Got everything in the ground over the weekend, now to wait. Went with: -4 bell pepper plants (2 red and 2 green) -2 jalapeno plants -2 cherry tomato plants -2 zucchini -2 squash plants -2 eggplant Not nearly as packed as I thought it would be in a 6x4, but I'll wait and see when they start growing. Anything to be on the look out for immediately after planting?
It does sound a little crowded (easy to do at planting time when everything looks so small). Even using a square foot gardening method, the zucchini and squash (depending on variety) can eat up a ton of square footage. One tip with those cherry tomatoes would be to keep them in the back and potentially trellis them the best you can. The nice thing about a cherry tomato in a small space garden is you can train them to grow vertical and not take up too much space.
Thanks. I have the tomato completely encircled by a trellis, so hoping it grows straight up. I did the squash and zucchini near the edge and am hoping that if they grow according to plan, I can have them grow into my yard and won't have to stay in the 6x4 box
someone told me to periodically lift up the leaves of the tomato as they grow out of the trellis to make them rest up higher then their natural spot they chose, it helps keep the plant going up instead of out
I think the seed packet for my Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes says a height of 5-6', but growing them in both Texas and Minnesota, I've had the plants reaching a good 6-8' by the end of the year. Some folks say you can top them to concentrate more energy on larger fruit, but I've always had nice size cherry tomatoes without ever topping the plants.
Think I got my garden planned Cherry Sun sugar Black cherry RiesentraubeHeirloom Paul Robeson Orange strawberry oxheart Brandy wine redTomatillo Toma verdePeppers Early jalapeño Thai dragon
Ordered some more pepper seeds from spain: http://www.semillas.de/shop_en/ fantastic prices, but takes 2 weeks, and some people have reported that customs occasionally seizes seeds (i guess because its shipped from the canary islands?). figured it was worth the risk for the cheap seeds - got them today and they all seem to be there: rocoto san isidro jay's peach ghost scorpion pimenta de neyde numex suave orange fidalgo roxa queen laurie 7 pot white chupetinho/biquinho (sweetie drops) mako akokosrade most of these are gonna be saved for next season, but put some sweetie drops, suave orange, and rocotos in some soil tonight
We'll have to compare notes on the Paul Robeson tomatoes. Apparently, it's all the rage amongst tomato nerds.
Approx when would you need to start seeds if you're shooting for a fall planting? Guess it depends on your area, but think I'm gonna try to start some seeds for a fall harvest. It doesn't get cold until late Nov/early Dec down here
suave orange's flavor is very similar to a habanero but with only a little heat. it's a strain that new mexico state univ cultivated. would be good to make habanero sauces for people without a high heat tolerance sweetie drops are really good pickled, sweet and tangy without any heat. these are awesome with salad greens and pasta salads jays peach ghost scorprion is (obviously) a cross between a ghost pepper and trinidad scorpion that is supposed to be slightly sweet but still a superhot rocoto san isidro is a C. pubescens so its pretty unique. ive never eaten one of the rocoto species but ive read that they are pretty crunchy, juicy, and slightly fruity. this one in particular is pretty hot - on par with a red habanero. rocotos are supposedly harder to grow and need a long season so we will see what happens i dont actually know what pimenta de neyde is supposed to taste like - i got it because the plant and peppers grow purple. also got the fidalgo roxa because it was a good looking plant (i think these are both around habanero level heat) queen laury is about as hot as a jalapeno and supposedly good to make sauce with white 7pot is slightly less hot compared to other 7pots, but is still really hot. i got it because they look really cool and are very productive for a pepper of that heat level mako akokosrade was one that got thrown in there for free, but the internet says its about as hot as a red habanero
Checking in for the Paul Robeson Party. Grew one last year. Fantastic flavor, shitty production. Got a seedling from a different source this time, hopefully it'll be more robust Hot peppers in containers > hot peppers in the ground They HATE wet feet, and will be much healthier and happier planted in a container. Miracle grow potting mix is ok, but Fafard or similar with a little coco noir mixed in is perfect for peppers. As far as fertilizer, they thrive with neptune's 2-3-1 and cal mag. You can mix some tomato tone in with the soil medium as well. Thanks, One Two
I'll piggy back on the hot pepper planting in container by adding they will do fine in clay pots. The economical route is 5 gallon utility buckets (like at Wal mart) with holes drilled in the bottom. They love smart pots though
I'm planning on doing my pepper plants in pots. I've used fox farm for soil before with other plants with excellent results.
