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TomatoNut95
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Re: Garden wishlists and ideas for next growing season?

Lol, a portable swimming pool! :)

Does anyone know where I can buy seeds for Big Bertha bell peppers?

MsDDC
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@rainbowgardner Yep, only one downspout. The exterior footprint of my house is 600 square feet, with a flat roof that slopes to the back. Most houses here have only one unless they have a covered porch, then there's a second one for the porch roof. Most people who have rain barrels hook them up to the front porch roof (I don't have a front porch). The problem is the distance to a flat surface and nothing to anchor spouting or connector hoses along it (I've got 9" between the stairwell and the neighbor's fence, and attaching anything to the neighbor's fence is a no go both because it's not mine and because it's literally falling down). I could do a Rain Hog and put the containers flat under my deck, but those things are *expensive.* Right now it looks like the only viable option, so once I replace the deck (underway!), insulate my attic crawl, seal my ducts, and buy my big haul of gardening supplies for spring (the mentioned trellises and supports), I can start saving up for that. :lol:

MsDDC
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On the plus side, on the rain barrel front, at least the city will give me back $2 per gallon of storage up to $1000, so I could get a 150 gallon HOG system for ~$600 out of pocket (almost $900 for 3 50-gallon tanks), plus a little extra for my guy to install them (not much...he's pretty affordable and I can combine with another project).

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@tomatonut Park Seed has them, but it's best if you buy lots of seeds from them at the same time since they ship seeds for a flat $2.99. I buy most of my seeds from them, so paying an extra $3 twice a year for many packs is reasonable, but it more than doubles the price if you buy only one pack of most seeds.

I will say, I highly recommend them. Outside of brussels sprouts seeds that didn't germinate for a probably known reason (below), every single seed I've bought from them has germinated. Literally every one. Like, I put 2 in each starter pot and had to thin every pot! If I put 3 in the ground, I got 3 plants! (ETA) And production was dreamy with everything...as I said elsewhere, my cauliflower (charm) came out around 4 pounds with tight curds, I got 2.5-3 pounds off each broccolini plant (and probably would have got more if I had planted them at the right time), and on and on with huge yields. I learned my lesson and only put only one in each plot this fall, and, still, every single one germinated. And that was after leaving them in my hot patio box for half the summer (I didn't realize the bag I tossed in there after constructing it had the fall seeds in it along with the peat pots...oops...it's black and was in full sun when it was almost 100 outside, so it was certainly REALLY hot in there). They're more expensive than hardware store packs, but the quality shows.

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TomatoNut95
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Park's Seed? Thanks @MsDDC!
You've had experience with cauliflower? Great, can you give me a few pointers on how to get big, beautiful plants?
I don't see how you put up with peat pots. I can't stand them because it doesn't work to 'plant-the-pot-with-the-plant' thing. They don't biodegrade too well. Not to mention they can mold and be mushy when wet. People must have finally complained about them to Bonnie plants, because for some reason they stopped using peat pots on their plants and are now using plastic, thank-goodness. The plastic pots are WAY better, so I can just pop out the plant and plant it, whereas on those stinking peat pots I had to cut off the plastic wrap off the pot, then peel off the peat pot carefully damaging as little roots as possible.

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The peat pots I bought were from Dollar Tree when I had several hours to kill in the suburbs (12 for $1 was too good to pass up since I knew I was late getting things started), so maybe they were just "lower quality?" I had no problem with them breaking down into the soil, HOWEVER, I used a utility knife to cut them along both sides before putting them into the ground, which is what my parents also did. I started my own seeds, in a sunny window where they didn't get mushy since I watered them enough, but not too much, as seems to happen with plants from big-box stores (I recently bought some beautiful potted mums from the Orange one that died within 2 weeks because I only watered them enough, not too much like they were used too).

