Weekly Gardening Thread – 2009 Vol.3 – May 29

FreeRepublic | 5-29-2009 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning Freeper gardeners. This weekend marks the end of May and I hope everyone’s gardens are doing well. I know some have had to delay planting due to weather and we all hope conditions have improved for you.

So far this weekend is looking like a good one, weather wise, all across the Nation except for some lingering rain in the extreme NE. Lets get gardening!

[tubebender]

The last snow in Eureka was 4 inches in 72 and the town came to a halt as none of us knew how to drive in it...

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you all for the garlic tips!

[HiramQuick]

I'd be glad to talk about my taters ... a sick puppy I am ...lol

Take a 5 gallon bucket and put 3” of good, friable soil in the bottom. I use Yukon Gold seed potatoes but have also used kennebecs and red varieties as well. Kennebecs are a little large for the bucket ... they will be limited size wise. Red potatoes are perfect, especially if you like “new potatoes” ... just reach down into the bucket and harvest the youngsters without disturbing the plant.

But I digress. Seed potatoes do best if a cut piece has at least 3 eyes on it. For those that are not aware, most potatoes you buy commercially are sprayed so they do not produce buds and thus shelf life is longer. So buy certified seed potatoes. I always take my seed pot. and put them in a sunny window for about 10 days to get the buds to sprout ... then cut into pieces keeping at least three eyes per piece. Let them sit in the sun a couple days to let the cut callous over ... they are susceptible to rot if you don't Not so likely in buckets, because drainage is very good.

Oh .. I made an assumption (and we know what that means). Make sure you have plenty of drainage holes drilled in the bottom of your bucket.

So backtrack, 3” of good soil, 3 seed pot. with 3 eyes in each bucket, cover with 2” of soil and water. When the plant gets 3” tall, cover it except the top 1/2” with compost or a light airy soil mix. Potting soil with vermiculite is wonderful, cept it is tooo spendy for me, and just about all potting mixes have fertilzers (typically miracle grow) in them. That will make for a nice leafy plant, but no potatoes. So I go back to my cheap, self made compost. (gardeners black gold)

Keep letting the pot. grow 3 “ and then voer with more compost until the bucket is full. My buckets are full to the brim with compost and I have the most beautiful foliage that is already 2 ft high growing out of my buckets. I use the buckets in my sunny perennial beds to create interest of texture. Hey .. try that with tomatoes as well ... great looking foliage.

In SW OH, many plant potatoes by St. Paddy's day. Ifind it is too cold .. and seed will just rot. First of April still gives you plenty of time.

A not of caution. Buckets even filled with rich compost can dry out quickly in warm temps. We had a brief few days of 87 degrees and I soaked mine down after 3 days ... If drainage is good in your buckets, water until you just see water coming out the bottom of the bucket, over water and you will leech out all the nutrients in the soil.

I do not fertilize .. my compost seems to be ideal, but if you must, use a low nitrogen, high phosphate blend. Just stay away from high nitrogen, unless you want to develop lots of foliage and minimum potatoes.

End of Sept, dump them out in the yard. The fat boys way to capture potatoes. Short handled shovel do not fit this fat boys hand. Don't even own one anymore.

Back to new “reds” if you use compost your can harvest early by reaching down along side the plant and picking the size you want.

Again, I grow mine in buckets predominantly for the foliage interest in my landscape .. but a fat boy loves new reds, piping hot and swimming in butter and a little essence.

Hungry all of a sudden ... writing about gardening does that to me.

Hope this is useful to you.

Again I have not tied sweet potatoes .. we are tooo far north, but I imagine that they would work just as well.

[metmom]

LOL. Where I used to live, they wouldn’t plow for under 6 inches.

You just drove through it. Push on the gas and don’t make any sudden moves, starting, stopping, or turning. Going easy is the key.

[Roses0508]

Mine are in squat5s - the black 5 gallon nursery pots that are short and fat.

It wouldn’t hurt to start the plants - the worst they can do is seed and give you more for the spring growing season.

Hey, you are close enough to adopt a rose bush or two. Let me know if youare interested.

I don’t know about planting in the ground, since I’ve never tried that. I’ve asked clerks at the grocery store for the sprouted garlic cloves and planted those. They can’t sell them as they are not good for cooking.

I’ll happily give you some society garlic and some other things too. Husband is getting fed up with digging things up and potting them for the move.

[Sir_Ed]

Does anyone know what makes a healthy tomato plant suddenly wilt on half its branches?

