Homegrowmen (Farming and Gardening) Thread #69

Holdover question from last thread:

How do you tell the difference between Black Nightshade (Solanum Nigrum) and Sunberries (Solanum Retroflexum)?

>>843072
Answer from last thread,

>Solanum retroflexum have slightly fuzzy stems when compared to Solanum ptychanthum which has smooth hairless stems. Both are also referred to as Solanum nigrum and both are of course edible. A wide variety of various Solanum are labeled Solanum nigrum because they are so difficult to differentiate from each other.

Solanum nigrum isn't common in the USA either. So, where you are located in the world will also help determine if you have Solanum nigrum or another species. Solanum retroflexum normally has larger fruit than Solanum nigrum and related species. Solanum nigrum normally has more "teeth" on the edges of the leaf than Solanum retroflexum. You can further compound identification by finding out there are two types of Solanum retroflexum, a hairy type and a smooth type.

The biggest problem is that the differences between these species are so minuscule that even online resources are completely and utterly incorrect and only DNA testing can tell them apart properly. Often, location in the world is the best indicator, though that is subject to misreading taxonomy during identification.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226580516_Genetic_relationships_between_Southern_African_Solanum_retroflexum_Dun_and_other_related_species_measured_by_morphological_and_DNA_markers

But, hey! All of them are edible.

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I planted some of these things last year, and now they are everywhere. Some of them are over 12 feet tall.

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I think my pumpkin stopped getting any bigger. I think the vine is finally dying after all the borer damage.

Smoking is bad, mmkay.

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This one seems to be growing though.

>>843092
Yeah, once you let Amaranth or Chenopodium species go to seed and get into the soil, you'll have volunteers popping up for the next 20 years every time the soil is disturbed. No joke. Luckily more species are fully edible from root to seed.

>>843092
There's a few in gardens in my neighborhood that have gotten gigantic this year.

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What is doing this to my punkin?

Totally raw Australian gardener here. I was thinking of growing Roma tomatoes, some leeks, and some lettuce. I've been looking at guides on the net a lot.

Any good starters advice I might have missed?

>>843168
Water your plants

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bless my garden for me. This is my 2nd try at growing stuff on my own.

Closest and 1st row is assorted lettuce, 2nd row is carrots and 3rd row is radish

>>843263
Easy peasy stuff to grow. Beware of slugs and larger green-eating animals. Good luck.

How the fuck to I get rid of voles, they ate all my watermelons and now they've turned their sights on my strawberries

>>843497
Flood their holes, or fill them with oxy-acetylene and light a fuse. You could also get a cat, or a least weasel or something. Or just good old poison.

Or did you mean getting rid of them without hurting the little blighters?

>>843168
What part of Aus are you from anon? If you're in a temperate (Not freezing or tropical) and you act quick you'll be able to plant out Leek, tomato, beetroot, carrot, spinach, potatoes, rhubarb, strawberries and dwarf bean plants so it's a good time of year to start gardening.

Check out the Utah extension service website for help on how to grow your veg, it helped me out a lot and might do the same for you:

http://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/

>>843510
>>843497
>have mole infestation
>cats are worthless
>can't use poison because cats may eat them
>can't use the mole traps because they are 2x larger than the holes

Anyone have luck with those sonic things? They are a tad expensive for 8 raised beds. All the reviews I've read are almost split down the middle as "yes they work!" and "no they don't work!".

I'd rather try the other stuff like soaking cotton balls in oil of cloves/essential oil, caster oil, or other and dropping them in the holes to repel the moles. I may even powder some of my Trinidad moruga scorpion peppers and dust the holes since it burns any mammal to hell and back.

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Lots of improvising with keeping my tomatoes off the ground. I'm gonna a bring this one indoors.

>>843510
Tried flooding, soil is too sandy and they don't fill up, and then they get more pissed off and wreck more shit. I'd love to go with poison but I don't want one of my doggos eating one. Gonna buy a fuck load of mouse traps and build those tunnels

>>843647
>Sonic things
If I recall correctly I saw a few consumer tests a while ago saying they were probably scams/placebos. I mean even if they work on principle I bet most of them just don't have the power required to be more than a weak deterrent. I could be wrong though, since that's all hearsay.

Honestly I don't know any good particularly effective way to deal with those guys. Only thing I've ever done was flooding the tunnels for a while till they collapsed or drove off the darn things. You could always try to make some sort of buried wall around the areas you need to keep them out of. Might help.

>>843168
Which part of Aus?
Grab some diggers rest seeds or seedlings for your tomatoes. They're great. Cant speak for their other seeds but I would say it would be far better than any of the bigger brands

>>843618
>>843656

Cheers guys.
South West Sydney.

>>843197
Water? Oh man, I had the gatorade all ready to go.

>>843670
Watering your plants with Gatorade is just fine, it has all the electrolytes, so it's super healthy. In fact, you should probably replace all the water in your normal diet and cooking with Gatorade while you're at it.

>>843651
>suspension bridge method

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>>843655
I'm thinking the same thing.

>>843670
>I had the gatorade all ready to go.

Does it have a thirst multiplier?

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Washed the pepper harvest today and put them in my dehydrator.

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>>843906
I'm hoping that these will dry out well enough for me to use various grinders to turn them into a good seasoning to use. I haven't tried drying unchopped peppers in this dehydrator yet.

>>843768
It's got ELECTROLYTES!

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Corn bro here. For those of you who don't remember or weren't in these threads earlier this season, I'm breeding my own locally adapted corn. Some of it is coming in, and I have some pictures.

A quick recap of some of the things that I've done:

I started a few years ago with multiple cultivars, planted them all together and let them pollinate each other promiscuously. I then selected (mostly) the best ones for seed, but I do want to maintain at least some of the genetic diversity in case some new bug or disease moves in, or something else changes. It's a balancing act between adaptation to my environment and genetic diversity. The idea is to have corn that always produces something that is beyond organic. I have used no pesticides or herbicides, nor have I used any commercial fertilizer. Just compost and very well aged manure.

Another thing that I have done is planted them a wee bit too close together to force them to compete with each other. Since there is a lot of variation, this seems to work fairly well at separating the adapted and non-adapted.

I live in a desert, so in the past, I was somewhat abusive when it came to water. I was less so early on this year, but at this point, it is coming up on a full month since I've watered it. The past abuse seems to have paid off. My rain gauge says 2.47" during that period, and temperatures have ranged from the upper 80s to triple digits.

As you can tell from pic related, I have some pretty good variety. I have yet to get any pure white cobs yet, which is fine by me. Colored hominy is a novelty that makes people's eyes light up like a little kids.

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>>843958
This pic is kind of a lineup that showcases the different levels of fitness in the cobs. Prior to this, I have already been separating cobs based on whether the corn had lodged or not. Even if it is a nice, full cob, if it came off of a stalk that had lodged, I will not save seed from it. A stalk that lodges can take other stalks with it that would have otherwise remained upright, and that can affect yield on the other stalks if they are a bit behind on cob formation.

The lodging that I have suffered this year (probably 25% of the stalks) is indirectly due to raccoons. In the past, they would eat all of the low hanging cobs, so over the past few years, that means fewer seeds from plants that tended to produce the cobs low to the ground. This has moved the average height of the cobs up a bit every year. Until this year, they had not been high enough on the weaker stalks to be an issue. This year, I have had some nasty downdrafts, and the vast majority of the cobs are at 4’ or higher.

Back to the picture, the left two are top tier for saving seed, the left one especially. They’re mostly filled out, which means that they didn’t silk too late or too early. They’re decent size, and they have minimal insect damage. (Remember, no pesticides.) I’ll save a lot of seed from them compared to other cobs. The next two are OK, but they suffered greater insect damage. The next cob suffered about as much insect damage, and is smaller. It’s still OK, but I’ll save less from it than I will the previous two.

The reddish orange one is stubby and suffered a fair amount of insect damage. I may or may not save seed from it, depending on what I get from the rest of the harvest. The last two are full-fucking-retard tier. No seed gets saved from them. Basically, I’ll pick the top 200 cobs and save seed from them.

(cont)

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>>843960
As I hinted earlier, even lodged corn can produce big healthy cobs. It just depends on when the stalk lodges with respect to the formation of the cob, and how badly it lodges. Pic related are some of the cobs from lodged stalks. One thing to notice is that they are more likely to get partially eaten by critters after this happens, so even if I were to breed corn that would produce no matter how hard the wind had flattened it, yields would still be reduced.

Just in case anybody is interested, the cultivars that have been included thus far in this project are:

Navajo Blue Corn
Some other random Blue Corn I found
Painted Mountain
Earth Tones Dent
Some random Decorative Indian Corn
Some random “Posole” corn
Hickory King
Bloody Butcher
One other that I can’t think of at the moment XD

Plus, I think that a neighbor has some sweet corn planted, because a few of the cobs have some kernels that are shriveling up like mature sweet corn kernels do. (FYI, you pick sweet corn for eating on the cob well before it is mature.)

(cont)

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>>843961
The corn needs to finish drying, and placing it in a bin somewhere is a good way to get mold. In the olden days, people would have done things like carefully stacking it in a corn crib. I don’t have a corn crib, so I opted for hanging them. I’m tying them together like one would a ristra, but they don’t hang like chiles on a ristra do.

