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Post by gardencrazy on May 9, 2014 18:52:38 GMT -5
Hi everyone! I'm happy to report that 9 out of the 12 fruit trees / bushes I ordered have broken dormancy! The other three (two apples & a pear) still seem alive but are just taking their time. I'm still waiting for the blackberries to break dormancy. The honey berries & hardy kiwis seemed to have survived (a brutal) winter. I finally got my little seedlings outside this week. We had a hard frost Tuesday night, which is why this is a big deal.
This weekend I'm going to my Mom's to put in her flowers.
Happy gardening everyone!
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Post by garrett on May 10, 2014 1:14:24 GMT -5
get er done.smiles
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2014 9:55:56 GMT -5
I was down on the ground last year. It was all I do to play cashier a little for the sapling in cheif.
As a result all my garden beds are fallow and weed filled.
I need sumpthin'.
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Post by gulfcoastguy on May 21, 2014 16:36:07 GMT -5
Coppice the correct term is "independent contract workers".
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2014 19:08:35 GMT -5
Erk!
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Post by gulfcoastguy on May 21, 2014 21:03:02 GMT -5
Well so far it looks like the hot cherry pepper is going to take the honors for most on a bush. There is only about 8 inches above the ground and it has 2 peppers.
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Post by gardencrazy on May 22, 2014 13:48:01 GMT -5
"independent contract workers" ROFL!
It's been very wet so far this spring. I'm going to be in the mud pit (garden) this weekend and get some planting done. Memorial Day weekend is always my big plant out.
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Post by dirtdobber on May 29, 2014 3:34:10 GMT -5
was dry and hot but now rain last several days just over an inch here. Rain in forecast through Sunday. We need it bad but no weeding here garden looks like part of my yard.
Million blooms on maters but seeing just a few green balls if I could just get one good fruit set I would be happy.
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Post by LinFL on May 29, 2014 12:37:20 GMT -5
If your temperatures are too hot, nothing will help (the pollen won't be viable). But if the temperatures are still within or at the edge of the fruit set range you can improve fruit set by "buzzing" the blossoms with an electric toothbrush. This can help move the pollen around to where it needs to go in the blossom. Beefsteak types seem to particularly benefit from this. I have a Terhune plant that bloomed for several weeks under what should have been ideal fruit set conditions, but it set no fruit. After a few weeks of buzzing I have 20 baby fruit on that plant!
You just lightly touch the blossom or the stem behind it with the vibrating toothbrush so that the blossom vibrates. Just a touch (a fraction of a second) is all it takes. Don't apply too much pressure or you'll knock the blossom clean off. You may or may not see pollen (yellow dust) released from the flower. I buzz each blossom daily from the time that it starts to open until the petals shrivel. Several days after you buzz a flower you will know whether it worked.
However, this only works when the pollen is dry and mobile. When the pollen is wet (after a heavy dew, a rain, or overhead watering) the buzzing won't work. In most climates late morning (after the dew dries) to early afternoon is the optimal time to buzz. But late afternoon works if that's the only time you have available.
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Post by gulfcoastguy on Jun 1, 2014 21:58:58 GMT -5
Well it's been flooding again. but everything seems to be growing well. I've been cutting back libs and eventually trees to give my little garden some sunshine. Peppers are doing well maters are still unknown.
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Post by nightmist on Jun 12, 2014 9:24:19 GMT -5
It has been very wet here. I don't think we have yet had a week without at least 2 or 3 three days of rain. We have also had some very cold nights and chilly days. My peppers are a complete loss. Mega blossom loss from the cold. Plus I have had really crap germination on everything I direct seeded. The perennials are kicking butt though, so long as the bird netting holds I should have a bumper crop of berries this year.
