Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 (Vol. 21) June 25

Free Republic | 06-25-2010 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Here in East Central Mississippi the weather has been typical for the middle of June and the official start of summer. Temperatures have been in the mid nineties in the afternoons and high sixties to low seventies overnight with afternoon showers every other day or so. My garden is thriving in this weather and doing very well. I have not had to do any extensive additional watering which is good.

Also this past week I noticed quite a few honey bees up in the garden. I hope they decide to visit often. In the past years my main pollinators have been bumblebees and they are all over the garden also. Things are a buzzing!

I hope all of your gardens are doing well.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

If you have a question about gardening or just an observation to share please feel free to stop by and participate. There are no stupid questions, just honest ones.

[surfer]

I have two rainspot locations that I thought I would put a series of 2-3 barrels each location to allow overflow from one to the other and the gravity feed from barrel into my drip lines...

[tubebender]

I take it you live in a area where you get summer rains? You should probably filter the water going in with 1/4 or 1/8 mesh wire screen. Is the top open so you can dip it out into a bucket and how big is your garden...

[surfer]

Thanks for your help.

Yes I am in Florida...we get a lot of rain.

My garden consists of several beds that are now in Garden bins, hanging pots and 4x4 raised beds. I have drip lines going to each that currently comes off tap water and I want to switch to rain water.

I was thinking I would try to replicate something like this as far as a barrel goes:

http://www.composters.com/rain-barrels/the-rain-catcher-rain-barrel——54-gal_160_10.php

[tubebender]

It is important that you have a good filtration system if you are using micro-drip to avoid plugging the emitters. We have municipal water but it is getting expensive as the city tries to balance the budget by rate increases. Our roof run off in collected and drains over the hill and I have considered purchasing a large water tank to catch that water and pumping out of it for the garden and I have even thought of hand digging a well...

[tubebender]

A couple of filter options for drip systems. I use the inline at every faucet hooked to a drip line Drip Works

[surfer]

Thanks for the tips and links...I will probably have some questions in the upcoming days.

[tubebender]

FYI... This is a typical faucet rig for a drip line in our garden or in the landscaping beds. It consists of a water pressure regulator which I must use because out city water runs at 60 to 80 PSI. Then after that is a 60 degree angle then a windup spring timer (egg timer) and then the inline 160 micron filter to catch the smallest grain of sand that could plug micro drippers and then the 1/2" main line to the bed...

[tubebender]

The 1/2" main line in the foreground with 1/4" line with built in emitters every 6" flowing 1/2 gallon per hour per foot...

Same setup on my wife's Marigold bed just outside the garden fence. Deer don't eat MGs but they will trample them walking by...

[surfer]

looks great...thanks for sharing.

[greeneyes]

Freezing Green Beans is very simple. Get a pot of water boiling throw in the cleaned, trimmed, and snapped beans. After the water returns to boiling, continue for 3 minutes.

Pour into colander to drain. I usually also roll them up in paper towels to make sure to get them as dry as possible. Then put into freezer container or seal a meal type bag. Toss into the freezer.

[greeneyes]

PS. Left out a step: After you have the beans in a colander, plunge them into icewater to prevent overcooking. Then continue as noted in my previous post.

[fanfan]

Thank you!

[Tatze]

Since you're growing potatoes, maybe you have a comment about this. My potato plants are growing 18" to 24" inches above the soil, which from looking at yours is normal. But they are tipping over. What's going on??

[tubebender]

Potato tops grow rapidly until they start forming tubers and then they flop over. I am surprised mine haven’t tipped over yet but are you sure you are giving them enough water? Next year I would recommend you fill the bed to the top with additional potting soil or straw as they emerge and grow...

[Tatze]

I found someone on Craigslist selling 55 gallon barrels for $15. I bought three and converted them to rain barrels. Screened on top, overflow pipe on top, hose spigot on the bottom. Gravity doesn’t work too well for me, mainly because my beds are higher than the barrel. So I use the spigot to fill a watering can.

Does any know of a good pump that uses standard hose fittings that I could hook up to it? I’ve bought really cheap and it doesn’t work... at all. But I don’t want to spend a fortune either.

The biggest problem I have is the algae growing in the water. But one mild rain will fill it up and them some.

[Tatze]

Watering, or knowing when to water, seems to be my weak point. I try to water every morning. By the afternoon, everything looks dry. Then reading up on various veggies, one said water once a week, maybe twice in the heat, but don’t let them dry out. Well, in this heat, they are dried out by the afternoon. Longer morning watering?

And I will work on a drip or irrigation system for next year so I am not watering the leaves as much.

[greeneyes]

You are welcome.

[MaxMax]

My idea is to use a 12v bilge pump capable of 20-24psi powered by a used
battery from a junk yard. Charge the battery using a solar cell. You can connect a 9v water timer and a pressure switch to the line
that will also regulate watering times. It sounds complicated but
the cost is minimal and the unit will be independent of grid power.

You can get a washing machine pressure switch to cut off the pump power
until the timer releases the pressure.

[tubebender]

You want to soak the roots when you water and not sprinkle overhear on the foliage. Even a soaker hose would suffice but the trick is to dig down and see how far the water penetrated the soil. My growing conditions are so different then 95% of the gardeners on these threads due to our cool dry summers and our soil takes and holds moisture extremely well. Our ten day Forecast

[who knows what evil?]

They need more ‘hilling’...add more growing medium or even straw to give the potatoes a place to form...as the long as the plants keep growing, I keep adding more dirt and/or straw...when they blossom, I stop.