I was up until 2:30 this morning potting up my cabbages...
I ended up with 41. Hopefully, some will make it until October plantout. I decided to leave them alone that long 'cause in the past, I hadn't been planting the purchased nursery seedlings until Thanksgiving weekend. So, I figure I'll still be ahead of the last two seasons, and it'll give the seedlings time to decide whether they want to live or die...
Who was that who asked me why I was planting so many seeds @ 150? I'm down to 41!
ZONES 8-9 FALL/WINTER 2010
Wow, Linda...41 heads of cabbage..that would definitely be much more than we need and the space to grow them in...how far apart are you spacing them? Are you putting them in your raised beds?
I have just 8 4'X4' square foot gardens and I need to limit what I put in as to what we can use. It works out well when I do this, but I grew too many tomato plants this year. They are just beginning to ripen since we had late snow in May...I did not plant them out until late May.
Evelyn,
Those are sooooooooo cute! They look almost like Christmas ornaments!
My new RB measures 4'x18'. All my experience to date has been in containers (eBuckets and EBs), so this'll be my first above-ground attempt in a veggie bed. I'll grow about 9 cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers in the RB, and probably a few of each in my eBuckets. I really need to leave space for my root crops. I'll use this opportunity to compare the RB harvest to the eBucket harvest!
I'm gonna follow a loose, square foot planting grid, to get the most bang for the buck in the RB space available. I'll also do turnips, beets, carrots, lettuce and spinach, and a few tomato plants in the bed, and garlic and onions in 18-gallon Rubbermaid tubs. I'll have mustards and collards going in patented Earthboxes.
Finally, I'll have the 3-tier potato seeding experiment going in two 20-gallon SmartPots and 3 washing machine tubs.
Linda
I grew potatoes in a plastic laundry basket last year...with less than stellar results.
This year they did much better in the raised beds (SFG's) and I added Azomite, bio-char, rock phosphate and greensand, along with blood and bone meal to give them the trace elements.
Nice, Evelyn_inthegarden!
Evelyn what a wonderful raise bed system you have and look at those wonderful maters! How many did you plant?
Linda I have a question about your soil explanation what is Napa DE Part #8822?
O.K guys I need some help here, I have some broccoli and cabbage in my light system and they are getting very big, I am wondering if I could plant them out a little before September or not? Will the heat kill them? According to my planting schedule I can plant them as soon as the first week in September but I am wondering whether or not they can last that long under my lights?
C,
Tapla and I were confusing apples and oranges. He told me that the NAPA DE Part 8822 soil absorbent should NOT, NOT, NOT be added to raised beds as an absorbent because the DE is a sharp particle that will cut the live stuff in the soil and cause it to dehydrate. We WANT live stuff in our soils (the microorganisms/microherd), because our earthworms EAT the live microorganisms. Consequently, I won't be adding this as an enhancement to retaining moisture.
I will most likely bite the bullet and beef up the organic content (if I find it's necessary) with some Black Kow composted manure, then mulch with either leaves or grass to keep the soil moist.
Though it shouldn't be much of a problem durin the fall/winter to keep the moisture in.
Linda
Please go read the bottom of that post, before you use the NAPA or any Diatomeceous (sp?) earth.
P.S. I potted up 41 of those straggly cabbage seedlings until 2:30 a.m. I sure hope they beef up. I put them under my fluorescent lights and will keep them there til I plant them out in late September. I'll still be earlier than my last two seasons when I didn't plant the purchased seedlings until Thanksgiving weekend. Just hope they beef up!
I've also got 15 HEALTHY tomato seedlings that I grew from seeds that were saved from a tomato that a co-worker grew in her yard from seedlings that I grew from seeds in my Winter Sowing experiment this past January..whew!
How's that for 2nd generation?
This message was edited Aug 13, 2010 4:17 PM
P.S.
I HAVE to chit my seed potatoes this weekend. They can't wait any longer to go in the ground!
Carmen - if it's too hot those babies will bolt in a NY minute. Can you transplant them to bigger pots for a while?
Yes I suppose I could do that, actually they might make it until September time frame, on the same spots. For some reason I thought they would take a lot longer to grow, definitely not feeding them as much anymore.
Mutant brassicas, eh? You have a nice head start!
Kelly I think you warned me before about planting too early, I should have listened. Hopefully they can make it all the way through august inside and then I can plant them out in September supposedly when I can plant them in my area, I just don't expect September to be a lot cooler but we will see. I might start more seeds at the end of August just to have some backup just in case this first batch bolt like you say.
I stopped at a garage sale and bought 6 small drawers for $1/apiece. I'm gonna drill holes in the bottoms and sow seeds. Instant seed trays! Lettuce, spinach, mustard & Collards.
Wow Linda talking about recycling and reusing, by the way I love yard sales, I just started going myself about a week ago and found all kinds of cool things for cheap, maybe I should look for planters as well.
* The shallow upper drawers from unsalvageable dressers and coffee tables can be made into seed flats by drilling holes in the bottom for drainage and filling them three quarters with soil.*
There's gonna be some fantastic posting when this heat breaks, right? And, I just KNOW we're all chomping at the bit to rush out and scatter seeds, right?
Since we're in a lull, I'll take this opportunity to start a new thread, ok?
Is anybody out there? Don't answer that on this thread. Go to the new one!
STOP!!! DO NOT POST PAST THIS THREAD. JOIN US FOR PART II OF THE
ZONES 8-9 FALL/WINTER 2010 THREAD AT THIS LINK:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1123372/