Author Topic: Planting / Growing your own 2018  (Read 94143 times)

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #450 on: June 20, 2018, 04:36:00 PM »
Chickens!  My favorite part of the "garden."  :)

I agree that the 4 sqft rule of thumb is low.  We have a mixed flock of 13.  Coop is 50 sqft and we have a secure attached run of about 200 sqft.  The lucky ladies free range in our 1.5 acre fenced pasture/orchard during the day.

If they were permanently confined to just the coop and run, the 250 sf would be ok, but not ideal for 13 IMO.  When we go away for a long weekend, we leave them locked up and the lower ranking hens sometimes suffer a bit.  We have come back at times to find that feather picking and bullying has occurred.

Though I wonder if the flock dynamics would be different if that was ALWAYS their space, like maybe they’d be fine if they never had a larger space. They probably would, my guess.

If we’re adding animals to this thread, I can help with rabbit questions :). I grow a lot of rabbits and have had a very steep learning curve (my mentors say I’ve had just about the worst first two years they could imagine).

Currently at 79 rabbits on site (all ages) and might crack 100 by the end of the week. We probably need a rotating population of 125-150 to meet most of our meat needs.

Trifle

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #451 on: June 20, 2018, 05:56:21 PM »
Chickens!  My favorite part of the "garden."  :)

I agree that the 4 sqft rule of thumb is low.  We have a mixed flock of 13.  Coop is 50 sqft and we have a secure attached run of about 200 sqft.  The lucky ladies free range in our 1.5 acre fenced pasture/orchard during the day.

If they were permanently confined to just the coop and run, the 250 sf would be ok, but not ideal for 13 IMO.  When we go away for a long weekend, we leave them locked up and the lower ranking hens sometimes suffer a bit.  We have come back at times to find that feather picking and bullying has occurred.

Though I wonder if the flock dynamics would be different if that was ALWAYS their space, like maybe they’d be fine if they never had a larger space. They probably would, my guess.


That is a very good point.  You could be right FurryChickens.  Like any creature chickens get used to what they have, and as long as some minimum quality of life is present, it isn't the status quo that causes the stress but change

nessness

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #452 on: June 20, 2018, 07:23:57 PM »
Thanks furrychickens and trifele! I only have about 3 sq ft per chicken, but when I get the second coop from my neighbor I'll put the five Silkies in there and I think everyone will be comfortable.

Our yard isn't currently fenced, but we're getting ready to put in a fence and then I plan to let them roam some then. A couple questions on that:

- Is it hard to get them to go back in the coop?

- Do you guys let them roam all day even when you're not around? We live in the suburbs but on a wooded wildlife corridor and have the standard set of predators (raccoons, weasels, coyotes) plus neighborhood cats and dogs. The fence should keep out the dogs and coyotes. A cat might be able to kill a Silky now but they'll presumably be bigger soon. Are there other daytime predators or risks to worry about?

Trifle

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #453 on: June 21, 2018, 04:10:48 AM »
Thanks furrychickens and trifele! I only have about 3 sq ft per chicken, but when I get the second coop from my neighbor I'll put the five Silkies in there and I think everyone will be comfortable.

Our yard isn't currently fenced, but we're getting ready to put in a fence and then I plan to let them roam some then. A couple questions on that:

- Is it hard to get them to go back in the coop?

- Do you guys let them roam all day even when you're not around? We live in the suburbs but on a wooded wildlife corridor and have the standard set of predators (raccoons, weasels, coyotes) plus neighborhood cats and dogs. The fence should keep out the dogs and coyotes. A cat might be able to kill a Silky now but they'll presumably be bigger soon. Are there other daytime predators or risks to worry about?

I should have said earlier -- we lived in the suburbs before living in our current rural location, so I've had the exact set up you're describing @nessness .  It worked well. 

All the chickens we've ever had always want to go back into the coop when it gets dark.  It's their home, and instinct tells them they need to get to safety when it's dark.  They just put themselves to bed, and we lock the door after them.  You'll want to make sure the coop is raccoon and weasel proof (hardware cloth skirting, buried in the ground), but then you should be good to go.

Yes, when we were in the suburbs we let them roam the fenced yard when we were gone during the day.  We didn't have daytime predator (hawk) issues there.   And you're right -- once a chicken is grown cats don't typically mess with them.   I can't speak for bantams though -- never had any.

