Posted on 06/14/2013 12:44:34 PM PDT by greeneyes
What is the exact Romaine that your neighbor is growing?
We just had a passion flower bloom, Hubby is going to take the fruits and plant the seeds elsewhere. Several have come up right in the middle of the blueberry patch.
We are enjoying our gardening too. It is fun.
I would think a squash would grow better in a container since it wouldn’t be on the ground where bugs could get to it. Would that be right or not?
Well, the rain kept me out of the garden, but I needed to recover from Father’s day celebration.
All that horse manure. Reminds me of the joke about two little boys. One is an optimist and the other is a pessimist.
Course the pessimist was pretty disgusted about all that manure in a room. But the optimist was happily diggin around in it, and when asked why, he said, well with all this manure, there has to be a pony around here somewhere.LOL
I lost 4 sqash plants, lots of limbs on tomato plants and some of the sunflowers. My garden is a disaster site.
I have NEVER in the 50+ years I've lived here seen winds so high. The winds dumped out some of my starter pots on the nursery table and I picked up empty pots at my neighbor's house across the street.
/johnny
I just pull them up and burn them and replant.
I wish there was a resistant summer squash variety. My winter squash are all c. moschata which seems to be pretty bullet proof so far. Especially the seminole pumpkins and rumbos.
I did not ask about that, so I have no idea which romaine she grows! The kind we purchased was what was available at our Lowes.
How wonderful to have a lovely passion flower, and also some volunteers!
Darlin’ helped me rig up a longer hose yesterday so I don’t have to haul water in the water can any more to the outlying plants!
“We had a brief thunderstorm yesterday morning and I observed 75MPH+ winds. My garden is a disaster site.”
I am shocked to hear that. Yesterday’s weather was fine here, easy trip to airport, but the time coming back for me put me in 5 pm traffic. If I had bad weather then, I would have killed myself as that was testy in that traffic coming out of Houston. It was perfectly clear weather.
So, that weather you had didn’t come south to here. Did some kind of front going through, cause your bad weather? If not, what factor(s) do you think caused that?
I am truly sorry your garden was damaged, as you need that garden.
The conditions are just correct for early morning t-storms here right now. The one we had this morning died out by about 7:30 or 8.
/johnny
Johnny, do you know the name of the ones you grow? That picture you sent of yours, looked like the center was huge and that would be good ones to get.
I see some sunflowers grow to two feet, and there is a bush one, but many of them are 5 feet, 6 feet, 7 feet, 8 feet. I had no idea sunflowers would grow that tall.
Do any of you have a favorite type?
They breed true enough for my needs in subsequent years.
Yes, they grow tall. Some of mine are over 6' tall.
/johnny
greeneyes, what type do you grow?
Johnny, the heirloom seed store has this Russian one - does this one sound like yours? The center is really big.
“Black Russian Sunflower - (Helianthus annuus)
Plants can be 12 - 15’ tall and blooms are 8” across. Petals are a bright golden yellow and centers can be quite dark or quite light. Seeds are black and striped.
The wild sunflower is native to North America but commercialization of the plant took place in Russia. It was only recently that the sunflower plant returned to North America to become a cultivated crop. Sunflower was a common crop among American Indian tribes throughout North America. Evidence suggests that the plant was cultivated by Indians in present-day Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Some archaeologists suggest that sunflower may have been domesticated before corn.”
The ones you saw pictures of are the snack hybrids.
/johnny
This Russian one is 50 seeds for $3.00. I would think your Russian bird seed would be a big bag - right?
/johnny
There is a company that does nothing but “invent” sunflowers for specific purposes. They have many hybrids of sunflowers, and the ones with the most oil have the designation of “High Oleic”, and not the Convection ones. The High Oleic are used to make oil for public consumption.
There are two High Oleic that have the highest oil and these are the Sierra and the Teton. I am now searching for these as they are not sold on the company page.
