The Gardening Thread

#678
#678
I now believe the culprit was a sickly shamrock which I took in. Likely, its malady is powdery mildew. Fook.
 
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#679
#679
Peppers gone 🙁
Trays cleaned
Shamrock tubers cleaned and repotted
Previous pot and saucer washed

Hopefully, powdery mildew is history.
 
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#680
#680
@VolNExile, I’ve used peat pots in the past to grow seedlings to a larger size, ready for transplanting in the outdoor garden. I may switch to seed trays next winter. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
 
#681
#681
@VolNExile, I’ve used peat pots in the past to grow seedlings to a larger size, ready for transplanting in the outdoor garden. I may switch to seed trays next winter. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
 
#682
#682
@VolNExile, I’ve used peat pots in the past to grow seedlings to a larger size, ready for transplanting in the outdoor garden. I may switch to seed trays next winter. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
 
#684
#684
Tin Man said:
Thank you for the triple post, VN. 🙄
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clean up in Gardening isle, @Freak

Cold finally killed my Indian Hawthorn bushes. Tried (sort of) to revive them. Found two purple azaleas at Lowes, half off.

Azaleas are very choosy. Hoping they'll work out. Had middling success in past with them. Had to experiment a lot with acid lovers.
 
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#685
#685
Tin Man said:
@VolNExile, I’ve used peat pots in the past to grow seedlings to a larger size, ready for transplanting in the outdoor garden. I may switch to seed trays next winter. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
Click to expand...
Dang it, you triple posted, and my reply died on the vine. Trying again:

TL/DR: this looks incredibly and insanely complicated, but IRL, it’s not. You just want to think the process through before starting, and then have patience and do some reasonable maintenance to get great seedlings for transplanting.

————————

My problem with peat pots stem from the fact that I am a lazy, inattentive gardener, and peat pots require a certain level of fussiness that I ought to be able to attain, but I don’t. They dry out in the blink of an eye when they’re on a heat mat, meaning I can kill the seedlings by drying them out, or I panic when I see that they’re dry and over-generously water and mist, inviting fungal diseases.

I only use peat pots for seeds that are touchy about transplanting (ex.: cucumbers.) Assuming that I manage to keep them alive until it’s warm enough outdoors, when I plant them out, I then soak them until I can easily peel off chunks of the sides (NOT the bottom), stopping when I get to where roots are touching and trying to grow through the peat pot walls. But at a minimum, I always peel down the sides enough that when planted, the tops of the remaining sides (waving hands in air here) are well under soil level. If they’re at or above soil level, they wick water up from below and dry out. And I leave the bottoms on, but soak until they’re soggy as hayull, hoping that the roots will be able to grow through once in the ground. So that’s IF I start seeds in peat pots.

But I start nearly everything else in plastic pots. Easier to handle, way easier when it’s time to pot on seedlings (move them to a larger container, but still not yet ready to transplant outside.) I’m assuming that you’re not trying to grow 7 quintillion plants, so:

Buy several “1020’s”: 10x20 inch plastic trays, maybe 2” or so deep, that have channels in the bottom to evenly distribute water to the cells, plus buy one or more trays of 4x4 cells that fit into 1020’s. You’ll get 18 cells of 4x4’s per thing-that-fits-into-1020. You can definitely get smaller cells -> more cells per 1020, but then you have to fuss with potting them on, and for me, life is too short (literally these days.) Alternatively, buy X number of individual 3.5x3.5 or 4x4 square plastic pots, but make sure that they will fit in the 1020, because it can be maddening to get them to all sit flat on the tray.

Unless you want to start 18 tomatoes, or 18 peppers, or 18 whatevers, you will find that your seeds germinate at different times, and that can be a Problem. Most seeds do best starting over heat + humidity. A clear plastic humidity dome (or Saran Wrap, but omg, what a PITA that becomes after a few days) keeps humidity levels up to help the seeds get growing. BUT once they’re up with their cute little seed leaves (ok, cotyledons), they need to get out from under the plastic dome/ plastic wrap, or they’re at risk of dying from “damping off” (fungal issue.) So you’ll need to break/tear off the plastic cells with sprouted seedlings from those that are still pondering things underground, and move the sprouted ones to a new 1020 in the fresh air. If you don’t, you can easily lose the early germinators to damping off, which is very depressing. Or you’ll remove the humidity dome too soon, and the slowpokes will be slower to germinate.