Good luck!  You'll have fun.     

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #454 on: June 21, 2018, 06:21:32 AM »
If you “home” them to the coop for a couple days by keeping them locked in, they will almost always go back at night. Sometimes it takes a bit longer.

Slightly trickier is what you do if you aren’t going to back until late at night and herd them in. A leaf rake works pretty well to herd them. I train mine to come to the sound of scratch grains shaking in a bowl, takes a week or two before they figure it out but I can get mine locked back up now any time of day if need be.

I leave mine out all day. I’ve got a high privacy fence, so not worried about loose dogs. We have a big shade tree that covers nearly all of the yard space, so also not too concerned about aerial predators. I’ve had some perch on top of my chicken run (!) and watch the birds intently, but have not lost one.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #455 on: June 22, 2018, 07:14:13 AM »
I leave mine out all day. I’ve got a high privacy fence, so not worried about loose dogs. We have a big shade tree that covers nearly all of the yard space, so also not too concerned about aerial predators. I’ve had some perch on top of my chicken run (!) and watch the birds intently, but have not lost one.

I had to laugh at this!  Much like the groundhog who sunned herself on my compost heap, staring at my fenced and electrified vegetable garden.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #456 on: June 23, 2018, 04:38:39 PM »
Fed a bunch of over mature lettuce to the chickens. Taco salad for my dinner tonight.

We had enough snap peas for dinner last night and should have enough to make them again tomorrow night.

Got about 1/4 pint of raspberries today.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #457 on: June 23, 2018, 05:00:53 PM »
We have three raised beds (8' x 4') in our yard and have grown corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, pak choi, black beans, plus a whole lot more. This year, though, we started late and missed the summer planting season so we purchased plants from our local nursery. Our garden has  yellow crook neck squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and a tomato plant whose seed had fallen on the ground and germinated in a crack in the driveway.

I am surprised at how satisfying it is to grow and preserve your own food.


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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #458 on: June 26, 2018, 08:59:28 AM »
I am pretty certain that the tomato crop is going to be a bust.  Several more plants are wilting and it looks like fungal wilt is widespread in the soil.  I am going to leave the remaining plants in place so that I can see what happens.  Next summer I will plant tomatoes at my house where the garlic is currently growing.  I will solarize as much of the garden as I can this fall, over winter and early spring so that I can hopefully reduce the fungal load overall.  I will not plant any Solanacaea there next season and will only remove the plastic as I plant the garden out.  Hopefully that will result in enough heat /time to work.  The various web resources say 6 to 10 weeks.  I don't want to give up a huge amount of capacity next season.  The garden already feels too small for what I want to grow.
I planted some more squash, lettuce, beets, peas, beans and basil yesterday.  The gardens got a great soaking on the weekend. But took a big hit from the bunnies.  I harvested greens and basil for my dinner party on Saturday and was able to add some flowers to the salad to make it look beautiful. I also picked my first cucumber from the greenhouse plants. The plants in the green house look amazing.  The greenhouse might be another option for tomatoes - I could solarize the soil now for a more permanent tomato growing next season. 

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #459 on: June 26, 2018, 10:09:55 AM »
Harvested about half my garlic this week. The rest of it needs a little longer - I'll give it another week, max, before I yank it all.

I'm growing winter squash for the first time this year (red kuri) and am delighted by the big frilly flowers - so much fancier looking than zucchini flowers! Speaking of, picked my first zucchini the other day and have a couple more on the way.

Really, really happy with my tomato jungle. There's a good amount of flowers and green fruit setting. Last year was kind of a bust - the plants just stopped growing at about 3 feet tall - so I'm cautiously optimistic about potential yields. I guess starting way too early this year has paid off!

I started my winter cabbage this week. I grew entirely in containers last year and had pretty small heads; going to divide this year's plants between the bed and some larger containers.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #460 on: June 26, 2018, 11:01:23 AM »
Frugal Lizard - do you have an agricultural service like the county extension agencies here in the US that you can get a positive ID on what you’re dealing with? Both type of disease and what “race” of that disease will help you greatly in deciding next steps.

Based on your description, it seems like you’re suspecting fusarium? Solarization can work for that from what I’ve read, but another path would be growing resistant varieties and/or grafting onto resistant varieties.

