Homegrowmen Thread #102

>>1074765
because there is no rush, if I need some I dig up some

>>1074793
Some years, I just leave them in the ground over winter and dig them up as needed. I have to put 6 inches of straw mulch over them to prevent freeze damage though. If it is warm, you have about 3-4 weeks before they start sprouting again.

>>1074803
>If it is warm, you have about 3-4 weeks before they start sprouting again.

fuck, this early? I guess I'll harvest them all before the next big rain

So how is growing /strawberries/ here?

what's the most humane way to kill a rat that set off a snap trap but is just sitting there wounded

>>1074884
Personally, I don't bother. I just toss it into the garbage bin like that.

I suppose you could reset the trap and drop it back onto the trigger plate.

>>1074866
how or who?

>>1074884
a big rock

>>1074836
It all depends on temperature really. Check the "days-to-maturity" for that cultivar or check your photo dates from when you planted to when you can harvest. Count those days. Then check to see when the next frost usually is, if you have any in your area. That can tell you if you can plant again. Basically, you'd dig them all up, sort out seed potatoes then replant.

>>1074866
My plants are big and full. I had several varieties in one area, but it seems the spring-bearing cultivar is the winner. No everbearing cultivars made it.

>>1074884
Still living mice/rats get fed to the chickens.

>>1074884
Get a shovel

found 2 sales for epsom salt and calcium nitrate, $22 and $24 for 50lbs usp grade on both.

good deal?

does anyone grow plants for local sale?

a lot of the big box stores we looked at this summer now only carry larger, single plants in pots, and for just one plant they're pretty expensive

I'm saving as many seeds as I can, and I've got nice seed trays to use for next year....I can grow way more than I can use

I thought about selling produce, but I don't know if it's worth trying to compete with all the time and effort it take to get to fruiting

>>1074788
How can I clone fruit trees, as opposed to cultivating them from seed? I have several orchards within 50 miles of me.

>>1075001
If you have a decent yield, several restaurants near you should be willing to buy. Big cities especially often have yuppie places where they only buy local produce for their salads etc.

Ah, Windsor Ontario. The dirt is hard as rock, the summers are too hot for the plants, and the winter brings too much snow to grow.

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as inspired by this thread, i started some peppers a few weeks ago. I really only wanted one plant to take care of as a hobby, but i decided to keep four of the seedlings and they seem to be doing fine!

>>1074788
what are good plants to start growing in the tropics?

I've started growing zucchinis and tomatoes, the zucchinis already have their first true leaf and the tomatoes just started sprouting. fyi I started planting them about 2 weeks ago in dirt pots. Any advice on what vegetables would do great in tropics and what I should do about my plants in the future?

>>1075066
I'm new to this gadening thing, what base do you use and what are those white stuff?

>>1075138
i mixed some potting soil with a small amount of perlite (perlite is the white stuff)

>>1075138
Cocohum makes nice starting soil as well. But you will want to start fertilizing pretty early.

>>1075188
why do I need to start fertilizing early? and when do one usually start fertilizing?

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>>1075019
Cuttings. "How to propagate with cuttings".

>>1075051
Make your won soil. It isn't too hot. Use multilayer polytunnels when it is too cold.

>>1075137
Start with what you like to eat and go from there. You can grow pretty much anything you want except trees/shrubs that need a dormant cold cycle. You can also grow some pretty neat stuff too,

Atemoya
Barbados Cherry
Jaboticaba (really weird how it fruits; pic)
Jackfruit
Jujube
Sapodilla

I'd be the watermelon king, if I lived in a tropical region.

>>1075197
Because most Cocohum is pretty devoid of anything, which is fine for germination but at some point your plants will need more food.
The advantage of the stuff its pretty clean to handle indoors, doesn't really mold, drains well and still stays moist, which is ideal for starting plants.

>>1075239
Some cultivar seeds need nitrogen in the medium to start germinating. You'd need to cross reference whatever you are planting for that. It can mean the difference of 1 week to germination or 2-3 weeks to germination.

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The squirrels and potato bugs are at bay, the tomatoes recovered from blossom-end rot, and now I have some questions.

1 - My cucumber plant's leaves are turning yellow. How can I tell whether it's getting too much or too little water?

2 - I have an heirloom cucumber plant and we left a cuke on the vine to develop a lot of seeds. What's the best way to get to the seeds? I figured I'd cut the cuke in half long ways, scoop the innards out with a spoon pick the seeds out of the innards, and finally dry out the seeds for storage. Any other suggestions?

3 - My tomatoes are splitting on the plant - how can I prevent them from splitting?

>>1074788
When should I plant garlic? I live in Eastern massachusetts

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Picked my first watermelon 2 days ago
6.8kg, quite satisfying for cold climate and early August desu, also considering the breed ("Sugar Baby") is only supposed to reach 4-5kg

>>1075231
damn I actually went to a department store earlier and saw watermelon seeds for sale, maybe I should've picked them up.

I actually picked up some tomato, spinach, and lettuce seeds though. Along with some potting soil which I'm gonna start planting tomorrow.

Also, thanks for the advice! btw fr that jaboticaba fruit thing, are they normally found in tropical regions? I live in south east asia if that information helps.

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>>1075254
6 to 8 weeks before your first hard frost

>>1075250
1: If you stick your finger into the soil and the moisture content seems correct then your cucumber plants probably need magnesium. The fastest way to give them that is using a foliar spray. It is a very common problem with cucumbers. Otherwise, use some compost tea or manure tea when you water normally.

2: I saved seeds from one of mine last night. I let it grow as large as possible. I took the knife and cut length-ways into the flesh just about a centimeter. I did that on both sides. I did not cut all the way into it. Then I was able to pull the two halves apart (I do the same thing with water melon when saving seeds.) I use a spoon to scoop all the seeds out. I put them in a big bowl/stock pot of water and rinse them several times, getting those clear sacks off their outsides. Then I hose them out well in a strainer, put them on a towel, fold the towel over them, press down firmly and swipe the towel against itself to help remove any goop still left on them. Then I flake the seeds off on a plate to dry for several days. When you touch the seeds a few days from now they should not feel cool to the touch. If they feel cool in any way it means they are still too moist for storage. I store mine in paper envelopes (they get labeled and a tiny picture drawn of what the fruit/veggie looks like). You can't use plastic bags if the seeds are still too moist or they will mold over. Regardless of what you use, you will need to store the envelopes/bags in a metal or glass container to prevent pests from chewing into them and eating everything.

3: They are most likely splitting due to inconsistent watering. Like you had several days of hot sunny weather without rain or watering. Then you got a huge downpour of a storm or you watered heavily. That will cause them to split like crazy. Some cultivars are better at not splitting than others.

>>1075286
They are a Brazilian tree. You'd need to get seeds from overseas.

>>1075247
This is correct. But this was an answer that was originally about peppers and they prefer a starting soil that isn't too rich, which makes cocohum (or dedicated starting soil) ideal for them.
But then it's peppers. You could show me one that grew in shredded, wet kitchen paper and i wouldn't be surprised.

>>1074884
12 ga buckshot or a firecracker

>>1075255
How was it!?

I got my first "large" watermelon yesterday. I've no clue what cultivar it is since it came from some saved seeds from a random store variety several years ago. Mine was half the weight of yours. Those store varieties are all around that weight range it seems. It cold have been picked several days ago, but it was still really good. I'm using old pics to help calculate when to pick the others since everything is hanging and doesn't have that yellow spot. Seems like that watermelon fruit was about 55 days old.

>>1075290
Yeah, pepper seeds are more about moisture, heat, and light than anything else.

>>1075287
tropical anon here, damn that'd be a hassle but htanks for the picture though I think it'd be very useful.

Also I started planting lavenders a couple of weeks ago, are they any good in tropical climates?

>>1075295
You are probably better just googling specific plants and their needs. For tropical lavender, try French lavender (Lavandula dentata). If you can buy seeds from online, you shouldn't have problems getting what you want for any variety of plant/tree. Also, check out tonka bean trees (Dipteryx odorata) and Vanilla orchids for vanilla beans (Vanilla planifolia). You can probably source vanilla locally.

>>1075301
ah I see thanks, yeah I actually wanted to try planting vanilla but they take over a year to blossom and that kind of takes out the fun out of it since this is only a side hobby of mine.

Where do you recommend buying seeds online?

