User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I group all plants with similar requirements together.iinitially after bringing them inside, I diligently spray them morning and night (or at least first thing in the morning :wink: ) to simulate dew and rain since they have been acclimated to the regular fall rains for the past month or so. I do taper off as the winter deepens and some of them seem to go into semi dormancy around mid-winter. I resume regular misting after they start leafing out -- usually early Feb or so. I tend to keep an open container of water near the various groupings, mainly to let chlorine gas out before watering but I believe they help to elevate humidity if only slightly.

This year, I'm adapting [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=171992#171992]Kisal's humidity tray idea[/url] by elevating the containers above the bottom of the drip trays.

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

propagated thornless blackberries, loganberries, boysenberries, fall gold raspberries, more strawberries, mulched, cleaned the greenhouse, saved mullien seed, planted lettuce seed, and the day is only half done :lol:

User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I decided to let mother nature take the garden it is going to be in the 20s every night for 5 days and I am getting tired of covering the tomatoes and peppers up every night then uncover them the next day.

I picked about 3 gallons of green tomatoes and about 10 pink tomatoes that are almost ripe. Maybe a few will get ripe in the house.

I picked almost 3 gallons of green chili peppers. I'm not sure if chili peppers will turn red in the house. I know a green chili is are hotter than the red ones but I want to make red chili powder. Green chili powder is weird looking it is just as good and just as hot as red.

User avatar
organically_me
Full Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 11:33 am
Location: Midwest Zone 5b

That humidity tray idea sounds great! Thanks. I'll be scanning around the place tomorrow to see what I can find to use. It might end up being an upside down garage sale plate. Oh, or an unused planter bottom!

DeborahL
Green Thumb
Posts: 543
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:40 pm
Location: Coastal Southern California

I planted Sparkler radishes today, a change from Cherry Belles.
I plant radishes for my rabbits-they love radish greens.

garden5
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 3062
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:40 pm
Location: ohio

HG and RG, thanks for the explanation. Do people grow them mainly for the floral aspect or for the edible aspect?

DDF, thanks for the link.

Darn it, Soil! You are making me hungry. All of those berry plants you have sound delicious! I'm sure you have blueberries, as well, don't you?

I was going to ask why you potted the strawberry runners when you were just going to plant them in the garden, but then it occurred to me that you probably want them in a certain area.

From your last post, I'm assuming that the time to propagate berry plants is late fall? Of course, I get snow by Dec., so it may be different for me.

I really want to do strawberries next year, so I'm trying to glean all the info I can about them right now (as you've probably noticed).

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

I spent the day collecting all the potting soil my wife grows flowers in. I put all of it into one large container, add organic fertilizer and other organic materials to replace nutrients and minerals depleted during the summer. I let the pile age and stabilize over the winter and use it again next year. I do it every year and the flowers my wife grows love it.

I also started placing paving stones between my garden beds. I get tired of walking in mud during rainy periods as I work on my beds.

Ted

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Paving stone pathways -- I wonder if that will result in

>> MULCHING EFFECT=Cooler and moisture retention in soil in the paths -- benefit the plants in the raised beds?
>> More heat reflecting up?
>> Warming up earlier in spring due to thermal mass?
>> Sustained heat during the summer?

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

Darn it, Soil! You are making me hungry. All of those berry plants you have sound delicious! I'm sure you have blueberries, as well, don't you?
haha yea 4 varieties. each finishing at a different time so eat blueberries for breakfast for weeks on end.

I was going to ask why you potted the strawberry runners when you were just going to plant them in the garden, but then it occurred to me that you probably want them in a certain area.
both. if every runner rooted the area would become quite congested, eventually the patch can get so thick the fruit gets this moldy rot. so I root the runners, plant them where I want more strawberries, give them away, or sell them. when the plants have space they produce a lot better imo. I get them about 8-10 inches apart, but I have various other things growing in that space like chamomile for example.
From your last post, I'm assuming that the time to propagate berry plants is late fall? Of course, I get snow by Dec., so it may be different for me.
you could probably still do it, though I suspect for heavy snowfall the fall would be best, but spring is an option. the only problem with that is that you don't have established plants to plant in the spring(though fall planting is smart) you just bend over a branch that just fruited, take the leaves off the tip, stick it in a pot. in a few weeks itl root. let it get a nice root system then cut it from the mother at the base of the cane. plant in spring or fall for more delicious berries.

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

Applestar,

The paving stones don't have any scientific basis. They just keep the wife from getting mad at me when I track mud into the house. When she asks me why I paved the area around the beds, I will give her the technical reasons you provided. Thank You!

