Grow Getters & Mad Potters (Gardening Thread)

Would you like to be part of a seed exchange?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 64.5%

  • No

    Votes: 4 12.9%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 7 22.6%
  • Total voters
    31
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SnapdragonQ said:
Most all seeds will last longer than the package is dated for. Somewhere I have a chart (or you can google the chart) that lists typical seeds and how long you can expect them to last under ordinary storage conditions, like on a shelf in a temp controlled house. Of course germination rates do diminish over time, but other than a few veggie types, most seeds will keep between 2 to 5 years and still germinate reasonably well.

I think this is awesome for only 6 months in!

I too was not born with a green thumb nor did anyone/family teach me. I've killed plenty of plants in my determination to become a gardener, but a lot of good gardening books and understanding soil structure and how to nourish it properly....or damage it inadvertently, has gone a long way in my becoming modestly successful.

I don't have a good brand to recommend, but there is a technique called Hugelkultur that uses logs, branches and heavier materials to build gardening beds. Not the bed sides, the the bed part of the beds. It takes longer, but as the materials break down they really nourish the soil.
Hugelkultur

I used to have large maple trees on my last farm and would pile some leaves up to make leaf mold compost, pile some over the gardens in the winter to break down under the snow, and still more I would mow over several times to chop up then mix into my garden soil or compost piles. They are excellent as a free carbon source for hot or cold composting.
Twigs and branches can be piled up too and then covered n leaves and let set to cold compost as well.

Leaves also make great layers for deep litter in the chicken house, (or garden) or as a straight replacement for shavings. While not as absorbent, my chickens always love working through the leaves and breaking things down into compost for me.
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I have seeds that are 2 years old growing great right now! Think they say those expiration dates so you continually buy them
 
SnapdragonQ said:
It's my understanding the dates on the little packeta are the year they are targeted for, ie: "Packed For 2020" though they were actually processed and packaged in 2019.
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The ones I have say 2018. I bought them in 2018. I have 7 cherry tomato plants that are growing right now from that date. I just started them, but I think it’s not too late because VA stays hot for a while.
 
These are just averages-

seed-life-chart.png
 
SnapdragonQ said:
I think this is awesome for only 6 months in!

I too was not born with a green thumb nor did anyone/family teach me. I've killed plenty of plants in my determination to become a gardener, but a lot of good gardening books and understanding soil structure and how to nourish it properly....or damage it inadvertently, has gone a long way in my becoming modestly successful.

I don't have a good brand to recommend, but there is a technique called Hugelkultur that uses logs, branches and heavier materials to build gardening beds. Not the bed sides, the the bed part of the beds. It takes longer, but as the materials break down they really nourish the soil.
Hugelkultur

I used to have large maple trees on my last farm and would pile some leaves up to make leaf mold compost, pile some over the gardens in the winter to break down under the snow, and still more I would mow over several times to chop up then mix into my garden soil or compost piles. They are excellent as a free carbon source for hot or cold composting.
Twigs and branches can be piled up too and then covered n leaves and let set to cold compost as well.

Leaves also make great layers for deep litter in the chicken house, (or garden) or as a straight replacement for shavings. While not as absorbent, my chickens always love working through the leaves and breaking things down into compost for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Any good gardening reference books you recommend?

I'm also trying Hugelkultur in a few beds. :)
 
Somehow I forgot to comment on the tomato seeds in compost...
When I lived in zone 5a I learned that many tomato seeds that landed on the ground in the garden and stayed there, tended to spout up the following year without my doing anything but forgetting to pick the mushy mess up at the time. So I began to use this to my advantage.

Because technically one should practice plant rotation (I try to but don't always) whenever it was time to pull a tomato plant or pick up a mushy one, I would toss them where I wanted tomatoes to grow the following year and would not heavily mulch that spot so the seedlings could come up on their own in the late spring.
So far it's worked here just as well (6b).
 
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Tomatoes are heavy feeders... They need a lot of nitrogen to grow which should be in spades in a good compost pile... However, in order to get good flowering and fruiting, the plants switch their nutritional needs from nitrogen to potassium and phosphorus...

I also give them a drip jug with powdered milk once a month to help prevent blossom end rot
 
Muscovy Wunda said:
Okay how does everyone store their produce? Besides cherry tomatoes, strawberries and chillis (all eaten straight off the plant, the chickens ate the chiliis and were master chili theives) the only thing we've grown that needed storing was pumpkins, and they are very easy to store, 3 months in the cold room and still as good as ever. Bug what about carrots? Do fresh carrots have a better shelf life then store bought( read as, if you don't keep the store bought carrots in the fridge they shrivel up by the end of the week) and tomatoes? And radishes? Spinach? I know I can chop up all of these and freeze as soup bases, but I love them raw even more
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Old school mathod of storing carrots was to put them in barrels of damp sawdust and put in the root cellar. I believe radishes could be stored the same way.

Tomatoes probably need to be canned for long storage.
 

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