>>1074788
My roommate used to work in a phytoplankton lab, and he still has one of the really intense grow lights. We were thinking of putting it on a timer and using it to have a small garden in our living room over the winter. Any recommendations? (That aren't weed?)

>>1075304
>seeds

I just use google like, "jaboticaba seeds" then pick whatever site I think will work for my location and price range. I've even ordered from shady Chinese websites. I get the product I ordered, but I also start getting scam calls about how my credit card has been, "hacked". Just don't order weird seed shit from asian ebay vendors because they are normally not the product you are ordering. That's normally due to people not using scientific names.

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>>1075287
Thank you for the info!

On another note, would anybody be interested in selling or exchanging seeds? I want to grow my garden from seeds next year, plus I'm taking on a few other gardens for friends and family next year and thought a seed vault of heirlooms might be appropriate.

>>1075310
Grow what you like to eat and have room. Herbs are super easy. Even something like garlic tops only need a windowsill. Micro greens are terrific if you like salad greens.

>>1075311
damn yeah I guess I know what you're talking about. Thanks for the heads up!

>>1075292
Very sweet but also more wet/dripping compared to store-bought, I guess because it was fresher, can't complain.
I determined it to be ripe enough because the vine it was on and the stalk started to wither
I still have a couple more "Crimson Sweet" but they'll take a little longer and will be even heavier

Thinking about working toward getting myself a plot of land and growing as much of my own food as possible, including black beans, potatoes, onions, jalapenos, herbs, blackberries, strawberries, mushrooms, eggs, and maybe even goats for cheese.

1. Is this doable for one person?
2. How much land are we talking about and how much of a time investment? Would I have to go nolife to do it?

For now I think I'm going to get into fungiculture and grow potatoes in a barrel, and maybe look into getting an apple tree and brewing my own cider.

>>1075344
Look up permaculture. It requires little to no maintenance. The animals are another matter, however.

Any tips for saving carrot seeds? Our winters get a little below freezing, will the carrots survive to flower?

>>1075344
Learn cost/effort ratios. Lettuce sells for more than beans and is way faster to produce. Mushrooms require careful planning and prepping. Chickens make fertilizer, so be sure to make the best use of all components.

Gardening isn't easy. You'll fail to notice something's wrong until it's too late to save the plants or fail to prepare for something. It's a learning process, just pour over online guides and start soaking up as much info as possible.

Don't let the fuck ups discourage you, and start expanding slowly so your early mistakes don't cost too much.

LONG RUN GOALS: Self-sufficiency
1. Very hard to do alone. Kept small and with a strict diet based on what you can push the maximum of for each season, maybe eventually.
2. 1-5 acres and nolife.jpg if you want to really replace your food source entirely.

If you just want to grow a bit of veg to help you eat better an shit, a couple of hay bales can give you that.

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r8 my mini hugelkultur. I didn't have access to any serious logs so I scavenged for large branches and cut them up to fit the plot. All the other filling was just a huge amount of weeds and branches from some bushes I had removed,

>>1075344
>Is this doable for one person?

Of course.

>How much land

That really depends on how much you'll be eating, your methods of gardening/farming, and 100 other things. I can safely say that 3 acres of land is more than enough for 1 person. That's pretty spread out with quite a few animals. If you are a vegetarian and can eat most anything including wild greens, you can farm just 1/4th of an acre very intensely, year round.

>go nolife to do it?

No, but inexperience will mean you need more time to do things, since some of the things you'll be doing will be more time consuming, until you learn how to do it faster and better. At max capacity for your entire diet, you'd need to work about 2 hours a day max, on average. That might be 15 mins here and there for a few days then suddenly 4 hours because some crop is ready all at once or whatever.

Most of the time, people who are full time farmers are farming not just for themselves. Meaning they use farming as a source of money. If they are industrial monoculture farming then there's barely any work to do most of the year. Those persons usually don't even eat the product they are farming and selling (usually grains). If they have a family they are subsistence feeding and only one person is doing all the work then it will be near full time.

Start small. Replace one of your foods with something you can grow.

>>1075399
>Gardening isn't easy.

It is easy. The hard part is learning and remembering. Figuring out the best methods for your area and crops/animals is the hard part. For subsistence farming, the hardest part is your dietary changes. People still love pizza. Calling a number and having a pizza arrive in 20 mins can be too tempting for most people. The alternative is growing the grain, the herbs, the mushrooms, raising the cow, the pig, etc. then making the pizza. Once you have the system in place it is pretty easy.

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>>1075423
The top layer is top soil, mushroom compost then mulch. Won't be able to plant my peas, okra or lettuce in until they grow a little bit bigger indoors.

>>1075423
Good start, needs more stuff to make it taller, but for a mini it will work. Ask neighbors, friends, and family if they have such materials you can cart off. You can also try local landscaping companies.

>>1075430
I called a few landscaping buys but none of them were willing to drop off any logs. My neighbors definitely helped out with some weeds, that first picture has about half of all the weeds and cuttings I used to fill it up.

>>1075437
Yeah, you'd need to go and get the stuff yourself from a company.

is it worth trying to save seeds from peppers that haven't ripened enough to change color?

>>1075473
Save them and do a germination test with a few. If it works that's great, if not it won't matter. With tomatoes when they start changing color you can usually save the seeds then before they are fully, "ripe".

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>>1075536
how long would it take with "fresh" ones?

I've had lousy luck with peppers so far from seed....but I do have a grow light now, and it should be warm enough inside without a heat mat

btw, do these tomato seeds look right?

>>1075569
It depends on your methods. If you put it in a ziploc bag with a slightly moist paper towel under the seeds, and aim your grow light on it about 2 inches above they should germinate in only a few days, a week at most. Open the bag up every day and exchange the air inside. Those tomato seeds look good and nicely clean. Did you use the 24 hour soaking in water method before cleaning them? I do that then hose them off in a strainer. It works great, but some varieties need 48 hours soaking.

>>1075569
For seed germination in general, best is to put them at 30°C and constantly moist, this way almost everything will sprout in a matter of days (with some exceptions of course, such as palm seeds, which may take months that way)

I have some rather mixed experience with saving tomato seeds. I took some of the best San Marzano last year, but only about half of the plants this year have the shape, the others are different (a mix of cherry and Roma type I'd say), so probably some cross-breeding issue (I didn't isolate them). Peppers are even more prone to cross-pollination from what I know

>>1075597
it may have been the previous pepper seeds I've tried were either too old or didn't get enough light

I did use coffee filters for some different seeds this year and nearly every one grew

for the tomato seeds, I've just let them sit in jars for a few days, then flushed them well with water

I just canned several jars worth of cherry tomatoes, and found it was a heck of a lot easier to simply take out the core with a straw, then squeeze out the seeds (versus cutting and scooping)

>>1075605
ambient temp this time of year is usually in the 70F range, but with no AC, mid 80s have been coming and going pretty regular

I have just set a bag of seeds on top of the tv, and that seems to keep them pretty warm

>San Marzano
I think those are the other kind that are in the garden at the moment and they have not done nearly well as the cherry plants

>Peppers are even more prone to cross-pollination from what I know
I'm not too worried about that, I am only looking to grow mild/sweet peppers

although I think jalapenos one year were some of the best growing of everything so far

>buy 4 foot tomato cage
>tomato plant is close to 7 feet tall and still growing
What do? Sever the growing ends to make it bushier, or switch strategies and grow it like a vine instead?

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Are hydroponic trays a worthwhile investment for dorm room growing?
I plan to grow some food crops so I can save a bit of money when at college

>>1075738
Train it sideways.

>>1075784
Are you going to be doing hydroponics? I'd just use normal soil and pots.

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I got a watermelon yesterday that was nearly 14lbs. It's pretty tasty despite being a bit pale. It is very crisp and sweet. The vine was withering and yellowing so it was time to pick regardless.

>>1075896
sleep tight meller

>>1075738
Use hedge trimmer to top it since the new growth will never mature

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>>1071927
Im running out of stakes. Again.
Cheap/free ways to get more (long) stakes anyone?

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>>1075935
Also birds have finally taken note of the insects in my backyard and started eating them. But do birds hunt for caterpillars or are they just picking worms off the soil?

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>>1075937
And after another two weeks, the step-setup again.

