Zones 8-9 Spr/Sum 2011 Veggie Gardening is UNDERWAY- Pt l

I'm so jealous! I get the official slacker award! DH has been truck shopping to find me wheels since my truck was stolen in Dec. (We got the insurance $$ a few weeks ago.) Now I'm sidelined by a puncture wound on my left palm that I'm trying to keep from getting infected. Seriously, something's gotta give!

Rubber glove...get going...

If push comes to shove, you can always make a trip down here to pick up some 'a my seedlings. I'll have PLENTY excess!

My tomatoes under lights are starting to germinate, but I seem to have lost my "key" that tells me what I planted and where....@$%&*.

Also, I received a Baker Heirloom Seed catalog yesterday and wow...it's awesome.

I found the most brilliant okra ever, Jing Orange, plus a couple of fine artichoke varities to try: Violetta Precoce and Green Globe. Should be ordering later if I have time.

Wow Linda those look awesome! By the way are you going to have room to plant all of the seedlings, are they all tomatoes?
I have also been slacking a lot lately, been sick, actually the whole family is sick, my DD has been running fever for about 4 days now, I did manage to start some Kohlrabi seeds and Swiss chard seeds yesterday indoors, and hopefully I will be starting my tomatoes today, I have already made a huge list of the types of maters I want to plant.

Sorry to hear about your car Stephanie, is amazing how much more vandalism we are getting now because of the economy. I had a call from a friend from Michigan a couple of days ago, he rents various houses, one of them ( it has been vacant for quite a long time) got broken into, they stole all the appliances, they took the air conditioning unit, tore the walls, took all the brass pipes etc..., by the time they had discovered what happened the cold weather had gotten into the pipes and so they busted leaving a wet mess all over the house.

C,
So sorry for your friend, and sorry ya'll are sick.

No, all the 105 tomato seedlings won't be in my yard. I'll only need about 10 of them. The rest are going to foster homes. I'll plant vicariously through the other growers, and whoever has the best harvest has to bring me some tomatoes. Not such a bad deal, huh?

I have about 30 Emerald Giant Bell Peppers that are coming up outta nowhere! I didn't expect them until next month or so, but I figured out what happened. I put my seedling trays in these large plastic bags they give you when you come home from the hospital to put your belongings in. It has a drawstring on one end. All the seed trays were in a bag (lots of hospital issues last year...don't ask...), under the fluorescent lights.

Anyway, I reached inside the bag to adjust something and MAN was it warm inside that bag! I could feel the heat buildup from the soil! THAT'S what's working on all these seedlings. Who needs a heat mat???!!

P.S. Even though I tied the drawstring, I did remember to keep that end of the bag slightly opened around the trays like Dr. C. said to do (she props hers open), for some air circulation. There was nice condensation buildup on the interior of the bags, too, so I knew there was some humidity going on inside.

SUH-WEET!

So. Who's going to the hospital this year? I need your bags...

JOHN
"You don't find that key, you're in BIG bat quano, Mister!" I did that one time, and it was miserable...can you say "mystery 'mater?"

What varieties of tomatoes are you growing this season, John?

^^_^^ (Linda, raising her hands in prayer for her brother, John, to find his tomato key...)

This message was edited Jan 25, 2011 2:32 PM

Definitley don't want "mystery 'maters", lol. There's still hope that I can figure this out.

I have Cherokee Purple, Big Beef & Super Sweet 100's sprouting under lights right now (errr, and possibly a 4th varitey that might represent 'brand X' tomato.)

I WS'd a bunch of others as well, including Cosoluto, Roma, and more of the others I mentioned.

On another note, I was trying to make tamales over the weekend, and the recipe called for ancho chile peppers. This is, of course, a poblano pepper that has been dried (I think ancho means 'dried') and I had to remove the seeds...lots of them. I did not know that ancho pepper = poblano pepper so I learned a lot this weekend. Think I can grow poblanos from these seeds, anyone?

Found the key! The mystery crop turned out to be Salvia Whopper Lighthouse seeds- not a tomato at all. Should have known from my (much) earlier post.

Anyway, I will be trying to grow my (ancho) poblano seeds. This will be an experiment unless someone has some experience or knowledge to share. Maybe I need to ask the peeps in the pepper forum.

John,

As long as the Ancho peppers you had weren't smoked, you are probably good. I grew out some Chili de Arbol last year from a grocery package. They were great!

