The Gardening thread

[Cape Byron]

and just what the heck is that lol!

What the @prfesser said. A mainstay of Chinese cooking, they serve it with every meal.

 

[prfesser]

Bok choi (or pak choi) is very easy to grow. It is enjoyed by slugs, so pans of beer are a wise precaution. It doesn't seem to freeze well, at least not in my experience.

 

[heada]

Gonna start seedlings in about 6 weeks. Bell peppers and probably some kind of hot peppers but I'm not sure what kind yet. Start them indoors under a grow light (50w LED) and then transplant outdoors in April/May. I might start some tomato seedlings too. I have several friends that have tried to grow lavender with bad results so I'll give that a go too and if successful, give away the starters.

I'm probably going to have to re-plant all my berry bushes. The rabbits ate the raspberry and blackberry bushes down to the ground because I didn't wrap them in chicken wire this fall.

I am very surprised at how hardy broccoli plants are. They were green and flowering well into November and still alive in December until we got a hard ground freeze.

 

[Bowman]

Small garden, about 10x20 ft, in the front yard. I planted three Better Boy tomatoes, wife planted six cherry tomatoes. Better Boys were disappointing, got maybe a couple dozen or so tomatoes all told. Cherry tomatoes were prolific but not much for taste, mostly gel and seeds. Disappointed because in tomato season, lunch every day is a couple of open-face tomato sandwiches on toast; tomato slices stacked high w/Miracle Whip, salt, pepper. Remove most of the gel and seeds to reduce mess.

May try Beefsteak or other meaty variety next year.

Best -- Terry

Have you tried any of the heirlooms like Brandywine or Cherokee purple?

 

[Bowman]

How about Green Beans?
I fould a great heirloom named "Fortex". It is a pole variety that produces like crazy. The beans typically grow 6-8 inches long and will be tender and sweet with no strings.
I have also picked them when they are pretty fat (3/8") and they still retain the delicious characteristics.

 

[Bowman]

Three years later... Our first crop of Ladyfinger bananas.

View attachment 430814

How big are ladyfingers?
Does a banana blossom smell good like a banana or some other fragrance?

 

[Cape Byron]

How big are ladyfingers?
Does a banana blossom smell good like a banana or some other fragrance?

About 12cm (5") long. No idea about the blossom, I haven't really taken time to try smelling it. I will when the next one flowers.

 

[UhClem]

Gonna start seedlings in about 6 weeks.

I already have tomato and pepper seedlings up. The tomatoes are always in a race to set fruit before nighttime temperatures get too high. Sometimes that happens in May so an early start is always in order.

 

[dhbarr]

Helped the missus cut some rebar for her low tunnels. A couple of improvements from last year:
- trim the conduit to 9ft before bending into a hoop
- cut the rebar to 24in lengths
- weld rings on at 45deg
- orient tunnels N-S
All of this is intended to hopefully fight off that pesky Oklahoma wind.

 

[heada]

I already have tomato and pepper seedlings up. The tomatoes are always in a race to set fruit before nighttime temperatures get too high. Sometimes that happens in May so an early start is always in order.

We still get snow in early May. It's rare but does happen. Ground won't be ready for seedlings until late May at the earliest. Peppers wait until June.

 

[Peartree]

I experimented last summer with kratky style (no pumps, no moving parts) hydroponic gardening. We had maybe ten tomato plants in five gallon buckets that dus okay but not great, largely because our back yard didn't get enough sun. I moved the downspout gardens indoors in the fall and still have a couple bok choy plants maturing under a grow light. I started sprouting lettuce seedlings to transplant into the hydroponic downspout gardens in a couple more weeks.

 

[prfesser]

Have you tried any of the heirlooms like Brandywine or Cherokee purple?

Wife tried growing Brandywine. Slightly better taste than most tomatoes, but even she agreed that it was not worth the effort. Got maybe half a dozen that were worth eating. Most got some rot or were eaten by birds/raccoons/other damnable creatures.

 

[SharkWhisperer]

A gardening column in the Rocketry Forum? Super cool beans!!!

Was used to two crops/year in FL (too hot in July/Aug for much but peppers/eggplant), but only one this past year up north. If you're not familiar, check out MI gardener (probably Migardener.com) for cheap heirloom seeds--at $0.99 for every packet!!! Great selection. Hope they're still in business--they slowed operations w/covid but my seed collection parallels my rocket and pyrotechnics collections.