So, yeah, I had great results with all the brassicas this spring, even with a late start and kinda warm spring. Here's my "county fair" submission (3 pounds 12 ounces on the scale if you can't read it...it's tannish because I didn't clip the leaves over it, but that's only a cosmetic issue, they taste just fine even if they get some sun on them). The broccolini sitting alongside the scale was over 2 pounds, off just one plant mostly from the main stem. I grew the "charm" variety of cauliflower, and aspabroc broccoli, both also from Park Seed.
64901274_10107329236732754_2781828726818603008_o (1).jpg
I...don't really have much advice except they do better in cooler weather (so plant early, earlier than you even think!), need a lot of water (we had a wet spring that was *slightly* warm early but cool later), and they were grown in those raised beds that were about 1/4 filled with good fill dirt last summer, tilled (only to about 6-8" since I have a smallish electric tiller) about a month before planting, and amended with a light topper (not tilled in) of that LeafGro (which would be comparable to any organic plant matter soil amendment).

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I need to get better about posting specifics, since you all are much more interested in this than my neighbors who I bore with the details about the beautiful veggies I gift them.

Average last killing (28F) frost here in DC (National Arboretum, which is thankfully less than a mile from my house, so I have a really good reference point) is March 28, and, in theory, I should have started the brassicas indoors 8 weeks before that date, hardened them off on mild-ish evenings by setting them outside around 4-5 weeks before that date (depending on how the weather went), and transplanted them 2-4 weeks before that date. I *started* them about 4 weeks before that date. But, I got a boost in initial growth due to good seed (good, fast germination) and a nice sunny window. :) So I managed to get them transplanted about a week before that average last frost date, despite being very late starting them, helped along by a mild early spring, so they didn't need hardened off since we never got below 32 (actually much warmer) after that point.

Brassicas take FOREVER to produce in warm weather, so the harvest was quite delayed. They didn't bolt because we had a cool early June, but, according to Facebook, I pulled this guy out on June 23. Don't be me...get started earlier than you think you need to and have an early May harvest in DC (probably April, maybe even March, in Texas). Next year, I'm starting my spring brassicas indoors in early February and plan to have them in the ground before March 10! I'm knocking every piece of wood within my reach right now that no other personal BS comes up and I actually get that done (I'm not fishing for sympathy, but my problem this year was that my dog was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late October and I spent all of November, December, January, and most of February (he outlived his initial prognosis by about two months) trying to balance vet appointments and spending some time with him with not losing my job).

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digitS'
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Brassicas --- I suppose that I shoulda sprinkled slug killer on my August sown bok choy seed bed; the slimy critters made a mess of things!

Can I blame dry, hot weather for the slugs? Other than melting the slug bait by running sprinklers so often - maybe not. I am fairly sure that plant stress encourages aphids. The cabbage plants a little too much out of the irrigation had the most problems with them this year. About half of my 2019 red cabbage split!! The broccoli and those cabbage were in a different location. There was just enough aphids in the top of that broccoli to scar up all the secondary buds after the center had been cut. Those centers weren't very big because summer heat came on strong. Then, I continued cutting the buds and throwing them away as unusable while hoping that this would rid the plants of aphids. Finally had some nice ones by first frost and after.

The brassicas often/always have problems in the heat and dry summer weeks. I've had broccoli make buds when they were only a few inches tall! That was probably a year with spring heat and dry conditions. BTW, those broccoli buds were nipped off and the plants went thru summer and had nice lateral buds in September :).

Most brassicas would not be as resilient, I don't suppose. I've learned that flowering bok choy is fine for the table if you get it before the flowers actually open and choy sum is a veggie that is supposed to be harvested at that stage.

Well, most varieties of choy sum from my garden are so tiny at maturity as to be an almost inconsequential crop. I can't see me going through the mustard greens and pinching back flower shoots hoping that the plants will survive in summer heat and grow some more leaves. I may be learning to like collards. Along with Scotch and Portuguese kale, they can muscle their way through summers ...

Are there some brassicas that work through summers for you? Some that sound good to you that you would like to try?

Steve

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applestar
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- I need a groundHOG proof growing cage.

- I have a plan to build a reverse aviary around the blueberries while moving some of the bushes out from under the neighbors pine trees that have grown too far over them.