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>>1075066
Congrats! I was the same 4 months ago. Started with no plants and almost 0 experience, now I have pic related. Very addictive & rewarding hobby.
Which ones are you growing?

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>>1074788
Dfwanon here with bakcony watermelons.

Harvested my first one !

Pic very related

>>1076022
But what do they taste like?

>>1076024
Bout to find out. I'll keep you posted.

>>1075935
Invasive bamboo!

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>>1076024
Delicious! Really crisp and sweet.

Really just bumping the thread, but I'll ramble a bit. Weeded out my beet bed today, planted half and half kohlrabi and more chioggia beets. Put down kale seed in a raised bed, did some last minute squash because I found 7 seeds I had forgotten about.

Mostly excited about the nitro radishes I got. The upper half of my garden is mostly clay, stays hard and is generally ugly. So last year I put down rye in October, threw in buckwheat in June then cut down the rye on top of those seedlings. Today I tossed in nitro radishes seed on top of the standing buckwheat, which I'll slingblade down in the next few days. This is a good article on the radishes:

http://articles.extension.org/pages/64400/radishes-a-new-cover-crop-for-organic-farming-systems

Aside from that I'm trying to start some broccoli from seed, couldn't find any starts today.

>>1075473
The pepper will still ripen off the plant. It's better to wait for the pepper to ripen

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>>1076364
When I grew icicle radishes, they would have some nice seed pods that were great in stir fry. However, I had to pick them very immature. If they were a bit older they because oddly woody and stick-like when heated, but were okay at that stage when eaten raw. I've never heard of using a daikon (Raphanus sativus) for a winter cover crop until your post. Kind of odd they are selling them as "nitro" radishes since they are not nitrogen-fixing. I guess you'd need to use nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacterial inoculant it aid in that. It seems these are also called "groundhog radish/forage radish/oilseed radish...Tillage Radish™". lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikon#Agricultural_use

Report back on how well they work out for you.

My biggest taproot plant I'm trying out this year is burdock/gobo/niu bang zi (Arctium sp.) from seed of local common burdock plants (Arctium minus; googled pic 2nd year plant). I'd like to get some greater burdock (Arctium lappa) since t he taproots are larger in first year plants, but there aren't any in this area it seems (common burdock has hollow leaf stems and greater burdock doesn't.) If they prove to be tasty, I may order some greater burdock seed down the road.

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The jungle

>>1076675
Hope you like peppers.

>>1076774
love them. 9 different types.

I-is it too late to grow any other plants?


Also I started some watermelon plants at May and they still haven't fruited. They're long as hell too. What do?

>>1076572
I forgaged some burdock today, the roots are kind of stringy so you have to chop them up small. They taste like a cross between a raw parsnip and a mushroom.
The only downside I could see to growing them is they take up a ton of room for a taproot the size of a large carrot.

>>1076022
You grew that in a pot?

Lads, my hot peppers are getting ready for the harvest. I'm hoping to just toss them in a jar and make some refrigerator pickles. However, I have some in various stages of ripeness. Should I pick ripe ones now and freeze them or dry them in the meantime? Or can I gradually add more to a pickle jar?

>>1076918
Why don't you just let pickle them all together. You'll get different flavours

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>>1076858
Microgreens. These were seeds 6 days ago, made me a tasty salad today.

>>1076858
Zone 5 here. Time for lettuce, spinach, and radishes.

>>1076918
Dehydrate some.
Freeze some.
Lacto-ferment some.

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>>1076921
Those looks delicious. They are easier to grow and safer than whole sprouts.

>>1076921
What a waste of all those seeds

How do you guys get started? Winter now, wanting to get some garden beds ready for spring/summer.

Any tips? Clay soil about a foot or two down around here, so assuming I'll need to build up a bit. Should I just be cutting and turning soil in long strips? What width should my beds be? My zone is 10a, so not sure what that means, so help with that would be great too.

Dunno what I want to plant, but normally I get obsessive over seedlings, fuck with them too much, transplant them and they always suck and I don't know how to make them bigger again.

I'm probably just retarded.

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So I've mixed in like 600L of compost and horse shit into this clay/sand soil and covered it with straw mulch. It's not bad now. I was thinking of putting pigeon pea trees in here then growing beans and some kind of gourd among them. I might look for funky looking gourds in an asian mart because what's the point of growing veggies if you're just gonna have the same stuff as your local grocery store?

>>1077124
Personally, I started by buying potting soil and starting my plants in pots, then digging a hole and placing the block of potting soil with the plant in it into the ground.
Next season I dug 6 inches or so down into some square areas in my yard to loosen the soil into chunks, then used a rake to break up the chunks into smaller pieces of clay, then added some store-bought garden soil which was designed to be mixed with native soil, and mixed it in with the rake. I made one of those plots into a raised bed.

Your zone refers to the general climate behavior in your area, mostly pertaining to first/last frost dates. First frost is when most shit dies, last frost is when it's safe to plant.

My tip for seedlings is to get some peat pots/seedling trays. Fill them with soil, keep the soil wet until the seedling emerges, and then as soon as that happens, take the peat pot outside and bury the whole thing just under the surface of the soil. Since their roots can penetrate the peat, you don't have to remove them from the pot, which means no transplant shock.
Also in my experience letting the seedlings live inside for too long can make them leggy and unable to stand up under their own weight once outside.
You could also try direct sowing, just bury a few seeds in each location, let the sprouts grow for a little while, then kill all but the best one in each spot.

>>1077129
Yeah, I think I left mine inside way to long. So you think as soon as they emerge, just plant them? I got some cheap rockwool from China so might try that shit out, see if they work for it. Want to do some cabbages and shit, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, onions, just anything that I like cooking with.

Ok so maybe start working with breaking up some plots and eventually build those into raised beds over time. Sounds good.

>>1077130
>So you think as soon as they emerge, just plant them?
That's worked for me.

>>1077131
Cool might as well. I normally get leggy stunted plants, so it's all up from here.

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>>1077124
I started by digging a few holes in a row where I wanted to plant. I treated those holes like pots and put good soil in them. I repeated this process until I had enough soil to make a raised bed later on. I make my own soil now from all manner of organic matter compost.

Using native, "soil," that is clay, is just a lesson in S&M.

>width of beds

How far do you want to bend over to mess with plants?

>My zone is 10a, so not sure what that means

It means my Zone 5 ass is jelly as fuck. You can grow just about anything you want.

>seedlings

You need goo soil, that is about it. Since you are Zone 10 you can plant in the final location without much worry. Do you even have frost? That's the only major thing to worry about when planting outside.

>>1077133
Where ever you've been starting your seedlings they need MORE LIGHT. I can't stress that enough. There's tons of homegrowmen who have leggy plants and you can tell them "more light" until you are blue in the face and they just troll you with pics of a single regular light bulb hanging a few feet over leggy pale seedling pics.

>>1077177
Yeah more Frost's this year than any in memory, but none at all during spring, summer and most of autumn. I normally have my seedlings in the window, so they get around half a days sun, but then I found that they would dry out and burn in the heat.

Yeah I think I will start small and work my way up. I was trying to go the planning route, and it just made it insurmountable in cost and time.

So fucking worried.

Whelped a litter of pups, everything went fine like normal. They are now 4 weeks old, perfectly happy. Been raising dogs for years, all good, all good.

Yesterday morning see signs of mastitis. Shit. Hot compresses, express the tit, massage, etc. Dog goes completely lethargic. Vomits, voids, goes into shock. Immediately give penicillin, cover with blankets, rehydration fluid.

12 hours later... tit goes purple. Shit. Fuck. Shit.

24 hrs from when this started. Tit is still expressing milk but is also expressing air (double fuck). Dog is finally a bit more responsive. Tit is at least not rock hard anymore, softer with two hard bumps. Breast is still body temperature. Still fucking dark purple.

Expressing, compresses, feeding yogurt (all I can get her to eat) and rehydration fluid (salt, sugar, water, the stuff you make up for people in shock). Taking 250mg penicillin 4/day.

So worried I am either going to loose her or she is going to loose the tit. Never seen mastitis go bad this fast before.

I don't suppose anyone has any advice?

>>1077252
There's an entire board specifically for this: >>>/an/

inb4 "take it to the vet"

>>1077252
Take her to the vet.

