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On The Farm/In The Garden

ModerationNow! said:
About a decade ago, I was given a gardening book printed in the 70s. I assumed it would be outdated, with less effective, dated advice. I was wrong! I don't know where the book is now, and don't remember the author's name. But that guy had some really good ideas. One of which involved planting certain types of beans, after harvesting an earlier crop from that same garden spot, in the same season. Then you just let the bean plants sprawl along the ground.

You pick beans whenever ripe, and later rototill the bean plants directly into the soil, due to the fact that they are legumes which literally pull nitrogen from the air, and turn it into fertilizer. That way you are adding fiber, organic matter and nitrogen back into that soil. Next year you rinse and repeat, but maybe with a different early crop.
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I run 3 currently over flowing compost bins so I just add in there and then eventually back into the garden somewhere. I have another pile on the ground where I add in sticks, limbs, etc along with the green stuff. If I pull up a lot of dirt with weeds from the raised beds, I toss them in a spot I am reclaiming after a hurricane washed out a gully on part of my property line. Been back filing with concrete, bricks, etc, then crap soil on top and then things like weeds with dirt to get something on top to help stabilize the soil in rains.

I have a book about gardening techniques in colonial times which is pretty interesting, though I an not desperate enough to buy a thousand outrageously expensive glass cloches to put over lettuce.
 
Drawdown said:
If someone drove 3K miles to get lettuce, I would be inclined to give it to them for free ;) You live in tater and asparagus country. You can survive stealing from the fields at night.
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You live in tater and asparagus country.
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Yes, asparagus grows like weeds here
 
Luther said:
Yes, asparagus grows like weeds here
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Guess that is why you freaks call it ditch weed :lol:

I saw a thing on TV when I was young that was an asparagus farm It was the oddest looking fields I have ever seen. Like the moonscape with little pencil sized shoots sticking up.
 
ModerationNow! said:
What zone do you live in where you get potatoes out of your garden "soon" in March? Some fruit trees around here in the 6B - 7A zone in northern Delaware(that's right, I'm lucky enough to live in Delaware, and you aren't! Jealousy is causing anger to well up deep within you! Wanna fight about it)? Lol.

I intentionally grow some things that won't normally survive our winters, by taking them indoors from November through late April normally). That includes agaves, sago palm, etc. I grow new things I've never grown before, because of the challenge.

I also grow large dahlias every year, digging up, separating and bagging their tubers for winter storage, 2.5 feet deep in a hole in the woods, not to be dug up and replanted until May. I also dug up and separated my gladiolus corms and buried them for storage along with the dahlia tubers.

I grow datura innoxia, portulaca, large cleome and huge zinnia plants, all from seed every year. I am also "unmatched" in my stargazer lilly growing prowess! I grow strawberries every year too.

But damn if I can competently grow the easiest, most common plants like tomatoes, squash and watermelons! I don't even really eat tomatoes, and squash only rarely. Every year my squash end up being killed by stem borer grubs, regardless of which non-pesticide remedy I attempt(actually I've only grown them 2-3 seasons). My tomato plants usually end up with thin stems that grow more like vines, with productivity that's sporadic. I've attempted watermelons 3-4 seasons, always ending up with melons that, for some reason, STOP growing once they reach maybe 5-6" in diameter. I grow all of those food crops in the same sunny area of the left side of the house, watering them 1-3 times a week in summer. But it's always a disappointment with those few crops...
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southern delaware is famous for growing watermelons . i wonder what the farmers are doing ,that gardeners arent.
 
Effing Effity Ef.....supposed to get to freezing this weekend so now I have to decide what to protect and what to replant. Gonna road trip to Pennsylvania and slap that groundhog.
 
Drawdown said:
Effing Effity Ef.....supposed to get to freezing this weekend so now I have to decide what to protect and what to replant. Gonna road trip to Pennsylvania and slap that groundhog.
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I just checked, and despite it being May, the temperature here in northern Delaware is currently 49°f(9°c), at 6pm, and it's going to drop to lows in the mid 30s this weekend, maybe even frosting in suburbs! You can blame this cold spring on 1 thing..... Global....uhm....warming!
 
nota bene said:
I've rarely experienced trees and shrubs being fooled. I guess four years ago they were--such a mild winter that they decided in mid-January that it was time...but it wasn't. Since then, of all my bulbs, only the daffodils have come up. The rest produce abundant greenery, but no flowers. Weird.

Why not tie the limbs together? (As I say, I'm an amateur.) What I want is for the fruits to grow large enough to be eaten, but there is just no way the limbs will be able to hold them. Is there another way?

