What did you do in the garden today?

[politicalcenter]

Tip rooting on black raspberry . This is on a Niwot / sweet repeat I planted this spring . It has tip rooted 5 new plants from side branches . Something damaged the central leader causing side branches .

These are my wild yellow bow cane cuttings . This should work . Since they naturally tip root .

This is a Jewel black raspberry . Cane in the middle of picture is tip rooted . They often burrow right into the soil .



Thornless blackberries are sometimes hard to keep tips in the pots if you just lay them in there . I bury them head first into the pot . Works better .



I find working with the natural tendency of plants works best . The ones that clone from root suckers can be grown from root cuttings . I bought some red and yellow raspberries off eBay last spring . They were roots only . This is how commercial fields are started . This was a certified supplier in Oregon .

I am so glad to see someone else likes to root their own cuttings. I usually do mine in small pots (4 inch) and root them the way you did in the second picture. The ones with the cuttings in the pot...in fact I have some fig trees that are starting in a pot just like the second picture. With patience I am pretty sure you will get some rooted cuttings.

Your yard looks pretty too.

 

[appps]

Thornless blackberries are sometimes hard to keep tips in the pots if you just lay them in there . I bury them head first into the pot . Works better .

So,you mean just find the end of the cane, the growing tip? and bury that? Will give it a try because checked on it and yet again it had worked its way up out of the soil in the pot.



Question for any seed collectors about self seeding lettuce. I bought some heirloom variety lettuce last year and want to save the seeds. It's gotten way too hot now and they have all bolted to flower heads (haven't opened the flowers yet though) . Can I just keep one plant to collect seeds from or do I need two for them to pollinate each other? I'd really like to pull the others out and use the bed for something else if I can and just leave one at the end for seed. They've gone quite bitter so I've been slowly feeding them to the chooks a couple a day and want to get rid of the final half a dozen.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm not sure about the need for a second plant for pollination. Why don't you leave 2? That way, you'll be sure you get the pollination you need, and you can harvest twice as much seed, and 2 plants won't take up much more room than one. I find that lettuce is one of the easiest plants to harvest seed from, though it does create a bit of a weedy look for a while. You need to leave them until the flowers have bloomed, and died back and set their seed. There'll be a bit of white fuzz, kind of like dandelion fuzz, but much shorter. Give them plenty of time to do their thing. Don't rush them. I often pull them at that time, and just lay them where I want next year's crop. The seed falls to the ground and sprouts well in the spring.

 

[Beekissed]

Great little vid on the BTE method, leaves vs. chips and a tutorial on the soil. Great vid!

 

[appps]

I'm not sure about the need for a second plant for pollination.  Why don't you leave 2?  That way, you'll be sure you get the pollination you need, and you can harvest twice as much seed, and 2 plants won't take up much more room than one.  I find that lettuce is one of the easiest plants to harvest seed from, though it does create a bit of a weedy look for a while.  You need to leave them until the flowers have bloomed, and died back and set their seed.  There'll be a bit of white fuzz, kind of like dandelion fuzz, but much shorter.  Give them plenty of time to do their thing.  Don't rush them.  I often pull them at that time, and just lay them where I want next year's crop.  The seed falls to the ground and sprouts well in the spring.  

Room really is the only reason. I've not got a heap of room and silly me didn't just start at one end so the second plant is smack dab in the middle of the row duh. Maybe I could just pull off its bottom leaves so it's just a stalk not taking up so much room.

Thanks for the tips! Ive only collected shallots seeds (green onions?) before so far (which is what I want to transplant into that bed).

 

[jerryse]

Bought some thimbleberry plants off eBay . Got them in the mail yesterday and potted them up in 5 gallon bucket . Keeping them in the garage for the winter .Still looking for Salmonberry starts . I really like berries .

 

[lazy gardener]

Room really is the only reason. I've not got a heap of room and silly me didn't just start at one end so the second plant is smack dab in the middle of the row duh. Maybe I could just pull off its bottom leaves so it's just a stalk not taking up so much room.

Thanks for the tips! Ive only collected shallots seeds (green onions?) before so far (which is what I want to transplant into that bed).

What about digging up the plants and moving them to an out of the way spot. I'm always moving stuff around in my garden. Stuff that I want to leave so it will produce next year's crop, but I need the space for something NOW. So, I just grab a shovel, and dig up a nice big root ball, and deposit it somewhere where it won't be a nuisance.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Thanks for the clarification. I looked at the native volunteers and will try to feed them a little better and then if they taste better than past years will definitely consider propagating them. Otherwise might jut increase their numbers just to feed the birds. lol

 

[henless]

Great little vid on the BTE method, leaves vs. chips and a tutorial on the soil. Great vid!

Thanks for the video! I've been looking for wood chips to start my BTE raised beds, but not having any luck. Today I decided to just use leaves for my cover. This video makes me feel better for using them. Thanks Bee!

Today I got my raised bed ready. My bed level had lowered a bit from last year, so I added some top soil and a bag of peat moss I had gotten for the chickens to dust in. I picked up the wrong kind. The one I usually get, Lowe's was out of and I didn't realize this one had fertilizer until after I got home. I put down my layer of cardboard, some manure and topped it off with some leaves/pine needles. I still need to add some more leaves and hope to get that done tomorrow. I also got an area ready for my tomatoes and other taller plants. These won't be in a raised bed, but along the back side of dh's shop.

I'm hoping to put in a couple more raised beds this year if the money is there to purchase the material. DH's is wanting to redo the porch. When that happens, I will have some wood that I can repurpose as my bed borders. This probably won't happen to late summer, so I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Beekissed]

After calling and personally going and talking to many tree services~and I mean, I stopped along the highway and talked to crews working counties away, inquiring as to where they were dumping their chips that day~at their offices and out on their work sites, I was drawing a huge zero. I did find some really poor quality chips dumped a couple of counties away~just by driving by the site and begging the landowner for some~ and was able to get some of those but they will take forever to compost~huge, stringy, mostly evergreen stuff.

I even made a huge sign and placed it out by our mailboxes, directing any tree services to dump chips on our land.

Finally, someone suggested advertising for chips and, as implausible as it sounds, a lady called me and told me of chips that had been dumped illegally on her land by the neighboring state park and said I could have any I wanted. I got some of those, then my neighbor had an electric right of way cleared and those chips came my way. With all of that, I finally got 4 in. on the garden, so added more depth with 250 bags of leaves gathered in town this fall.

I went back to the place where the lady said I could have chips and the state park had removed the chips and leveled off the piles...I was still able to scrape and scoop a little more from the site, but my supply of chips is no more.

For what it's worth, you might advertise for chips....you never know what will happen. Tell everyone you know you want chips, you just might get a lead on some. My sign at the road almost netted me the motherload of chips....a fellow in a semi tractor truck stopped and wanted to dump his whole load of chips but couldn't get his big truck back our switchback driveway.

I hope you find enough to get you started. Remember, they need to mulch down for several months before you will be able to get the best results out of them...at first, the wood chips rob nitrogen from the soil where they come in contact with the soil, so there are nutrients locked up until those start to mulch.