There is also at least one independent plant breeder down here that intentionally grows their tomato seeds in the worst possible conditions (they plow residues back in, grow tomatoes in the same field year in year out) to select for heirlooms that have broad genetic based resistance. I can dig up the link for one I’m thinking of if it’s not a huge deal to order seeds across borders.

It’s similar to what Frank Morton did with lettuce breeding in his “Hell’s Half Acre” trial, if you’ve heard that story.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #461 on: June 26, 2018, 11:21:42 AM »
@furrychickens  - Thanks for the suggestions.  I am growing three varieties of fungal resistant tomatoes - and a bunch of favourites - but if the fungal load is high - even the resistant ones will succumb. It is a little early though.  As it is the first year gardening in the location, I was pretty sure I would have some of these problems. Because I disassembled the raised planting beds, the contaminated soil got widely spread around. And this garden soil was really unproductive last summer.  The property owner is blown away by how much I have growing already. 
I haven't done the testing route because I am too cheap. I am going to spend the cash on a roll of vapour barrier plastic that I can hopefully use over and over again for both solarization and for making mini poly hoop houses for early spring starts next season. 
I should maybe look into an appointment with a master gardener - they are pretty active in our area.  From my research I narrowed it down to two possible types of wilt and both can be remediated by two seasons of no solanaceae with solarization. 

I was in the garden this morning to water the peppers in the greenhouse and one of the potatoes is right down in wilt.  Hopefully we get some production before they bite the dust as well. 


Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #462 on: June 29, 2018, 01:48:45 PM »
Some updates from Milwaukee.

One bed of Arcadia broccoli is nice and happy. Will be eating some soon!



Unfortunately, the other two broccoli beds are not happy at all. I'm wondering if these beds are simply just too shaded. They also have root competition from a honey locust. Wondering what else I should try here, maybe potatoes? Or just give up and throw some flowers here. I grew carrots here last year that did okay but these beds have never been particularly productive in the past that I can recall.





This patch of calendula in the mini orchard is really pretty. Last night it had a "god ray" of sunshine hitting it but I couldn't quite capture it on the camera. I'm letting it go in this part of the property along with the borage (the blue flowers in foreground) but eradicating it from other parts as it is SO weedy about reseeding itself.



Baby green beans. Truly fresh green/snap beans are probably my favorite veg, followed closely by fresh cucumbers and zucchini.



Did I mention zucchini?



This elderberry is just coming into peak bloom, others are almost done.



Melons are doing better this year. By this time last year every single one was dead. So it's a start!



Droopy ears from the heat. It is BRUTAL today. Trying not to keep count of the dead buns so far. One of my breeder friends is having even crazier heat. 60F overnight, then 105F by 11AM.



How my wife feels after a day at work:


Trifle

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #463 on: June 29, 2018, 03:14:23 PM »
Those are some nice garden shots @furrychickens !  Love the elderberry.

Do you literally mean some of your rabbits are dying from the heat?  That's terrible.  I've heard of freezing milk jugs full of water, then placing them in the coop to keep chickens cooler in brutal heat.  Could something like that maybe help?

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #464 on: June 29, 2018, 05:47:40 PM »
Those are some nice garden shots @furrychickens !  Love the elderberry.

Do you literally mean some of your rabbits are dying from the heat?  That's terrible.  I've heard of freezing milk jugs full of water, then placing them in the coop to keep chickens cooler in brutal heat.  Could something like that maybe help?

I am having issues with bloat in weanlings this year that I won’t take the time to discuss here but I have written about in my journal, so adding the heat stress doesn’t help anything. Have not lost any adults, newborns, or previously fully healthy weanlings but yes heat can kill rabbits, especially if the swing is rapid. A breeder friend of mine in UT is losing some of her first rabbits to heat ever because her nights are 55F but then it’s swinging all the way to 105 by 11AM.

I don’t want to intervene besides providing shade and fresh water because I don’t want my stock reliant on that, because there are days we have to be away from the house during midday and we rely on a friend to “farm” sit for us for an annual vacation each year and he would not have the time to do the frozen bottle thing at all.

Plus before I’d thought through the reasonings I tried the frozen bottles the first year I had rabbits - they hated them and kicked them as far away as possible, lol.

Allie

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #465 on: June 29, 2018, 07:30:18 PM »
I didn't join this year since my harvesting/growing was looking sad...but I'm still trying and have a question for the more advanced gardeners. 

