Posted on 09/12/2014 12:29:15 PM PDT by greeneyes
he Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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Our gardening gets slow usually in Jan. and February, and sometimes earlier. That’s when we like to drool over seed catalogs and drink hot beverages.
Well, here in Kalifornia we have an extended season. I’m planning on fitting one of the garden boxes with a retractable plastic greenhouse frame - It’ll be interesting to see how it works out.
Will do!
We did watermelons and cantaloupes and they did well. The ice cream melons are small and have a taste that is almost a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. They were a total accident - they were mixed in with a flat of slicing cukes at the nursery and we didn't realize what they were until after we had started putting them in and went to put the tag in the ground!
I'm really excited about the Market, as much for myself as for the guy starting it up and the town it is in. The town, heck the entire community, was gut punched last spring when the supermarket downtown just closed its doors with no notice. Jeff, the guy spearheading the market was the butcher/meat department manager and had no clue. In June he opened a produce stand on the grounds of the old farmer's market that sits in the municipal parking lot and has been idle for over a decade.
The whole town is behind him with his idea of putting in this Market place to the point the Mayor and Council created a committee with him as head and the local business association gave him $200 for advertising.
We love this little town, and so if I can help out by being a regular vendor - you bet I will. It is also good for me because it gives me a set location and set time for selling my stuff. So I see it as a win all around!
I think it’s great too. Our little town has a farmers market 2 days a week. There’s not a lot of tables, but the people are friendly. I rarely find anything that we don’t already have though.
The market in a nearby town has a lot more vendors. There’s a street vendor who has biscuits and gravy, coffee, and some more breakfast items and lunch stuff.
There’s eggs from pastured chickens, and grass fed beef, and raw honey etc., dog biscuits, lots more variety.
We got about 1.25 rain at the house last night. It didn’t rain a drop three miles away. The cell was parked right over our house.
I am in your shadow...
Thank you for your many growing tips.
Bless you JRF!!!
All nut trees have a long taproot, and require full sun and well drained soil.
Grafted nut trees should being producing after 3-5 years,regular nut trees should be produceing after 5-8 years.
Check the soil pH , as most nut trees prefer an acidic to slightly acidic well drained soil.
If on a rocky shelf , it will inhibit the taproot growth .
If no nut production, there are two diverse treatments : #1) poke several10-12 holes 8-10 inches deep within the drip-line with re-bar,
and drop in a couple of tablespoons of phosphate, bone meal, or 0-10-10 fertilizer equivelent in each hole. #2)(Sacriledge Remedy- Sit Down (!).. and please read it all the way through )
Second method addresses complacent trees which are growing, are moderately vigorous, but not producing flowers or nuts.
Use the same teeatment with complacent non-flowering shrubbery, and some perrenials .
Take a Louisville Slugger baseball bat and hit the tree in 8 -10 different locations on the trunk ,some high and some low, never in the exact same place.
Swing like a ground-out single in Little League ; not like you are trying to hit a "home run" in major league ; don't be brutal ! You are just trying to shock and awe .
You are trying to make the plant/shrub/tree less complacent, warning it of danger , and that it needs to procreate by producing flowers and thus nuts .
Yeah , I know it sounds a little sadistic, but you are trying to awaken it from complacentcy, especially if it is mature , and still not producing.
Fall would be an excellent time to both fertilize and Louisville Slugger as it will have shock and fertilizer in the Zylum and Phloum (tree plumbing system) for Spring.
There are 4 or 5 growing zones in Kalifornia, depending on temps and altitude.
Whereabouts are you within 200 miles ?
What are you planning on Fall planting with the retractable greenhouse ?
Is the retractable greenhouse for starting seedlings , or for growing fully developed plants ?
Sacramento region.
In the retractable greenhouse likely colder tolerating crops, full grown plants. The garden box it will be over is 4 ft X 8 ft. We’ll start seedlings in the house first.
Street vendors is the only thing that will not be permitted because the entire concept is to get more traffic to local businesses. Directly across the street is an old fashioned breakfast counter and behind it is a place with pizza and ice cream and subs.
The goal is t be different than the other markets in other towns.
I planted several varieties of the same veggies to see which specific ones grew better in my part of Texas. Since I hadn’t grown any food plants and certainly none from seed, I was in a learning stage and figured that was the best way to determine if I could grow from seed and make a choice of which ones to plant in the future. All were grown in containers as I detest the animals in the ground who eat my plants. Also, because I am 80, be 81 next month, I don’t do stooping to the ground.
These are the winner plants and I’ll be planting some of them in the spring. I won’t grow all of them but I know now I can do it. We do plan to travel around the country at various times so I don’t want a whole garden growing if we leave it for a month. There is an underground sprinkler system in the whole back and front yard and that can be set to water at certain times. I think we wouldn’t travel in the period the garden would be in high productivity.
