STARTING OUR 2012 FALL/WINTER VEGGIE GARDENS - PT. 4

Linda I am thinking that the alfalfa pellets just absorbed water and swelled up so if am wrong please correct me as I use alfalfa pellets as my main fertilizer..If they sprouted that is another weed I do not need..

Joe,
Yes, the pellets did absorb water, and swelled up. They also got fuzzy, and then they sprouted, big, fat alfalfa sprouts. I should've double checked, but, I'm pretty sure they were the alfalfa pellets that were sprouting.

I went out and turned them under yesterday, so, hopefully that's the end of that.

Mine is a cold compost in three, 35-gallon Brute trashcans, with holes drilled all over the cans (took me half a day to do three cans...). I move the contents from one can to the next. One can remains empty for the rotation...

My fear was that, because the compost doesn't heat up, the growth would not be killed...we shall see!

Linda

Harvest the sprouts for your salad!

Sorry, Steph, but I'm not feeling that! It's something about knowing what the sprouts have soaked up. I can live with the leaf mould/ compost ON the am soil after it's broken down and looking like soil.

Once again, it's a mind thing in the same category as the cat poop fert ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I places some pellets in a bucket with water. I forgot it and it soaked for about 4 days to long. When I poured it into my compost pile, I just about hurled. Foulest smell I have smelt in a long time. But the worms loved it.

i have thousands of new worms in my new compost pile. I will see if I can get a photo tomorrow of some of the adults. They are big for worms. Of course, here, heating the pile does not appear to be a problem. I need to get my worm casting out into my landscape from my old pile so I can restart a new one there.

Have a great Thanksgiving. My husband had eye surgery for a detached retina so we are going nowhere and our daughter is bringing us over a plate of food. Because I am not cooking and only playing nurse, I might garden. Our temperature today was 70.

Sharon,
I sure hope Vern's eye surgery turns out well. I had a wonderful worm bed in Laguna Beach about 50 years ago, but i bought some worms for here, and they were tiny red ones, and did not seem to like this soil. All i see are some native looking light brown ones now, and not very many of them. All i see advertised are the red ones. I am doing pretty good without them, and will probably not bother with any more of the red ones, but always enjoyed having them around.

This is fantastically fertile soil here, once i get the crust broken up. I am very pleased with how the trees are growing, as well as the garden and flowers.

Ernie

Thanks Ernie. Emergency surgery has a tendency to drive your blood pressure up and threw my list in my mind totally out of whack.

I just have the normal brown worms that live in the soil. The small reds are only good for worm bins. If you put down something for the worms to eat, they just come. They really congregate under the clover and dichondra.

I just started collecting my neighbors leaves from his three trees. They have very small leaves, so I do not have to do anything to them but collect and cover up in a hole. The worms take care of everything else. They love coffee grounds. I just throw them on top of the pile. They come to the top of the pile, have a coffee party and then make babies.....

Have a great Thanksgiving day. Be safe, warm and happy. Sharon

Sharon,
I agree with you, on the worms, but i have two problems here, the ground is decomposed granite, which may be too sharp grained for the worms to like, and it is subject to great cohesion. It is very porous, drains quickly, and tightens up.

The property had not been watered or cultivated for 20 years, so we only saw a half dozen worms native worms, if that many, which was why i bought the red ones. Now, after two summers of $300 a month water bills, we are seeing a few, but not nearly as many as i would like to see. It may be the brown ones i like are just not feasible for the worm breeders to raise, but i will keep my eye out for them. If they are doing good for you in L V, surely they can live in this soil down here.

Ernie

I'm still not getting any worms setting up shop here . Don't know why they won't come...

I have my snow peas, garlic. onions, romaine lettuce, potatoes, two that's 2 broccoli plants. cutworms!!!! My lima beans are still cranking out beans and my tomato plants have tomatoes and blooms. I have healthy chard, red lolla rosa lettuce and some green lettuce I forgot the name of. My asparagus may take over!! I still want to plant a few beets for salad greens and Im wondering if I start broccoli seeds will they have time to make. By the time I lost my broccoli that I started from seed, the stores had no more broccoli plants for me to fall back on.

My sister lives near Texarkana and the deer waited until her broccoli started to form heads and they came in and ate the broccoli and all the lettuce. Funny, they did not bother the lettuce until the broccoli was ready!

Linda i do hope you got rid of the pesky sprouts I use the pellets as fertilizer but never thought about using them to heat the compost ,thanks for that tip..