>>1077252
Let it die and get another dog free from the pound. Euthanize those pups too as they have the defective genes

>>1077252
Take it to the vet

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Hopanon here, can someone help me identify why my leaves are browning on the edges, some of these leaves are turning kind of leathery too.

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>>1077450
More leaves

are there such things as a "compost tea tap" on a raised bed?

I was imagining a raised bed that would have lots of compostable material at the bottom. Then there would be a mechanism to squeeze the larger layer of compost so that the compost juices would run into a basin that you could tap in to.

>>1076858
just planted peas, okra, broccoli, mustard and lettuce. Root veggies are good to go now as well.

>>1075947
oops sorry never saw this. I have big thai peppers going rn and i have some chinese five color germinating. I've been having trouble getting them to sprout though so it might end up being just the thai peppers for now

>>1077252
>>1077296
>>1077306
>>1077448
The fucking vet, anon. Now.

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has anyone ever used something like pic related for their plants?

also >>>/diy/1224400

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I just recolted some Labrador tea and I want to plant it in my garden.

I put in cotton wool since it grow in moss.

I live in the zone 3a.

Anyone have advices?

>>1077493
Chinese 5 color looks nice. One of mine is a Bolivian Rainbow, looks kinda the same.
I had little trouble with germination, on a heatmat. Most popped out within 4 days.

>>1076675
cute

>>1077531
i have mine on a heatmat as well and ive had no germination in almost 10 days now. can you tell me what medium you used or if you soaked them, etc?

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How is this accomplished?

>>1077652
You literally take a needle and thread and just poke it through where the stem meets the fruit.

I've done it a few times. Easy AF and saves all those spicy peppers for later when you need em.

>>1077666
Do I need to cut open the beppers at all?

>>1077798
No.

>>1077502
im using one for my orchids and neps

>>1077652
>>1077666
>>1077798
>>1077805
You don't even need a needle at all. There are several ways to make ristras. I recommend looking on YouTube for how-to videos.
https://youtu.be/DcMrsK10jKg

those 4 foot metal tomato cages are shit. I'm getting bamboo today that is about 7'0'' and going to build my own. There are tons of flowers but the bottom tomato was the size of a cherry tomato,and it's the beefsteak variety. how to make them grow big and joocy?

>>1074788
My compost tea is doing great. I'm thinking about worm farming. can i soak straw as a green or nitrogen source? I have over 70kg of coffee grounds from starbucks and can get corn husks at Walmart for free.

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>>1077588
Soaked em overnight in weak camomille tea, and I planted them in potting soil mixed with perlite.
>14 days

>>1077450
>>1077452
Any thoughts?

Hi, I want to start a native plant garden and I read it is best to plant in late fall because the seeds need to go through winter to sprout. I will be at college during that time, so is it ok to just plant the seeds now and they won't sprout until spring?

Also I created some compost. Can I just set it on top of the soil or do I have to work it into the dirt (I'm lazy and it's hot out)

>>1077450
Might be this :"The most common disease issue is downy mildew, most prevalent in cool, wet weather and is characterized by vines blackening and dying back. Vine pruning will increase circulation and prevent much of the problem. Spray plants with a mixture of water and baking soda to help prevent development of spores."

>>1077450

Sorry, I forgot this could be aphid too.

>>1077870
Water them a lot for the juice.

>>1077871
Sure about the straw.

Say did you just go up and ask them for the husks and coffee grounds? Do you pay for the grounds?

>>1078201
A) Sure but I'm interested in what seeds those are

B) If you plant on gettig the most out of it I'd work it into the soil. Get your plants to have the best start so their roots will develop in loose soil.

>>1078332

Soaking fresh cut grass in water, especially if you aerate it, will give you a protozoa-rich water solution. Basically protozoa eat bacteria and fungus in your soul, frees up the nutrients they've been eating. You have protozoa anyway, adding more will only help, especially if you regularly add compost.

Anyone ever tried this? It's kinda interesting but also sounds too good to be true

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/doomsday-preppers/articles/plant-your-own-secret-survival-garden/

>>1078332
Different stores have different policies, but Save-a-lot let me walk out with their corn husks for nothing and even helped me bag it up.

>>1078221
I don't think it's downy mildew and I'm happy about that.
>>1078223
It - may - be aphids but having had aphids in the past I don't see any this time. What I do see is little white or cream colored eggs or bugs, very few of them though maybe 1 per leaf. Unsure what they are.

>>1078376
It seems to talk mainly about no-till gardening with some planting design to profit from predators.
I'm very doubtful about the "no input" part if you don't grow in a forest (where light isn't very available). Outputs are minimal compared to the system size in a forest, it's a different thing in a little patch. I'm far from certain that a little garden would allow enough organic matter production (without even green manure or crop rotation) to sustain consumption after a few years

>>1077450
Potassium deficiency?

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Is this a meme tool or legit? Also, which secateurs do homegrowmen use?

How do I turn a patch of lawn into a garden patch, and how do I prepare it for cover crops? I'm literally an idiot and have no idea if I need to do anything particularly special, and have no idea what tools I need.

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>>1078631
READ THE OP PASTEBIN

The most commonly recommended base for making a garden patch I've seen (pretty much everywhere) is building a raised bed. Basically a large, short wooden frame filled with good soil that you plant your good stuff in. Also, youtube and google can tell you what to do to make your raised bed. Most people tell you to get some proper lumber, but I used firewood from trees chopped down in my backyard as the frame for my raised bed and it's worked fine, except I couldn't make a very tall raised bed, only slightly under half a foot of soil.

Measure your patch before putting stuff down, and make sure you can get all the materials to cover it. I took a flat/square shovel and removed the top layer of grass after doing some hacking with a hoe.Frame goes around the patch, dirt goes in, seed/lings go in, maybe some other stuff, plants come out.

>>1078631
>How do I turn a patch of lawn into a garden patch
If you want to start small, dig pot-sized holes, fill them with potting soil, and plant in those.

>>1078634
>read the OP pastebin
Looks like a fuckton of books. Isn't it pretty inefficient to read 400 books with overlapping contents?

Why can't I just terraform the soil that is already there?

>>1078648
>Why can't I just terraform the soil that is already there?
You can, but in all likelihood, the soil in your yard is currently not great. You could probably still get stuff to grow in it, but the stuff wouldn't necessarily thrive. So if you want good yield, you're already going to need to buy shit to mix into your soil.
Since you're already having to buy shit to mix into your soil, just buying actual soil is not that much more of a stretch.

Given a choice between:
Digging up a plot of likely rock-hard mostly-clay dirt, breaking it up with a rake/hoe, pouring soil amendments on top of it, then mixing it in with the rake/hoe.
Or making four wide boards into a tall rectangle, setting it on the ground, and filling it with already-good soil.
The latter ends up being easier. Raised beds in general have a lot of benefits over garden plots. You don't have to bend over as far, ground-based pests can have a harder time getting to the stuff planted there, you don't have to till it since nothing ever walks there, grass and weeds have a more difficult time spreading onto it, et cetera.

>>1078653
That's my current idea, though: To make the soil great by changing its makeup. How do I prepare it for cover-crop planting, so that I can get some organic material into it, and go from there? I don't want to buy soil when I can get a spiritual experience out of becoming part of an ecosystem.

I do appreciate your points, but this is just from my current perspective. I'm not impatient: quite the opposite. I'd rather do it "right" and learn along the way, but I'm just at a loss as to what I should do to get it started without bootstrapping (since most resources just tell you to dump good soil onto soil already there).

>>1078659
>I'd rather do it "right"
Well, a lot of people would tell you that the right way is the most efficient way.

However, if you personally want the experience of terraforming your soil, you can do that.
I don't know anything about cover crops, but I do know that you can start a compost pile/vermicompost bin to create your own soil amendments.
For a compost pile, you essentially make a big pile of brown stuff (you can buy bales of straw at farm supply stores for like $5 each), green stuff (leaves, grass clippings, scraps of fresh produce), and dirt. You can find the ratios and how to layer them with a simple Google search.
Basically, you pile all this stuff onto the ground, and let it sit for a while. Every so often, use a pitchfork or a shovel or something to churn it, in order to get air into it. If it smells earthy, you're on the right track. If it smells bad/sour, you're not churning it enough.
Vermicompost is kind of the same thing, but you use earthworms to break down the stuff instead of bacteria. It ends up being faster and you don't have to churn it, since the worms do it for you.

