View Full Version : What are you growing?
Last year was my first year of any sort of vegetable gardening. This year I am really trying to learn and develop the skill because not will it only save money and produce a better product over store bought, it is a necessary SHTF skill. So this year I have 4 celebrity, 2 better bush and one husky cherry tomato plant going. I have two sugar baby watermelons growing from seed. I had some old potatoes that I planted mid January. Man did those potato plants take off but the unfortunate and rare late Feb early March deep freezes ended them. The potatoes were more of an experiment just to see what happens instead of throwing bad potatoes away.
This season I am growing from smartpots and the ground in two 8x2 sections. Next season I plan to build some raised beds and am in the process of converting 7.62x54R spam can crates into planting pots. The crates already have handles and just need to be built deeper and with legs.
So my question is what are yall growing this year and in what type of garden set up? If you are one of those people with a sexy looking vegetable garden by all means please post pics :D
We have 3 raised garden boxes. We will have 9 total tomato plants of a few varieties. Last year we had a plant of a cherry tomato sized breed that is bright orange when ripe that produced like crazy and was so good to just sit and eat! We'll do that one again. We will have one zucchini plant again (one is definitely enough), probably a squash of sorts, spinach, lettuce, bell pepper, onion, cucumber, cilantro, oregano, parsley, basil, I'm probably missing something. I am going to dabble with potatoes this year in barrels. Apparently planting in a barrel or a tire and then continuing to mound dirt up on the root system as it proliferates is high yield in a smaller space than the conventional rows of potato method like all the farms I grew up around in ID. I don't know, we'll see. I have never tried to grow potatoes and I thought that I should seeing as how I grew up in ID and it is arguably the single best crop for sustenance gardening due to their caloric AND vitamin density and long storage life. I also just built and planted a ton of strawberries in a rain gutter planter system I saw on the internet. I've got over 55 linear feet of strawberries on the side of my garage now, both June-bearing and ever-bearing varieties. I hope it works, my kids (4 and 2 yrs old) will eat a plat of 2 lbs of strawberries in an afternoon right after coming home from Costco to buy them. It beats candy and junk so hopefully I can satiate the addiction.
This is the method we use for our gardens. Last year was our first year in a home of our own, thus our first year growing and it was very effective:
http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027
If you're interested in the rain gutter thing you can google "strawberries in rain gutters" and you'll get a million pics on google images. I hope it works.
RE your potatoes, just replant them. If you have so long a growing season that you started in Jan you can easily get another crop started this year. In the Rockies they thrive with the last frost often not until mid to late May.
Yeah I can probably replant the potatoes but since they died I am using that space for tomatoes and sugar baby water melon. In that short month that they grew 24 inches tall after dying from the freeze I was able to dig up 40 or so potatoes from 10-14 plants ranging from marble to golf ball size. Right now I am seeing if the larger ones will put off little eyes and if so I will just find a place to replant.
The strawberries in rain gutters sounds and looks really cool, I might have to give this one a try.
I just got home and while checking up on my avocado tree that is only 4 1/2ft tall it has put off roughly 30-50 avocados. Now we will just have to see how many fall or die off.
Eighteen 32 ft. rows stretched out over a 70 ft. wide garden. I usually plant 20 tomato plants (Big Daddy and a couple more types this year) in two rows, one row of Pic-n-pic crookneck squash, two rows of sugar snap type peas, six rows of Silver Queen corn, two rows of a sugar enhanced corn for the squirrels (who stripped 4 of my 6 rows of Silver Queen last year){I have a plan with this}, one row of two different types of long cucumbers, no beans or onions this year, two rows of King Arthur and Super Heavyweight bell peppers; two rows containing Ancho, Jalapeno, Big Guy and Sweet Heat hot peppers. I have a couple eggplants slated for the squash row but somehow I am missing a row of something. When corn comes out, broccoli seeds go in two rows and will be thinned out to at least six rows. Three years ago I had an entire bathtub full of broccoli heads soaking in salt water and the wife was mad!
Eighteen 32 ft. rows stretched out over a 70 ft. wide garden. I usually plant 20 tomato plants (Big Daddy and a couple more types this year) in two rows, one row of Pic-n-pic crookneck squash, two rows of sugar snap type peas, six rows of Silver Queen corn, two rows of a sugar enhanced corn for the squirrels (who stripped 4 of my 6 rows of Silver Queen last year){I have a plan with this}, one row of two different types of long cucumbers, no beans or onions this year, two rows of King Arthur and Super Heavyweight bell peppers; two rows containing Ancho, Jalapeno, Big Guy and Sweet Heat hot peppers. I have a couple eggplants slated for the squash row but somehow I am missing a row of something. When corn comes out, broccoli seeds go in two rows and will be thinned out to at least six rows. Three years ago I had an entire bathtub full of broccoli heads soaking in salt water and the wife was mad!
Dang that is a nice sounding crop, something that I would like to do myself but space is minimal at this time. It is funny you bring up those pesky squirrels. My good friends parents purchased land a year or two ago, his father hates squirrels and was destined to remove all of them. One day I was over at his parents house and he opened the freezer and there was some 10-15 frozen squirrels. One squirrel too little as there was one who always got away. Most of our trips out to his parents land yielded no sight of the elusive squirrel but then there was just a few days he would remind up he is still watching. Just last week he sent me a text and said hey there is a nice bobcat out at my parents land. I said send me some pics since he got a few shots on a game cam. The first picture I saw I died laughing instead of saying nice cat, can you guess why?
Eighteen 32 ft. rows stretched out over a 70 ft. wide garden. I usually plant 20 tomato plants (Big Daddy and a couple more types this year) in two rows, one row of Pic-n-pic crookneck squash, two rows of sugar snap type peas, six rows of Silver Queen corn, two rows of a sugar enhanced corn for the squirrels (who stripped 4 of my 6 rows of Silver Queen last year){I have a plan with this}, one row of two different types of long cucumbers, no beans or onions this year, two rows of King Arthur and Super Heavyweight bell peppers; two rows containing Ancho, Jalapeno, Big Guy and Sweet Heat hot peppers. I have a couple eggplants slated for the squash row but somehow I am missing a row of something. When corn comes out, broccoli seeds go in two rows and will be thinned out to at least six rows. Three years ago I had an entire bathtub full of broccoli heads soaking in salt water and the wife was mad!
That's a lot of garden. I assume you sell or trade off some of it? There's no way my family could consume that much squash, peppers, corn, beans....Especially since each crop begins to yield in the same window giving you a ton of xyz veggie all at once essentially. Squash is the one that really comes to mind for me. My experience with one squash plant is that we can't eat all of it. Good for you, you are dedicated.
2nd year garden: 30' x 120'
Just bought a 21 qt. All American Pressure Can System and am looking forward to a bunch of good salsa, okra, corn and sweet potatoes this winter!
Also invested in a tiller that is OH SO NICE - making it so much easier this year. After fall harvest, I plan on tilling in a bunch of mushroom compost plus other organics to get it squared away for next year.
