[greeneyes]

Missouri is back to a cold snap. Our warm temp today is a cool 39 degrees. Not much doing with the garden, as we are all still hibernating in the warm house. We did get a little yard cleanup done on the nice days.

Hope everyone is doing well. Have a great weekend. God Bless.

[illiac]

Had an inch of snow last night after several days in the 60’s. East of us - up to 1 1/2 feet. Grass is greening....garden still a dream at this point.

[greeneyes]

Pinging the list.

[Cold Heart]

Daughter just moved to San Antonio, Texas from Oregon. I’ve started a list of food & fiber & other useful plants for her to grow. Aloe, jojoba, agave, yucca. Citrus trees, avacodo. What else does anyone reccomend?

Thanks

[trisham]

We still have 3-4 inches on the ground here in Massachusetts. I long for spring.

[JRandomFreeper]

After all the great weather, and all the work I got done in the big garden, we've got a minor coolish snap in progress. We'll see lows at 34F Sunday and Monday. We've past our average last frost date, and Vernal Equinox.... but I generally wait to put out sensitive stuff until after Easter for this very reason.

I did have to put out 6 tobacco plants, they were just too big for their little pots and were getting root-bound. We'll see if they live. If they don't I've got about 60 more in the cold frame.

Speaking of cold frame. It's packed. Completely packed. My tomatoes want to be planted in the big garden. Doubling the size of it is on the schedule for next fall.

/johnny

[bgill]

It hit 90 a few days ago and should be in the 80s the next few days. Phil was right about winter in Texas. We had a big storm earlier in the week with high winds, rain and small hail but thankfully didn’t do any damage to the plants. However, there was a dead cardinal, poor thing, in the herb bed so guess that was caused by the storm.

I’ve squished a few grubs but don’t know if that’s what’s dining in the garden. Something is killing my tomato and peppers. I had an extra tomato transplant so it got put into a spot where the original had disappeared so we’ll see. The whatever ate those is also feasting on the squash so I replanted but the second planting isn’t coming up as fast as I thought it should. It might be the squirrels since there are holes everywhere. Anyway, the garden is 95% planted. There’s one 3x3’ spot that I’m not sure got seeds or not, lol! Today, I’m seeding up a handful of starter pots for round two of bell peppers since they were the first to disappear.

The herb bed still hasn’t been started and I need to find a couple hanging pots or maybe just wire up a couple on hangers and then it’ll all be done. It was all ready to go until hubby decided to wash the dog beside it and between the two of them demolished the border I had finished putting in two hours earlier, sigh.

[Arrowhead1952]

My garden is coming along really well. The shallots I gave to my neighbor have multiplied to the point that he is giving away bunches to anyone that wants them.

My lettuce and turnips are up and growing. Several tomato plants are close to blooming. The garlic probably needs to be pulled up for use.

I had several volunteer dill plants come up again this year. I planted cucumber seeds this past week.

[fidelis]

Sorry to hear about your continued cold weather. I have a friend in St. Joseph who is both a fellow gardener and fellow nature photographer. She’s itching to do one or the other, but Mother Nature is turning a cold shoulder. Hope things warm up for you all out there.

[ApplegateRanch]

Back to 15-20 below normal for a while again, so even though the pea patch is now ready, the weather isn’t: 12-20F at night is not conducive to germination. :-)

Also getting spate of flakes for the last couple of days, so at least a bit of badly needed moisture is dribbling in.

[fidelis]

Continued warm and sunny here, around 82. We're expecting a slight temp drop this weekend to the high 70's. The garden plots (and the weeds, unfortunately) are busting out. We're getting green beans and just had to harvest the swiss char. We also had to cut back the cilantro. The wife got two new trees for her birthday-- a fig and a calmandi. She also picked up some basil and tomatillo.

On the flower side, every thing is blooming or on the verge of blooming (except the bulbs, snapdragons and zinias). The marigolds I grew from seeds for the first time are almost blooming. Put some color bowls together with salvia, dusty miller, alyssum, and marigold. I also put up some simple 6 foot long plant shelves made of cinder blocks and 2 x 4's. The hummingbirds are starting to visit our big aloe which is now blooming, pretty much abandoning the feeder for now.

We learned a valuable lesson this year: in a raised bed, do no scrimp on quality soil. We used cheapie $5 soil from Lowe's and almost lost our tomatoes and moringa. Wifey replaced all the cheap soil with good soil and mixed in fertilizer and now everyone is looking green again.

