Posted on 03/21/2014 12:44:59 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.
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I was wondering if Diana was still working at Jungs. I too have trouble in stores like that. Especially garden stuff this time of year. It’s even dangerous to look at catalogs.
I try to stay home and avoid shopping online as well. What I can do is go to Amazon and add stuff to my wish list. Then I have to prioritize each payday, since I can only spend a little each month.
We are hovering just above freezing today. It will get down to 20 degrees tonight, but the sun is out. It feels like spring until you open the door.LOL
Thanks for the weather update. I have been assuming that it will be cooler this spring, and it sounds like that’s a good assumption.
I think I’ll start more stuff indoors than usual.
I have lived in Missouri all my life except for 1 year in South Dakota. This winter has been one of the worst.
We had a nice balmy 40’s and above this week, but now we are back to low 30s and worse to come tonight. At least the sun is shining, so the indoor plants are happy.
Sounds like a nice tomato to try indoors for sure. Speaking of which, I have 2 of my cherry tomatoes that are turning. They are a nice shade of orange. Won’t be long till I can have a taste.LOL
I just planted two 5 oz. paper cups with two Cherry Punch Tomato seed in each. Don’t want to crowd this little jewels. Besides 3 times the Vitamin C they produce, they are hybrid seed but are indeterminate and I think that is fairly rare.
I have one envelope of the Cherry Punch frozen but will freeze more envelopes so I will always have these seeds if they really produce well and certainly if I can get them to produce in winter in the house. This is what I meant when I told you I’m not totally tied in to just heirloom seed. I’ll just freeze a lot of these seed to get passed the idea I have to save the seed of the ones I plant. I thought that until I started trying to grow plants, and now I see there are some hybrids that are worth freezing them to have them for several years.
Went on deck under roof a bit ago and transplanted more plants that had been in greenhouse. Now, there are 7 more out there to transplant. Took my last two Deck Corn plants out of 5 oz. cup and transplanted those to a large container for their permanent home. Those actually grew in a Jiffy cup, the only plants I got out of Jiffy.
Transplanting will go on for a while to transplant twice the 16 or so cups of seeds under the grow lamp.
The size of a container for which type of plant is an ongoing study. I have several kinds of peas suitable for containers in two sizes of containers, 3 gallon and 5 gallon ones.
I also made a mistake thinking I could grow lettuce in 5 oz cups and transplant them. I have a bunch of St. Anne lettuce, think that is the name, in two cups and they are so fragile I’ll lose some of them by transplanting. I will direct sew lettuce in containers from now on. The EZ lettuce on the strip in the long planter sitting in the dirt garden, is coming up all the way down that planter.
rightly, you are right, it is cold outside, 58 degrees now and must have a lot of moisture, too, because it feels colder than 58, goes to the bone cold, and is overcast. It maybe colder at your place since my garden is surrounded by the high brick walls.
That is my plan for the cukes and Tsquash that I started today. I am going to put one edge at the side of the garden, and put a few containers on the opposite side and see what happens. This is the year of experimenting for me. If I aint happy with the results, I may use the space for fruit trees next year. I only have 4 small areas of sun on 2/3acres, so I have to choose carefully what to grow and where.
How are your ghost peppers doing?
I had read that willow leaves liquid when crushed and soaked in hot water and cooled can be added to act like a root hormone for growth. Apparently its the salicylic acid in small amounts--same compound as in aspirin. Once I did try an aspirin diluted but I used too much and it killed the roots instead. For the mad plant scientists in us FReeps>>> ('
It’s 58 with 31% humidity here. The wind is what hurts, I can take 58 okay, but not with 15-25mph winds. Especially going out in short sleeves and shorts with sandals on, my standard summertime attire.
Hows your squirrel nets working out? Doing the job to keep away the tree rats you adore so much?
Good for the wipes and I’ll be interested to know how the one pot inside another one for those potatoes work for you to compare it with mine. You are the potato expert and I certainly am not.
“Fortunately, I have plenty of pots and soil on hand.”
I had ZERO pots when I started last year. I also didn’t even have one bucket to carry soil or anything else in.
I should have read your post before I left the house today, and decided to stop at the Mom & Pop Nursery..I am now $74.00 poorer.
