Posted on 02/26/2010 7:00:29 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! Most of us are still dealing with winter weather and freezing temperatures and we are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of warmer weather. While we wait for the arrival of spring we are planning our gardens, buying our seeds and other supplies and we are also asking questions and sharing advice.
If you are just starting out gardening and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in. There are many Freepers from all over the Good Ol’ USA that are willing and eager to help.
Freeper madamemayhem asked me to let the Hoosier gardeners know that the Indy Home and Flower Show is March 5-7 at the Lucas Oil Stadium. There is $10 fee to get into the 25,000 sq. ft. of gardens and outdoor products.
Most of us are still dealing with winter weather and freezing temperatures, and maybe wish we weren’t, but if it helps to rid the world of global warming believers, I’m all for it.
We’re getting dumped on again today here in Michigan.
I bet the help and advice you are going to get from your Grandad is going to be very valuable.
Maybe AlGore will decide to stay in Manila!
I’m full of questions again. I ran across a site on the web — Tim’s Square Foot Garden Page. He posted a website devoted to his interpretation of the SFG, using most of Mel’s principles. Tim is located an estimated 100 miles south of me — just west of Chicago.
He published an estimated planting guide for his own garden (2007). I’m in the same zone as Tim; but, according to his guide he would be starting his seeds THIS WEEKEND. Then, after they get started he moves them directly to a cold frame outdoors — no indoor, sunny window stop, as I’d planned. That seems early, as I still have nearly a foot of snow on the ground, and my planting boxes are encased in ice.
What would you advise? (Short of a blow torch on the ice!) I could return the mini greenhouse and change it for a cold frame, if you think that would work better. A cold frame on my south-facing, brick, front verandah might work really well, as the bricks receive some heat from the basement underneath.
2nd question: What size cells do you use to start your seeds? 3/4 in., 2 inch, 4 in.?
I have purchased several different seed starting trays and figure to return those I do not use, or I deem unsuitable.
I have 3 trays, 72 cells. I have 2 trays of 2 1/2 in. pots — self watering — 28 pots/tray. I have one 72 cell kit equipped with a heating pad. (They had only one left, otherwise I would have bought more.) I have one 50 cell tray of peat pellets that expand into little pots. I have 1 tray (72 cells) eco-friendly peat cells with planting mix already in them.
I also have an old tray of 4 in. pots saved from some long-forgotten garden project. Those will need to be sterilized before I use them. Any suggestions as to what to keep and what to return?
I figure that the tomatoes and the peppers need bigger pots because I’ll have to keep them indoors longer. So, either I’ll have to transplant them at least once, or I need to start them in bigger pots in the first place. How big?
Everybody, please chime in. I need all the help I can get. Especially from northern gardeners, but southern gardeners are OK too — I just have to adjust your experience to my time zone (5).
Stefan, stefan — we need your conservative vote here! (But I don’t blame you.)
Normally I’d be planting this week end too...But not through the ice and snow...Will have to wait a while.
We’re finally getting some sun , but day before yesterday we looked like your picture. Still have a few snowy patches left.
Starting seeds indoors, or planting outdoors? (out of the question here)
The hard plastic walls are kinda like corrugated cardboard with little tubes running through the stuff. It makes it insulated at least a bit.
I set it up against the south brick wall of the house. I usually start the seed trays around the 3rd week of March. Late April they are ready to plant in the garden after last frost.
On nights that go below 30 degrees I bring the flats in overnight. If you do something similar, be sure to brace it well. Stiff spring wind gusts have tipped mine over . . .
Your zucchini will certainly produce, but if it was a hybrid that you planted last year, you won’t get exactly the same variety that you had.
Here in Central Mississippi I will be starting seeds (indoors) this weekend. I should have started them last weekend. I am looking at about 6 weeks before I can plant them outside in the garden.
About 6 inches of new snow yesterday and overnight low of 15F here at 8,500 ft in the Colorado Rockies. I still have the Cherokee Purple tomato that I dug up before the freeze last fall. I found it as a seedling at a farmer’s market and planted it even though it was late in the year. It is growing in front of a sunny window and is about 3ft tall, but kind of leggy and skinny. I may need to cut it back before planting.
I have something similar, although flimsier. I was going to put it in the boxed window in the “warm” dining room, or living room for 2 weeks after the seeds sprout under lights in the basement for 2 weeks. Then my plan was to move it to the front porch for 2 weeks and then plant (bringing the flats in on cold nights). My husband was going to tie the whole frame (which is covered in soft plastic with a zippered door)to the house with I bolts and tie wraps to brace it against the wind, which can be considerable on top of this hill.
I saw a cold frame at Menard’s last week for the same price I paid for the little green house and thought I might exchange it. The cold frame is hard plastic and low to the ground — thus not quite so vulnerable to the wind. I could tie it to the porch furniture and avoid drilling holes in the brick, but I don’t know if it would work as well.
What do you think?
I’m trying seeds this year. I usually buy small plants from Walmart, so we’ll see. I bought a bunch of seeds off ebay. I’ve started various things indoors. I have lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, lettuce, herbs, and a house plant called ylang ylang.
Wild night in the People’s Republic of New England...storm wound tight as a minimal hurricane came off the ocean last night with wind gusts from 60 to 90 MPH...precip was all rain, but wind knocked down power lines and trees everywhere...hundreds of thousands without power. In His mercy; G-d took care of us; no power loss; so my seedlings stayed warm. The radar image of that storm coming on shore was something to see...had all the characteristics of a hurricane except the eye.
We had a cold snap last night; frost on the ground this morning when I got up, but nothing too serious I don’t think. I had just planted my corn, potatoes, green beans, carrots, black eyed peas and asparagus roots last weekend and nothing had popped up quite yet so it should all be safe. The green beans and black eyed peas were a re-sow from freeze damage a couple weeks ago. Everything else seems to have done just fine through the previous cold so I’m hoping last night was no big deal.
Ahhh. Interesting, thanks!
Probably. Most hybrids aren't sterile, they're just not true. Frex, if you plant a hybrid zucchini that is long and yellow, and its parents were a round yellow and a long green, the seeds from the long yellow will grow, but the resulting plant may be long yellow, round yellow, or long green. If you plant an open-pollinated long yellow, AND it was the only zucchini the bees chose to pollinate that day, the seeds from that zucchini will grow more long yellows. BUT, if the bees cross-pollinated with any other zucchinis, who knows what those seeds will grow? Certainly zucchinis, but that's all you can count on.
Very interesting.
I think I’ll plant some of my saved seeds, and some of the packaged seeds I didn’t use last year, and see what the differences are.
Thank you.
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