made of more salt, such as baking soda, which would bring us back to square 1.

I'll add some white vinegar to the diaper gel and update you in a bit. Who knows... perhaps we may end up with a safe, salt-free plant gel! Wanna get in on this patent?? Loll

Update: I didn't realize it, but calcium carbonate separates and releases salt when it reacts with an acid. I didn't even think about it's hidden salt properties, since I didn't see Na in the compound structure. ( CaCO3 )

Update: Vinegar turned the diaper gel into soup.

Glib what do you mean it wont matter? Is that good or does it mean I need to wait because it is bad?

for the bale method to work you need the straw to decompose. On decomposing, ammonia gases will be released. I would use the method myself, a neighbor grows huge cabbages this way, but I have no source for a lot of cheap straw bales.

Yeah, I know, I was just being lazy. :)

Hope you like lots of slicing cukes. IME Straight 8 is VERY prolific!

In addition to Rodney's suggestion above, there are also many less expensive sources for all those varieties other than Burpee. Just for future reference. :)

Dave

I'm becoming more of a fan of the cinder blocks bed, mostly because of the cheap price. You can even buy some top pieces that will change the look of those holes into something more fashionable.

Some people don't like how it looks, but I don't mind. So that's another factor you can think of -- do you care what other people think about the materials your bed is made of? If you don't care, then there are so many material options for making a raised bed. Some people even consider that with their cheap solutions, if it lasts 3-5 years or so, that's ok, they'll make more later and probably a little better after now knowing some of the weaknesses with the beds that they experienced.

On the other hand, the option of using planters means that you can have many more container types and designs that you wanted. Because many people don't grow in the winter time, that may not be a consideration for you either.

I am late commenting on original questions but agree that if there is a tree-roots problem, they will absolutely 'invade' any bed you will build. They will be attracted to more moisture & possibly more nutrients.
Cinder block beds could look reasonably well if you make sure they are level. Many ppl plant some flower or herbs into openings, and once they grow they usually cover lots of block. And you can plant many beneficial plants that way - or ornamentals.
I am sure you know about reStore - I stop by whenever in neighbourhood to see what's 'available'. Recently I found 7 cedar boards (2x6x10') for about 30% of reg. price. They were used on a deck, so almost no damage (just holes from screws and little change in color) and will last for few years.
Same with freecycle - often ppl. are giving away 'leftovers' - bricks, pavers, cinder blocks, wood board. Free, just pick them up.