David

Hi, Gymgirl, I found you guys! Enjoying all the growin' chatter. Im really glad I found someone(s) from zone 9 to compare notes with. (For others on here, I posted on a winter gardening forum and Gymgirl invited me over here.) So hello everyone and I'll post what Im growing in next day or two. Just have cold crops now and seedings started inside for my spring garden. Cam

I have been busy pulling out veggies that are finished (and some I acidentally killed, squash does not like sulfur especially after using an oil spray like neem) and replanting the raised beds. I transplanted broccoli (still have 200 cauliflower plants to transplant), planted rainbow carrots, nelson carrots, tat soi, spinach, kohlrabi, two salad mixes, sugar snap peas, mixed greens (for cooking) and planted more cauliflower, broccoli and tomato seeds in the seed bed.
I found the cole crops I direct seeded did not finish evenly like the transplanted beds did. I like transplanting, so back to my old way of doing things.
I have a rabbit that is driving me crazy. Little rascal nibbles on my broccoli and cauliflower leaves. I didn't have time to put up bird netting (works great for rabbits, doesn't phase armadillos), so I covered the plants with row covers.
We have had chilly nights (in the upper 40's) for a week and cool days (upper 60's) with wind. I also planted okra. I just pulled out the old okra plants.

I'll be planting my English peas this weekend. I'll just need to cover them deep with grass clippings. That seems to have worked for the onions. I set up the bed last weekend but didn't have time to plant as I had some family stuff to do. I got a start of WS'ing some fig leafed hollyhock. I hope to finish that up tonight. I think that that hollyhock will be my plant obsession this summer. If I can get it started I will be very happy.

Thanks, dreaves. I can't tell from the package if they were smoked or not (they don't have a smoky smell though) so I will be giving it a try.

Good to see another (Houston) Zone 9-er, Cam. Would love to hear what you have going on in the veggie garden.

Something's been eating my prized cabbage. I noticed a very small area on my cabbage, maybe 1/2" in diameter, that looked like it was eaten and I suspected worms. That was Sunday night I believe. Yesterday the damage was way more severe and I don't know if it was caused by worms or a rabbit or a squirrel.

Must be quite challenging keeping all the critters away, Calalilly.

John,
Look for pillbugs or snails. Spread a little Sluggo Plus around your cabbage and growing perimeter...

For all my advice about "mystery maters," I have to 'fess up. In my zeal to pot up the first flat of Pruden's Purple seedlings, I labeled all the 16 oz cups "PP". But, I remembered that 15-cell system had 9 cells with Pruden's Purples from two different sources, and 6 cells with my own Cher Purples in it. So, it's only a little bit of a mystery. They're either Russ Martin's PPs, John's PPs, or my Cher Purples....

Trying to figure out how I should play that card when I'm offering the particular seedlings...no one who's getting them has ever grown any of these before, anyway...

ROUND #2 is complete
Potted up 30 Pruden's Purples to 16 oz. cups last night. Set up a light shelf in the cool room. Seedlings looked happy and perky this morning.

Tomato Seedling count to date:
Black Krims: 45
Flat #1 (mixed) Pruden's & Cher Purples: 30


This message was edited Jan 26, 2011 9:45 AM

This message was edited Jan 26, 2011 9:45 AM

I've never dealt with pillbugs or slugs before so I did not realize they would plague my cole crops. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll be on the look out now.

John,
They're masters of disguise and operate, usually, under cloak of darkness...

As promised, here is my "state of the garden" address. I just harvested my last terminal head of my 9 broccoli plants. They are putting out side heads now. Freezes didn't hurt them this year or last year. I finally pulled them up in April 2010. This year they are gorgeous and have no pests that I have detected. Not single hole in any leaf. Im also growing snow peas. These did well for me last year so I planted again this fall. My radishes got humongous without any air inside. The snails ruined my Bok Choy...laid eggs all over it so it looked more like lace. My beets and lettuces are growing merrily along and I harvest as needed for salads. I started my carrots late so they are only about 6 inches tall. I grow the beets for salad greens since I dont like beets very much. Last year I grew arugula for my neighbors because I dont like it. I have some bell peppers from my summer crop that are still hangin' on. I have to cover them anytime it gets too cold. They are not blooming now but the peppers on them are still increasing in size.

I really like gardening in fall and winter here for lots of reasons...fewer bugs (including mosquitos), pleasant temps for doing the work as well as not as much supplemental watering needed. Next time Im going to stagger my plantings more with the broccoli, radishes and carrots so they dont all get ripe at once. I want to try garlic too.

I have 3 varieties of potatoes to plant shortly. Last year I used burlap bags and they rotted very quickly. This time Im using a slice of a perforated stainless steel cylinder about knee high. It has no bottom so we'll see if that is a problem. Im going to use potting soil as the grrowth medium. I bought a bucket of seed potatoes at Lowes, a sampler of sorts. I use square foot gardening with six 4X4 foot 12 in high beds.

