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Gardens, Lawns and Such...

Started by chefist, June 10, 2015, 09:46:44 PM

onan

Quote from: coaster on March 04, 2016, 05:26:53 PM
I can't wait to garden this spring. I'm going to try something new and plant corn. Nebraska is the cornhusker state, but I'll be damned if I can get it to grow. That is the one thing we cannot grow here without chemicals. But damnit, I'm gonna try. Have a new compost heap I'm excited about too. Also, canning. Never really did it before, but I have a friend who cans every year and gives me so much. I figured I'd try it out and repay her. spring and gardening. two things that get me out of this miserable depression.

I'm going to give canning a try as well. I am especially interested in making the best pickle.

albrecht

Do tomatoes need to be pollinated?  Or over water bad? Last year I planted some heirlooms, mainstream, and even a gimmicky Tomato Rocket (that I got as gag gift.) Despite drought I watered alot but no fruits? Yes, there were some snails and squirels but not even flowering. Lotsa growing vines but never fruit. Various peppers were fine and still producing in this mild winter. Idk. Im not a gardener.

GravitySucks

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 09:57:29 PM
Do tomatoes need to be pollinated?  Or over water bad? Last year I planted some heirlooms, mainstream, and even a gimmicky Tomato Rocket (that I got as gag gift.) Despite drought I watered alot but no fruits? Yes, there were some snails and squirels but not even flowering. Lotsa growing vines but never fruit. Various peppers were fine and still producing in this mild winter. Idk. Im not a gardener.

If they don't get flowers, it usually means they are lacking nutrients. Normally wind is enough to pollinate, but you can gently shake the vines when they have flowers to help pollinate.

Yellowing of leaves is a usual sign of overwatering if I remember correctly.

albrecht

Quote from: GravitySucks on March 04, 2016, 10:02:19 PM
If they don't get flowers, it usually means they are lacking nutrients. Normally wind is enough to pollinate, but you can gently shake the vines when they have flowers to help pollinate.

Yellowing of leaves is a usual sign of overwatering if I remember correctly.
Grassy-ass, as our friends south of the border say. Gonna try again with yer advice in mind.

Onan, good luck with the pickles. Watch the classic Andy Griffith episode re pickles. I never tried but jealous of those who can find the right mix of dill, garlic, and pepper to make good ones.

Well, Monsanto got some money from me today.  I have a huge front and back yard and the weeds have gotten out of control.  I have no time to pull weeds.  That is a thankless task.  I need to plant new grass seed and clear the weeds out of the pine islands so Roundup it is.  I'll spray the lawn tomorrow and let the rains of several storms dilute it, then plant new grass seed.

I didn't have a garden last year and I missed it so I'll be planting this year.  I tried to plant some corn here a couple years ago but utterly failed in that task.  Tomatoes are going to be my primary crop along with some melons,  cucumbers, and some lettuce

akwilly

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 09:57:29 PM
Do tomatoes need to be pollinated?  Or over water bad? Last year I planted some heirlooms, mainstream, and even a gimmicky Tomato Rocket (that I got as gag gift.) Despite drought I watered alot but no fruits? Yes, there were some snails and squirels but not even flowering. Lotsa growing vines but never fruit. Various peppers were fine and still producing in this mild winter. Idk. Im not a gardener.
my first year trying to grow tomatoes I over watered them and got nothing. I have some success now by waiting until the soil is almost sandy before adding water. I also bury a herring with each plant.

onan

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 09:57:29 PM
Do tomatoes need to be pollinated?  Or over water bad? Last year I planted some heirlooms, mainstream, and even a gimmicky Tomato Rocket (that I got as gag gift.) Despite drought I watered alot but no fruits? Yes, there were some snails and squirels but not even flowering. Lotsa growing vines but never fruit. Various peppers were fine and still producing in this mild winter. Idk. Im not a gardener.

What's the temperature? If it's in the high 80's or higher the pollen isn't viable.

akwilly

Quote from: 21st Century Man on March 04, 2016, 10:07:31 PM
Well, Monsanto got some money from me today.  I have a huge front and back yard and the weeds have gotten out of control.  I have no time to pull weeds.  That is a thankless task.  I need to plant new grass seed and clear the weeds out of the pine islands so Roundup it is.  I'll spray the lawn tomorrow and let the rains of several storms dilute it, then plant new grass seed.

