Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: Kristin Meredith on March 10, 2021, 01:45:25 PM
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Taking advantage of a really rare 70 degree sunny day with a baby step in veg garden prep -- putting sand in a bed where carrots and beets will be planted and having Bent rototill. Virginia Co-operative Extension claims I can plant beets and carrots at this time of year, but still a bit hesitant. May wait one more week.
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looking good! I'm several weeks behind getting anything done in the garden. Pictures to come, but it might be a while.
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Really lovely day and the weather has turned mild and is supposed to stay that way from here on out with no freezes or frosts predicted. So we decided to plant more of the veg garden a bit earlier than I had planned. Planted marigold beds several days ago and then a half row of beets and half of carrots about 4 days ago. Got a bit more productive today -- basil, one tomato, 6 bell peppers, 6 jalapeno peppers. 2 Anaheim peppers, one poblano pepper and one sweet mild pepper. Bent then decided to take my seedlings -- tomatoes and peppers -- and just plant and see how they do. They are tiny, but don't seem to be flourishing indoors so we are giving it a go. More to plant tomorrow!
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The first 2 of the year. Kristin is always worried that I have destroyed the Asparagus each year. She is certain it is to late and these will be the only 2 of the season.
(https://i.imgur.com/c0aJNYFh.jpg)
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Not suppose to be a freeze tonight, but is to dip to 39 with wind-chill even lower and it would not take much to go a few degrees below predicted. So decided to give my high tech young veg plant freeze protection system a tryout. Introducing my 1 gallon milk container cloches!!! I knew it would eventually pay off liking milk!
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Brilliant!!!
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I learned that trick through the Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program.
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Not much to show in the garden yet, but the sun hit our potting shed nicely on Sunday.
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This was my first year doing indoor seed starts. Plants at store were getting smaller and smaller but the price kept getting higher and higher. I planted 36 2inch cells with tomatoes on 2/11/2021. My temporary grow area is in the corner of our family room. After three weeks I replanted into 5 inch grow pots.
I picked up grow lights from Amazon that apparently are commonly used for growing a substance that is legal in some states. There was a learning curve with the lights. Most tutorials I have seen tell you to keep the light close to the plants. I almost fried my seedlings. Many of the leaves were turning purple. I raised the lights and replanted. The new growth was just fine. It was then I hit my next problem. The plants got too big. Hardening them off was a real hassle. My seedlings were strong 18 inch plants. At seven weeks I finally put them into the garden.
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Here are some photos of my plants in the garden. The harsh lights made some of my plants grow side ways so it took a little careful planting. I replaced my old department store grow cages with one made from remesh. These cages with six inch squares are so much easier to work with. I was really surprised to see the plants fruiting this past week. This usually happens a month from now with store bought plants.
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If you are happy with the grow lights, can you please post make and model. And give an idea on height. We only learned about 2 weeks ago why our seedling were "leggy". This year is gone, but hope to have a much better 2022!
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If you are happy with the grow lights, can you please post make and model. And give an idea on height. We only learned about 2 weeks ago why our seedling were "leggy". This year is gone, but hope to have a much better 2022!
The lights are MARS HYDRO TS 1000W. They are not cheap but nice and compact to store away. Those PVC pipes in the photograph are 5 feet tall. I started out with 3 ft sections with the lights hung right above the plants. Many of my first true leaves turned purple on the undersides. Some say it is due to phosphorus deficiency. That may be partially true but the lights were hung far too low and may have contributed to the problem. The manufacturer recommends hanging them far higher. I found these recommendations on the web for hanging height.
Recommended Hanging Distance Above Plants:
Seeding: 24″ Germination: 24″-30″
Veg: 18″-24″ Bloom: 12″-18″
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I spent a lot of time researching products for growing seedlings last fall. The two products that I really like are:
Growese seed starter kit from Gardeners Supply
These covered trays are made in England and are quite durable. The kit has a clear plastic cover for the trays and has capillary watering using a mat.
1020 Extra Strength Grow trays from the Bootstrap Farmer
Most 1020 trays sold on Amazon are pretty thin. These are much heavier. I actually found these mentioned in an Amazon review.
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I spent some time earlier this year trying to find methods for improving tomato yields and found stories about Charles Wilber. He had plants that produced hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. His secrets were composting and pruning methods. He made compost from green steer manure, green waste and straw.
I was thinking of creating a compost pile using Charles' method and ran into this article on tainted manure:
https://www.tenthacrefarm.com/manure-garden/
The fellow in the article bought manure from a farmer whose animal ate hay from a field treated with herbicide.