The muni just opened up its compost pile.  I can drop off scraps and pick up compost.  But, my sad, sad little garden is already planted.  Everything that is growing is packed in kinda tight.  I have peas, carrots, lettuce, and one sad little broccoli plant.  I have raspberry bushes and currant bushes.  I have tomatoes and peppers in 3-5 gallon buckets.  Is there a way to add compost to the soil now in a way that will help my plants but not disturb their roots?

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #466 on: June 29, 2018, 07:42:42 PM »
@Allie everything you listed can easily be “side dressed” (basically add compost on top of the soil around the plant). The amount is somewhat up to you. The only thing I’d be careful on putting too much right up against the crown would be the currants, otherwise everything else you listed doesn’t really care if their crowns get buried some as long as you’re not putting several inches or more down.

Might be easiest to do it by hand than by shovel if it is densely planted. Rinse off any soil that gets on their leaves.

Compost is actually best applied to the top only at all times, not tilled in. I’m becoming a huge believer in no-dig style gardening.

Allie

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #467 on: June 29, 2018, 10:41:35 PM »
No dig sounds perfect, as I hate work!  Thanks chief!

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #468 on: June 30, 2018, 04:24:43 AM »
Those are some nice garden shots @furrychickens !  Love the elderberry.

Do you literally mean some of your rabbits are dying from the heat?  That's terrible.  I've heard of freezing milk jugs full of water, then placing them in the coop to keep chickens cooler in brutal heat.  Could something like that maybe help?

Plus before I’d thought through the reasonings I tried the frozen bottles the first year I had rabbits - they hated them and kicked them as far away as possible, lol.

Hilarious! 

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #469 on: July 01, 2018, 05:57:26 PM »
I harvested eight raspberries yesterday! They were delicious!

Trifle

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #470 on: July 01, 2018, 06:20:15 PM »
I harvested eight raspberries yesterday! They were delicious!

Yay @Tris Prior!  Nothing like growing your own.  :)

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #471 on: July 02, 2018, 05:01:37 PM »
Had the time to record a video update on the garden today. About 15 minutes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkM4Booow9c

nessness

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #472 on: July 02, 2018, 08:32:44 PM »
I've been keeping a running list of how my plants have done this year, to decide what to plant next year. Figured I'd share here so I don't forget. The list below is based on a combination of productivity, fun, and taste.

Winners:
- Sungold tomatoes. We've gotten maybe a quart of them already. They're delicious and my 3-year-old loves them.
- Carrots. Probably no money savings, given how cheap carrots are, but they were fun and easy.

Losers:
- Zucchini. Despite my best efforts, my plants are still producing rotten yellow zucchini. Also, my neighbors all grow zucchini and share with me, so...

Meh:
- Strawberries. Got like 10 strawberries total from four plants. But I'll let them go and see what happens next year.
- Kale. I only planted two plants and they did fine, but I was deluding myself into thinking I actually like kale.

Too soon to tell:
- Celebrity tomatoes. Picked the first one yesterday and it was pretty good but not amazing.
- Peppers. I was about to give up when a couple of them finally budded. So maybe there's still hope?

New things to try next year:
- Cucumbers
- Snap peas
- Raspberries
- Asparagus

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #473 on: July 03, 2018, 05:09:28 AM »
@nessness do you like green beans? They are very easy to grow and are hands down one of my favorite veggies for the difference between fresh picked and even farmers market fresh.

Provider is my favorite bush bean, Royal Burgundy is another nice one. If you want pole beans, I’m less familiar with them, I’m growing them for the first time this year.

What’s the issue with your zucchini again?

Celebrity - IIRC this is a variety primarily bred for disease resistance, not stunning flavor, and even on the disease resistance front it’s behind the curve compared to stuff available in seed catalogs as it’s a pretty old variety at this point.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #474 on: July 04, 2018, 06:24:16 AM »
All my tomato plants have tomatoes.  This is excellent for early July, given how cold our nights were for most of the spring and how late the plants went into the garden because of that.

Most of my sweet potato plants are growing - a few died from the cold nights.  Hmm, maybe I am selecting ones that can survive a bit more cold?

