How does your garden grow?

[ROX]

ROX,

You don't keep those pots on the railing do you?

I'd think kids, wind or coons would topple them.

Yes, I do.

Me & the wife are empty-nesters and our 2 year old grandchild is supervised at all times when she visits.

Those five gallon pots full of a special mix of soil/rock/gravel/sand/ash are really bleeping heavy.  Really.  I have had small pots with peatmoss based soil blow over in 75+ mph winds, but never the 5 gallon ones.

We've never had racoon problems.  We have 2 German Shepherds and between the dogs and scent of dog scent/droppings we haven't had any wildlife sneak into the fenced in back yard. 

My only problem has been squirrels.  My deck is adjacent to a large oak tree with a squirrel nest in it.  I found that small pots with seedlings get dug up and broken if they are left on the railing closest to the tree so I put them on the other side until they are at least 6-8" or so, then they get re-potted to 5 gallon buckets.

We're out in the county but we live inside the boundries of Hot Springs National Park--with that comes the problem of endless supplies of: rabbits, fox, hawks, deer, bobcats, coyote, armadillo, and the ocassional black bear.  So far none has wandered into our yard.

If I didn't keep them on the rail my male German Shepherd would attempt to "water" them when he gets lazy or it's raining when he needs to go "outside".





ROX

[Nefarious]

(Image removed from quote.)
The almost 6 year old habenero.  It produces from early August to early December.

Are all peppers able to be grown year round? Obviously here in West Virginia it gets to cold to sustain plants outside, but I do have Floros I keep Orchids under when they are not flowering and was wondering If I could bring my Sweet Banana inside during the cold months.

[ROX]

Are all peppers able to be grown year round? Obviously here in West Virginia it gets to cold to sustain plants outside, but I do have Floros I keep Orchids under when they are not flowering and was wondering If I could bring my Sweet Banana inside during the cold months.

Most all the hot and your banana varity, yes.  I'll experiment with sweet yellow this winter, but it should work. I've done it once before.

You can if it's already in a bucket or you plan to translplant it to a bucket.  Hopefully it's already in a bucket because plants in the ground don't always respond well when transplanted to buckets.

If it's in a small container now you might want to go ahead and transplant it to a 5 gallon soon so it's not such a shock later.  If you need the filler ingredients by level in the bucket let me know.

The pepper plant will basically go dormant when inside from December to April (your location).  (Are you at elevation?  What is the average date of last freeze/frost your location?)

Water as usual (make sure you have drain holes near the bottom of the bucket on the sides, a nail or power drill works fine, and throw a little natural fertilizer on it from time to time.  It might drop a few leaves during the winter, but you will notice part of the lower stalk become more tan & fiberous.  Make sure it gets plenty of light too.

Next Spring set that sucker out in plenty of light and hit it with more natural fertilizer.  You might be shocked how it turns out.


Good Luck!!!



ROX

[Nefarious]

I mentioned above I was growing in Kitty Litter Buckets, my second year now. I will bring it in the fall when it starts to get cold and throw it under the lights and see what happens.

I was just worried it might throw the plant off kilt being under 24 hour light. Have you had to trim the roots or do any selective pruning?

[ROX]

I mentioned above I was growing in Kitty Litter Buckets, my second year now. I will bring it in the fall when it starts to get cold and throw it under the lights and see what happens.

I was just worried it might throw the plant off kilt being under 24 hour light. Have you had to trim the roots or do any selective pruning?

Wow.  Never had them under 24 hour light like that, just had them in a good window (French doors) and good natural light.

I never trimmed the root ball from small container to bucket, just mad sure the root ball had plenty of room in the new bucket.  I learned from my grandfather to resist the urge to throw a double handfull of artificial fertilizer--then a layer of dirt--then the re-potted plant.  Once the roots get down to the all that artificial fertilizer and then it rains---plant goes into immediate shock and dies.  If you use natural (ie.cow manure) it's a different story.

The only pruning I have to do each year is that not all branches make it each year and harden and turn brown.  I clip those off with sharp scissors and keep watering and fertilizing.  As long as at least half the leaves make it you should be good.  I've only lost one pepper plant doing the bucket system--my habenero red savina.  The funeral service was a red hot tear jerker.

I never experimented with 24 hour light.  Give it a shot! 