Ted

User avatar
jal_ut
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

when the plants have space they produce a lot better imo.
I have been preaching that forever regarding all plants. I am glad someone agrees with me. :)

Just to keep this on topic, today I went out and looked at my garden. It has been a bit warmer for a few days and the snow is melting. I actually have a bit of bare ground. Alas, still almost 4 months before I can plant.

Sani
Cool Member
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:55 am
Location: Kuwait

my tomato plants are getting taller so I tied the top stems to the bamboo stake after watering.

User avatar
!potatoes!
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1938
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

as of saturday:

last harvest: dug my oca, my chufa, and my two last yacon plants. another year of experimentation with perennial rootcrops comes to a close.

Sani
Cool Member
Posts: 87
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 8:55 am
Location: Kuwait

up-potted 10 tomato plants and 10 basils, also pruned and staked accordingly. :)

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

!potatoes! wrote:as of saturday:

last harvest: dug my oca, my chufa, and my two last yacon plants. another year of experimentation with perennial rootcrops comes to a close.
t

What do you do with the Chufa? I'm only familiar with it as an attractant crop for wild turkeys which dig and eat it's tubers.

Ted

User avatar
!potatoes!
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1938
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

this will give ammunition to my wife's suggestion that I'm a turkey, but I dig and eat the tubers. they're awful hard fresh, but soften with cooking (texture is still crunchy/kinda crystalline, flavor is sweet and mild)...I'm told that the original recipe for horchata used these 'tiger nuts'...though I haven't used them for that. mostly as an ingredient in soups or casseroles (also stuffing for thanksgiving - but I think that counts as a casserole)...

just something I'm looking at as I diversify my perennial food options. this was the first year I grew them. never had a problem with wild turkeys getting into them, either, though there's lots of the big birds around here. will likely do five times as much next year. they do taste good, and are not quite as much a pain to clean as I had been led to believe.

Odd Duck
Senior Member
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:34 pm
Location: DFW, TX

!potatoes! wrote:as of saturday:

last harvest: dug my oca, my chufa, and my two last yacon plants. another year of experimentation with perennial rootcrops comes to a close.
Dang it! Now there's MORE stuff I've just got to try! :lol:

It sounds like the oca isn't going to like my heat, though, so that leaves the chufa and the yacon. Do you have varieties you can recommend? I'm reading that it's hard to find anything but the white yacon in the USA.

I'm also reading about the larger, Spanish varieties of chufa, but I'm having trouble finding anything to purchase but the smaller, native chufa.

Where did you get yours, what varieties have you tried (if you found more than one) and which would you recommend (if you've had a chance to find more than one)?

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

dug three 15' swales and a 15' hugelkultur bed. I'm beat! bring on the rain now. :twisted:

thanrose
Greener Thumb
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:01 am
Location: Jacksonville, FLZone 9A

While I didn't actually do anything, I surveyed the freeze damage we Floridians have been complaining about. My edible ginger hung on forever this year, the leaf tips had just started yellowing when the couple hours of freeze hit. The thing is, if I trim away all the wilted greenery, and we get another freeze, it will damage the ginger rhizomes or the base of the impatiens and crossandra. So I leave the dead, prostrate stems and greenery to shroud the roots. I've had the same freaking impatiens for the last five years. Maybe 3-4 freezes last winter, and a few over the previous years.

My malanga is wilted to the ground, but I expect the corms to be just fine. Not eating them this year. I just like growing them, but will probably eat some next fall. The freeze is nothing like the hard freezes you northerners get. It wouldn't occur to anyone here that the ground could actually freeze solid for a few inches. Mud season is completely unfathomable once you've lived here for a while. Hibiscus next to the house is producing tiny blooms, maybe two inches across, one every other week or so. It froze to the ground last winter. Mosquitoes are definitely snowbirds. Stiff and slow, and they whine with a New York accent. (Probably hatched in my lanai's aquarium. My bad.)

Oh, I cut some cedar and arborvitae for Christmas, in a pot with sprays of scrub pine cones at my front step. I hate bringing my potted poinsettia in during the holidays. It just starts to put on great bracts and now it's too cold for it to sit outside overnight.

User avatar
Francis Barnswallow
Green Thumb
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

I took the sheets off my garden today. Not much freeze damage. :D :D

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

Francis,

You changed your avatar! I liked your other avatar. It brought back memories of a girl I used to date.

Not much to do in the garden today. My beds are ready fro spring planting. Now I am just waiting for mid January to plant my onions and start my seed germinating for my spring garden. I ordered some more tomato seed last night. I'm addicted. I wonder if there is a twelve step program to break a seed ordering addiction.

