BYC gardening thread!!

[Peep_Show]

Good to know all of that. I figured it probably put forth a bonanza crop last year as the previous year there was no fruit crop for apples in NM due to a devastating late frost. So I'll baby it along this year that it's barren and we'll see what the Fates allow next year.

(p.s.: This is a HUGE old tree...about 30 year old and about as many feet tall. Hard to thin!)

 

[chickadoodles]

Hey Peep, I planted some of the Hollyhock seeds you sent me last weekend. I am so looking forward to their beautiful colors. Thanks!

 

[sunflour]

Started my seeds under shop lights in garage. Last year tomato plants were really tall and had to plant them side ways at 8 weeks. So, this year started them 6 weeks before planting - and at 5 weeks are way too tall. Someone suggested laying them down under the grow lights and let them turn up own their own. Really didn't believe it but IT WORKS!

2 nights ago raised one edge of baskets 2 inches and by the following am the stems had grown a bend and the upper stalks were straight up. So last night lifted the edge of baskets 4 inches and same result. Here's photo of overnight at 4 inch rise on the basket edges:



The stems were laying down when I lifted the baskets and the bend is growth and not bent by me. Now if I can find a way to really lay them all flat they will be an easy plant.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Started my seeds under shop lights in garage. Last year tomato plants were really tall and had to plant them side ways at 8 weeks. So, this year started them 6 weeks before planting - and at 5 weeks are way too tall. Someone suggested laying them down under the grow lights and let them turn up own their own. Really didn't believe it but IT WORKS!

2 nights ago raised one edge of baskets 2 inches and by the following am the stems had grown a bend and the upper stalks were straight up. So last night lifted the edge of baskets 4 inches and same result. Here's photo of overnight at 4 inch rise on the basket edges:



The stems were laying down when I lifted the baskets and the bend is growth and not bent by me. Now if I can find a way to really lay them all flat they will be an easy plant.

Interesting...I see you are using news paper pots, how are they working for you?

 

[sunflour]

Interesting...I see you are using news paper pots, how are they working for you?

I had no choice, the plants were already too large to use peat pots. I used a really big wine bottle, a little duct tape on the side and bottom for security. Planted them deep. Used doubled newspaper - 3-4 pages thick enough to hold those biggies. They are holding up well. Been in those paper pots over 2 weeks. Plan to just remove the duct tape and plant in the newspaper.

 

[Peep_Show]

Hey Peep, I planted some of the Hollyhock seeds you sent me last weekend. I am so looking forward to their beautiful colors. Thanks!

I hope your hollyhocks do great things for you. The second year is really spectacular, so be patient.

About a month ago I finally did the winter cleanup of my flower beds and cleared away the old dead stuff so the tender green underneath could come forth. We may get cold, but the snow is done. Last week or so I dumped some Miracle Grow on the little bumps of stuff that I had left of my perennials. Today I have mounds and mounds of greenery, mostly hollyhocks. It'll be a jungle of colors again this year. The roses -- all hacked off to about 18" at the cleanup -- have turned into righteous little bushes and several have buds for blossoms on them. Spring is really enthusiastic here (ABQ area of NM).

Unfortunately, most veggie gardens have to wait until the first week of May for planting as April is full of hellacious relentless winds and -- like tonight -- late frost or near freezings. So the seedlings are languishing under the grow lights in the back bedroom, lots of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

We've contracted to replace the saggy baggy fence around the veggie yard and the posts are set for a nice 4' 2-rail pipe w/no-climb 2x4 fence with a buried chicken wire bottom border (take that, pesky rabbits!). Hopefully it'll be finished before Spring planting. Work was curtailed today as you cannot weld in the wind. We live in a small village and so today's Coffee Klatsch was all abuzz about the fence going up...small town; small news.

Around the side of the house is a walled-off secret garden that DH is in charge of this year. The cleanout and chucking a lot of the odd plantings by the previous owners (boxwood stuck in the middle of the daylilly patch?) has made room for what DH wants (besides a place to house his cement gargoyle collection.) I always thought this unused area would be great for a beehive, but that idea was nixed early. DH would like some blueberry bushes. Great! I love useful plantings and, if edible, all the better.

 

[vehve]

Sunflour, you could also just bury them really deep when you plant them outside. Or if you want to keep them sideways for a moment, you could shove a wick into the soil to get water into them while they're turning towards the light.

I re-potted my tomatoes yesterday, 2 weeks after planting. They're pretty tiny still, but their roots were protruding through the peat pots so I wanted them in plastic pots instead.





The chili peppers are doing well too. I could use a bit more sun though. It's been about 4-6 days, depending on the plant, since I transferred the chilis into 4½ inch pots. I think they've been growing roots until yesterday when they hit the layer of compost I put on the bottom of the pots, yesterday they started gaining size like crazy.


So far this wick watering has been so much better than growing them in enclosed pots like I did last year.

 

[sunflour]

@vehve , thank's for the wick idea. I have had to water only once since angling the tomatoes, turned the baskets up to water and laid them back down.

These babies are 2 feet tall already. Last year even with deep tilling had to use post holed diggers to get holes large enough to plant. And still had to angle several to get them in the ground. Those did stand up straight after a few days. But seems easier to let the plants angle up so won't have to dig thru the best dirt down to GA clay this time. Today gonna try to make space to really lay them down but how to water was the big question and the wick idea is Brilliant!

Nice job with your seedlings.

 

[vehve]

I'd say you'll probably get enough wicking action if you take a length of paracord, grab it in the middle and push it maybe 3 inches into the soil, close to what will face downwards. Then just hang the wick into a water container below. Resting the whole thing on a hardware cloth covered tub works well.


You might want to secure the soil into the pot by adding a piece of tape over the lower half of the opening to keep the soil in.

 

[vehve]

I might add though, if you dig down to the clay, you'll get a constant supply of moisture down there, while the root system should develop out of the stem into the better soil above as well. This is just theorizing on what I've read about tomatoes, I'm only in my second year of growing them, and I grow them in pots myself. How was the harvest with the super deep planting? If it was good, then I wouldn't change something that works. Especially if you get long stretches without rain.