I added a lot of compost to the garlic, I think the soil was not rich enough last year.  No scapes yet, I hope it is happy.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #475 on: July 04, 2018, 06:28:59 AM »
@furrychickens I do like green beans; thanks for the suggestion! My zucchini have been turning yellow and mushy when they're still only a few inches long.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my biggest win, the chickens! No eggs yet (they're only a few months old), but they are just so much fun. We don't have the fence in yet (hoping to get it done this week), but I've been letting them out in the evenings and they stay close to the coop and go back in without too much trouble.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #476 on: July 04, 2018, 06:32:11 AM »
@furrychickens I do like green beans; thanks for the suggestion! My zucchini have been turning yellow and mushy when they're still only a few inches long.

Oh, and I forgot to mention my biggest win, the chickens! No eggs yet (they're only a few months old), but they are just so much fun. We don't have the fence in yet (hoping to get it done this week), but I've been letting them out in the evenings and they stay close to the coop and go back in without too much trouble.

My guess is that they’re not getting pollinated and so the fruits are “aborting”. You can hand-pollinate pretty easily if you want to test that theory. Not sure I’ll  be able to describe the process well without pictures handy, so try googling. It’s pretty simple. If you can’t find any info, I’ll dig something up for ya.

Chickens are awesome to have. Our current flock just barely supplies all our needs. Will definitely bump it up a bit more next year when we refresh the flock. Assuming we don’t get caught. We’re way over the allowed limit.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #477 on: July 04, 2018, 06:48:32 AM »
@nessness -- so glad you are having fun with your chickens!  They really are great.  We have 13 right now, which is way too many for our own needs, but I sell the excess eggs so that's a win.

I harvested the last blueberries of the season from the bushes I planted last year -- total came to six pints from four bushes.  They were delicious and I'm very happy with the yield!  And the tulle -- the TULLE! -- made it all possible.  It's getting folded up now with my gratitude and put away til next spring.  I'll let you know how the fabric holds up in year 2.

I also got a small handful of gooseberries from the baby bushes I planted this spring.  The Hinnomaki variety was the clear winner over the Pixwell.  Bigger berries, tons more flavor. 

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #478 on: July 04, 2018, 06:51:22 AM »
@nessness -- so glad you are having fun with your chickens!  They really are great.  We have 13 right now, which is way too many for our own needs, but I sell the excess eggs so that's a win.

I harvested the last blueberries of the season from the bushes I planted last year -- total came to six pints from four bushes.  They were delicious and I'm very happy with the yield!  And the tulle -- the TULLE! -- made it all possible.  It's getting folded up now with my gratitude and put away til next spring.  I'll let you know how the fabric holds up in year 2.

I also got a small handful of gooseberries from the baby bushes I planted this spring.  The Hinnomaki variety was the clear winner over the Pixwell.  Bigger berries, tons more flavor.

13 is how many we have an even at summer laying rates it’s barely enough for my family (of 5), lol.

Hinnomaki Red seems to be the winner here too. Hinnomaki Yellow is not nearly as good. I forget the other ones I have here.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #479 on: July 04, 2018, 07:55:35 AM »
Well, I believe my oregano may be dying.  A lot of the leaves are turning brown at the edges, then gradually falling off.  There is still a little new growth, so I tried trimming back the dead stems to give the new ones more space/light, we'll see how it goes.  The rosemary is showing a tiny bit of the same browning, but just at the edges of a few leaves, not to the point of falling off or inhibiting growth.  Not sure if it's due to the excessive heat we've been having, or too much sun (these are supposed to be full sun varietals, but who knows?).  I don't think it's lack of water, I've been watering pretty vigorously.  Ah well, we got at least one batch of incredible pizza sauce from the fresh oregano leaves.  If it doesn't make it, we'll try something else next year.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #480 on: July 04, 2018, 08:11:14 AM »
Well, I believe my oregano may be dying.  A lot of the leaves are turning brown at the edges, then gradually falling off.  There is still a little new growth, so I tried trimming back the dead stems to give the new ones more space/light, we'll see how it goes.  The rosemary is showing a tiny bit of the same browning, but just at the edges of a few leaves, not to the point of falling off or inhibiting growth.  Not sure if it's due to the excessive heat we've been having, or too much sun (these are supposed to be full sun varietals, but who knows?).  I don't think it's lack of water, I've been watering pretty vigorously.  Ah well, we got at least one batch of incredible pizza sauce from the fresh oregano leaves.  If it doesn't make it, we'll try something else next year.

How hot?