- I have a plan to build a StarDome and was originally thinking of using it for the reverse aviary— but I think I want to keep the blueberries in the vicinity of the pine trees where presumably the pine trees will tend to maintain more acid pH, so maybe the StarDome would double as anti brassica pests, including groundHOG.....

- OR I might build a different screened structure in a sunnier location... I had the idea that hail netting/mesh might be small enough to exclude insects? Not sure if that’s true.....

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I just ordered some more seeds . Charger tomatoes, shishito pepper, camaro tomato, biggie chile, Big Jim Numex pepper. I got more seeds from Kitazawa long green eggplant, komatsuna, Soarer cucumber, petch eggplant, gai lan, hon tsai tai, Kuroda carrots, and baby bok choy. The garlic is chilling in the refrigerator to be planted on October 25. Broccoli has not sprouted. I will have to restart seeds again. The next growing season for me is now. It has been raining almost every day for the last couple of weeks and the weeds are coming out again.

The Lions Club came two weeks ago and helped to weed the herb garden. I have added more trench compost and covered it with shade cloth. I planted Okinawan sweet potato and I will let the vines ramble on the shade cloth. More compost is being piled in another part of the herb garden for another trench compost bed.

I need to get an olla for my large pots in the herb garden. They keep turning the water off. I lost the lavender again.

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TomatoNut95
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Lavender is one of the things I want to try next year...any tips on that? So I got on Park Seed website and requested a catalogue. Gonna see what awesome varieties they offer t that might be cheaper than Baker Creek but I may just get from Park what Baker doesn't have, like the Big Bertha- and I noticed they carry Celebrity tomato. Baker has free shipping on their stuff now, but I've noticed an increase in the packet prices to make up for it.

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Not sure if you were asking me, Steve, but brassicas would not make it through the hot, hot summers here in DC. In cooler climes some may go dormant in the summer and then produce in fall, but here they're going to spend all their energy trying to REproduce, aka flower. And they'll stink the garden up smelling all like sulfur (mine STUNK when I pulled them out a few weeks after harvesting that big'un I posted).

My primary pest issues seem different from yours. I've always had some issues with cabbage worms, which are worse this year (it's warm late in the season), but Sevin keeps them in check pretty well (I also shoot-to-kill the butterflies with the hard jet from the hose whenever I see them). I also had a whitefly problem earlier this season, but a couple doses of neem oil and drowning the adults by spraying the plants directly with the hose seems to have that pretty well in check. I need to do both treatments again this week, but the problems are now "minor" rather than "significant." And, well, the plants are still green and growing rapidly, with only small holes in a couple leaves from the cabbage worms and a couple spots (small, not entire leaves) where the whitefly larva sucked too hard, so "significant" is probably more of a personal definition rather than an official one. It's supposed to drop into the 40's for a couple nights next week, and that should alleviate a lot of the problems when coupled with Sevin and neem. Being far away from organized agriculture probably helps, since the pests we have here aren't resistant to Sevin (AFAIK, no one around me even grows decorative brassicas, and I walk around the neighborhood a lot with my dog (yeah, I have a new little guy...can't imagine not having something to slobber on my leg), so I'd see them).

I also don't have much issue with animals that eat plants. Something stole my kale babies in the spring (probably a squirrel), and birds will eat my blackberries if I don't cover them, but we don't have a lot of larger problem animals in my neighborhood (no deer, rabbits, or groundhogs), my dog chases the smaller pests to the point they tend to avoid the yard pretty well (rats, squirrels, and raccoons), and there's an opossum family that comes by my yard from time-to-time helpfully looking for a rat/mouse/bug snack.

I have never grown lavender, so no advice there.

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TomatoNut95
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Cabbage worms are one of my problems on cool weather stuff to. I don't particularly like to use Sevin, but I will if I gotta. I really wish I could grow broccoli because I LOVE that stuff, but I'm just no good at it. With Texas weather, it is either too hot or too cold. The broccoli I tried in the past was ruined by the frost and snow. I only got like four little floret-sized heads off them. Tasty though!

