Posted on 04/26/2013 12:37:55 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.
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We used JA here for rabbit and chicken feed (and for us) when I was a kid. It didn't get too crazy, and eventually died out.
/johnny
That's the way to go. I use the 5 oz paper Dixie(tm) cups for some stuff, and the 16 oz plastic Solo(tm) cups for other stuff.
Most of my stuff starts life in an egg carton.
Waste not/want not.
/johnny
Peppers, tomatoes and everything else in our starter greenhouse will report to the raised beds, @ 7:30 Sunday morning.
Bank on it !
/johnny
I also use leftover sour cream, cottage cheese and yogurt containers if they’re the right shape. The ones that are smaller at the bottom work best. Also pudding cups and egg cartons too.
Waste not want not indeedy. I resuse them from year to year as long as they’ve still got structural integrity.
I have looked at biointensive, etc, and have rejected it. Yes, one gets more crop from the space, but only in poundage; size suffers considerably. For greens or such for fresh use, that doesn’t really matter; but for anything where size matters, it can be very disappointing.
Example, Jerusalem artichokes: ( http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/jerusart.html)
conventional spacing 36 × 24 lbs/acre: 9791 dry weight/tuber 9.1 grams
versus
close spacing 18 × 12 lbs/acre 16011 dry weight/tuber 5.6 grams 160% higher yield, but 61% smaller tubers.
When things need to be scrubbed and/or peeled, that smaller size is a pain; and it also results in a higher percentage of waste. I’d rather peel & slice one big potato, than 3 or 4 small ones for the same amount on my plate.
You might want to keep an eye on this guy’s tweets. He works with/for Joe Bastardi:
There might be a system with unseasonably cold weather next week with lows in the upper 20’s for your general area next weekend.
And, it’s a model so it might be full of itself too, who knows. I’m keeping a weather eye on it myself though.
Good progress. I am still waiting for the delivery of potatoes that I ordered Feb. 1. I called and talked to a supervisor to ask them to expedite the shipment.
He said they ship according to the climate for our area. I told him that the U.Mo Extension office says to plant potatoes 4/1 to 4/15, and I felt that was probably correct, so perhaps they might want to reconsider their schedule.
IIRC the biointensive stuff is the opposite, sort of, of the SRI stuff.
I overplant greens but not going to do that with anything else this year.
This was the particular tweet that’s giving me pause right now:
https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/327825789364080641/photo/1
Local weather guy says last night’s chill was our last till fall.
Fingers crossed. I have a couple of big plastic drop cloths for painting that would work as a temporary cover.
Really glad you are feeling better. Now you mentioned a foliar spray concoction. Any chance you would share that recipe today? Please?
Also, by reducing the spacing from 36 X 24 to 18 X 12, that is 4 times as much seed planted for less than double the poundage, so it is also actually a huge REDUCTION in production per plant.
It's also starting to get a little hot. The plants are looking a little stressed, so we're starting to put up shade cloths on the ones that are getting full sun all day.
I find the cups on sale at restaurant supply places and buy in bulk, cheap, and reuse the cups as I'm able. Only thing I have to do is cut the drain holes in them.
/johnny
We got a bargain on 20 ounce Dixie-type cups at a remainders store. They have logos for a place that went out of business, so sold for about 50 cents a tube of 100 of them. They work great.
Good luck with that unknown potato. I love finding volunteers.
Speaking of lettuce. That reminds me. My lettuce and spinach experiment. Little Gem lettuce is growing very well in all three of the soils, maybe a slight edge in the Mushroom Compost.
There is a BIG difference between the Compost and the other beds for Spinach. We’ll see how it goes from here, but it is looking like Spinach of the future will be planted in Mushroom compost.
The black seeded Simpson is slightly better in the Compost, and secondary in the Mel’s Mix plus top soil plus Mushroom compost. Dead last is the top soil.
Conclusion: So far the Little Gem seems to do well in a variety of soils, but Spinach definitely prefers the Mushroom Compost, and the leaf lettuce is inferior to Little Gem at this time of the year, or maybe the seed is just not a good batch?
I also use that mix for seed pre-soak and in my compost pile.
It sped up my compost pile by about 6 times.
/johnny
Glad to hear that you're doing better this week. We missed your input last Friday.
Thanks for the link. An interesting site. I’ll be exploring more on it later. Ever since I found out that I could grow some rice in Milk jugs, I have been thinking about trying it. We have a lot of Milk jugs and I am always exploring ways to use them.
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