Hot Peppers x 17:
(2) Dragon Cayenne
(2) Tabasco
(2) Serrano
(3) Hot Banana
(2) Hot Golden Cayenne
(4) Jalapeno
(2) Mexibelle (mild)
(-) Bunch of old mixed pepper seeds random sown in bed
Sweet Peppers x 17:
(4) Sweet Banana
(4) Gypsy
(2) Big Bertha
(2) Bonnie Green Bell
(2) Orange Bell
(3) Yummy Bell
(-) Bunch of old sweet pepper seeds random sown in bed
Summer Squash x 2:
(2) Yellow Crookneck
Cabbage x 8:
(8) Bonnie Hybrid Red
Eggplant x 3:
(3) Black Beauty
Tomato x 23:
(10) Better Boy
(9) Sun Gold Cherry
(2) Yellow Boy (I think as I lost the tag)
(2) Yellow Pear
(-) Thessoloniki Greek (random sown seed from last year)
Onions x approx. 500:
(75) White
(75) Yellow
(75) Red
(300) Texas Sweet
- Curious how these will turn out as some bulbs are small
Sweet Corn x 64 (will plant this weekend):
(64) Silver Queen
Okra x 24 (will plant this weekend):
(24) Clemson Spineless
Sweet Potato x 25 (will plant upon delivery next week):
(25) Beauregard
Melons x 10:
(5) Orangeglo
(5) Missouri Gold
Blackberry x 5 (added to 5 planted last year):
(5) Triple Crown
Apple x 2 (added to 2 planted last year, Golden Del. died):
(2) Red Delicious
Trees/shrubs planted last year:
(5) Blackberry - Triple Crown
(2) Butternut saplings - died
(2) Chestnuts - Chinese
(2) Hall's Hardy Almond
(2) Apricot
(1) Apple - Red Delicious
(1) Apple - Golden Delicious - died
(2) Blueberry - Top Hat
(2) Blueberry - forget variety
Depending upon space it's likely I'll add more plants as I still have room with everything spread out and separated depending upon compatibility.
2nd year garden: 30' x 120'
Just bought a 21 qt. All American Pressure Can System and am looking forward to a bunch of good salsa, okra, corn and sweet potatoes this winter!
Also invested in a tiller that is OH SO NICE - making it so much easier this year. After fall harvest, I plan on tilling in a bunch of mushroom compost plus other organics to get it squared away for next year.
Hot Peppers x 17:
(2) Dragon Cayenne
(2) Tabasco
(2) Serrano
(3) Hot Banana
(2) Hot Golden Cayenne
(4) Jalapeno
(2) Mexibelle (mild)
(-) Bunch of old mixed pepper seeds random sown in bed
Sweet Peppers x 17:
(4) Sweet Banana
(4) Gypsy
(2) Big Bertha
(2) Bonnie Green Bell
(2) Orange Bell
(3) Yummy Bell
(-) Bunch of old sweet pepper seeds random sown in bed
Summer Squash x 2:
(2) Yellow Crookneck
Cabbage x 8:
(8) Bonnie Hybrid Red
Eggplant x 3:
(3) Black Beauty
Tomato x 23:
(10) Better Boy
(9) Sun Gold Cherry
(2) Yellow Boy (I think as I lost the tag)
(2) Yellow Pear
(-) Thessoloniki Greek (random sown seed from last year)
Onions x approx. 500:
(75) White
(75) Yellow
(75) Red
(300) Texas Sweet
- Curious how these will turn out as some bulbs are small
Sweet Corn x 64 (will plant this weekend):
(64) Silver Queen
Okra x 24 (will plant this weekend):
(24) Clemson Spineless
Sweet Potato x 25 (will plant upon delivery next week):
(25) Beauregard
Melons x 10:
(5) Orangeglo
(5) Missouri Gold
Blackberry x 5 (added to 5 planted last year):
(5) Triple Crown
Apple x 2 (added to 2 planted last year, Golden Del. died):
(2) Red Delicious
Trees/shrubs planted last year:
(5) Blackberry - Triple Crown
(2) Butternut saplings - died
(2) Chestnuts - Chinese
(2) Hall's Hardy Almond
(2) Apricot
(1) Apple - Red Delicious
(1) Apple - Golden Delicious - died
(2) Blueberry - Top Hat
(2) Blueberry - forget variety
Depending upon space it's likely I'll add more plants as I still have room with everything spread out and separated depending upon compatibility.
That is fantastic, you must have a good bit of room.
Currently I have succumbed to a bad case of green thumb and have a hard time not picking up another tomato plant or two when I swing by Home Depot. I think I mentioned in my initial post the I am giving smart pots a try this year. As of today when comparing them to the tomatoes I have planted in ground the smart pots are not doing nearly as well. One of the tomatoes is a better bush and it is not looking so good, still have a few tomatoes on it with one nearly ready for picking. I also have another better bush in the smart pot and a Husky cherry, both look much better and the cherry as it sits has around 12 on it right now. Unfortunately I am finding the tomato plants in the smart pots seem stunted compared to what I have planted in ground. Has anyone used smart pots before?
Below is what I have going currently. I never would have thought I would get green thumb but then again farming is in my family.
Tomatoes:
Better Bush x2
Husky Cherry x3
Better Boy x5
Homestead
Pink Brandywine
Celebrity x4
Early Girl x2
Tumbling Tom
Melon:
Sugar Baby x4
Zucchini x3
Crookneck x2
Egg Plant x2
Strawberry x5
All plants have been in the ground or planted no more then a month ago. Currently have over 50 tomatoes on the vine, half the plants are not mature yet. They probably have a few weeks till they start putting off flowers.
Have any of you looked into aguagardening... might have the term incorrect. Basically you get a tank of Talapia, then a soilless garden system. You use a computer and some sensors to pump water back and forth. The dirty fish water fertilizes the whole deal. The yields these people talk about are quite large.... and you can eat the fish if you want.
here is but one video and using the terms you can find many more.... this particular guy is aiming towards a commercial venture but many are simply home setups. Some even up north in a small greenhouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wWTadsBDA
Have any of you looked into aguagardening... might have the term incorrect. Basically you get a tank of Talapia, then a soilless garden system. You use a computer and some sensors to pump water back and forth. The dirty fish water fertilizes the whole deal. The yields these people talk about are quite large.... and you can eat the fish if you want.
here is but one video and using the terms you can find many more.... this particular guy is aiming towards a commercial venture but many are simply home setups. Some even up north in a small greenhouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wWTadsBDA
I believe they call that aquaponics. I have looked into it and it seems once set up there quite sustainable.
My only advice is if you go that route make your purchases with cash. I have seen many people get raided for making purchases of hydo and aquaponics suplies. Seems growing pot takes to these systems quite well
I planted my first garden in years this year (watching the T.V. show Jericho made me think of it back in Feburary lol!), so its kind of a experiment as to what will do well, and has some variety. I technically have two gardens, one on each side of my yard which is fenced, so the first half of the day gets sun and the later half gets the sun.
I have 18 red potato plants in one garden, and they are doing very well. Growing almost overnight it seems.
The other garden is a mixture, I have two zucchini plants, one broccoli, 32 yellow onions, 12 garlic (they are not doing anything so I think they are a bust, been a few weeks and no sprouts), six pepper plants of various colors, and I'm about to plant okra.
I also have four tomato plants in pots, two versions of cherry and two better boys. They are doing good so far, getting big and lots of flowers but no fruit yet.
How often do you guys weed these gardens? Seems weeds quickly take over.
I planted my first garden in years this year (watching the T.V. show Jericho made me think of it back in Feburary lol!), so its kind of a experiment as to what will do well, and has some variety. I technically have two gardens, one on each side of my yard which is fenced, so the first half of the day gets sun and the later half gets the sun.
I have 18 red potato plants in one garden, and they are doing very well. Growing almost overnight it seems.