They do make a nice seasonal decoration that goes well here in the southwest.

If anybody is curious, I make hominy with this stuff and also grind it for corn meal. When I make posole, everybody is amazed at how much better my hominy tastes than the store bought stuff. Part of it is probably the corn, but I also use an old school technique for making the hominy:

Take equal volumes wood ash (or even use more wood ash) and dried corn, and throw them into a large corrosion resistant pot. Cover with water, and then some, and bring to a boil. Turn to a simmer, occasionally stirring. Depending on what kind of wood the ash is from, and how much ash you used, it will need to simmer for 2-5 hours. It is done when the hulls are off or are coming off very easily. From this point, you rinse the hell out of it.

Someday, I’m going to try malting, gristing and fermenting some of it, just to see what I can get.

>>843647
Go to a hardware store and get these things called Smoke'ems (sp?). They emit a toxic smoke. You find their hole and drop it down. Then you look for smoke coming up from other locations and block those exits. Sometimes they work, sometimes not.

Last time I had them, the smoke'ems seemed to work, then big-ass rats took over the den. The smoke'ems did not work on the rats. I wound up shoving all kinds of shit in those holes to fuck with the rats, including roman candles.

What finally got the rats was making sure that they could only get out in a totally enclosed area, shoving the hose down into the den, and then sitting there with a 22lr loaded with shotshells.

>>843961
You seem to be knowledgeable about selecting cultivars on your own. I wanna do the same with black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), I'd really like to eventually breed them to at least cherry tomato size, any tips on how I should go about that?
Would it be enough to just consecutively collect seeds from the biggest fruited ones of each generation?
It really wonders me why no one has ever done that here as it is such a common plant, it could have become the "European tomato" long before the New World discovery - the plant is extremely undemanding, ripe fruit is non-toxic (only unripe ones are, just like tomato where green ones have shit tons of solanine too, and I guess it's healthy too, the intense dark fruit colour most likely stems from polyphenols), but for some reason no one ever bothered domesticating them, leaving Europe one of the few places without cultivated native nightshades (Americas have tomatoes and capsicums, East Asia has aubergines etc...)

>>843975
I picked the Painted Mountain because it was already fairly genetically diverse. I picked the Navajo Blue Corn and the "Posole" corn because they are both somewhat local cultivars. If you can, it is worth going after something local, because a lot of the work has been done for you. Everything else was picked because I was in the nursery, it wasn't sweet corn, and they had a packet of it. If it sucks here, it dies or it doesn't get seed saved. Thus far, I am seeing very little influence from the Earth Tones Dent. I'm also getting a lot more yellow than I have in the past. I'm also getting a lot less white, but I have partially selected against white, plus the corn endosperm is triploidal, so when you have different colors mixing, there's no telling what you'll get sometimes.

As for domesticating it, if you want to breed the plants, it has to at least partially be an outbreeder, else you will have to get good at hand pollination of an inbreeder. I know next to nothing about black nightshade on that respect. I know that most tomato cultivars are pretty heavy inbreeders, but I think that a lot of that is the fault how humans have cultivated them over the centuries. Peppers will cross quite a bit, but they tend towards being inbreeders.

>>843983
>it is worth going after something local
Yeah at least that is not a problem here, as the plant grows wild everywhere here as a weed

I know jack shit about how and why plants do that stuff with multiple chromosome copies though, and the pollination process of S. nigrum is also unknown to me, because again, there's extremely little information on the net for such a widespread herb (side note: don't tomatoes self-polinate, i.e. flowers have both male and female parts? At least I definitely know they aren't diocious, ad also pretty sure S. nigrum isn't either - I THINK they have unisex flowers too)

>>843985
Yes, tomatoes have perfect flowers. While some cultivars are likely to outbreed, most of the common ones aren't. I haven't messed with breeding tomatoes though, but my understanding is that whether an inbreeding or outbreeding cultivar depends on how far out the anther of the flower is or how far the anther cone opens. If you can closely observe the structure of the flower, it might give you some hints. My guess is that it would be similar to other wild species in the nightshade (Solanaceae) family. On that, I just don't know though. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, etc... have been cultivated for so long that there is no guarantee that they'll be the same as their wild cousins.

I think it would be awesome if you did manage to produce a new cultivated crop for the world.

>>843994
>I think it would be awesome if you did manage to produce a new cultivated crop for the world.
Hah I'm not thinking that big, just wanting to understand why or even if there is a niche to fill
I mean tomatoes are great, but where I live you can only harvest the from about early July until late October (maybe some cultivars can push it into November) in the open field.
S. nigrum on the other hand flowers/fruits much earlier and much longer and is extremely common here, furthermore unlike potato and tomato it seems to be completely resistant to Phytophthora infestans (potato/tomato blight), so I can't be the first to think "why not cultivate it?"
Maybe it is very challenging to get the fruits to grow bigger? I don't know... anyways I'll try and see
Gonna scout the garden tomorrow for the biggest-fruited wild ones

>>843997
Solanum lycopersicum x Solanum nigrum

I'd like to try "Solanum lycopersicum x Solanum ptychanthum" since I have the latter in my area. I'd probably need to do it indoors and slice up the immature flowers, to remove the stamen before the anther make pollen and self-pollinate. I wonder what variety of lycopersicum would work best. Probably a cherry tomato, if it is even remotely possible. Fun to try and at least they are in the same genus.

>>844002
Wouldn't it be very hard to separate the pollen from one and transfer itto the flower of the other? Especially with those unisex flowers where both are very close

>>844002
Yeah, I've been tempted to do something similar with some cucurbita species. There are 5 (that I know of) species of squash, and they won't readily breed with each other, but you can get them to breed with Cucurbita foetidissima. It would be interesting to see which hybrids aren't sterile, and it would be awesome if you could get a plant that still has the stinky-ass vines, but good tasting fruits. That would eliminate my squash bug issues. It's probably a pipe dream, but man, would that be awesome.

>>844014
>slice up the immature flowers, to remove the stamen before the anther make pollen and self-pollinate.

I started gardening this year. Very improve. I like to grow vegetables and herbs. I live in PA. Any recommendations on good ones to grow and any tips?

>>843263
>>843354
Get a plastic cup (like a big yogurt one) for your snail trap. Find a snail, and smash it in the cup. place the cup sideways and near your garden, and check every morning. Snails are cannibals, so they will want to go inside the cup to eat the snail. Kill the snail(s) that go into the cup and repeat the process until your food is done growing.

>>843975
>I wanna do the same with black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), I'd really like to eventually breed them to at least cherry tomato size,

That would be amazing.

I was asking about sunberries earlier, apparently they're a very successful hybrid of other nightshade plants, so you might want to consider looking into crossbreeding, too.

>>844282
>sunberries
AFAIK they're a different species (burbankii), but very closely related, also in the S. nigrum complex/aggregate

>>844289
>burbankii

SInce they were created by Luther Burbank.

Maybe we'll have Solanum Anonymii one day.

>>844291
Ah, thought he just discovered them or something

>>844291
KEK, that would be awesome. If I were the anon interested in this, I would call it S. anonymii too.

>>844016
I live in the US SE and I grow zucchino rampicante. They are EXCELLENT against the vine borers.

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>>844319
I have never had a vine borer. I get pic related like fuck though. I can't tell you how much I hate those motherfuckers. They don't bother the buffalo gourds though.

>>844325
I planted okra around my garden as a trap for them as they prefer okra more than tomatoes and squash. I also interplant borage, nasturtium, and garlic in all my beds. I also planted a trap crop of winter pie pumpkins because I had some extra seed. On top of all that, I spray a mixture of kaolin clay, diatemaceous earth, and soap mixed with water. I use 1 cup clay, .5 cup de, and 1 tsp soap per 2 gallon sprayer. I apply this in the morning, and when the plants dry, you can see what you have done. You need to re-apply about once a week, or whenever it has been washed off and none can be seen after drying.

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>tfw drowning in tomatoes
Can't eat tomato sauce or soup every other day
Is there a way to store sauce a few months at room temp (limited freezer space), using disinfected (oven @ 100°C) marmalade jars? I do have a passing mill and would boil down the sauce to about 1/2.
Somewhere I read pH is also an issue, I do have a pH meter and also citric acid, should I lower the pH to a certain point?

>>844325
My "squash bed"
https://i.sli.mg/qpNaBG.jpg

>>844366
PH is a huge issue when canning. If the PH is low enough, you can can using a water bath. If it is not low enough, you need a pressure canner. The bacteria that create botulism toxin are killed by temperatures lower than boiling, but the spores are not destroyed even at 212f/100C. However, those bacteria cannot live in a PH that is too low.

If you are going to get into canning/pickling, do your research, because improperly preserved food can kill. It's not rocket science, but there are a few things you need to know.

One thing I will say is that all of the wive's tales when it comes to canning/pickling push people to be more cautions than necessary and are either just that, or a remaining from the past when you couldn't just order a pressure canner from a catalog. An example of an old wive's tale is that you need to sterilize all of your jars before throwing them into the pressure canner. That's a holdover from the days when people would pour hot food into a jar and hope they didn't die. When you pressure can, you are fundamentally putting your food into an autoclave.

>>844366
NO!!! you need a pressure canner to do this. If you do not, you can get VERY sick. At least that is the anecdotal knowledge that has been handed down to me.