And will whacking the limbs encourage the growth of thicker branches?
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I can't count the number of times I've heard people complain that half or more of their beautiful tulips didn't come back the 2nd season, after ALL of them came up and bloomed the previous spring. In 2005 I was one of them. The problem is that MOST tulip varieties DONT do well enough in many regions of America, to survive and naturalize. So less and less come up each year.

But there are tulip varieties that will do well here and return every year with great blooms. There are many varieties of "Species" tulips and "Darwin" tulips that will naturalize and come back every year. There are others that I can't think of right now, but there are LOTS of different tulips to choose from within those 2 categories(Species and Darwin).
 
nota bene said:
Advice on a pomegranate tree? I know nothing and am only an amateur gardening. He's 8 years old, began flowering five years ago and produced babies the past two years that never grew to any size before being eaten by birds. I've read that a pomegranate will fruit for only 15 years, so I need advice on pruning because this is his year! He's about 14 feet tall now and has over 75 little fruits growing. I don't see how his slender arms will support them if they continue to grow. I've put up netting to protect as many as I can, but I'm wondering if I should tie the branches with fruit to other branches for support. And after this season is over, should I begin whacking his many skinny arms?
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About 15 years ago, I picked up a couple pomegranates from the local grocery store for fresh eating. Unfortunately, pomegranates are an expensive crapshoot, because you never know if the ones you just spent $2 to $5 apiece are going to be sweet and pleasant, sour and disappointing, or overripe and gross.

But the 2 I picked up that day were among the tastiest I'd ever had. I decided to NOT chew up and swallow the seeds, instead I spit them onto a paper towel and washed them off, then placed them inside a different paper towel, moistened it, slipped it into a ziplock bag, and into a drawer for sprouting.

A bunch of them sprouted, but only a few survived more than a week after transplanting into a pot. That was reduced further to just 1, which I grew into a 3.5 foot tall bush in a pot. It grew LOTS of branches, but like yours, they were thin and not strong enough to hold fruit. Unfortunately, I never had to figure out a solution, because after about 5 years I gave up on it, because it just didn't do well indoors in the winter months.
 
ModerationNow! said:
I can't count the number of times I've heard people complain that half or more of their beautiful tulips didn't come back the 2nd season, after ALL of them came up and bloomed the previous spring. In 2005 I was one of them. The problem is that MOST tulip varieties DONT do well enough in many regions of America, to survive and naturalize. So less and less come up each year.

But there are tulip varieties that will do well here and return every year with great blooms. There are many varieties of "Species" tulips and "Darwin" tulips that will naturalize and come back every year. There are others that I can't think of right now, but there are LOTS of different tulips to choose from within those 2 categories(Species and Darwin).
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Thank you for explaining this. I'll be on the lookout for "Species" and "Darwins" in the fall!
 
ModerationNow! said:
About 15 years ago, I picked up a couple pomegranates from the local grocery store for fresh eating. Unfortunately, pomegranates are an expensive crapshoot, because you never know if the ones you just spent $2 to $5 apiece are going to be sweet and pleasant, sour and disappointing, or overripe and gross.

But the 2 I picked up that day were among the tastiest I'd ever had. I decided to NOT chew up and swallow the seeds, instead I spit them onto a paper towel and washed them off, then placed them inside a different paper towel, moistened it, slipped it into a ziplock bag, and into a drawer for sprouting.

A bunch of them sprouted, but only a few survived more than a week after transplanting into a pot. That was reduced further to just 1, which I grew into a 3.5 foot tall bush in a pot. It grew LOTS of branches, but like yours, they were thin and not strong enough to hold fruit. Unfortunately, I never had to figure out a solution, because after about 5 years I gave up on it, because it just didn't do well indoors in the winter months.
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My pomegranate tree was a birthday gift 8 years ago, and the tree itself has flourished. This season it finally had well over a hundred flowers and fruits, but not a single fruit has grown. I check every day and readjust the netting I've put over it to protect the fruits ( a lot of them anyway), but none of the fruits have grown. They're just there, red and tiny. I've decided that this is an "ornamental" fruit tree. :(
 
nota bene said:
My pomegranate tree was a birthday gift 8 years ago, and the tree itself has flourished. This season it finally had well over a hundred flowers and fruits, but not a single fruit has grown. I check every day and readjust the netting I've put over it to protect the fruits ( a lot of them anyway), but none of the fruits have grown. They're just there, red and tiny. I've decided that this is an "ornamental" fruit tree. :(
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That's disappointing, but at least you got flowers and tiny fruit, I got nothing but leaves(which mostly fell off inside my basement in winter, due to not enough light). I bought a $200 metal halide grow light(250W) and a few other fluorescent and incandescent lights, but it STILL wasn't enough light to prevent my citrus fruit trees and the pomegranate bush to NOT drop their leaves every winter indoors!

