Old thread: >>762858
Companion Planting - Raised Beds - Vertical Gardening - Square Foot Gardening - Polyculture - Composting - Mulching - Vermiculture - Espalier - Fungiculture - Aquaponics - Greenhouses - Cold Frames - Hot Boxes - Polytunnels - Forest Gardening - Aquaculture
Resources:
Murray Hallam’s Aquaponics: (sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYR9s6chrI0 )
-Aquaponics Secrets DVD
-Aquaponics Made Easy DVD
-DIY Aquaponics DVD (Aquaponics The First 12 Months And Aquaponics DIY DVD)
Backyard Aquaponics
https://kat.cr/backyard-aquaponics-t4385398.html
400+ PDF BOOKS ON GARDENING
https://kat.cr/400-pdf-books-on-gardening-t3324399.html
Youtube channel Growingyourgreens, tons of videos on almost every single gardening subject,
https://www.youtube.com/user/growingyourgreens
Ollas clay pot watering system,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNxACJ9vPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKq5geEM-A
USA Time of Year Planting Guide,
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/what-to-plant-now-zl0z0903zalt.aspx
Food preservation,
http://nchfp.uga.edu/
https://kat.cr/complete-book-of-home-preserving-pdf-gooner-t10069401.html
https://kat.cr/canning-and-preserving-all-in-one-for-dummies-2011-mantesh-t5998098.html
http://www.allamerican-chefsdesign.com/admin/FileUploads/Product_49.pdf
Mushrooms, (culinary and psychoactive):
https://kat.cr/usearch/Stamets/
Mother Earth News' Vegetable Garden Planner program, (full version requires yearly subscription $fee)
http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx
Tons of Gardening/Farming PDFs
http://www.fastonline.org/?page_id=35
Aquaponics
http://www.fastonline.org/?page_id=32
US Farm Income and Taxes,
http://www.hobbyfarms.com/farm-marketing-and-management/farm-income-taxes-14991.aspx
US Grants and Loans for Small Farms,
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=GRANTS_LOANS
http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/farms-and-community/grants-and-loans-farmers
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/funding.shtml
Managing Risks on Your Small Farm,
http://agr.wa.gov/Marketing/SmallFarm/managerisk.aspx
Chicken info and forum,
http://www.backyardchickens.com
Rabbit guide
http://www.agriculture.gov.tt/publications/manuals/rabbit-production-a-producer-s-manual.html
A public access seedbank for many types of rare or endangered plants; both edible and ornamental,
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/index.htm
Organic and heirloom selections:
http://sustainableseedco.com/
http://www.seedsofchange.com/
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Potato, Sweet Potato, and Tubers seed bank (free, but requies filling out forms and waiting in line):
http://www.cipotato.org/
Awesome interactive plant/gardening maps for USA, Canada, France, UK, BC, (frost dates, temp zones, etc):
http://www.plantmaps.com/index.php
Sprout seeds and info:
sproutpeople.org
Insect Habitats for attracting polinating bees, predatory/parasitic wasps, hibernating ladybugs, butterflies, etc.
http://www.inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html
Toad and Hedgehog Habitats,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JetkWtw7Jc
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/frogcrafts/a/How_To_Make_A_Toad_Village.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/hedgehog_home/
http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/leaflets/L5-Hedgehog-Homes.pdf
Chili Peppers
http://www.fatalii.net/
More on Aquaponics & Aquaculture,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=26xpMCXP9bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=_WgfaJjvfxA
http://www.appropedia.org/Aquaponics
Sourcing plants from the grocery,
http://www.diyncrafts.com/4732/repurpose/25-foods-can-re-grow-kitchen-scraps
Anyone else have strawberries? I'm trying to find out if I used too much fertilizer (nitrogen). If the yield is normally in June even for everbearing, shouldn't I be seeing a few pop out by now?
![tumblr_nauks5e25S1qzfsnio6_1280[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/x3BAJUa.jpg "tumblr_nauks5e25S1qzfsnio6_1280[1].jpg")
anyone know where i can purchase gourd molds like this?
market gardener toolkit docu just went live today for those interested
possiblemedia org/marketgardener/
>>771472
That's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
>>771475
Go shill your hipster farming bs somewhere else.
>>771464
Mine are blooming and fruiting now. Most are slug food though.
>>771488
small farms are hipster now?
go get more haterade
>>771464
Mine are in their first year now. Bought the plants, 3 varieties 10 each, from store in early April - because my vesca seedlings were/are too slow, sprouted in February they even now are still the size of a penny (the seed package claims "harvest possible in the first year by July" - I call bullshit, probably takes until next year or even 2 or 3 at the speed they grow).
So also the bought ones are pretty small still but starting a week ago, I already harvested a very small amount (like 5 berries in total) but it should accelerate now, more and more partially red ones starting to show up
And because I like doing these things, here a timeline of the seedlings' "amazing" growth (not always all plants shown so number varies).
Out of the 56 I had on replanting into their single "compartments" in early March (I tried bio-degradable paper maché ones this time), 44 have survived until now which is OK I guess (a few died from transplanting shock/root damage a couple days later, another few one day I forgot to water them)
Therefore also >inb4 too much water because there's moss visible - if I give them less they'll be dried out completely in one day (those containers are tiny and dry from all sides), and fuck watering them 2-3x per day
>>771490
>>771543
I have no idea how old any of them are except the runners, I just grabbed a pot on a whim last year and found like 4 bunched in there. The runners are about 3 seasons old, they were left inside during the winter.
Two of the originals died.
What are some quality LED lights for under 50, or decently cheap?
>>771632
Kek, are you a Southern Hemisphere fag?
Anyway, bought this Chinalamp last December which is OK I guess
http://www.amazon.com/Efficient-TaoTronics-Lights-Growing-Garden/dp/B014ZZLP8G/ref=pd_bxgy_86_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=05K3TK804MEFPMJMG0EG
Despite rated 24W though, it only consumes 15W according to my energy monitor.