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>>844366
I'll trade some squash for those 'maters.

>>844366
>>844377

KEK, 66 dubs followed by 77 dubs. Nice.

I would also add that you need proper jars with proper lids. If you're using the metal lids, you should only use them once. Tattler makes some reusable lids, but you still need the metal bands, and they do cost more. A lot of jars that you get with something already in them from the stores will work, but a dozen canning jars with lids and bands costs $8-$15, depending on sales, size, etc...

And yes, you can get very sick, or very dead.

>>844384
Replace the metal lids after one use??? Oh fuck. Better move my pickled okra to the fridge!

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>>844375
>>844377
>>844384
Well thanks for the quick input so far.
At the moment, the fruits are boiling to soften, then I'll pass them
When all is ready, will measure pH, so hold on a couple hours
I only have jars like pic related (coated metal, all new), plus no dedicated canner or something like that (only a regular pressure cooker if that helps)
My idea was to let glasses + lids sit in the oven for an hour or so, and then put the boiling sauce in them, close and be done
In regards to botox, won't it show by pressure buildup?

>>844389
It's not absolutely required, but you are going to have more failures when it comes to sealing. If it seals when you pull it out of the canner, and still has a good seal a month later when you open it, you should be good. If the lid comes off really easily when you open it, you probably shouldn't eat it. I had that happen with some beans once because I took the weight off of the vent on the canner too soon. I threw the whole batch.

>>844393
Theoretically it would show up that way, but do you want to bet your life on it? Literally?

Search around on the web for recipes and don't guess at it. There are guidelines for jar sizes, meats vs veggies, etc... when it comes to canning.

Not knowing about how those lids are made, I'd not use them. I have no idea if special equipment is needed to get them to properly seal. It may work, maybe not. Here are some reusable canning lids:

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=22862366&KPID=16436430&pla=pla_16436430

And rings:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/web/browse/processProductsCatalog?Nrpp=10000&sku=13706282&BP=PS515&ms=search

I don't know what country you are in, but in the US, most grocery stores, including places like Wal Mart sell all of that stuff. A lot of feed stores sell that stuff too.

A pressure canner is basically just a giant pressure cooker. While they cost more, I really like the All American canners. They're a machine seal, which means that you don't have to worry about the seal going out on you. The 921s are very popular, but I have the 915 and am happy with it.

http://www.hayneedle.com/kitchen-and-dining/pressure-cookers-&-canners_brands-all-american_list_188004_5072

(Note: I am not recommending any of those retailers. Except for ACE, I have not done business with them. I'm just using those as examples of the kind of stuff that you use when canning.)

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>>844408
Also got a few of these, that any better?

But yeah instead of using the oven, maybe a water bath is better, or should I do both?
Like I said I can measure pH and have food grade citric acid to adjust beforehand

>>844411
That would work so long as:

The gasket holds up to the heat

It does not shut so tight as to allow steam to escape while it is being heated

That being said, I don't know if it would work. For tomatoes, which I admittedly haven't done a lot of canning with, finding a recipe that calls for something acidic to be added, and adding it is the easiest. The recipe will have been developed under the assumption that your tomatoes weren't very acidic, and it will call for enough vinegar/lime/whatever to make even neutral tomatoes safe.

>>844411
Oh, and definitely water bath over oven. It's all about the internal temperature of the jar, and all of that stuff has been tested for water baths. I'm sure it has been tested for ovens too, but that is more likely for industrial stuff.

http://pickyourown.org/canning_tomatoes.htm

But seriously, I'd just go to the store and get some canning jars. They'll have lids, bands and they're designed specifically for home use.

Seriously, don't fuck around with canning. You do not want botulism.

>>843647
Trap some, flay them alive while recording audio. Stake their remains and put the audio recording on loop.

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wtf is this?

>>844447
A leaf.

>>844448
A fucking leaf. Somebody had to say it. /pol/ has ruined me.

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>>844415
>>844413
Yeah the one from my previous pic are dedicated canning jars, it's the "Weck" style we have here in Germany (while you use the different "mason jar" system)
I'll shortly boil up the rubber ring in dilute acetic acid as it's supposed to be done before each use (they're still unusued) and also the jar fully submerged in a big pot of water
This system also allows for steam to be let off while in the water bath and you can easily check if it's gas tight once cooled down

Also, first pH measurement is in! I took a spoonful of sauce, placed it in a sieve to let drip out mostly liquid, then let cool to room temp before measuring
Most sources I found call for a pH lower than 4.6, mine currently is 4.32 so it should be safe at that point for water bath canning
However the sauce will still have to boil for another 1-2 hours to lose more water so it will fit inside the 1.5 litre jar (currently it still weighs 2.2kg, started with 2.7kg), this should concentrate the acids even more and further lower the pH, but just to be extra safe I will add some citric acid to maybe go just below 4.0 if it isn't already by then

>>844447
mildew

>>844464
Thank you. It's been bugging me for days

>>844459
OK it's boiled down enough. pH went to 4.28, after adding some citric acid to 4.15. Not as good as I expected, but it will do (2.8x more acidic than the recommended pH 4.6)

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My cherry tomatoes blossomed like 10 days ago

>>844511
Southern hemisphere and/or tropical?

>>844515
Central Yurop

>>844516
Well I'm the German Rhinefag, you started them so late? Even my volunteers that randomly popped up in May have been fruiting for a couple weeks now (the ones I had started indoor in Feb and planted out late April have been fruiting since early July, at least the cherries)
Or do you plan on over wintering them indoors for autumn/winter harvests?

Who /making jam/ here?

>>844519
>you started them so late?
bought some Spanish ones in the supermarket (needed them for some ciabatta I baked). Wondered if they'd grow/bear fruit if I planted the seeds

>Or do you plan on over wintering them indoors for autumn/winter harvests?
Yeah, already got that covered

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>>844526
I also cloned a cutting over the last winter (rooted in January), that thing looked leggy as fuck by early spring and didn't produce any fruit in that period (despite sitting on SW window), then planted it out in the garden in mid-March where it almost died from sunburn but recovered a few weeks later
Air layered the still healthy top in June and the mother plant did a side shoot from the base which is now also around 1.80m tall, so I ended up with two producing plants. Still a big hassle in our latitude and was more of an experiment

>>844529
>Still a big hassle in our latitude and was more of an experiment
Yeah, I know. By the way, I planted too many of them and now I'll have to take some to my grandma's as well. Thinking of turning one of the garages into a kind of a growing room so I'm buying chinkshit leds on ali. In before housefire

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Finally female flowers on my pumpkin

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>>844614
Why do they look different?

>>844511
Why such small pots anon? Not sure you'll yield that well in only a few litres of soil as even 10 Litre buckets did a lousy job for me.

Ever tried growing them upside down? You'll need to find 20+ litre buckets to make it worthwhile I hear but it's supposed to be a really good method for people who don't have access to a garden bed to put them in.

>>843907
mirin

>>843050
Anyone got any suggestions for some crop that would be good to grow on a mostly shaded, relatively steep, hill? Already got a blackberry bush growing, but it's not flowered/borne fruit in forever so maybe there's too little light even for that, so I'm probably looking for something even more shade tolerant. Though Oxalis (African wood-sorrel specifically) grows fine, so innuo.

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>>844768

>>844834
OK, thanks anon. Though I'll have to check if there are any patches that get 4 hours of sunlight.

>>844728
>Why such small pots anon? Not sure you'll yield that well in only a few litres of soil as even 10 Litre buckets did a lousy job for me.
It was just a temporary solution, they're all in bigger pots now, and fruit is already developing

>Ever tried growing them upside down?
nope, these are my first cherry tomato plants

>>844616
One is a bit older.

>>844926
Makes sense

>>844913
I planted some early girl tomatoes in the spring but fucked up and didn't put them in a cage or tie them so they'd grow vertically.

The tomatoes I DID get out of it were amazing. I normally don't like tomatoes.

My jalapenos died after I changed pots, so now all I have left are my habanero plant, some chilipiquines and my bonsais

>>844447
Try to squish one-- it looks like scale insects to me.

They are little shits. I tried soapy water, neem, and light vinegar sprays, and they do not give a fuck.

Hello, can you guys help me identify some weed and plants?
And have any of you had luck getting rid of oxalis?

>>845377
Post a picture.

>>845377
>And have any of you had luck getting rid of oxalis?

I eat them.

>>845377
Oxalis can spread clonally. So when you try and pull some out, most of the plant is probably still attached to the bulb underground, and any fragments that break off will take root in the soil and worsen your problem

with oxalis

1. be quick to remove any, attempting to get the bulb and roots right down in the ground
2. if you've missed your chance or it hasnt worked, then spot spraying it with diluted glysophate will knock it on its head.
3. dont let it go to seed

>>845409
Those tubers are fully edible like a potato. Dig them up and eat them.

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>>845378
Pic related, it's growing on half of my plants.

>>845409
Thanks, tried removing with the bulbs (almost sure it was the bulb, a small white blob) but got tired since it kept growing, tried burning it without luck too. I'll try the glysophate.

>>845446
I would if only they weren't covered in cat piss

>>845558
Looks like kalanchoe tubiflora.

Alright this will sound pretty gay but the information I've seen elsewhere contradicts each other so maybe you fellas can help.
I asked about cuttings and watts in the previous thread but I was being too vague for the information to really benefit me so here's the story.