The other garden is a mixture, I have two zucchini plants, one broccoli, 32 yellow onions, 12 garlic (they are not doing anything so I think they are a bust, been a few weeks and no sprouts), six pepper plants of various colors, and I'm about to plant okra.
I also have four tomato plants in pots, two versions of cherry and two better boys. They are doing good so far, getting big and lots of flowers but no fruit yet.
It might be too early to tell but if your flowers end up not taking try taking a few minutes each day and flick the stem a few inches bellow the flowers. Last year my father grew some 12 beautiful tomato plants, they put off all kinds of flowers. He never tended to them and unfortunately neither did the bees. He ended up with only maybe 6 tomatoes off all 12 plants. This year I have seen no bees but flick my plants every day and I would say the flowers have a solid 80% plus rate in which they are fruiting. So flick away my friend.
How often do you guys weed these gardens? Seems weeds quickly take over.
Every other week I pull a small amount of clovers. The top 6-8 inches of soil in my garden is compost and potting soil/mix so there is less weeding than say tilling top soil in your yard. Here it is pretty much required to amend your soil as 8 inches down you hit some really dense sticky gumbo soil.
It might be too early to tell but if your flowers end up not taking try taking a few minutes each day and flick the stem a few inches bellow the flowers. Last year my father grew some 12 beautiful tomato plants, they put off all kinds of flowers. He never tended to them and unfortunately neither did the bees. He ended up with only maybe 6 tomatoes off all 12 plants. This year I have seen no bees but flick my plants every day and I would say the flowers have a solid 80% plus rate in which they are fruiting. So flick away my friend.
I had not heard of that, I'll go do it right now. Thanks for the tip.
How often do you guys weed these gardens? Seems weeds quickly take over.
This 2nd year after going over it with tiller (1st time to rebreak the soil and subsequent tills right before I plant). I'm seeing almost no weeds and grass compared to last year. My first year I spent about an hour a day hoeing out weeds and grass (but it was a big first year garden in a cow pasture). I'm hoping I've got most of them and will see fewer this year.
I'm also buying a couple of large round bales of year old hay to use as a mulch this year. Big learning curve for me. I figure less weeding will also save me money on the cold beer I'd drink as I weeded - ha.
It might be too early to tell but if your flowers end up not taking try taking a few minutes each day and flick the stem a few inches bellow the flowers. Last year my father grew some 12 beautiful tomato plants, they put off all kinds of flowers. He never tended to them and unfortunately neither did the bees. He ended up with only maybe 6 tomatoes off all 12 plants. This year I have seen no bees but flick my plants every day and I would say the flowers have a solid 80% plus rate in which they are fruiting. So flick away my friend.
That is GREAT advice. I'm going to try that this year.
I'd also heard to increase plant effort towards growth of the plant to pick off the flowers during its early life in the ground. I tried that last year and had pretty good growth with so-so yield. Hoping your flicking advice is my missing key.
Cool thread.
Thanks for the replys on weeding. I need to add mulch to block out the weeds this year.
Hahah yeah it sounds a little weird and your neighbors might look at your funny if they see you but it is working for me and there is quite a bit of info on the internet about flicking your tomatoes. On really sunny days you can see the pollen getting knocked off so you know some of that is falling to the female parts of the flower.
Update me in a few weeks if you see results. The smaller plants I have I might take off the blossoms to get some growth started like you suggest.
^ Yeah, hadn't thought about it like that - lolz.
Have any of you guys used hay as a mulch before? Hoping not to introduce various seed heads into the garden if the hay was cut after the grass went to seed. I'll need to remember to look at the bales as I'm picking them out.
I use straw (rather than hay) as a mulch for my potato pots in spring to keep moisture in and on cover crops in the winter to keep birds from eating the seed and to help keep a little warmth in. You get a few sprouts of grass, but not too much. Once my dry beans (Rockwell) and winter squash get a bit bigger, I'll mulch with straw to try to keep from needing to water much this summer. Last year we mulched our orchard (9 trees pruned as dwarves) with a massive dump truck load of leaves and this spring the soil is amazingly rich.
I haven't found weeds to be that bad after the first year of a new planting area. In areas that are now 3 years old, the weeds are pretty easy to contain.
On deck for this year:
Sweet basil
purple basil
lemon basil
oregano
dill
thyme
banana peppers
habaneros
Clemson Spineless okra
Cherokee Purple tomatoes
grape tomatoes
San Marzano tomatoes
Sea Island Red peas
fennel
Might do some radishes too if I have enough room.
steyrman13
05-13-14, 10:01
As to the weeds, if you want to try the hoe or till method, you need to plant your rows far enough apart to fit the tiller between them with alittle wiggle room to keep from running into a plant. However I watched this video and want to try this way.
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
It is Faith/God inspired and is a good theory as well. Simple principle of mulch/wood chips and manure, but he only uses a small rake or hoe and barely has to tend to weeds and also has more production.
As to the weeds, if you want to try the hoe or till method, you need to plant your rows far enough apart to fit the tiller between them with alittle wiggle room to keep from running into a plant. However I watched this video and want to try this way.
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
It is Faith/God inspired and is a good theory as well. Simple principle of mulch/wood chips and manure, but he only uses a small rake or hoe and barely has to tend to weeds and also has more production. The Back to eden video is a good watch! An old timer by where I live has been using tree chippings for about 30 years and the method works great for his huge garden and flower beds. I started last year and this year is my first planting. Thick mulch is the main part.
C'mon guys, some of you have gardens and some of you have FARMS!
BTW, my wife has a vegetable garden, primarily made up of a variety of tomatoes.
I have zero interest in gardening, but yes, I like to eat the tomatoes she harvests.
If you're thinking I'm a lazy SOB, consider that I'm the sole mower of 1 1/2 Acres, harvests and splits all the firewood, maintains the fence and driveway, and I'll stop there...you get the picture.
Best way I've come across to keep weeds out is to use partially composted grass clippings. I make a mound for all my grass clippings and let it age for a month or more, periodically dumping a couple buckets of water on it to compact it down further and keep it moist on the inside so it gets nice and sticky. I'll scoop then from the bottom of the pile where it's all black and sticky and use that to basically pave the top of my garden soil and let the sun bake it hard. No weeds will grow down or come up, and rain water slowly and evenly soaks through it, and it insulates the soil underneath nicely. To water the plants when it's dry I use Harbor Freight watering cones which only water at the roots of the plants I want to water.
As it turned out this year, we didn't have enough days of having the grass grow before planting time due to the extended crappy cold weather. In such cases where my grass mulch paving doesn't get implemented in time, or if it's too wet when I do, I also use cardboard. I get boxes from the wine/liquor store and open them up and put them down between and around plants. Same concept as the mulch paving, just not quite as convenient because you have to weight it down for a while before it gets rained on enough to stay in place on its own.
Well it had been a few days since I checkup on my garden in the backyard. Walked over to it Sunday evening and what do I see? Elephant Ear, apparently the neighbors behind me have elephant ear and it is shooting up in my garden. This could turn out bad as the roots will compete with what I am growing for nutrients.
To much to list it all. I have a small green house and about 3/4 acre garden. This year looks like it it going to be good so far to. We shall see but so far the garden is about a week ahead of schedule.
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Does anyone here use soil amendments such as rock dusts (Azomite)? I keep a small section of my garden pretty neutral of fertilizers and soil amendments just to see how things would grow in a SHTF situation where these things would not be available. Most of my garden has amended soil and this year I am giving ruck dust and worm castings a go. Just curious if anyone else has used these types of amendments and what your results look like if any.
