Gardening Thread

[[BTF] Reflex]

Woohoo!  Officially a vegetable garden,  got our first tomato today    Little green cherry I think.


In my defense on space needed,  wife got a tomato plant late season last year. 
Thing never got more than 2 feet tall,  sorta judged what I was doing by that.

Going OK so far,  everything is flowered and expecting peppers out the wazoo to start soon.

Other than some tomatoes on the ends starting to crowd over jalapenos (might have to amputate) I think with some stakes it will be manageable.


The corn was for S&G's,  if more of the 20 I started took I would have done a patch just for them further out in the yard.
The 4 on the side of the house seem to be keeping the bunnies happy,  they come at em like once a week and nibble down the leaves.

No attempts on the fence line yet,  where the fence meets the ground it runs like 6 inches away along the ground.
I covered the whole perimeter with 2 layers of privacy fence planks in 3 foot x 6inch segments I got from neighborhood trash.
Gonna kill the grass, but looks sharp and keeps things from idly scurrying under it.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Garden is on the outswing, No pictures,  but I did do a tally.


20 - cucumbers (OMG the first ones we HUGE)

45 - green peppers

30 - banana peppers

475 - cherry tomatoes (no that's not a typo)

100 - yellow cherry tomatoes

80 - jalapeno peppers

Regular tomatoes, had 2 or 3 varieties, tons and tons of fruit but they would never ripen all the way.
Sucks too, two bushes of plum tomatoes had some very nice looking fruit - just stayed orange.

The other ones just hit a pale orange,  and half of those split pretty bad.
Think maybe having probs ripening because I stopped fertilizing..  the splitting I understand though.

There is a late run of green toms coming along,  had one late one turn good and red,  maybe these will too.


All in all,  pretty happy with it.  Doing a larger area next year.

[|iR|Focalor]

Garden is on the outswing, No pictures,  but I did do a tally.


20 - cucumbers (OMG the first ones we HUGE)

45 - green peppers

30 - banana peppers

475 - cherry tomatoes (no that's not a typo)

100 - yellow cherry tomatoes

80 - jalapeno peppers

Regular tomatoes, had 2 or 3 varieties, tons and tons of fruit but they would never ripen all the way.
Sucks too, two bushes of plum tomatoes had some very nice looking fruit - just stayed orange.

The other ones just hit a pale orange,  and half of those split pretty bad.
Think maybe having probs ripening because I stopped fertilizing..  the splitting I understand though.

There is a late run of green toms coming along,  had one late one turn good and red,  maybe these will too.


All in all,  pretty happy with it.  Doing a larger area next year.

Oh definitely. One thing you gotta remember with tomatos is that you'll probably never have "too much" room for them. I stuck mine about 4 or 5 feet apart this year and they still grew together. It's a good idea to go ahead and put cages around them when you transplant them in the garden. Also, picking them can tend to spread molds, so your first harvest will probably always be the best one. They really don't need that much fertilization depending on the soil color. If it's a nice reddish color dirt like we get in GA, they'll have plenty of nutrients. the darker brown and black the soil, the more you'll want to fertilize. I've always had kinda crap luck with the larger tomatos. I tend to try to pick them a little before they start turning red (while they are still green). For some reason, they always start splitting on the tops as they ripen red. They will still turn red off the vine, especially if you stack several of them in a large bowl. From what I've heard, they release a gas that aids in ripening, so if there are several in a bowl, they will ripen quicker.

If you want some tomatoes that do well and be good for freezing, canning, or fresh for salads, try some Roma tomatoes next year. They are AWESOME! They pretty low maintenance and a determinate variety, so they won't grow vines 12 feet long all over the place like the full sized tomatoes do. Like I said earlier, you'll still want to space them out pretty good. This helps reduce the chances of them spreading leaf molds to one another, as well as it makes it easier to pick them. I typically pick mine when they start turning pinkish. Sometimes I pick the green ones just to be able to reach the ripening ones, and that's okay, because they'll eventually ripen red too.