At distance of ~80cm and running 14h/day, stuff that also grows outside in semi-shade, like lemon balm, did very well, but my oregano grew totally leggy at that distance
Later on (~February-March) I had it closer (50cm) but so it could support less plants, but my sage cutting did great under it
Does anyone have any tips for how to take care of pawpaw plants? I have four different varieties that I planted in my garden last summer, so that they would be able to crosspollinate easier and be able to create fruit in the fall. The four plants range between two to three years of age, and are growing in the northern limits of their natural range (the Niagara region of southern Ontario). Is it normal if they haven't grown flowers at this point, or do those only appear after a few more years? They seem to be perfectly healthy otherwise.
>>771644
If this helps, both are grown in partial shade.
>>771543
Also a pic from the strawberry bed.
Counting from bottom to top, first 3 rows are the bought ones (first is an early-bearing cultivar 'Honeoye', second is a later one 'Senga Sengana', third an everbearing 'Ostara')
In the 4th row the rightmost three are leftovers from the previous rows (the plants cam in packs of 10 but I only had space for 9 per row)
Rest of the 4th row and the 5th row are, barely visible, filled up with 15 of my tiny seedlings (that still leaves me 29 in containers, will probably plant them out once the onions in the bed next to it are harvested)
>>771676
what are those rectangle thingies for? do you have another picture?
>>771690
Those are supposed for watering without making the top soil moist, I hope to keep snails/slugs at bay with that.
Just installed them today so they aren't really densely set yet and water is still leaking from the sides and reaching the top as visible from the pic (I did give each of them a lot of water though earlier today, about 14 litres, for initial settling. I have the same containers around my tomatoes and there the top stays dry because they've been sitting there already for much longer)
Wild strawberry master race post your patches.
These are f.virginiana, but I've also got f. viridis, f. moschata, f.alpina, and f. vesca growing on my property. Maybe some f. Chiloensis if I get some good grow lights inside.
>>771769
>>771901
No, they are wild - small, compact plants. Not like the domestic ones that are gargantuan.
Any reason why I shouldn't feed a big house palm tree-type plant with a bit of vegetable fertilizer?
I haven't repotted him in over 3 years (I know, but he's still growing really well and my next pot size is going to be 16" which is gonna be expensive as fuck) and I probably haven't fed him in 2.
Still grows 6" a year though.
>>771910
You should look up the specific species, fertilizer requirements vary a great deal. Some plants seem to thrive in nutrient poor soil and dislike fertilizer, others need it.
>>771914
Alright I'll quit being lazy and do it.
I know I can find exactly what plant species this is because I bought it from ikea 8 years ago and they still sell the same thing now.
Mine is about 6' taller than the ones they sell though kek
>>771920
Better make yourself an atrium and put a hole in the ceiling, then. You'll be fine, jut prune slowly and trim offending shoots.
>>771921
If I could get a room with a 20' ceiling I would let this guy grow that tall.
It's actually going to be a problem, when I moved into my place this plant was easily transportable by car, but I've lived here for so long while I work on my PhD that it wont even fit out the door to get it out. I'm going to have to crane him out a window I think.
vola file dot io/get/qrsNP5cIw6648/Homesteading.zip
bunch of random info and pdfs I got from /pol/ once.
vola file dot io/get/HS3oPqEIw66k8/Skills%20and%20Trades.7z
a folder I extracted from the 50gb "Everything You Need To Know Ever" torrent, there's an updated 100gb version but I'm not done downloading it
and fucking 4chan's shit filter is again blocking me from posting because "hurr word I don't like", I fucking hate what this site has turned into
>>771231
>What is French style gardening?
a fuck ton of buxus with mediocre flowers.
picture related.
but there's hope for the future, since boxwood is dying all over west-europe due to an epidemic of fungus that affects them.
I fucking hate buxus.
The ginger is coming out
I've had this avocado egg in this position for like three months now and today I noticed there's an opening in the bottom, that touched the water at all times.
Should I turn the thing upside down now? The top is still sealed
>>772015
>I fucking hate buxus.
Meh, as one of the very few native evergreen broadleaf shrubs here, they add a bit of much needed green to our grey, depressing, mostly snowless Western European "winters" (which lately feel like 5 successive months of November)
>>772060
I use smooth-leaved Osmanthus in my designs rather than Buxus, because unlike Buxus they don't die constantly and have actual flowers.
Raining today, so I'm not sure if I can be bothered to do anything. Here's the state of my 2 currently-favourite plants - the potatoes and garden peas. Not sure what type of potatoes they are, they were just given to my by a friend.
Any idea what cunt might be eating my leaves? It looks like a caterpillar hole to me. I had a rummage through the leaves and couldn't see anything still on there, so who knows. Should I still be mounding up, even when flowers are starting to develop? I've still got perhaps 4 or 5 inches of tub I could fill with soil.
Also my peas are finally fucking flowering. They just kept growing for the longest time, I thought I might have a nitrogen problem if they weren't growing flowers. There are quite a few developing buds on there now, looks like I'm gonna have a decent harvest in a few weeks.
>>771472
Fruitmould.com. seriously
>>771914
>some plants like nutrient poor soil
How does that work?
I have planted some natsumikan (Citrus natsudaidai) seeds few month ago and some germinated. Since I have at least 3 candidate that are likely to live and sustain, I wonder how many years I have to wait before they begin fruiting?
Is the Georgian bay anon here?
Garden and animals so far.
Big plot has a bunch of different vegetables, as we're trying to see what grows best here, then we'll replant as needed. Small plot has melons - I know we need to space them out a bit more, but again, we have bitchin' soil (used to be a floodplain), so we're gonna see how it goes and work from there.
Have 6 chickens total, but the little bastards don't stay clumped up, so no decent pics. Haven't bothered naming any except the black Silky, he's Rufus T Justice, defender of the coop. He's an overbearing aggressive asshole who tries to bully the other chickens and fails constantly; he's a like a failed gangbanger - he's loud and brash until he gets confronted, then he legs it to a corner of the coop, yelling indignant remarks the entire time.
Good eggs from the other chickens though, getting 3-5 a day.
>>772283
You're further along than I am, but I've had to do a lot taking care of my mother because she has had a hip replacement.
And I need to get some chickens if for no other reason than to get rid of my rollie polly infestation.
Finally got the greenhouse up. Tomorrow I'll be getting everything planted.
>>772295
Where is this?
>>772295
>tfw growing bananas where it gets -20 F in the winter
Feels gud
>>772296
murrica
Total gardening noob here...is $14 for 35 stargazer lily bulbs a good buy? They were 75% off at Lowes and it seemed like a steal to me.
