Gardening pics, hacks, successes, and or failures

[islandboy]

I was going to plant beens today when I ran into this chart on soil temp
for vegitables. My raised beds soil temp is 60 F right now, Bean seeds are
susceptible to rot. The chart says 65 F min, so I will wait. I'm planting Tendergreen
bush beans, they are simular to string beans you get at the grocery store and grow about 2 feet tall.
They say you should feed them a low nitrogen food as they produce there own nitrogen in the roots.View attachment 64597

Using Dowdings' techniques we're pushing our planting dates ahead by 3 to 4 weeks.
Today's photo:

 

[ChilliSpoons]

Any tips on growing peppers? Preferably bell peppers or sweet peppers.

My plants produced quite poorly last year and I’m contemplating whether to bother with them again this year or try a different variety. The peppers were planted in containers with full sun exposure.

 

[Breakin"even]

I grew my bell peppers in containers/pots last year with great success. The only
Tips I have are to make sure you fertilize often, I usually fert. every second watering.
Another thing when growing in containers I found over watering can be a problem,
I started using a moisture meter and was surprised that some containers while bone dry on top
where totaly wet at depth. Sometimes not wanting water for days while others needed it daily, in the same containers
and the same size plants. I also found the better quality soil the better, lots of good compost, lime, and bone meal. Make sure
night time temp. is above 12C for happy pepper plants, they prefer daytime temps. of 70-80F but in black pots there root temp can cook above 85F so I check that in extreme conditions. Pepper plants will drop ther flowers when environmentally stressed,
soil or air temps. to hot or cold, or under/over watered, or not enough fert. and or too much. For me when it comes to fertilizer
I only had problems with not enough.
Good luck ChillySpoons and don't give up.

 

[Breakin"even]

This was my garlic patch last year.
200 heads in a 4x8 bed.

 

[Rain City]

This was my garlic patch last year.
200 heads in a 4x8 bed.

Scared of vampires or something?

 

[wildmanyeah]

Some updates from the garden

the raspberry containment went in



the peas have started comming up

Same with the radish

 

[Breakin"even]

Scared of vampires or something?

Vampires are allways a problem in Nanamo. HaHa

 

[ChilliSpoons]

Vampires are allways a problem in Nanamo. HaHa

I thought all the blood suckers were in Victoria and Ottawa???

 

[Tom Mac]

This was my garlic patch last year.
200 heads in a 4x8 bed.

That a great looking crop! I grow my garlic in a 4 x 8 bed as well, but only about 75 plants and get nice big bulbs. Are you getting big bulbs when they are planted that close together, if so next year I'm going to plant more in the box.

 

[IronNoggin]

That a great looking crop! I grow my garlic in a 4 x 8 bed as well, but only about 75 plants and get nice big bulbs. Are you getting big bulbs when they are planted that close together, if so next year I'm going to plant more in the box.

Be interested in the answer to that myself...

My above ground Garlic Bed is 9 feet by 3.5 feet.
In the past we went up to ~ 150 plants.
The result was smaller bulbs, every single time.
The volume of garlic remained pretty much the same, just more numbers of smaller product.

These days we stick with 99 plants every year:

The size difference is literally amazing.
As in damn near double the size of those when they were more crowded.
And, the bonus: the overall volume of garlic has increased along with their size:

So, we'll stick to the Gretzky number for now...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[Breakin"even]

Are you getting big bulbs when they are planted that close together

Yup, I had a pic of the finnished product, but can't find it. My garlic looked the same as IronN. for the most part.
I would say about 15% where smaller. I was pushing the envelope with that crop, I did the math on paper for spacing.
I think it was 6" apart and stagered the rows by 3" which allows for tighter planting while allowing the 6" spacing from clove to clove. I would double your planting like IronN's his looked perfect.

 

[Tom Mac]

Well I may have to up the count for next year, I did plant two 4 x 8 boxes for this year and some of it is elephant garlic never tried it before.

 

[IronNoggin]

I would double your planting like IronN's his looked perfect.

In wouldn't go to 150 (double) what he is doing.
As I noted, when we tried that the result was smaller bulbs overall & no product volume increase.

I would suggest trying upping it in stages.
100 is basically what we roll with now, and you can see how that works out above.

Cheers,
Nog

 

[Tom Mac]

Was out looking at the garlic this morning, one more row each way is what I'm going to try for next year. Don't want to risk ending up with small bulbs.

 

[Sea lyin’]

Wanted to plant three plum trees last spring. When I went to pick them out, the nursery had trees with 5 varieties grafted on to a single rootstock. Only $15 more than the single variety type so ended up going with just two trees. Was told no fruit for 2-3 years and I’ll be damned if there’s not flowers forming in the first season. Only one variety on one branch and only about 20 buds on the whole branch but I’m happy that I’ll get any fruit at all this year. The branch that’s flowering is a variety called green gage.

 

[WHO DAT]

Yes we went from 100 down to 66 in a 4'x7' bed ,noticeable difference in size compared to last year at this stage , and Epsom salting fishbone meal and compost directly in the hole as opposed to working it in to the whole bed as mentioned by da Nog ( thanks) on the garlic harvest post! Best Regards

 

[Breakin"even]

My bad, IronNoggin I thought you where at 150 now. I see your at 99.
That sounds like a good number.

 

[17 ft sea ranger]

My key to success is soil prep,

I get old produce from the local produce place (they leave boxes of it out back daily for people with pets etc. Basically they strip the greens of the outer leaves daily to keep all produce looking fresh..). This gets dug into soil in March.

Prawn heads!!!!!!! they get dug into all garden beds

soooo.......about the prawn heads......you put them in the beds in march? or is that a fall thing? curious, i have a bunch of heads, and a bed that is not planted yet awaiting some tomatoes. I thinking too late in the game to ad them now??

 

[islandboy]

soooo.......about the prawn heads......you put them in the beds in march? or is that a fall thing? curious, i have a bunch of heads, and a bed that is not planted yet awaiting some tomatoes. I thinking too late in the game to ad them now??

I bury fish heads and offal under my tomatoes as I plant them from their pots.

 

[Rain City]

My neighbors make stock with all the scraps and pour it in the planters. With houses 8' apart in my neighborhood it's not the most neighborly thing to do.