My damask rose needed heavy pruning, lot's of deadwood probably due to the wicked cold last winter, nevertheless it is going crazy with the flowering. The other roses did not do so well, if it was grafted it is dead, Our one David Austin (Dark Lady) is completely gone on top, we are hoping she comes back from the roots. Oddly, the rugosas that I planted along the back property line and gave up as dead years ago have made a sudden appearance. Right along with some shade and semi-shade flowers that I planted by seed some 15 years ago and never saw a sign of, mainly columbine, foxglove, wood poppy, and wolfsbane, The foxglove could have come from some other part of the yard though the colour is off for that, you never know with modern seeds. The rest I never planted but the once, and the columbine in particular stands out because it is a black.
So I am not getting what I expected, and plenty of the unexpected.
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Post by LinFL on Jun 16, 2014 11:13:29 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about your peppers. Berries are a nice compensation, though!
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Post by gulfcoastguy on Jun 16, 2014 13:41:28 GMT -5
My tomatoes planted at Dad's are loaded up. Here? Not so much. One plant is dead from wilt and the others may be to late setting fruit.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2014 13:08:00 GMT -5
White wonder cuke, French breakfast radish, long keeper carrot, Olena's Ukrainian tomato, delaware pole bean, all went into beds yesterday and today.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2014 10:55:42 GMT -5
The next beds soil is in much better condition, so all its needing is weeding (what I'm doing now) turning and pooping. Its borders are old railroad ties, so no other rebuild is needed.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 9:50:05 GMT -5
Teasing purple passion and Jersey knight (asparagus) out of their germinating pans and into cells.
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Post by directsunlight on Jul 10, 2014 11:30:14 GMT -5
Very southern look still to the garden-- giant sunflowers are getting ready (picked one and got 5 1/2 ounces of seeds from it). Black eyed peas are doing well, and okra. Radishes gave me all they could but are done for now. So so are tomatoes (alive and well but some producing and others not), peppers (set out after freeze & just now thinking about producing), and beets/onions/carrots (good but only got a small amount of each before the heat got to them). Dumpster fires have been squash (bugs/heat killed all but one plant & only one fruit, jelly melon (growing vines but no sign of fruit, like last year), and green beans (got too hot for them just as they got big enough to produce).
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Post by nightmist on Jul 11, 2014 10:03:39 GMT -5
I am looking at major losses in my garden due to wet and cold. All I have left are some herbs, the perennial alliums, and tomatoes that are being very slow. Everything else has either been stunted by cold, or rotted by wet. Even the tomatoes have taken hits. Every last mortgage lifter is dead, the linguisas are really struggling, and the fruiting on the rest is well behind where it should be.
I have already turned and mulched other beds, including flowers, that were a total loss. I am looking at doing more very soon.
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Post by directsunlight on Jul 11, 2014 23:05:45 GMT -5
Funny how that works-- you could use some hot and dry and I could use some wet and cold right about now! I am looking at major losses in my garden due to wet and cold. All I have left are some herbs, the perennial alliums, and tomatoes that are being very slow. Everything else has either been stunted by cold, or rotted by wet. Even the tomatoes have taken hits. Every last mortgage lifter is dead, the linguisas are really struggling, and the fruiting on the rest is well behind where it should be. I have already turned and mulched other beds, including flowers, that were a total loss. I am looking at doing more very soon.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2014 13:31:01 GMT -5
I don't really grow much in the way of 'just' a flowering plant. Not many poseys have their start at my hand. So, as a result I'm floundering on the "honey-dew it" of their division and propagation.
Somebody here planted a deeply purple perennial flower here on the lap of apalachia. My daughter was sure she knew what they were, and that she wanted some when dividing them rolled around. The last part (she wanted some) I had a lock on. The "what was growing" was a little more speculative.
SIC (sapling in chief) was sure they were lilacs. Of all the possible things they could be, lilacs wasn't one of them. A longish quiz of past and present household members (Kringle cat was most unhelpful) and an exhaustive internet search led finally from the seed-pod shape to a specie, and to a possible name of French Purple Iris.
It is a member of the 'beardless iris family'.
