Posted on 05/09/2014 10:16:25 AM PDT by rightly_dividing
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Have you seen any difference? One of my seed sources said I should give it a try, especially with beans.
I had 3/4” rain yesterday.
I planted the Deck Corn seed inside and under the grown lamp the first week of March. They are 4+ feet tall which is as tall as they get (some are smaller as they were planted later). They do make regular size corn ears, usually two per plant. I have 13. If these produce corn, I’ll plant more of them next year. This year is basically a test container garden to see what works and what doesn’t in a container.
My parents had a large garden including corn and I didn’t see the corn plant life cycle - instead, I was usually sitting in a tree with plums/peaches/figs from the garden, reading a book.
Thanks for posting your rain amount. I still have this forecast for Monday night: “Chance of rain 80% with rainfall amounts near 1.2 in. possible.”
You’re right about the garlic coming back. I’ve got elephant garlic I forgot about in a raised bed this year. I planted out one clove (little segment) and it made a beautiful plant for spring last year. I promptly forgot about it. Last fall hubby came in the house one day and asked me if I knew I had garlic in the raised bed. I went out to look an each of the cloves of the new bulb had sprouted as well. So it’s a ‘bunch of garlic’ now. I haven’t harvested it yet though. I’m not expecting anything really big at this point due to crowding.
I’d go ahead and plant the stuff with sprouts. Keep it watered every day since it’s already warm where you are. Just until it gets a decent root system. When it dies back in a few months, harvest the little bulbs. They probably won’t be a decent size but you can save them for Oct if you like. Eat the smallest ones and save the biggest ones for planting. We don’t always have the necessary discipline to do that at my house though LOL
How interesting, Silentgypsy! I just did a quick search, but did not find good instructions. Found home made grow bags made from garbage sacks. Saw references to how good denim is for container material, but no instructions! Don’t do a big search, but if you run across it, I’m sure I’m not the only curious one here about it!
I have eight tomatoes of various types I must transplant into large containers. I’ve got the containers but no potting soil mix. I have to go to Lowes, either tomorrow or Monday and I’ll get the soil.
The rain or wind yesterday bent the large Sweet Million tomato plant and broke the main branch. The many flowers are on a branch below that break so that should be okay. I put another restraint on the plant to hold it up but I hated to see that break. I thought it was secure plus the trunk is strong, but it still broke. :o(
The instructions online were pretty sketchy and involved sewing the legs closed on the ends after cutting the legs off and reinforcing the end seams substantially to prevent loss of the planting medium. I couldn’t see the sort of platform they used but I envisioned putting on my old skateboard. (I donated the good skateboard—rats. I hope nobody broke a bone while using it.) Will scope it out to see if I find better instructions. Maybe using different search engines will help.
Copied, pasted and filed.
Great! I’m glad to see you are getting some ideas. Keep us informed on your progress.
Before we were married, my wife’s balcony was a masterpiece of small gardening. She even had a small water feature. Container plants, hanging baskets, plants on stands, a chair and tiny table for coffee in the mornings, there was no wasted space.
I'm sending this to the garden list I have, for a reason. Some time ago, I present material here about White Fuseau Jerusalem Artichokes Sunflowers. If you recall, these are perennial and replicate under the ground and if not in their own separate plot, will multiply and cover your whole garden. The tubers underground are like potatoes and are cooked the same way they are. If you had no food, you would still have plenty of these to eat forever once you plant some starts.
Now, there is another one called Sunchoke, but those tubers are gnarled with bumps and difficult to clean and peel. The White Fuseau are straight tubers.
When I wrote about these, there was no place to get them at that time, the places were sold out. I found two places a couple of weeks ago and now one of those is sold out (Oikos Tree Crops). I just ordered 6 at the link below, Norton Naturals. They are $1.00 each. There is a flat shipping rate of $7.70 for an order under $20.
http://www.nortonnaturals.com/product-p/jawf.htm
The problem I have now is where to plant them as all the actual ground I have is covered with landscaping material to keep weeds from growing. Don't tell me to build a bed because I can't do that by myself (I have said numerous times I need a husband for free labor). Anyway, it would have to be very deep for tubers so that method is out. I'm going to have to pick a place and cut out the landscaping material and plant the tubers. I really don't care if they multiply under the material since nothing is growing there anyway. As long as I have enough area cleared of the material so I can get to them, there will be tubers to be had. Apparently, they are so strong they can grow/push themselves into any type of soil, clay or whatever.
These White Fuseau yellow sun flowers grow to 6-10 feet. The yellow flowers are not like the enormous sun flowers with much seed - these are smaller and I don't think there is seed in the middle but I'm not sure about that - no description says there are seeds in it and the dark centers are small (at least looks that way in pictures). I'll figure out where to plant these six tubers.
If some of you have planted White Fuseau, please tell me/us about your experience with these and correct any error if I misinterpreted any information I got from this research about the actual planting process. I know for sure they have to have a separate plot from the rest of the garden or they will take it over.
I don’t know if Illinois has something like this, but in San Antonio, there is some group that helps people, especially seniors, to set up small space vegetable gardens on their patio. It was amazing to see how many things they planted on a little patio corner. I don’t recall the name of the group as I saw it on the local news several years ago.
Not sure of your locale, but here is the planting calendar I (mostly) use. The planting times are for Central TX, but the moon phases for each month of when to weed, plant above ground cropes, and root crops would be the same for anyplace.
I don’t keep a journal, but it seems like above ground crop seeds germinate faster, and come up better by moon planting.
As for root crops, I couldn’t really say, as I can’t see the roots on my potatoes.or carrots right now, but the tops look good.
http://www.fanicknursery.com/Downloads/2014/Calendar_2014.pdf
Did it break all the way off? I had one last year that broke, and just hasd a little bit of the skin part of the stem making contact. I fit it back together, and wrapped it with scotch tape, and it grew back together, and grew till December when frost killed it.
The other thing is to try to root that part that broke off. Just stick it in some wet potting soil.
Not that my pictures were that great, but Sprint has discontinued picture mail. I wish you could see my tromboncino squash. Do those male flowers ever do anything besides look like a fuzzy weird thing? I have squash but no actual yellow male flowers. Darned Sprint, I can't post a picture to show you..
I will have to master the camera on my tablets and try to upload pics with that. haruumph.
Excellent pickings. Makes me hungry for a big salad. My eggplant seedlings are only five inches high. I am jealous
“I had one last year that broke, and just hasd a little bit of the skin part of the stem making contact. I fit it back together, and wrapped it with scotch tape”
I thought I remembered your doing something with a broken tomato - I’m going out there right now and scotch taping it. Be back in a minute.
As for journal, good idea, but with 400 or so varieties of tomatoes to oversee (along with everything else); I can't see that happening. :-)
Okay, tomato is taped together - it still had that skin connection on one side.
“Do those male flowers ever do anything besides look like a fuzzy weird thing?”
Every fuzzy thing is a flower before it blooms.
I just found this:
“The flowers you are seeing are likely to be all male flowers. Squash, melons, and cucumbers produce male flowers first and are then followed by female flowers which often form on side or “lateral” branches. Be patient and they will appear.”
I have two flowers which I would call on the main stalk. I have another flower that should be open by tomorrow that I would call being on a lateral branch. There is nothing growing under the one on the lateral branch and nothing growing under the other two flowers.
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