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You are still going to have a compost pile right? Just stay away from the tainted manure.
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An interesting article.
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Turf is in shape, greenhouse has tomato starts and peppers. Peppers will stay in there all summer, tomatoes at least a few more weeks.
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nice
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You are still going to have a compost pile right? Just stay away from the tainted manure.
Yeah..just an experiment this year. The tomatoes are getting fed with fish emulsion for now. Hopefully, it doesn't draw in too many night time visitors. We have lots of coyotes an raccoons around here with an occasional fox, bobcat, or mountain lion.
I left an open bag of bone meal near the garden and the coyotes ripped it open Sunday night. We have a bossy collie that gets walked three times during the day. Our dog raises cane if we don't stay with his schedule. He refused to let my wife walk him Sunday night. As soon as he sniffed the air outside he sat down. We pushed him out the door and sat at the end of the driveway. My wife got frustrated with him and put him in his garage pen. She also was concerned that an intruder may be nearby. He has actually gone at it with coyotes through our fence. Our take was he didn't want to place my wife in danger. I have owned four collies. All were defenders of their families. This one is the smartest and the most opinionated of them all.
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All but 4 of the items planted in April were killed by the Evil 3 day April Frost. 2nd go round is doing better.
Onions, right is Spanish, center Bermuda and left is White.
Garlic just starting to take off.
Sage was able to with stand Mayberry winter and is thriving. The plants to the right are basil, the tiny one told Mr Frost none shall pass.
Snowpeas.
Asparagus, have had about 30 so far.
I believe Chili's.
Green peppers & Chili's. The 1st 3 also told Mr. Frost where to go!
Hard to tell, but the little things in the center should be Okra.
R to L, rosemary, parsley, not sure, basil, basil.
Beats on left, carrots on right. I know we are finally getting the soil right as this is the 1st year we have been able to grow carrots.
Blackberries.
Raspberries.
Just a couple of over all shots.
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Other then the Onions, Beets & Carrots, seems like slow growth to me for 20 days. The Okra seems really slow. 2nd batch of Onions is coming in nice. I guess we had not even planed the 2nd round of tomatoes by that time.
(https://i.imgur.com/Q29gRBNh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xuv96olh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/oTyUbDah.jpg)
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Looks like you are going to have a busy summer taking care of all that.
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Things are coming along in veg garden. A couple of bell peppers starting to grow. I also checked and thinned the beets and carrots. I think I will have some beets in about 7 to 10 days, carrots may be a bit longer.
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I'll come back here in a few weeks. I still have quite a bit of weeding to do!
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Speaking of which...I did half yesterday, on to the rest today!
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Video seems easier then pictures. You think you have weeded pretty good till you see something like this.
2021 Mayberry Garden (https://youtu.be/36FkAxvl5UY)
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From the garden this morning -- zucchini, green bell peppers, jalapenos, beets and snow peas. Never grown snow peas before so a bit of a learning curve that will be helpful for next year. Bells are a bit small, but I was anxious to make stuffed peppers. So will have stuffed peppers and stuffed zucchini for dinner.
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Trying something different -- pickling jalapenos and beets. Even though the brine was hot, these are not shelf stable because I did not do a water bath. So these are frig only pickling. Which is good because I have room to add more to the jalapenos! I have made dill pickles before, but never pickled anything else so very interested to see how these turn out.
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I love pickled Beets and Jalapenos.
Bought some Bread & Butter Jalapenos once. Those were something I hadn't tried before but was surprised how good they were.
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I never got around to taking pictures, as my garden is still a mess, and it is raining again. A very wet and cold May delayed planting, and of the 4 vegetable troughs I have, only one is actually planted properly. Another one is a jungle, deliberately so. I noticed that some green leaves I had planted for cut and come again last year, were regrowing, and also noticed that the birds were having a field day with this unprotected bounty. As that trough is right outside my window as I work, I have let it for the birds, that amuse me during the day.
So instead, I'll show you some pictures from previous years. Here's what it was like before the makeover, in 2009.
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Here is the makeover, in 2011.
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And here it is from last year.
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You'll notice in the latest picture, the pear tree is cut back from the trellis. We had to do that to get the new trellis in place. But I knew it would recover, and if anything would become more productive. It seems to like a good cut-back every few years.
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Nice area you have out back Chris! And the height of your troughs is great on the back I'm sure!
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As someone who suffers from intermittent lower back pain, the troughs are a godsend.
