What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

My chickens have been locked up for 2 weeks and the weeds around my yard has grown. I can see that my chickens were doing a good job controlling the weeds, but they crossed the line when they started chewing on my tomato plants. I won't let them out until I get to taste a Sun Gold tomato...............I wonder what it taste like?

I have been gathering their eggs and filling their food and water at night. I hide from them during the day, they go nuts when they see me..................

I would post a picture of my tomato plants and F3 Breese/Cornish X chicks, but I haven't found my camera yet....

 

[Sally PB]

I was wondering if the soil in my pots up in the green house was getting warm. Probe thermometer says yes! 80 F, so I will be planting for sure in a few days.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have some tomato starts whose leaves are starting to curl. Anyone know what causes that? They are in Miracle Grow Seed Starter which should be sterile. Too wet maybe?




Pictures of the new hatchlings. There are 15 of them.... I think.

 

[gtaus]

I was wondering if the soil in my pots up in the green house was getting warm. Probe thermometer says yes! 80 F, so I will be planting for sure in a few days.

I've been thinking about building some cold frames or a hoop top for my raised beds to warm things up earlier. Currently, my 16-inch-tall raised beds are still all under snow cover. So, it will be long time before my soil gets warm enough to plant (our average last frost date is 30 May). Looking at alternatives to using PVC pipe for the arch. Watching YouTube videos on maybe using some of my pallet wood to build a cold frame and/or arch over a raised bed. I have lots of pallet and reclaimed lumber, just need to find a project build that I think I could do.

Also, considering building a greenhouse using some of my pallets as the base of the structure. Sure would be nice to be able to put some plants outside before the end of May, but need to protect them from frost at nights.

 

[gtaus]

I have some tomato starts whose leaves are starting to curl. Anyone know what causes that? They are in Miracle Grow Seed Starter which should be sterile. Too wet maybe?

The thing I like about gardening is that you are always learning something new. The thing I don't like about gardening is finding out everything I have learned is probably wrong! From what I understand, there are a lot of things that can cause leaf curl, including both underwatering and overwatering the plant. Go figure....

Anyway, here is a link to Why Are My Seedling Leaves Curling? written by someone who writes books for gardeners. It might be helpful.

Pictures of the new hatchlings. There are 15 of them.... I think.

Love the pictures of the hatchlings. Fortunately for me, I am much better at raising chicks then plants. It's a learning process....

 

[Acre4Me]

Spectacular day, weather-wise!!!!

Gorgeous, perfect temp, clear, sunny, with a bit of wind.

Fruit trees were sprayed with dormant oil. Only one tree was barely…maybe…just beginning to show a touch of green in a couple spots, so really cutting it close with the dormant oil. But, it’s done!

We planted a lot of potatoes. 4 varieties, in about a 15x20’ area. We also planted onion plants -3 varieties…maybe each bundle was 50 plants, not sure.

We moved the large 10’x4’ bean towers. They are now in position for this season. I’m going to try to plant melons on the sunniest side to see if that will work out ok. Or I guess I could try cucumbers. But, still will grow beans on them too.

We turned on the water for the barn. Although it’s s frost free pump that we installed a few years ago (the previous one broke with previous owners, but they did not replace it), we always turn off the water out there for the Dec-march time frame. Spouse doesn’t want to have to re-dig and replace that again -he did all by hand before.

Neighbor (old couple) caught a skunk in a trap, but had to leave for some event or get together. My husband shot it and disposed of it for them. It was kind of funny…he got a very long metal pole, attached a hook on one end, and then dragged the live trap to the burial site. Tried to keep it as far away as possible. He just buried the skunk, not the trap!

Chicken coop got cleaned out-sooo stinky. It was the clean out after winter. So much poop, so little shavings. Then the goat pen was cleaned out - by teenager. You know, teens do not like suggestions from parents, so I had a few laughs while teen was trying to keep goats in their pen and they kept trying to escape. At one point, teen was stuck bc had both goat heads clamped between their legs and could not move. My suggestion was to use the portable fence to pen them into a corner, but as it was my suggestion, it was ignored. Lol. Everyone is clean and fresh now.

 

[TJAnonymous]

The thing I like about gardening is that you are always learning something new. The thing I don't like about gardening is finding out everything I have learned is probably wrong! From what I understand, there are a lot of things that can cause leaf curl, including both underwatering and overwatering the plant. Go figure....

Anyway, here is a link to Why Are My Seedling Leaves Curling? written by someone who writes books for gardeners. It might be helpful.



Love the pictures of the hatchlings. Fortunately for me, I am much better at raising chicks then plants. It's a learning process....

I'm thinking it's from too much water. Basically I had them started in a peat pellet. Those pellets were pretty wet. But once the seedling got about 1 - 2 inches tall, I moved and buried the peat pellet into a larger cow pot filled with Miracle Grow Seed Starter. I wetted down the seed starter afterwards. Since the peat pellets were already pretty wet, I'm wondering if it was just too much water for the tender roots...

Other thoughts...

I've had some fungus gnats flying around so I've been spraying the soil every few days with Mosquito Bits.

Lastly, the grow lights are LEDs but I still feel it's a bit warm in there than room temperature... I can't imagine it's warmer than 80 degrees TOPS though so surely that can't be the culprit....

 

[WthrLady]

Tomato seedlings curl to protect themselves from all the extremes. Too much or too little water, Too much or too little light, Too much or too little humidity, Too much or too little air movement ......picky things. Go with your gut and let them dry out a tad.
I have all my 12 varieties of tomatoes ready to seed this week. I need to dig out the seeding shed first.

 

[Iluveggers]

Somehow this thread got unfollowed!

Planted two 72 cell trays. One was all tomatoes, the other kale, chard, cabbage, brussel sprouts & herbs.

Still have to do lettuce, maybe tomorrow?

 

[BReeder!]

I would caution you @BReeder! on planting the cilantro seeds before going on vacation. Mine sprouted in just a couple of days.

You might want to consider Make Your Own Seed Capillary Mat: Self Watering Trays which would allow a person to go on vacation for a number of days without having to worry about the plants not getting watered.

I have a DIY grow tent and use trays and cells. The grow tent is holding humidity very well. The tray under seedling cells allows me to provide water that can be soaked up over time. I am also tempted to setup up water wicks to keep the plants watered while gone. I might still wait to plant the cilantro, but there's there's ~150 starts that need to make it through 10 days. I'm currently testing the extend of the DIY grow tent. 3 days since watering and the humidity in the tent is holding strong so far. If it makes it to Friday when we leave I'll water again and call it good enough. If not, I'll set up water wicks as a secondary measure. I'll definitely add a water wick setup in the greenhouse for the tray of starts I have out there.

Water wick set should be simple: a bottle of water with wicks coming out the top and down into the soil near a plant. Each cell/pot will need a dedicated wick though, which is way I am hoping the DIY grow tent is enough in itself.