Your 2024 Garden

[Nomadicus]

I'm planting potatoes today in some raised bed boxes I inherited from my son. He semi retired into an RV and travels now so he has no garden. I'm going to try something I've never done before. The pieces of the potato are just going to be pushed into the soil very shallow and then covered with mulch made with pine shavings and dried leaves. As the taters grow I'll add mulch for the potatoes to make in instead of having to bring dirt around them. No bending to dig them and hopefully they will be cleaner. It may be a complete failure and wouldn't be the first and then again it may be another success. I'm due for one.

 

[saysfaa]

I'm planting potatoes today in some raised bed boxes I inherited from my son. He semi retired into an RV and travels now so he has no garden. I'm going to try something I've never done before. The pieces of the potato are just going to be pushed into the soil very shallow and then covered with mulch made with pine shavings and dried leaves. As the taters grow I'll add mulch for the potatoes to make in instead of having to bring dirt around them. No bending to dig them and hopefully they will be cleaner. It may be a complete failure and wouldn't be the first and then again it may be another success. I'm due for one.

Please let us know how it turns out.

 

[Nomadicus]

My onion plants came today. I didn't get the coop finished in time to plant onions. If the rain is no more than the .05" they are telling us then I can till and build the bed to grow them on. I have some black plastic that is made from corn starch that I can till under in the fall and it will biodegrade. I'll use the same thing for sweet potatoes. I've done that before with the old type of black plastic in MO were the ground bakes hard the the potatoes will grow into the cracks and are ugly. Mine grew normal because the plastic prevented driving spring rains from packing the soil tight and then baking. I did this on a hunch it might work and it did very well. A neighbor and good friend came down to see what I was planting and he went home and planted a few that way too. At digging time he came down to see me with a great big grin. He had a single plant in a bucket that had 13 1/2 pounds of potatoes on it. Now there is an article on the U of MO telling people to plant sweets this way. You can't use out of balance fertilizer on sweets or you get vines and few potatoes. We used 6-24-24 Soybean fertilizer and it worked like a charm. I watched a video of a guy who planted his in containers of high priced compost. In the fall he got maybe half a bushel from a whole lot of plants because he had to much nitrogen. He fed the vines to is chickens and hogs. Here in AL I can get 5-15-30 with trace minerals for sweets and that is what I'm using this year. I've seen failures because the store bought 10-10-10 or similar and that is what they pushed on people. I know from years of experience that there is no one size fits all when it comes to plant food for maximum yield from healthy plants. It makes no difference if compost is used as the only source of plant food or earth minerals in a bag there is just no way to have all the plants happy when tomatoes get what sweet potatoes need. I studied long ago fertility of crops of beans, corn, and wheat. The big 3 crops of where I was in the mid west and then dug in deep as to what each garden plant needed. I love gardening and try to make all my plants as happy as I can so they reward us with bumper crops.

 

[Iluveggers]

My onion plants came today. I didn't get the coop finished in time to plant onions. If the rain is no more than the .05" they are telling us then I can till and build the bed to grow them on. I have some black plastic that is made from corn starch that I can till under in the fall and it will biodegrade. I'll use the same thing for sweet potatoes. I've done that before with the old type of black plastic in MO were the ground bakes hard the the potatoes will grow into the cracks and are ugly. Mine grew normal because the plastic prevented driving spring rains from packing the soil tight and then baking. I did this on a hunch it might work and it did very well. A neighbor and good friend came down to see what I was planting and he went home and planted a few that way too. At digging time he came down to see me with a great big grin. He had a single plant in a bucket that had 13 1/2 pounds of potatoes on it. Now there is an article on the U of MO telling people to plant sweets this way. You can't use out of balance fertilizer on sweets or you get vines and few potatoes. We used 6-24-24 Soybean fertilizer and it worked like a charm. I watched a video of a guy who planted his in containers of high priced compost. In the fall he got maybe half a bushel from a whole lot of plants because he had to much nitrogen. He fed the vines to is chickens and hogs. Here in AL I can get 5-15-30 with trace minerals for sweets and that is what I'm using this year. I've seen failures because the store bought 10-10-10 or similar and that is what they pushed on people. I know from years of experience that there is no one size fits all when it comes to plant food for maximum yield from healthy plants. It makes no difference if compost is used as the only source of plant food or earth minerals in a bag there is just no way to have all the plants happy when tomatoes get what sweet potatoes need. I studied long ago fertility of crops of beans, corn, and wheat. The big 3 crops of where I was in the mid west and then dug in deep as to what each garden plant needed. I love gardening and try to make all my plants as happy as I can so they reward us with bumper crops.

Can you explain the container way for sweet potatoes? Thank you for the fertilizer tip, I’m sure that’s what I did wrong a few years ago in my only attempt at them.

 

[Sally PB]

I pulled a bucket of weeds out of the garden for the chickens yesterday. While I was out there, I noticed that one of my winter aconite bulbs has sprouted, and has a flower budding out. I planted those last fall for the honey bees. I saw a few bees out yesterday; I hope they find the flower.

 

[Sally PB]

We used 6-24-24 Soybean fertilizer and it worked like a charm.

I planted sweet potatoes for the second time last year. (The first time was a few years ago, and an utter failure.) I don't know what was in my soil, but they liked it.

Thanks for the information; filing it away for future reference.

 

[Nomadicus]

Can you explain the container way for sweet potatoes? Thank you for the fertilizer tip, I’m sure that’s what I did wrong a few years ago in my only attempt at them.

I'm headed out the door for tires on the van. Mine re almost treadless. I can only offer a way to grow container the way that I think my work. The one person I saw had an utter failure because they had to tow them mark being USDA level of organic. What people often don't know is the teaching from the Organic Garden magazine decades ago made the statement that all minerals that enter into plants have to be in the same form regardless if from chicken poop or out of bag of processed minerals. I'll explain more when I return tonight. I have some resources to check out maybe from someone who has done container sweets successfully.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I pulled a bucket of weeds out of the garden for the chickens yesterday. While I was out there, I noticed that one of my winter aconite bulbs has sprouted, and has a flower budding out. I planted those last fall for the honey bees. I saw a few bees out yesterday; I hope they find the flower.

Pic?

 

[Sally PB]

I didn't take a picture, but here's a link.
https://savvygardening.com/winter-a...ly a super-early,and pollen for foraging bees.
I'd never heard of it before, or seen it, that I know of. I planted it for the honey bees.

The warm weather is encouraging them to get out and about, but there is nothing in bloom, so there's nothing for them to eat. We'll probably feed them again next week...? We're forecast to have a 60 degree day, and we can open up the hive to see if they've eaten the special patties we put in the top of the hive.

 

[tripletfeb]

I didn't take a picture, but here's a link.
https://savvygardening.com/winter-aconite/#:~:text=It's actually a super-early,and pollen for foraging bees.
I'd never heard of it before, or seen it, that I know of. I planted it for the honey bees.

The warm weather is encouraging them to get out and about, but there is nothing in bloom, so there's nothing for them to eat. We'll probably feed them again next week...? We're forecast to have a 60 degree day, and we can open up the hive to see if they've eaten the special patties we put in the top of the hive.

What do you feed them?