Spring Gardening: preparation to bounty.

[JimP]

beets(yuck..taste like dirt to me)

Washing them before eating will fix that ....... just sayin' 



Also, bell peppers can be grown indoors ..... I've had some go as long as 3 1/2 years! I have two plants in the dining room right now .... one is 5 feet tall.  They don't yield spectacularly in winter, but I have gotten more than a dozen small (1/2 size) peppers since  I brought them in the fall.  When the weather warms, I'll take them back outside, and I'll be picking peppers in May.

[Neeco]

What are absolutely a NO for conposting?  Everyone has an opinion, garden sights say if you can eat it, compost it.

Are compost piles different for veggies and flower gardens?

[gigabelly]

essentially, in my  opinion, plant stuffs will compost better and faster than animal products.  Animal products need to decompose and take longer to compost.  I have three compost piles.  I don't turn my compost very often so it takes longer to cook and I rotate the compost between the piles every year.  I suppose one could use animal products in a separate pile with some vegetation thrown in to get the nitrogen to carbon ratios where you want them.  Personally, I would just try it and see how it goes.  What will it hurt?  The Indians taught us to bury a fish with our corn, as I said earlier, so obviously animal products can work. 

[Neeco]

essentially, in my  opinion, plant stuffs will compost better and faster than animal products.  Animal products need to decompose and take longer to compost.  I have three compost piles.  I don't turn my compost very often so it takes longer to cook and I rotate the compost between the piles every year.  I suppose one could use animal products in a separate pile with some vegetation thrown in to get the nitrogen to carbon ratios where you want them.  Personally, I would just try it and see how it goes.  What will it hurt?  The Indians taught us to bury a fish with our corn, as I said earlier, so obviously animal products can work. 

I won't put meat in there, but what about leftovers like pasta and quac dip, or breads or anything else grown not born?

[Hank]

Hmmm, I`ll have to try washing them beets next time

[gigabelly]

I wont use meat either, but there is  an argument.  No, pasta and guac are fine in compost.  We never have left over guac so I coulnt say how that works out....

[Neeco]

We are going to try our hand at Square Foot Gardening.  Here is my design (always changing, but for now, this is what we have)



In order from top to bottom starting with the left box.

Tomato
Basil
Cukes
Cilantro

Peppers (bell)
Red Onion
Green Onion
White Onion
Chives
Peppers (hot)

Sweet Corn
carrots
potato
raddish

[gigabelly]

What program is that?

[Neeco]

What program is that?

http://www.growveg.com/Default.aspx

I just signed up for the free 30 day trial... pretty cool.  I will print all the charts and whatnot so that I know what I need and when.  I can do the rest of the research when I can't find something.

Not sure what it costs, as I didn't look yet, but its a nice program with a TON of info.  Each crop has its own info page and whatnot..

[Neeco]

Day 1

Brandywine Maters
Chives
Green Onions
Green/Red Peppers
White Sweet Onions
Cilantro

[Neeco]

A little update:  This post is copied from another forum, sorry if I didn't get it fully edited.

Well, we have sprouts and lots of them! Except for the Peppers... I think they may need to be warmer than we are offering.

I think I see what you guys meant by "leggy" plants though... These guys have reached for the stars, while I was trying to plan the next move for them.  Only took two days and they were 3 inches tall.  Now we have them directly beneath the light and have given each planter their own light source. In the pics, you can see the second planter with its own light in the background.  Also, most of the sprouts have straightened up after the addition of the foil.  We were rotating them every few hours so that they would bend as much, but now that the foil is there, they are mostly shooting straight up.




My next question is, how do you decide which ones to keep?  We planted between two and four seeds per slot (depending on the plant) and now, in some cases we have three sprouts in the same slot.  How do you transplant/move them? Or do you just pick the strongest looking ones and pull the others?

Thanks again for all the help.

[JimP]

Re: composting meat

I can tell you that if you plant enough rabbits 1 foot deep, your peas will grow much better.  You don't even have to plant the peas anywhere near the buried bunnies.  Just plant a bunny anytime you see one in the neighborhood. 

re: suare foot gardening

Keep in mind that some plants get very tall and will shade others, and most vegetables do poorly in the shade.

One solution is to plant stuff that will get very tall eventually (corn, trellised cukes, etc) to the south of stuff that will be done before they get tall - peas, radishes, leaf lettuce, etc.

Peppers stop setting fruit (blooms fall off) when night temps exceed 80 degrees, and heat stress more readily than other stuff, IME ..... planting tall stuff to the west of them can keep them cooler in the late afternoon .... so can spritzing them with water when it's really hot (evaporative cooling).

Hope that helps...

[Neeco]

On another forum, they are saying that my plants are awful "leggy" meaning they are too tall and are "reaching" for the light, which is a sign of not enough light.  What are solutions for this?

[JimP]

More light.

Sunlight is best.

"Leggy" plants need extra care when transplanting outside .... you might want to make a cold box to "harden" them first .... I have materials (a couple of old windows and scrap wood) if you want them.

I really need to get off my butt and make one for myself.

 http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20417543,00.html

[Neeco]

More light.

Sunlight is best.

"Leggy" plants need extra care when transplanting outside .... you might want to make a cold box to "harden" them first .... I have materials (a couple of old windows and scrap wood) if you want them.

I really need to get off my butt and make one for myself.

 http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20417543,00.html

I got a great idea from another forum, prepared society, for a lighting fix.  And will be moving the setup to my garage (50-60 degrees all day, for now at least) hopefully that gets the hardened.  I am also debating on potting them up into dixie cups to weed out the week and give each its own space.  Currently we have as many as 4 seedling per slot.

[JimP]

The biggest thing the plants need to get used to , especially "leggy" ones, is the wind.

With a cold box/ cold frame, you can start raising the lid to let the breeze in on warm days, working up to taking the lid completely off, then removing the box completely, and then last to separating the plants .... though if they are still pretty "leggy",you may have to give then some shelter for awhile yet - a half shell of corrigated fiberglass, or row cover material on the trellis/cage, for instance.

[Neeco]

Much better.

[OnTheFly]

LOL...Neeco, those photos brought to mind past articles in the Urinal Star describing a grow house bust by the LPD.  Just don't cover all the windows with newspaper and let your neighbors see you hauling grow lights & potting soil into your basement/garage.   

Fly

[Neeco]

LOL...Neeco, those photos brought to mind past articles in the Urinal Star describing a grow house bust by the LPD.  Just don't cover all the windows with newspaper and let your neighbors see you hauling grow lights & potting soil into your basement/garage.   

Fly

HA! You should have seen the looks when I was in Home Depot and the Hardware store here in Waverly.  It was priceless... 

Probably wouldn't help with my reloading bench and a few tin sign's literally 5 foot away...

Good thing these look nothing like those...