I live in an apartment which is a real shithole, surrounded by junkies and lowlifes. The only pleasant thing about where I live is that outside my window there's this awesome tree which makes life here a little more bearable. It's nice to wake up in the morning when it's windy and just listen to the wind blow through the leaves.

I also happen to live in a pretty cold and cloudy country so there's not a lot of sunlight which means growing anything that isn't a bad motherfucker (pothos, spider plants etc) is out of the question. This led me to looking into artificial lighting and I reckon I could make a small set up to produce enough light. (4300-8600 lumens covering roughly one square foot)

Is there a way to "take" this tree with me (e.g cuttings or seeds)?
Could I use the cuttings or seeds to grow a sort of bonsai version of it indoors?
If this isn't possible, is there any way for me to grow a small tree indoors with artificial light?

Thanks for any advice.

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>>845798
Start a bunch of cuttings like pic related and see how you go, if you can get one to grow you can always train it as a bonsai if you like.

It might also be the kind of tree that lends itself well to potting, you could have one on either side of your couch if all goes well.

>>845815
Would I need to use anything to encourage rooting?
Thanks for the help.

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Will mail serrano pepper seeds anywhere in North America

email me
[email protected]

>>845822
Rooting hormone maybe? Don't know if that works universally.

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>>845564
Thanks senpai, and this?

>>845959
Euphorbia trigona.

My veggie patch in the garden has a really bad issue with nettle
What do I do? I don't want to go and spray it all with herbacide because obviously I have food growing there.
What should I do? Even if I try weed it all out by hand, it just keeps growing back.
Perhaps should I stop sowing, wait till I harvest everything, then just cover that shit with US military grade napalm?

>>846423
>What do I do?

Eat it!

I never understood people. Most of the weeds in your vegetable garden are edible and delicious when prepared correctly.

https://www.google.com/#q=nettle+recipes

>tfw i ate all mine in a 1 mile area and they never returned

>>846431
I'm thinking of perhaps making some nettle tea from it.
But none the less, it has become such an invasive pain. It started in one corner of the garden and has just kept growing

>>846423
It usually means the soil is a bit too rich, especially in nitrogen. Maybe you can deplete it over time with nitrogen eaters (don't know which are best for your area, maybe the nettle itself?) which you of course don't leave in place as mulch but compost/discard of elsewhere, but I don't know how long that would take

>>845822
I've heard that honey can be used to encourage rooting in place of hormone. Look it up?

>>846672
Google, "Willow water"

>>846684
I've tried self-made S. fragilis extract back in May/June, and none of my rosemary, sage and lavender cuttings rooted, while at least last year's Sep. rosemary cuttings all rooted and the single sage one in January too without any auch treatment, so I still hold the theory that daylight duration has a greater impact on rooting behaviour than commonly expected, with shorter days apparently being better

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Uzbekistan melons (far right and back)
Yacon by steps
Garlic chives going to flower
Peanuts in front with tomatos

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I'm not sure if I waited to late to plant these (late June, region 7) but this sucker is putting out melons like crazy. No issues with bugs because I had 2 broccoli trap plants that were devoured by the critters.

>>846752
Yacon is not in the pic.

>>846720
It depends a lot on the variety of plant too. Some can't do it without root hormone.

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Keepin bees, didnt see this thread included it til now

Guys, I've got a pepper/capsicum plant that made it throught the winter and has a few small peppers on it as well as a lot of tiny peppers starting up.

Should I prune it to encourage fruiting? Will just cutting the bigger fruits off encourage the small ones to grow. Also thinking about adding some more compost so it's got something to feed from through the spring and summer.

>>846856
If you didn't rob the bees and bring in invasive species we might not have a crash in the bee population and CCD wouldn't be a thing.

>>846869
CCD is a combination of completion from invasive species, pesticide use, viral infections, and parasites. It has nothing to do with honey production. In fact bee keepers are one of the few reasons bees are doing even half as well as they are.

>>843962
Interesting stuff cornbro. So you nixtamalize it yourself the old-fashioned way, huh.

>>846933
That's what I said. Beekeepers make it worse, but in their defense it would be even worse if they didn't mitigate their own damage

>>847082
You know you can keep native bees right? I've only been away for 6 months and this place has turned into a shithole of trolling and insufferable autists.

>>847089
It's probably just plont/bugfag not using his trip. These posts are all written in his signature autistic style. Better off ignoring them

>>847099
He's still around and isn't using his trip? It's even worse that you we can't filter him anymore.

>>847089
>>847099

Thank you for correcting the record!

>>847099
Why are you so obsessed with Buggy? Not every post with something even slightly negative in the thread is him without his trip.

>>847103
He's been on vacation for the past three weeks. Before you accuse me of being him(again), I'm going to point out that this is what he posted in the /an/ thread.

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>>847082
>>847089
>>846933
Honeybees don't have any competition for nectar and pollen like you'd think. They are so organized that attaining food is easy for them. Other species of native invertebrates don't eat enough in a fast enough time to affect the honey bee intake as a whole. Especially since some target plants the honey bees don't target.

CCD is directly linked to neonicotinoid pesticides which start a chain reaction that allows everything else to kill them off. It is quite literally the HIV of the bee world.

The best thing you can do is to have insect hotels for other types of native invertebrates. Use scrap lumber, broken clay pots, reeds, bamboo, straw, etc. I don't recommend DIYing up the ones where you need to manually drill holes. Those are too much work when you can simply use natural stuff like reeds, bamboo, and straw. Link from OP: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/insect-habitats.html

Then you can plant stuff that attracts native invertebrates to your area. For instance, allowing a patch of basil go to bloom will attract tons of solitary bees.

Offering a place for local invertebrates to colonize will help the honey bees as well as your plants.

>>847103
>>847099
I've been filtering him. I thought it was odd, no one was talking to "ghosts". Now stop talking about him or you'll summon him again.

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>>846869
>>846933
>>847082
>>847089
>>847099
>>847135
Wow this spawned instant autism

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>>847135
Pollinating insects other than bees are usually pretty gross though, like flies and shit. Bees on the other hand are a cute.

>>847139
What is 4chan if not for serving up fresh, piping hot doses of autism?

>>845798
Should get a 2ft T5 lighting fixture. It's roughly 8400 lumens for 96w, so about 5-8 dollars a month. Cuttings should be taken from new growth and rooted in moist soil or using a moist paper towel around the base and then put the cutting into a plastic bag. Air out the bag once a day until you see roots,

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>>847139
>normal Homegrowmen conversation
>autism

>>847135

>CCD is directly linked to neonicotinoid pesticides

That's a myth spread by environmentalists who are against farming, it's caused by global warming and immigration, the immigration ruining natural corridors and massive increase in fossil fuel use

>>847193
>>>/pol/

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Why are its leaves yellowing? Everything I love dies. :'( John's elderberry, zone 8, I water it every 2-3 days (usually 2). I fertilized it with fish fertilizer 1 week ago and sprayed liquid kelp on the leaves 4 days ago, my first time doing anything except straight watering for the 2-ish months I've had it. Not pictured is a Adam's elderberry that got the same treatment and is green as can be.

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>>847154
>Pollinating insects other than bees are usually pretty gross though, like flies and shit.

All of God's creatures are beautiful in their own way.

>>847202
What does the rest of the plant look like? It is only the lower leaves that are turning yellow? If so, don't worry too much about it, that is normal.

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>>847206

So, really stupid question but can I transfer seedlings from a crowded starter pot, and if I can when can/should I transfer seedlings to their final growing place? I don't really know what I'm doing so I threw like a a few quarter packet of seeds into a few pots not knowing how many would germinate, and now it looks like a good chunk of them are sprouting and there's almost no separation between them.

>>847209
Yeah. It's just that specific lower limb and maybe another since there are two leaves on the ground. Can I get it to stop somehow? I feel like its one of those things people say is normal but is really indicative of something.

>>847232
It only looks like that out of water. It looks normal and graceful in its natural environment.

>>847241
Old leaves do that and the lower the leaves are the older they usually are.

>>847291
You're sure there's no way to make it stop?

>>847286
I would look normal and graceful as I raped that sweet mouth

>>847135
Everything that I have read about it points to it being multiple factors at once, from pesticides to bee keepers who will move their hives from one place to another specifically to pollinate crops at various farms putting extra stress on the hives.

As far as local pollinators, I have tons of them. I even see paper wasps on the flowers in my garden, so I don't nix them unless they are in a place that could cause problems.

I lay waste to yellow jackets though. Fuck those motherfuckers.

>>847154
>What is 4chan if not for serving up fresh, piping hot doses of autism?

QFT

>>845822
aspirin tablets ground up and dissolved in water

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Mold or water spot? Also what should I do with my extreme surplus of cayanne peppers?

>>847372
It looks like a waterspot, but sometimes with peppers, you get into them and it is clearly mold.

You can dry them and then flake/grind them. You can also pickle them. Let me see if I can find a good video of how to tie a ristra if you wish to dry them. There are several ways to tie them, but I have my preferred method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8Mooj6YtE

That is about the same as the method that use. I normally do it without one end hanging though. The knots are the same.

>>847295
No. If it spreads to other leaves up the top then worry.