>t. never grown anything more advanced than spirulina in vats
>>772298
what variety?
>>772298
Leaves make good toilet paper
>>772156
lack of competition.
rich soil has less bio-diversity than poor soil does, plants don't like sharing.
>>772302
in horticulture prices are usually flipped x4
so you basically bought them for around the same price the store bought them.
>>772283
Nice, my parents recently got rescue chickens (chickens that battery farms would've just killed cause their egg-laying is past peak). they've got 6 chickens and get 3-4 eggs a day usually, sometimes more.
Where'd you get your hens?
>>772307
Musa Cavendish. They're extremely sensitive to the cold though so if the heater fails in the winter, they're fucked. I was going to go with California Gold but figured they might be too large. Here's where I ordered from
http://www.greenhousebusiness.com/bananaplants.html
>>772043
No leave it how it was
Anon near Parry Sound here?
>>772338
Nice. I've got some lady fingers as houseplants. I'm putting them outside now that it's warmer, but they'll probably get too big, unless I get my hands on a greenhouse.
>>772323
We got our from a local feed shop. They raise them there. The white one was a bit of an experiment, as she came from a frozen embryo. We tossed her egg into the pen, she hatched and is doing quite well.
They seem fairly content, although the stench can be hard to manage. Have to change the hay out every other week, or you can smell them from across the property.
Also, don't get a rooster unless you really need/want one - those assholes are loud, and Rufus has a bad habit of sounding off at 5:30 every morning. It's not conducive to a good nights sleep.
>>772379
Yeah my parents opted to not get a cock/rooster.
They've got theirs positioned at the end of the garden, so the smell only effects that end
Honestly, I'd love to get chickens at some point. Not quite got room where I live at the moment, but it seems to be the next logical step after I've got my garden in order. Maybe when I get the allotment...
are those upside down tomato planters meme-fact or meme-fiction?
>>772428
They're real. Chinese rainbow rose seeds are fake.
It would be a subject of some debate if there's any good reason (pros outweighing cons.) But if you want to hang a tomato it will probably survive for a while, for whatever that's worth.
>>772283
I love it
>>772341
Okay
Two questions guys
First, my swiss chard is coming in. When's the best time to thin, and to what distance from each other for maximum yield?
rate my garden faggots.
>>772113
O. fragrans? According to wiki it only tolerates absolute winter minima of -7°C, so you can forget about that here (zone 8a). So they'll die too thanks to frost (maybe not the last 3 years, but every once in a while we have winters with cold snaps down to short time -18, and there's also been one day in the last 25 years when the daytime high stayed below -10). Are you very close to the Atlantic so that you fall into 9a?
>>772509
Second, my brussel sprouts. They're looking healthy, but I really can only keep one, maybe two. What's the best way to determine the keepers from the thinners?
>>772511
Osmanthus burkwoodii.
I'm in zone 8A.
>>772509
Probably now before they start choking each other out, and my info tells me anywhere from 6-12 inches.
>>772512
I wouldn't thin out just yet (at your stage competition shouldn't be an issue yet, plus if you reduce to one right now you risk losing it for whatever reason, like pests which happened to me because I think I thinned out too early)
I suggest you wait about 1-2 more weeks and simply keep the healthiest-looking one then, and maybe transplant a second one as backup into a pot
>>772515
Thanks, might look into it. Not much flowering this time of the year in my garden (narcissus, crocus and tulips are long gone, rosemary finally stopped flowering too after a respectable 8 months of constantly doing so, while hibiscus and potted lantana still take a month or two)
>>772523
Dasiphora fruticosa flowers around this time.
consider getting some early blooming rhododendrons, and Omphalodes verna.
>>772527
I was thinking of getting a frost-hardy oleander variety ('villa romaine' or 'roma' are supposed to tolerate short time -15) for my evergreen corner (pic from winter, in the meantime I already added a veriegated Euonymus japonicus, a Lavandula stoechas, a Mahonia aquifolium and a Salvia officinalis - hope to turn it into some sort of "eye-catcher" in wintertime as it's facing the street), but no hardware store around me seem to carry those.
Same with hardy olives ('Hojiblanca' or 'Picual') rated in the same range, can only find them online to ship and rather expensive
>>772554
(+pic)
>>772554
Neriums look out of place in 8A, they don't really fit any kind of garden.
variegated plants make your garden look chaotic, don't use them.
some wintergreen plants I like are Ceanothus, Photinia, Clematis armandii, Viburnum tinus, Azara microphylla, Mahonia aquifolium and Camellia.
>>772374
If you get a greenhouse get one of these grandiogreenhouses.com
Installation is a little tedious but with proper prep and someone to help it isn't bad. Instruction manual is good too.
Also, what's growing in the bottom pot?
>>772060
>>772510
>>772513
>>772523
>>772527
Looks very comfy. Whats your countries?
>>772569
the netherlands.
unlike many, I realize my country isn't all that cold, it's just too damn wet to sustain most plants in regular soil.
>>772569
I'm the German Rhinelander (Rheinhessen region), other guy is from NL (dunno where exactly)
But don't get fooled, even my "rural" area has a population density of about 400/km^2, every square inch (including river islands) is farmed or otherwise used, no such thing as "untouched nature" here. The only tiny specks of "forest" left in the area are so small that if you venture through them, you'll meet at least one jogger or biker every 5 minutes
>>772569
the bottom pot is a little oak tree that popped up in my garden. it stopped growing when i transplanted it, even though i was really careful with the root system.. kind of a bummer
>>772573
You didn't have a severe drought last year? I mean it rains on average 540mm here but last year was only 360, and that in the winter months mostly. Result: A 30 year old willow in my garden died from lack of water (they have flat roots and the soil was bone dry about 50cm, record depth despite us having very heavy clay)
Also the lawn dried out so much, some patches have only recovered now
>>772576
>no such thing as "untouched nature" here.
you're better off than my country.
we lost 85% of our biodiversity.
it's funny because it's not an issue that's hard to fix, yet the government is having a hard time fixing it.