Last year, almost all in raised beds:
Cherokee Purple tomatoes: A fave. Decent producers. Super tasty. I like almost all dark-tinted tomatoes--kinda "smokey" flavor.
Brandywine Black toms: Really tasty, too. Look like round CPurps. Moderate producers. Late ripening.
Old German toms: Yellowish tint, 4" fruits. Mighty tasty. Light producers in my hands--most near end of season.
Pineapple toms: Kinda stripey. Nice n acidic. Loved 'em. Only a few/plant. Late ripening.
Hillbilly toms: Ach phooey, GF mixed up the seedlings. Don't know if I actually had one or if this was a Pineapple by accident. No further comment.
White Cherry toms: A surprisingly tasty white/yellow cherry--GF's fave. Grew over 8 ft and very productive from early til the end. A regular now.
Super Sweet 100 Cherry toms: A common hybrid. Super prolific. Tons of early-late fruits. Grow faster than you can eat 'em.
Green Zebra toms: My all-time favorite. A complex acidic flavor in a gorgeous 2-3" package. Love 'em. Decent producers. HIGHLY recommended.
Stupice toms: A Czech or Balkans heirloom, I forget. Low yields but tasty--similar to CPurps or...I can't remember.
Big Rainbow toms: Big n juicy. Yellow to red faded striping is pretty. Really tasty, too. Low yields but worth it.
Amana Orange toms: Orange, obviously. Don't stand out in memory. I'm sure I had no complaints eating them, though.
Ace 55 toms: Supermarket quality (Publix, not Aldi's) 3" round red toms. Good enough but can't compare to the Green Zebras next to it!
Big Daddy hybrid toms: Meh, forgot I planted them. No seeds left and completely forgot my opinion of them--grew too many toms....again
Yellow Pear toms: borrrrrrring. Don't recall anything else. Don't buy 'em at the market and don't grow 'em.
Chadwick Cherry toms: Hmm...seemed like just another red cherry tomato and not some special heirloom. Forgot about 'em.
Black Krim toms: A fine heirloom that did better in FL heat than CPurps, but opposite here. Still--super tasty. Low yield in my hands in da north.

Damn, I grew a lotta tomatoes. I'll stop here, and not bother you with the multitudes of different weird peppers, eggplants, herbs, beans, peas (3x)....but many I have extra seed from or collected seed, and am always happy to give or swap by mail. Gotta lotta weird stuff here in my seed box, for sure.

Wondering how my horseradish plant is overwintering in the 10-gallon container out in the snow. It's sister died in my crummy native soil.

Inside now I have recycled green onions (just plant the bottom 1/4 inch with roots that you bought at the store--new green onion in a month), celery (cut off the dried root end maybe 1 mm and plant it--cuts 100-110 day growing season in half), and cipollini onions (soooo tasty) going in pots in crummy indoors lighting, with maybe a hint of indirect natural light. A lot of grocery produce can be perpetuated if you think about it.

Whew, made myself hungry!

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I'm looking forward to Spring. I'm going to make another attempt at growing some eats this year. Two years ago I tried some flowers, just to get started. I cleaned out the mess in the back yard, and moved some old lab sinks I had been saving for the purpose to the driveway, next to the garage. I filled them all with soil, and planted lavender, rosemary, and portulaca. Everything was dead in a week except the portulaca. I was so bummed the next year, I didn't even try. Much to my amazement, the portulaca, an annual, decided "I ain't dead yet", and came back gangbusters. I've got a bunch of plastic buckets this year, so I think I'll put out several types of tomatoes. I also have to think about what I like to eat vs. what I can grow.

 

[SharkWhisperer]

I'm looking forward to Spring. I'm going to make another attempt at growing some eats this year. Two years ago I tried some flowers, just to get started. I cleaned out the mess in the back yard, and moved some old lab sinks I had been saving for the purpose to the driveway, next to the garage. I filled them all with soil, and planted lavender, rosemary, and portulaca. Everything was dead in a week except the portulaca. I was so bummed the next year, I didn't even try. Much to my amazement, the portulaca, an annual, decided "I ain't dead yet", and came back gangbusters. I've got a bunch of plastic buckets this year, so I think I'll put out several types of tomatoes. I also have to think about what I like to eat vs. what I can grow.

For tomatoes in containers, I've had the best luck in 5-gallon buckets. You can grow an 8-foot plant, but it will need support (or pruning) once it gets laden with tasty fruits! I've grown toms out of 3-gallon containers, but they're constrained. Cherry types need the most space. I have no idea what portulaca is, so that's my next stop on duck-duck-go (I refuse to use Google, ack). Aw, c'mon...portulaca is purslane, a common weed around much of the US. It's edible and not un-tasty. But I had no idea people actually cultivated it. You can make your first million $$ selling "organic baby portulaca", for sure!!! Rosemary is slow growing but will overwinter (no idea your locale) if it's mild; a harsh winter will kill it. But it's easiest to grow from the expensive grocery store-bought stems--just carve off the bottom of a twig at an angle, shave the bottom inch or so with a generic disposable razor (so roots grow through easier), and plop it in some dirt in a cup above your kitchen sink. It takes its time, but you'll have a genuine plant in a month or so. Lavender, I just don't know. When I try to grow it in a pot I fail, but when I scatter seeds and forget about them, they're popping up everywhere. Fill me in if you learn their tricks!