On a good year (not this year!) I can keep myself in veg for the whole of summer and autumn. Although it probably costs me more to do so than if I bought them at the supermarket, there is something about eating your own produce. That mini grow-house (which is out of the main garden and near my kitchen door) was new, hence empty, but now houses 3 very healthy tomato plants that I am looking forward to getting fruit from.
At the moment, half of the gravel between the troughs have been well weeded, and the other half is waiting for me to get around to it. However, there is a membrane under the gravel, so any weeds don't get much of a foothold.
I wish I had got more planted this year (and it is not too late yet), but I have got some carrots, courgettes and beans on the go, so that is something.
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Very nice Chris!
Best part about growing your own is you pick it when it is ripe, rather than buying something that was picked green and shipped to market.
Much better tasting...
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Chris, what temperature can your grow house take and still retain enough heat for starter plants? Something like that could work well for us depending on the lows it can withstand.
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Chris, what temperature can your grow house take and still retain enough heat for starter plants? Something like that could work well for us depending on the lows it can withstand.
I haven't really used it enough to have a feel for it.
Certainly in May, when the weather was still cold enough for central heating, it protected the tomatoes well enough when everything outside was still in danger of overnight frosts. (Our weather has been so extreme that the vegetable box company I use say that that the lost a month out of their growing year this spring). I only opened it to fresh air once June brought good temperatures, and I will probably zip it up again when I am trying to ripen the tomatoes.
Another thing is that I have seen people use these with heating pads to maintain a decent temperature. Which reminds me - it is Prime Day here, so I might see if I can pick up a couple at a bargain price!
What I liked about this one (made by Vegtrug) is that the shelf slats are not fixed. So I started off with my tomatoes taking up the bottom two layers while I brought on seeds in the top two shelves, then as the tomatoes have grown, I simply moved the slats to the sides. The plants are now about the third shelf, and I expect them to grow to fill the whole thing. Here's the current situation:
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Another thing I discovered about it. Unless stabilised somehow, they are quite light and will blow over in any strong wind. So you either need to peg them down well, put weights on the bottom shelf, or (what i did) put a couple of screws through the back (including the cover) into something solid behind.
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Thanks for your insight.
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Harvesting, eating and preserving going on. Starting to get lots of peppers. In addition to pickling, I am also now freezing. Making the cucs into cucumber salad. And having to watch the blackberries very intensely this week with the heat, they are starting to ripen.
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Some of you probably already know this, but it was quite interesting for me to learn. The guys who rent the land ended up just selling their wheat chaff to a ? who takes it and process it. They did the what I think of as small, traditional rectangular bale. I think they are 50lbs. What was interesting to me is, these guys had a machine that went around collecting 20 of them and making a big bale. I had never seen that before. I have seen 1000lb rectangular bales before, but they come out of the bailer that way!
(https://i.imgur.com/3dIsbkWh.jpg)
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Man, that last photo, they better spray some glysophate before they plant them beans!
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My tomato plants are producing very well. This my first year raising plants from seed and the first year I was able to harvest before July 4th. My tomato garden consists of 12-Early Girls, 12-Parks Improved Whoppers, and 12- Better Boys. Last week we gave away four dozen tomatoes to relatives. We are headed to Maui for a week so I harvested the ripe tomatoes in the picture for my neighbors.
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Wow, I wish I was your neighbor. I would be eating BLT's and club sandwiches for weeks.
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Nice looking tomatoes!!!!
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We have lots of tomatoes, but not even a hit of Red yet!
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Wow, I wish I was your neighbor. I would be eating BLT's and club sandwiches for weeks.
Count me in also please!
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A couple different angles. Year 6 of this garden. It doesn’t produce much but it is fun to watch grow.
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My 1st ever Blackberry pie. As many of you know, I am not a fan of cooked fruit, I just dont get it. But an AA friend will be celebrating 12 years in a couple of weeks and he does like cooked fruit. Apple pie is about all I have to go by, and it usually has a lot more bubbling liquid in it. So I am very scared that this did not come out well. It is an experiment, but still, you want to hit them All out of the Park!
I figure it will take about an hour to cool, and then I will cut and show you all a slice!
(https://i.imgur.com/vRKlk70h.jpg)
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Complete failure. I could not even get a slice out there was so much liquid. Substituting corn starch for flour may have been the issue. Might try tapioca power tomorrow. Back to the drawing board.
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Just put some vanilla ice cream over it and you won't be able to tell you had too much liquid
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The berries will be repurposed tomorrow!