>>772584
Well I'm in the dead centre of the so-called blue banana. Sure if I go 50-100km to the West there's much more forest (Eifel and Hunsrück), also lots of Dutch tourists there
Ironically my state (RLP) is the most forested of all (42%), yet my region is the most deforested (<5%)
>>772583
>You didn't have a severe drought last year? I mean it rains on average 540mm here but last year was only 360, and that in the winter months mostly. Result: A 30 year old willow in my garden died from lack of water (they have flat roots and the soil was bone dry about 50cm, record depth despite us having very heavy clay)
the netherlands is frog country, we don't have droughts just excessive water.
>Result: A 30 year old willow in my garden died from lack of water
why do you have willows in your garden if you don't live next to water?
you should be happy about it though, willows are shit trees, they produce a shit ton of garbage with little reward and don't live much longer than 120 years before dropping on your house.
>>772584
They're more interested in other kinds of 'diversity' :^)
>>772586
forests are a laughing stock, I don't know why anyone refers to them as an example of biodiversity.
3% of what you find in the forest here is native.
I don't understand the whole idea of plating trees in cities, they're terrible for biodiversity, the only thing that grows underneath them is grass.
>>772587
>why do you have willows in your garden
Well it already stood there. A nice thing about them though is that they shoot very early (mid-March) and drop very late (the last leaves fall in mid-December)
Among deciduous trees widespread here, only Robinia pseudoacacia (shoots very late though, late April) and Prunus cerasifera (shoots early too starting in late February, first flowers may appear in late January if the winter is mild) can compete
Will probably plant one of the latter as replacement, downside is the thorns and you have to actively keep them in tree shape else they become shrub-like
Pic-related an abandoned field near me in early December with lots of cherry plums which still have many leaves by that time
>>772592
Well in most of Europe they're simply the natural climax vegetation, stuff like meadows or steppes are man-made aside from a very few exposed locations
>>772594
there's plenty of early trees that aren't willows, like Sorbus and Crataegus.
>stuff like meadows or steppes are man-made aside from a very few exposed locations
I find it hilarious how most ecosystems we didn't expect happened within man made structures.
there's literally thousands of plant species that can soley be found in cities outside of their 'natural' habitat.
>>772600
>that can soley be found in cities
I guess the urban heat effect is to blame here, which allows lots of otherwise Mediterranean/subtropical stuff to survive and thrive here. This also includes shitty invasive stuff though, like Ailanthus altissima
Now I don't wanna lump together all those neophytes as "bad", many of them are enriching, like fig and olive (pic related some guy from my village successfully growing olive trees in his front yard for about 12 years now, which also ripen to black by December and in general stand out in winter)
>>772614
our temperature isn't all that harsh to be honest.
it's just that our wet winters drown plants, cities are much drier, so these plants do fine in them.
>>772622
Similar here, just that we have our rain maximum in summer (being on the Northern Upper Rhine, the mountain ranges west to us block a lot of Atlantic influence and get much more winter rain).
January to April are the driest months on average with about 30-35mm of rain, while July is the wettest with about 65
Also the village being on a southern hill slope means that water drains relatively well (the next little stream is 100m altitude below and 3km away fro me), so root rot isn't generally an issue, and there's not much annoying insects around (despite some moths flying inside if I have my window open and lights on in late summer nights)
>>772632
winters are wet here, rather than summers.
if you're looking for garden plants, just look at what we use in the netherlands, if it can survive here it can survive there.
>>772633
I think stuff like ferns which you seem to cultivate a lot would have a very hard time here because of our irregular but reoccurring droughts
>>772634
your droughts are worse than ours.
it's a garden anyway, if it looks dry you can just water it.
we don't cultivate ferns a whole lot, most of my ferns are actual wild plants.
>>772637
>you can just water it
Water is expensive yo. I do have a 1000 litre rainwater tank, but it empties quickly in summer. Tomatoes alone consume a lot
And don't get me started on that fucking lantana camara. During the worst period last year (40°C in early July) I had to water it with 10 litres up to three times per day, I've never seen a plant sucking its substrate dry so quickly other than this one
>>772643
I don't water my tomatoes a whole lot, they tend to not get ripe when I do.
I just removed some ugly conifer hedge in my garden so all of the fungus in the ground is sucking up all the moisture now.
>>772645
>all of the fungus in the ground
Aren't they just breaking down the now defunct roots? Happens when I remove stuff, lots of destruent shrooms showing up digesting the remaining roots, making nutrients available to the soil again
Also, another water sucker, Laurus nobilis. I'm amazed it survived the winter (didn't protect it at all) and it's now shooting like crazy again. Planted it out last year not knwoing about its frost sensitivity, cost me like €10 but I harvested so many leaves from it for the kitchen it already paid off (fresh leaves are way more intense than dried ones you get to buy from the mall)
>>772651
>>772651
>Aren't they just breaking down the now defunct roots?
yeah, that's where all the water goes.
I don't mind it, most plants tolerate drought a whole lot better than drowning.
Give me one good reason why I should quit smoking
>>772652
It only takes one or two of those fuckers(dried) to season a pot of soup or stew.
>>772653
Yeah, learned it the hard way with my fig seedlings which really like it dry. I apparently overwatered them (root rot) despite only giving water whenever the top of the pots were dry, which was still too often. Now I'm waiting until almost the whole pot is dried through before watering, and they're recovering
Anyway, off to sleep now
>>772657
I'm usually putting around 10 into my bolognese sauce, but then again when I cook it I'm making like 5kg of sauce at once, freezing most of it for later use
>>772592
forests are extremely biodiverse. what are you talking about?
>>772666
they aren't.
undergrowth is less diverse than regular plains are.
>>771644
I actually have about 4-5 wild pawpaws behind my house. As far as I know it takes like 5 years before they start fruiting/flowering. Good luck with them, man, that shit is tasty.
>>772614
I know what you mean with the shitty invasive stuff. Elms are not native where I am, and some asshole decided to introduce them. I live right next to a cottonwood forest and they're starting to take over. On top of that, they release a shitload of seeds every single year, and I spend hours upon hours weeding them out. I just got rid of probably 100 or so today.
>>772638
>>772643
I live in a desert. We average ~8" (~200mm) per year, though last year we got double the average. Before that, we were in a severe drought. It was bad enough that the weatherman called the vegetation "dry gasoline," and he wasn't too far off. The muzzle blast from a rifle was enough to set it on fire.