Concerning the hot peppers... try to plant hot peppers in the same place every year. Try to plant the same variety in the same place too. If you go planting some really hot tobasco peppers last year in the same place where you plant jalapenos or cowhorn peppers this year, it'll make the cowhorn peppers hotter than you expect, possible TOO hot for your liking. I had tobasco peppers planted where I put some mild jalapenos this year, and they turned out to be just as hot as tobasco peppers. Peppers tend to do better in darker soil with a couple hours of less full sun exposure too. They might not grow as rapidly as things in full sunlight all day long, but by the end of the year, they will remain healthier and keep producing.

All you got was 20 individual cucumbers? Cucumbers you typically want to plant in groups of 4 to 6 seedlings with a clear area 5 to 6 feet around where they're planted for them to spread out. They are VERY hardy. I had probably 15 individual plants that survived transplanting, and harvested well over 400 cucumbers before I pulled them up the other week.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Never did get any fungus,  relieved on that.  The rabbits never did try and dig,  pansies

Will try some roma next year,  as well as a few others.  going to avoid what I used this year,  aside from the cherry 100's (Those rocked)

Peppers ALL could have been hotter!  Well,  not the green peppers,  they turned out just right.  I was already planning on expanding
the pepper variety next year.

The cucumbers,  I had 2 scrawny seedlings start out of the trays weeks after I stopped using them.  Thought they were squash and planted
them on the side of the house.  Started to vine and I knew something was up.  One plant kinda took over,  the other contributed to the bundle,
but it was like 80/20.   Were my favorites,  so don't pick on em to bad!   I never bought the seeds for em,  so it's kinda a mystery.

[|iR|Focalor]

Leaf molds like my tomatoes usually get clobbered with probably have a lot to do with geography as well as how I water them and the quality of the tap water itself. It's brutally humid in Georgia in the summer, plus I usually water them overhead with a shower wand. Everything I've ever read recommends that it's better to try watering the ground beneath the leaves instead of showering it overhead. The water in my county is probably not too clean. I notice I get molds growing in my toilet bowls a lot faster than anywhere else I've ever lived. I know that sounds like I'm probably a disgusting pig, but I seriously DO clean my house regularly. I have permanent faint reddish orange rings at the water line in all of my toilet bowls. Sometimes I'll dump some bleach in there and let it sit for a while before scrubbing them out with a toilet brush.

Yeah, sometimes you'll get one or two different seeds mixed in with a pack of something else. If you buy the seedlings from a store, occasionally you get something mixed in with a tray that you didn't see the tag or was tagged wrong at the nursery. Squash seeds are usually pretty broad and tear drop shaped with a definite hull on them, while cucumber seeds are always narrow and smaller and... vagina shaped. Cucumbers are pretty prolific once they get established in a good area. In years passed, I've done used about 5 or 6 seeds per little seedling cell, and usually 4 to 6 of them will sprout. I'll transplant 3 or 4 cells into 3 spots about 3 or 4 feet apart and just let them all grow together into one large sprawling patch. If you're gonna plant something different in the same spot next year, you'll want to make sure you get any rotten ones picked up as they will usually drop a ton of seeds per fruit that will sprout the next year. Cantaloupes are even worse about that. You have to watch them closely to make sure they don't rot on the bottoms from sitting in wet soil, because...
a: they will drop a shitload of seeds and will ALWAYS sprout next season, making you have to weed them out.
b: the rotting ones are ant magnets and the ants will begin chewing into ones that aren't rotten.

Cantaloupes are even worse than cucumbers about sprawling. They grow AMAZINGLY fast, sometimes at a rate of an inch or more per day. If you plant them near bushes or other veggies, they always start growing into them. They don't keep too well either. Off 6 to 10 individual plants, you could end up having 300 melons. They all ripen at about the same time. You can't freeze them. You can't even refrigerate them unless you cut them up first, and then they only keep for maybe a week. They are great sellers around here though. A lot of people prefer cantaloupe to watermelon, and if they're big enough and not split around the stem from over-ripening, you can usually get people to buy them for a dollar each. The problem is you gotta have a lot of sturdy laundry baskets to stack them in. Usually I can go up to the pool at the front of the neighborhood and sell a lot of them.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Thats awesome,  the cantaloupe not the toilet bowl rings.

Was thinking about trying those in the same spot I did the cukes. 

I did always water from ground level, and trained my 3 year old to do the same when he 'helped' me.