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Cabbage worms? No prob. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) will do it for you, and will get rid of any other caterpillars as well. Just spray it on every week or two.

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If you get Italian Sprouting, De Cicco, or if you can find Comet broccoli, they do o.k. in warmer climates. Seeds should be sown in September to get a Nov-May harvest. The heads are small but they make a lot of side shoots. I don't have a big problem with cabbage butterflies at my house only at the herb garden. At my house, I don't plant anything to attract them and the anole take care of the caterpillars. In the herb garden, the cabbage butterflies go after the kale. I have to cover them with insect netting to keep the damage to a minimum.

Tomato Growers supply also has Big Bertha peppers. Their prices and shipping are reasonable. I like Park Seed but they charge an extra $20 on any order to ship to Hawaii. It is not a shipping cost because that is also added on.

Lavender is a zone 5-8 plant and likes Mediterranean conditions. I grow mostly lavendins and l. multifida which is a zone 10 lavender and will bloom for me 9 months of the year. Multifida is an ornamental lavender and it can be useful as a moth deterrent but it has a musky odor and is not one of the edible ones. Lavender augustifolia like hidcote is an annual as it cannot tolerate the heat of summer very well. The lavendins are a cross between augustifolia and intermedia species and they are more heat tolerant. They only bloom in summer, but they are edible an have a nice fragrance for sachets. I have Provence,
l. stoechas, l. dentata, and Goodwin's Creek. They will grow into 3 foot mounds but new wood needs to be cut back every year and they don't like it when it rains for days and weeks. I keep most of them in pots now so I can move them out of the rain. They don't get as big in a pot.

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dveg wrote:Cabbage worms? No prob. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) will do it for you, and will get rid of any other caterpillars as well. Just spray it on every week or two.
Spinosad has also worked. Neem and insecticidal soap as well but I have found that strong sunlight and agricultural oils can be rough on plants. Find and stop those caterpillars early.

It's been years since I have grown a sprouting broccoli like Calabrese and De Cicco. I recall that I was happy with them. I don't recall bug pressure.

Some summer Asian brassicas? These new hybrids of :) Brussels sprouts (talk about an aphid magnet!)? Some biennial brassica beyond kale and collards? Am I dreaming?

:) Steve

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@tomatonut...I'm also not thrilled with using Sevin, but the neem oil did nothing to the cabbage worms (did great with the whiteflies, but seemed to make the cabbage worms worse!) and Bt has NEVER done anything to them despite multiple tries. Thankfully, I can usually use it only a few times, before the heads start to set, and it does its magic. I've used it, I think, 3 times this fall, and, well, the problem is in check enough that the plants are thriving. I owe y'all an updated pic in the garden progress forum (that big brocc in the one picture is twice as big and will produce soon! And the greens and roots are looking fab!), but I've been crazy busy!

Also, I have to broadcast this everywhere...IT FINALLY RAINED IN DC! I had counted only .35 inches in my rain gauge for all of September, zero for October, and only less than an inch since early August, and it rained 1.3" yesterday (per my gauge, the official local station came up with 1.35" which is close enough). And it's supposed to rain more this weekend, early next week, and maybe again in the middle of next week! I bless the rains up in NE DC!

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@Steve You may well be able to pull that off summer or over-seasoning brassicas in Idaho. I know I could not do it here with temps spiking to 90+ with high humidity for weeks at a time in the summer, but your climate may vary. :) If you have a semi-shady spot (kale, some other greens, and Brussels sprouts will do just fine in partial shade), give it a try and report back!

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The Scotch and Italian kale do survive and will grow slowly right through the summer months. Siberian kale takes a real hit from aphids. Those pests have made all brassica growing somewhat difficult.

Assured summer survival for the brassicas may be limited to the biennials - pests or not.

I have grown gai lan 3 times, I believe. Seed was sown for early season harvest and only one year did it do poorly. It is certainly worth it to me to try a later sowing to see if it may be an exception amongst the annuals for summer performance. In this annual group, broccoli can/might do okay but, as I said earlier, I have not grown the "sprouting" varieties of broccoli for many years. The sprouting types may be better choices for me.

