Tennessee 2023 Garden

[Gary350]

250 Candy Onion seeds arrived in the mail today. There is nothing growing in the East green house -2°f temperatures killed the tiny carrot plants. I worked on the soil, added fertilizer, then sprinkled the candy onion seeds on the surface, then sprinkles compose over the seeds. My yard sun dial shows sun today is at 38.4 degrees at 11:54 am solar 12 noon, up from 30.5 degrees Dec 21. Very sunny 43°f out side and 150°f inside the green house. Glass needs to stay open on sunny days to let out most of the heat. I'm not sure how long it takes onion seeds to germinate, I hope to see plants in about 3 weeks. This is Plan A. I hope Amish Garden store has candy onion plants this year I might need some, this is Plan B. Farmers Co-op always has candy onion sets, I hope I don't need to buy sets this year, this is Plan C.

The upside down fish aquarium had potatoes growing in it but -2°f killed them. I removed the fish aquarium to see if there are still seed potatoes in the soil but it is full of fire ants. These little 1/4 ants are evil, stings burn like fire and itch like poison ivy. Vinegar washes the sting away. Camera setting is too grainy ants can't be seen, the dark places are ant shadows, sun is low ants make big shadows. I need to move fish aquarium to a different location. I hope fire ants don't find the green house 2 ft away. I had these ants in 3 places last year, I need to put red flag markers on each fire ant hill to remember to stay away from them. I hope ants eat bug eggs & bugs.

98 garlic plants are dead -2°f killed them. I dug into the soil looking for garlic cloves all I can find is several places that look like mash potatoes. I wonder if its too late to plant garlic again. We have a lot of garlic in the pantry, only way to know if garlic can be planted now is, do it.

Winter onions to the right of garlic are doing good, I knew they would do good. We had winter onions in Illinois they never died no matter how cold it got. I have 125 plants in a 20" x 32" space. They will make about 30 to 50 seed bulbs on top of very plant = about 5000 onion sets. Winter onions = Egyptian Onions all my relatives grew them, they had the same onions for 40 years. 1 or 2 of these smaller onions has the flavor of 1 tennis ball size grocery store onion.

Potato plants in the West green house grew to 3" tall and stayed 3" tall for 2 weeks. I put about 3 tablespoons of 6-12-12 fertilizer in a gallon of water then poured the water around the potato plants. 3 days later potato plants are 11" tall. No more nitrogen, only P & K for a while.

I made 1 more Blue Bird house and put it at the end of the onion, garlic row. I made floor space inside a tiny bit larger like the video I saw. Bird house is out in the open, wait and see which of the 10 blue bird houses blue birds like.

[Gary350]

Has the forum changed or is this our new fiber optic AT&T internet, I am seeing things on the forum I have never seen before.

I had to put 12 glasses of garlic in a large plastic tub with a lid, garlic stinks the house up terrible like the worlds worse Fart. Wife said, open all the doors let this stink out. I have 34 garlic so far growing in potting soil. I take garlic outside every day to get sunlight.

[Gary350]

2 more weeks before I can plant 350 candy onion plants. I planted 58 late hard neck garlic today, -2°f weather killed my other garlic plants. I have, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chard, growing in 1 gallon pots. I planted a 25 ft row of Pac choy,60 seeds. I planted 300 candy onion seeds in the tiny green house weeks ago plants are 4" tall. I will plant, tomato seeds and pepper seeds in the other tiny green house March 1st. No winter weather here it was 71°f today with 30 mph wind.

[Gary350]

Today I finished planting more garlic. I planted 56 garlic yesterday, 39 garlic today, 95 total. I had to buy more Walmart hard neck garlic some is growing already. I have never planted garlic this late, wait and see how well it grows.

Today the Amish garden store had Candy Onion plants $7 per bundle of 75 plants. Bundles are larger this year. I only bought 2 bundles it looks like about 200 plants. I am planting onion plants in a pot of potting soil until March 1st. Cold front is moving in tonight, it is 73°f now, we have tornado warnings until 9 pm.