All my other maters are doing fine, with strong blossoms or little maters, but one plant suddenly wilted on one side, has the tensile strength of a wet paper twel.

Thanks,

Ed

[Sir_Ed]

I LOOOOOOVE my Sun Golds!

Ed

[HiramQuick]

Ohio has the same clay problem ... and if my geology and glacierization memory is correct you are probably on the alkaline side of pH as well.

Compost everything and fill all your beds. It will take you about 7 years to get over the clayey problem, but oh my ... how wonderful it is to be able to dig a hole with bare hands.

Happy gardening

[Sir_Ed]

You live at 8,5oo feet in the Rockies?

How cool!

I used to spend summers wrking at Sequoia Nmational Park at 7,200, and I loved it...the stars at night were so beautiful, the color in the day was this enchanting blues...I did get altitude sickness one year and that was the sickest I’ve ever been, I truly thought I was gonna die.

What town do you live in? I’ve always loved Telluride.

Ed

[Red_Devil 232]

See post # 143 for a good nice simple way to grow potatoes! I knew Hiram would come through.

[AirForceMom]

Thank you :)

[AirForceMom]

Wow, thank you for the informed post!! I can do this :)

[MtnClimber]

Ed, I live about 15 miles NW of Golden in unincorporated Gilpin County. I have views to the west of about 50 miles of the continental divide and can see many of the peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park. Here is the view looking west off my deck. The peaks in the distance are in Indian Peaks Wilderness and are in the 12,000 ft to just under 14,000 ft range. The most prominent peak right in the center are two connected peaks, North and South Arapahoe Peaks although the north peak is mostly hidden by the south peak. I can see Longs Peak from my living room. It is 14,225 ft or so.

And moose in the Indian Peaks west of my house.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ll bet you can get cherry-types to fruit for you indoors. I’ve done that. Also, peppers seem to do pretty good indoors with enough light and heat. I’ve kept Habanero pepper plants through the winter months before.

As much light as possible for your tomatoes, though; add supplemental grow-lights so they can get 16 hours on and 8 hours off, and Tomato Tone or another tomato-specific fertilizer might help.

This past March when I started seedlings in the basement under lights, they were a little spindly, so I upped the timer to 16 on/8 off. Worked like a charm until it was warm enough for them to go into the unheated greenhouse.

You can only fool Mother Nature to a certain extent, but have fun trying! ;)

[Red_Devil 232]

Holy Cow! You don’t need a garden! That view would be enough to feed me for days!

[gardengirl]

Hubby wasn’t too thrilled either—the first time. I grew up with such. He takes almost as good a care of them now as I do. LOL

Dogchildren LOVE chickens! They’re STOOPID and they make lots of noise when you catch them. Mommy and Daddy make lots of noise, too, when dogchildren catch the chickens. :)

Sadly, ours never come out of the coop. They’re under some trees, so they get shade. The front half of the coop is half chicken wire and the bottom half is tin so they get plenty of sun and air circulation. Too many things around here like chicken.

[Red_Devil 232]

My Habanero peppers are going gang busters. I planted them, I guess as a novelty, and now am wondering what to do with them once they mature. I can my jalapenos and roast them fresh on the grill. I dry my Cayenne. I am wondering what in the world I am going to do with these super hot Habaneros?

[Sir_Ed]

Oh, my goodness...what magnificent beauty.

I’ve lived in Moose Pass, Alaska; Mammoth Hot Springs, Montana and numerous towns in North Idaho and now Oregon, but I have rarely seen such a beautiful place to live.

WOW!!

Thanks, Mountain Climber!

A propos of nothing, where I used to work there was a guy who came in who was missing all his fingers, he told me he had lost them to frostbite trying to climb either K2 or Everest.

I’ve never climbed mountains, that’s WAY too scary for me!

See ya’,

Ed

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I am wondering what in the world I am going to do with these super hot Habaneros?”

I didn’t plant any this year. I did Poblano, Serrano and Jalapeno, which is plenty hot for us.

One year when I planted Habaneros, I only planted two plants. They are SUCH a pretty pepper plant! Anyhow, from TWO plants, we got an entire grocery bag FULL of the suckers.

Husband took them to Senor Peppers, our local Mexican restaurant and they were very grateful. (Don’t tell the Health Department, but I’m pretty sure a Habanero would fry any germ that it touched, LOL!)

[Red_Devil 232]

Oh no! I only have 2 of those plants! I had one Tabasco plant last year it did ok. I made the mistake of dropping two of those tiny guys in a big ol' pot of veggie soup I was making. They almost ruined it!