WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 6 FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Free Republic | February 7, 2014 | greeneyes

[greeneyes]

CONGRATULATIONS AFRAID FOR THE REPUBLIC 55 YEARS OF MARRIED BLISS

[Two Kids' Dad]

Perfect. I just set up my 5X8 greenhouse in the backyard today and moved the lettuce out there, along with my basil. In a little while I’m going to add the red potatoes and a small raspberry bush that looks kinda like a bareroot rose coming out of dormancy.

Soon to be planted are jalapenos, onions, cilantro, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli and carrots. With all that variety something has to grow, right?

[JRandomFreeper]

jalapenos, onions, cilantro, roma tomatoes

I am very familiar with the 'salsa garden'. ;)

/johnny

[tflabo]

Catch any fish down that busted ice hole /johnny? Fish emulsion is also one of your specialties...(’ Good for the FR made popular tobacco plant of yours...

[tflabo]

Thems be ugaly carrots to the eyes but theys bees beauties to the taste buds and to ye olde gullet down below. Vitamin A for Aces bro...not bad for a dead of winter crop yield.

[trisham]

They look good to me.

[JRandomFreeper]

My cheap cold frame gets the credit. A few one-by-twos, some plastic, and some staples was all it took.

/johnny

[trisham]

I ordered some “Voodoo” roses today. I grew these in our old house, and they were unstoppable.

[tflabo]

I found some old storm door window frames that I laid over in small sections of greens for winter protection. One of them broke when it slipped from my hands creating thousands of small tiny pieces everywhere. What a mess but that dude in my mirror I blame him for it. My cilantro is doing well under glass. Next time though its plastic ONLY...

[JRandomFreeper]

I accidentally pulled up my cilantro today. Duh. I'll be starting some seed tomorrow.

/johnny

[tflabo]

You da man with da backup plan(s). We in Tx gotta have that cilantro growing on.

[SisterK]

Wait till the tobacco blooms, if he lets any bloom. Nice flowers.

[mom3boys]

Last weekend's harvest.

Napa cabbage and daikon radish

[SisterK]

Johnny, or anyone out there, do you have experience growing your own sprouts? I think it might be handy to know how to grow instant food if you have a whole lot of seeds/beans, not much water, and not much time. Any sprouts input would be appreciated. And why are commercially grown sprouts sometimes re-called? E-coli?
thank you!

[JRandomFreeper]

I've grown my own sprouts. It's pretty easy to do. It's as easy as malting barley. ;)

I don't know why the commercially grown are recalled. Not something I've run across.

I generally sprout in a quart mason jar with a piece of cheesecloth under the ring in place of the lid.

There are good instructions online, much better than I can write here off-the-cuff.

/johnny

[Ellendra]

And why are commercially grown sprouts sometimes re-called?

The growing conditions needed for sprouts are the same as what's needed to grow mold. When I grew sprouts for the farmer's market years ago, I often had to throw out batches because they got contaminated and started growing mold. If you scrub and sterilize your growing containers between batches it'll happen less often, but there's no practical way to prevent it entirely.

[sneakers]

18 degrees here in Indiana, Pa. Snowing lightly. We were above freezing for a day or two a week ago. Lots of melting and then back down below freezing. Snow everywhere and still lots of really icy patches. Snow on the ground - about 8 inches - is heavy with a thin layer of ice on top. We bought ourselves a small (6x8x7) greenhouse for Christmas and Mr S can’t wait to put it up. He wants to put it over a raised bed and plant lettuce and other cold-tolerant vegetables. I think the snow will be with us for awhile so that is pretty much unrealistic. I’ll admit that I’m looking forward to it myself though!

[sockmonkey]

Whatever happened to your sesame plant? Pereenial, annual, dead, alive? Do you use the leaves for cooking?

[Marcella]

“growing your own sprouts?”

Totally easy to grow. Get a good sprout unit and follow the directions, almost impossible to screw up. Before I started trying to grow food, I had sprouts as my backup fresh food for nutrients. Broccoli sprouts have the most food value and taste just fine. I have long term stored sprouting seed. A few seeds are poison, but if you buy sprouting seed from a grower, you won’t be getting those seeds. Don’t assume just any seed is a sprouting seed to eat.

I grew many different ones, and subjected my husband and me to the result and he didn’t complain, so that was a plus. Sprouts are a great salad full of the nutrients you need. There are many more nutrients in the sprout than in the plant. Nutrients are lost as the plant grows from the seed so you are eating the garbage remains when you eat the plant. :o) :o)

[Marcella]

I wouldn't use a homemade sprouter as it is easier to end up with a mess of mold or whatever. A sprouter is made to be easily cleaned and every “crop” I had was fine. You can have fresh highly concentrated nutrients in three or four days. I recommend The Sprout People website - you can learn all you need to know there and I use the “Sproutmaster” tray unit which costs $19+ now. I had no problem cleaning the trays. I would not use the tall cup type also on this website. You can get any type proper seed for sprouting on this website.

http://sproutpeople.org/sproutmaster-8x10-tray-sprouter/

[Marcella]

“I accidentally pulled up my cilantro today.”

I can’t believe you did that. Was that the result of a few beers too many?