I get a lot of PMs asking me where I get my seeds from.  I hate to tell them that I get them from the produce I buy at the store, I don't buy packaged seeds.  If you see peppers at the store you like buy them, rip out the seeds, dry them and put them in paper envelopes for next year.  Have you seen the price of yellow sweet peppers?  Those go for $1.00 to $1.50 EACH depending on the time of year!  I got my seeds from my sister in Chicago.  Bummer, NONE of my habenero red savina seeds came up 



Good Luck.  Let us all know how it goes.


I'd love love pictures of vonMessa's hops.  Ya hop-head!




ROX

[Ripsnort]

So that's how hops grow. Thanks Vox. Where are the pot plants? 

[VonMessa]

So that's how hops grow. Thanks Vox. Where are the pot plants? 

No photo available   


Let's just say that 24 hrs of light doesn't hurt most plants one bit.  Not until you are ready to force flowering..   I mean the veggies, of course

Then you have to mimic the end of season light cycle  (I read that in a book somewhere)   

[Nefarious]

No photo available   


Let's just say that 24 hrs of light doesn't hurt most plants one bit.  Not until you are ready to force flowering..   I mean the veggies, of course

Then you have to mimic the end of season light cycle  (I read that in a book somewhere)   

That's what I thought Von. Thanks.

[Frodo]

Von I need to learn how to grow hops.

A few pics of some of my garden.

Frodo


beans,cukes,tomatoes



asparagus



raspberries,blackberries


beans,sunflowers


sunflowers-lemon queen


sunflowers,strawberries,assorted melons,potatoes,tomatoes,beans


yukon gold


rattlesnake beans


assorted beans


last of the blackberries


purple cherokee, the best tasting we have found,grow it every yr.

[dkff49]

mostly my garden is full of weeds. I have become very discouraged this year. Last year was the first year for my garden. I had just turned it under and planted and ht eonly thing that survived and managed to produce was tomatoes and green beans and carrots and bell peppers, with only a couple medium sized pumpkins. I planted peas, corn, and watermelon with the above.

This year the only things that were productive was the green beans and carrots are still growing. most everything else is dieing off or barely growing. this year I also planted tomatoes, bell peppers, a new kiind of pepper "can't remember the name", peas, pumpkins.

What I have noticed is that the plants that grow reasonably well are always at the same end of the garden. The weird thing is that this is the higher end and the garden is not overly wet at all, so this leads me to believe that it is not a water issue. I do have a tree that grows over the garden that is about halfway down the garden but I even have problems above the tree as well as below. The sun is on the garden probably at least 10 hours in the area that gets the least amount of sun. I was thinking that probably is not the issue. What I have thought about trying is to fertilize the crap out of it this fall and next spring and then maintain with compost after that.

Thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.


As a side note though I have noticed that my garden produces rabbits very well. The problem there is that my wife won't let me kill the rabbits to eat and in that way my garden would be productive no matter what.

[Meatwad]

Id do a soil test and check the PH levels

[dkff49]

Id do a soil test and check the PH levels

thanks I might give that a try

[Ripsnort]

Von I need to learn how to grow hops.

A few pics of some of my garden.

Frodo


beans,cukes,tomatoes

Great pics of the garden, Frodo!  Glad I'm not the only one that takes pics of his food.

Great idea on the climbing rack for the beans, I'm going to incorporate that into my plan next year. <S>

[Frodo]

DK what meat said, do a PH test. You can buy a kit cheap to test it yourself. But if you have that many rabbits, you are fighting a losing battle. 

Rip I think we are garden nerds, but I love to do it.    The panels for the beans was my wifes idea, and it works well. Next year I will do away with the rack, and just drive some posts, and put one panel on top of the other. I think it will look better, and work as well. Also I highly recommend the tomato varieties PURPLE CHEROKEE and PAUL ROBESON. You will never grow another kind after you taste these! Link below. 


http://rareseeds.com/


Frodo

[Jackal1]

. What I have thought about trying is to fertilize the crap out of it this fall and next spring and then maintain with compost after that.

Thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

In the off season and through the winter months add as much organic material as you can to build up the soil.
When I rake leaves, instead of burning them or hauling them , I rake them up on a cheap tarp and slide them to the garden area. Easy and works great. I spread them over the garden area about 6inches deep and let them compost in place. Before gardening season when tilled in this make the soil very rich , fertile and also loosens the soil. You just want to make sure to allow enough time before gardening season so all the leaves will compost and rot. Fresh leaves and trimmings that are not fully composted will eat up the nitrogen in the process, so you want to allow plenty of time . Just have to plan ahead a little.