Turnips are a biennial that I have very little experience with. I don't really care for the roots but grew a "leaf" turnip in 2018. In flavor, it was indistinguishable from mustard greens. Perhaps, I should have found satisfaction with that but will probably do some more trails with different varieties.

Steve

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Bt ought to do a good job on cabbage worms. Be aware that the shelf life of Bt is small. Only a year or two. So if you're using old stuff, it won't be that effective.

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There are also some evidence that because of over use issues there may be some Bt resistance. Bt does need to be kept in a cool place. Insect barriers will also work if you can keep them excluded. I only grow broccoli Sept-May so the butterflies are less active at that time of the year. I have gotten rid of the butterfly bush since it attracted too many butterflies to the garden.

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TomatoNut95
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I'm fixing to have to use Sevin. After that last rain the ants built mounds like crazy. One of which is in my garden bed. If it wasn't so close to the rosebush I'd use boiling water, but Sevin will have to suffice.

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Ants are not necessarily bad in your garden -- they aerate the soil and they do not eat healthy living plants. If you have to get rid of them, there are a number of organic methods: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71466&p=403858&hil ... ol#p403858

Also ants like dry warm soil. They hate wet mucky places. You can discourage ants by keeping soil moist and organic-rich, and applying a surface mulch.

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TomatoNut95
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Oh don't worry, my garden is about to be rained on, and I will soon be adding some more dirt, some of which is organic: Miracle Gro Performance Organics. Other will be Miracle Gro Raised Bed soil which is OMRI listed.

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My fire ants like wet soil. In fact they come out and do their mounding after it rains hard. I think that's exactly what you were saying. I don't think moist soil is any kind of discouragement to them. But I agree that ants, especially if they aren't fire ants, are nothing to be afraid of. For fire ants, Amdro is the ticket. It's not just poison, but bait as well. They carry it back to the mounds and kill the whole thing. Sevin isn't bait.

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TomatoNut95
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The ants I'm having trouble with are indeed fire ants, and are worse after rains. :x The reason I use Sevin is to make them move outta my garden. If not for the plants, I'd use the instant-death method of boiling water. :twisted: Anyway, this thread is about stuff for next year, not ant problems. :wink:

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Just FYI, boiling water is instant death for ants just at the very top of the pile. Fire ant mound depths can be many feet. So boiling water might make you feel good, watching ants croak, but it sure isn't going to kill the mound. How does Sevin make them move out of your garden? If they don't eat it, and don't bring it back to their nest, they'll just ignore it. Sure, it'll klll some, but leave all the rest. Yes, this thread isn't about ant problems, but you brought it up.

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I’m spending more time day-dreaming about garden structures — in addition to the STARDOME, I’m currently thinking about the more immediately needed hoophouse and/or coldframe. I also would like to have a garden shed/greenhouse, and even a -covered patio annex. If I can, I’d like to at least get the foundation and structural support posts that need to be buried and/or cemented in place, before the ground freezes.

Because I’m not handy, and on limited budget, I will have to try to do most things myself.

I think I’ve actually run out of time for going ahead with putting together the STARDOME since it will be build with pvc pipe... unless we suddenly have upper 70’s + weather. Especially during the initial assembly, the pvc tubes need to be flexible, so warm day temp would be ideal,

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digitS'
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AppleStar, when I moved to this home 20-some years ago, I brought my lean-to greenhouse from my previous home. I didn't have a south wall suitable so I built a wall - just a wall. The lean-to was small and larger would be nice, so my wall was longer than the greenhouse that first year.

The second year, I replaced the greenhouse with something of a "sunshed." The wall supported an insulated roof and short side-walls extended 5', holding a door and vent at one end and the exhaust fan at the other.

A year or two later, I extended the foundation wall (had planned on that) another 4' to the south. The sunshed now had a sloping south wall and a total area of 9' by 20'.

