STARTING OUR SPRING VEGGIE GARDEN STAGE 5

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This message was edited Apr 27, 2013 7:44 PM

Thanks juher7. Did it!

Fun isn't it ???!!!! UUUUUUUU did it !!!!! .. Well Me Too!!!!^_^

Google Mittleider Gardening Method and look up videos by a guy named LDSPrepper. He's in the Spring, Texas area , just north of Houston.

Check out what he's growing all those veggies in---SAWDUST & SAND!!!!!!!!

LINDA

Here's a link to one of LDSPrepper's videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fElShiYAmU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

what is everybody harvesting?
any tomatoes yet?

I am out of town until mid May ... I hope y'all going to post some pictures of your garden ... I miss mine ...

I grow long season beefsteak tomatoes that take 80-120 days from transplanting out.

I won't start harvesting until the end of May, which is why I will always have to transplant seedlings out by mid-February if I want a crop before the heat sets in above 82°, and the pollen clumps.

I think many of the cherry and early types are fruiting now, since they take far less days to mature.


This message was edited Apr 29, 2013 8:55 AM

This message was edited Apr 29, 2013 8:56 AM

drthor
I just have my first tomato. It is a tiny thing on my earliest fruiting plant "Early Treat", I really love this tomato, it is a stout plant that makes lots of 11/2 to two inch size tomatoes. As you can see it will be a long time before I harvest them.
I heard you need some lettuce would be glad to send you some of mine!

Seedfork,
I love your cold frame!

Thanks, I salvaged that aluminum frame from a old party tent, there was one on each corner. I have several different variations I use according to what is needed at the time. I have just set up a new location for two of them, I will cover these two over with plastic during the cold weather. During the warm weather the wire keeps squirrels and other pests from eating newly set out seedlings.

This message was edited Apr 29, 2013 10:06 AM

I planted tomato seedlings today. 53 inground so far and I have a few empty spots still to fill up .

Well I have volunteer squash and tomatoes finally coming up, so as soon as the cold snap is over this weekend I'll put stuff in the ground!

NYRita---53 plants and more to come? Wow. And I thought 18 were too many. I hope to get mine planted this coming week. If I do it will be 2 weeks earlier than I usually plant them. We are having a glorious spring here in the PNW. Scares me, though. Ever heard of a false spring? But, we were due for a nice spring since the two previous ones were terrible. Wet, cold and gloomy. I am also going to transplant spinach plants and it will probably be too hot for them and they will bolt. You can never win them all in gardening.
Seems like the only volunteers I get are potatoes.

I always go overboard with my tomato plants. I end up giving away tomatoes to everyone I know.

Nichole you have my sympathy. I have plants in the ground but they aren't growing as fast as usual it just hasn't been warm enough, and nothing is blooming which is just strange the plants look good but I think the wild fluctuations in temps have them confused.

I was just talking to a neighbor and both of us commented on how long it took the squash seeds to germinate this year.

I still don't have volunteers coming up. I plan to finish planting in ground this week, most of the peppers and dwarf tomatoes I grow in containers and for some reason they grow fine on my covered deck even tho they get very little direct sun.

This is gonna be a crazy growing season -- again! But, that's the fun part -- challenges!

In the meanwhile, do a YouTube on a guy in Spring, Tx. named ldsprepper, and check out his garden videos. I'll be meeting him pretty soon.

He grows the veggies in sawdust and sand!
Linda

Wish I had know about him when we lived where the soil was just sand. All I needed to do, I guess, was add sawdust, which we have lots of here in OR. We have a fairly sandy soil here too, but we amend it with lots of things, especially from our barnyard and also aged sawdust.

Bee,
The craziest part is he's not adding any amendments to the sawdust and sand. Seems Mr. Mittleider developed the gardening method, and figured out how to "mine?" the 16 or so trace elements they say all plants and veggies respond best to. It's a 1 lb. bag of rock dust? mineral?

Anyway, you mix that bag of minerals with Epsom salts and a balanced fertilizer between 13 and 19 (I believe 16-16-16 is the recommendation, but the other numbers will do if that's all you can find). The mixture is applied EVERY week, sprinkled on by the spoonful onto the growing medium. No need to mix in water or anything.

Check out his stuff.

I think I'll conduct a little experiment with my next raised bed. It will certainly be cheaper to fill it with sawdust and sand. I have access to the same supplier as ldsprepper. That little 1 lb. bag of magic minerals will mix approximately enough plant food to feed an average size backyard garden for 2 years, stored in a 5-gallon bucket.