I always end up wanting to try to grow plants that aren't native here, usually tropical or desert plants, just for the rarity and the challenge. I get tired of the same old, same old...
 
ModerationNow! said:
That's disappointing, but at least you got flowers and tiny fruit, I got nothing but leaves(which mostly fell off inside my basement in winter, due to not enough light). I bought a $200 metal halide grow light(250W) and a few other fluorescent and incandescent lights, but it STILL wasn't enough light to prevent my citrus fruit trees and the pomegranate bush to NOT drop their leaves every winter indoors!

I always end up wanting to try to grow plants that aren't native here, usually tropical or desert plants, just for the rarity and the challenge. I get tired of the same old, same old...
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My pomegranate advantage, I think, is that it's in the ground. The red blooms and tiny fruit are just beautiful, and I'm grateful, but I don't understand why the fruits don't mature when the tree is obviously thriving. I think it's topping out at over 15 feet now, and I'm still considering whacking some of its arms off to see what happens next year.
 
Peaches are doing great. The cherry tree promises one (1) cherry, figs are doing well. I discovered some pawpaw trees, that should make for a delicious treat.
Tomatoes are growing and blossoming, cukes ( Armenian yard long) are up, so are the beans. Zucchini haven't shown any sign.
Sadly, it will be in the high 30s tonight.
 
If anybody wants any egyptian walking onion starter bublet things just DM me where to send them. Have someone else DM me for you. Pretend you are having them sent to someone else. Give me your cousin's address. IDK and don't care. I am not into the internet stalking doxing **** so I won't have your info 5 minutes after I address the envelope and probably won't remember where they were sent an hour after dropping in the box. Just a courtesy to growers one and all if you want any as mine are about to start walking. No charge. No postage needed.

Egyptian Walking Onion
 
hado117 said:
southern delaware is famous for growing watermelons . i wonder what the farmers are doing ,that gardeners arent.
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Yeah, there's a large, outdoor produce stand on rt13, about 1/2 mile north of the route 13/40 split. In late July through September, they often carry multiple watermelon varieties, including yellow fleshed and occasionally orange fleshed watermelons. They come from farms in lower Delaware, southeastern Pa, or northeastern Md. I discovered their yellow watermelons in 2014, which became the best watermelons I'd ever eaten up until then. They had orange WM's in 2014, but the flavor was a bit bland.

However, the next year in 2015, they offered both yellow and orange flesh WM's again, except this time the orange fleshed ones were even better than the yellows from the past season. They were hands down the best watermelons I've ever had! The yellow and orange WM's taste somewhat different than red fleshed ones, and their consistency was top notch. . The yellows have a honey flavor, and both are more complex and consistently sweet in flavor.

Unfortunately they haven't carried orange WM's in last 3 years, only yellow and reds. But even yellows won't be around til about late July.
 
nota bene said:
My pomegranate advantage, I think, is that it's in the ground. The red blooms and tiny fruit are just beautiful, and I'm grateful, but I don't understand why the fruits don't mature when the tree is obviously thriving. I think it's topping out at over 15 feet now, and I'm still considering whacking some of its arms off to see what happens next year.
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Wow, a 15 foot tall pomegranate "tree" is a big bush! My only one was grown in a large, 8 gallon pot. But although it only grew to 4 feet tall, it was fairly wide too. They seem to be more bush-like than tree-like IMO.
 
ModerationNow! said:
Wow, a 15 foot tall pomegranate "tree" is a big bush! My only one was grown in a large, 8 gallon pot. But although it only grew to 4 feet tall, it was fairly wide too. They seem to be more bush-like than tree-like IMO.
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I have no experience at all with pomegranates, but I can tell you that roses and other plants grown in pots aren't going to flourish the way they would in the ground. Also that Mr. Pomegranate loves the western sun. So does the rose in the little round garden next to him. When I built it two years ago, I put in perennials including a couple of my venerable mums and planted a quart-sized container rose, and she has gone nuts. Taken over with arms resting on the ground. (I'm debating whether to whack a couple.) It's unbelievable! She even killed the mums. Meanwhile my many miniature roses in containers just plod along. (I don't have any in the ground currently, but I've had them grow to 4 and a half feet tall.)