A neighbor was attracted to my efforts and suggested several years ago that I take over his garden space. I told him that my distant garden provided all the ground that I needed but that I could use some more protected growing here at home. Could I build a small 4' by 8' shed directly "in" our shared board fence and extend an 8' by 10' hoop house out from it for a couple of months during late winter and into the spring, when he wasn't otherwise using that ground for gardening?? He would have the use of the shed and ground for 10 months out of 12. He agreed!

Turned out, I didn't really need that extra protected growing space but the door in the fence was handy and he kinda got what he was hoping for :wink: . We now make use of his gardening area in its entirety each year. Small but, it is right at hand. Nevertheless, the shed-attached hoophouse was very functional during its several years of use.

Functional and pleasant ... you know, our garden plants and their gardeners have similar requirements from the environment - comfortably warm and bright with daylight :D . My greenhouse has a small furnace. The shed-attached hoophouse only held flats of bedding plants on an "overflow" basis. It could be heated on chilly nights with an electric bathroom heater. Sunny spring days, I could open a window and the door so it stayed pleasantly comfortable. I can set it up and dismantle it in several hours :) .

Steve

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Well I already fulfilled a few of my garden wishes for next year.

New portable trellises
Image

Image

Image

Started work on the Hell Strips.
Image


My other ideas/wishes are growing more fruit and less tomatoes and streamlining my peppers to just a few hots and sweets.

I ordered a nectarine tree, Jujube tree "Li" three varieties of honeyberry from Honeyberry USA, I'm going to plant these close about 18" apart. Honey Bee, Aurora Honeyberry and Indigo Gem.

Also ordered more strawberry plants for underneath the fruit trees.

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TomatoNut95
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@dveg, when I use Sevin the ants just move elsewhere. I figure they're like, oh yuck, I'm outta here' and leave. Don't know if it's the taste or smell. As for the boiling water, I know it doesn't destroy the whole mound, so if need be, I pour more than one pan on one mound. Sometimes I'll use the shovel, scoop up most of the mound and chunk over the fence.

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Can’t get over this technique. I’ve seen him doing this in a previous video several years ago, but was waiting to see if he does it again, and it looks like has HAS been doing it — his subtitles explain that cutting all those beautiful tiny seedlings and immediately soaking them in (having them soak up) his home made 天恵緑汁/(cultured mugwort green juice) fortified water, then rooting them in regular potting mix makes them grow into strong seedlings because they absorb symbiotic good microbes through the cut and new roots.

車庫上園芸191112胚軸切断挿し木育苗
Carport Rooftop Gardening 2019-11-12 seedling leaf stage cutting and rooting


...does anyone else think those seedling pots he uses look very useful? I don’t like divided cell trays because I find them difficult to handle, don’t like wasteful empty cells, issues with height management under lights, etc. ... and prefer individual pots, but then they are not as easy to take care of as a group. So far I can only find them online from alibaba and other Far East sources.

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digitS'
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I don't start seed in inserts.

What the guy is doing reminds me of using treepots. However, very shallow treepots. Specifically sized trays are made to hold them. Some are more like racks than trays. The problem is the size of the pots. To start most bedding plants, you don't need a pot 8" or 10" deep, no matter how narrow. Maybe, it would work okay.

Standard 3 1/2" or 4" pots don't work either. I get to those when up-potting of plants in their moves from community container -- inserts in trays -- pots in trays -- garden. Those trays of pots with their rowdy green things now take up LOTS of room!

Okay, inserts can be cut so that they are individual cells. Trays come in various sizes. How not to have a jumbled mess may take some "messing around." I'm heading out to the carport and the stacked inserts and trays to see how things might fit.
November 13, 2019 72709 AM PST_kindlephoto-114589329.png
What do you think about filling a tray with inserts that do not have individual cells? The tray would be filled with 12 of these on the right. Then cutting something like the 6-packs into cells and placing them in those 12. They would hold 72 cells but could be moved around, 6 at a time; separate from the entire flat. If a seedling failed to emerge in a cell, that one cell could be replaced. Consolidation could be in groups of 6.

