I've got some volunteers coming up!

[gixxerific]

Just checked and there is at least 2 volunteers coming up through the still frozen ground. Not sure what it is yet. Maybe I should take a pic. I think I will let it grow some more. Does this mean it's ready to plant? Not sure on this. It will be in the 40's this week ending in the 50's by Fri but it's also supposed to be int eh mid 20's every night. The volunteers are some kind of green maybe chard I'm not sure it could be spinach or some other lettuce.

Whatever it is I'm taking it as a good sign.

Dono

[The Helpful Gardener]

Not lettuce; probably chard or a brassica like cabbage or such...

HG

[Ozark Lady]

My cabbage and broccoli were eaten up by aphids and worms last year. So, I didn't harvest the lacy creations left by the bugs.
I didn't protect them, and I didn't pull them out.

I noticed, just the other day, the cabbages, look a bit rough, but they were always rough looking, but, they are still green and alive... even after weeks of snow setting on them.

Chives, Egyptian onions, garlic (that I missed), daffodils and tulips are all showing green. And some cold hardy weeds are already popping up too.

So, what did you plant last year, that could be a perennial, or biennial?

[rainbowgardener]

chard often overwinters. Love that stuff!

[garden5]

chard often overwinters. Love that stuff!

How do you overwinter swiss chard ? I've never heard of that before. Do you just cut it back and mulch it with straw before the frost?

[gixxerific]

I would like to say it's chard. I cut everything off at ground level and leave the roots in the ground to feed the soil. So it could be anything. It really doesn't look like chard leaves though. I should go take a pic.

Looking at my pics of last year I had chard growing there last year so that must be it. I also had spinach there does that overwinter? I wish my veggie garden would defrost, the flower garden in the front yard are nice and loose and thawed. What can I expect though it's not even march yet.

here are some pics any guesses.
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC03380.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC03381.jpg[/img]

[Ozark Lady]

I got a mystery, volunteer today in my seedlings...

Inside, in new bagged soil... I planted ancho peppers, and had, germination in... 5 days...

But, upon closer inspection... I only planted 6 seeds, and there are all 6, not germinating...

But, something huge is growing... Looks like a melon, cucumber, squash? No idea! But it is big... So I am curious, I am going to pot it up, and return my peppers to the germinating...

I have absolutely no clue what could have contaminated my seed starting.. but it was big...

Oh no... I have a cantaloupe in the kitchen, and I took the seeds out of it..
could I have gotten a seed on my lid? Maybe while checking for germination? Ha ha... funny.

If I did, that sure was ready to grow!

[jmoore]

I planted some dill seeds in a planter that had Mesclun mix in it last fall. The dill is barely poking through now, but I've got some apparently left over Mesclun mix in there too. I don't know how they survived because I left that planter on the front porch all winter, through snow, ice, freezing temps, and everything. But they are growing. So I give them a big thumbsup. We'll eat them!

[gixxerific]

Some plants are very hardy, look at weeds. I believe it was Arugula in mine but I just covered it all up with a thick layer of compost and I'm not done yet. If they survive more power to them if not oh well Something will take it's place. Probably a weed.

[jal_ut]

Many plants will seed themselves in your garden if you let them. Next spring they will come up from the seed that was dropped on the ground.
Varieties I have seen do this include (but not limited to): spinach, chard, lettuce, arugula, radish, dill, cilantro, and sometimes squash and corn. What went to seed in your garden?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Some permaculturist type gardens rely on this type of seeding to start crops for the next season. You should strongly consider not harvesting some of your crop to allow for seed production, saving some and scattering some. In no-till style gardens this can help with both a bumper crop and seasonally hardy genes being reproduced.

Ain't Nature grand?

HG

[applestar]

Yep. I have great hopes this spring for self-reseeding lettuce, arugula, chervil, broccoli, dill, and calendula. I already know borage, Japanese parsley, and Red shiso (as well as lambs quarters) will come up, as will, no doubt, more tomatoes.

The greatest challenge with this method is being able to RECOGNIZE the seedlings. Part of the *lesson* is to study up on ID'ing the most common WEED SEEDLINGS in your garden.