If you guys want any ideas for gardening during a drought, I'm more than willing to let you know what I do, though I will say that I have heavy clay soil that retains moisture very well.
>>772643
Really? I had a lot of this shit planted in my front yard in southeast Texas and it required almost no maintenance other than pruning.
>>772752
Was it in the ground? It's kind of a jekyll and hyde about containers versus the ground.
>>772782
Yeah, they were in the ground as landscaping desu.
>potatoes came back to life after frost killed them last week
I was ready to call them bitches for being supposedly hardy and not even able to handle a 30 degree night.
Planted all my potatoes today /out/casts. What you can't really see in the pic is the row of 4 sweet potatoes to the left and the 4 Idahoans to the right. The six in the center are goldens. Also, my butternut squash along the fence just sprouted.
Feels good.
>>772816
Yeah, those leaves get destroyed by frost, but they'll normally come back.
>>772844
My growing season starts mid-May since I live 8000ft above sea level and winter last until late april - early may, you ignorant faggot. Where do you live?
>>772855
Look up Joseph Lofthouse. He farms at 8,000' in Utah and he breeds his own cultivars to thrive up there. He'll also sell/trade seed. He even has melon cultivars that you can grow without a greenhouse up where the air is thin.
>>772668
you are incorrect
>>772877
I was initially taking about the growing season since it snows and freezes at night till early may here but thanks anon, I'll look into that as well.
anybody know about pickling/fermenting watermelon rind
I tried using a salt brine, mostly experimenting at this point so the brine strength is most certainly wrong
well I got this brownish growth in the jar, see pic
any ideas what it might be?
the jar I'm using has an airlock on it if that's something you need to know
>>772805
Well I guess it then has groundwater access
>>772711
western-europe lost 40% of it's bio-diversity since 1700, my country lost 85%, 97% of the plants you'll find in the forest here aren't actual natives.
the only things you'll find in the undergrowth are ferns, trash and maybe some polygonatums if you're lucky, other than that it's just a bunch of invasive weeds.
Tomatoes to the left, potatoes in the middle and to the right broad-beans! Growing in scandinavia.
>>772844
>Alaska
>>773008
Well there's forests and "forests". You're probably thinking of the latter, huge conifer monoculture plantations where each tree is the same age. Those places are of course dark and not very diverse
>>773008
>97% of the plants you'll find in the forest here aren't actual natives
Just like the people in the next few years, insha'allah.
I'm net to gardening and I was expecting all of these potatoes to grow at roughly the same rate but one has shot up to seven inches while the rest are barely doing jack shit. What do? Do I trim the tallest one or what for the others to catch up. How it works is you let the grow to about what the tallest is at or less then you bury the whole plant and plant more potatoes for vertical gardening.
>>773083
Well done
>>773112
I think some seeds/plants are just weaker than others
>>773119
Wow. What do I do?
>>773098
pretty much all 'forests' here were originally planted.
but people are starting to realize that we're creating green deserts.
>>773102
I'll move to new zealand if that happens.
>>773128
Usually you won't need to do anything as long as you have proper plant spacing. As long as one plant isn't hoarding up all the sunlight and soil then not much will differ in a few months time!
>>773158
They're rethinking stuff now a little though. Those conifer plantations were a big thing starting in the 1700s onwards, nowadays they're trying to focus more on having species that would naturally dominate, like beeches, oaks etc
>>773112
hey,
I think that you can throw this little project away. You've started with to little soil and you didn't earth up before your potatoes came up. Normally you put some extra earth on top of the plant to make sure the little potatoes are protected from the sun. If the potatoes get sunlight they will turn green and become poisoned. just like yours.
>>773167
he could also unearth them gently and replant them much deeper! their roots are still not that vast i would assume. No point in giving up completely when it's still salvageable!
>>773163
they're better off making the city more plant friendly.
I have bough this little boy when it had only 4 leaves the size on my nails.
It was in a "1 dollar shop" like but it said nothing except "coffee tree"
How can I identify what type of coffee tree is this?
>>773179
Might be one of those famed "Caramel Macchiato" coffee trees. If so you could open a competing cafe against Star Bucks and put them out of business.
Eyy, I wanted to post a little update.
A bunch of my plants are blooming, including some cherry tomatoes, the Oxalis triangularis, and the other clover (four pots dedicated to wild clover!). One plant already has a tomato on the way. Two or three plants show signs of outgrowing their pot, and one is already in a new one. I would've had them all in the 5 gallon buckets if the buckets weren't old and didn't KEEP DISINTEGRATING when I clean them. Also, the drainage mystery plant finally set, and is growing more leaves.
Pic is the plant whose color I was worried about a while back. It got, um, toppled over by wind at one point, which accounts for its weird shape. At least it looks really lovely now!
>>773179
Most likely Canephora (robusta) or Arabica.
I don't know a special trick to IDing the seedlings. You could count their chromosomes!
>>772212
Hello?
>>773102
Eh, they could use the genetic diversity. Most Europeans are inbred as fuck compared to middle east or africa.
>>773191
It does indeed look nice. Where you growing?
>>773211
you're thinking of the brits.
most of europe is fine.
>>773216
Puerto Rico, tropical island in the Greater Antilles, land of heat and sun, where the economy is disintegrating, just like my buckets. It rains/doesn't rain exactly when you don't want it to.
I sat on the floor taking this picture. I regret doing this.
Here, have the FIXED version, now that I finished laughing about the upside-down image.
What do you guys do when you go on vacation?
I am growing several tomatoes, sweet peppers, habaneros, and herbs in pots on my apartment balcony this summer but I am going away for a week on vacation so I am worried they are all going to die while i'm gone.
Apartment balcony is covered too, so I can't rely on rain.
>>773313
Drip sprinkler on a timer.
If not, give your plants a good watering before you leave, almost to the point of over water, and then inclose them in plastic wrap leaving only a little airflow. This will create a green house effect that keep your plants moist until your return.
>>773320
Thanks.
By "drip sprinkler" do you just mean any sort of drip irrigation system with a pump to move water out of a reservoir a few times a week onto your plants?
>>773177
Well, being a villager, we still have plenty of green around
What sucks though are the ever falling market prices for tree fruit (cherries, plums, apples etc), leading farmers to turn more and more of the fields into huge ass (up to 20 continuous hectares a piece) boring monoculture wheat fields.
