Garden Thread 2023!

[EbS-P]

Anyone been successful with netting to keep squirrels out?
I’m thinking 3/4 inch bird netting.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

If the net was electrified it might work. Otherwise teeth will win.

 

[begreen]

Yes, it's going to need to be metal, something like chicken wire.

 

[NHWS]

Anyone been successful with netting to keep squirrels out?
I’m thinking 3/4 inch bird netting.

Discouraging squirrels probably deserves its own thread. A very long thread, full of ideas that don't work.

Electrified fences work for a while. Ditto metal fences. Greenhouses sometimes work, as long as you never open the vents and there are no gaps in the glass walls or between the walls and the concrete floor. They'll chew through plastic or wood, and eventually chew through wire.

Local cats supposedly can help, but I've got a bobcat living near my house that doesn't seem to make any difference. Even if a predator were to catch a squirrel, there are always others nearby to move in.

Distraction works best. Set up a squirrel feeding station well stocked with walnuts and sunflower seeds to give them something they like even more than the rest of the garden. Make it hard to get to or move it around to keep them occupied. Use metal fencing and put down clinkers in parts of the garden where possible so they look for easier places to dig their caches. Enjoy the occasional surprise plants from caches that you didn't notice.

Squirrels are clever and much more persistent about getting in than humans are at keeping them out. I've learned over time to think of them as sometimes annoying, often amusing neighbors.

 

[begreen]

Babies are growing. There are still some tiny starts that need transplanting. I have them circled to give away locally. The Tiny Tim is no longer tiny, but has many tomatoes on it now.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’ve got to replant some of the basil and cilantro I started in the aerogarden. It didn’t sprout. I must have picked bad seeds! I guess I shouldn’t buy seeds at odd lots, lol.

 

[EbS-P]

I really like hydroponics. 16 days from planting seeds and I already have true leaves emerging. I have been rolling the tower out into the sun. So grow lights are only on 7-11 and 5-7.

Ignore all the labels, they take too much effort to remove. Buckbee’s is still the only plant with visible fruits.

 

[begreen]

January King cabbage ready to harvest.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Nice!

 

[begreen]

Thanks. January King is one of my favorites. The lettuce bed is looking good too. It will be time for the first picking soon. Tiny Tim tomatoes are big and green, but no reddening yet.

 

[EbS-P]

Garden update. I’m not happy with the progress of my bags. Whether it’s temperature swings or lack of light (4 hours through the plastic) I’m not happy with how they are growing. Moving forward I won’t be starting seeds this late ever again and managing my expectations better.

Hydroponics on the other hand are doing really well. I will be expanding the vertical grow towers with another fourty of fifty sites in three inch downspouts.

Plan is to clear some brush and make a nice bag garden plot at the back of the property for low maintenance crops. It will be visible from a trail that gets quite a bit of use on the other side of the stream thinking about that some.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My hydroponic growing is slower than I remember it going. I has to replant some basil and cilantro that didn’t germinate. Maybe bad seeds, lol. The red currant tomato is doing fine. I’m curious how it’ll grow as I read it’s not the same species as the other tomatoes, but can cross pollinate? Weird.

 

[begreen]

Garden update. I’m not happy with the progress of my bags. Whether it’s temperature swings or lack of light (4 hours through the plastic) I’m not happy with how they are growing. Moving forward I won’t be starting seeds this late ever again and managing my expectations better.

Hydroponics on the other hand are doing really well. I will be expanding the vertical grow towers with another fourty of fifty sites in three inch downspouts.

Plan is to clear some brush and make a nice bag garden plot at the back of the property for low maintenance crops. It will be visible from a trail that gets quite a bit of use on the other side of the stream thinking about that some.

I suspect that the bags are soaking up the cold, worse if sitting on the concrete. The bags need warmth. In the least, try putting a sheet of thick insulation board underneath them or better yet, get nursery heat pads. I think if the soil temp is raised to above 72º they will respond better.

 

[begreen]

My hydroponic growing is slower than I remember it going. I has to replant some basil and cilantro that didn’t germinate. Maybe bad seeds, lol. The red currant tomato is doing fine. I’m curious how it’ll grow as I read it’s not the same species as the other tomatoes, but can cross pollinate? Weird.

Ours are doing well. We've had major harvests of lettuce and basil. I had a set back with the new 15 hole unit. No directions and the fertilizer provided turned out to be super hot. I just drained out half of the 7.5 liters and replaced it with water yesterday. That looks much more balanced for EC and PPM now. It was a mistake putting the Tiny Tim in the smaller iDoo with 7 holes. It needs replenishing every other day, but it has lots of tomatoes ripening on it. The 12 hole iDoo will get replanted today for lettuces.

 

[begreen]

The lettuce is ready for a second harvest. I picked about half of the leaves here.


The tomatoes are coming along. The first Tiny Tims are starting to change color.