>>847333
I'm a bee keeper (was a bee keeper...) for 15 years. Mine were well cared for and never moved. Then corn and soy fields were planted by a neighbor and everything went to hell. He hasn't planted anything in a year though and is now just doing stuff with horses it looks like. I may try again next year or something. Not that it matters, local honey makes my throat swell shut almost instantly. Kind of disappointing all around. I once had 6 hives going.

>>847295
No, why should there? Even most evergreen trees lose their leaves after a couple years max, then either replace them where it makes sense, or don't where it doesn't (because for example the spot would be too self-shaded for it to make sense to shoot a new leaf)
If you don't want to lose a leaf, maybe get a Welwitschia, it has only 2 leaves but they last thousands of years

>>847504
gb2/b/, kid

>>847511
>implying I'm not from /hm/

>Being from a porn board
Same difference, desu lad.

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any idea what these are? some kind of wild grape or something?

it has a seed in the middle that takes up almost the whole thing and they're growing on a vine wrapping all over a tree

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Many moons ago I came here asking about tomatoes in the winter, I think it was thread 40? Anyhow. Story goes, my brother ate a tomato which had germination seeds in it, in like November. Well I planted these seeds, and fought rootbind problems because I was kinda lazy on moving them, eventually they starting putting out fruit, and I worried on if they'd ever turn red. Well they did, thanks out!
Tldr: a report on a bunch of off season tomatoes you guys didn't know existed

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>>847634
My first plants other than some radishes and corn!

>>847588
looks like a grape

>>847588
Definitely grapes, but I don't know shit about grape varieties.

>>847588
looks like gRAPEs but NOT wild. at least not the type that grows in the southern half of the US Wild.

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>>847634
>my brother ate a tomato which had germination seeds in it,

I remember seeing the photo of an eldritch nightmare abomination posted in one of these threads going by that description.

Looks like a good start on your way to a truly green thumb, anon.

>>847588
Concord grapes.

>>847667
I'm pretty pleased with it man, though Idk what to do with so many tomatoes now hah..

Another Australian gardener here. I'm just looking for a bit of advice on what direction to head with a veggie garden. We live in the Mallee region of Victoria so generally have very hot windy summers and cold windy winters (with lots of frost).

I'm pretty much just looking for a bit of advice on how you guys would do this. We have a bit of a polytunnel/greenhouse and potential to build a shadehouse really easily. We have a lot of land as well.

I was thinking of keeping a lot of veggies in pots (i.e. tomatoes, capsicums etc.) so I can move them into the polytunnel in winter to extend the growing season and protect against frosts. I was thinking of setting up a bit of a growing bed near the polytunnel which I can throw shadecloth over when it gets really hot in summer.

Is it worth keeping things in pots though? Or am I better just putting them in the ground?

Sorry if these are silly questions, I'm kind of new to veggies, we normally plant lots of natives.

>>847769
>I was thinking of keeping a lot of veggies in pots (i.e. tomatoes, capsicums etc.) so I can move them into the polytunnel in winter to extend the growing season and protect against frosts
not really worth it, by the time the cold and frosts start to hit the tomatoes wont be ripening anyway. if you don't have some kind of shade tree for the summer then I would recommend maybe some kind of shade cloth on those 40+ days. It gets a bit intense.

is this your first time really doing a vegetable garden?
Pots definitely arent suited to the region, they'll dry out quickly and just be crappy. Do some reading in some books or online about preparing soil for vegetables and keep a book of your plans. Best thing is to keep rotating your crops appropriately, so some planning is necessary. There are many ways to prepare a veggie patch but the best way for you personally will depend on space/ yard/ trees/ things you have on hand to improve soil, etc.

If you've got a greenhouse to grow up the seeds yourself then I would definitely recommend becoming a member of Diggers Seed Club and buying their recommended seeds (their Tiger Tom tomatoes [iirc] are great and produce an abundance of fruits) as well as other heirloom varieties that say they're good for hot dry conditions etc. They will far out compete anything you get straight from Bunnings. Dont put all your eggs in one basket too. Try multiple varieties of seed for most of your crops and save the seeds from what worked and just disregard the varieties that failed and didnt work well.

Which part of the mallee are you in?

>>847772

Thanks mate, pretty much my first time doing a veggie garden. I had some when I was a kid but that was a fair while ago. I'm definitely keen to get some seeds going. I've bought a few tomato, beetroot, spinach and onion seedlings from a local nursery to get things started this year as well.

I might have a shot at the mother earth news program later to plan some stuff out (I'm not sure how applicable it is to Australia though).

I'm in the Hindmarsh area, not far from the edge of the desert.

>>847772
>not really worth it, by the time the cold and frosts start to hit the tomatoes wont be ripening anyway

Bull! I grow tomatoes in poly tunnels in winter in 2 feet of snow. They ripen just fine.

>>847818
Sure ya do buddy

>>847769
>mallee region
Western suburbs of Melbourne reporting in.
How much land are you on lad? You in Mildura or out in the country?

>>847844
We're out in the country. It's a friends parents farm so they have a shit ton of land but they lease it all out these days. We have the whole house block to ourselves though which is probably 2 or 3 acres. We've covered a fair chunk of it in different gums, malles and callitris.

>>843050
I planted lettuce and bush beans the other day. I nothing about anything and I was told it was a good time to grow them.

I planted in a little area in a community garden near Uni. There's lavender there that I was told its leaves can be used to make tea. Is that true?

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>>847833
>being this new to homegrowmen threads

There's been more than one polytunnel homegrowmen in these threads. I'm not sure why you are in these threads.

>>847919
http://everything-lavender.com/lavender-tea-recipe.html

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Just got an apartment with a patch of dirt. About to start a new garden. I haven't done this before, is there anything special I should know? I'm capable of reading the instructions on the packet, but I'd y'all have tips beyond that, I'd welcome them.

>>847135
>insect hotels
Looks like a lot of work to make a great big heap of rubbish. I had a pile that was probably every bit as good, just from tossing all my scraps in one place. Cleared it out to put chickens in though, so it went from bug paradise to a bug death zone.

>>847680
Consider eating them.

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>>848059
My dirt, with seeds now tucked in, slightly more cramped than the package recommended.

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The ovaries on the flowering garlic heads are opening up and releasing their seed. There you have it, pic related is true garlic seed. Probably only one in a million people have seen it IRL. The next challenge is to get them to germinate and survive. First gen is typically very poor at that part.

So my landlord came by and stained the fence this weekend and some of it got on my plants. Should I be worried about eating the veggies near the fence or will the rain take care of it?

>>848112
If it got on the fruit, don't eat it.

Trying to save tomato seeds for the first time.
For the first variety (cherry volunteers, picked a fruit from the healthiest/most blight resistant and vigorous plant, and if the 2015 mother plants had been hybrids which is very possible since the different volunteers showed very different growth patterns, those seeds would be F3 so should start to stabilise) I didn't ferment, just washed off the gel very carefully and rubbed remnants off with towels
They are now sitting in a tupper box which also contains a small espresso cup with NaOH and a thermo/hygrometer, currently sitting at 23.5°C and 12% rH (dew point of -7.5°C), I hope letting them sit there for about a week will dry them out enough
Second batch is San Marzano, currently fermenting since yesterday (in a glass sitting on the vents of the fridge, so about 30°C, will let them sit there for 2 more days), they'll also be getting the DIY dehydrator treatment once they're done fermenting and washed off
Third one will be a more "beefy" variety and for this one I'll try the paper towel method

Will put them in plastic bags after that (+ maybe a small silica gel sack in each), store in fridge and test germination for each in early February (before the indoor starting process in mid-Feb), so if they don't make it I can still buy seeds

>>848188
I've never had a problem with the fermentation method. It works well.

>>848215
Yeah, seems to work so far. I now removed the plastic bag shortly in my fermenting ones (which you're supposed to do once per day), and while there's no visible mold yet it already smells "funny", so I guess it'll be shrooming by tomorrow evening

>>847879
Damn, I'm jelly af. I wish I had that much land to work with. I don't suppose you'd consider putting down some fruit trees?
They're not as quick as planting some lettuce in the ground, but its just as rewarding, especially if you want to learn how to preserve things. Make a cherry jam, or dried apples, or dried apricots.

>>848108
oooh sandy soil. what region?
check ph of soil for starters.

>>848109
you are better off just growing the cloves imo. the germination rate for garlic seeds is ok but you will have to wait ~3yrs for good garlic. I rather plant bubils than seeds.

>>844447
brown recluse

My corn has thus far thrown a couple of cobs with kernels that are near the same color of orange as you would expect a pumpkin. What does /out/ think, should I go see if I can get a neighbor let me use a small plot of land to breed this with black corn, so I can (hopefully) stabilize a black and orange halloween corn?

Any recommendations on how to get bags of leaves for mulch? I only have black walnut on my property. I'm about to just put a sign in my yard asking people to drop off their bags.

>>848340
The sign would probably do it. I know I don't mind when my neighbor's leaves blow onto my property. I'm a whore for organic material.

>>848230
Yeah we're pretty lucky. I've got a lemon tree ready to go in and I'm probably going to grab a few more next time I'm at the nursery. I had a few fruit trees at my old house, it's really great having more fruit than you can eat and I'm super into trying preserving my own fruit.