Charcoal ash is what I've used in the past, along with adding eggshells for tomatoes and watering the peppers with epsom salts.
SeriousStudent
05-13-14, 22:39
I'm growing fresh mint for my Mojitos, and chives for mashed potatoes and deviled eggs.
De-lish! :)
I try to mostly use fertilizers and amendments that I can make or procure locally. We have chickens and compost their manure with the pine shavings. This is rich in nitrogen and organic matter. I also grow cover crops (vetch, oats, favas, bell beans, etc). These get cut down and mixed in. Unfortunately we had several hard freezes this year and all of our cover crops died. As such, I amended with alfalfa pellets (feed stores carry them), though composted grass clippings would also work. For our fruit trees I mixed up a batch of blood meal and bone meal. I can't easily make these and fortunately don't live next to a slaughter house, but I wanted more fruit this year. I'd probably use wood ash sparingly. We have a local barter group and I swapped some sauerkraut for several quarts of worm tea, which is just the liquid runnings of worm castings. Supposed to have good microbes and the plants this spring have responded favorably.
Cinco and ARK1443, any noticeable results on your tomatoes with the flicking technique?
BuzzinSATX
05-21-14, 19:01
I am a lazy gardener, and hated weeding and watering daily here in SOuth Texas, so I converted all my garden endeavors into Aquaponics and wicking beds. It's a big experiment for me, but so far, the wicking beds are kicking butt and the Aquaponics grow bed is showing mixed results but my kale is doing well:
26076
Here are my wicking beds with cukes, zucs, maters, peppers, watermelons, and lopes...
260772607826079
BuzzinSATX
05-21-14, 19:08
Pics of the maters, zucs, and melons
26080
26081
26082
Already been eating zucs and cukes.
This is a great way to garden because you only need to water a couple times a week max, and no water is lost to the soil. And you can pack in the plants because you max out your soils nutrients and it also won't leech out into the soil or get robbed by other plants. Plus, soil bugs are easy to manage and weeds are absolute minimal.
BuzzinSATX
05-21-14, 19:10
Good info on building these beds here:
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2011-05-31/bottom-diy-guide-wicking-beds
Buzzin you lucky dog you. My zucchini plants are like 3 times the size of your but no female flowers yet. :confused:
Are those sugar baby you are growing? If so I am wayyy behind, grew mine from seed and transplanted maybe 3-4 weeks back. They only have about 5 true leaves at this point, I think I should have had them in the ground in march.
Anyone looking for a good hanging pot or bushy cherry breed give the Tumbling Tom a try. I purchased one back 3 weeks or so, have had 5 ripe tomatoes with 10 more on the vine but the flower blossoms. The thing has 50+ flowers open at the time of posting with just as many new blossom clusters coming in.
I am a lazy gardener, and hated weeding and watering daily here in SOuth Texas, so I converted all my garden endeavors into Aquaponics and wicking beds. It's a big experiment for me, but so far, the wicking beds are kicking butt and the Aquaponics grow bed is showing mixed results but my kale is doing well:
26076
Here are my wicking beds with cukes, zucs, maters, peppers, watermelons, and lopes...
260772607826079
I am digging your set up, nice and clean. Looks very attractive for a vegetable garden.
BuzzinSATX
05-21-14, 20:29
I am digging your set up, nice and clean. Looks very attractive for a vegetable garden.
Murph, this is the best way to garden in my mind. You can much more easily manage everything from weeds to water to soil to plants. The black plastic beds are mason trays from Home Depot @ $14 each, and the barrels were 55 gallon food grade once used (they had Mt Dew syrup) bought for $25 each, so each half cost $12.50.
I made a weed-free 16'X'20' mulch bed and I'm gonna buy a couple more barrels this week and try cutting them the long way this time for longer beds for root veggies like carrots, radish, etc.
I spent the last few years trying to make a 4'X16' raised bed produce and got some produce but lost much to weeds and ground bugs. This way is much more efficient.
BuzzinSATX
05-21-14, 20:38
Buzzin you lucky dog you. My zucchini plants are like 3 times the size of your but no female flowers yet. :confused:
Are those sugar baby you are growing?
Honestly Murph, not sure what specific breeds I'm growing. I buy 2-3 types of each kind of plants as seed packs and start them indoors under a fluorescent light, all mixed together, and let the best plants run and thin out the others. I should probably start a log, but then it would be more like work, and would frustrate me.
I don't know what's up, but zucchini has always been pretty easy here. I had 6 plants growing and have already harvested 11 fruit.
Melons have always eluded me, but this years crop is more promising, so I'm hoping it pans out. I have a red and a yellow seedless variety growing.
Tomaters are a mixed bag of cherries and medium size fruit mixed together. We'll see how that pans out in a few weeks...
Cinco and ARK1443, any noticeable results on your tomatoes with the flicking technique?
It's been overly wet and cool the last week and a half and growth as slowed a bit. I'm still at the stage where I'm pinching off all flowers to encourage the plant to put energy into mass. I'm definitely going to try Murph's flicking technique once I allow flowers to bloom.
BTW - excellent set up above and good advice guys!
If you guys have not tried them, get some Amish Heirloom tomatoes. Those things are really good and make big fruit. The plant ends up looking like a scraggly stick with a few leaves, but you will need something to prop those tomatoes up. ... and they actually taste like a real tomato. The first one I grew had a stalk 20' long. I laid it out and measured it at end of season. I had it growing up the side of an elevated deck and still had to loop the top half over and tie it off.
Also if you want something that grows and spreads that you don;t have to replant. Shallots... they are also called Egyptian Walking Onions. Just find a good area they can expand in. When they fall over you are looking at a 2' spread. Th eonion is on top of stalk so it falls over and re-plants itself. They also cluster, so you can break them up as well. After a year or two you can get them going all over the place and still plant around them.
Also I have heard in more than one place that Basil and Tomato supposedly have some sort benefits when grown together. But those shallots will walk all in between your other plants just fine.
It's been overly wet and cool the last week and a half and growth as slowed a bit. I'm still at the stage where I'm pinching off all flowers to encourage the plant to put energy into mass. I'm definitely going to try ARK's flicking technique once I allow flowers to bloom.
BTW - excellent set up above and good advice guys!
You mean my flicking technique? :D
Honestly Murph, not sure what specific breeds I'm growing. I buy 2-3 types of each kind of plants as seed packs and start them indoors under a fluorescent light, all mixed together, and let the best plants run and thin out the others. I should probably start a log, but then it would be more like work, and would frustrate me.
I don't know what's up, but zucchini has always been pretty easy here. I had 6 plants growing and have already harvested 11 fruit.
Melons have always eluded me, but this years crop is more promising, so I'm hoping it pans out. I have a red and a yellow seedless variety growing.
Tomaters are a mixed bag of cherries and medium size fruit mixed together. We'll see how that pans out in a few weeks...
I did a little research on zucchini and the production of the female flower. An unscientific reason for my not seeing any female flowers yet is that a general consensus is the plant needs to produce around 10 flowers before the females begin to show up.
Buzzin, looking back at your zucchini can you say this to be accurate or did you not pay too much attention to the amount of flowering your zucchini was doing?