You may be overwatering potentially. Both of those are native to the Mediterranean so are used to drought conditions.

Allie

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #481 on: July 04, 2018, 01:11:40 PM »
So much goodness coming out of the gardens!

I harvested a bunch of cilantro and 4 lettuce leaves last night.  It's a start...

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #482 on: July 04, 2018, 01:38:11 PM »
@nessness -- so glad you are having fun with your chickens!  They really are great.  We have 13 right now, which is way too many for our own needs, but I sell the excess eggs so that's a win.

I also got a small handful of gooseberries from the baby bushes I planted this spring.  The Hinnomaki variety was the clear winner over the Pixwell.  Bigger berries, tons more flavor.

13 is how many we have an even at summer laying rates it’s barely enough for my family (of 5), lol.

Hinnomaki Red seems to be the winner here too. Hinnomaki Yellow is not nearly as good. I forget the other ones I have here.

Wow @furrychickens -- you all eat a lot of eggs!  We are a family of four, but only three egg eaters.  We eat less than a dozen a week.  In the summer we are swimming in eggs; I sell 4 to 5 dozen a week.  I'll say this -- That old rule of thumb of one chicken per person in the family definitely does not apply to you!

Yes, that's what I have -- the Hinnomaki Red gooseberries.  They're yummy. 
« Last Edit: July 04, 2018, 01:40:21 PM by Trifele »

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #483 on: July 04, 2018, 02:50:25 PM »
I typically eat 7-8 eggs a day just myself. 6 for breakfast and 1-2 hard boiled later as snacks.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #484 on: July 05, 2018, 06:20:21 AM »
Picked a whole lot of greens, herbs, shelling peas, snow peas and a cuke. 

Tomatoes are definitely a bust.  Plan worked out for next year:  Grow crop in pots.  Some pots in the greenhouse, others in the garden.  Potatoes are also starting to succumb so the fungus is widespread.  Potatoes will be grown in towers in new soil and compost and manure.  It is definitely making me very sad to see everything shrivel up and die.  Rona has 99 cent bags of black earth so I am going to load up on them and a friend is giving me all the large pots I want.  Now I need to source the plastic for solarization. 

I have got to work on the fencing again.  The individual row covers don't work once the plants get too tall.  So I am thinking of a strategy for a more secure perimeter fence against bunnies and a temporary seed protection against chipmunks in the spring.  Chipmunks only seem to eat the cucurbits and peas.

The fertility of the soil is really bad at one end of the garden.  That is going to get the entire contents of the chicken house.  The chickens are free during the day so it isn't a huge amount of manure, but between the compost pile and it - that should be the boost that is needed.  I am also going to get all the leaves this fall that I can.  With the perimeter fenced, I should be able to contain them. I am hoping that boosting the organics in the soil and getting a richer biome going will help with fungus.

Had another flush of oysters.  Yippee. 

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #485 on: July 05, 2018, 07:11:18 AM »
Sorry about the disease damage :(

Chickens actually deposit half their manure load overnight, so that’s actually a lot of manure :)

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #486 on: July 05, 2018, 07:49:51 AM »
Sorry about the disease damage :(
thanks for the condolences.

Chickens actually deposit half their manure load overnight, so that’s actually a lot of manure :)
I did not know that about chickens.  7 chickens producing it....
BTW you eat a lot of eggs. 

OmahaSteph

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #487 on: July 10, 2018, 11:44:04 AM »
Hello all! I'm suuuuper late to the party, but this year I grew tomatoes, peppers and broccoli from seed to moderate success, though it was definitely a learning experience. We have clay soil so I built four raised beds on a slope (OMG). Two of them got finished, the other two will have to wait. I bit off a little more than I can chew by myself. They also have trellises on one end. Also created a large bed for tomatoes.

In total:

Variegated tomatoes (from Seed Savers Exchange, no idea what they actually are) +

Cherry tomatoes = 10 plants

1 Roma

3 San Marzanos

3 broccolis (they won't form heads - I think it's the heat since we went from snow to 90 degrees in a week)

2 patches of dill

1 clump of chives

4 patches of thyme

A metric ton of basil :)

3 sq feet of English cucumbers

3 square feet of pole beans (currently getting munched by bean leaf beetles, neem oil isn't cutting it)

1 sq foot of calendula (supposed to be a good companion for broccoli?)