Tomatoes:
Wow, I grew seven types of tomatoes from seed and they all produced well. They were:
Sweet Million
Fourth of July
Cosmonaut Volkoy
Better Boy
Mortgage Lifter
Tycoon
Cherry Punch
For the cherry kind, I’ll grow Sweet Million and Cherry Punch. When I left to move to north Texas, Tycoon was ready to grow tomatoes so I’ll grow that one again. I got those seeds from Sockmonkey. Fourth of July was very prolific as was Better Boy so I’ll grow those. I didn’t get to plant Sabre tomatoes and I’ll grow that one. I bought that seed as well as mom with hope sent me seed. The Cherry Punch has numerous blossoms now – it doesn’t want to quit growing tomatoes. Remember it has more Vit. C than other tomatoes. I didn’t get to plant Burpee Long Keeper tomatoes. Was going to plant those at the end of summer and the tomatoes keep for months wrapped in paper.
Sweet Banana Pepper from Burpee – that plant is still blooming trying to grow more peppers. I will grow that one again.
Tall Utah Celery from Burpee – I grew that well but when I moved it was left on its own and didn’t live, but I can grow that.
Parade Bunching Onion from Burpee grew well.
I’ll keep growing Egyptian Walking Onions and I brought mine from my house and they are in two long containers. Think I’ll get a four x four raised bed to put them in.
Homemade Pickles cucumbers won over all other cucumbers.
Sun King Broccoli from Burpee and Catskill Brussels Sprouts from Terroir Company grew well.
The only squash for me is Tromboncino Squash. The one I moved here is still growing up a trellis and has flowers.
The Deck Corn from Burpee was growing well when I moved but it faltered due to my not being there to give them enough water. I will grow them again.
Burpee Masterpiece and Snowbird peas grew fine.
Burpee Little Finger Carrots were growing when I moved and died after I moved. I’ll try them again.
I GREW GOLDEN BURLEY TOBACCO – seed from JRandomFreeper, Johnny.
I totally failed growing lettuce. As a result of further research, I bought zillions of Little Gem and Bronze Mignonette lettuce seed from Eden Brothers. Those grow in hot weather. I’ll try them in spring.
My orange tree still has those four Mandarin Oranges on it and they are still totally green. Does anyone know if the oranges will ripen if I take them off the tree? I also don’t know what to do with that tree when cold weather gets here. I guess it will go in the garage or maybe in the house but don’t know if in the house will kill it.
I brought my blackberry plants here and one died so I have three alive.
I want to grow blueberries and the ones to grow in Texas, according to Texas A&M, are rabbiteye “Tifblue”: “Some blueberry varieties require cross pollination so variety selection will be critical. However, Tifblue has been shown to be self-fruitful and is the most universally outstanding rabbiteye blueberry grown to date.”
I know this – I can grow food from seed because I did it. I plan to buy more of the seeds above and store them in mason jars in the freezer. Those are my prepper seeds.
I know there are moles here, see their holes in the area where I want the containers to be. What would kill them and not hurt my Yorkie?
Thanks to all of you who answered questions from me while I was learning to do this. I love all of you, even Johnny.
Johnny, You should be teaching the grandson to grow tobaccy.
Just for principle sake. I still have a Century plant and Blue Agave plant that are thriving in southern Ohio. Anything is possible.
Good report. I’ll have to make some notes on the seeds.
Those homemade pickles are my favorite too.
I think your orange tree will be ok indoors as long as you keep watering and feeding it.
My lemon tree does well indoors. I use a ceramic holder and plastic soda container to make sure it gets consistent moisture. Once a month, I put some liquid dyna grow nutrients in with the water to supplement the fertilizer beads/spikes.
Lemons do ripen off the tree, but I think they taste better when ripened on the tree.
Street vendor is different around here. None of the other markets have it, which is why it kinda stood out to me, but with perfectly good eating places there, I understand the reasoning.
Thanks so much for the update, Marcella. I have the Cherry Punch on my list for next year per your recommendation. I’m also planning to grow again:
Tomato “Big Rainbow”
Tomato “Cherokee Purple”
Tomato “Black Cherry Heirloom”
as well as our usual basil, rosemary, cilantro, dill, chives and thyme.
Our corn in containers was beautiful, but we had only one small serving to harvest. That being said, I might plant it again as an ornamental.
We were disappointed in our italian/paste tomatoes. We won’t plant those again.
My husband planted the last of our “Voodoo” roses today. We had three of them in containers all summer. He planted the other two last week end.
Before I forget-it was 47 degrees when my husband came downstairs this morning. We’re going to have to bring in our ficus trees soon.
“...as well as our usual ...cilantro...”
I totally bombed on that one, ordering plants and planting seed, neither worked and wanted it badly.
How do you grow yours?
In past years, from seed in a raised bed. For the past six years or so, from seed in a container on the deck, which is south-facing. It’s protected on one side by the house, gets very sunny and hot out there, and the deck is eight feet off of the ground. Plants do very well there.
Okay, will put seed in container in the back yard space I will use for all container plants. That space is wide open with nothing stopping direct sunshine/heat.
Note to self: Buy row cover material to provide some shade for plants out there.
Bob made fancy birdhouses of different kinds and there are over 20 of them starting from outside the garage and going to the back area where there are many. Birds never had it so good for housing. I know for sure I'm going to have a bird problem. Note to self: Buy bird netting.
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