[Gary350]

Yesterday started out cold and very dark over cast, both tiny green houses were 65°f inside. I was in & out of the house several times and kept watching to see if clouds are going to leave or stay all day. Lunch time it was still very dark & over cast then 30 minutes later I notice, NO clouds and sun is very bright. I ran outside and it was 160°f in both green houses. I removed the glass very quick. Most of the onion tops are dead. Onions down in the soil might grow new tops. Fire ants have found this green house and they built a large soil mound. Some of the potato leaves in the other green house are dead but potato plants are basically ok, plants must tolerate heat better than other plants. Both green houses need a double acting switch on the thermostat so fan comes on when it is too hot and heat comes on when it is too cold. A 10 foot square green house dedicated to grow 40 broccoli plants and 40 cauliflower plants would be great but math says, no way. It will cost $2500 to build a nice double thermopane glass green house with heat & AC, that $2500. will buy a lot of grocery store broccoli & cauliflower.

[Gary350]

Today I pulled up all the carrots to make room for onions tomorrow. 6-12-12 fertilizer is too much nitrogen for carrots they were covered with hairy roots. Carrots will probably do better with 1-10-10 fertilizer. Several carrots had worm holes on the pointed ends, some carrots were eaten up with worms. I cut wormy ends off and wiped away hairy roots. I didn't know carrots have worm problems. Wife had a pork roast cooking so she put 1/2 the carrots and 2 potatoes in the pot with the pork roast.

[Gary350]

Feb 28, today I planted onions. I built a 5 row template this made planting 38 rows very fast. There are 20 rows of candy onions plants and 18 rows of candy onion sets. There are 7 onions in each row. 140 plants + 126 sets = 267 onions. There is an 8' plank space in the onion bed, I did not buy enough plants or set to fill it up. I was expecting more than 60 onion sets in the 2 sealed bags, sets were very large about 3 times larger than normal. I was expecting about 150 sets in each bag.

Plants will grow 3" diameter onions and sets will grow 2¼" to 2½" diameter onions. 21-0-0 fertilizer for 6 weeks will make plants grow about 10 leaves = 10 rings. Then 0-20-20 fertilizer for 6 weeks will grow large bulbs. Harvest is usually June 15.

I notice some of the garlic I transplanted to the garden several weeks ago died so I planted more. This should be 98 garlic plants.

76°f today, no clouds in the sky, no wind, it feels like May 10. I see the moon in the blue sky.

[Gary350]

Strawberry plants are full of chickweed and grass, this looks like an all day job to pull up all the grass & weeds. It turned out weeds are the perfect size to pull up, each plant grows like the spokes of a wheel from the main root. I felt around with my finger to find the main root then the whole plant pulls up easy. This turned out to be a 50 minute job. I should have taken a before and after picture. You can see the pile of weeds to the right of the strawberry row. I think chickweed is 1 of those plants that puts all its remaining energy into making seeds as it dies. Where ever I allow plants to die there will be a 100 billion chickweed seeds there. I think these plants need to be far away from the garden.

[Gary350]

Today I did a quick 20 minute till to kill chickweed in the garden. Clay corner still has too much clay. I need to till a whole pickup truck load of ground up tree leaves into clay corner. Chickweed won't stay dead until we start having 98% less rain.

[Gary350]

Today I bought bulk fertilizer at, Farmers Co-op.

46-0-0 is $28 for a 50 lb bag. Used mostly for corn.

6-12-12 is $16 for a 50 lb bag. Used for, beans, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, melons, garlic.

21-0-0 is $25 for a 50 lb bag. Used only for onions.

0-20-20 is $29 for a 50 lb bag. Used for, onions, potatoes, tomatoes.

Total cost $98. fertilizer will last 3 years, maybe longer = $33 per year.

Tomatoes & potatoes don't like much nitrogen so they get mostly 0-20-20 fertilizer + tiny amount of nitrogen.

Beans, peppers, will get enough 46-0-0 added to 6-12-12 to create 12-12-12 fertilizer.

Corn gets 46-0-0 + very small amount of 6-12-12.