Steve

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TomatoNut95
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I always start my seeds in plastic six-packs, foam cups or egg cartons. For itty bitty, teeny tiny seeds such as coleus and snapdragons I'll sprinkle in a shallow tray of dirt. After they germinate, I pry the biggest seedlings out and put into individual pots.

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applestar
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digitS' wrote: ...
Okay, inserts can be cut so that they are individual cells. Trays come in various sizes. How not to have a jumbled mess may take some "messing around." I'm heading out to the carport and the stacked inserts and trays to see how things might fit.

Image

What do you think about filling a tray with inserts that do not have individual cells? The tray would be filled with 12 of these on the right. Then cutting something like the 6-packs into cells and placing them in those 12. They would hold 72 cells but could be moved around, 6 at a time; separate from the entire flat. If a seedling failed to emerge in a cell, that one cell could be replaced. Consolidation could be in groups of 6.

Steve
I LIKE this idea! Groups of 6 is definitely manageable, seedlings already decently grown in a 72-cell might be pulled out with intact football to pop in an empty one if those automated planting machine videos are any indication — I wonder if corncob holder prongs are long enough to stab them out? — and putting the 6-pack in an undivided one would strengthen to make them lift able/carry-able maybe?

I have to see if I have the necessary components already. (What I have right now is heavier undivided rectangular containers, but not sure if I have full set to fill a tray). Definitely will be trying it out. :()

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rainbowgardener
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I also want to do something to protect some of my blueberries. I have three bushes of them. I thought I might protect two and leave one for the birds. I don't mind sharing with the birds, but they don't share with me!! :(

I thought I might just use bird netting over some kind of frame, so it isn't touching the bushes.

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applestar
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That’s what I did in the past — my defective design however, made it difficult to get inside and tedious to open and close. You might be more used to opening and closing net-covered bed since you used to do that before to keep critters out.

- I do think netting is frustrating, though — developing and ripe blueberries want to get caught in the netting if accidentally draped/falls anywhere close (wind can blow the netting around, too), and then the square hole pulls the berries right off. ANY berries poking out is fair game — but you know that.

- in my garden, something — squirrels? Chipmunks? GroundHOG? Chewed/ripped holes in the netting, then the clever catbirds would find their way in.

- Also, one year, there was a tenacious chipmunk raiding everything fruit in the garden, and it simply burrowed a tunnel into the securely netting covered blueberry bed. Exit hole was exactly in the center of the bed. :roll:

- I switched from the ubiquitous black plastic netting to fishing net style nylon netting because small animals and birds tended to tangle themselves up in the black plastic one. The nylon netting was also easier to store since it bundled up into volleyball size. I could also put it in a zippered pillowcase and wash it in the washing machine.

- I also switched from netting all the way down to the ground to 2 ft chickenwire fence surrounding the bed and then netting to the top of the fence, because too many critters got tangled in the bunched up draped netting along the ground (and died ...well, I switched after the 3rd one).

- one method I never got around to trying is to pull taut wire frame along the edges then use netting clips designed for the purpose to secure tightly stretched netting to the wire. I will probably go with this method next time and make “netting-stretched panels” In the Fukuberry blueberry farm videos I’ve been watching, he uses a different kind of netting along the vertical perimeters — he calls it windbreak mesh — and only covers the top with what he calls bird netting made of woven nylon, supported by taut wires/cables. He bunches the netting to north side and ties onto the top rail during off-season. So this is a concept I will be considering, too.


...I googled windbreak mesh.

...do they look similar to windscreen mesh?

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Remember, too, that you could plant less desirable for humans but loved by birds berries — like viburnum for instance — and keep all the blueberries for yourselves. :wink:

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TomatoNut95
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Speaking of berries, has anybody ever grown Garden Huckleberries? I was eyeing some from Baker Creek yesterday, but some peoples reviews were complaining about the taste. I was hunting for an easy to grow berry that I could just eat fresh as a healthy snack, or even make a sweet juice from. I was also looking at their Mango Melon(Vine Peach) and some people were fussing about it to.



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