[|iR|Focalor]

If you do cantaloupes next year, it really helps if you have an area with a nice fresh bed of pinestraw for them spread across rather than bare soil or even grass. If it's bare soil that the melons are sitting in, the rinds will be sitting in wet mud and can rot a lot easier before they ripen. If they're sitting in grass, obviously the grass will grow tall all through it and look ugly, not to mention, the melons will still be sitting on a wet surface after you water them. If you have a thick bed of pinestraw, the water will run through it and keep the bottoms of the melons drier. Pinestraw is great anyway, it holds more water into the soil for the roots, and it breaks down to fertilize.

Speaking of fertilizer, if you have any weeping willow trees, you can cut the fresh growth of small limbs in spring, cut them up into small pieces, and steep it in big buckets of water to extract the enzymes they contain into the water. Then after a week or so, you just remove the clippings and fill watering cans with it. It's basically the same enzymes contained in a lot of store-bought rooting compounds. It's a shitload better than Miracle Grow. It's good to have around if you have any plants mid-season that are starting to look sick. Apparently you can even spray it on other trees that have sappy wounds on the trunks to help them heal over faster.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Ok,  that time of year again

Starting all my stuff indoors,  see how it goes.

Veggies:

Super sweet 100 hybrid toms
Super beefsteak toms
Big Dipper bell peppers
Anaheim, jalapeno, finger, chili, and hungarian hot peppers.
Jolly green cucumbers
Fordhook zucchini

   Peppers from seeds I dried,  Red bell peppers and hot banana peppers.  Never tried getting my own seeds before.
   Fingers crossed on if they even start.

Flowers:

Assortment of sunflowers,  at least 6 different kinds.
pansies
a short breed variety pack of some sort

Still need to get some yellow cherry tomato seeds,  and a few more flowers.


Lady across the street is starting some stuff as well,  going to try and get an exchange program started


Greatly expanding the area of the gardens this year,  but it's still gonna be crowded.
Learned alot from the way everything grew last year,  I'll try to plan better this year.

If anything,  it keeps me busy.

[Krlll Mule]

Could someone provide a "posting pics for dummies" tutorial?  The best, easiest way to do so on this forum. Meanwhile, several small furry animals have been gathering together in a cave and grooving with a pict.  MMMWAAAAHHHHAAAAA.......



 



P.s. I have stuff to show....and you too could be a winner! Vegetables rule the world!

[[BTF] Reflex]

When you reply to a post,  there is "Additional Options..."  right under the reply box.

Click that it pulls up an attach box,  you can click 'browse' and point to the file/pic you want to post.


another (more kosher) way would be to use an image hosting service,  and add the link to it using the 'insert image' button just above the smileys.

Code: [Select]

[img]http://www.revengeofthenoobz.info/images/quakenaked2.jpg[/img] would get you...




Hope that helped..   I'm to lazy to find/use an image host,  so I use the attach option and let Quadz host it.  Thanks man! 

[[BTF] Reflex]

BTW, exactly what species of small fury animals are gathered together in a cave?

[Krlll Mule]

My main problem posting pics is the HUGE size.  I've been successful re-sizing with some software and posting, just been a long time.

That odd line about the animals is from a song by Pink Floyd from the album Ummagumma - "Several small species of small fury animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict".   

[[BTF] Reflex]

I know, heard it 20 years ago....  on cassette    Don't do the fast forward-play thing on that song or your head will explode

[|iR|Focalor]

My main problem posting pics is the HUGE size.  I've been successful re-sizing with some software and posting, just been a long time.

That odd line about the animals is from a song by Pink Floyd from the album Ummagumma - "Several small species of small fury animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict".   

You got windows? Then you got paint. Right the click the pic, then click "Edit" (that should open it with Paint), then click on "Image", go down to "stretch/skew". When that comes up, type in the percentage of the original size you want the new size to be. If you fuck up and it's too large or small, go up to "Edit" and click "undo", then repeat the previous process until it's the correct size. Might want to save it as PNG though. Paint doesn't save to JPG very well, it distorts pixels and loses colors sometimes, PNG is pretty lossless.

[|iR|Focalor]

Show me your weed.