 

[EbS-P]

Tomatoes update. Starting to see fruit buds in a couple other varieties meanwhile some varieties have not even opened a blossom yet. Those won’t get planted next year. Buckbee’s 50 day is the winner hands down. It has about 8 fruits that can be seen.

I started a couple other short season varieties that are a yellow Roma, orange and a fuzzy yellow cherry that didn’t germinate in September. Several indeterminates have been topped and allowed to sucker, while the other plant was pruned to a single stem but it has to be trained horizontally. The topped plant will definitely be behind production judging by the blossoms showing now. But it make be the only way to keep them manageable.

The two potato leaf varieties just seem to take more space and not as compact. Another 12 hot weather varieties were ordered and will be seeded soon (6 are container varieties).

Cauliflower starts will be hardened this week and transplanted next week.

Side note trying reduce screen time a limiting posts to the weekend.

 

[begreen]

They look great. I haven't tried Buckbees yet. Out here Stupice is a favorite early 50 day variety with good flavor.

Our first Tiny Tims are starting to redden up. Nice to see the color.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The plants in the aerogarden just aren’t taking off like I expected… except the tomato. Tomatoes were grown in them last. I started wondering if they were alellopathic since I didn’t wash out the aerogardens. It turns out they are. Sigh. Looks like I’ll be doing a tear down and wash out next weekend.

 

[begreen]

I almost killed the Tiny Tim, the solution was overfertilized due to me switching fertilizers. The new bottle had print smaller than the tiniest medicine bottle's legal statement and I misread it. Fortunately, it's a tough plant. Lost some leaves but is recovering with a more balanced solution. It's almost time to start picking! The lettuce crop will get its third picking today. The pepper plant is showing early buds. I didn't expect that.

 

[EbS-P]

They look great. I haven't tried Buckbees yet. Out here Stupice is a favorite early 50 day variety with good flavor.

Our first Tiny Tims are starting to redden up. Nice to see the color.

I plants stupice. They have one set of blossoms just opened to Buckbee’s 5 or 6. So far there is no competition to Buckbee’s. If I did this again it would be all Buckbee’s. From week 4 they have been the best growing plants.

 

[EbS-P]

Here is a spice garden I planted. 8 different kinds of basil and just about everything else you could think of. It’s posting mix and some added coco core and perlite. Added grow lights.

And here is determinate tomato that’s setting fruit.

 

[begreen]

Well this was certainly unexpected. At this rate we'll have peppers in March! There are a lot of buds on the plant.

The micro tomatoes are setting a lot of fruit. Lettuce crop is ready for the 4th picking.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

You fellows appear to be doing great with your indoor growing. I’m wishing I could have my Aerogardens set up for lettuce, but it won’t be long now till we can start some outside. Today the weather is absolutely spring like [over seventy] after cold and snow last week, so I think it’s giving me spring fever.

I forgot to post back in December when I harvested my Battir eggplant. I wanted to reduce the load on the plant since it had spider mites. It made a delicious dish for us fried up. It was very creamy and mild.


I’ve kept the eggplant going since then, and it’s had lots of blossoms that I have tried to pollinate but not so diligently as in the fall. Nothing has been forming significant fruit, however, so just a couple of days ago I gave it a major pruning. I cut back the tall central stalk and left only two suckers that had grown out toward the bottom. I still have some mites, so this will make it easier to tend and let it put some energy into fresh growth now that we’re coming to the end of our Persephone Period.


The ginger and za’atar also in the picture are doing well and have been giving us just a bit of something fresh to pick from time to time.

I spent some time this morning doing some seed saving. The first picture is a tiny harvest of Woods Mountain Crazy Bean Pods that I saved after a freeze, so I was glad to see that some mature seed survived.

The second picture is Rattlesnake Pole Beans that my mom picked for me back in October or November when I waas sick with Covid. They’ve been drying down ever since.

The last picture is a Sumter Cucumber that fell off the dead vine back at the beginning of October. It was starting to decay a bit, so I wanted to get it cut and cleaned out, so I did that this morning. There appear to be some mature seeds, but only time will tell.

 

[EbS-P]

Garden planning time here. Tomatoes should be seeded soon. Between my dad’s raised beds, his patio containers, my hydroponics, containers and a few straw bales I want to try and my sister wanting 6 tomatoes for containers, I’m looking at about 35-40 tomato plants. I’ll probably over seed and not want to waist any. So let’s just say 50.

From that I have to decide how many cool weather short season plants (out of 9 varieties) how many hot humid indeterminate out of 8, how many determinate containers varieties out of 7 and then just for for measure I ordered 6 varieties from the dwarf tomato project.

I may just grow tomatoes this year I have learned a
Lot in a year of hydroponic gardening. I should write it up on another thread. In short it will say everyone should be doing it! Obligatory pics of what is growing well!

 

[EbS-P]

An update on citrus did down here during the last cold snap. Now. It did get back above freezing each day and the cold didn’t stay very long. I consider this more of a once every few years cold. Or just regular winters if you are over the age of 40.