After a week of rain onions, garlic & strawberries probably need fertilizer today. Plants need fertilizer once a week.

[imafan26]

Your fertilizer is cheaper than mine, but I have to pay more for having it shipped here. 21-0-0 was $33 for 20 lbs when I bought it this year. It will last a while. The last bag lasted almost 5 years, but I have expanded my garden so it may not last as long. I have a lot of different fertilizers, some organic that I bought this year. They were more expensive as well. The only other fertilizer I buy regularly is Miracle grow ( I just bought 2 boxes at Costco for 24.99 each for 10lb box), I also get 6-4-6 citrus food 20 lbs for 22.97 and 10-20-20 42.97 for 20 lbs. This should last a while as I don't like to use it much and haven't used it in years. It is just cheaper than buying potassium online in 4 lb boxes.

[Gary350]

First harvest of the year was Sunday, I decided to use winter onions in BBQ beans. This variety of winter onions taste better than winter onions I grew about 10 years ago. I don't think winter onions every grow larger than golf balls. I have 150 onions planted in a very small space about 20" x 32". Winter onions solves several problems, I never need to buy onion plants or onion sets every again. I never need to worry about storage onions can stay in the garden year round. Leave all the onions in the garden until we need some to cook. I remember grandmother pouring water on onions to melt snow and ice in winter so she could put up a few onions for dinner. -2°f temperatures does not kill winter onions. My grandparent grew the same patch of 500 winter onions in Illinois for 40 years. Winter onions reseed themself the tops grow about 30 sets each every year. 150 winter onions will grow about 150 x 30 = 4500 onion sets every year. Winter onions = Egyptian walking onions multiply very fast. I don't know if onion flavor stays the same in 100°f hot summer desert weather but I will find out in June.

My candy onions are looking better after a whole week of ran. Tornados ended Saturday morning about 7 am. I bought 3 bundles of candy onion plants and 2 bags of candy onion sets. 7 rows with 74 onions in each row, cost about $25.

Garlic that I replanted a month ago is growing. -2°f killed all my garlic in Dec. I have no clue what to expect from this.

Wooden frames are not raised beds. I used wooden frames on strawberries several weeks to hold up tarps so they don't lay on the plants in freezing weather. Wooden frames are levees to hold in 20 gallons of water once a week for onions. Wooden frames will hold in water for potatoes when finally planted about May 1st.

[imafan26]

The onions look. I did grow bulbing onions, but it is hard to grow them in the tropics. I grow bunching onions instead. Bunching onions and leeks are easy for me to grow in gallon pots and they live for years. I treat them as a cut and come again crop. I use the onion tops like you do in dishes and as garnish. The older onions can be tough so they are o.k. for cooking. I grow younger onions with skinny leaves for garnishing. It is cold now so many of my onions are blooming. I used to think I had to pull them up after they bloomed, but I found out they are actually longer lived here. They bloom because it is cold, not because they are at the end of their life cycle.

[Gary350]

Today I decided it is time to make potato cuttings so they have a minimum of 1 week to cure. I cut as many 1 eye cuttings as I could. There are a few 2 eye and 3 eye cuttings. I tried not to make cuttings smaller than 1". 108 Red Norland cuttings. 86 white Kennebec cuttings. 10 Generic Yellow cuttings. Total of 204 seed cuttings. In the past best I could grow was 1 lb of new potatoes per plant. This year with irrigation and the correct soil I hope to get 4 lbs of new potatoes per plant. 204 x 4 = 816 lbs of new potatoes.

I already have plans to give away about 600 lbs of potatoes to people that need food if I actually have that many to give away.

[imafan26]

It is great that you are sharing.