Mine is twice this size and has some branches that are almost 3 feet long in only two years: http://www.rosebook.ru/components/roses/images/pictures/big/161127.jpg
 
Lovebug said:
Peaches are doing great. The cherry tree promises one (1) cherry, figs are doing well. I discovered some pawpaw trees, that should make for a delicious treat.
Tomatoes are growing and blossoming, cukes ( Armenian yard long) are up, so are the beans. Zucchini haven't shown any sign.
Sadly, it will be in the high 30s tonight.
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What region have you found pawpaw's? Just 2 days ago I was looking up pawpaws for at least an hour online, trying to see if I could find them growing anywhere remotely close to me. I'd be willing to bet that Longwood Gardens has some they've planted, but I want to find wild, native pawpaw trees(and eventually fruit). I read they have been located in the southern Susquehanna river area of southeast Pa and maybe Md nearby. I've never seen one(to my knowledge), despite spending a fair amount of time hiking and camping in the 80s and 90s. I've never even tasted one.
 
nota bene said:
I have no experience at all with pomegranates, but I can tell you that roses and other plants grown in pots aren't going to flourish the way they would in the ground. Also that Mr. Pomegranate loves the western sun. So does the rose in the little round garden next to him. When I built it two years ago, I put in perennials including a couple of my venerable mums and planted a quart-sized container rose, and she has gone nuts. Taken over with arms resting on the ground. (I'm debating whether to whack a couple.) It's unbelievable! She even killed the mums. Meanwhile my many miniature roses in containers just plod along. (I don't have any in the ground currently, but I've had them grow to 4 and a half feet tall.)

Mine is twice this size and has some branches that are almost 3 feet long in only two years: http://www.rosebook.ru/components/roses/images/pictures/big/161127.jpg
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Amen! I'm SO tired of reading plant and seed tags in stores and online, claiming that SO many plants "will do well in pots", only to discover that MOST plants do much more poorly in pots than when planted in the ground! Also, that's true for most plants regardless of how large the pot is(unless it's unusually enormous), and regardless of how good the soil is that you chose to fill your pots with!

In 2012, I bought 10-12 of the large, 16" diameter, 6-7 gallon pots to grow dahlia tubers in for 1 season. I picked out multiple new bags of different soils, mixed them together, along with some of that water absorbing polymer crystal powder that supposedly "holds water for the dry times". Nonetheless, I ended up needing to water pretty much daily that summer. But literally NONE of the 10-12 different Dahlia plants did even remotely well, compared with bring planted in the ground! I'll never try dahlias in pots again.
 
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ModerationNow! said:
Amen! I'm SO tired of reading plant and seed tags in stores and online, claiming that SO many plants "will do well in pots", only to discover that MOST plants do much more poorly in pots than when planted in the ground! Also, that's true for most plants regardless of how large the pot is(unless it's unusually enormous), and regardless of how good the soil is that you chose to fill your pots with!

In 2012, I bought 10-12 of the large, 16" diameter, 6-7 gallon pots to grow dahlia tubers in for 1 season. I picked out multiple new bags of different soils, mixed them together, along with some of that water absorbing polymer crystal powder that supposedly "holds water for the dry times". Nonetheless, I ended up needing to water pretty much daily that summer. But literally NONE of the 10-12 different Dahlia plants did even remotely well, compared with bring planted in the ground! I'll never try dahlias in pots again.
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That polymer pulls water out of the soil if it starts to dry out. That is why you shouldn't really use it.

Anyway, I live in red clay country. Somethings you have to do pots on or give up any realistic hope of getting a crop of because the soil is too hard---like carrots. The oddity of red clay is that it bonds super tight when damp and is hard as a brick when dry which is why they make bricks out of it. Carrots just don't do well in it. ;)
 
ModerationNow! said:
What region have you found pawpaw's? Just 2 days ago I was looking up pawpaws for at least an hour online, trying to see if I could find them growing anywhere remotely close to me. I'd be willing to bet that Longwood Gardens has some they've planted, but I want to find wild, native pawpaw trees(and eventually fruit). I read they have been located in the southern Susquehanna river area of southeast Pa and maybe Md nearby. I've never seen one(to my knowledge), despite spending a fair amount of time hiking and camping in the 80s and 90s. I've never even tasted one.
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It is a southern thing. I have seen them anywhere from Ky to La
 
Mine:

GH6.jpg

Tomato varieties, lots of different pepper varieties, bush green beans, and lemon cucumbers. There are strawberry plants hanging from the rafters.

There are tomatoes and peppers in the big containers too. This is about a week after planting. Now just about everything is in cages, growing great guns. July seems so far away....
 
Lemon cucumbers is something I haven't tried, yet. Very interesting. We do grow Armenian yardlongs.
 
Lovebug said:
Lemon cucumbers is something I haven't tried, yet. Very interesting. We do grow Armenian yardlongs.
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They're awesome, much sweeter, less acidic. I've never been able to find them in store, not even a farmer's market. I"ve never heard of the ones you have.

I use them in my Greek salad. I dont like black olives so mine is tomatoes, red onion, lemon cukes, feta, and boutique sweet peppers (replace the olives) with a Greek/olive oil dressing.

I grow everything but the feta and dressing! This yr I didnt put in any red onions tho.
 
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