[Cold Heart]

Wow, Thanks all for the replies!

[ApplegateRanch]

Saw a news story tonight where libraries across the country are recycling their card catalog cabinets into holders for packets of heirloom veggie seeds.

People “check out” seeds to use in their garden; grow their crops; then replace the seeds with fresh seed from what they grew.

[Augie]

Crazy weather in Central Missouri so far this year. The weather guessers are calling for anywhere from 4” to 10” of snow on Sunday down here in CoMO.

My seed order from Jung’s arrived this week, but I am determined not to rush the planting season this time. The miserable weather we’ve been enjoying lately is augmenting my patience in that regard.

As far as the dill goes, don’t plant it. Pick a spot in the garden where you want to grow it, clean it up but don’t go crazy with that - there’s no need to work the soil much at all, just scratch it up a bit - scatter your seed on the ground in the fall. Around the time you’re setting the garlic is perfect. It will come up the spring when the soil temp is right. Leave a few of the seed heads to ripen on the stalk. It will reseed naturally as long as you leave a few of the seed heads to ripen. Do that and you’ll have dill there every year.

But, considering that last fall has come and gone it’s not too late to sow it in a similar manner this spring. The seed won’t have a chance to get frosted in so you’ll want to do something to keep the heavy rains that are inevitable from washing it away. Scratch up the soil with a heavy rake, toss out the seed, scratch again, then cover it up with a light layer of compost, half an inch at most, and hope you don’t get any toad-strangler rains before it comes up.

[Darth Reardon]

This morning I was out in the garden and watched a wasp pluck some sort of worm off a tomato and proceed to, well, I don't know what it was doing. Looked like it was trying to chew its head off. Whatever was happening, Mr Worm's last day was not a good one. Wish I'd had the camera.

A small patch of kale.

A solitary celery plant. Does anything take longer to grow than celery?

A pot full of onions.

White Cloud cauliflower. After harvesting the main head, it keeps throwing up lots of little snack side heads. I'll plant that variety again.

[tubebender]

Sorry I’m late but I have been in mental rehab since Flickr changed their format and I can’t find the “Image Location” for photo posting in HTML on FR. Does anyone have a workaround for that?

[XenaLee]

We just had a helluva hail storm here in Dallas early this am. It left millions of little balls of ice all over everything, and shredded the new leaves of most of the plants outside. Sounded like the end of the world...lol. And it just had to happen days AFTER the first day of spring, right?

[tubebender]

Things look better as the days get longer…

Turning the soil for some flowers…

A couple of views of the cover crop of Oats and Vetch…

[Free Vulcan]

We have had the worst March I can remember in at least 15 years. It hasn't gotten above 50, and today we have 3 inches of snow on the ground. Next Thursday is the first day it's supposed to be above 50. Last year it warmed in mid-Feb and was able to plant by the first week of March. We were mowing grass by now. No matter what the year I'm usually in by the 20th.

Told greeneyes I'd post this a few weeks back, but as you all know life intrudes. When I get the chance I'll also put this stuff up on a webpage. At any rate I wanted to share what I do for starting plants. Have been doing it for over 10 years now, and thru trial and error have grown to understand the factors needed to get good plants going, but also how to do it cheap with little capital which will be necessary in a more survival oriented situation. Since this is a long post I thought I'd wait till the end of the thread to post.

First thing in starting plants is to understand the priorities of what seedlings need in the indoor environment. I will list them with comments in the order that seems to be the most important:

• Heat – Although some spring seeds like cabbage and onions can germinate in cooler temps, I have found the best temp range to start most garden seedlings is 75-80F. I try to maintain this temp as much as possible.
• Humidity – This is a close second. Whether in the greenhouse or not, it is best to simulate those conditions by keeping a humidity level in excess of 70%, and lowering it temporarily only occasionally to ward off mold.
• Water – Starts need a cycle of good moisture followed by a complete drying of the top of the soil and repeat. This allows their root system to develop well while keeping the diseases away associated with too much watering. Some people do bottom watering, I myself do top watering except for the celery. In short, the best water to use is rainwater. All others tend to crust and leave minerals except for distilled, which will work in a pinch.
• Soil – You can use a number of mediums to grow plants. The main thing is you want something that doesn't get hard and crust. Some use a light vermiculite or similar mixture for fast growth then transplanting from the little plastic divider trays. I don't like to transplant till they hit the garden, so I use a mixture of 4 parts garden soil, 2 parts compost, and 1 part sand put into flats with no dividers that provide more than enough room and nutrients for each plant. In a SHTF situation, I can get all those without going to the store if need be.
• Containers – You can use anything for containers, the main things that it is cheap, and if not, durable, and set up for good draining and will hold soil without washing it out. I build my flats out of free pallets, some of my oldest ones are 10 years old and just starting to get the point where they are unusable.