[gixxerific]

I can't remember to much to to seed last year Jal. I know my mustard greens did. But I don't think my aurgula did. But I cut everything off at ground level and didn't till so that may have something to do with it as well.

I feel you Apple on the tomato volunteers that is almost expected. If I don't get them something went wrong. That worry's me a bit to because of all the Cherry tomatoes that fell last year, you know the super productive ones. I could have 2 million cherry tomato plants.

[rainbowgardener]

Everywhere I put compost in planting holes I get volunteer tomatoes and often volunteer squash as well and there's always a squash plant or two growing out of the compost pile.

The nicotiana does not sprout from the compost but it does reseed it self in the ground around where the plants were last year and occasionally pops up somewhere else as well. OzarkLady, you grow tobacco. Nicotiana is ornamental tobacco. Does your regular tobacco reseed itself freely like that? Or don't you ever let it go to flower and seed? Seems like you would never have to buy tobacco seed again if you just let some flower...

[Ozark Lady]

In tobacco growing, we bag the flower heads, it is self fertile, so does not need the bees etc. to pollinate it. If you don't bag the flower heads you will get crosses, that might not be what you want. Controlled crosses are one thing, random crosses aren't so good.

And I do believe in diversity, so I bag several flowers of each type of tobacco. It doesn't take but one growing season to have a lifetime supply of tobacco seeds, then you just trade to get other types!

I also trade alot of tobacco seeds for other things, my most recent trade is for.... mushroom mycelium... ha ha... cool huh?

Don't discount the ornamental nicotianas either. A lot of tobacco is too high in nicotine, so the ornamental is used to mellow it out. And they are all beautiful plants.

I was just working on a tomato bed, from last year, which is peas and garlic this year. I piled it high with leaves all winter, and just moved them as I planted it, and worked my way down the bed. Today was finish the bed, install pea supports, and fertilize the bed in general.

I ran smack into a decision... There are volunteer tomato plants up all over that bed, some bigger than what I am raising inside!
I found the tags, that bed was hybrids last year. They sure are healthy looking babies, and the leaves didn't even phase them at all.

So, being the curious type and liking volunteer plants, I just moved them away from the peas and garlic, and put them in the unplanted (by me) part of the bed, and am going to just let them go. Who knows what the seed will revert to. Somewhere, I can't remember where, I read that even the hybrids at the store, are not really hybrids at all and will reproduce true to the plant. So, I guess, I am testing this theory?
I had beefsteak and cherry tomatoes in that bed, could be an interesting cross? Could be one or the other, or it could be a parent to one or the other used to make the hybrid... hmmm?

I didn't intend to grow any nightshade plants in that bed at all. But, seems they had their own idea...

[jmoore]

I've got what appears to be a squash plant of some sort coming up. I couldn't get my squash to do anything last year. They would barely sprout and then promptly croak. It's kind of amazing that this thing is doing so well. It's probably 8" tall and very healthy looking (so far).

[gixxerific]

I love volunteers. I have them all over not sure what they all are yet. a lot of them are peas I think just here and there.

I tilled up one section of my garden last year that had strawberries in it. They never did ANYTHING while I was trying to grow them. So I ripped most of them out and tilled the rest in. So go figure in the middle of my lettuce bed I have strawberries coming up.

[Ozark Lady]

Oh, I understand with strawberries. I killed them year in and year out.

Folks kept telling me, they are a weed, they will even grow in your compost pile, they are invasive.... Sure they are, I couldn't get one to even live for one year!

Well, that has changed, they live, they grow, and they are escaping and popping up everywhere. If this keeps up, I may one of the folks saying, "They are a weed, they grow everywhere!" Not there yet, but they sure are determined this time. This is third year.

[soil]

I find its easiest to identify young veggie plants from weeds is the cotyledons. for an example brassicas are easy to spot out.

the best way to learn personally is just let a plant of each go to seed, see how it actually finishes its cycle. as an added bonus from the knowledge you gained you get more seed than you will know what to do with. one plant can produce hundreds if not thousands of seeds depending on the plant your growing.