[Gary350]

No rain this morning so I inspected the garden. Moles have returned onions have tunnels every where. No tunnels in the strawberries??? Tunnels in the yard. Sometimes onion plants fall into the mole tunnels, if I loose several onions to moles we still have plenty of onions. Moles never kill or eat onions soil is gone under the onions. Strawberry plants have 3 almost ripe berries. There was 112 strawberry plants in Oct., too many leaves to count plants now. Many plants have, 5, 6, 7, green strawberries. Looks like maybe 3 plants have no berries. I started out with 12 plants and 2 died they multiplied to 112 plants. If there are 100 plants now there will be a 1000 plants by Oct. I think 100 plants will make about 500 ripe strawberries. Storms forecast for tonight and storms with hail and tornados forecast for tomorrow night. I should probably cover strawberry plants today about 6 pm if garden is mud tomorrow it won't be easy to cover strawberry plants. My grandmother use to say, nothing will eat a strawberry plant but birds love the berries, I wonder how true that is? Maybe bird nets will be better for strawberries than white nets, do berry blossoms need to be honey bee pollinated? Garlic is still small but growing. I figured out an easy way to cover strawberry plants with nets, see picture. I can't see through white color nets I wonder if sunlight can get through.

[imafan26]

Yes, strawberries need to be pollinated usually by bees. It takes 15-20 visits to fully pollinate a strawberry flower.

[Gary350]

Today I planted, 8 cauliflower, 13 broccoli, 2 red chard, 1 Russian kale, in garden row 21. I put seeds in several 2 gallon pots a month ago and this is what grew. Plants are under a shade tree so they start getting full shade starting at 12 noon hottest time of the day. I hope keeping hot sun off these plants broccoli & cauliflower will not turn to seeds.

I will try this again about Aug 15, I wonder if seeds will germinate in 100°f temperatures? It would be nice to have 40 broccoli & 40 cauliflower in the freezer.

[Gary350]

I planted 192 seed potato cuttings today.

[Gary350]

We decided we want some Red onions, so I planted 70 Red onions.

[Gary350]

Carrot seeds are easy to grow in 10 gallon pots of soft potting soil. I pulled up a 1" diameter carrot and ate it. No I did not wash it first, I just wiped the dirt off. No need to thin out 350 seeds eat the big 1" diameter carrots it makes room for small carrots to grow larger.

[Gary350]

Last week winter potato plants died, today I dug up 2¼ lbs. of new yellow potatoes. Potato peelings with sprouts were planted Jan 15. Original potatoes came from a grocery store.

[Gary350]

Today I planted 4 different kinds of tomato plants. 3 different kinds of pepper plants. 3 herbs. Our last frost is 1 week away and we are already having 70° and 80°f weather. Today I also planted watermelons and cantaloupes. My entire garden in planted except beans & corn and I might plant them if weather show 7 days in a row of warm weather..

About 25 years ago we had exceptionally warm spring weather I planted my entire garden April 1st. That may have been the same summer when we had record breaking 107° & 109°f temperatures for 2 weeks. Last summer we had record breaking 100°f for a month with drought warning & burn band every day.

[Gary350]

Broccoli, Cauliflower, kale, chard are doing good.

4 tomato plants are good but the rest seem to be dying. Leaves had rust color stuff on the leaves when I bought the plants and it is getting worse.

Peppers are looking good so far.

10 watermelon & 10 cantaloupe seeds have not germinated yet.

I planted my potato cuttings too soon I only let them dry 3 days. I should have waited 7 days. Oh well 151 of the 192 plants are coming up.

Onions are doing good but garlic is dying. -2° killed my garlic, I replanted & they are dying. We still have some garlic left in pantry from last year.

I am doing Arizona type irrigation. We already have a burn band garden is very dry. We have frost warnings for Sun mornings. Crazy weather 3 weeks of 70° & 80° weather in Feb & March then 3" of rain every day for a few weeks, now its to dry.

[applestar]

I feel like every ody’s gardens are well on their way, and I need to get going!

I’m very impressed by the potatoes and carrots you are harvesting. Looks like you found the right methods.

[imafan26]

looks really good. You have carrots. My carrots are just baby carrots. They may not get any bigger.

[Gary350]

looks really good. You have carrots. My carrots are just baby carrots. They may not get any bigger.

