[Food] Production – Gardening, General pt 2

[PeakOiler]

Yep, and the leaves are good too, taste just like broccoli.

I did know that, RSG! Thanks. I have bought "fresh" at the store... (I just don't know what chemicals were used to grow it!)

I planted about another two dozen broccoli seed in a dozen small re-used planting-cups last weekend, so this round of sprouts should be easier to transplant over a larger area.

[careinke]

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this or not. Mods please feel free to move it.

Anyway, there is a push to have Obama tear up the South lawn of the White house and put in an organic garden. People are making nominations for the "Farmer in Chief." What a great bully pulpit that would be for sustainable farming.

Carrie Ann Little from Washington would be my choice, but I'm biased. Maybe we should nominate some one from Peakoil.com?

Anyway here is the link

Farmer in Chief

Cliff (Start a rEVOLution, grow a garden)

[PeakOiler]

Pineapple update:

That's a yardstick lying across the clay pot. The leaf diameter is over a meter. All five pineapple plants are ok so far.



I'm thinking of buying another fresh pineapple at the store. Guess I'll plant that crown too.

[Ludi]

Wow! Looking good, PeakOiler!

[rattleshirt]

Ludi- Sorry, i hadn't looked at the the thread for a while. 50/50 is fine. richer to 75% shouldn't hurt either. I use kind of weak starter and then put the seedlings into richer mix later. Somewhat similar to Jeavons but less complicated because I use soil blocks.

[frankthetank]

PO'r-

When i was in Florida, they had a bunch of pineapples growing in containers at Fruit and Spice Park (Homestead, FL) and most of them had pineapples growing on them. Thing that surprised me was they weren't that big and had cloth over them (protection from the sun). They had all kinds of different types growing. Place was awesome for a plant lover.

Check out these bananas (i'm over 6ft tall)


They were growing every type of banana imaginable. One of the bananas had a trunk the thickness of an oak tree. It was crazy.

When i was gone, rabbits got to my blueberries. Stripped them really good. No fruit this year! I'm going to plant more and protect them with a taller fence next winter. Oh well. I'm in the process of complete bunny eradication.

[PeakOiler]

Great picture frankthetank! I wish I had some that size but I think I would have to move further south...

Growing bananas is difficult, to say the least, here in Central Texas. Ludi showed us that. Droughts and freezing temperatures are the challenge for bananas here, and will be for a long time.

I still may try growing banana here, it's one of the trees "on the list."

[katkinkate]

Pineapple update:

That's a yardstick lying across the clay pot. The leaf diameter is over a meter. All five pineapple plants are ok so far.

I'm thinking of buying another fresh pineapple at the store. Guess I'll plant that crown too.

They've stopped selling pineapples with their tops attached at my local supermarkets here in Brisbane, Aust. I guess they don't like people growing their own.

[PeakOiler]

They've stopped selling pineapples with their tops attached at my local supermarkets here in Brisbane, Aust. I guess they don't like people growing their own.

Sorry to hear that. Have you asked the store management for a reason why? It would be interesting to learn what the store owners' answers are...

Perhaps some of the fancier restaurants might have some pineapple crowns. Cooks sometimes use them for decoration. They are a cool looking plant.

[frankthetank]

Could be for shipping reasons? Or else they are using the crowns for the new starts?

I'm really interested if my container peaches that have been sitting in my attached garage are still alive. I plan on bringing them into the basement in about a month to let them get a head start. Last year i did the same and the peach came out of dormancy pretty quickly in the 55F basement....

[DoubleD]

Well, I have not posted any status reports/updates for a while so here goes:

Started all the 2009 onion seedlings and a couple more six packs of lettuces about a week and a half ago. They are all germinated and growing on now. This coming weekend, I will be starting the spring broccoli, spring/early cabbages, and some kohlrabi seedlings.

In the greenhouse the chinese cabbages, bunching onions, swiss chard, early spring crop of kale, and lettuces are all doing very well. Need to water them all this weekend with a dilute drench of fish/kelp emulsion tea.

In the main garden beds the over wintered spinach is showing some signs of early new growth. The corn salad is also showing some rejuvenation. We are almost done harvesting from the big overwintered carrot patch for the year - just a few more harvests left in the bed and they it will be ready for cultivation and amendments. The parsnips are about half used up and are at their peak of good flavor now - due to the hard freezes we got in December.