It's cold outside here, and cloudy with a north wind. It's 54, but with that wind, and humidity, it feels colder. I put some of those Wall of Water things around my poor tomatoes I had put out into the garden. I had potted 18 impatiens in their final pots, but still have six more to do..I am sure they are hating being out in the cold as much as me.
“Hows your squirrel nets working out? Doing the job to keep away the tree rats you adore so much?”
I’m glad you asked. When that squirrel, or one like the first one since it happened twice in one day, was sitting on the top of the garden fence and not coming in due to Prissy being out there, I knew I was sunk if I didn’t act immediately. By the late afternoon, I had sorted out the net and covered both sides of the deck where the plants are. They are not getting into the net room, either. So, yes, the net is working since not one has been in the garden so far. If they have been in, there is no sign of a plant being eaten.
Actually, I think if one came in and tried to get to a plant, it would get tangled up in the net if it managed to get under the net or jump on top of it. I put metal stakes under the net at various places so the net is above all plants, not resting on the plants.
I will not let them destroy the work I’ve done and the money I have put into that. Neither do I want the birds to eat the strawberries and tomatoes if I ever get any.
I love cattle panels..I think I could build a yurt out of one..
If you can build the greenhouse, you can build a yurt.
I was just looking at cattle panels at TSC.
I need to build a second greenhouse as my, and the neigbbor's cats think it's a warm toasty refuge for felines, not for plants.
Overcast, here, too today. Not cold, but...funky. Humid & intermittently drippy. Loaded up the pups & the bubba & went to Fanick’s again. Got a couple of Oscar okras (my seeds are Clemson spineless), a strawberry in a hanging basket (don’t I need to transplant this?), a spearmint, some big marigolds & alyssum. Still no Romas :-/ I only saw 1 group of onions & they didn’t look like what I was looking for. And got some supplies.
Spinach, carrots & turnips coming along. A few of the turnips are about 10 times the size of the others. Not sure what’s up with that.
Will be planting beets Monday or Tuesday & getting the new things situated.
Hope you feel better, applegate.
Thanks, everyone, for all the links.
God Bless.
patriot08- I forgot to ask about dewberries, but will call. They had a *bunch* of blueberries & (I think) blackberries, though.
That reminds me, I had one of those net bags with 80 red onion sets in it..that was basically growing in the bag in the greenhouse. I tossed it out by the smart pots last week, intending to plant them..oops, I forgot about them until I read your post.
I just looked at the cups under the grow lamp again, and I see numerous Lemon Balm coming up and the bits of green were not there this morning.
The two T squash tops will be totally out of the seed starter soil tomorrow. The T seeds in the other cup aren’t up yet, maybe tomorrow I’ll see green there. I’d like to have four which will make five with the one already in the permanent big pot. I replanted a few types of tomato seed and those are up, too.
Those onion bulbs you have - remember if you want them to grow large, put the bulb barely under the soil, most of mine, I had just a bit, a tiny bit, of the bulb showing on top of soil. They are growing so fast the green tops are from 4-5-6 inches tall already and very strong looking, thick bodies. They are in the net room safe from squirrel/bird murderers.
It hasn’t rained here, just very muggy outside. It is up to 60 degrees in the garden.
I have the advantage of having mine in pots on the deck and that helps for them not to be close to regular dirt where those killers are more likely to be. I do have cucumbers in pots and they will be across the deck from the T squash so if something gets on them, they won't be close to my T squash.
I have Diatomaceous Earth and an aspirator to use to blow it on the base of the squash plants and the stalk and leaves, wetting them first so the earth will stick. Once they are in their permanent pots, I'll do that to try to ward off any flying insect that could get on them. Since they are in pots on the deck, insects in the ground can't get to them but the moths could fly there.
I want you to experience the T squash as they are so special.
I plan on injecting them with some stuff Johnny recommended about a month ago, BT I think, Lowes has it, I held a bottle in my hand. It’s liquid and you inject it with a hypodermic needle 1/2” above ground level. This is the only reason that I decided to grow cukes and yellow squash. I’m putting my trust in this. If I fail, it won’t be the first time. I have 2 packs of Tsquash seeds and only planted 4 seed. Next order of business is to get 2 cattle panels from Tractor Supply.
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