Either method is probably going to take you six months to a year to yield usable compost. You can tell it's done when it looks like dirt, feels like dirt, and you can't tell what it used to be. Once it's ready, mix it into your native soil. You can have multiple piles/bins going at once, started at different times, so you'll always have a fresh supply of usable compost.

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how many zucchinis can a zucchini plant handle at once? The plant keeps growing and is looking great but a lot of the zucchinis end up rotting (which I remove right away). I don't know if it's because of the weather which has been garbage these last few weeks or if it's because it just can't manage all these zucchinis

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Bulk Jolokia is doing great!

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>>1078871
Rest of the gang.

>>1078698

My bad weather has done in all my zukes. I'd say maybe check for the least attractive fruit and prune it to help the others make it to harvest.

>>1078871
>>1078878
Growwellbepper.jpg

Your stuff looks so vibrant and healthy, I wish mine looked so good. I'm killing aphids and caterpillars by the handful daily to try and protect them.

>>1078998
I'm on the first floor, I think that helps a lot. I've only seen 2 tiny caterpillars and some aphids once, which disappeared after giving them their first fertilizer, so I think it was just a weaker plant.

I just ordered >70$ CAD in seeds, am I a homegrownman yet?

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Tell me about Natural Farmings, Permaculture and Agroforestry. I want to hear what people think.

I've been looking into things like natural farming and permaculture to be able to have a nice self sustaining farm without weighing myself down too much with a mountain of chores and equipment costs.

It also seems kind of hokey though at the same time, I'd like to hear some opinions on it from people other than sources already completely supporting it.
Because
>no tilling
>no fertilizing
>etc
Sounds like it wouldn't work as well as it should, no matter how neat the idea looks.

Will peppers, when ripe, come off easily like tomatoes, or is there another way to tell when they should be harvested?

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Is Cylindra A Hybrid?

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>>1075287
What are some good tropical plants for growing in a greenhouse? I don't really live in an area where outside growth of tropical plants is possible but I have a lot of land and I'd really like to make a kind of biodome or something and have an indoor pool and such and a nice natural looking tropical garden inside. Would be a super neat project.

I want to be able to have some things like pepper corn plants, cocoa trees, citrus fruits, dragonfruit, and so on, what else would be neat to grow? I want to have a cool mostly self sufficient farmstead and this greenhouse would be a great asset in not having to rely on imports for the things I like from warmer areas.

>>1079170
Turn on ur trips Wayne

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>>1079176

>>1079072
A packet of seeds is like $1-$2 where I live.
You starting a farm or something?

>>1079084
It is, of course, possible to have edible plants grow with no care. You can find many edible plants growing in the wild with no human intervention.

I don't think the yield is nearly as good on wild plants as it is for plants under human care, though.

Gonna be doing a catalogue all all my seeds tomorrow. Work out what I have and start making plans for what to do in spring. Probably buy some more seeds to go along with them. The majority of the Frost's is over, so planning on starting seedlings up soon.

Also have some cheap aluminum raised bed frames that I got when they were on sale for fuck all at the start of winter. Gotta plan out where those are going, and then work out where I am planting shit.

Wanna up my game and start doing cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, maybe some onions. IDK we will see how it goes.

>>1079201
I bought a shit ton of rare/exotic heirloom seeds.

>>1079227
You saving for your retirement?

>>1079205
But the idea is like to create a sustaining ecosystem that just grows back on its own right? Or do you still like have to replant every year?

>>1079290
I'm not sure what the odds on seed germination are from just allowing them to drop into the ground straight from the plant, but if you want a persistent garden, you could just fill it with perennials that sprout again when winter is over.

I know this is probably dumb, coming to the outdoors board to ask about indoor plants, but it's the only place I could think of that was relevant. I was thinking of getting a big potted plant to put in the corner of my room, next to the big window I have there. The roof is about 8 foot up so there's plenty of room and lots of sunlight with an east facing wall which is 90% window. I'd really like something that fruits as well.

I went to the gardening center near me yesterday and all they had for me were 50 quid yucca plants which were incredibly fucking boring green, leafy plants with no flowers or anything.

Any ideas?

>>1079369
If you want something big, a small tree would work. It'd take a while to yield any fruit, though.
If you want something that's big AND fruits relatively quickly, I'd go with a tomato plant.

>>1079369
Meyer lemon tree senpai

>>1079377
>>1079379

Lemon tree seems like a good idea. It's what a co-worker suggested too but when I asked at the gardening centre they were uhhing and ahhing. Kinda useless at the end of the day really. I'll see where I can source one of these trees from.

>>1079384
>gardening centre
Was it the garden department of a hardware store or something, or an actual store dedicated to gardening?

>>1079386

A bit of both, it's mainly for gardening but they also have a sprawling complex with tools, gifts, local food and drink, a café. But their mainly a plant nursery.

>>1079390
Around here, the people who work in the garden centre don't know jack shit about plants except to water them. They normally have a person or two who does the actual cultivating and caring for the plants, and they normally work early in morning or early evening. The people who man the rows and tills are just wage workers. It's like asking people at your supermarket checkout for culinary advice.

>>1079392

Yeah, I guess it's like those pet shops that have a fish section but the fish are all diseased and dying because nobody has any fucking clue what they're doing.

I did notice a lot of the plants were also root-bound with sometimes an entire second pot made of roots coming out the bottom of them.

>>1078662
I can absolutely start composting, but why is everything online so fucking all over the place?
Some say usable compost takes six months. I saw a guy on YouTube turn his fucking pile every two days and it looked almost finished on day twenty.
As a curious aside, if ft is about Carbon and nitrogen, can I dump in charcoals I make myself and nitrogen fertilizer in a 30:1 ratio to get the same result?

>>1079418
The time frame can vary based on climate, materials, size of the pile, et cetera. For example, if your pile is large enough, the inside will actually begin to cook from the heat generated by the decomposition, improving the speed.

>if ft is about Carbon and nitrogen, can I dump in charcoals I make myself and nitrogen fertilizer in a 30:1 ratio to get the same result?
The thing about compost is that it decomposes, and eventually becomes soil-like.
I'm not actually sure a pile of charcoal and fertilizer is capable of decomposition.
Additionally, you'd be lacking in phosphorous, potassium, and various trace minerals needed by the metabolisms of microbial organisms.

And if you were to attempt to make phosphorous fertilizer, potassium fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, and a trace mineral solution, at that point it'd be easier to just directly fertilize your soil with that. The whole point of composting is to reclaim nutrients from plant matter and turn it into usable soil. Having all those nutrients on-hand in pure form kind of defeats the purpose.

>>1079087
Anyone?

>>1079497
Slighty squeeze them. If they're still hard I'd leave them on the plant, if they start to feel more "thin-skinned" or "hollow", they are ready.
But peppers are edible and delicious while still green, so you can harvest them already when they just look ripe. It's just that they stay good on the plant for a relatively long time.

Some people also leave them there until they start to dry and swear it's the best method.

>>1079497
Harvest when they look ripe

>>1079290
Depends on how fucked your area is with non-native and otherwise invasive species. A lot of the plants you have in mind are already non-native, so they won't grow properly without human intervention.

Part of the problem is you're changing how nature works by eating the food you're producing.

s>>1079681
>>1079679
Cheers

>>1079118
Pls boss I need answers.

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If i planted my maincrop potatoes in late march what is the earliest i could harvest them?

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So, landlord has said I can use this patch of shit where they used to have a no permanent swimming pool as a place to grow plants. Problem is, there is fuck all nutrients and the ground is all sand. Gonna build a raised bed on it, but what problems am I gonna run into with it being a shitload of sand?

>>1079855
Also, have some cheapo raised bed frames that hold 400l of soil, is this a good amount to have above sand? Or is sand fine and I'm just worrying for nothing? I'm not good at gardening, and pretty much only done container gardening before. And even then, not successfully for good sized plants.

>>1079952
What are you growing?

>>1079962
Probably some peppers, transplants from last year's containers, pepper seedlings that I'm gonna grow, tomato's, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, maybe some lettuce. Your basic eating vege basically. Likely some herbs like rosemary as well.

Does anyone here do rabbit breeding? A neighbour of mine does it and it seems to be cheap and require very little attention. Seems like a good source of homegrown meat.