I didn't have a garden last year and I missed it so I'll be planting this year.  I tried to plant some corn here a couple years ago but utterly failed in that task.  Tomatoes are going to be my primary crop along with some melons,  cucumbers, and some lettuce
am assuming you can't burn the lawns?

albrecht

Quote from: akwilly on March 04, 2016, 10:08:23 PM
my first year trying to grow tomatoes I over watered them and got nothing. I have some success now by waiting until the soil is almost sandy before adding water. I also bury a herring with each plant.
Interesting. Ive heard fish emulation is good fertilizer. Thinking that the herrings I have and eat are too pickled to do much good. Plus they are tasty and id rather eat them.

GravitySucks

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 10:07:28 PM
Grassy-ass, as our friends south of the border say. Gonna try again with yer advice in mind.

Onan, good luck with the pickles. Watch the classic Andy Griffith episode re pickles. I never tried but jealous of those who can find the right mix of dill, garlic, and pepper to make good ones.

Since you are in Texas, you really should have the tomatoes in the ground already. Get them planted as soon as possible or it will get too hot for them before they have chance to bear fruit.

Watch for sucker vines in the plant. Google will tell you how to tell the difference. These can steal all the energy and keep them from flowering as well.

akwilly

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 10:10:57 PM
Interesting. Ive heard fish emulation is good fertilizer. Thinking that the herrings I have and eat are too pickled to do much good. Plus they are tasty and id rather eat them.
yuck, herring is what I use for bait

albrecht

Quote from: onan on March 04, 2016, 10:08:46 PM
What's the temperature? If it's in the high 80's or higher the pollen isn't viable.
Oh yeah. 80s is my 'winter' sometimes. Summer? Forget about it. Maybe that was problem. And why variius peppers were ok. Good luck with pickles!

Quote from: akwilly on March 04, 2016, 10:10:16 PM
am assuming you can't burn the lawns?

Yeah, the authorities would frown on that as would my neighbors but I'll probably do a little bit of that in the pine islands.  The authorities usually turn a blind eye as long as you keep the fires small.  I'll probably burn the area where I'm going to plant my garden.

Tomatoes grow well in the Southeast.  I've never had a problem here.

onan

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 10:13:09 PM
Oh yeah. 80s is my 'winter' sometimes. Summer? Forget about it. Maybe that was problem. And why variius peppers were ok. Good luck with pickles!

There are a few types of tomatoes that do give fruit in higher temps. I don't know them by name but I am sure you can find them with Google.

akwilly

Besides odd weather my biggest obstacle to successful gardening has been slugs. Those bastards eat everything I plant. What I have found to work well against them is to leave half empty beers on the ground around what I'm growing. The slugs really like beer and will crawl in the bottle and drown.

albrecht

Quote from: akwilly on March 04, 2016, 10:12:28 PM
yuck, herring is what I use for bait
Ha. You missing out on some cheap protein and Omega-3s! Brain food. In Holland them eat em basically raw and have celebrations about first catch . Odd but really good and, legend has it, why tallest people (much of Europe was grain-based diet except for Netherlands, Scandinavia,  n N Germany?.)

Quote from: akwilly on March 04, 2016, 10:17:15 PM
Besides odd weather my biggest obstacle to successful gardening has been slugs. Those bastards eat everything I plant. What I have found to work well against them is to leave half empty beers on the ground around what I'm growing. The slugs really like beer and will crawl in the bottle and drown.

I haven't seen a live slug since I lived in California.  Used to see them all of the time when I was a kid.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on March 04, 2016, 10:16:10 PM
There are a few types of tomatoes that do give fruit in higher temps. I don't know them by name but I am sure you can find them with Google.
Yeah. Will do my impulse buy was some dark variety. Looked it up and a Siberian native tomato. Im sure will do great in Texas. Haha!

akwilly

Quote from: 21st Century Man on March 04, 2016, 10:19:31 PM
I haven't seen a live slug since I lived in California.  Used to see them all of the time when I was a kid.
you are lucky. They are everywhere here and are about 4 or 5 inches long. The yellow ones look like freaking twinkies

albrecht

Quote from: albrecht on March 04, 2016, 10:20:05 PM
Yeah. Will do my impulse buy was some dark variety. Looked it up and a Siberian native tomato (which itself seems suspect cause I always thought tomatoes were 'new world' discovery.) But Im sure theyll will do great in Texas. Haha!

littlechris

Here is a flat I did. Watermelons, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers,etc. Amended with LOTS of worm castings and organics. Had sooo much. gave most of it away to the neighbors and still had more than I knew what to do with. Fed with drip system. Good times good times.




albrecht

Quote from: littlechris on March 04, 2016, 10:26:00 PM
Here is a flat I did. Watermelons, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers,etc. Amended with LOTS of worm castings and organics. Had sooo much. gave most of it away to the neighbors and still had more than I knew what to do with. Fed with drip system. Good times good times.