Not only does it look like shit, as a result winds are getting remarkably stronger over the time, and wind erosion is clearly visible (in some places the fields lie already 10-20cm lower than the adjacent paths)
Us being a wine area mitigates it a little, wine is still more rewarding per area, but doesn't grow everywhere (it's mostly on south-facing hills)
>>773329
Not him, but you could also do this with a reservoir on a platform, if you dont want to use pump/timers. It has it's limits though, since it relies mostly on gravity.
>>773418
What, don't they plant windscreens around the feilds? Over here in the usa we learned a hard lesson with the whole dustbowl years wrecking our shit. Now most fields have trees planted around the edges of them.
>>773192
Is the shape of the leaves enough to leave the indetermination about the specie?
>>773507
Well, in bigger regional terms, it's still a relatively wind-protected region (see>>772632 we're surrounded by mountain ranges which block a lot) but as it is in capitalism, everyone thinks for themselves (I'd do too in that situation tbqh) so no one wants to sacrifice crop area for hedges/trees etc, and legislature isn't catching up to the issue yet (we have lots of lobbyism/corruption too, we're just better at hiding it then for example in Greece) before it's too late and the rampant "wheatification" will have backfired
>>773240
Those grow in the wilderness here
>>773515
Not sure I'm answering your question- A problem with coffee seedlings, as seen in the original picture, is they're prone to have distorted leaves. And the leaves are so similar when they're small (in my opinion anyway) that it's hard to tell. I'd be hesitant to say it's definitely one or the other.
That said, there may be an easy way to tell that I don't know about. When they're older, there are easier ways to tell, including the leaves.
>>773567
I'm almost certain that was a b8 post since Arabs are the most inbred group on the planet with the marriages between first cousins and such. Now let's stay on topic here.
Anons, I live in Vermont. new England of the United States.
My "hot" plants (tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant) are still in 6 packs as seedlings. Tomatoes are about 6 inches tall, and others are just showing first true leaves or second set.
Would you keep them in 6 packs so you can water easily and check on them? Or put them out in the garden?
>>773167
Fuck you.
>>773646
Get some covers for them if there's any chance of frost in your area and plant. Harden them off if you haven't already. If it is lower than 55F at night you may want to wait, but that depends on your varieties.
>>773504
Would it require any electricity? I just realized that my deck/balcony has no power outlets
>>773112
>Do I trim the tallest one
NO. The other ones just aren't deep enough so either you can try salvaging them by burying them more or just start over with new tatos
>>773717
No, it doesn't. It just relies on the barrel being higher than the plot, like on a platform or up a hill. Water towers rely on the same principle, just a bigger scale. The only time it would require any energy is to fill it, but if you put the barrel under your downspout, you might never have to manually fill it.
>>773565
nice.
we only have aquatic yellow ones here.
>>773573
Thank you. I'll keep it few years before trying to identify it.
The purpose of the question was, on top of mere curiosity, to know if that, once the tree start fruiting, to know if it would be a good idea try to brew my own coffee from it.
I have no idea whether some tree produce coffee improper to consumption. I'll try to find an answer on wikipedia.
>>773804
Seems ok to drink it
>>773685
Thanks. As soon as I posted I answered my own question. They're hardened/ing, but what's the point in going into soil? I can maintain them better right now. I'll wait until the temp is up, and do it then. Thanks, anon.
Is it too late to start my garden? Central Pennsylvania. I can get it all done by the end of the week. Want to grow tomatoes, a few different peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins. I didn't pre start anything.
>>773925
Also carrots and corn.
>>773925
only if you buy starter plants.
it's too late so seed anything unless you've got a climate controlled greenhouse.
>>773873
More room for root growth. With most plants there is as much mass, if not more with roots as there is above ground.
>>773925
>>773927
I'm guessing your average first frost is earlier than mine, so with tomatoes, peppers, etc... you'd want to get some plants from a nursery that are already somewhat mature. You can go to a nursery and look at seed packets and most will tell you days to maturity to make that call.
Carrots are biennial, so if they get hit with a frost, it's not going to kill them, and you can always pick them early.
Sweet corn you pick before it is mature, so you might need 60-90 days, depending on the cultivar. If you want flour/flint/dent corn, you'll need to look for 85-120 days until maturity.
>>773956
probably not, their flowers tend to be shittier if they're fertilized and don't last as long.
>>773956
Normally it is the end of October, but last year I was picking peppers into November. It was a very warm fall.
>>773956
Oct 19 is the projected first frost for my area
Cherry tomatoes really going strong, over 100 tomatoes per plant!
>>773991
Removed so many suckers from the tomato plants i decided to create this little monster.
>>773956
>first freeze
This doesn't always "work" as a measure for rather oceanic climates when it's getting cold rather slowly.
For example here it's on average Nov. 5, but stuff like tomatoes will already start dying by mid-October (varies).
Most extreme example was 2014 when the first frost came on Dec 27, but of course tomatoes were long gone by that point because temps kept hovering around 5-10°C throughout much of December, on many days going down to just above frost
>>774012
And how that works will vary from place to place. As stated above, I was harvesting peppers into November last year. The tomatoes hung around for a while too, but I didn't pay attention to when they died. You have to keep in mind that 40f daily temperature swings are common where I am. It is quite normal for the temperature to go down to 35f, then get up to 75f-80f by mid afternoon. So long as it doesn't freeze, a lot of things will simply slow their production as a function of reduced sunlight due to shorter days rather than die.
Does anyone recognize this flower? I've had no luck identifying it. It's growing in coastal VA on sand dunes. I'll post a close up following. Thanks!
anything wrong with using old shopping bags as soil liner?
I'm doing a garden on the ultra cheap using some milk crates to hold the soil and wanted to use plastic shopping bags as a liner. Cant find any good info on this, I feel like it would be toxic or something
>>774037
the flowers remind me of Veronica.
>>774044
can't seem to pinpoint the family, but it should be somewhere in Lamiales.
>>774069
found it by accident.
it's Nuttallanthus.
about to bike 5 miles to get some starter plants then bike 5 miles back home
I hope this is a good idea
>>774078
it isn't, they'll be blown to shit if you're transporting them on a bike.