I'm going to try some of the seeds on Need4Seeders, and some on my own, just fer because.
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Post by gulfcoastguy on Jul 16, 2014 21:28:12 GMT -5
I just ordered the seed for next year. Cour Di Bue and Black Japanese Trifele again, some green Iraqi melon and Tadii eggplant again.. I also managed to identify the mystery cucumbers(from Wally World) that Dad bought from the dying plants rack. They were Telegraph Improved, an English hot house type that grow 18 inches long. I might look int some mildly hot peppers when the new catalogue comes out.
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Post by garrett on Aug 7, 2014 8:39:35 GMT -5
Happy planting halls Gonna drop a late season planting in the orchard get grins lol
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 13:23:14 GMT -5
I'm eating white wonder cukes fast as I can. I forsee white wonder cuke seed in my future.
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Post by directsunlight on Aug 23, 2014 0:37:56 GMT -5
Garden update: giant sunflower seeds were a big success. Toasted a bunch of them with alternating barbecue, garlic blend, and lemon pepper and all really good. Gave away about 2/3 and kept a third for yours truly. They're a great snack when you don't care about how big a mess you make! Black eyed peas were solid too-- got two tall jars full at the moment. I did the Burkina faso and the gray cowpeas. Okra were likewise strong, and most are still going strong. Tomatoes have come on to be steady producers this summer for just about the first time ever, though they started late by producing in July. It's a great blessing to get a bunch of tomatoes in August for the first time ever!
A question, in the deep south, when in the world do you did perennial roots such as horseradish and marshmallow? Now or wait until the frost?
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Post by garrett on Sept 8, 2014 18:45:57 GMT -5
Starting to raid again August planting of seeds mixed results Crookneck is blooming and cukes starting to run Watermelon gimpy Beets a no show lol
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Post by cliffrat on Feb 22, 2015 23:32:28 GMT -5
Well, my garden is in a cage cuz I gotta protect it from all sorts of critters. I got the beans planted and some of 'em are flowering. I got a couple of squashes (zukes, butternut, pattypans, and what appears to be the acceptable volunteer for this year) I sowed the celery today and some lettuce and spinich 'bout a week ago. The raspberries are sproutin' new growth on last year's canes and pushin' up new canes. The strawberries are blooming and settin' fruit. The garlic's about a foot tall and the melon seedlings just got put in the ground with three kinds of cukes. Oh and the herbs are pushin' up, except the chervil......
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Post by zinniagirl on Feb 23, 2015 9:35:34 GMT -5
Gonna pot up the peppers today so I can use the heat mat for celery, tomatoes and eggplant.
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Post by garrett on Feb 23, 2015 9:45:55 GMT -5
mosssssst excellent...still need to seed out here....lol you grow girl.....
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Post by LinFL on Feb 25, 2015 17:49:39 GMT -5
You better get a move on, Garrett. Doesn't spring come early to your area?
I've got carrots, a little lettuce, spinach, collards, garlic, shallots, and herbs outside right now.
The tomato, pepper, and eggplant babies are inside under the grow lights. The tomatoes are growing like weeds - if it doesn't warm up enough to get them outside soon, I won't be able to move the lights up high enough to keep them from frying themselves. I may have to transplant a few of the tallest ones underneath the "Wall o Water" thingies soon, just to try to save them from themselves.
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Post by cliffrat on Feb 25, 2015 23:43:59 GMT -5
I've got this fruit tree project I started a couple years ago. Some apples from seed and a couple more grafted, pears from seed, two kinds of grapefruit from seed, three avocados from seed, two kinds of peach from seed, and they are all growing strong. I originally bought 14 grafted apple trees on what was supposed to be this super-hardy root stock. 11 of them croaked the first year from some sort of black leaf blight, but the other three survived. I planted one of them (Williams Pride) up at our orchard in Camp Verde last year along with one of the pear trees. The ones down here in the Valley are budding and putting out leaves.
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