Rhubarb

2 garbage cans of potatoes (one is doing well, the other not so much)

6 pepper plants (seeds saved from various farmers market peppers, all mixed together - could be bell peppers, could be hot peppers, not sure yet; leaves are looking pale, but there are several little peppers growing)

Most of the tomatoes got the following treatment in their hole: shrimp shells, eggs shells, two aspirin, fish emulsion, and mykos on the roots. And now they're topping their metal cages, lol.

It's only a matter of time before we get chickens ...

There are lots of pictures on my IG (Steph_Lawton)

Finntastic

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #488 on: July 10, 2018, 10:55:02 PM »
Anyone here experienced growing cannabis outdoors? I've used to grow indoors back in Europe, but now in Thailand with the legalization coming (medical in 9 months, recreational following probably soon) would be interested to try to grow some thai sticks. I have half a hectare slope land that could probably fit few hundred plants, but I would not be able to look after them on daily basis, it would most likely be visit once a week to water them etc...

Any weed experts here?

Trifle

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #489 on: July 11, 2018, 03:39:38 AM »
Anyone here experienced growing cannabis outdoors? I've used to grow indoors back in Europe, but now in Thailand with the legalization coming (medical in 9 months, recreational following probably soon) would be interested to try to grow some thai sticks. I have half a hectare slope land that could probably fit few hundred plants, but I would not be able to look after them on daily basis, it would most likely be visit once a week to water them etc...

Any weed experts here?

I've never grown it, but would be interested to try as well.  Our neighbor up the hill has a patch of a few dozen plants  -- seems like it can grow well here.  I just did a quick Google search and with the expanding legalization there are lots of how-to articles on growing.  Seems like the most challenging part might be getting good seeds, if you aren't yet in a full-legal location. 

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #490 on: July 11, 2018, 06:32:55 AM »
Could try asking in the main forum. I may be wrong, but I swear there are at least a few professional MJ growers on the boards.

There are also numerous dedicated forums for growing cannabis. I remember ending up on several when researching grow lights years ago.

I don’t know how different the strains are between industrial hemp and MJ for smoking/edibles, but there may be more data available on outdoor cultivation for hemp as that used to be and is becoming again an important industrial scale crop. My state used to be one of the biggest hemp producers in the world before the legality changed.

ender

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #491 on: July 15, 2018, 06:40:40 AM »
It's yet another race against blight this year for our tomatoes.

I restaked them all after a storm knocked them over. They are giant plants right now - most are 5+ feet already, if not taller. Blight is spreading but there are quite literally hundreds of tomatoes on the plants right now. Our tomatillos are going nuts too, if we get a fraction of as many as are on those plants it will be a bumper crop.

Asparagus is mostly up, will be a next year crop. There is crabgrass all over it :( I'm not sure how to best get rid of that... was hoping those ferns would get big enough to just crowd out the weeds but not all of them are getting very big for some reason.


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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #492 on: July 15, 2018, 10:40:29 AM »
I'm harvesting a handful of blueberries daily. Lettuce all finally keeled over, but I went to pull the peas, which looked like shit in the heat, and found a few more pea pods. Yay! I pulled a few garlic bulbs the other day, and two small carrots. My basil is doing pretty well (other than one Thai basil that dropped dead suddenly) so I'm going to make a big batch of pesto today.

I'm going to have to restake one of my tomatoes that is busting out of its cage, and give everything in the backyard a good haircut because it's starting to be impossible to walk between my small raised bed and my tomatoes in huge pots.

All tomatoes so far are starting to make tomatoes other than the Brandywines (which are flowering but not doing jack shit otherwise) and the Nebraska Wedding, which I've had problems with from the start - started from seed, didn't sprout. Started again, sprouted but died. Third try resulted in a plant, but it seems puny and unhappy and isn't flowering. Not sure what's up with that; it's a new to me variety that I got free seeds for. One plant (Inca Jewels, also a new variety to me) had some issues with blossom end rot but the new tomatoes that are forming seem OK. I've been fertilizing and adding some ground up eggshells for calcium. I find that the Roma-like varieties, which this one seems to be, have way more problems with rot than other "normal" varieties or cherry varieties, does anyone else find that to be true?