>>774078
I hope you can shield them from the wind
>>771543
>>771676
Small update: Against my expections, one of the F. vesca seedlings (whole plant is like 4cm across, probably the biggest of them) has shot a flower!
I guess the fruit coming out of it will be tiny even by vesca standards though
>>774089
>>774075
>it's Nuttallanthus.
Thank you! Nuttalallanthus canadensis, I think. Funny, it's not even on the online lists of blue virginia wildflowers I was looking at.
But I see it now in a little pocket guide-- Blue Toadflax. This guide calls it Linaria Canadensis, but its (c) 1932.
>>774043
I wouldn't do shopping bags because they aren't super strong even aside from all the chemicals. Don't you have any old sheets or something to use? Any access to cheap burlap like old rice sacks?
>>774080
>>774081
Are we talking motorcycle or bicycle? The latter is no problem, I'd be more worried about how he's going to transport on the former.
>>774134
Yeah, if the plants can handle a 30mph wind, they're going to be fine on a bicycle.
>>774156
>>774134
Just did it on a bicycle and it was not really a problem. I was more worried for the tomato plants vine beacause it seemed like it was going to snap any second. I was asking about the plastic bags but went with the landscape liner since it was so cheap.
Got everything planted though, check it out
>>774177
left to right
Melrose pepper, Mortgage Lifter tomato, Christmas Basil
>>774177
Nice, I love it when people get creative with containers and don't pay $20 for a three gallon plastic pot at home depot or lowes or wherever.
>>774182
>>774182
dutch commercial tomato growers put them straight in the sack the soil came in.
works pretty well.
my lemon finally sprouted
>>774177
What kind of racks do you have? I've never bought a starter I don't think could've survived a slow bike ride, but keeping the flat is a bit trickier.
>>774201
This is terrible and wonderful all at the same time.
>>773951
>More room for root growth. With most plants there is as much mass, if not more with roots as there is above ground.
Interesting. They are in pretty big cells (six 6packs per flat instead of eight) and are pretty teeny. We have some warm nights coming up, but they would be harder to maintain if I put them out. I'd hate to lose any right now, and I don't think I have to worry about them getting root bound. I think my soil is just too cold. I do have black plastic burlap down, but I have a ways to go.
>>773994
Very cool.
>>774260
no racks at all actually. I put the plants in a cardboard box and carried it home. I found a much closer nursery so I didn't have to ride 5 miles back
>tfw found dozens of tomato seedlings having sprouted in the place where I also grew them last year (used to simply ditch or let drop unusable, burst open tomatoes in late October there and somehow the seeds made it through winter)
Couldn't help myself but save a few of them, even if it's now too late to get good amount of fruit from them (also no more space to plant them later on in the garden by the house, I guess I'll plant them on one of the plots a couple 100m away from home we own)
Many different cultivars I don't even know the names of were planted side by side last year, so maybe I can get some interesting cross-pollination results
>>774293
Some tomato cultivars don't readily outbreed and some do. Don't quote me on this because it has been a while, but IIRC, if it has tomato shaped leaves, it is an inbreeder and if it has potato shaped leaves, it is more of an outbreeder.
If you really want to know, you'll probably want to do a little research.
>>774308
Well, I have the available space (even though it's a bit away and I thus won't check on them daily) so I'll just plant them and see how they develop, viewing it as a sort of experiment
>>774308
>>774313
Also, those "wild" seedlings I found now don't look too different from the San Marzano ones I started in December/February indoors, just that they're a bit darker green, I guess because of the much longer sun and actual UV exposure
At how many weeks can you transplant a tomato plant? I've got a coworker who's interested in one of my sprouts, about 3 inches tall now at about 2 weeks.
>>774316
Hey wait
I ripped a few seedlings out of my pots a few days ago and they looked just like the ones on the right
I don't grow tomatos
>>774317
If it's warm enough, you can whenever you like (see my posts above, seedlings randomly popped up in the garden)
>>774318
Soil contaminated with tomato seeds? This happened to me last winter while growing some other stuff (I think it was a watermelon) indoors with garden soil I picked up from outside (didn't sterilise) and 2 tomato seedlings popped up in that same pot in the middle of December (you can see one of them in the lower part of the pic), they're now outside in the garden with the other tomatoes, already flowering
It could be another nightshade in your case though, they often look similar in early stage. One way I could tell it was indeed a tomato quite early was (very gently!) rubbing the leaves and it gave of the typical tomato plant smell
I just sprayed non organic pesticide all over my tomatoes and pepper plants, how long until they're safe to eat?
>>774327
It all depends on the exact chemical in question (and derived parameters such as persistence and toxicity) and the dosage
>>774328
Would you say a week and a half would be a good waiting time? This is generic lawn and garden insecticide (label faded)
>>774331
As I said, it really depends. If you don't know what's in there and whether it's meant to be used only on ornamentals or also edibles - better don't use it at all
What kind of pests/damage did you have on your plants anyway?
>>774334
A pretty bad aphid problem, my landlord said no ladybugs because they would get everywhere
>>774334
This is what I used, the instructions on the back wore off and faded so I'm not sure when it's safe to eat stuff again
>>774342
Maybe your landlord wouldn't have notice if you did it all the same. Can he really tell you what insect can fly in the garden?
Did you also try to "simply" water-hose the aphids? (I know it isn't always simple)
>>774342
>ladybugs
Weird, they're usually considered beneficial here
>>774345
Hmm, at least it says that it's also usable for edibles. The chemical is also approved here in the EU where we tend to be rather restrictive: http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/public/?event=activesubstance.detail&language=DE&selectedID=1509
Not an expert on this one though, so I dunno how long to wait for safe edibility of crops
>>774346
Yeah I tried but they were back within a few days
>>774347
He was more bothered with the fact that I would be releasing 500 flying insects
>>774345
You'd be best served by tracking down the full label.
And don't spray chemicals that you don't know how to use in the future.
>>774348
Yeah, that happens... Anyway if it was a really big aphid invasion, ladybugs may have been a little late.
How many plants where infected?
Here's a pdf, you can find half-life informations on the 4th page :
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/l_cyhalogen.pdf
You can try to cross-validate it with what the link >>774347 gave
>>774351
About 5 or so.
>>774362
That's painful, but not too much either. Before water-hose, did you try to spray soapy water? That's usually enough for me to get rid of them when there are only a few infested plants.