>clear tons of weeds from back"yard" plot
>till most of the ground
>dig out a big section to make a raised bed
>finish the top layer with 3 inches compost/mulch
>grass starts growing in all the dirt area that I tilled
>grass starts growing out of the top of my raised bed

wtf

>>1080100
>he forgot about roots

If i planted my maincrop potatoes in late march what is the earliest i could harvest them?

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Should I cut the top?

OK, cucumbers are coming back! Thank you to the anon that suggested magnesium - you were right!

One more issue - my aunt has a garden and she asked for my help with a ground hog that absolutely trashed her vegetables. I bought a trap and I'm going to set it up today, but how do I bring back a trashed garden?

I was going to prune the damaged areas, fertilize everything, and fortify the barrier fence - is there anything else I can do to help these plants recover quickly?

Sorry - no pic yet. Thanks in advance!

>>1080130
Depends on cultivar, early ones are ~90 days.
Also a bit on climate
(I put early ones in the soil late March but live in cool temperate area, so it takes longer than (sub)tropical places, until about the middle of July)

>>1080164
What shape do you want?
I would top it just to get a sturdier branch

>>1080385
i just want as big a rosemary as i can get so i dont have to pay for it anymore

>>1080393
You can cut the two or three last nodes on the main branch, there's a lot of side branches waiting to grow more. It's mainly to avoid it to get too elongated and in need of a stake
Then if you take the habit to cut above a leaves' pair when you want some, you'll get a bush quite quickly.

>>1080440
thanks

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First fig of the season! Pretty sure this is the negronne variety

>>1080601
Nice feet, c-c-could you post more?

>>1079965
Anyone got any tips for me here? Really curious about how difficult it will be to plant in a raised bed built on sand.

>>1080442
You're welcome

>>1080631
If you grow in raised beds filled with good soil, you don't really have to care about the soil underneath.
I'm not saying you absolutely cannot grow anything in your current soil, but I quite doubt you get a lot from that. There's nothing growing in it, is it because you just removed the swimming pool, or did it get removed a few weeks ago?

>>1080601
How did you manage to bend your head all the way around in front of the lens like that from a standing position?

>>1080631
Just look up the root depth of the stuff you want to plant, and build the bed as tall as the deepest one.
Then you don't have to worry about the sand underneath because the plants' roots likely won't even touch it.

>>1080683
Pool was removed last season, it's just scrub grass where it was removed from. The sands about a foot deep.

>>1080728
Yeah, that's all good, but I wanted to go with raised beds as my container. Gardening escapades have never worked out well, and if I'm making raised beds just deep enough to accommodate the roots, is that not basically the same as growing in a good sized container?

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rate bepper

>>1080749
>but I wanted to go with raised beds as my container.
>if I'm making raised beds just deep enough to accommodate the roots, is that not basically the same as growing in a good sized container?
I'm not clear on what the problem is.
Are you asking "at that point why not just buy a large container"?

>>1080798
Yeah basically. I have quite large containers, but the plants had never turned out great. My assumption (probably wrongly) was that the containers were constraining the plants worse than planting them in the ground would.

Basically I want to plant in the ground because I have tried planting in large containers for like 3 years, and the plants turn out like shit.

>>1080800
When making a raised bed, usually people make it at least the size of a garden bed. As in, multiple square feet. A single tomato plant needs like 1.5 feet on each side.

What size are your "quite large containers"?

>>1080802
Multiple 50-60l containers with water resovoir in the bottom. A couple that would be a metre square easily. Normally they only have like 1 plant in them too, but they just don't grow that big. Like chilli plants, they always just grew stubby, rather than growing tall like others.

The raised beds will be bigger, but if we are talking single plants they should have plenty of room?

>>1080812
Are you certain the problem was root binding?
Did you ever slide the block of dirt out of a pot in order to see if the exterior of the dirt was covered with visible roots?
It's possible your problem was watering, light, or soil quality moreso than space.

You shouldn't need to space them so much that there's only one plant per raised bed. Just spacing them according to the directions on the seed packet should be fine.

>>1080818
Nah there was one plant per container, and no the roots weren't bound, I just have no idea how to go about diagnosing the other issues. Maybe not enough water? Hard to have more Sun, because they will get sunburnt if they have more direct sun hours. Not sure about soil, it was all potting mix and compost. Can you fertilize too much?

>>1080824
>and no the roots weren't bound
If the roots weren't bound, then space was not the issue.
I'm not sure what the issue was, but you can't have too much space, and if you didn't have enough, they'd be rootbound.

Not enough/too much water could be an issue. So could temperature, too hot or cold for the specific plant.
I don't know if you can fertilize too much.

Tips for growing tomatillo in pots?
I grew a few different plants last year and they were very varied in terms of fruit shape and the ones that got large only produced a small amount of fruit but the smaller ones produced more.
What did I do wrong?
What volume should the pots be?
I had about 7 plants that I grew from seed so I'm not sure if pollination was the issue.

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>have hot peppers in dehydrator for almost 48 hours now
>still not completely dry
Jesus Christ, what a waste of time and money.

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Is this grow light too close to my mangroves?

>>1080771
Very pepper-y, 10/10, would pepper again.

>>1080972
How did you cut your peppers? I found that this influences the drying time a lot.
>Oven at 80°C/175°F
>keep lid slightly open
>cut peppers into 1cm/half inch RINGS
>dry in 2 hours

Additionally:
>place fan next to oven, facing window, open window and you prevent your place smelling like a pepper spray assault

My pomegranate seedling is about 7 inches tall. I've been leaving it outside overnight, thinking it's been "hardened off" but am noticing it's beginning to get a lot more yellow spots.

The smaller of the two seems fine though.

Is some yellow spots a death sentence?

>>1080972
My dehydrator looks almost exactly the same (Euro plug aside) and I cut the peppers vertically, removed the seeds (a real hassle, plus my hands burned like hell a day later when the capsaicin had finally made it through, "mild Cayenne" my ass), and had to put it in like 5-6 hours at 70°C for them to dry completely.

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>>1081074
My potted ones have entire yellow leaves that eventually fall off (the older ones) so I guess I'm underfertilising a bit.
Have you consider planting them outside? They grow like 10 times as fast as when kept in pots it seems.
Here a comparison pic with both (from the same fruit, both sprouted Jan. 2016 - one planted last summer, one kept in the pot, had been same size until then. Also I just moved the potted one there for the pic, normally it is in a place with even more sun than the ground-planted one)

>>1081074
Also, is it winter where you live or why are you worried about leaving it overnight outside?

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Anyone know what's going on here? Cant seem to find an answer on google.

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>>1081136
>my hands burned like hell

<<<<

>>1081203
Well, hindsight and stuff...
You just don't notice anything while working with it, and I thought a thorough soap wash would be sufficient (it isn't)

>>1081156
How do you fend off parasites and insects anon? Do you use diatomaceous earth.
>>1081157
I'm just cautious. They've been jndoors for most of their four month lives. I live in California.
These are two pomegrantes, a kumquat in the center.
I also have a jackfruit growing in a pot.

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>>1081213

>>1081214

Is that the jackfruit in the middle?

Doesn't look like mine at all

>>1081213
>>1081214

Nothing at all - I guess because they're not native here and only barely hardy enough (SW Germany 8a) and relatively rarely planted, they simply have no pests here (yet).

I'd give them more light (gradually!), they seem a bit leggy to me, normally there should be side shoots at that stage at least on the left one

>>1081197
Try posting a picture that's not for ants.

>>1077126
A higher degree of self-sufficiency. it's pretty simple, if you grow what you need, you don't have to buy it at the store.

>>1080100
When you dig up the soil and turn it, you're supposed to pull out anything that's growing in there, otherwise it will just grow back. And as the other anon said, don't forget about the roots, just pulling the stalk of the weeds won't do.

>>1081213
>>1081214

>>1081216
Also, I'm not using any special earth at all, just regular garden clay mixed with some compost.
I found that this works much better than potting soil (tried both), I guess because of the pH (garden clay is ~8-ish, potting soil 5-6, pomegranate seems to prefer it more alkaline despite what the internet says it seems)

>sunny day but temp is 22C
>going to rain for the rest of the week
>rained most of the past 2 weeks

Bye summer, I hardly knew you

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>>1081215
My bad. That was kumquat.
THIS is the jackfruit. Month old. I fucking love jackfruit.
>>1081216
>>1081234

Impressive. What kind of pom is it?

