[Food] Production – Gardening, General pt 2

[SpringCreekFarm]

Posting to this board is really challenging these days. Yes I've deleted my cookies and dropped the www out of the URL.

Anyway....

I would check for aphids and early blight first.

My brandywines had that virus a few years ago and they looked really messed up and distorted. Not at all like your pics Jotapay.

For aphids use soap based killer.

For blight use copper based.

Don't rip them out. They are still very young and may recover. My 2 cents.

Ludi: Thanks for that link. I've been looking for that one.

[frankthetank]

If they were mine id leave them. They'll come back strong once u get some good lasting heat and humidity.

[Grifter]

If you smoke tobacco wash your hands before handling tomatos because mosaic virus can come from that too.

I have successfully grown tomatos outdoors in 2 seperate years in mid to southern England. I always make sure to wash my hands before handling but not from experience, only from something I read by John Seymour.

[RedStateGreen]

Oh, man. My mom wiped out a whole tomato patch smoking out in my back yard one year.

It doesn't look too bad, they might fight back. Get resistant plants next year, or get rid of the roomies.

[kpeavey]

I smoke like a chimney an never lost a tomato plant to a mosaic virus. Tobacco mosaic is not the only mosaic virus out there. It can be indigenous to your soil and be unrelated to the cancer guy. Consider dragging one of your plants in to the local Extenstion office, see what the Master Gardeners have to say.

[Jotapay]

Thanks for the help with the tomato plants, guys. After a few days of "wait and see", they look noticeably worse today. The worst leaves are very shriveled and so dry that they crumble when you touch them. The spotty infection is spreading to the top-most, previously untouched leaves now. I think these guys are goners. I'm a bit surprised how fast the plants are deteriorating.

On a better note, the squash and corn I planted about 11 days ago appears to be very happy and has poked some very strong shoots out of the soil today.

I may get some super-large containers and try to plant the tomatoes in a different area, just to get some in this season. In a container, does anyone know the recommended depth for tomatoes? I know the roots for a tomato plant are massive in size, so it seems to me a container-grown tomato would have issues right out of the gate since the container limits the space available to the root system.

[frankthetank]

my strawberries

[bromius]

Frank> Good luck w/ the strawberries. I have to wait until June to get local ones

This year is my first attempt at starting plants for my garden indoors. I'm waiting on some heirloom seeds I ordered before I load up my big tray. However, I was getting a bit antsy, wanting to grow things already so I started some herbs (cilantro, parsley, mint) and some lettuce from seed I bought at the hardware store on impulse. From what I've read lettuce is pretty cold tolerant, so hopefully I'll be shuffling those out into the garden just as the other seeds, which hopefully will arrive soon, are starting to sprout.

The setup


I'm using my southfacing window, and using two 2-foot tube fluoros to at the same time to make sure they get enough light.

The lettuce

[PeakOiler]

Five of six strawberry plants:



I've harvested a few already. Delicious! The one seen in the foreground will be ready in a few more days.

Today I planted about 60 corn seeds, transplanted a few black bean sprouts, direct planted more black beans, and harvested more spinach.

[RedStateGreen]

My Meyeri lemon has blossoms all over it. Very pretty.

I have everything covered up as its supposed to snow tomorrow, and I'll need to bring in the potted plants in a bit.

[PeakOiler]

Nice, PeakOiler! I was happily surprised that my strawberries came back after I left them in window box type pots all winter in the atrium. No fruit yet, but they look healthy.

My mandarin has tiny green fruit on it! I'll take a picture sometime soon. There are still some blossoms, too, which is awesome because my whole greenhouse smells like orange blossoms. Delicious.

Thanks Shanny.

Citrus blossoms emit an awesome scent, attract pollinators, which helps pollination of other plants. Be sure to help support those branches that get fruit on them. I'm still trying to correct (straighten) the bowed trunks of a few citrus that I didn't support more when they were weighed down with fruit.

[careinke]

Last year I introduced my sister and husband to square foot gardening.

normal_IMG_4971.jpg (79.88 KiB) Viewed 261 times

I think they have taken it to heart.

The PVC square foot grids are actually the watering system, they have them for all the beds.

[PeakOiler]

My Meyeri lemon has blossoms all over it. Very pretty.