@murphman... call your local extension office. They will tell you exactly what soil amendments you likely need for your precise area for the zucchini. You can probably kick them in with a simple dose of the proper nutrients. If you watched that video I posted above you will notice he mentioned knowing exactly what to add to each plant to make it perform. But he is a Botanist. Every plant has an ideal requirement for top production and most soil needs help in some manner. Your extension office usually knows all the basics off the top of their head but even if you have something exotic they have the books handy to look up what the plant requires. It's usually just a matter of going to southern states and buying a bag of "X"... just be careful that the adjacent plants like that thing too are you might ruin them.
You mean my flicking technique? :D
Doh! Getting old brother. I mean "Murph's flicking technique" - still get's me laughing when I write it out - like it's naughty or something - ha.
Something else you guys can place around in your garden or little sunny spots around the house is fennel and horse radish root. Both of those are quite hardy. I never used a lot of amendments but would now if I had a garden. My best 'base soil' for a raised bed was to till up the basic soil. the top soil. Get all the weeds and rocks out. Then I would bring in peat moss, cow manure, compost humus, sand (we have lots of clay here ) and if you can get your hands on some fish guts... man that stuff is magic... I think I used to put potting soil in too but that gets expensive. Probably straw would be better. Whatever I had to do to get a fluffy mixture. If you can't get fish guts you can buy a bottle of fish emulsion.
Some soil amendments from what I understand really only need to be done once.. or once in a long while. So if you are concerned about SHTF, then amend your soil now while you can. Then determine what the soil will do over the course of time and plan to grow things that suit that environment.
BuzzinSATX
05-22-14, 17:06
Have any of you looked into aguagardening... might have the term incorrect. Basically you get a tank of Talapia, then a soilless garden system. You use a computer and some sensors to pump water back and forth. The dirty fish water fertilizes the whole deal. The yields these people talk about are quite large.... and you can eat the fish if you want.
here is but one video and using the terms you can find many more.... this particular guy is aiming towards a commercial venture but many are simply home setups. Some even up north in a small greenhouse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wWTadsBDA
Two types of growing in water, hydroponics, which is growing using water that is fertilized using some type of solution or powder, and aquaponics, which is merging aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics. I've been trying aquaponics, but having mixed results.
Suggest you start by checking out videos by mhpgardner. Here is a good one to start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3tz5LVVR_o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I'm not using this method, I'm using grow beds inspired by an Aussie named Murray Hallam, but not having the success yet...
But it's fun! It's also where I learned about building wicking beds, which I find work great.
BuzzinSATX
05-22-14, 17:20
Buzzin, looking back at your zucchini can you say this to be accurate or did you not pay too much attention to the amount of flowering your zucchini was doing?
Sorry, I really don't know the difference between the different flowers. I did read somewhere that someone was eating the flowers and wondering why he never got and fruit, but I'm not sure which are the edible ones.
I do know that I just keep the beds watered as needed and let the good Lord figure out the rest of it.
I should get more educated on it, but for now, it's more of a "I'll try this and see how it works" kinda deal for me. My only thing is I try to plant at least three of each type of plant for pollination...
Sorry I'm not much help here.
Doh! Getting old brother. I mean "Murph's flicking technique" - still get's me laughing when I write it out - like it's naughty or something - ha.
It's application applies to both ;)
@murphman... call your local extension office. They will tell you exactly what soil amendments you likely need for your precise area for the zucchini. You can probably kick them in with a simple dose of the proper nutrients. If you watched that video I posted above you will notice he mentioned knowing exactly what to add to each plant to make it perform. But he is a Botanist. Every plant has an ideal requirement for top production and most soil needs help in some manner. Your extension office usually knows all the basics off the top of their head but even if you have something exotic they have the books handy to look up what the plant requires. It's usually just a matter of going to southern states and buying a bag of "X"... just be careful that the adjacent plants like that thing too are you might ruin them.
There is a place about 5 miles from me you can have your soil analyzed. They also grow different varieties of vegetable to see what grows good in this area. I think I might make a trip over there tomorrow.
Sorry, I really don't know the difference between the different flowers. I did read somewhere that someone was eating the flowers and wondering why he never got and fruit, but I'm not sure which are the edible ones.
I do know that I just keep the beds watered as needed and let the good Lord figure out the rest of it.
I should get more educated on it, but for now, it's more of a "I'll try this and see how it works" kinda deal for me. My only thing is I try to plant at least three of each type of plant for pollination...
Sorry I'm not much help here.
When looking at the flower the female already has the fruit behind the flower. You can see the little zucchini waiting for the female to get pollinated then it will grown. As for the males they are just a long stem with a flower and I was told you grow way more males than females. See picture below.
Checked my squashes this morning and the oldest by a couple weeks is starting to put off females. I guess my zucchinis and other squash may follow suit in a few weeks.
BuzzinSATX
05-24-14, 23:08
Checked my squashes this morning and the oldest by a couple weeks is starting to put off females. I guess my zucchinis and other squash may follow suit in a few weeks.
Good deal. Mine are threw off a bunch of fruit and now the flowers are building back up.
Just built and deployed four more beds today. I'll try and post pics tomorrow. Bought a couple more barrels and tried cutting them long ways like troughs. Tome will tel if this works or not. Planted more squash, beans, and maters. Not sure what will go in the last one...probably peppers.
So yesterday when inspecting my tomatoes and pepper plants I am growing in city picker self watering contained I noticed one of the pepper plants was missing its lower leaves. I did not think too much of it but was going to keep an eye out. Went to check things this morning and 3 out of 4 pepper plants had all but the top leaves stripped offalong with one plant had an entire branch sawed off from the main stem. I also noticed a few lower branches on a tomato plants was stripped of leaves. I started researching and most sites would suggest it be a hornworm. I did not see any dropping that would suggest a hornworm but that many leaves missing surely would point to the quick work a hornworm can make of a plant. I searched on and off all day but never spotted any insects or worms that could have devastated the peppers like that. This evening while looking at my citrus trees I have started in 5 gal buckets I came across a large Katydid. The citrus tree are only a foot or so away from the city picker containers.
My question for some of you experienced gardeners and farmers, can a single Katydid make that kind of quick work over night of pepper plants or should I still keep an eye out for a hornworm?
So yesterday when inspecting my tomatoes and pepper plants I am growing in city picker self watering contained I noticed one of the pepper plants was missing its lower leaves. I did not think too much of it but was going to keep an eye out. Went to check things this morning and 3 out of 4 pepper plants had all but the top leaves stripped offalong with one plant had an entire branch sawed off from the main stem. I also noticed a few lower branches on a tomato plants was stripped of leaves. I started researching and most sites would suggest it be a hornworm. I did not see any dropping that would suggest a hornworm but that many leaves missing surely would point to the quick work a hornworm can make of a plant. I searched on and off all day but never spotted any insects or worms that could have devastated the peppers like that. This evening while looking at my citrus trees I have started in 5 gal buckets I came across a large Katydid. The citrus tree are only a foot or so away from the city picker containers.
My question for some of you experienced gardeners and farmers, can a single Katydid make that kind of quick work over night of pepper plants or should I still keep an eye out for a hornworm?There's a few different kinds of bugs that can rip up plants pretty fast. Nuke them with Sevin and you won't have to wonder. If you're getting hit that hard don't wait around trying milder stuff, whip out the big stick and beat them mercilessly with it. Sure you have to wash off your veggies but that's better than not having any to wash off in the first place.
BuzzinSATX
05-26-14, 12:44
Good deal. Mine are threw off a bunch of fruit and now the flowers are building back up.