>>774365
No I didn't think to do that
>>774372
Well, if the insecticide doesn't work, you'll know what to try next time.
Also, if you want to avoid aphids preventively, you can plant Tropaeolum near the tomatoes (not too close, 2m seems fine to me). Aphids prefer tropaeolum to other plants, which tend to stay aphids-free.
Thanks to all of you that helped
>>774388
no problem mate
Sowed pumpkin, corn and squash seeds today. Most people here say to start pumpkins inside but the seed packet said 110 days to maturity which would be September 9th, which seems more fitting for Pumpkins than early August. So what's the deal?
>>774342
>my landlord said no ladybugs because they would get everywhere
This was definitely one of those "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" situations. I honestly don't think running it by her would've gone through my mind in the first place.
>>774446
Your pumpkins are going to be ready wayyy to fucking soon. I sowed my pumpkins this time last year and I had pumpkins in early august.
>>774462
If you're not growing them for jack-o-lanterns, it's all good. I personally like cushaw squashes because they're good as a summer or winter squash. As a winter squash, you can use them in place of pumpkin in any recipe that you have, and they can be used in place of anything that requires yellow squash or pattypan squashes.
>>774090
Juicy
>>774220
Nice, I dug up mine because I gave up hope after two months and one of the three seeds actually sprouted so I simply put it to the top.
Also I didn't remove the outher shell back then, which I did with three new seeds one week ago
>>774513
Waiting for tree seeds is a form of torture. I want to get some clippings/start budding and get my damn fruit already. I've got lemons and an avocado I need to start splicing and I'm having trouble even finding scions for the avocado.
>>773652
>sucks at gardening
>gets butthurt when given good advice
>wind bent my mints, basil and some other herbs.
>cut the damaged twigs and plans to make them root.
If I put two twigs issued from the same plant in a same pot, will their root system fight each other?
>>774220
Nice job. How long did it take to germ for ya?
>haven't watered plants lately because forecast calls for 10 straight days of rain starting today
>from the looks of the radar storm might miss us
idk what to do besides egg the weatherman's house. If I water and it rains I'll be depressed because I drowned my plants, but if I wait and it doesn't rain I'll be pissed that I didn't water them earlier.
>>774596
Just water them.
If it rains you can go to cafes and take all the free umbrellas near the doors and cover your entire garden.
>>774596
Most plants can go longer than most people think without being watered. Unless it is really bad, I wouldn't water. If it doesn't rain for a couple of days and you don't water, then you water on the 3rd day and it rains, just consider that it is a good idea to water deep when you do water.
>>774755
plants can deal with drought a whole lot better than being waterlogged.
Rate my garden, /out/. This is my first attempt, and I didn't have a lot of space to work with (I'm in a corner house on a tiny-ass plot of land), so things probably look a little crowded.
Left to right, starting with the top row:
-Tomatoes, 2 Celebrity and 2 San Marzano
-2 Poblanos, some globe basil (heard it was good for repelling pests), and 2 Hungarian Hot Block peppers
-3 green bell pepper, 2 Anaheim chilis
-About 20 sweet onions
I know planting different pepper varieties in the same plot isn't a great idea, but I didn't have much space. I at least tried to group the spicy/mild peppers together.
Any commentary would be welcome. Again, complete gardening newbie.
>>774816
Those peppers and tomatoes look like they're too close together. No worries, unless it's really severe overcrowding and barring a disease, what you'll get is reduced yields from each plant, but you'll still get roughly the same total yield from the square footage had you planted fewer plants in a more optimal spacing.
As for planting different peppers in the same plot, that really only matters if you are seed saving. If a hot pepper cross pollinates a bell pepper, the bell pepper won't be hot, but if you save seeds from that bell pepper, its offspring probably will be. The seeds are the pups, not the fruit itself.
Anyway, you'll find out just how big those things can get (tomatoes can get monstrous if you let them,) and then next year, you can plant with the idea that you want them spaced so that when they are fully grown, they are just touching. You want to stop light from hitting the ground as a means to inhibit weeds, but you don't to have your plants competing with each other.
>>774846
Thanks for the tips. It's good to hear that I'm not doing anything too wrong. On the topic of weeds, would it be a good idea to put down some mulch? The bed tends to run kind of rampant with them.
Pic is the far end, some lettuce and a cucumber. The thing on the right is some kind of citronellla bush, I think. One of the last few people who rented this place was a big gardener. Smells nice, but it seems to want to spread out. Half the weeds I pulled up while planting were mini citronella plants.There's also a small pear tree and a raspberry bush on the property. Everything was pretty overgrown when I moved in, so I'm trying to get it cleaned up.
How do you guys deal with squirrels digging holes in your garden? They are totally rampant in my neighborhood and its driving me nuts. Using chicken wire atm, anything better?
>>774888
I'll try to keep from writing you an essay on the subject-
I currently use a lifelike fake coyote, rubber snakes, bird netting on anything I will be mad that they've dug up (only to the extent that it isn't a pain in my ass) and fences in some places where they work like the opening of my greenhouse.
But the best thing of all is just going into the yard every couple hours. The squirrels will fuck off for a while, and if they don't you chase the little shits down and punch them in their squirrel nuts.
(Also, just accepting that they're going to do it is helpful. I sometimes wonder if they're actually helping to improve the soil health. They're at least putting some of my fresh plantings through their paces.)
>>774816
Next time you can bring everything closer to the edge since space is the issue. I'm crowding most of my stuff as well. Next year I'm building wood planter boxes since this ridiculously inefficient.
>>774888
I use a pellet rifle and canines.
>>774882
Straw mulch would work. Nice and cheap, and at the end of the season you just till it in. Mulch is not just good for keeping weeds down, it'll help keep the soil cool and moist in the hot summer months.
>>772699
Thanks for the tip, I'm glad to see that somebody responded to my question.
Just out of curiosity, do the pawpaws by your house grow in an area that's fairly close to a stream or somewhere where there's surface runoff? I've heard that they tend to do better in wetter soil, but ain't exactly sure if I should water them daily or not.
>>772513
what do you have that is creeping over that walkway trellis?
>>774558
4 weeks behind my laptop in a plastic bag with water so it stayed over 20C
Who's a big boy?!