>>848403
I've got an apple tree, 2 peaches, 2 nectarine, a mulberry tree and a lemon tree. I wouldn't mind adding an orange tree so i have something to eat in the winter

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I'm growing some hydroponic tomatoes, but my question is in regards to pruning them.

So, what my understanding is from what I've read is that if you prune the apical node of an axis, the plant responds by transferring the focus of growth to the lateral stems, right? So that would mean if you keep pruning the apical node of the stems when they're about two feet long, you'll get more horizontal growth than vertical growth, right?

>>848340
pick up a cheap blower vac off craigslist for next to nothing, then ask around the neighbourhood to take care of people's leaves.
Not only can you suck up heaps of leaves, but you can also charge them some cash for it.

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>>848452
Tomato vines are ground vines. They do better unstaked and sprawled out. However, we don't want our tomatoes on the ground, dirty, and insect-eaten so we stake them up. Now what this means is that tomatoes go in any direction you want them to grow. Just bend them in that direction and let them grow.

All the new shoots want to grow up regardless of their location on the plant. Allowing them to grow out the sides just means you can lay them horizontally if you wish.

Different species of tomatoes respond differently to various types of pruning. Determinate tomatoes don't like to be pruned as much since they don't continue to grow exponentially. Indeterminate tomatoes can be pruned just about any way and they will grow longer for years, given a good environment.

I find that cherry tomato varieties are great for horizontal growth for a while, to get them spread out then allow them vertical growth without pruning them. Beef steak varieties seem to do better as a single stem growing as tall as the section of leaves cover (lean the plant over and rest the bare stem on the ground as it gets longer and loses bottom leaves.)

>>848505
If you do this, make sure to get a shredder type leaf vacuum, not a leaf blower specifically. Shredded leaves take many months less time to compost. However, if you have chickens, you can use big strong Contractor's trash bags to bag up the leaves for seasonal storage then use the leaves as litter in your chicken coop all year long. The chickens will shred the leaves for you. when you clean out the chicken coop you'll have shredded leaves and chicken manure all ready to be composted.

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>>848530
dam, old man Jenkins, u wise

It occurred to me as I was reading your post that I literally had no idea what kind of tomatoes I planted. I have the large red cherry tomato variety from American Seed. So I guess we're good to go on the pruning?

My next question would be, if you keep a tomato plant for multiple harvests, can only newer branches go into inflorescence? I've dreamed of having something similar to the Epcot tomato tree, but all I ever hear is that the yield after the first harvest is so bad you might as well just start a new plant, which is really disheartening, so I imagine that the question I asked above might answer why that is.

>>843652
I know that moles will often mistake caster beans as beetles if u stick one in their tunnel. idk if the same goes for voles but caster beans are extremly poisonous

>>847202
possible magnesium deficiency.

could try 2 teaspoons of Epsom salts:1 liter of water and give the leaves and roots of affected plants a good soaking.

Should also encourage new leaf growth.

>>848560
Will this possibly kill it?

I don't really know much about growing shit but I have some basil thats been growing a lot in some pots but my dog has ripped out a few stems. I guess they're kind of like cuttings, so they'll regrow? Do i just stick them back in the ground or do i have to do something to them?

What else should I grow down here in florida in an apartment balcony

>>848552
Old stems that have lost their leaves sometimes send out new shoots that will leaf out and continue, but often times those are scrawny and not worth messing with. You can simple layer them so they grow into new plants though.

Those tomatoes are indeterminate so pruning them how ever you want should be okay. Every leaf should have a new shoot coming out of it, so pick and choose what you want to keep.

A tomato tree is fairly easy to make. I've not had one multiple seasons though. The way indeterminate tomatoes work, they just want to keep getting longer, not bushier. As stems get older in one section they tend to stop wanting to send out more shoots. To do it correctly, the top of the tomato tree will need to be growing up all the time.

>>848656
Stick them in the ground, keep them watered. Yes, you can do basil cuttings. However, letting something get cut and not putting it into water right away, greatly lessens the chances of it surviving. google, "basil cuttings".

>>848559
What about secondary poisoning? Like the mole is poisoned and a cat eats it. Not likely, but it'd be nice to know.

>>848671
Oh i put them in water? it happened like 20 minutes ago alright.

>>848674
I'm not an expert, but I think you are supposed to put them in water almost immediately, because if you don't all the little capillaries that bring water into the plant get mucked up when they are exposed to air. Though you can usually just make another clean cut slightly above the first one, submerge the new cut in water, and have it work out fine. At least that's what I've always done with flowers that I'm trying to put in a vase.

Mind you I could be wrong, so don't put too much faith in my advice.

>>848679
That is proper advice.

>>848679
alright I did that thanks, man didn't know this thread was a thing, never go on /out/ but I have started to grow interested in growing shit, only have pots though so I started with basil and rosemary
Dont know what else might be useful to grow or that would grow in FL

>>848733
>or that would grow in FL

Pretty much everything, pretty much year round, especially with a polytunnel if it ever got "cold".

.>what else might be useful

What do you eat? Grow that.

>>848228
One day later, a nice mold layer has formed

How do I convince my mom to get a yak farm?

>>848560
Thanks for the advice. I did it but I forgot to put it on the leaves. I'll wait and see how it responds and go from there.

>>848962
>mom
I'll assume you're American

in which case:
>yak farm
pls no

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Rocket/Roquette/Arugula guy here.
I haven't kept you guys updated in about 2 weeks or so.
I had transplanted this bunch about a fortnight ago, they didn't grow in the ground at first, but in the last week I've noticed they've started growing again.
However I've noticed these small holes on the leaves
Have bugs gotten to them? What should I look out for, and how should I stop it?

>>843135
Interesting most things that go after gourds have piercing mouthparts but that looks like good sized teeth. A caterpillar maybe?

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The morning glories are glorious this morning.

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>>849105
whoops. Posted it straight from the camera.

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Do those containers of live ladybugs actually work to control infestations? Neighbor has a terrible case of whiteflies on some trees bordering my property and I don't want them spreading.

>>848581
>>849028

I'm a gardening newbie so do your research before taking my word for it but I believe Epsom salt treatment is pretty mild in terms of risks of overdosing your plants.

Worth while googling epsom salts and the plant/s in question just in case.

Also, if the rest of the plant is ok aside from the older lower leaves this may not be the case, but another cause of yellowing may be alkaline soil ph making sufficient iron or manganese unavailable for uptake.

Read these two articles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_deficiency_(plant)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_deficiency_(plant_disorder)

How do I stop raccoons from digging up my plants?

>>849153
Kill them

>>849153
>>>/k/

>>849137
I read a book that says Iron deficiency starts with the newest leaves and magnesium with the oldest. It is the oldest ones that are yellowing first.

>>849113
I have this problem too. I've heard its not really worth it but maybe.

>>849153
When you kill them please send me their tails for my voodoo stuff. :)

>>848265
It is supposed to be around 13% germination rate for first generation garlic seed, unless you are in a lab, then you might be able to get up to 35%. Successive generations are supposed to get better. Most true garlic has not been able to produce seed for centuries without human intervention.

Besides, you can't breed new cultivars with bulbils and cloves.


>>848530
I have not staked my tomatoes this year, and they seem to be doing fine. My philosophy is that plants should know what they're doing, and I save seed from the ones that prove that they do.

>>849045

Well a farm in general. She hates her job but can't really quit. I told her she has had farming and animal caretaking experience (she worked at a weird zoo/ranch thing) and would most likely get a ton of money from loans and grants simply for being a woman wanting to start a farm. She is afraid of failing though and not having insurance. She also doesn't want to kill anything. I told her I would work there if she got one.

>>849247
I think you should do more research on running a farm. It sounds like you're trying to push your dream of farm life on your mom from what I can tell, though. If she really wants the farm life, you should look into it together and make sure you've done all your research together. I know a lot of people think living on a farm or whatever is romantic or whatever, but it's not something to rush headlong into.

>>849153
Sure it is raccoons? Opossums do that here more than raccoons. Use electric fencing or dogs.

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>>849113
Yes, it is worth it when there is a problem like that. Just follow the instructions. Hopefully, they will lay eggs very soon so those marauding nymphs can devour the aphids, whiteflies, and anything else in their path.

>>849278
Awesome, I'll go get a whole lot of em first thing tomorrow. Thanks anon.

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>pic related

what the fuck is wrong with my lemon trees?
all the newest parts of my trees have this, is it aphides?

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Any IDers around?
Wonder what this sort of succulent creeper is that popped up in my date palm container some time after re-potting in May (so probably contamination from potting soil), and if I should keep it there or better get rid of it
Same stuff also grows in cracks on the sidewalk nearby

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>>849426
Closer look

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>>849427
Base

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>>849426
>>849427
>>849429

that's just a weed, trash it with no remorse

>>849426
>>849427
>>849429

That looks like Purslane. Most people treat it as a weed, but it is actually a fairly tasty and nutritious edible plant. It has a slight salty-lemony flavor.

Like all things growing wild, make sure that my ID is correct anon. I don't want to get any of y'all poisoned because it looks like Purslane, but is a similar looking poisonous weed.

>>849438

the more you know...

really made me think

>>849239
Garlic/corn bro, I am impressed. Hope to hear over the years how this goes.