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>>1081208
>>1081203
Also, I planted way too many of those Cayennes, a single one would've been way more than enough for me (I'm not really a Scoville junky, just want *some* spicing up)
My potted plant gave me around ~100 hot peppers these season so far, another ~100 have been picked from the 6 planted in-ground in the garden (those are later, but will give much more in September).
The latter ones will stay annuals, but I'll try to overwinter the potted one, and keep it at that next year.
The ~200 peppers harvested so far gave 48 grams of dried Cayenne flakes, that alone probably lasts me a year or so, I guess I'll have to distribute around family and friends

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>>1081244
I have no idea. Bought a pomegranate from store in Dec 2015 and just planted the seeds back then. IIRC it came somewhere from the Middle East, but that's all I know. If they behave anything like apples genetically, I won't get usable fruit anyway, a fact I learned way too late ;_;
But eh, they'll still make for nice ornamentals, I'm hoping to get flowers next year
Here a pic from when they just sprouted on New Year's 2016

>>1081243
I feel you, here summer was in late March, then winter in April (many fruit tree flowers killed during a very unusual late frost on Apr. 20), more summer and drought in May/June, mixed shit in July, and now August is very autumn-like (continuous rain last Thursday to Saturday with temps between 12-17°C), at least today it went to 26 again

>>1081208
Rub your hands with vegetable oil, then wash them with soap.

>>1081258
Nice.

What does rutabaga cross with?

>>1080827
Ok so we have established that I am fairly stupid when it comes to plants, is there any sort of guide or book you would recommend to be less stupid? There's way too much info on the web that is like "water enough but not too.much"

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>>1081383

Can you post pics of your setup?

I'd remove the water reservoir or whatever it is. A lot of plants don't like sitting in water.

Check how compacted your soil gets, how well it drains and retains moisture. "Potting soil" can be really shitty depending on what kind you buy.

Are your plants getting enough light? Too much light?

Growing plants is kind of like starting a fire. Fires need the right mix of fuel, oxygen, and ignition. Plants need adequate soil, water, and light.


Just look up the requirements for what your plants need. A simple checklist should contain:
Well draining soil or Dense soil?
Acidic soil or Basic soil?
Let the soil dry in between watering or Never let it dry?
Full sun or Partial sun or Full shade?

If you don't fit the criteria do a search on what you can change to fix that, or plant something else that fits what you have.

That being said, growing plants is never an exact science. You're gonna mess up and kill stuff, but thats part of the learning process. You'll get a 'feel' for what a plant needs, responds to, and what action to take next. Just keep trying new things and you'll keep learning.

tl;dr try new things, get out there and make some mud

>>1081406
Will do when I get home. Need the reservoirs because it gets above 30c in the summer and the sun can beat down. Can't water during the day as the plants get burnt to hell, and watering morning and night means all the plants wilt.

Could be my soil/compost is crap, it's just whatevers cheapest at the hardware store.

>>1081452
I'm not >>1081406 but the other person you were talking with earlier.

A 50-60L container shouldn't need to be watered each day for "only" 30°C. Having small plants in big pots doesn't help. When you plant something you usually give it a well-fitted pot, because a too deep/large pot with a tiny plant will get soaked in the bottom and stay dry on the surface, where the plant roots actually are. Then it's really difficult to measure out your watering, you're virtually watering for nothing. That's why for a lot of plants you don't plant in situ, but have a germinating tray, then you transplant and transplant.

I agree with >>1081406 into removing the reservoir, even if it's get to 30°C. 60L of soil is supposed to already hold quite a lot of water if the soil is good enough. A lot of soil mixes have a water retention capacity ~60-70%, so 600-700mL of water per L of soil, and shouldn't need any backup.
Depending of your reservoir system, it can be useless or harmful to most of plants if you don't know when to water them. When it's an overflow system, it's very prone to root-rot because it stays flooded, whereas most of plants need a breathing substrate.
When it's a "backup" system (not in direct contact in the soil), it only becomes efficient when the plant finally reaches the bottom of the pot and send tiny roots to the water. You've got to foresee a lot of time ago before letting your plants alone, and it's very sensitive : if you forget about it and let it evaporate, the involved roots will dry and die immediately.

In raised beds, if you dimensioned it fitted to your needs, it's very less prone to this kind of things. If you cover the surface efficiently with plants and mulch, it will not evaporate too much of its water.

Anyway, a good tip if you don't know how to water : stick two knuckles in the soil : if it's humid, don't water. Plants are much more resistant to dryness than overwatering.

>>1079855
what about planting some pioneering type plants?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2011/07/the-dry-garden-a-sunflower-or-two-or-200000.html

>a company that specializes in wild land restoration

>quickly drained sand
>Wild sunflowers need little or no irrigation

>>1081527
Hmm ok, that's a good point, it probably is not scaling pots well. And I've never used mulch, so that's definitely something I am looking at this season. For both containers and garden beds.

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>>1079855
>bermuda grass

yr fucked mate-o

>>1081580
The fuck is Bermuda grass, and how does one grow it in NZ, nowhere near Bermuda?

>>1081581
its a pain in the dick to keep out of your beds I can tell you that much. Everything will seem fine for a year or two but its just putting out tendrils under the soil ready to strike. And once it takes hold . . . shucks howdee you got yerself a real problem:

>It has a deep root system; in drought situations with penetrable soil, the root system can grow to over 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep, though most of the root mass is less than 60 centimetres (24 in) under the surface.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynodon_dactylon

>>1081542
Can sunflowers will grow well upside down?

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>almost 2 weaks of dreary weather
>suddenly August decides to August
>come home to pic related

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>>1081663
>Give em some water
>an hour later they look like pic related
(pic from today, 12h later)

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>>1081665
Beppers are love.

>>1081667
I really want some of that breed but they hard to get in New Zealand

>>1081663
>>1081665
>>1081667
Don't worry mate. A little water stress does not harm them at all. Actually, it will only make your peppers hotter.

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>>1075935

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>>1081734
Everyday I'm counting more peppers now.

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>>1081736

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>>1081738

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>>1081740

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>>1081742

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>>1081744
This little straggler came really late, refused to grow for months but then decided to put out fruits anyway....

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>>1081745
And my first small harvest.

>>1081727
Yeah, I know. It used to freak me out a few months ago when I just started, but peppers are quite idiot proof.

>>1081675
I got mine from fataliiseeds, he ships worldwide, and if you have questions you can just ask on his FB, he's a really friendly guy and answers quickly.

>>1081734
>>1081736
>>1081738
>>1081740
>>1081742
>>1081744
>>1081745
>>1081746
Nice mang! Did you taste any yet? What are you gonna do with em all?

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Explain this atheists, same pot and the pepper plants to the right are doing worse than those to the right

>>1081874
The peppers here >>1081734 are the same age as this guy >>1081745.
Same conditions, same soil, etc. Plants are like any other living creature, not all develop the same.

>>1080216
p-please respond?

>>1081967
Not much.
But your plan seems sound as is.

Can broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage cross?

>>1079290
Depends on what climate you have and what you are growing. There are many things, like chayote and cocinea grandis, which will die back yet come back from its root system, or roots, like yams and sweet potatoes, which you can harvest and leave some of the harvest in the ground to come back (or just harvest the leaves of the sweet potato) or a hell of a lot of other things, like planting invasives and letting them seed. You will need to put work in if you want ideal harvests and or conventional vegetables, but it is possible, as long as you dont live in a frozen wasteland.

>>1081979
They're all in the same family, right? I'm pretty sure they can.
Isn't Romanesco broccoli made by crossing broccoli with cauliflower?

>>1081197
Can't see it very well in the image. Are they dragging something out?

>>1081979
https://www.redwoodseeds.net/blogs/the-story-of-seed/14200361-brassica-basics-seed-saving-101

All four of those can cross.

I'm planning on growing Tomatillos and Ground Cherries, do they cross?

>>1081197
>>1082000
Just saw he other thread. Looks like Queen Cells being built outside because the inside is too packed. Add another hive body to the stack or some supers.

>>1082006
Yeah, they should be able to cross, but it may take work on your part to prevent pollination from its own flowers.