Have fun!

 

[Funkworks]

Once upon a time, I tried to grow pumpkins. Then, I found out about rockets and everyone lived happily ever after.

 

[Donnager]

Bok choy stems are similar in texture to celery, though white, and stay crisp pretty well in stir-fry.

And they don't have that weird taste. I don't care for celery. Bok choy is great.

 

[Bowman]

Much to my amazement, the portulaca, an annual, decided "I ain't dead yet", and came back gangbusters.

It has been doing that in my garden for years no matter how much I pull it. It propagates vegatively (by cuttings or ground contact) and by seed so walking on it effectively replants it. It is hardy for sure.
Maybe I'll give in and just eat it. Why swim against the current?

 

[prfesser]

And they don't have that weird taste. I don't care for celery. Bok choy is great.

A mix of celery, carrots, and onions (mirepoix) is great for soups, stews, southern chicken&dumplings, pot pie, and such. Celery has its place. Just not in stir-fry.

 

[heada]

I chop the celery very fine and it nearly dissolves in a soup. It does add taste but I dislike the strings.

 

[SharkWhisperer]

I chop the celery very fine and it nearly dissolves in a soup. It does add taste but I dislike the strings.

Use the leaves! All the flavor and zero stringiness. I disassemble a section of celery--the leaves contain concentrated celery flavor!

Plus, if you skim-knife the dead/dried end slightly, you can replant it in crummy soil and you'll have a new celery stalk in 60 days instead of the usual 110 day growing season! I have last week's celery already sprouting in a pot in my kitchen with essentially nada for direct sunlight exposure. It'll have company with another celery base next to it after chicken soup this weekend.

It's really cool what plants (and seeds/beans/most root veggies) you can grow from the grocery store spoils.

 

[dhbarr]

Doing the ol' wait-and-see on the low tunnels ( right middle ):

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I think I'm going to dedicate a pot or two to growing peppers. The nastiest, hottest, meanest peppers I can find. The heck* with this freeze. Never again!

*not what I want to put down. You know what I mean.

 

[ewomack]

I once grew a garden full of kale that exploded into palm tree-like stalks. The neighbors said that they were "beautiful," but they didn't want to eat any. There was enough kale in that garden to feed a small battalion. We ate what we could, gave away what we could and composted the rest. Hopefully the vermin enjoyed it. Lessons were learned.

 

[mo2872]

My wife decided to heck with the cold and snow, she was getting her seeds started for the garden.............(plus it was time.....) We have a "bonus" room upstairs with a dormer window that is perfect for starting the seedlings. Took a season or two to convince the neighbors we really were only growing vegetables up there with the grow lights. LOL

 

[Peartree]

I started lettuce seeds three (plus) weeks ago and am now, carefully, transplanting them into my hydroponic (Kratky method) downspout garden under lights. I've always had trouble with that move from seed starting to the downspouts, I think because I get impatient and move them when they are too fragile. So, if I am successful with the first few, I'll move more. If not, then I'll wait another week and try again.

 

[Bowman]

I once grew a garden full of kale that exploded into palm tree-like stalks. The neighbors said that they were "beautiful," but they didn't want to eat any. There was enough kale in that garden to feed a small battalion. We ate what we could, gave away what we could and composted the rest. Hopefully the vermin enjoyed it. Lessons were learned.

I've grown curly and tuscan kale for a few years now.
This winter is the first time I have seen the rabbits go after the standing stalks in winter.
I have fencing up in season but take it down before snow falls.
Recently I noticed that the stalks, 30" tall, were bare (all green gone) all the way up and the base snow was completely trampled by rabbits.
They had to be standing on hind legs to get to the top and they have to be some long rabbits. I don't see any other prints out there leading to the stalks, it's all rabbit.

 

[mo2872]

I started lettuce seeds three (plus) weeks ago and am now, carefully, transplanting them into my hydroponic (Kratky method) downspout garden under lights. I've always had trouble with that move from seed starting to the downspouts, I think because I get impatient and move them when they are too fragile. So, if I am successful with the first few, I'll move more. If not, then I'll wait another week and try again.

Have any photos of your setup? Really curious on the hydroponics....

 

[Peartree]

Have any photos of your setup? Really curious on the hydroponics....

I built my downspout garden following the instructions on Mike VanDusey's YouTube channel.

Kratky style, whether in "gutters" or in buckets, has a fixed tank of nutrient solution with no pumps or circulation. I experimented with tomato plants in five gallon buckets last summer. It worked well, but they didn't get enough sun in our back yard. Here is a photo of my basement setup.

 

[mo2872]

Thanks! I’ll have to explore this method more!