Tilled my garden and put black plastic out over it to keep weeds out for now. Going to plant watermelon and cantaloupe through the plastic. Going to figure out what to do for everything else. Weeds have taken over the garden the last 2 years, going to try and improve on that this year. Also, getting more bees on Saturday.
For those thinking about planting looks like we are going to get another good shot of cold air late next week, moving in around the 30th and hanging around for a few days possibly. Looks like this is going to effect most of the country. Might want to hold off planting or at least be aware that you might have to cover your stuff next week.
Departures from average but in American, this far out it'd be tough to nail down exact temperatures but there is a good chance of a significant cold shot for most of the country in the March 30 - April 2nd time frame.
That's no biggie, then. Wife and I will be on the north shore of Lake Superior next weekend. 18 degrees below the norm will still be in the high teens/low 20s. I've got no problem sitting in the outdoor hot tub in that. If it was -18, we might have an issue. It's going to make going from the hot tub into Lake Superior a lot more eye opening, though.
So my wife is asking me to build some above ground planter boxes for her to plant some veggies/herbs. Anyone recommend a style of box to build/plans? This is our intro in to gardening so I fully assume we will fuck it up.
I'm probably going to hold off until middle of April. Looks like we are going to get into a very cool pattern for the first half of April. This is the modeling for April 1st - April 7th, if this occurs we will be looking at colder temperatures than we just had this past weekend for most of the east coast. Obviously not everyone on here lives in the east but this pattern is going to effect most of the country.
I've got lettuce, spinach, radishes and carrots about an inch tall. Thinned em out a little this past weekend.
I put my name on the local extension office call list for honeybee swarms. Got a call this afternoon and went over and got the bees. When she called, she said they were on her lawn chair, but when I got their, they had moved like 2 minutes earlier. Made it a lot harder, but I got them still. Probably $250 dollars work of bees. The swarm was about the size of 2-3 basketballs.
After getting the swarm yesterday, I went and picked up 2 packages of bees that I ordered and put them in hives. One of the new queens I also moved the swarm into a bigger box. I also found out today that this swarm was from one of my Dad's friends hives. He watched them fly off and lives nearby where I picked them up at. I offered to give them back to him, but he said finders keepers.
i love this thread and really need to hustle on some ideas Taques take pics of your pepper growing set up bud
it's an apollo 600w HPS bulb underneath my office desk pic from today (gave everyone a really aggressive haircut in preparation for going outside as the canopy was getting too thick):
what are these? I found these in my pine island when i was transplanting some azeleas maybe 18-24 inches under the ground. this is near a tree stump i cut down last year so i dont know if it is cancerous/rotting roots or wild sweet potatoes or what thinking its just tumors on roots
To me they look more like tubers than bulbs. Not much of a distinction, just changes what might grow from them.
Depends. Honeybees aren't needed for all varieties of oranges. See the bottom of the link for more information. http://masterbeekeeper.tamu.edu/files/2015/04/Pollination-of-Citrus-by-Honey-Bees.pdf
I think I'm going to build a raised garden bed in the back yard at my new house. Any tips or suggestions before I just go buy wood and build it? Also if anyone has done this, please post pics if you can for ideas
it's all about the dirt, get good dirt to start with Make sure you have lots of sun what is the critter situation like ?
Don't do what I did and onky use top soil. If you go back to posts in this thread from May or June of last year you'll see my raised bed project. I had to level the whole area first using top soil and used that in the bed as well instead of using something with a little more organic material in it. I should have mixed in compost or something.
as AU3kGT said it's all about soil. I made the mistake of just buying the $1 a bag top soil to start with and my 1st year the garden really didn't do much. Over the years I have added some sand, compost, manure and the crops are great now. If I could redo it all I would have bought the $5 a bag good organic soil.
Here's Clemson's guidance. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/gardening/hgic1257.html