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>>1081584
>Haha, only (sub)tropical regions have that pest, good thing it doesn't grow he-
Well fug, why do we have so much nasty invasive shit on the Upper Rhine. Wouldn't surprise me if soon we get kudzu too

>>1080100
Some seeds can last up to TWENTY YEARS in the soil, just waiting for you to till them up where they can germinate. Use mulch.

>>1081992
They are all the same genus/species.

>>1081779
Ordered some from him, used to read the site. Seems a bit expensive but ahwell, grabbed some tomato's and the chilehead pack because they look good. If I can stop being dumb and actually grow shit then I'll be drowning in produce.

>>1082123
>I'll be drowning in produce.

That's currently happening to me. It's tapering off at the moment, but when the pumpkins are ready to pick and process....oh god.

>>1081779
>Did you taste any yet?
Munched on a Peruvian Purple while harvesting. They are rather hot, but the heat kind of "disperses" through your entire mouth and unfolds kinda slowly instead of just burning your lips and tongue. Would recommend.

>What are you gonna do with em all?
The Peruvian Purple, Hungarian Hot Wax, Jalapeño Variants and Tabascos will be pickled.
The Habanero Variants and Trinidad Perfumes will be made into sauce(s).
The Sweet-, mild- and large ones will be eaten fresh.
Cayennes and Serranos will be dried for flakes and Aji Charapita for powder.
Carolina Reapers will be used to produce chile vodka.
No idea yet what to do with the Rocotos, Aji Pineapples and Goronong, got them as presents or on a whim. Also my Scorch Bonnet Orange seeds turned out to be something completely different, so I will have to see what to do with then.

>I got mine from fataliiseeds
Did he restock the Bulk Jolokia?

>>1082367
I'm a pepper/heat newb myself. For the longest time I thought I wouldn't be able to eat any, since medication since age 7 properly fucked my stomach up (several ulcers over the years), and bell peppers can ruin my whole evening with heartburn.
But then I decided to test the waters again, and japaleponos, tabasco, habanero hot sauce etc, whole hot for me, do not fuck me up.
Of course after ordering I learned that my 'medium hot' peppers are at least 10x as hot as jalapeno, so I don't think I'll be eating too many, but I learned a lot and will go for taste next year, instead of going for ornamentals.
The bulk jolokia I grew for a colleague, he wanted 'something very hot'. That'll be the last time he gives me a vague answer, kek.
Fatalii has some back in stock, but not the caramel, which I have. Where do you live? I can maybe send you some, though I cannot guarantee they grow true. The plant is a bit seperated from my other peppers though.
http://www.fataliiseeds.net/index.php?route=product/search&search=jolokia

Btw, my uncle has a smoker, I was thinking of asking him to smoke some of my peppers, how should I prepare them?

>>1082536
Just smoke them whole (or cut up) for 2-3 hours then dehydrate them as you normally would.

>>1075286
Bit late in the year to be planting seeds.

>>1082618
Not if he's from the Southern hemisphere or tropics. Even here up north a few things can be started now, such as corn salad

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next batch of seeds

thrips keep funking with my Bolivian Rainbow flower buds.
How do I murder them effectively?

>>1074788
I bought an orange and a palm tree in Florida.

I live in PA.

What are chances of survival?

So I got that lemon tree but I've walked into a bit of a problem. The tree needs lots of water but the soil has such amazing drainage that it tends to just drain straight out into the plate I've put under it. I've got an actual sauce for potted plants on the way but right now I've got tissue packed in around the base of the pot so that the water doesn't overflow onto my carpet. If it's draining too quickly, am I watering it too much?

>>1082690
Yes.

>>1082692

Fuck. I'm just really paranoid because every website I've read is like

>IF THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE HITS 10C YOUR PLANT WILL DIE
>IF THE SOIL GETS DRY FOR 10 SECONDS YOUR PLANT WILL DIE
>IF AMBIENT HUMIDITY IS TOO LOW THE PLANT WILL DIE

For plants that grow in quite hot countries where rain can sometimes be quite sparse they're demanding little fuckers.

>>1082687
Potted? Then it should work if you get it through the winter the right way.
Plus at least for the palm, if it's a Chinese Windmill then it can even stay outside in 8a, sometimes 7b

>>1082697
Well, Citrus plants originate from SE Asia where it rains up to like 10000mm/year. Plus potted is always different than planted in-ground (in the latter case the roots can go deeper and suck up more groundwater even in case it hasn't rained for a while)

>>1082703

But I shouldn't be too paranoid about watering it? I've been watering it like 3 times a day, in the morning, when I come home for lunch and in the evening. Should I judge it more on how wet the soil is?

>>1082713
If you have to water that often (unless it's an insanely hot day), then you might consider repotting to a bigger size
Or let some water stand in the saucer, if it gets sucked up within a few hours you won't have to worry about root rot

>>1082717

That's the thing, I don't think I have to water that much, I think I'm just being paranoid and watering it constantly in case I come home one day and it's turned into a stick surrounded by dead leaves.

>>1081971
>not much
That's what I thought. Thanks, anon!

Any tips for getting the largest roots on my coriander?

>>1082678
Sticky traps so once they check in they'll never check out.

>>1082723
Yep, this is my life. I always over or underwater because I'm bad.

What are the best books from the 400+ pastebin collection? Focused on veggie growing.

>>1082678
Spraying your plants with garlic water drives them out.
No murdering though.

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fuck hornets man

>>1083296
I have honeybees and peach trees. I lost my peaches to the honey bees. Next year....netting!

>>1083034
Generally, you research specifically, not just at random. Like starting with the plant you want to grow and how to grow it, instead of reading something that's generalized. Write up a list of what you want to grow based on what you want to eat.

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>Search for pictures of carrot seedlings
>Get pictures of demon carrots

Bastard slug ate a nearly ripe tomato, and it's also cooling off here in east Kansas, so now my remaining fruits aren't ripening quickly anymore. I won't get any ripe fruit from my large/normal size tomato plant for weeks.The glory days of mid July are gone. At least I know now that I am able to keep tomatoes growing. Next year, two plots with twice the height, and maybe a small third plot to start up late in the summer for zucchinis, pumpkins and stuff. I'll be living in a place with a garden for the whole year, instead of only being able to tend the plants on the weekends like I did this summer.

should i start beets in a container then put them in the ground after they sprout?

should i start my winter crop now? zone9b btw

>>1083779
I don't know about beets specifically, but I know if you disturb carrot sprouts it tends to fuck with the root formation and lead to some weird shapes. I imagine the same would be true of most root vegetables.
You might be able to do it without disturbing the root if you use a peat tray/pot where you can just bury the whole thing.

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>>1082536
Begiananon, if you look for less hot peppers that taste well go for the aforementioned Hungarian Hot Wax and Peruivian Purple. Also NuMex Suave Red/Orange. Habanero taste without the heat.
Also Anaheim peppers, probably the most popular mildly hot pepper around.

>I can maybe send you some
Germany.
I could actually provide you with seeds from 4 of the peppers I just mentioned. Same boat as you though, they have a chance of being crossed (although the Anaheim and Peruvian Purple grew true, only the Hungarian Hot Wax are a little bigger this year. No idea about the Suave Red yet, first season I have them and they are in a planter with 4 more Habaneros/Habanerolikes)
But I like your idea in general. Maybe we can do a seed exchange here on /hgm/ with the harvest season upon us, not just for peppers.

I know we Euros can exchange freely, maybe some American anon can enlighten us how it is about sending/getting seed to/from America.

>If we do this, /hgm/ is just another part of 4Chan were anons distribute their seed to other anons, but in our case it would beactually desireable

>>1083849
Check out the "Prohibited items".

>miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit
http://www.royalmail.com/united-states-america

You'd need to resort to smuggling.

>>1083878
Too bad.
Maybe we could do it anyway, just with continental restrictions. Most anons here are American I assume, so it might work okay.

>>1081156
Plants tend to grow as big as their roots will allow. Keeping it in a pot restricts root expansion, which limits overall size. Nothing amazing there. This is the basis of bonsai, for example.

>>1081874
Those on the left spread their roots quicker, and are strangling out the other two.

>>1081874
Overwatering due to being slightly unlevel.

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Whats happing to my watermelon?

>>1084067
When the vine the fruit is on starts to wilt, it means it's about ripe

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NEW THREAD: >>1084132
NEW THREAD: >>1084132
NEW THREAD: >>1084132