I had a garlic issue this year, where my cloves produced bulbs that were completely different than previous years. an average of 6.5 cloves per bulb instead of 3.3. Years of the same, and then that switch. It seems as if the formation of the cloves would be pretty early. Maybe even in the fall, but certainly by early spring. any ideas what would cause that switch?

>>849426
>>849427
>>849429
>>849432
Yes, it is Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and it is and awesome vegetable. There's tons of recipes online, do some googling.

>>849438
>I don't want to get any of y'all poisoned because it looks like Purslane, but is a similar looking poisonous weed.

Hairy-stemmed spurge (Euphorbia vermiculata) is the only "look alike" and only barely passable as looking like it. Kind of like how all humans look alike but guys look different than girls. Well like guys, Hairy-stemmed spurge is hairy and likes to spurge out a lot while Purslane is smooth and succulent like women (an a little slimy!).

>>849419
Hose it down with your garden hose. If you see aphids, use a stiff spray that isn't too stiff to harm the leaves (making darker areas on the leaf harms it.) It is some sort of sap-sucking insect, maybe aphids. Mostly aphids just get worse and you can always see them, but sometimes ant farm them and move them to new plants.

>>849426
>>849438
looks like purslane to me, too
tasty, especially early in the morning
i say, eat it if you haven't been putting chemicals on the potted plant
tasty on sandwiches
>>846423
seconding eat it - or tea -- but when the plants are young. wish i had a nettle patch

Wind was 40 gusting to 60 km/h today and the apple tree in backyard was dropping apples like crazy. So ended up picking most of them. Over a month earlier than usual, but it was an early spring and they were ripe. Ended up with 4 plastic shopping tubs full of them, with at least another 2 worth still in the tree while I wait for a taller ladder. Put enough cored / peeled apples in the freezer for 28 pies. That's all the chest freezer space we're willing to allocate this year. Used to have access to a walk-in freezer so we'd store 40-50 pies worth. Probably going to end up giving many of the remaining apples to family.

Then there's the crab apple tree. Last year we got probably 8 - 25 gallon garbage cans worth. Give away what we can, rest get fed to the deer.

>>847237
Snip to thin them out and transfer the strongest sprouts.

>>843354
I have been losing my beets and some other leafy top plants for two years now and couldnt pin it on any bug. But I was driving down my driveway thinking about the signs and then a rabbit hopped across the road and it all made sense. Fuckers

I'm planning to start some pepper seeds using peat moss but I just can't get it wet? It says on the packet to just mix the peat moss with sand and vermiculite but when I do that and water the mix it just collects at the top and below the surface is bone dry.

>>849432
>>849438
>>849484
>>849493
Ah, I see. Main concern was whether it makes too much competition to the palm (but probably not) or if it's even beneficial (keeping some moisture in the soil by shading so I have to water less)
Tried a few leaves, yeah quite edible but eh, nothing special desu

>>849637
They make good slug and leaf miner traps. ;_;

>>849496
Wow, that's lots of apples. I still have some dehydrated apples and tons of applesauce from a few years ago; still good too. I even have premade apple pie canned in jars. I just open one, pour it into a crust, and bake.

how do hydroponics work

>>849694
Seriously? https://www.google.com/search?q=how+do+hydroponics+work

They work well, if you have the money to set them up.

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>>844366
Another week, another 3.5 kg of San Marzanos alone! (plus some cherry tomatoes and a few bell peppers), probably thanks to unusual (for that time) sunny and hot weather (was up to 35°C one day)
This time though I'll make a bolognese sauce from them and freeze it

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Anyone here know what this is? Central Florida, red maple, under the bark layer. But its been there since it was cut fresh, dunno when this little thing entered the wood, I'm assuming its been there for awhile. Moves kinda like a worm.

what kind of crops and or trees can I grow in Michigan's Upper Peninsula also I'm wondering if I need a degree to get a mining job in Michigan Upper Peninsula

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my chili plant, 6 years old and still gives chilis every season

>>849848
You generally don't for low-skill manual labor jobs.

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Time to harvest? Never done potatoes before.

>>849893
Weren't you supposed to keep adding on to the potato box? I mean, isn't that the entire point of making one?

>>849153
Seconding for killing them, raccoons are pest animals and its better if you kill them outright rather than deter them or prevent them from getting at your food.

>>849881
Looks nice anon, what variety of chilli is it? I've got some Orange Wonder seeds in the ground at the moment, soil temps are only around 20C but an upturned glass on top is acting like a greenhouse so hopefully I'll have shoots in a couple weeks!

>>849893
Harvest when the tops are brown/dead.

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Yacon (Peruvian ground apple)

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Uzbek melon (1/many)

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I doubt the peanuts (front left) will produce anything but at least it will fix any nitrogen problems in the soil. I ordered some walking stick kale from here:

https://youtu.be/FJvNqmb6aKY

Hopefully will have a few walking sticks in the future.

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>>843050
so I took the first step into growing my own herbs. I have a rosemary plant that is growing great.

the thing is I didn't buy it with that purpose in mind and just ended up sticking it in a pot after using what I needed and was surprised when it started to grow. the problem I have now is that it's actually 3 different plants with intertwined roots and I think before I was even planning on growing it I accidentally cut too much from one of the three. it only had brown leaves that I picked off after they weren't showing any change for days so it's basically just a dry stick now (though if I cut it the middle is wet and greet).

Q: if there is nothing I can do to save it like I suspect should I try to remove it or just leave it there? will the roots hurt the other plants? more than my attempt at separating them?

thanks and pic related

>>850248
simplest way is going to be pinch, or cut the weakest looking two right at the soil, don't try to pull them out. in about 5 days the plant will have officially died, and the roots will no longer be strong and have shriveled up, allowing the main alive one to continue without issue.

PS that pot looks too small already away.

>>850262
ok so I should just let one live even though two of the three seem to both be doing fine right now together?
>PS that pot looks too small already away.
yeah it was the only one I had at hand. it's pretty deep though

>>849894
I ran out of wood.

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>>848188
OK, so after around 5 days of drying for the first batch, I think they're good enough (pic), so I put them in a plastic bag with some silica gel (dried in microwave before).
Kept 5 seeds to test if they sprout, and if not, I have to save some more from that variety and maybe ferment them too

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>>850411
muh DIY bag

How densely clustered do potato tubers usually grow underground?

I dug a fairly deep hole close to one of my sweet potato plants to see if I could find a tuber and while there were a lot of roots, I didn't hit a single potato on the way down. The plant is two and a half months old, so I'd expect it to have at least small potatoes.

Is it more likely that the plant didn't end up producing tubers, or that I just didn't happen to hit them while digging?

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Just took some cuttings and set them up in this here capillary bed I made, hope I get some roots happening, especially on the Brigalow as it's a beautiful tree.

>>850551
Potatoes and sweet potatoes are different types of plants, fyi.

For both plants you need to wait until the tops die. Sweet potatoes take FOREVER. Plant very early under cover, let them grow all season, recover them in the fall to protect from frost. Harvest in the fall when cold has finally killed them. Most areas like Zone 5 and colder can't grow uncovered them because they need a longer season. If the soil is too rich in nitrogen, both sweet potatoes and potatoes will have tons of top growth and almost no tubers. Both plants need to be planted in mounds or a row-like mound for easier digging up of tubers.

Sweet potatoes tend to have tubers further down than potatoes, but that can also depend on variety. As far as clustering goes, both types of plants normally keep their tubers in a 1.5-2 feet radius around them. It really depends on how well they did during the season. Sometimes they can be bunched up in a half foot section.

>>850416
Staple that better and you could make money selling seeds to hipsters.

>>850624
>Sweet potatoes take FOREVER
How long? The tops are taking up quite a lot of space already.

If I harvest them early, the tubers will just be smaller than normal, right? At 2.5 months there should at least be something edible down there, right?

>>847413
Sir, you are my hero.

>>850643
No. That was never the case for me.

>>850760
So how long do I need to wait?

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~80% of my pot grown roma tomatoes on all 3 of my plants have blossom end rot despite fertilizing them several times with dissolved limestone in addition to occasional 'vegetable garden' general purpose fertilizer.

I water heavily once a day in the morning and occasionally at night if I see that they're wilting due to the heat.

It's frustrating because the plants are big and beautiful, but I can't stop the tomatoes from rotting.

Do they just need more limestone? I've put several teaspoons worth over time into each 14" pot already.

>>850894

I didn't mention that these plants only receive ~2 hrs of direct sunlight a day because I'm growing them on my apartment deck which is covered from above by another deck.

Could lack of sunlight cause blossom end rot like this?

>>850896
I'm no expert, but I do seriously think tomatoes are going to need far more sunlight than 2hrs a day. That kind of sunlight is more for root-tier plants like beets or carrots.

Whether or not it's causing the rot, I have no idea, but it may be a very potential contributor.

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Just started a little patio garden, got some herbs to the left, strawberries in the large pot, some peppers, and will be planting a couple things from seed, probably lettuce and spinach on the right hand trays.
This is my first time planting stuff so I hope everything doesn't die.
I live in socal so at least I don't have to worry about frost

>>849496
>not turning the crab apples into cider
why

>>850909
Not the lad you were talking to. But I'd love to try make some cider from my apple tree.
I've always wondered, do you get that much from it? I wouldn't want to turn the apples from this coming summer into cider and only have like 2L of cider
Is there a rough equation of kg of apples to L of cider?