SteadyCam,
You have LOTS of time for more broccoli.

I was gonna start more seeds, but all my Broccs did fine after the transplant out, and I didn't lose any. Plus I don't have any more space. But, I will be starting more seeds for an early spring planting. The good part is that it hasn't gotten cold enough to NOT start more seeds.

I'd go ahead and start some inside in a seed flat, in a warm, bright area. Transplant them when they're 6-7 weeks old. They just need a warm start to get big enough to handle the cold. The transplants should have about 6-8 leaves , and they're good size to go out.

The other day, I moved a pot in the GH and watched what must have been a 10-inch long earthworm slither across the ground to the compost pile. At first I thought it was a snake. There were tiny earthworms on top of the ground, too. I use a lot of coffee grounds in my compost, so when I repotted the avocado and watered, the coffee 'flavor' must have drawn them. For some reason any time I dig in the GH, I always find earthworms. That's a nice thing to see. I'll have to try the alfalfa pellets, someday.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Only have what I call nightcrawlers here but they are thick in the compost during the spring when everybody is going fishing I am the most popular spot in the neighborhood...Finally had to start saying NO!!!!!

Making an observation that I had completely overlooked as a possibility as to why some of my seedlings seem to be languishing.

It could be the seeds were too OLD!

I know certain seeds have great viability for quite a few years (I believe there was mention of some tomato seeds that were almost 11 years old with great germination...), but, I am learning that not ALL seeds maintain this viability.

I'm going to need to start researching (or, at least, asking) the viability of different types of seeds that I've had around for quite awhile. I recently read somewhere that spinach seeds aren't usually viable past one year...that could explain why my plants aren't taking off like I expected them to.

Linda

Linda, there must be some kind of storage that could extend that life for seeds. That's disturbing about the spinach seeds. A topic well worth exploring. I planted some corn from an old pack of seeds from 1979 or something that my mother had before she died - planted the seeds a couple of years ago - and they came up! I didn't have the right soil conditions for them, though, so they didn't produce, but that was encouraging. My hollyhock seeds that I just threw into paper bags in 2005 or 2006 came up this year like crazy and are doing well. Some are growing profusely in the green house, and others I planted this fall outside.

Oh...and...I HAVE CORN TASSELING!! I had side dressed the corn with my chicken manure/shredded leaf compost, in the greenhouse, a couple of days ago, and today TASELLING! I know...too excited about corn, but I haven't eaten corn on the cob in over 10 years, due to modern growing conditions, etc., so this is pretty exciting to me! Okay...calming down now. :) I'm convinced that greenhouses, no matter how homespun they are, are a very good thing to have, especially when you live at over 7500 feet altitude! I'll try to take pics later today. :)
Dianne

Congratulations, Dianne!

Have you ever tried nuking your ears in the microwave, rather than boiling them? You can't imagine the taste! Some DGers have given up boiling altogether!

haven't boiled corn since 1980 when I learned about the micro wave thing and now I don't even clean it just cut off the stem end and when it comes out of the MW just grasp the silk end and give it a vigorous shake this will amaze you...

It's true, Linda. Some seeds just don't last as long as others. It's totally normal for plant seeds to have different longevity. Herbs in particular are very short-lived. There are various charts online but they don't all agree. :) Roughly speaking, the bigger the seed, the longer it keeps. Squash seeds, I think, are forever.

For your older seeds, I suggest germination testing. If they do poorly, it may be time for fresh stock. If they do so-so, better plant them soon and save new seed (if you save your own). I write the dates of any germination testing on the seed envelope and the approximate percentage of success.

I've never tried microwaving corn, I'll have to try that. I try to nuke as little as possible because of nutrient loss, but maybe if they don't have to cook long... how long do you microwave them? Do you wrap them in wet paper towel or anything? What power setting?

Depends on the size (thickness) of the ear:
Small ear = 1.75-2.0 minutes
Medium ear = 2.0-2.5 minutes
Large ear = 2.5-3.0 minutes

Nuke it in the husk! After it's out, let it sit for 1 add'l minute. Grab your clean oven mitts, or a couple paper towels to hold the corn in one hand. Starting at the top end, use your other hand and more paper towels to wipe down the entire length of the ear. The husks, silks and all, will come off in one motion.

Then, you can hold it by the husks or just break it off. You can do multiple ears, and adjust your time according to the number of ears you're doing.

Your corn will be SOOOOOOOOOOO sweet, you won't reach for salt, pepper, OR butter!