Just built and deployed four more beds today. I'll try and post pics tomorrow. Bought a couple more barrels and tried cutting them long ways like troughs. Tome will tel if this works or not. Planted more squash, beans, and maters. Not sure what will go in the last one...probably peppers.
Made 4 more beds...
26190
26191
Is that landscape cloth you have lining the new beds?
Feel your pain Murph, had some damn Colorado Potato Beetles eating my Eggplant leaves. I used this site to ID the bastards...
http://www.garden.org/pestlibrary/
PS - also digging this gardening site for general, but most importantly local, info ....
http://www.gardenweb.com/
Another tip passed along by some old timers...
Place a large nail or stick (like a skewer) right next to your young plants/seedling's stem to prevent cutworms from being able to perform their "death cut"....
BuzzinSATX
05-26-14, 21:23
Is that landscape cloth you have lining the new beds?
Yes. I use it to separate the inert wicking matter (I use perlite) from my soil blend. It's in all the beds, and the concept behind building wicking beds. Kinda like your "self watering" pots.
BuzzinSATX
05-26-14, 21:32
As to the weeds, if you want to try the hoe or till method, you need to plant your rows far enough apart to fit the tiller between them with alittle wiggle room to keep from running into a plant. However I watched this video and want to try this way.
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
It is Faith/God inspired and is a good theory as well. Simple principle of mulch/wood chips and manure, but he only uses a small rake or hoe and barely has to tend to weeds and also has more production.
Great video! Thank you very much. In addition to my containers, I'm planning on putting in a mulch area this fall. I do put about 4 inches of shredded organic native wood (I mix hardwood and cedar) on top of the moss/soil/compost/ soil mix in my containers.
So it has been about 3 weeks since i transplanted my sugar baby watermelons into 15 and 20 gallon containers. When transplanted they still had their 2 seedling leaved and 2 true leaves that were the size of a nickle. Now with the good heat that has come through the past 4 weeks they have really taken off and am starting to get flowers. I did not realize the female flowers are only open for 1 day, I am going to need to be on top of my hand pollinating.
BuzzinSATX
06-09-14, 10:55
Nice. Good luck with them!
I put up 8 quarts of lacto pickled sugar snap peas this evening gathered from the remains of a 2x8 foot raised bed. Growing food isn't super difficult, but trying to preserve that food in the absence of electricity is challenging. Using lactic fermentation, instead of traditional canning, is looking promising so far.
A little mid summer update.
My tomatoes are doing pretty good, it is mid to upper 90's here with very high humidity and they are still setting and producing. I gave a tumbling Tom cherry variety a go this season and to date I have ate over 70 tomatoes from it and tossed another 30 due to splitting with the rain we have been having. I went through the first round of the large variety and after picking they produced another wave I am waiting on. All of my large variety tomato plants hit 9ft and were topped back to 6ft twice but these better boys I tell you. These 5 better boys have stalks one and a half times wider then my thumb, my flicking technique hurts my figure on these plants. They are growing so well I have suckers growing out of the left behind stem of a picked tomato, right where I cut off the tomato.
I pulled all of my Zucchini and squash due to cut worms. I was not too mad because the plants just got huge and did not produce any yield.
My sugar baby watermelons have been growing like weeds over the past month or so. Early on I was hand pollinating and within a week I had 4 melons on the vine growing. 3 of the 4 died a few weeks later for some reason, might have just been because the vine was small and could not sustain the number of melons. The one that hung around grew to about the size or maybe just smaller than a racket ball but since getting to that size it has remained there for 3+ weeks. I hand pollinated 3 more last week that are all larger than the one that reached the size of a racket ball 3+ weeks ago if that says something. We will see how it goes from here on out but it looks like the vines are now large enough to take on more than one fruit but only time will tell.
Jalapenos are producing good now, they were delayed by getting ravaged by a horned worm but have come back strong. The batch I picked a week or so ago were definitely on the high side of the heat range and that was eating them seeds and core removed.
How is everyone else doing?
My garden is taking shape up here in the Rockies. Due to our shorter season we aren't enjoying much produce quite yet.
Our tomato plants are looking healthy and are bearing fruit. The orange cherry sized tomato plant is giving us a small handful every few days recently and I love eating those like candy. The rest of the breeds of tomatoes are hanging a decent amount of green fruit. All in all our tomatoes are ahead of pace from last year if I am recalling correctly.
We have beets ready and have already gotten all the sugar snap peas we're going to get.
The bell peppers are producing well as are the hot peppers. My onions look healthy but don't seem to be changing much as far as what I can see above ground.
Our herbs (cilantro, oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary) have been very successful thus far and the flavors are elevated thanks to them. I can't wait till we have tomatoes and onions to combine with the herbs for brucshetta and salsa and marinara sauces. Its amazing how much better these herbs make food compared to store bought seasoning.
Our cucumber plants are looking great and we will harvest cucumbers today or sometime this week for sure.
As an update for the strawberry rain gutter system: We had a good month of June and part of May as far as fruit bearing. For a first year planting I think we had good success. That said, we definitely never filled a bowl in one picking but were getting 6-7 berries a day for a while. The production is way down now. I think the heat has really taken its toll. The gutters are hanging on the side of my garage south facing and the siding is a dark red color so I imagine when the ambient temps are high 90's and 100 the radiant heat for those plants is well over 100 degrees for a lot of the afternoon. As such we have struggled to know how much water they want. From my reading and asking around strawberries can be over watered...I don't know. Anyway, the project was a good experiment and I think will, long term, be quite successful without eating up any ground space. I think each season the size of the berries and the volume of the harvest should improve.
My experiment with potatoes in barrels is still suspect. I started with only a few inches of soil in the bottom of the barrels and then each time the plant got a couple of inches above the dirt I'd fill more dirt. Well I've got full barrels now and plants above surface, a couple plants are quite tall above the dirt. Along the way I've also struggled to know how much water they want. The reading I did said that you certainly can over water potatoes and make them rot in the ground. In my caution I've definitely stressed them a time or two as they have curled and even shriveled on occasion. I have 2 or 3 barrels of the original 5 that I'm pretty confident are going to make it and produce very well for me. One barrel was a complete failure and another is worrying me quite a bit. We shall see how it goes. This is my first time doing potatoes and I'm doing them in barrels so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I view potatoes as the most efficient garden produce out there from a prepping perspective due to its high caloric value, vitamins, and long shelf life. I want to be able to produce spuds well--if SHTF these will be a staple to keep bellies full and not just during the growing season. Plus, I grew up in SE Idaho...I really should be growing potatoes, right?
Our peach tree is small and pathetic. The previous owners of the home planted it in the most ridiculous location where it gets very little direct sunlight thanks to massive mature trees in neighboring yards to its south and east. At any rate, it put out a lot of fruit early on and we were encouraged. So we've been very diligent in thinning the fruit to give the little tree a chance to grow good fruit rather than a lot of crappy fruit. The jury is still out on that too. I really hope we get some peaches. I love fresh peaches and frozen peaches and even bottled peaches.
Our gardening operation is pretty small time compared to many who have posted here. I'm getting pretty addicted to it though. I've had to refrain from building it up any further because we do not know if we will be able to stay here after next May. I will match for surgery residency training next spring and that can take us almost anywhere in the country next year. If we stay here next year I already have plans for expansion.