10 gallon pots full of potting soil is the trick to growing carrots. I am growing 1/2 long carrots. I see lots of YouTube videos people growing long carrots in pots. 5-20-20 fertilizer seems to be the best fertilizer. 350 seeds sprinkled on the top surface of potting soil then 1/2" of potting soil to cover the seeds. Never thin carrots. Pull up the 1" diameter carrots this makes room for smaller carrots to grow larger. There are lots of empty 30 gallon plastic barrels on market place $10 each, cut them in 1/2 to make 15 gallon pots. This will work in fall weather too.

[Gary350]

I feel like every ody’s gardens are well on their way, and I need to get going!

I’m very impressed by the potatoes and carrots you are harvesting. Looks like you found the right methods.

10 gallon pots work great for carrots. Carrots must be heavy feeders they need a lot of P&K. Too much nitrogen carrots have 100s of harry roots.

[Gary350]

This is a picture of my 2023 garden. I went to https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/azel.html to check sun elevation for every month day of the 21st. Dec 21/22 is shortest day of the year, June 21/22 is longest day of the year. Find compass on your phone it will tell you your GPS location. Type in your GPS North at the link above it will show you the elevation of the sun at your house. Last year I must have been brain dead I did not plant anything according to how tall plants are and will they shade other plants, I have done that for years. This year I made a garden drawing with sun elevation. I did best I could so tall plants do not shade short plants. Last year 2 rows of peppers & 1 row tomatoes side by side was too much shade all 3 rows suffered. Row 19 this year beans will be ok 65 day crop will be harvested when peppers are 3' tall & tomatoes are 5' tall, not much shade for beans. If you go to google.maps type in your GPS numbers for N & W you can see your own garden, zoom IN, click earth view. If you want someone to see your garden give them your GPS numbers. Our TN sun is 73° at its highest elevation.

I clicked my drawing it got larger, I clicked it again & it got very large.

[imafan26]

I grow carrots in pots. Once they did get to a decent size. But most of the time they only get to be baby carrots. The main garden does not grow good root crops because of the high nitrogen. I probably need to use a different fertilizer for root crops in containers.

[Gary350]

I grow carrots in pots. Once they did get to a decent size. But most of the time they only get to be baby carrots. The main garden does not grow good root crops because of the high nitrogen. I probably need to use a different fertilizer for root crops in containers.

There are several YouTube videos that say, carrots are heavy feeders. Carrots need 5-20-20 fertilizer once a week, about 1/4 cup per 10 gallon pot. If I forget to fertilize I get pencil diameter carrots. Carrots need a lot of sunlight and water every day. If carrots have 100s of hairy roots that means too much nitrogen. I buy 0-20-20 fertilizer then add very small amounts of nitrogen sometimes.

[imafan26]

I water almost everyday except when it rains heavily. But I don't fertilize every week. That may be one of the problems.

[Gary350]

I found several good yard sale treasures this morning. 10 gallon pot for $1 will be planted with 500 carrots about Aug 15. Garden sprayer was $5, my old spray has gone bad and new sprayers are $80. I have been wanting hand clippers like these but not for $35, these were only 50 cents. Battery charger was $1, I need this for the lawn mower the engine has no alternator. Another set of battery jumper cables we will now have a set in all 3 vehicles. I never know that I need something until I find one for $1. Wife bought 3 items also $1 each. And Hardie's breakfast at 10 am.

[Gary350]

I am always surprised how mother nature gets much better results than me watering garden plants. I moved my garden hose to a different location, it is now connected to the main water line coming from the street, now I get a lot more water per minute than before. Look the 1st picture was taken yesterday morning, 2nd picture was taken this morning. It rained all night. My puny 10 minute water with the hose is nothing compared to all night rain. Potato plants have grown double in size over night. Yesterday I counted 161 plants and today 161 plants. Larger plants are harder to count leave hide the stalks. Some potatoes grew a cluster of 4, 5, 6, plants, I am counting them as 1 plant because they all come from the same seed potato. It is time to mulch with pine needles, this will be a very slow job getting pine needles down below all the plant leaves. 2nd thought maybe taller plants will be easier to mulch leaves will be much higher up. I want 4" to 6" of mulch to block sun from making green potatoes.

[imafan26]

Yes, nothing beats rain water. Plants don't like chlorine or flouride either.

