AZ Gardeners

[igorsMistress]

Hi. I am starting this thread for those of us who struggle with our gardens in AZ. We have some unique issues here and I hope to learn from others with more experience.

My biggest issue is knowing when to plant what.

I also would like to know if you guys start seeds in a greenhouse for transplant or direct sow?

Are there any particular methods you use like BTE or square foot?

I can get my desert plants to grow ok, but after the first year my tomatoes had blossom end rot and everything else struggled except my Armenian cukes.

Finally, how often do you water? I am pretty sure I overwatered but the plants were droopy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[cactusrota]

All the caterpillars were on things that the chickens would want to eat, like pea and bean plants. And the cucumber beetles were on everything!! I made some traps that were fairly effective on those. But it's hard to keep up on picking the caterpillars off the plants to throw to the chickens. They could literally decimate the plants overnight. I also have problems here with salt in our water because this is a cotton growing valley and they've been using salt as a dessicant for decades. It's hard to flush the salt out of the soil when its in the water itself...

 

[ejcrist]

Hi. I am starting this thread for those of us who struggle with our gardens in AZ. We have some unique issues here and I hope to learn from others with more experience.

My biggest issue is knowing when to plant what.

I also would like to know if you guys start seeds in a greenhouse for transplant or direct sow?

Are there any particular methods you use like BTE or square foot?

I can get my desert plants to grow ok, but after the first year my tomatoes had blossom end rot and everything else struggled except my Armenian cukes.

Finally, how often do you water? I am pretty sure I overwatered but the plants were droopy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Glad you started this thread.

Anyway, as far as when to plant what, here's the link to the local extension services planting calendar: https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1005.pdf

Personally I start everything from either seeds I've saved/bred myself or purchased from various sources such as Seed Savers Exchange, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, etc. I've got a gazillian sources so if you have trouble finding anything let me know and I'll send you links. For seedlings I use seed blockers - you just create whatever soil mixture you want for the particular seedlings you're planning to start, press the block into the medium, and push on the handle and out pops a block with an indentation in the top to put the seed. I have small, medium, and large blockers. You start most things in the small blocks, and when they sprout you make the medium blocks which has an indentation on the top where the small blocks fit right in so there's no transplant shock or anything. Usually you can simply plant the medium block directly in the soil after you've hardened the seedling off for a few days - very easy.

I plant everything directly in the ground rather than using raised beds like many do out here. The purpose of raised beds is to dry out before the surrounding soil, and they're best used in places that get lots of rainfall, like back east where I grew up. Back there the soil oftentimes isn't dry enough to plant in the spring, and for stuff that has a long growing season you want to plant as early as possible, so raised beds or rows allow you to do that. I always hear everyone singing the praises of raised beds in AZ but they'll dry your plants out in a hurry with our heat unless you irrigate the heck out of them. The real reason many tout them is because they don't want to deal with the soil here which as you know is compacted and high pH. There are some cases where raised beds would make sense here, like in @DesertChic place where I believe she said the property used to be a rock quarry so it has very shallow soil. My sister lives in Los Alamos and they have very shallow shoil as well - in those cases it probably makes sense.

There's nothing wrong with AZ soil - it's generally high in minerals, low in nutrients, low in organic matter, and has a higher than average pH. The only thing you need to do to correct it is add compost and be sure to mix it in down to a depth of at least a foot. To maintain the soil continue to add compost, and do things like plant cover crops/green manures when nothing is growing (between crops). These two things alone will improve your soil tenfold and keep it that way. If you have a big garden cover crops are usually the most efficient way to maintain and feed the soil.

When choosing your plants try to stay away from stuff that isn't cost effective to grow, such as blueberries, etc. You can in fact grow 'em but it just ain't worth the trouble since your crop will be mediocre at best and will be very high maintenance to get to harvest. Stuff like tomatoes do just fine as long as you pick varieties that fit well in your particular microclimate, such as short season varieties. Some hybrids have even been bred specifically for the desert and do very well. If you save seeds from your own crops you'll notice they'll adapt to the climate in just a couple of generations - the same way chicken breeds do. Also some crops you might not think would do well here really excel, such as sweet potatoes. We grow a purple skinned variety that's very common in the Philippines and is simply called kamote over there (kamote just means sweet potato in the dialect I know). It's pure white inside and very sweet/delicious. Anyway, kamote grows so well here I have to make an extra effort to remove every tuber from a row or it'll sprout again with the first sign of warmth even though the spot where they grew hasn't been irrigated. In addition it'll take over your garden if you don't keep it pruned. I don't mind pruning it though because the tops are delicious and if you buy them in the Asian market they cost about $5 for a very small bag. But anyway, long story short, many, many vegetables grow better here than most places.