Nice work!!

The General

Quote from: littlechris on March 04, 2016, 10:26:00 PM
Here is a flat I did. Watermelons, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers,etc. Amended with LOTS of worm castings and organics. Had sooo much. gave most of it away to the neighbors and still had more than I knew what to do with. Fed with drip system. Good times good times.



Nice work!

akwilly

Quote from: littlechris on March 04, 2016, 10:26:00 PM
Here is a flat I did. Watermelons, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers,etc. Amended with LOTS of worm castings and organics. Had sooo much. gave most of it away to the neighbors and still had more than I knew what to do with. Fed with drip system. Good times good times.




wow that is bad ass

littlechris

Thanks guys, I'm a gardening freak and love ALL plants and enjoy growing any and all plants. Wouldn't mind having a nursery specializing in rare exotic/medicinal plants. There was a cool nursery in Petaluma California years ago called "Of The Jungle " that had lots of rare herbs and plants in cutting/seed form that I always wanted to emulate. Last I checked, they are no longer in business.

GravitySucks

Quote from: 21st Century Man on March 04, 2016, 10:16:08 PM
Tomatoes grow well in the Southeast.  I've never had a problem here.

Here in Texas, at least along the coast, we have to plant them about SuperBowl time and hope we don't get a late freeze. Usually by June it is too hot. Then we can plant quick fruiting ones again in September, but even then it gets too hot about half the time.

The General

Quote from: onan on March 04, 2016, 09:40:02 PM
Damn you General. I was content raising 6 tomato plants every year. Now I am buying enough wood to make 4 raised beds. When it's finished I will post pics. I do have a few questions. What did you use for your soil? A mix of compost, topsoil and some variation of vermiculite? Did you use gravel for a foundation?

No gravel, no vermiculite.  I thought about the gravel, but didn't do it.  Maybe I should have but they seem to be draining just fine without it.  They're almost a foot deep, which is actually kind of overkill for most crops.  Vermiculite is too expensive.  We're doing the Mel Bartholomew Square Foot Gardening method. 

There's a local family business that sells topsoil and compost and such.  They have a garden bed mix that they delivered in a big truck and then I just used a shovel and a wheelbarrow and filled 'em up.  Their garden mix is a mix of topsoil, compost, and sand.  It looks like crumbly delicious brownies and I think it will be fine.  It was $70 for 2 cubic yards.  Pricey I guess, but if I keep adding compost, I'll never have to refill them like that again.

Of course, my pallet beds are probably going to rot out but they should last at least 5 years.  It's heat treated oak for God's sake! 

And the wife is super excited about canning and says to tell you that she has about 10 pickle recipes that she can't wait to try making.  We're danged hippies.

Quote from: GravitySucks on March 04, 2016, 10:35:10 PM
Here in Texas, at least along the coast, we have to plant them about SuperBowl time and hope we don't get a late freeze. Usually by June it is too hot. Then we can plant quick fruiting ones again in September, but even then it gets too hot about half the time.

We can generally plant them here in Georgia any time between March and October. Most of the time, the temps generally stay in the 80's. Our temps usually max out in the 90's most summers.   Maybe an occasional 100 degree day every few years.  Our summers are always humid.

onan

Quote from: The General on March 04, 2016, 10:41:53 PM
No gravel, no vermiculite.  I thought about the gravel, but didn't do it.  Maybe I should have but they seem to be draining just fine without it.  They're almost a foot deep, which is actually kind of overkill for most crops.  Vermiculite is too expensive.  We're doing the Mel Bartholomew Square Foot Gardening method. 

There's a local family business that sells topsoil and compost and such.  They have a garden bed mix that they delivered in a big truck and then I just used a shovel and a wheelbarrow and filled 'em up.  Their garden mix is a mix of topsoil, compost, and sand.  It looks like crumbly delicious brownies and I think it will be fine.  It was $70 for 2 cubic yards.  Pricey I guess, but if I keep adding compost, I'll never have to refill them like that again.

Of course, my pallet beds are probably going to rot out but they should last at least 5 years.  It's heat treated oak for God's sake! 

And the wife is super excited about canning and says to tell you that she has about 10 pickle recipes that she can't wait to try making.  We're danged hippies.

I have voles and moles. I am hoping a thick gravel/rock barrier will stop the rascals.

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