I harvest rainwater to use on my veggies and flowers. Right now I can get about 400 gals in a 1" rainfall. As budget allows, I add gutters and containers. If I had more containers I could easily double that on a 1" rain.

I grew up in a colder zone so what I learned does not fit here so Im always needing info on "when" to plant. Glad to meet all of you "niners" here. Look forward to our chats. Cam

This message was edited Jan 26, 2011 3:27 PM

I just calculated my light shelf and flourescent light overhead to accommodate what I'm growing. It ain't pretty....

So far, I have 4 shelves with 4 lights/shelf = 16 bulbs
I need an additional 3 shelves with 4 lights/shelf = 12 bulbs

That's a total of 14 light kits @ $10/per = $151.50
28 light bulbs @ $1/per = $30.50
Total = $182.00 for light kits and bulbs.

Wood for shelves (7 pcs. Southern Pine 2x10x10 cut in half) from HD = $51.00
14 cinder blocks @ $1.49/per = $23.00

Grand Total for seedling light system = $256.00

Uh, who knows how much it costs to run 28 fluorescent light bulbs 12 hours a day?

WHAT am I doing????

^^_^^ (Gymgirl, running and screaming and tearing her little short hair out...)

This message was edited Jan 27, 2011 12:18 PM

Cam,
Have you discovered Buchanan's on E. 10th street yet? Before you go $$ crazy in there, I need to introduce you to Wabash on Washington Avenue and T.C. Jester.

I'd like to come see your raised beds, too. I'm about to build some for the first time, and could use a bit more input.

When did you plant your snow peas? I've been trying to get a Super Sugar Snap? Snow pea for 2 years and can't get it right...

You don't grow cabbages? I've had tremendous success with them, broccolis, and kohlrabis in 5-gallon eBuckets (self watering containers). This season will be my first time to plant in raised beds. I, too, have been collecting rainwater from the downspouts on my covered patio. Soon as I make up my mind what kind, I think I'll be investing in a couple rain barrels.

Here's a pic of the cabbages I grew last winter. I was in transition (relocating) this winter, and it hurt my heart to not have a fall/winter garden. But, I'm making up for it with this tomato operation...

P.S. I didn't have a single bug hole in my cabbages either! ^^_^^ (doing the happy dance!)

This message was edited Jan 26, 2011 2:54 PM

I think you would need to get the (wattage per light system X # of systems) X the hours of usage, then divide by 1000 to get kilowatts/ hour. Multiply this by the Kw/ h charge from your electric bill...

Sorry, meant to "edit" but quoted myself instead...

That's an impressive set-up, Gymgirl. I have only two such light ballasts (48", black, from Lowe's). I'd like to get at least 4 more...then I'll be a real playa.

What I really need is one of those mini-greenhouses with the plastic covers. Nothing facy, i.e. expensive. The frost killed some dark opal basil cuttlings (potted), a 3' firespike in a 5-gal pot, and another 3' plant in a 5-gal pot all becasue I forgot to bring them inside last week when we last hit below 30 deg.

Thanks, John!

Gymgirl, with all that flourescent light, you may get a visit from the Drug Task Force to see if you have a GrowOp for marijuana. Ive seen on TV that one way they catch them is to look at electric bills for residences to find high high usage!

I dont grow cabbages because they take up too much room for the amount of cabbage that I enjoy which isnt much. Im going to grow some Asian veggies which I do like. I dont grow eggplant either. They are beautiful so the only place I would grow them is in my flower garden. In the Square Foot Gardner, he says, "Grow only what you like to eat". One of the other reasons I grow veggies is to give to my friends and those who might become friends. So I might consider growing them for that reason!

You know, I almost made a comment about the DEA coming down on me if they ever looked through my windows in broad daylight!

Glad to know we think alike!

I am NOT growing weed! You ever tried to smoke a dried tomato seedling????!!! Probably get "cooties" or something...

GG, I built my own beds from 2X12's scavenged from construction sites here in the Heights. I saw them on their junk pile and asked if I could have them. I used nails to hold them together and that was not a good idea. Use those corner things they sell for the purpose or use screws. Nailing into the grain end of a piece of lumber does not give enough hold for the nail and it slips out in a year. Mine are 4X4. I also made some trellis holders out of galvanized pipe I found in a junk pile. My neighbor has pipe cutter and threader and showed me how to use it. I did not make these tall enough. In the Sq Ft book he gives good directions on how to build both the boxes and the trellises. I use string as he suggests in the book which you can cut off at the end of the season and it makes clean up easy.