Ted

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

What I WANT to do is cut some holly and other evergreens and make a wreath. As it is, the daytime high has been refusing to rise above the 20's, so I can't cut the branches (both pruning books I have recommends NEVER to cut frozen wood). So I'll have to wait. Maybe after this storm passes through -- we're only supposed to get the northern edge of the snow.
tedln wrote:I wonder if there is a twelve step program to break a seed ordering addiction
:lol: There are several milestones when you begin to question your sanity and it dawns on you that you might have a problem. 1st is when you start running out of room under the lights. But it can be delayed as long as you have money to shell out for more and space to put them up. A subset of this is when you start totaling up the money you're spending on "dirt." 2nd is when you start constantly shuffling the seedlings around and stacking things under the drip trays to even up the top of the foliage under the lights and notice how obsessive you are becoming. 3rd major crisis can occur when you start lugging all the babies in and out to enjoy brief moments of sunshine and warmth and you start paying unnaturally close attention to the temperature and weather forecasts. :wink:

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

I wonder if there is a twelve step program to break a seed ordering addiction.
yup its called saving your own seed, but thats a whole other addiction in itself lol. and most likely even worse except its light on your wallet.

User avatar
!potatoes!
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1938
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

Odd Duck wrote:
!potatoes! wrote:as of saturday:

last harvest: dug my oca, my chufa, and my two last yacon plants. another year of experimentation with perennial rootcrops comes to a close.
Dang it! Now there's MORE stuff I've just got to try! :lol:

It sounds like the oca isn't going to like my heat, though, so that leaves the chufa and the yacon. Do you have varieties you can recommend? I'm reading that it's hard to find anything but the white yacon in the USA.

I'm also reading about the larger, Spanish varieties of chufa, but I'm having trouble finding anything to purchase but the smaller, native chufa.

Where did you get yours, what varieties have you tried (if you found more than one) and which would you recommend (if you've had a chance to find more than one)?
not much new info for you on this stuff, I'm afraid. I got the yacon from a local grower (white with purple highlights)...it's good and sweetens up pretty nicely, but I don't have experience with any other varieties to compare.

the chufa, I got seed from baker creek heirloom seeds last year. the tubers are mostly pretty small, but a few are as big around as, say, a quarter.

perhaps oca could be grown under a bit of shade in your area? it slowed down in the heat of the summer for me, but never conked out. our seasons here are just a bit short for it (it's day-length sensitive, and needs at least a couple months after fall equinox to fully ripen tubers - not possible here without serious season extension - but it may work alright in you area... just a thought)

User avatar
lorax
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1316
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:48 pm
Location: Ecuador, USDA Zone 13, at 10,000' of altitude

Odd Duck, Oca will do fine in your heat, actually - so long as you can provide it with at least 25% shade. That's how it's grown in the highlands here, and it does great (although it's also a native here, so caveat lector...) Generally, it's grown underneath other crops, like Tomate de Arbol, to keep the moisture in the soil.

You could also try out Mashua (Tropaeoleum tuberosum) - an edible-tubered creeping Nasturtium, which loves the high heat. The tubers are pretty tasty, too!

---

Today in the garden, I finished a hothouse for my bananas, and I'm just taking a break preparatory to building a new brick raised bed for my herbs and lettuces and whatnots. Depending on how fast I get that done, I may also propagate my hops vines and pot up some tomatoes. And if there's still daylight after that, I'll probably build some more tomato cages - the Cherokee Purples and Pineapples look like they're ready for some support. But only if there's light, because I hate soldering in the dark.

Then I'll harvest some bush beans and fresh zucchini for dinner.

User avatar
Francis Barnswallow
Green Thumb
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

You changed your avatar! I liked your other avatar. It brought back memories of a girl I used to date.
:lol:

I accidently erased the file that was the avatar. He'll be back up after Christmas.

Odd Duck
Senior Member
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:34 pm
Location: DFW, TX

Hmm. good info, thanks to both of you.

Lorax, can you tell me more about varieties I might look for - of any of these plants?

Boy, I do love an international forum!

Sharon

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Didn't do anything in the garden, but I was out shovelling snow out of the driveway, in case that counts...

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

Francis Barnswallow wrote:
You changed your avatar! I liked your other avatar. It brought back memories of a girl I used to date.
:lol:

I accidently erased the file that was the avatar. He'll be back up after Christmas.
HHHHeeeeee?

Ted

tedln
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2179
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 pm
Location: North Texas

Lorax,

"I don't like soldiering in the dark" = Fer-De-Lance?

