BYC gardening thread!!

[Arielle]

My squash, green beans and pumpkins survived being separated! I really hope the cold nights are done soon so I can get them out of the house!

Speaking of peppers, I had about a dozen habeneros sprout and now 3-4 of them are looking wilted. They are about 1 inch tall. I water them daily-at least once a day- but there is no improvement.
I have the grow lights on a timer of 14 hours during the day and they are placed about 4 inches above the seedling tray. The tray is one of those plastic hexagon ones.

Is there something else I should be doing? The only peppers I tried last year were already started plants and they never grew well. Only little nubs of peppers.

My first thought is perhaps the plants are getting too much watering. I wait until the top is dry looking ( already sprouted p lants) and then stick a finger 1/2 inch the soil to check moisture. Should be surprizinly dry before I water again. I'm not talking bone dry here. . . just feels a bit moist, then water well, to saturate and then let dry down again.

Ya, I wish I had more grow lights too!!!!!!!!! Maybe next year.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
I dont know the figures for returns here, but the roads are regularly combed for cans and returnables by those wanting the 5 cents each. So I rarely see the returnable items littering the roads; the water bottles did not get the deposit, as that was voted down. Franklly I"m all for the elimination of the "water" bottles. One elite town north of us put a ban in place. ANd i'm hoping that will catch on. People have just gone overboard using them when a refillable container would also do.

 

[RichnSteph]

People have just gone overboard using them when a refillable container would also do.

I agree.

 

[hennible]

Yeah.

 

[vehve]

I just go with tap water. That's not an option everywhere though. We're no longer on Helsinki water after we moved away from there, but I've read several test reports on the water there. In comparison to Evian, it always tests cleaner. And the stuff we get out here isn't bad either, I never need to clean the animal waterers, they're is absolutely no growth in them. I do a quick rinse every once in a while (like every two or three months), but no scrubbing. Just fill them up as they get empty.

 

[Kraftcrazychick]

Well, I'm pretty sure my peppers were just way too dry. A few of them perked up after I light watering. The same happened with the early girl tomato seedlings. Looks like I will need to set them up in some new pots as those aren't holding the moisture. I will need to pick up more potting soil as I didn't separate all my cherry tomatoes yet.

 

[dan26552]

Atone else have figs?

 

[Peep_Show]

I have figs, sort of. Two years ago (before we bought the place) the mow-n-go caretaker thought the figs were dead. They weren't...they just died back for the winter. So he chopped them off down to the soil...some pretty big trunks, too. The one out by the iris bed has set up shoots from the trunk. The one at the side of the house has shoots coming up along the extended roots, but not at the trunk. I believe the trees are one Mission Fig and one Turkish Fig. We get maybe a dozen fruit per year.
Wish I had the full fig trees. Wish the previous owners had been better gardeners. Sigh.....

 

[dan26552]

Ah nice. You should be able to turn the side shoots into a tree, I sometimes take side shoots of my three.

 

[vehve]

My plum tree has finally started shooting out leaves! In a few years, we might get our first plum (we only planted it last fall). It's a sad looking stick in the ground still, but given time, it might grow into a productive tree.