>>850974
depends on the juicing method, but roughly a liter per 4 pounds of apples

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how do I turn an immature potato into a potato plant?

I have a single imature potato of a breed unavailable in my country. This potato was not treated with any kind of product to prevent sprouting nor pesticides/herbicides.

>>850995
put it in a dark cupboard until it starts to sprout a little bit. when it does, then cut it into chunks such that you have one eye/ sprout per chunk (chunks should be the size of maybe half your thumb).

Then just plant it.

Why are you using a breed unavaliable in your country as opposed to a variety that has been breed to suit your climate and the pests and diseases prevalent in your area?

Do you know its origin? From an area without any major plant/ potato diseases?

>>850995
>>851000

Aye, this. You may even be introducing an invasive species at worst. Either that or the climate of your country won't be able to sustain the potato or maybe it's naturally hostile to it.

If everything works out, why is everyone else not growing it?

>>851001
>invasive species
>potato
Not him, but that isn't super likely. It's more likely that it just won'd grow super well.

>>851004
My bad. I'm not crazy familiar with potatoes so I simply thought them as a tubular plant. Last time I dealt with those, they were indeed invading some of the woodland here.

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I dumped out a packet of mystery seeds I had stashed away. They've started sprouting. Have I made a mistake?

>>851017
Did you just toss them into the wind and hope for the best?

>>851018
I plowed them into the ground a bit but other than that I didn't do anything but my regular watering to my surrounding succulents. I fear whatever these things are.

>>843958
>>843960
mirin corn
are you from Chile? they have some crazy corn in there

>>850248
cut the ends, it will really increase growth/ leaves number

>>843050
Has anybody here grown mimosa hostilis?
And yes, im doing that with it. I usually buy the root bark but im thinking of building a greenhouse next to my vegitable garden to grow some legal weed as well as this.
Also, has anybody here grown psilocybin mushrooms?

>>851017
You're going to have to kill quite a lot of them in order to prevent them from competing for resources with each other.

>>851075
I've already started thinning them out. But being unfamiliar with what these are I'm not sure how much I should thin.

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>>850894

>>850896

irregular watering is the main cause of blossom end rot. If you have a standard light period and fairly predictable weather - you should try to water regularly and evenly - toms don't like to be soaked or dried out- try to keep the soil evenly moist.

>>851017
They kinda look like asian greens, bok choy looks kinda similar if i remember.

>>851080
Wait until they get a set or two of true leaves, then you'll be able to make a better judgement on what they are

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>>851017
Looks a lot like basil, at that stage it should already smell like it if it is

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so you like peppers?

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>>851000
>>851001
>>851004
>>851004
My country is specialized in large production for lower cost and doesn't care much about fancy varieties. In the supermarket there is usually just one kind of potato (actually I think there are more than one kind depending on the season but they never care to name it) and it is named just potato, sometimes a different kind with pink skin is also available and it is one of the few that are named.

So I brought a Northern Ruby (the red one) disease-free potato seed while I was living in Japan and raised it indoors but it didn't had enough time to fully mature the potatoes before I returned so I picked a small one and took it with me in the hope that I could raise it.

Personally I expect low productivity due to it not being adapted to my country climate but I'm not worried about being commercially viable, just about having something nice for myself and my family.

>>851148
I smelled and tasted it, it's pretty musky and not basil like.

>>851008
>not crazy familiar with potatoes

They are the vegetable used to make french fries and potato chips (crisps). You were probably fighting something in the Ipomoea family of plants (the same family sweet potato vines are a part of).

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>>851154
yes I do - filled with herb cheese

first time poster on /out/ here. i've noticed some spider mites growing on my pepper plants. I went ahead and whipped up a spray bottle with some cayenne pepper and dish soap and sprayed all over my plants. anything else i should do to keep them free of pests?

>>851372
You don't need the pepper. That's only for mammals. Nothing else reacts to the "heat", not even birds. The soap and water spray is all you'll need. You can hose down your plants up to 3 times a week to help knock off anything new starting. That's the go-to method for aphid removal, fyi.

>>851382
i read that the capsicum did something to the mites but i'll keep that in mind

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So these little corn dudes just started growing, making me pretty excited. It's my first ever planting but it seems the conditions are pretty favorable, especially recently since Florida has been hit with heavy storms and harsh sunlight the past few days.

Now they're they're actually coming out, I've been getting a little nervous as to how not to fuck this up. Any tips? I've been suggested not to water them every single day, though I mostly do it in light doses via the hose in a mist setting.

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Whats wrong with my pumpkin leaves?

>>851047

Southwest US

>>851393
I don't know about corn SPECIFICALLY, but generally for my plants I just water whenever the top of the soil feels dry to the touch.

Also you might want to look up how much space corn needs to grow, you might need to move them out of the pot and into the ground at some point.

>>851480
Yeah, definitely will. They're comfortable with the depth they have now from what I understand, but they'll be moved to the full on yard once they mature enough.

Thanks a lot. I heard the same thing from many people, but the family sorta worries that rot will set in if I overwater. I'll probably just keep misting it every day until it's reasonably moist.

>>851482
>the family sorta worries that rot will set in if I overwater
The pot has holes in the bottom to drain through, right? If so, then I don't think it'll be an issue.

If not though, you might have to worry about the water pooling at the bottom of the pot.

>>851486
It has one hole. A little small, but seconds after watering, water will start leaking out of it so it's doing it's job.

Thanks though. Also, if I may ask, do you have any experience with mushrooms? I've been wanting to grow them as a tiny side project while I work on the, well, corn.

>>851487
>do you have any experience with mushrooms?
Not firsthand, though I've been wanting to get into it.

>>851489
That's a shame. They're hella independent and quick to grow from what I've seen and heard.

>>851404
that's normal coloration on some squash varieties

>>851492
I've heard the same.

I mainly want to get into it because I'm interested in chicken of the woods mushroom, but I can't find any place that sells the mushroom itself, so I'll need to buy the spores and grow them if I ever want to eat them.

>>851487
I was at homedepot and they were clearancing out a "grow your own mushroom" kit.
supposed to be able to harvest some oysters within 10 days.

>>851495
Can't say I heard of that variety. What's it even taste like?

>>851496
Clearance as in shutting down the Home Depot or just for Labor Day? I'm actually going to Home Depot tomorrow for some lumber, so if they have that kind of shit around too, I'd need to peek.

>>851498
As its name implies, it apparently has a taste and texture that is strikingly similar to chicken. So much so that some people use it as a vegan alternative to chicken.

>>851500
I assumed it was named that because maybe some chickens hunted for it or some shit akin to pigs/boars rand truffles.

I definitely gotta get in on that. Thanks for the, albeit unintentional, idea.

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>>851498
Nah, just getting rid of some stuff. Also picked up some "herbs in a can" on clearance.

>>851503
Shit man, this is all so cool. I normally only went to Home Depot to get wood and tools, but never been in the gardening area. Didn't know they had all this nice junk to shift through.

>>851482
I would move them into the ground. And, while corn can be a heavy consumer of water, you definitely don't want to water it every day. I got very little rain in June with many days of 100f+ temperatures, and watered it 1-2 times per week. Most of August had highs in the 90s, I got a little over 2" of rain and did not water it once, though it has a fully developed root system, which is probably 6+ feet deep. Then again, I haven't watered my tomatoes either, and those are just now starting to produce like crazy.

>>851510
Thanks for the tips, man. I'll definitely hold back. They're being raised in a tropical environment and here mid-90s and low 100s are the norm when the sun is out blasting, which is common. Should I let them soak up the rain, though? When it rains down here, it hits like a full-on monsoon more often than not.

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G'day lads, clearing out the veggie patch here for summer, just found these prickly bastards growing all around. Anybody know of these are blackberries or not?

>>851493
Sounds good

>>851515
It looks like it is time to move this to a new thread, but I'm feeling like a lazy ass right now, so I'll let somebody else do it.

To answer your question, A lot of that is going to depend on your soil. Sand vs clay, a lot of organic matter vs not a lot, etc... Basically, you are going to have to know your conditions. Where my corn is growing right now has a lot of organic matter, the top 12" is a nice sand clay mix and below that from 1' down to about 4' down is very heavy clay, and then it goes on in alternating sand/clay layers. If you are nothing but sand, you will want to add organic material and then you'll still have to water more than I at a given temperature and humidity.

For corn, you know that it is water stressed when the leaves start curling along their spine. Prior to tasseling/silking, so long as you water it soon, it's not a huge deal. It can reduce yields, but the sooner you get to watering it when it does that, the smaller the effect. If it gets too stressed after tasseling, but before most of the kernel formation is complete, that is where you will get the biggest yield losses. Once you are in the drying stage, it doesn't matter much at all. If you are growing this as sweet corn, you don't go to full kernel maturity though.

Another issue that you're going to have is pollination. If a kernel (ovary) doesn't get pollinated, it will not form. Corn is wind pollinated with relatively heavy pollen, and is normally planted in blocks of either rows or in a grid with many plants. This ensures full or mostly full pollination. If you're only growing a few plants, you'll want to hand pollinate. If you're not saving seed (don't do this with only a few plants) or breeding, you don't have to be an autist about it.

(cont)