I plant snow peas in September and I was still eating them in April 2010. I planted my broccoli, radishes, beets and lettuces then as well. I have some lettuce in the ground and some in a pot. The pot allows me to move the lettuce to the shade when it gets too warm and extend the season a little. I usually plant carrots in Sept too but this year I planted them in December.

John, if you lost your Firespike, I have some 5 gallons I grew from cuttings I took last year after mine froze to the ground in Dec 09. It was a defensive move and I over corrected so I have about 7 or 8. Yours will probably come back from the root but if not, let me know. You can have one of my stash. Cam

GG, my snow peas are called Melting Sugar. It's difficult to get them back to the kitchen from the garden, they are so delicious to eat out of hand. I have another variety to try this year. It is called Snowbird. Great for salads and stir-frys, if they make it to the kitchen.

Does anyone know where I can get the tube Christmas lights to use for bottom heat. I started before Christmas and stores were out of lights 2 weeks before Christmas! I found some at Garden Ridge but they are the LED's which dont generate any heat. I need the older kind. TIA for any info. Cam

Cam,
I was going the "bottom heat-Christmas lights-route" until I accidentally hit on putting my seed trays inside a plastic bag vented on one end. The trays go under the fluorescent lights. Dr. Carolyn does her seedlings this way too, propping one end open. I just tied the drawstring at the end and there was an opening because the bag wasn't quite as long as the tray...

When I sowed my seeds, I watered them in with warm water to heat up the soil. Once they were in the bag, the heat from the warm soil started some condensation going, and I believe the little heat generated from the lights did the rest. My bell pepper seeds last year took almost 3 weeks to "declare." They were in the seed trays under lights, but no additional heat source.

This year, the exact same seeds have come up in 7 days...go figure! All I can think is that the heat built up in those plastic bags kept the soil warm enough...I reached in to adjust something once, and could feel the heat rising up from the soil in the trays...just enough, but not too much to damage the seedlings...

Thanks for the info on your raised beds.

I'll be using cedar, with long deck screws to construct my frames.



This message was edited Jan 26, 2011 4:50 PM

I dont have enough flourescent light fixtures and am using window light, hence the need for bottom heat. I will try the bags to see if it works with window light and house temps. Peppers are so pig-headed about germinating! Cam

Steadycam, if you can't find christmas rope lights, Lowe's haS ROPES IN THEIR LIGHTING DEP'T, NEAR THE FLUORESCENT LIGHTS. sorry about the caps!

I don't know, Cam. My Firespike is toast, it seems. It turned black and dried up but it would be great if the plant grew anew somehow. Thanks for the offer- I may take you up on it.

I agree Linda, use deck screws & not nails. I also went so far as to till the dirt before I built my raised beds...almost keeled over, too, lol. I helped a buddy till his bed earlier that day so I was not 100% when it came to till my beds. It was late August.

John, I had my whole space tilled first as you did. Then I placed my boxes. Will you go to the Pct 2 plant sale? If so or if you know someone who will be going, I'llbring you one then. My plant that came back was planted in the ground and remember we had that series of 4-5 nights in a row in Dec 09 in the 20's. I dont know if it had been in a container whether it would have. My plumeria, tecoma and bauhinia all froze to the ground but came back in 09...all planted in the ground. Man, they do look ugly when they freeze, all black and hanging like shreds. I was sure mine was gone but it surprised me.

Gymgirl, Ive placed my pepper seeds in the bags and placed them on my electric throw. The bags have blown up and have condensate all over so I think Im in business! Thanks for the tip. Cam

CAM,

Just make sure your bags are vented. You don't want too much heat and condensation buildup to fry your seedlings.

Thanks, Jo. I'll check that out. I actually bought one string at a garage sale back last summer but "I cant find where I put them." That happens too often these days.

Cam- I am not familiar with the Pct 2 plant sale but checked into it just now via the web. Looks like there's one on Feb 16th & 26th, correct? These events look great, glad I finally discovered them. Thanks.

John,
There's a group of us Houston DGers going to the one at the Pasadena Fairgrounds on February 26th. Sorry I didn't think to send you an invite. You wanna join us?

Well, don't I feel left out? :) Yeah, I am thinking about going so if you have a dmail list feel free to add me. I may link up with ya'll if I go.

Alright! I have started my maters & peppers!! We have them in our front bedroom/junkroom. I have a space heater that I'm running for several hours a day. (It's one of those that shuts off if you move it.) Hopefully that will help with germination.