As far as watering goes, I have everything on drip lines that we make ourselves from the 1/2" black tubing and 1 gph emitters you can get at Homeless Depot. I have battery operated stand-alone timers on each individual row (get those at Homeless Depot too). There may be better ways to do it but that works for me and allows you to tailor your watering to whatever you have planted in a particular row at the time. The watering schedule totally depends on the crop you're growing. Of course melons, etc. need more, like maybe 30 minutes every other day during the hottest part of the season, and things like hot peppers need less, it really depends on a multitude of factors such as current weather, how much compost you have in your soil, crop variety, etc. Just take an educated guess and adjust from there depending on how well the plant is doing.

Anyway that's the Cliff Notes version of AZ gardening that I'm familiar with here just above Carefree Highway. I didn't plant much for this spring because I'm trying to get my third coop and run built which has taken most of my time. It's actually three coops with attached runs in one. But after I get her done I'll be sure to be ready again for the fall. I love growing vegetables and couldn't imagine life without doing it. I love growing chickens just as much and thankfully they both go together well - one complements the other. I don't know why people do drugs when they could just plant a garden and raise chickens - they'd have a lot more fun that way. I'm no expert but I'll be happy to share everything I learned so feel free to pm or post here. Heck, I'm sure there's a lot of things I'll learn to do better myself - that's a life-long activity. I'll try to logon at least once a day.

 

[DesertChic]

So far this year I haven't had much time to devote to gardening and only recently got back into it again. My husband helped me plant two Wonderful Pomegranate trees which are doing surprisingly well and will hopefully provide some much needed shade for my chickens, and fruit for us.

I just planted two pixie grape plants for my husband, who still fantasizes about making his own wine. I still have three more Rosemary bushes to transplant, primarily for pest control. Beyond that I've seeded Persian cucumbers, zucchini, and more Swiss chard, all of which have now sprouted, and three Moringa trees, one of which has sprouted and the other two I'm watching with rapt devotion. I also transplanted multiple tomato plants of unknown variety that were gifted to me. Two of them took to the transplant and are growing well. I allowed one of my red Romaine lettuce plants to go to seed so it can "plant" itself. Last year I somehow wound up with lettuce growing a full acre away from where I let it go to seed. Given how hot it's been, I'm thinking of seeding Egyptian spinach, and I might get an early start on the Romanian cucumbers.

The aquaponics system we set up provides us with a regular supply of Tilapia, but I've been disappointed in plant growth. I have three red bell pepper plants that have grown huge and fruit regularly, but the peppers are always small...too small. The Swiss chard has done fairly well, but not great. We're thinking of building a greenhouse and moving the entire setup in there.

So far I'm still better at growing protein than produce. My dozen or so earthworms have turned into thousands in my raised beds and I can now remove small handfuls of worm-filled compost out of those beds to add to the earth I'm conditioning and planting it. Oh...and I'm DOWN to 92 chickens (soon to be 90), so I'm good at growing those too.

 

[cactusrota]

So it turns out that the local bird population really likes newly sprouted Moringa trees/seeds. *Sigh* Time to rethink how I plant these darn things.

I've taken to covering certain things with a small bird cage. I have a couple (finch sized) laying about. Works just as good to keep birds out as it does to keep birds in! I have one over a baby Tree of Heaven in the chicken pen right now that I want to grow into a shade tree for them.

 

[DesertChic]

DH was there a couple days ago. He said the pilot must've made a mistake & landed on the sun. I'm still laughing.

Yep! Summer in AZ makes hell look like a nice, refreshing vacation spot.

 

[igorsMistress]

Took a few hours but the vertical garden is done.

 

[cactusrota]

If you want to plant bushes, you might want to find a way to dig down a little deeper for better roots. Even if you have to rent one of those gas powered post hole diggers. I'll bet it would help alot.

 

[igorsMistress]

Nothin yet, I'm hoping to have the boys plant some lettuce, maybe some carrots too.

ETA And sugar snap peas. I'm just waiting on my seed order from Native Seed Search

 

[DesertChic]

I'm about to allow my chickens to re-graze the pasture area I planted for them. It takes them about 3 hours to completely decimate the area, which is planted with alfalfa, clover, radish, broccoli and some surprise okra and cherry tomato plants that sprouted from seeds the chickens must have left behind following their treats. Then I fence it off again and water every couple days until it regenerates in about 3-6 weeks, depending upon outdoor temperatures.

Today we planted a lime tree, sunken down in the ground with a sizable berm around it to allow the rainwater to drain into the tree bed and water it during the rains. Last month we planted a fig tree the same way.

I'm struggling with getting my winter plants planted because my last plantings are still producing. I'm getting lots of cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, honey delicata squash, cucumbers, peas, black beans, black-eyed peas, buckwheat and acorn squash. Oh...and okra. My okra plants are starting to produce well. I planted them late in the season, not expecting them to do much, but they're doing great!