Enjoy!

Wow! Now I REALLY can't wait to get corn! Thank you for the info.

I did an update video on my 'winter garden' (it feels like winter, down to -1 so far) greenhouse project. It's here: http://youtu.be/pIll6NQohTQ

I just found this online video tip about how to determine if old seeds might germinate:

http://www.todayshomeowner.com/video/how-to-determine-if-old-seeds-are-still-good-for-planting/

Thanks, GG. Good tip.

I harvested the first of my broccoli last week. It was very tasty, but the head wasn't very big. Fine by me because we don't eat a lot of broccoli in my house. Checked all the broccoli plants today and almost all of them have heads!

The bell peppers are ripening....slowly.

That looks SO good, Stephanie. Can you eat the broccoli leaves, too? Seems like I read somewhere that you can...

We are having a lovely 70 degree weekend, which coincided nicely with my plans to work on the garden extension. I got the beds weeded and cleaned up, the fence re-done and one bed moved to make a pathway and then filled with mushroom compost. I also got the nursery fabric down in the rest of the aisles, extended the perimeter bed down the side instead of wrapping the corner and many

One hiccup -- it seems I ordered 2" chicken wire instead of 1". I fortified part of the new fenceline with that, but I just now ordered a roll of 1" to do the big long section along the chain link fence.

I also still need to do the other gate -- I haven't found something to use as a gate yet. I need some more pine needles for under the apple trees and some pavers for the new (second) entrance, but it's starting to look done!

View from upstairs:

What a beautiful view! Lovely garden!

Thanks, Solace. That's the view from my bedroom and of course it looks best in the spring and summer. It's not really "upstairs," it's just the main floor is way up off the ground on that end of the house!

Very nice!

nicole how do you manage to stay so organized in thr garden my gardens always look like they were done by a mad scintist on meth..

LOLOL

I'VE GOT BUTTONS!

Between Saturday and this morning, they peeped right on out! Six broccolis, and two cauliflower heads, about the size of a nickel.

Sneaked up on me, cause I've been checking every day.

NOW, I want them to go back in, 'cause I am not at all prepared with new seedlings to take their place in the succession planting!!!!

Ain't that just like a contrary veggie gardener?

I figure they'll have full heads in maybe 4-5 more weeks. I should have a quick minute to start something inside under lights! Maybe cabbages since I don't have many.

Anyways, it's almost 120 days to the date that I dropped seeds for these brassicas. That's good to know for next time, and for how much time I have from today. Starting something this week might give me buttons (or heads) by the beginning of April, depending on how temperate our weather is between now and then.

Let the games begin, again!!

Linda

I had snow pea blooms yesterday!! My romaine is awesome and my taters and garlic are lookin' good. Still harvesting butter beans. tomatoes have little fruits, green, still. My two broccoli plants looking good but planted later than yours, Linda, so no heads yet.

Nicole, I look forward to the end of summer just so I can get a handle on all that vegetation!! Im always expecting a knock on my door with some neighbor complaining about "that jungle". Just in the last month have I felt more in control.

Steadycam3,

The broccs are growing FAST. Today they're almost quarter-size! I found more cauliflowers with heads, too, so next task is to tie 'em up from the sun.

Last night I sowed seeds for more beets (15), cabbages (15) and, GULP!!! tomatoes (10)!!!!

Yeah, yeah... I know....

But, these are five Siberian and five Black Prince varieties. The Siberians are supposed to set fruit as low as 38°, so, I figured there's no time like the present to find out if this is true. At any rate, 6-8 weeks from now would have them out for hardening off in mid-February, which has always been my targeted tomato plant out date. All my long-season heirlooms need to be out by then, or no harvest by the time our Texas heat sets in. But, I've never managed to have everything in order to reach that goal.

I'm ready this year... Hoops, wind protection, perforated plastic sheeting, blankets, lights, heaters, and a canon...

Just kidding about the cannon! LOL!!!

I'm looking forward to this experiment, and will post updates.

My regular tomato seed sowing date is scheduled for December 22nd.

Linda

Since my darling chickens ate my newly forming broccoli heads a few weeks ago, I knew I wasn't going to get any big heads from them. But the side shoots are developing nicely, and at least I'll get some broccoli.

Also, the peas are coming along great and the garlic in the background is really sprouting. Another bed has green onions rowing from seed. The only thing left to plant this winter will be my Dixondale onions arriving sometime mid-january.
Jo-Ann