I have found a Texas company that is listed as having High Oleic sunflowers from that hybrid company and am searching among their many, many, many sunflower seeds to find the right ones. If I can't find those actual names (this Triumph company has a lousy way to search), I'll choose one of their High Oleic group or keep searching for those two specific names - I don't know which I will do - it may depend on when I get fed up with the process and just choose a High Oleic one on their website, regardless of the name.
If one is looking for the oil, it makes no sense to buy just any old sunflower when there are some actually bred to produce more oil. Have read how to render the oil from the flowers and it looks like my Family Grain Mill would work well to crush the seeds, making a mass of glop. There is heating in the oven in this process, too, to loosen the oil. Still don't have a good way for the final pressing unless I want to spend from $150 to $200 for an actual oil press. I'll find a way. Now I know a lot about sunflowers and their oil and getting it out of them.
Black seed sunflower seeds of any heirloom or hybrid, has more oil than a multicolored seed. The multicolored seeds are “Convection” ones which means people eat them. The black ones are meant to plant or for birds to eat.
A very high oil black seed (Very High “Oleic”) hybrid is number HTF24N40. Swell, buy that to plant. No, you can't find it to buy. None of those numbered ones can I find to buy - you would have to call a big dealer and order enough for a field of them. Those dealers have no way to buy on their page. I suppose that's because it's a big deal to buy that much and takes some time to set up the delivery, etc., etc..
I'm still looking for a good choice.
More tomatoes than you can eat—yayy!!! I’m certain that your neighbors and local churches would be happy to relieve you of the extra produce. (Our minister came right over and picked up our extra squash and bean plants started from seed, and it it a total gas to help to sustain the community!) One question: can you reuse those fabric bags after the first season?
Yes, use them over and over. Perhaps you read my post that I have ordered more five gallon ones since I think that is the most useful. For a root food, the bag needs to be deeper than a five gallon. I have sweet potatoes in a ten gallon one. I put the potting soil mix in that one, planted the potatoes and carried it myself to the middle of the garden so I can pick that one up with ten gallons in it and it didn't kill me.
The Dirt Bag brand is cheaper than the other one on Amazon. Put “Dirt Bag” in search there and you'll see all the sizes. Note the straps don't start on bags until the five gallon one. Then, the really larger ones, like that ten gallon, does not have straps.
I have large containers by Hydrofarm to place on the deck and grow tomatoes and plants that need a lattice. Here they are on Amazon at the link below. I'll have a couple of large size tomatoes in one of these for fall.
Because I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not doing a huge amount of anything - but doing enough to find out if container gardening this way will work.
When it rains or when you water, the excess water will automatically drain out of the Dirt Bag.
The big containers are watered from the side and the water goes into the bottom and is wicked up to the plant roots as there is a gizmo in the bottom of that container to make it work that way. It says you don't have to water plants as often this way. I'll know how that works later when I get tomato plants in there.
Here is the link to the large containers:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NBZDNG/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here’s the thing: I need to grow food but my body cannot bend over more than three times or I likely can’t walk the next day due to the pain in the lower back. Plus, I think there are more plant problems and work if the plants are in the ground and I’m not dealing with the ground since that is way down from me and I’m not going down there.
If I need to deal with a plant that is in a bag sitting in the garden, I pick up the bag and put it on a table and deal with it and put it back.
I can deal with the big containers on the deck just by sitting in a comfortable padded chair beside the container and do it if it required me to be down to the container. The containers have wheels on one side and a handle on the other side so I can easily move the containers around the deck.
I’ve also got bird netting to put over the bags in the garden and netting to put over the ones on the deck.
Today, I saw a big, fat cardinal eating the insides out of one of my tomatoes. I chased him away and had to pitch the tomato. That won’t happen when I get this new set up going. I’ve said before I’m sick of my seeds getting murdered by squirrels and birds and I surely don’t want them murdering the ripe tomatoes.
I will get control of that garden with the right heirloom foods growing. It’s either the squirrels, birds, or garden I can’t do, or it’s ME with a better set up I can make produce. I own that property and those squirrels and birds do not and I can make that outside work for me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.