Linda

Tha ammended tomato growing list after thowaways, giveaways and rebuys.
62 plants- All planted! Let the tomato crazies begin.
12 Better Boy
6 Big Boy
6 Beefmaster
6 Early Girl
6 Rutgers
6 Jet Star
6 Big Beef
4 Juliet
4 Sweet Million
3 Supersonic
1 Viva Italia
1 Sungold
1 Sugery

Wow , and here I thought a dozen was a bunch .. incredible!

Gymgirl,

I haven't looked a Mittleider method in detail, but what you are describing is fairly basic hydroponics media culture. Use a sterile medium, provide nutrients and water, and watch plants grow. There is also a variant of hydroponics that doesn't even use media, just the nutrient water and a structure to hold the plants... Soil is useful because it provides a buffer, both with nutrients and moisture, so that the needs of the plant don't have to be quite as carefully controlled. With something like the method you describe you just have to be careful to give the plants everything they need but not in excess. It is interesting, I'd agree.

David

Yes, David,
I believe someone did allude to it being a type of hydroponics system.

I'm drawn to it because of how inexpensive it seems to be to fill a raised bed then keep it fed once a week with the "magic" mix fertilizer. his videos show the whole process, step by step.

Well I planted out a bunch more tomatoes and sowed 4 packs of bean seeds only to hear that we will be getting in the 30's Thursday and Friday morning even lower. I looked at the long range forecast and every week there seems to be some kind of front. What month is it?

Lisa, new this month: forecasts of mini ice age returning...

Is that before or after global warming? Lol. I'm afraid my plants are going to be mad bc I took them out of the nice warm GH. Also strange that none are flowering. They are always flowering even before I plant them out. Not this year.

Beans and lettuce is about all I have planted in the garden , of course those plants that return on their own are there .
I will try likely a couple of tomato plants , those I have three or more of . I have never trusted the weather here , likely never will either..

I'd have more time to plant if the weather would make up it's mind. This is very unusual 4 this time of year.

Forecast here is low of 20 tomorrow night. Getting so tired of cold. Come on JUNE!

We might break record lows this weekend. Predicting mid-40s Friday and Saturday mornings...

So glad this weather is giving me a chance to catch up, since there are still two fallow beds lying totally empty...But, this means a shorter summer, so I might be able to start my seeds a bit earlier for fall planting.

Last year I sowed in August. I might push for 1/3 of the brassicas sowed indoors in mid-July for plant out by mid-September.

We'll see...

Always pushing the growing envelope!

Solace, zone 4a must be difficult. I am in foothills of Mount Baker in WA -- light frost last night was unusually late but not unheard of. The shorter growing season precludes a few things here. I am planting carrots and beets today once it warms up. Call me the optimist, but I think it's going to be warmer soon. What veg do you grow? And when do you put them in?

Today is a really lovely day here and I am starting lots of seeds.

For cucumbers I just planted Suryo Long, Straight Eight and Camilla.

For melons I planted Avara, Sakata and Green Machine.

Then I also planted Nevada Lettuce (yes I know should have done it earlier) and Zen Greens. Those were direct sown. The Cuks and the melons I start in recycled veggie containers. I keep them inside cause its warmer so they sprout quickly. Then when they come up I put them outside during the day and bring in at night for afew days until I am ready to plant them outside.

I still have my yard long bean seeds to start but they like it warm so I am waiting on them.

This is the compleate list of edibles I am growing for this year-

Chives
Onions
Radishes
Zen Greens
Boston Lettuce
Nevada Lettuce
Brocoli
Sunflowers
Snow peas
Snap peas
Yard Long Beans
Frying Peppers
Cucumbers (4 different varieties)
Melons (4 different varieties)
Zucchini
Eggplant
Tomatoes

Lots and lots and lots of tomatoes.

Looks like the north is warming up while the south is expecting more freezes! Crazy!

My little cucumbers and squash have gone from looking pale yellow to healthy green, the bigger plants were started early in the cold frame the other plants were direct sowed just recently.

Looking good!

Solace,
PLEASE post when you start canning your pesto, so I can get a tutorial on "HOW TO DO IT!"

LOL!!!

Linda

Planted some of my spinach seedlings into the garden today. They barley have their first leaves, so hope it wasn't too quick. Have more to go. If they all take off, I will have lots of spinach, which is okay because it freezes so nicely and I love to have it on hand in winter. Next are my cabbage and broccoli seedlings. Hope I don't run our of room. Every inch is spoken for now.