2025 Garden Thread

[Stelcom66]

Raised beds are doing well. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and a squash. Going to try some homemade pickles and canning tomatoes this year. Pumpkins have been up for a few weeks and look good. Temperatures finally warmed up enough and the gourds are popping out too.

What a great setup and already quite a yield! Nice seeing the dog in the photo.

 

[walhondingnashua]

Has anyone tried the fertilizer idea with fermenting weeds in a bucket of water?

 

[djlew]

Has anyone tried the fertilizer idea with fermenting weeds in a bucket of water?

Not specifically weeds but did try the generic "compost tea" idea before to specifically target what I thought were some nutrient deficient plants. Seemed to help, but I also coupled that with some other factors like moving into a more ideal location so hard to attribute just to the compost tea. Not entirely sure how helpful it is, but I've heard some arguments that it doesn't really add a noticeable amount of nutrients but essentially creates a healthier environment for your plants to absorb the nutrients already present in the soil - since diluting the nutrients already present in the compost (at least in theory) wouldn't introduce enough nutrients to make a difference. I can confirm that in my experience on a basic vegetable garden that it at the very least didn't hurt.

 

[burning VC]

We only did one raised bed last year and had a lot of success so we are expanding our operation. I heard a quote I liked... "Plant 200 things, and even if only 50 grow you will still be known as the guy who grew 50 things."

These are trade secrets. I call for investigation.

Maybe I can get some advice here. Our hydrangeas

It might be underground fungus, ants/insect damage...before i read it moved from one side of the porch to the other i was thinking physical trauma(trampled)..

Imost of my new seeds are Ferry Morse this year. I have no particular preference for them, but that’s what they had when I was buying.

My germination rates are horrid! I’m hoping they just had a bad batch.

I also bought FM seeds for some of this years crops, and the germinations were ridiculously delayed, if they germinated at all......squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers...

I wondered if it was due to the seeds being in store for sale at New Years Day this year.....about 6 weeks early?
My other seed companies were vigorous to sprout.

I also noticed the FM display rack was taken down by end of April....which is normally before average person plants around here....heck, i'm still starting trays of different things, lucky i bought packs then..

Has anyone tried the fertilizer idea with fermenting weeds in a bucket of water?

I also have used compost tea, not specifically in a garden but for azalea's, hydrangea's mainly...

It brought weak plants to robust health. It made healthy plants superior.

10-10-10 was stronger and more effective, but compost tea is organic and is also great on soil pH.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Has anyone tried the fertilizer idea with fermenting weeds in a bucket of water?

I have. When we lived in Texas, we had about three acres that had been severely overgrazed, and very little vegetation remained other than invasive thistles and horehound. We cut down on the populations by a lot of pulling. The thistles in particular I did not want to put in my compost because they can apparently develop seed heads after they've been pulled or cut, but I also did not want to put such a rich source of organic matter in the trash. I therefore rotted them down in covered buckets of water or at times left them for longer periods of time in black trash bags in the sun. Both methods worked for transforming the material, and I then would dilute it and use it to water. I'm not sure that it was a some kind of super-duper fertilizer, but it made good use of the material and certainly never hurt.

 

[Pinesmoke]

We've been gone for 2weeks and got about 5"of rain. Things are going wild. Soon gonna start pulling the first round of onions.

 

[begreen]

Sweet, it won't be long before the tomatoes are red. It's nice to see what some warmth can do. We were doing well, but then the temps dropped 15º and have stayed there for the past week. Still, things are slowly growing and it will get warmer by July. Still no rain, there have been more sunny days than usual. We've had only about 12.5" of rain since January. Our lawn is mostly brown now. This is the driest spring on record for us.

That said, I've been watering regularly and the veggies are growing. Our garlic is ready to harvest and the onions are bulbing nicely. We've been getting some cucumbers, mostly from the greenhouse, but I've picked a couple from the outdoor plant too. There are several small green tomatoes and a few baby peppers showing. The strawberries have been going gangbusters with jam production is happening weekly. Corn is about 16" tall and happy and the squash is setting young starts. Lettuce is now on the third planting.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I also bought FM seeds for some of this years crops, and the germinations were ridiculously delayed, if they germinated at all......squash, zucchini, tom

That’s crazy! Well, at least it sounds like we’re not doing something wrong, lol.

I’m hoping we get some more sun and heat. It’d be nice to get the plants a bit bigger before winter comes around again.

 

[Pinesmoke]

We need sunny and minus the rain for a bit. Rain is good but things need to go back to dark green.

 

[begreen]

We need sunny and minus the rain for a bit. Rain is good but things need to go back to dark green.

Yes, rain can leach out nutrients, especially in isolated raised beds. Try some top and foliar feeding to replace lost nutrients.