What do you use the hops for? I'm only familiar with it when brewing beer.

Did you get the tomato seed I sent you a few weeks ago? I don't know how long stuff takes to get to Ecuador.

Ted

User avatar
lorax
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1316
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:48 pm
Location: Ecuador, USDA Zone 13, at 10,000' of altitude

Ted - Soldering (ie using solder and flux to join metal), not Soldiering (ie tromping through the bush).... I don't like to solder in the dark because I tend to burn myself with the iron or with falling drops of hot solder. It has nothing to do with snakes - I'm in the highlands at the moment, and they're not an issue here.

I use hops for brewing as well. This means that I also malt my own grains for mashing (because home brewing of beers is unknown in Latin America). It's a fun hobby, and it allows me to indulge my passion for stouts and bitters, which are flat out not available here. I don't do lagering, though, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.

I did indeed get the tomato seed, and I thought I'd pm'd you but obviously not. Such things occasionally slip my mind, and for that I apologize! I'll be starting them in the next cycle (since I've currently got 15 plants going and no room for more).

Odd Duck - I don't know from named varieties, lol! :() For Ocas, the red-tubered type is probably the best heat performer.

For Mashua, I've got no clue - Nasturtiums in general love heat, and the orange-tubered kind are tastiest (the other variety has white tubers, which I find kind of insipid). The orange ones are pleasantly sweet, with just a hint of peppery goodness.

You should also look into Melloco (Ullucus tuberosum), since they're less day-length dependant for tuber production, and perform better under really punishing conditions. They're also hardier than Oca. I have no idea where you'd source them, though.

User avatar
cherishedtiger
Green Thumb
Posts: 339
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:10 pm
Location: Sacramento, California

Yesterday - took off cover only to find a colony of slugs had moved in and feasted upon my lovely veggies...

treated for slugs, left uncovered to get the nice warm sun only to have it freeze last night because I came home late and never covered it back up...

:cry:

Odd Duck
Senior Member
Posts: 114
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:34 pm
Location: DFW, TX

Lorax,

Thanks for all the info. Now I just need to find sources for all this cool stuff!

User avatar
Francis Barnswallow
Green Thumb
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

tedln wrote:
Francis Barnswallow wrote:
You changed your avatar! I liked your other avatar. It brought back memories of a girl I used to date.
:lol:

I accidently erased the file that was the avatar. He'll be back up after Christmas.
HHHHeeeeee?

Ted


Oh yes, a HE. I got the pic from uglypeople.com.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Francis - Out of curiosity I checked the website you mentioned. Turned out to be a p o r n site of decidedly non-ugly but provocatively naked people. Don't appreciate that... what if I had been on my work computer? What if kids tried it? This is supposed to be a family friendly place, please don't refer us to (bleeped) sites!

User avatar
Francis Barnswallow
Green Thumb
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

rainbowgardener wrote:Francis - Out of curiosity I checked the website you mentioned. Turned out to be a p o r n site of decidedly non-ugly but provocatively naked people. Don't appreciate that... what if I had been on my work computer? What if kids tried it? This is supposed to be a family friendly place, please don't refer us to (bleeped) sites!

I haven't been to that site in years, and the last time I was on that site, it didn't have any EDITED material on it. I wouldn't have posted the site if I knew it had EDITED on it. My apologies.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

It was 15ºF outside when I woke up this morning, but I'm still puttering around inside. 8)

I had some tulip and crocus bulbs left over so I potted them up and put them out in the garage to "chill". They'll provide nice late winter/early spring color when I bring them in to grow and bloom later on.

Back on Dec. 1, since I have the soil heating pad going for the pepper cuttings, I put a smallish white sweet potato I bought before Thanksgiving from Whole Foods (conventional not organic) in a clear plastic beverage cup from a fastfood place filled halfway up with water. The straw opening in the lid was perfect for holding the stem end and suspending the potato in the water. Well, today, I noticed that 1" roots are growing out of it! :D (Good to know this wasn't treated to suppress sprouting :wink:)

rkunsaw
Senior Member
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 11:01 am
Location: Clarksville,Arkansas

For the past several days I've covered my garden with partially composted grass and leaves that have been piled up all year and then covered that with two or more inches of top soil.
My wife has been looking through the seed catalogs already. :roll:

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

I watched all my swales fill with water doing there job while I was nice and dry working in the greenhouse. potting plants, amending soil, propagation.

DeborahL
Green Thumb
Posts: 543
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:40 pm
Location: Coastal Southern California

I saved my radishes from drowning. We're having heavy rains all week.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”