[Gary350]

It warmed up to 70°f today. I saw 1 white color butterfly so I covered broccoli & cauliflower with bug net.

Is it ok for plant leaves to touch the net?

[imafan26]

It's ok. There is only a problem if the plant is still growing because it will start pushing against the net.

[Gary350]

Our weather has suddenly switched from too cold to too hot over night. Time to pull up all the carrots before hot temperatures make woody carrots. Aug 15 I will grow 1000 carrots in 3 ten gallon pots they should be ready to harvest about Nov. 7 am this morning it is already 70°f and expected to be near 90° by 3 pm. Garden is dry as desert already.

Yesterday I experimented with watering potatoes & onions. 6 buckets of water, 5 gallons per bucket = 30 gallons, is barely enough water to wet the soil where potatoes & onions grow. 30 more gallons, then another 30 gallons, then 10 more gallons, finally soil looks wet. Potato plants need 100 gallons of water and onions need 100 gallons of water also. No wonder my 10 minute water job with the garden hose does almost nothing compared to rain.

I have moved my garden hose to a different location. It is now connected to the main water line that supplies water to our house. My stop watch shows I can fill a 5 gallon bucket in 45 seconds = 100 gallons in 15 minutes.

Strawberries are getting ripe faster now that temperatures are near 70°f. I pick berries about 7 am and again about 7 pm. I am getting about 1 quart of berries every day. I have picked about 1 gallon of berries so far. Wife has strawberry short cake with ice cream & whip cream planed for dinner. Strawberries are tricky to find, I am getting better at it. Unhooking bird net 4 ft each time it irritating.

We have way too many onions, we can eat them small & tops too and stull have enough plants to grow into 250 tennis ball size onions.

I can't figure out what garlic is doing? 1 minutes it appears to be dead then few days later it looks good. Today 50 plants look very good & the other 50 plants look dead. I see no bulbs yet. -2°f weather killed the first crop. Second crop is looking weird.

[Gary350]

May 10. Yesterday evening I planted 4 rows of G-90 bicolor sweet corn, 1 row of blue lake bush beans, 1 row of Roma Flat Pod beans. If you can't grow snow pea pods you should be able to grow flat pod beans in 55 days. Leave a few pods on the plants you will have saved seeds for next year. I am surprised after 5" of rain soil dried up so quick it was easy to till and plant. It was 87° and full sun that dried the soil up quick. About 4 pm I see soil changing color from dark wet soil to very light brown dry soil. I tilled 6 rows in about 20 minutes then pulled a string for each row and used my seed spacing templates to plant seeds. I have templates for, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" spacing. Templates save me a lot of time and work I can have any spacing I need, 4x5 = 20, 4x6=24, 3x6=18, 3x7=21, etc. I started planting seeds after dinner and was finished an hour later.

Corn, 4 rows 32 ft long, seed spacing 5", 54 seeds per row, 32" between rows, = 216 seeds.

Roma flat pod beans, seed spacing 3", 25 ft row, 100 seeds.

Blue lake bush beans, seed spacing 3", 32 ft row, 128 seeds,

Broccoli is growing heads but it is hot in the 80s already. Plants are under a shade tree plants get early morning sun then full shade 12 noon to dark. I hope this delays plants going to seed long enough to get a few good size broccoli and cauliflower. Chard & Kale are both good on sandwiches.

Potatoes look good, more plants keep coming up filling in blank spaces. I'm not sure if all 192 cuttings grew but it looks like it. Plants are about 28" tall.

Onions should start growing bulbs about now day length is right for growing large bulbs. Several plants have 9 to 11 leaves. Red onions were planted 1 month late they will probably never grow large as the candy onions.

Warmer weather is making more riper strawberries. I picked a quart yesterday evening. I have to pick morning & evening now. We have probably eaten 1½ gallons so far and 2 quarts in the frig waiting to be eaten.

Pics R uploaded N random order.

[applestar]

Looking good .
I really couldn’t manage the early spring planting for spring harvest, so I’m vicariously enjoying your successes!