We're full in to the second harvest here in western Washington. The cukes are coming in very fast and I'm pickling twice a week to keep up. The first of the corn is about 3 weeks away and the second round of asian greens should be ready this week. Tomatoes are still 6 weeks+ out. I didn't get our dry beans going soon enough and we're going to need a long summer to get a reasonable yield from them. The winter squash is booming (we're still eating last year's harvest). I planted ground cherries this year with the idea of making a lot of preserves and those plants are doing fairly well. We should get a good harvest from them if the summer lasts through September. We're on a standard city lot, so I'm trying to plant a large variety of crops to get food from as many sources as possible. Our potatoes are growing in old garbage cans also. Our first wave didn't do so great: 16 lbs. The second batch should be better.
I've started the fall/winter/overwinter seeds to try to get fresh food in the winter. However, I didn't have much luck last year. Different technique this time. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, mustards, beets, etc. We're in war with the deer and raccoons over various parts of our garden and our chickens. So far the critters are finding easier food to eat, but the last three nights I've gotten up early and set up an ambush for the raccoon who is determined to get in to our coop. He hasn't come back since my wife chased him down the alley, around the corner, up the street, down the other side, and into a vacant lot with a shovel. But I'd like to be sure.
I scored at my local Lowes hardware today. Picked up 15 indoor/outdoor planters for $2.25 each with dimensions of 23.5"H x 22"W x 22"D. They were originally priced at $17.98, if you have a local Lowes you might want swing by and see if they have them on clearance also. If not let me know if you want some and I will send you the link and my local store and you might be able to have them shipped.
No garden here but I am currently growing some mean Scorpian peppers. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/07/nu3y3y5u.jpg
Any of you Texas guys as annoyed as I am with our current weather situation? I am dying to get these starts in the ground.
Oh you don't like the 70 degree temp today with it being in the 20's tomorrow?
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I am even getting it way down in South Texas, this weather is nuts. Going from mid 80's to the 30's in a day???? WTF?
I am even getting it way down in South Texas, this weather is nuts. Going from mid 80's to the 30's in a day???? WTF?
Sounds like Minnesota during our "Spring" or as I like to call it: the 2 weeks between winter and summer...
Javadrinker
03-04-15, 12:33
this is supposed to be Texas, and way SOUTH Texas at that ... bah humbug on this weather!
Now, as to what I am growing ... well its a good cash crop for sale in Colorado, Washington, Washington DC, and Alaska :secret:.... JK!!:lol:
I am ready to get tomatoes, kale, spinach, lettuce, beans(various), collards, cantaloupe, and honeydew, going to try to grow some corn in a pot, and of course the usual culinary herbs.
Kale?
Ah yes, the veggie of hipsters.
The third week of February I planted some spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants. I also planted some carrots, spinach, english pea, broccoli, kale, and lettuce seed. With temps in the teens and 20's quite a bit since I have been gone, there's no telling what it looks like now. It has gotten plenty of moisture, but I won't know for another week what kind of shape it is in. I plan on planting some potatoes in some 25 gal. tubs that I have to see how that works out when I get home.
Kale?
Ah yes, the veggie of hipsters.
Eh, it doesn't seem to taste much different than green leaf lettuce to me, but my wife eats the shit out of it. She even checked to make sure that I spent extra for the organic seeds.
Javadrinker
03-04-15, 15:40
swiss chard, carrots, broccoli, and squash... I also have blood oranges, mars oranges, tangerines, grapes, limes, and lemons
trying to get apples; trees grows but no production .. yet; and avocados .. same issue.
William B.
03-04-15, 16:34
Eh, it doesn't seem to taste much different than green leaf lettuce to me, but my wife eats the shit out of it. She even checked to make sure that I spent extra for the organic seeds.
Get her to make kale chips. That's my favorite way to have it if I'm going to eat it.
Get her to make kale chips. That's my favorite way to have it if I'm going to eat it.
x2 delicious
Get her to make kale chips. That's my favorite way to have it if I'm going to eat it.
x2 delicious
Hmm, I'll have to check into that.
swiss chard, carrots, broccoli, and squash... I also have blood oranges, mars oranges, tangerines, grapes, limes, and lemons
trying to get apples; trees grows but no production .. yet; and avocados .. same issue.
I gave broccoli a shot over the winter to see how they fair here in Houston. No lies when I say this but the broccoli i grew tasted like it had sugar water running through it. I could never imagine how sweet broccoli could be, I guess that just shows you how much better things taste grown yourself. As for what i got going right now, the corner of my kitchen is nothing but grow lights, heat mats and seed starts planted over the past month. I have far more then I need growing right now but hey I get to choose the hardiest looking of them and can give away the rest.
I only have a loquat tree, a meyer lemon tree, and rosemary growing. Everything else died off during the winter. During the summer I grow tomatoes, peppers, and herbs like fresh basil and cilantro. I gave up on growing most other plants. Too much trouble. My sister has a green thumb and can grow mass amounts of about anything that she tries. She used to grow a ton of okra for me and would cut it, bread it, and freeze it for me so that I could have freshly grown fried okra all year round. If you're going the tomato route, I've found that Romas seem to work the best in the Houston area. They grow quickly and I've always had a fantastic yield. Out of three plants one year I was able to produce enough to give away baskets of them and bottle my own pasta/pizza sauces.
South Florida is a tough place to grow a 'proper' vegetable garden but I do have Sapodilla, Guava, Barbados Cherry, Pomegranate and Cocoplum in the yard.
BuzzinSATX
03-05-15, 10:59
The third week of February I planted some spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants. I also planted some carrots, spinach, english pea, broccoli, kale, and lettuce seed. With temps in the teens and 20's quite a bit since I have been gone, there's no telling what it looks like now. It has gotten plenty of moisture, but I won't know for another week what kind of shape it is in. I plan on planting some potatoes in some 25 gal. tubs that I have to see how that works out when I get home.
Eh, it doesn't seem to taste much different than green leaf lettuce to me, but my wife eats the shit out of it. She even checked to make sure that I spent extra for the organic seeds.
In my non-professional opinion, organic (heirloom) seeds are really only a big deal if you plan on harvesting the seed and growing crops from your own seed. Hybrid seeds are generally much easier and more productive to grow from. GMO seeds are the thing to avoid, but you will rarely see GMO seeds unless you are growing commercially.
The key IMO is to grow organically using organic compost, fertilizers, and minerals. If you use Miracle Grow chemical fertilizers on heirloom seeds, you are wasting your efforts.
Take Care,
Buzz
In my non-professional opinion, organic (heirloom) seeds are really only a big deal if you plan on harvesting the seed and growing crops from your own seed. Hybrid seeds are generally much easier and more productive to grow from. GMO seeds are the thing to avoid, but you will rarely see GMO seeds unless you are growing commercially.
The key IMO is to grow organically using organic compost, fertilizers, and minerals. If you use Miracle Grow chemical fertilizers on heirloom seeds, you are wasting your efforts.
Take Care,
Buzz
I hear you, but in her non-professional opinion she disagrees with both of us. That's ok, because now I have a seed package that says organic on it. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.
BuzzinSATX
03-05-15, 11:37
I hear you, but in her non-professional opinion she disagrees with both of us. That's ok, because now I have a seed package that says organic on it. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.
LOL! Words to live by, Brother!!!
Happy wife...well, you already know the rest.
Take Care,
Buzz
In my non-professional opinion, organic (heirloom) seeds are really only a big deal if you plan on harvesting the seed and growing crops from your own seed. Hybrid seeds are generally much easier and more productive to grow from.
If you use Miracle Grow chemical fertilizers on heirloom seeds, you are wasting your efforts.