Now to some pics of my setup.

First the flats. As I said I build them out of pallet wood 1X4's and 2X4's from the slats and spines so the materials are free. The 1X4's are 16” and the 2X4's are 10 inches. Here's an exploded view of how they fit together and a final version. I nail them with 1 1/2” gripper nails which run me about $2 a pound...cheap.

Next I take landscape matting and cut it to 14”X18” pieces. I can't tell you the cost of a roll of landscape matting because these I've used for over 10 years and they are still in great shape. In fact I've still got most of the original roll. After each use I wash them in hot soapy water, dry them on the line, fold and pack them away till the next year. They do a great job of holding the dirt but letting water thru.

As far as the soil, watering, heat, light, and humidity, as I said I use as 4:2:1 soil/compost/sand mixture. It does an excellent job of feeding the plants while staying loose and friable. I buy the play sand now but can get it at the creek if need be and sift it.

Because I keep the temp so high, I don't get damp off, which allows me to topwater and not even sterilize the soil. If you do need to sterilize, what I do is put a couple of capfuls in each bucket of rainwater, and sterilize dry soil in stainless steel 8 qt bowls in the oven at 300F until the soil reaches about 175 on the oven thermometer, which is usually an hour or so baking time. You can also use a double boiler to steam sterilize on the stove to the same temp. That will kill most viruses and weed seeds

I store my soil in tubs, keep it outside till I need it (some tubs can't take the cold and will get brittle, others won't) because the freezing temps break the clods down so their easy to mash. I then mix using three very large long and flatter tubs and shifting 1/2 the mixture of two to the other one 3 times.

Watering as I said is from rainwater only unless I run out then I used distilled. I usually collect it in the fall and in the winter when I can get it in 5 gallon plastic buckets. You can often get these for cheap or free from Walmart, Caseys, or any retail business that makes donuts or pastries with icing. I use a small 1 qt watering can with really small holes to as to not wash the seeds/seedlings away when I water. Most garden stores have them.

As far as heat, I have three sources. I have a south facing window that puts sunlight on half the table. I also have 4 grow lights that I got at Walmart, two for each mini-table that I have. I put smaller tables on top of the big one which are 4X4' and will fit 9 flats with overhang. If I remember I cover them with a garbage bag or plastic sheeting before I put my flats down, but this isn't necessary.

The mini-tables are made of 2X4's built into a frame and covered with plywood. I drill into the sides, and use political sign wires (free!) bent and cut into a specialized U shape that holds the lights that are on 1X2's. Third is a small space electric heater if needed when the sun doesn't show for a number of days. It dries things out fast so I might run it for an hour at a time under the plastic.

Light as I said is a combo of grow lights and sun. I keep the grow lights on for 16 hours a day or so and have them about 6 in. above the plants. I fashioned my political wires such that I can slide the lights around as need be.

The plastic was the final variable that I nailed down a couple of years ago that made the difference between good plants and excellent plant. I cut and draped a piece of roll sheet plastic for covering windows and drape it over the whole setup, using the political wires for support. It locks the heat in and keeps the humidity up.

The last pic is of my hardening off table with all the cabbage family stuff. A couple of weeks before plants need to be set out, the first week is best for bringing out under the plastic and getting them used to cooler temps and less humidity. I compensate the first couple of days with more water, then taper that off to harden them to dryer conditions, but not to the point they wilt.

Remember that plants inside cannot take full sun, so the next week I'll will slowly start them in the evenings to an hour of full sun near sunset and the gradually ad ½ hour a day. If the weather allows I'll let them stay out overnite to get used to the high and low temps, but not too extreme of a variation. I like to keep them out of below-40F temps that week before they go into the ground for spring stuff and below-55F for summer.

In the end, my setup produces great plants, but even if I bought everything new it might cost me $100 and last me for years and years. The grow lights are the most expensive part and the only thing you have to buy new. img src=”http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5252/5451875175_e05fde4341_m.jpg” hspace=”5”/p

[tubebender]

A local wildlife group installed this web cam on a Eagle Nest on Humboldt Bay

Eagle Nest Camera