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As I recall reading in a Cooks Illustrated several years ago(I think they used strawberries for something), to reduce the amount of liquid, you have to cook it down some in a pan first before putting it in a pie shell. I would definitely look it up online to verify first.
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Not according to the recipe...But, yeah, I should go with my gut more when I bake!
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Indoor basil
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Not according to the recipe...But, yeah, I should go with my gut more when I bake!
Yup, recipes are a guideline, a place to start. Then you modify it for you.
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Finally had enough fairly ripe blackberries for a batch of homemade, homegrown jam. But it is hot business over a gas stove!!!!
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Kristen that's exactly what comes to mind when I look my fig tree.
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Finally had enough fairly ripe blackberries for a batch of homemade, homegrown jam. But it is hot business over a gas stove!!!!
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Oh my, Bentley’s bread, home cured bacon, homegrown tomatoes and lettuce……bed time
Breakfast, Bentley’s bread and Kristin’s jam. Add a dash of salt and pepper and get to eating. Yum.
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Tower garden on the upstairs balcony at the beach because my backyard patio is packed with 10 bbq/smoker/grills.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210804/41aa726a222e4c6b77f4386f4bcf9899.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210804/a7cc8e5a8c7a2037a741e88832fea369.jpg)
Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
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That tower garden is really neat! Did you build it yourself?
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Got it from juice plus more than 5 years ago. It's amazing how fast things grow.
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Blackberry's have been done for about a month, but man are the Raspberry's producing this year! This is about 2lbs. I think berries are normally sold as pints or quarts, so not sure how that equates. The canes have to be picked about every 3-4 days and this is what they produce.
(https://i.imgur.com/LDkkhtJh.jpg)
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When I was a kid (in the 50's), I used to go around the neighborhood and sell them for 60 cents a quart. ::)
We had 3 rows of bushes about 50-60' long.
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What size container are they in...that should tell how it equates...making raspberry preserves?
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I do not know the size if I had to guess I would say 4qt. In Wal-mart today, 12oz was $5.59 and this is about 33oz by weight. Not sure what to do with them. Kristin has already made 7sts of Blackberry Jam and some Syrup. I have already used the raspberries in 2 desserts, and made 5Qts of Jam. There is another bag full like this in the freezer and there will probably be 4 more harvests like this, so not sure what we are going to do with them!
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They look awesome and bet they taste great.
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You can make great snacks with them.
Put some peanut butter (assuming you like peanut butter) on a tortilla, sprinkle with raspberries (blueberries & strawberries also are good choices), roll up and enjoy.
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... there will probably be 4 more harvests like this, so not sure what we are going to do with them!
I have seen in Costco at times they would sell a Raspberry Chipolte BBQ Sauce....maybe experiment with your chilis?
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I am ready for 2022 Gardening! This is just an experiment for late Winter in a few months. We tried to start our own seedling last year, but did not know we need grow lights to stop the seedlings from becoming "leggy". So I have decide to plant 4 seeds and see what the optimal height will be so they do not get leggy. I have tomato, squash, snow pea & chili. I read up on it and found that florescent light were the best, then I go and buy LED not thinking. Then I do more research and find that the LED are also very good and produce less heat, so the light can be closer. Says it should be 12-18 inches, so the light will have to be raised once they germinate!
(https://i.imgur.com/rcLKG5Th.jpg)
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You, my friend, are a cross between McGyver and MythBusters.
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I think the LED's are going to work well, and keep the seedings from becoming "leggy"! The Snow Pea was a bad choice, although it germinated well and was so strong I had to clip it. The beats have finally germinated. They seem to be growing and the stalks strengthening instead of searching for that light. I believe I planted a tomato and a chili in the other 2, but neither has germinated. If you look at the container on the far right, I believe the thing that germinated there is a weed, yeah, I am really good at growing them. But if you look just to the left of it you may see a stem. Issue is, no flower at the top, so really strange. Will see if what I think is a weed is really a weed in a few more days.
(https://i.imgur.com/lshhD0Fh.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/iR8WOeqh.jpg)
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I'm starting to think about my 2022 garden and the timing. There's a guy on YouTube with a site called the "Rusted Garden" that has a lot of good information on growing vegetables from seeds. I learned a lot from his channel on making my first attempt at it successful this year.
The timing this year is going to be interesting. I have been putting off knee replacement surgery for years. Both of my knees are shot. My first one gets replaced in February. Hopefully by April I'll be able to do the in ground planting.