Most seeds don’t need extra light to germinate, but once they’re up and growing, they do need for-realz lights, fluorescents or (better) grow lights, a good 10-12 hours a day. If you really do have that nearly-mythical south-facing window with full exposure all day (no eaves overhead), then that’s great. Otherwise, use lights. Except for tomatoes and peppers, you don’t need heat mats once they’ve germinated. And again, once they’ve germinated, no more plastic covers. Get a gentle fan blowing on them if you can. This strengthens the stems and reduces the risk of fungal disease. Turn the plants 90° every few days so that all your seedlings don’t start growing sideways due to the fan breeze.

At this point, you’re on a roll. Keep them lit, keep them watered but not flooded, feed them with (my preference) a gentle organic fish emulsion fertilizer (but omg, the smell!), pot them on if needed, and you’ll have great starts when your garden is ready.

Or go buy plants from a good (= Serious) garden center, not a Big Box store. That is a great alternative. It’s just that you might not find the varieties you might want to experiment with.

Again this makes starting plants from seed horribly complicated and difficult, and it’s not. The thing to keep in mind is that you’re trying to fool the seeds into believing that it’s (for example) the first week of June with air temps of 80° and soil temps of 70° and 14 hours of daylight, when it’s actually early March and not yet the equinox and a high of 42° and whoa, a forecast of sleet. So I guess we’re gaslighting seeds!
 
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#686
#686
Jackcrevol said:
clean up in Gardening isle, @Freak

Cold finally killed my Indian Hawthorn bushes. Tried (sort of) to revive them. Found two purple azaleas at Lowes, half off.

Azaleas are very choosy. Hoping they'll work out. Had middling success in past with them. Had to experiment a lot with acid lovers.
Click to expand...
My Lady Banks rose (Rosa banksia), which was 18+’ wide and 10+’ tall, covering the shed, appears to not have survived the erratic winter. Waaaah.
 
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#687
#687
Re: my ridiculously long post above: it probably looks like I kill everything I touch. In fact, if it germinates, I generally can get it into the ground. Seeds just take some raisin’, although not nearly as much as humans do.
 
#689
#689
Jackcrevol said:
clean up in Gardening isle, @Freak

Cold finally killed my Indian Hawthorn bushes. Tried (sort of) to revive them. Found two purple azaleas at Lowes, half off.

Azaleas are very choosy. Hoping they'll work out. Had middling success in past with them. Had to experiment a lot with acid lovers.
Click to expand...
My Hawthorne bushes still look bad, but the stems are not brittle. Same with my loperatum shrubs out back. The local nursery said to give them another month
 
#690
#690
kiddiedoc said:
My Hawthorne bushes still look bad, but the stems are not brittle. Same with my loperatum shrubs out back. The local nursery said to give them another month
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The Hawthorns are rated to barely below zero, I think. Honestly tired of fighting them, they're more suited as a semi-tropical plant.

Lorapetalum has started budding on old wood. Areas of brittleness ive pruned. Same for hydrangeas.

Honestly, I prefer acid lovers. My yard is one giant expanse of limestone and red clay. The best soil ive got is lined with moss.

So, it took some time to get rhodos, camelias, and azaleas to take. In one area, I completely removed top layer of sod, excavated (removed by shovel) about 2" of crapsoil and laid down a mix of peat & topsoil. Azaleas, dogwood, and Iris/peony have thrived.
 
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#691
#691
VolNExile said:
My Lady Banks rose (Rosa banksia), which was 18+’ wide and 10+’ tall, covering the shed, appears to not have survived the erratic winter. Waaaah.
Click to expand...
Hold on. We have large rose plants in Nashville that looked dead a week ago, but are just now coming out (85 degrees today). They could still come back from the roots? Supposed to be good to -10(zone 6). Isn't that close to your low this past winter.
Is your yellow? A beautiful rose.
 
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#693
#693
VolNExile said:
Re: my ridiculously long post above: it probably looks like I kill everything I touch. In fact, if it germinates, I generally can get it into the ground. Seeds just take some raisin’, although not nearly as much as humans do.
Click to expand...
I use peat cups as compostable peel ‘em and plant ‘em containers. I’m attentive and do not let them dry out while they house my seedlings.
 
#694
#694
Go aeiou said:
Hold on. We have large rose plants in Nashville that looked dead a week ago, but are just now coming out (85 degrees today). They could still come back from the roots? Supposed to be good to -10(zone 6). Isn't that close to your low this past winter.
Is your yellow? A beautiful rose.
Click to expand...
I’m still hoping. The branches are awfully brittle though.
 
#697
#697
This past year, I had some leftover root stimulant (5-20-20) that I’d previously used on some Italian Cypress. I used a highly diluted amount of this to feed my seedlings.
 
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#700
#700
Tilled and amended my little vegetable garden plot. Put up stakes and fencing and sowed some 9 year old San Marzano tomato seeds in a row next to fencing (in case some germinate). Rain stopped me from progressing further.
 
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