I have everything covered up as its supposed to snow tomorrow, and I'll need to bring in the potted plants in a bit.

Very cool, RSG. Is the tree in your house?
Did you get a lot of snow?

[Dawn]

I would like opinions about a few greenhouses that I've been looking at. I can't seem to find a local shop that sells them other than lowes, and they are way more money than I want to spend. I've tried craigs list and still nothing.

So what do you guys think of...
10x12
8x6
6x10

Any input would be appreciated as I really am going to need to move some plants out soon. And it's way too early here to plant most of what I have. TIA

Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is usually very windy here, so that's another concern. I'm not sure any of these are sturdy enough.

[canuckinczech]

Hello all, I haven't posted here yet so, if I missed something please forgive me.

This year I have been focusing on streamlining the garden in a few ways;

#1, Since I live in an urban environment, space constraints are an issue, so get as much in pots as I can.
#2, Time is also a constraint, which means making the garden as maintanance free as possible.
#3, Reducing the gardening costs down to just the seed.

The first project was to set up a vertical potting system. I have set up a ladder system which will be mounted on the house wall, which is south facing. The walls are thick stone which provides excellent accumulated radiant heat. I will start with growing peppers, some leafy green such as NZ spinach, and also cherry tomatos. There is a substantial overhang which should keep blight at bay. Have hooked up a drip system with tank up to the eaves trough, although, having a problem figuring a drip timer without using power . All the materials used have been re-cycled including the rubber piping and lumber, pardoning a bit of propane to burn holes in the cups for the drip feed .

The next project is growing larger variety tomatos upside down. I found some old wire lampshades and will line them with garden fabric and the use the same rainwater tank to feed them as well. Has anybody out there had any success growing other veg. upside down?

[PeakOiler]

Rats! After I saw an onion begin to form a flowering stem, I figured it was time to pull it from the garden:



See the flowering stem? (I broke it off and laid it across the washed and partially-peeled bulb). The plant got a "bull neck" as you can see, and the bulb didn't get very big. So what went wrong? I suspect timing was the problem:

Growing Onion

Flowering -- Abnormal For Onions; Normal For Garlic

Most folks want to grow onion bulbs NOT onion flowers! What causes bulb onions to send up flower stalks? Flowering of onions can be caused by several things but usually the most prevalent is temperature fluctuation. An onion is classed as a biennial which means it normally takes 2 years to go from seed to seed. Temperature is the controlling or triggering factor in this process. If an onion plant is exposed to alternating cold and warm temperatures resulting in the onion plant going dormant, resuming growth, going dormant and then resuming growth again, the onion bulbs prematurely flower or bolt. The onion is deceived into believing it has completed two growth cycles or years of growth in its biennial life cycle so it finalizes the cycle by blooming. Flowering can be controlled by planting the right variety at the right time. Use only transplants that are pencil-sized or smaller in diameter when planting in early spring or always plant seed, NEVER transplants, in early fall in Texas Zones III - V (USDA Zones 8 and 9).

I didn't bend the leaves over soon enough I guess. Perhaps I can do that with the remaining onions and see what happens. I'm still learning...

Any tips from more experienced gardeners would be welcome.

Edit: What I also forgot to do was to make a note in my electronic Garden Logbook of when I planted the onion seed. If I had made that note, it would have helped with the timing issue in the future.

[nocar]

Dawn, about your greenhouse, are those dimension in feet or meters? If in feet I would certainly go för the largest. A larger greenhouse means less violent temperature fluctuations, which can be a big problem. You do not want to cook your veggies until after you pick them.

[Ludi]

I've not had any success with bulbing onions, PeakOiler. I think it's a latitude/day length thing.

[RedStateGreen]

My Meyeri lemon has blossoms all over it. Very pretty.

I have everything covered up as its supposed to snow tomorrow, and I'll need to bring in the potted plants in a bit.

Very cool, RSG. Is the tree in your house?
Did you get a lot of snow?

It's inside right now just because I haven't put it back out. We hardly got any snow, just enough to make the grass wet.

It's in the mid 60's right now.

[PeakOiler]

Well, at any rate, I cut up the onion bulb (about 58 grams) and most of the flowering stem, (but not the flower bud itself), and added about half of the diced onion to a skillet of pork chops, along with some bell peppers, garlic, soy sauce, and water, simmering as I type this.