I think I have blight too in the community garden - either that or some other fungus. Most of the tomato plants in people's beds seem to have it. That's a down side of a community garden - the beds are so close together that I feel like if one person gets a disease, it spreads pretty fast. So far I've been keeping it at bay by removing the diseased leaves and using organic copper fungicide. It's not perfect, but it's better.

Yesterday my local Fancy Garden Center was having a sale so I finally replaced the thyme that didn't make it through the winter, and got a citronella plant because we have a serious mosquito problem on our back deck. I'm not quite sure what to do with it - the garden center said it was pretty easy care but they said that about the petunias that I killed too, so who knows. I don't seem to do well with plants that do not make food.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #493 on: July 15, 2018, 11:21:27 AM »
I'm quite unhappy with my year of growing virtually nothing, so I'm going to start figuring on how I could grow more next year while living in two different places. I should at least be able to grow container tomatoes and herbs in my atrium if I could figure out the water situation. But they need a lot of water there with the sun on an enclosed south-facing space, and our water pressure is high and tends to wear out drip systems fast in spite of our whole-house regulator. More contemplation is needed.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #494 on: July 16, 2018, 01:50:25 PM »
We got some rain just now.  Enough to wet the soil.  Hoping for more.  We need about three days worth. 

My garden gave me half a dozen peppers, three pounds of yellow bean, much kale, lettuce and some tomatoes - despite their sickly appearance, the fruit tastes pretty good. Latest rodent barrier appears to be holding, although the chickens have been digging up the newspaper and spreading the wood chips all over.  It looked so tidy before
I have been using city water from my neighbour's hose to keep things well watered.

I also harvested half a pound of oyster mushrooms.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #495 on: July 17, 2018, 04:34:35 AM »
@Tris Prior yes, determinate tomatoes do seem to get BER more easily. They don’t have root systems as deep as indeterminate varieties.

Sprinkling a liberal layer of oyster shell at the beginnng of the season usually does the trick for me.

If you’re applying calcium regularly but still constantly seeing BER make sure

1. Soil is staying evenly moist.

2. Soil pH. Calcium becomes highly non-bioavailable in pH below 7, particularly 6.5 or lower.

For a faster calcium fix, I’ve heard of folks using antacid tablets ground up. Eggshells are very slow release, slower even than oyster shell in my experience.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #496 on: July 17, 2018, 06:58:22 AM »
my tomatoes are somehow doing incredibly! We are having a good year for tomatoes (short winter, warm spring, hot summer...usually quite different) and I am over the moon to have 12 happy plants with dozens of tomatoes on them. I didn't really think I could do it here in the high rockies to be honest. My pepper plants are also super happy recently, as it's gotten really hot...they are full of little baby peppers that I can't wait to eat! All my lettuce and spinach has bolted, which is a bummer because the every 3 days fresh baby greens was super nice for the month that it lasted...chard and kale are both doing amazing, and getting ready to harvest.
Something that is not going so well for me is basil. Usually that is the one thing I can count on...but this year I am having a major Earwig problem, and they are eating all of it! They don't touch the Thai basil, or oregano, or thyme, or sage, just the regular basil. Any tips?

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #497 on: July 17, 2018, 08:17:19 AM »
We got rain.  Lots and lots of torrential rain late yesterday afternoon.  The forecast for the next 7 days looks favourable for planting more beans and greens for early fall picking.
I am going to make pesto for the first time in 15 years tonight.  The basil is looking lovely.  Lets hope my kids will start eating pesto now.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #498 on: July 18, 2018, 07:23:59 AM »
FL, lucky you with the rain.  We got 1/2 " the other night, not enough to bring the grass out of dormancy.  Yes, I have a brown and green lawn, the brown is the grass, the green is the "weeds" - some are true weeds, some are just other plants, like the clover and bird's-foot trefoil.  I have been watering the vegetable garden regularly, it has been so dry.  The tomatoes have lots of green tomatoes on them, the peppers have a few peppers (I think they don't set if nights are too hot and we have had hot nights), the basil is fine, and I harvested my first cucumber the other day.  The rest of the cucumbers are those tiny 5 mm babies.

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Re: Planting / Growing your own 2018
« Reply #499 on: July 18, 2018, 10:16:34 AM »
My tomatoes are getting a lot of dry, brown leaves and slowing down production. It's been 100+ degrees every day, so I'm guessing I need a thicker layer of mulch to retain more water during the day? They just have a thin layer of straw right now.

 

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