I feel for those Starfish. I have a soft spot for Starfish:
Posted on 02/06/2021 8:17:25 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Thanks for sharing your results - I’m sure you helped someone with your efforts!
I feel for those Starfish. I have a soft spot for Starfish:
That is awesome, Pete! You’re hired to do this every week for the week before! Thanks! :)
My latest addition to our gardening section in the SHTF database:
Ooops, sorry for the dupe.
Diana; I can see you've had some experience at this!
LOL! I would be starting the hiring process for the Spring Season (end of March through Father’s Day) right now. I have employees that will be life-long friends, though most of us have left the company by now. Everyone started in the Bare Root Room, and then we slowly ended up outside as nursery products, perennials and annual started filling the yard each week. It was always really fun to see the products I had ordered in the dead of winter, inside and out. Talk about ALL of us having Spring Fever!
Unloading TEN semi-trucks some days wasn’t really all that much fun, though. ;)
I kind of miss hiring new people; it was pretty easy to fill the positions because it really was a fun job, but I don’t miss it enough to go back to work. I now have my own ‘Garden Center’ right here at my farm.
Any advice on raised bed makeup for beets and other too veggies? My beet are all radish size or smaller.....not a huge deal since I love eating the greens. I did ant then fairly close together in some areas but even the ones that were spaced out well are mostly tiny roots.
Does the fact I clip the leaves off a lot make the plant drive more energy into leaf production?
My soil in holds water very well so I never watered them since they sprouted last August.
Should I add some sand or something to make the soil hold less water?
Open to your suggestions
No! NEVER add sand to anything - you’ll get CEMENT!
For drainage issues add Perlite. (NOT Vermiculite, which holds water.)
Also, if your soil is too rich, that’s the reason you’re getting small beets - or anything you’re growing BELOW ground. (Carrots, radishes, potatoes...)
Root crops need Potassium and Phosphate, and little Nitrogen. And the Nitrogen is what’s contributing to your big greens above soil. You want a 0-10-10 or a 5-15-15 composite for root crops. Potassium and Phosphate. Zero or very little Nitrogen.
And I cannot stress this enough: stop worrying about the composition of your soil, unless, of course, you’re growing in rocks. In that case, I have no advice for you, LOL! ;)
Concentrate on fertilizing/feeding your SPECIFIC plants based upon what they need. You will never, EVER get your soil perfectly balanced for anything and everything. Ever. Trust me on that. Never. Ever. Ever.
For raised beds, they should be made up of 1/3 the soil you’re stuck with (or top soil or clean fill), 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat. Works like a charm. Fertilize your plants with what they NEED to thrive. The ‘soil’ is just giving them a place to live and put down roots. :)
No sand! It is impossible to re-create ‘sandy loam’ unless you already have it where you live - like the entire middle 1/3 of the state of Wisconsin which grows potatoes, carrots and onions second only to Idaho - which also has naturally occurring ‘sandy loam.’ You need a Glacier to grind it up perfectly over MILLIONS of years; what do we get? 80-ish years if we’re lucky? Ain’t nobody got time fo dat! ;)
If you promise me anything, promise me that you will never, ever add SAND to your soil. :)
From now on I am going to randomly drop the word SAND into ally posts just for you.
Thanks for the advice.
Will change up my fertilizer for the root veggies
What’s that bat guano stuff good for? Guessing fruit since a lot of bats like fruit.
Bat Guano? Pot Growers swear by it; it's mostly nitrogen for lots of leaves and ample buds, Man! 'Chickety-Doo-Doo' is a good alternative, if you can find it in your area.
I think my plant growing knowledge may be wasted. Heh-Heh. Heh-Heh. She said, 'wasted!'
We have a lot of random 'hemp' growing out here on the farm. Wisconsin used to be a HUGE hemp producer. It's not the good stuff, just the generic rope staple grown in the 1940's. The Mule likes it, though. ;)
Garden-ish Related Projects:
Today I am making a double batch if bird suet and working on my garden bed layout plans.
Also, Beau shoveled me a path to the compost pile, so I’m making a compost run, today...when it gets above ZERO, that is ;)
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