Posted on 04/10/2015 8:14:14 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
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Black Gold has gone up three dollars where I buy it in Central Texas. It's sixteen dollars now. I've been mixing it with LC1 brand.
Hope your hubby is better soon.
Memphis, TN area report. My every bearing strawberries are blooming, blueberries have formed some leaves, ditto for blackberries, lots of new ones are just starting to green up. Toms are in 5 gal buckets this year. First set of green beans are in. Fixing to set a few prickle cukes out.
Rose bushes are starting to green up, and the Knock out are in full leaf no signs of buds yet.
Lawns go from still brown with weeds, to greening up. Temps and to much rain are crazy this year. We don’t get a long spring before we go to the 100+ temps.
Did you buy their garden soil by mistake? Bag looks almost the same, but the price is a bit cheaper.
I’ve bought the MG garden soil for some of my raised beds and it does have big wood chucks in it.
/johnny
I'm progressing nicely on my garden. So far I have 40 tomato plants set out, the green peppers are up and looking good, the carrots, potatoes and peas are all doing well. I even have strawberries on! I thought I would lose the ones that blossomed before the freeze but they now have strawberries! The corn in planted as well as the beans, watermelon, acorn squash. It looks like I'm even going to be harvesting lots of garlic this year!
After snow this past week, we are finally getting temps in the 50s and forecast for 60s this week! We still have snow where it was piled, but more and more lawn is showing!
Barb continues to plant seeds, only to have the seedlings damp-off or otherwise die. Any suggestions out there?
I am busy today, building pullouts for the kitchen island cabinets. We have scheduled the templating for Thursday, the week after next and install the following Thursday, so the pressure is now on! I have to get the cabinets finished, the existing tile pulled up and replaced with underlayment, the toe kicks secured and the cabinets moved I and secured, and the wiring run. Also need to get the plumber in to run the drain and water supply as well as install the new baseboard heater. Then, I can finally remove the stub of the original wall separating the living room and kitchen!
I had the same experience. And most of the others as well. I went to straight black cow for seed starting since I can't find a potting soil that has no large pieces of bark. It was either that or screening the potting soil.
Blossoms and blossoms,, asian pear and fuji apple trees, so far, really slow popping buds and blossoms have all of a sudden taken off. a couple pear trees are slower than the rest.. but leaves are finally unfurling too.
Planted 8 tomato plants as well, have blossoms opening on half of them so far, warm weather helps.. and rain. ;-)
Once. They can only screw me over once. Then they get fired. ;)
/johnny
Yep! I did the same thing to one bag last year. I don't need to buy stuff that will take years to decompose.
I sure didn't need great big floaties in that soil.
/johnny
Dampening-off generally happens when there is a fungal infestation in the soil,
or the conditions allow it : soil too wet ,poor air circulation, cold drafts from windows, seeds already contaminated with fungus prior to planting, etc.
" Air should move freely 24 hours per day, but not directly aimed at the plants.
This helps the seedlings to aspirate, and excess soil moisture to wick.
If you do everything else right but do not provide plenty of air movement, you will still get damping-off. " Another suggestion is to sterilize the soil in the oven on a baking sheet, level the soil, until the soil temp reaches 160 degrees in the center ,stir ,
and leave in for another 20 minutes.
I believe you. :-)
I just wonder if there was a processing mistake on their part, cause what you got sure sounded like the garden soil.
And the moisture control stuff - great for hanging baskets with flowers, miserable to veggies.
That was why I did the screening last year. I started 140 tobacco seeds (multiple seeds in each obviously) but didn’t even get one to germinate that I know of. But the odd part was that out of that bag of soil no other seeds germinated either. I normally start 3 or 4 times the seeds I will actually end up setting out so was lucky that I had used other soil as well or I don’t know if I would have had any to set out. I have some of those tobaccos seeds left I should try again maybe.
If you want to do that, I'll Freepmail you my address and you can send me a stamped envelope with your address on it.
Of course, all bets are off if the cancer gets me first. ;)
/johnny
Hi - I graduate on Monday from the NC Master Gardener’s program. I have really enjoyed this class and the people I’ve met are a diverse and friendly group. I’ve found a garden that I can help tend in order to get my volunteer hours in for this next year (40 hours). It’s a wildflower preserve on approximately 2-3 acres. It’s mostly wooded and very shady (which is nice considering that we are headed into a warm spring and typically hot NC summer). The person who started the garden 50 years ago has collected over 28 different species of trillium and it’s mostly populated with native plants.
The exciting part is that the front of my father’s property is almost the same type of microclimate. So instead of trying to figure out how to radically modify the landscape, I can just focus on ridding the area of english ivy and poison ivy. Then focus on creating natural pathways and finding and planting native plants. Also, while assisting on the wildflower preserve, as we thin the plants we are also allowed to take home some of the thinned out plants. (Nice benefit!)
My tomato seedlings are growing rather vigorously and the flower seedlings are doing well also.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week. God bless!
I posted a couple of recipes on the weekly cooking thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3277604/posts?page=45#45
I think some gardeners here might be interested, because those recipes came out of my nutritional research. I was trying to find an eating plan that provided 100% of every nutrient while staying below 2000 calories. I figured out over 50 of them, but these are the two I keep gravitating back toward.
What I found while doing that research has changed my definition of “healthy”, and has also changed my plans for a survival garden. Not to mention revamping my emergency food stores!
Now I’m trying to come up with the same sort of nutritional plan for chickens, sheep, and goats, so I could theoretically grow everything I needed. Chickens for eggs and meat, and a small dairy flock.
Prayers up for your hubby!
I use wall-o-waters to cheat the frost. They really do work, if you can keep the squirrels from knocking them down!
Save that trillium! It’s sold on the medicinal herbs market as “bethroot”. Last I checked, the roots were going for around $25 a pound. Nice little cash crop if you can get it established.
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