Growing up with high-yield crop production as family business, and having a Botany degree, I would disagree. GMO seeds may produce more bushels per acre the first yr. Heirloom seeds harvested from the first gen. and planted the following yr. will show statistically sig. increases in yield/size. However, this is feasible only for smaller gardens, but this is what we are discussing.
Miracle Grow works, period. Saying it doesn't work is like saying 10-10-10 doesn't work. I use compost and 6 month steer manure as well as Miracle Grow. Container gardening is only where one has to worry about NaCl accum. and this can be easily controlled. This is in small garden circles, not production. Sitting winter fallow is usually good enough to wash out excess NaCl.
My father uses miracle grow liquid fertilizer on his tomato plants and sees pretty good growth. Plant size his are further a head of mine both planted at the same time but I choose to go a more organic direction.
Correct me if I am wrong but the reason people also tend to shun away from Miracle Grow is because after so many uses it literally kills all of the beneficial bacteria and micro nutrients in your soil. One this happens the only way your plants will get nutrients is by feeding it more Miracle Grow essentially created a cycle of relying on Miracle Grow for your plants.
My father uses miracle grow liquid fertilizer on his tomato plants and sees pretty good growth. Plant size his are further a head of mine both planted at the same time but I choose to go a more organic direction.
Correct me if I am wrong but the reason people also tend to shun away from Miracle Grow is because after so many uses it literally kills all of the beneficial bacteria and micro nutrients in your soil. One this happens the only way your plants will get nutrients is by feeding it more Miracle Grow essentially created a cycle of relying on Miracle Grow for your plants.
Never seen any valid scientific study to support the claim. Copious amts. of any amendment will harm a plant.
BuzzinSATX
04-14-15, 07:33
Miracle Grow works, period. Saying it doesn't work is like saying 10-10-10 doesn't work. I use compost and 6 month steer manure as well as Miracle Grow. .
Sorry for not being clear. I was responding to post the was talking about using organic seeds. I thought the reason for this was the growers wife wanted "organic produce", and using Miracle Grow negated that.
Yes, I fully concur MG will grow plants...but not organically.
Take Care,
Buzz
BuzzinSATX
04-14-15, 07:48
My father uses miracle grow liquid fertilizer on his tomato plants and sees pretty good growth. Plant size his are further a head of mine both planted at the same time but I choose to go a more organic direction.
Correct me if I am wrong but the reason people also tend to shun away from Miracle Grow is because after so many uses it literally kills all of the beneficial bacteria and micro nutrients in your soil. One this happens the only way your plants will get nutrients is by feeding it more Miracle Grow essentially created a cycle of relying on Miracle Grow for your plants.
This is a good read on the long term effects of synthetic fertilizers.
http://www.southlandorganics.com/blogs/news/17982096-health-effects-of-synthetic-fertilizer
Take Care,
Buzz
This is a good read on the long term effects of synthetic fertilizers.
http://www.southlandorganics.com/blogs/news/17982096-health-effects-of-synthetic-fertilizer
Yeah, that guy is making some BS claims that are readily proven invalid.
I am not trying to get on anyone or be an ass. I simply take issue with the crowd that touts organic through BS claims. Is there a place for organic? Obviously. Just don't try to feed people BS that is readily disprovable in modern scientific literature.
BuzzinSATX
04-14-15, 13:54
Yeah, that guy is making some BS claims that are readily proven invalid.
I am not trying to get on anyone or be an ass. I simply take issue with the crowd that touts organic through BS claims. Is there a place for organic? Obviously. Just don't try to feed people BS that is readily disprovable in modern scientific literature.
Look, I'm not trying to be an ass either. I'm not a biologist or botanist, but I do know a bit about business practices, and if you want to use agriculture industry supported scientific literature as your basis for refuting the info in the article, I'm not so sure that info isn't biased either. While organic food costs more, there is not much money in Organics, business wise, like there is in huge corporations like Scott's, Monsanto, DuPont, ADM, Tyson, et al.
I do know this...most of the food you see in produce departments of big grocers has less taste than it used to. We have to turn to GMO's because the chems we saturated our soil with has killed many of the microbes needed to keep the soil healthy and grow good food. We've also replanted so much we've stripped our soil of many nutrients we need to keep healthy, causing the need for vitamin and nutrient supplements. And that compounds into animal feed also having issues building proteins in beef/poultry/etc.
Pesticides, herbicides, GMO use all skyrocketing along with cancer, allergies, and autoimmune system issues. Is that all a coincidence? Maybe...
I don't trust the scientific community so much these days. Global warming, GMO, breakthrough medicines that cause more issues than they solve...lots of things that are more about big $$$$ than real science.
Just how I see it. Maybe I'm a nutter...
Take Care,
Buzz
Look, I'm not trying to be an ass either. I'm not a biologist or botanist...if you want to use agriculture industry supported scientific literature as your basis for refuting the info in the article, I'm not so sure that info isn't biased either. While organic food costs more, there is not much money in Organics, business wise, like there is in huge corporations like Scott's, Monsanto, DuPont, ADM, Tyson, et al.
I'll leave some university, open-sourced studies that show there is no diff. b/w petrochemical fertilizers and organic in regards to microbial suppression.
We have to turn to GMO's because the chems we saturated our soil with has killed many of the microbesThere has never been any proof of this. Multiple university studies have illustrated this. needed to keep the soil healthy and grow good food. We've also replanted so much we've stripped our soil of many nutrientsNot true. Go pick a farm at random and do a soil sample. we need to keep healthy, causing the need for vitamin and nutrient supplements. And that compounds into animal feed also having issues building proteins in beef/poultry/etc.
Pesticides, herbicides, GMO use all skyrocketing along with cancer, allergies, and autoimmune system issues. Is that all a coincidence? Maybe...
I don't trust the scientific communitySo you have no real results with which to base your conclusions? so much these days. Global warming, GMO, breakthrough medicines that cause more issues than they solve...lots of things that are more about big $$$$ than real science.
Just how I see it. Maybe I'm a nutter...Looks that way. More power to ya'! No hard feelings and hope you grow a kick ass crop this yr!
Mods: These are cold links to open-sourced university material that is okay for reprint, distribution, etc.
organiclifestyles.tamu.edu/soil/microbeindex.html
gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene3de4.html
colorado.edu/eeb/EEBprojects/FiererLab/Ramirez_etal_2010_SB%26B.pdf
BuzzinSATX
04-15-15, 16:01
Thanks for the links. I read the TAMU BLOG since my kid goes to school in College Station.
But like I said...I have a hard time believing what I read from sources who are funded by folks who stand to win or lose based on their results. I'm not saying the info in the links you provided is some or all bad. But I do know I no longer trust them blindly.
I have no money in this game. I don't make my income from agriculture, but I know folks who do. It's a tough life, and I respect all who work their land to feed out Nation. But I also see the influence corporations have over their lives.
http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/PublicResearchPrivateGain.pdf
http://www.alternet.org/story/155375/how_corporations_like_monsanto_have_hijacked_higher_education
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/05/how-agribusiness-dominates-public-ag-research
I'm trying to improve the quality of my family's life by growing and buying food produced with as little chem influence as possible. It's tough and expensive, but I no longer trust the FDA or the USDA to do their job of protecting we the people.
Just my opinion, and I'm not trying to offend anyone here, and will stop before I do. We're all capable of choices...and still free to exercise what to eat and if we grow our own, how to best do that.
Take Care,
Buzz
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