In about two or three weeks, it will be time to remove the compost mulch from the asparagus bed and do a light cultivation and application of fertilizer. The mulch will be applied to another garden bed and dug in. I want the soil bared, cultivated lightly to remove weeds, and fertilized - so that the ground will warm up quicker and the plants will be well fed to produce an abundant early spring crop of asparagus spears. After the annual harvest period is concluded, I will reapply a layer of compost mulch to retain moisture through the summer months and to improve the soil with humous.

In the lean season of garden production right now - but we continue to eat 100% from our garden for all our vegetable and a large portion of our fruit needs. January and February are the months that I use the highest proportion of preserved garden items (frozen and canned) to augment the fresh harvested items.

Happy gardening.

[PeakOiler]

...Happy gardening.

Very cool DD.

Today I noticed the second round of broccoli seed I planted just a week or so ago are starting to sprout already!

[wisconsin_cur]

Ludi- Sorry, i hadn't looked at the the thread for a while. 50/50 is fine. richer to 75% shouldn't hurt either. I use kind of weak starter and then put the seedlings into richer mix later. Somewhat similar to Jeavons but less complicated because I use soil blocks.

Reading this I think that I may have done the same thing in the past (contra my previous post). Started in plain dirt and then to the 50-75% (with some hay still mixed in) during the first transplant.

...

hard to remember...

I must start keeping better notes.

[JJ]

Great picture frankthetank! I wish I had some that size but I think I would have to move further south...

Growing bananas is difficult, to say the least, here in Central Texas. Ludi showed us that. Droughts and freezing temperatures are the challenge for bananas here, and will be for a long time.

I still may try growing banana here, it's one of the trees "on the list."

PO I've managed to grow calvadesh and red velvet bananas to fruit here in Burnet, but it reguires a stay in the greehouse (18 months to fruit). The last large plant I had (12 feet with a huge stalk of bananas on it) we took up to the middle school greehouse two winters ago, it has now morphed into about 20 plants (she'll sell you one if you want.) The red velvet is now about five plants. I gave her all of my pineapples after getting a large fruit of of one last summer, it had pups growing out the sides, told her maybe she'd get a fruit this year. My kid has moved home after graduating college, and filled my greenhouse with furniture, so this winter didn't do much.

[frankthetank]

PO-

I think a greenhouse would work VERY WELL in your climate. Lots of sun, plus mild winter temps. I bet you could easily grow a lot more tropicals with little inputs... Just on those cold nights.

[PeakOiler]

The last large plant I had (12 feet with a huge stalk of bananas on it) we took up to the middle school greehouse two winters ago, it has now morphed into about 20 plants (she'll sell you one if you want.)

I may just take you up on that offer. I'll PM you soon.

I stopped by the Home Depot this afternoon on my way home from work. I bought an additional four bags of topsoil to make up for the lost volume from limestone rocks that I had recently dug up and removed from the rainwater plumbing trench. While at HD, I spoke to the folks in the garden dept., and they told me they'll have banana trees in about two weeks.

They had a lot of grapevine and I want more of those plants too. $6 each. I would love to make some homegrown wines someday. Just need to figure out how to keep the aphids off them without using an oil-based pesticide...

[PeakOiler]

PO-

I think a greenhouse would work VERY WELL in your climate. Lots of sun, plus mild winter temps. I bet you could easily grow a lot more tropicals with little inputs... Just on those cold nights.

I know it would. I could have hg tomatoes year round if I had one. I may just buy one instead of building one. With a full-time job, and other projects going on, buying one may be the best route to get the job done in a timely manner.

[PeakOiler]

Indoor overwintering pepper plants update:

All seven bell pepper, one jalapeno, and one banana pepper plants are still alive. Some have lost many of the their bigger leaves, but most remain.

New stems and leaves are forming, and there's even some blossoms on a few of the plants. A couple of banana peppers are getting bigger. One banana pepper is almost ready to harvest. It will quickly go into the next salad or get stuffed with cheese.

Edit: A reminder that I did harvest over 16 pounds of bell peppers from the seven plants in 2008. Some bell peppers are still frozen in the solar powered freezer. I have used no artificial lighting for over-wintering the pepper plants. Just sunny windows.

Edit: In about 6-7 weeks the pepper plants can be re-transplanted back into the garden.

[Ludi]

Wow, PeakOiler, you are the plant man!

[FireJack]

Anyone know where I can buy certified seed potato in ontario or canada at least. Google just keeps coming up with american sites and unless I have them smuggled across the border its no good.

Yukon gold is what Im primarly looking for but any kind is good really want to practice growing them. My first year was just some garden center potatoes that grew okay but I want to try some good ones this time.