Mu Cuke plants are going gang-busters. I was out last evening tying them
up to any support I could find...
I have baby Cukes showing too....pickle time coming up!
I know once they fruit-the plants decline. At what time should I start a
new batch from seed? is it worth it?
G,
Seed starting MAF part 3 5/23/14
G, can we see pics of the baby cukes (aka: pre-pickles) too!? =)
I have a question: Do any of you think it is too late, or would be a waste of time, to start a few Ipomea seeds in one of my pots now? I've got this one bowl out back that's been cut back but isn't reviving like I'd hoped, I was thinking a little Ipomea would spruce it up. Useless, or worth a try?
Speedie, my experience with morning glory is that it grows like a weed, so why not give it a try! But Gita's grown a lot more morning glory than I have, so maybe she'll have more insight on this topic than I do!
Most MG is a weed. LOL
LOL Ric--I definitely have treated it like one in my yard! I would have been fine with it twining on the fence, but it's never content to just do that--it needs to invade everywhere and start twining on and choking out every plant in sight. So, first sprout I see of it--out it goes. Unfortunately, I can't get to it at the bottom of the fence line due to placement of the patio, with the MG growing up from an unreachable gully. Plus, some of it grows on neighbors' sides of the fence. So, all I can do is keep tugging at it in a never-ending war to keep it *under control* if not eradicated.
Speedie----
You gonna make me get dressed and go out just o get a picture of a baby cuke???
Of course.....what else would i be doing?
I have seldom ever 'grown" MG's! They come up all over on their own--
A week ago--I put 3 trellis's up against the fence part of my raised bed.
1--will be "Blushing Suzy" vine from the Swap
2--will be a MG that insisted on coming up--may be the pretty blue and magenta one.
3--is already growing and blooming--a cardinal Climber vine.
That should dress up this boring bed.....
Just for YOU--speedie....
1--Cuke bloom
2--Baby cuke born
3--Baby Cuke on its way
4--Small Cuke now formed
5--My 3 Cuke plants--getting big!
The garden is doing well. I need to start some nasturtiums and sun flowers yet. The sun flowers are dwarf varieties and will go where the peas currently are. Some of my lettuce is bolting, I will leave it for the finches, they just go crazy for it. The same goes for the late crop of sunflower.
Oh THANK YOU Gita, your little babies are sooo CUTE!! =)
OK, since I'm home tomorrow, I shall try direct-sowing some of the Ipomea seeds into a pot or 2 that have a few bare spots. I figure they should be relatively safe if they are in pots. (famous last words, huh?) =/
I brought home some spent and dried bloom-heads from some Astilbe today.. gonna try doing some sowing of those into pots as well tomorrow. I know, they don't come true from seed if they are hybrids, but quite honestly, I don't care, I just want to try my hand at it and see what I can come up with. Any tips or pointers? Thanks guys!
I haven't grown astilbe from seed before, Speedie. Hope it goes well!
ooooo am I so glad I bought my little mantis tiller. I've wanted one for years and finally bought one a month or so ago. Its wonderful!!! This morning my son helped me to put in a bed in the back. The ground is rock hard, never been dug yick. The mantis cut through it like it was well worked loam. Adding the compost was a piece of lovely warm chocolate cake with a bit of softly whipped cream. Seriously it took longer to dig a wheelbarrow full of compost out of the bin than it did to mix it in. Now I have a new shade bed with hosta plantegenea, hosta empress wu, loads of caladium and nearly all of my baby hellebores. I'm trying to pull myself together and do the other side of the tree so I can get in the ferns and the rest of the plants. I swore to myself I'm not buying anymore plants until I have everything planted. Now they have all the sales.
happy gardening Yehudith!
Harry planted a batch of organic Yukon Gold Potatoes yesterday. our other potato beds are doing well. noticed our first tomatoes on the vines too
harvested a bunch of greens (lettuce, arugula, bok choy blooms, russian red kale, border basil, purslane) tonight to add to salad
sounds like a handy dandy device, Yehudith!
oh Wind!!! there is nothing like new potatoes! I love them steamed with olive oil and garlic and a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. That's it. I'm so jealous I haven't gotten my veggies in yet and I don't think I'm going to get them in. Oh well, I guess I can live vicariously.
Cat Mint I'll tell you I could kick myself for waiting so long to get one. I got the electric powered one. You just push the button on the handle and off you go. My 80lb 13 yo can use it with no problem. I find it works best when you relax your arm and use your weight to guide it and just letit do its job. I'm digging beds atleast a foot deep with no problems. Shoot, I was digging holes for the hostas (gallon containers) with a trowel and I have carple tunnel. I'm now trying to talk myself into getting all the attachments. I also want to get a chipper to speed up the composting.
Sounds like it was a great thing to get to help with the carpal tunnel! A chipper--is that for grinding up big things, like logs?
Yehudith---
When i was going to try to dig up my raised bed--the one with the maple roots
in it everywhere--my back yard neighbor went and got his Mantis Tiller
and was going to show me how to use it. .."Push it forward and pull it back"....
Within minutes--the fine feeder roots that "live" in this bed were all wrapped
around the axis of the wheels. Impossible to remove with any ease.
I bet it took him quite a while to free all of them from the tiller's wheel.
Lesson? If you have JUST soil--go for it! If there are any tree roots in your bed--
forget the Tiller. Dig it up manually---which I ended up doing.
I would think I died and went to heaven if i could jut dig anywhere i wanted--
and it would be just soil......nice rich soil....
Dig a hole to plant a Rhodo? NO problem....Here--I would have a wheelbarrow-full
of feeder roots I had to rip out.
The effort and difficulty I encounter anywhere in my back yard beds is indescribable.
Another reason I do not want too many new plants...I know what it would take to plant them.
Gita
ssgardener- that lettuce that is not yet bolting, did you start from seed? do you know what variety? please tell if so.
Gita
I had root wrap too but when I weighed pulling them loose against digging in that concret...
I have to go into today but I'm stopping at HD on the way home. I'm finally getting to my raised veggie beds. I'm putting in eggplant and okra babies. I need to root my son out of bed so he can pull out the weeds and stir things up. I'm going to try adding some azomite this year and see what happens when I top up the soil in them. I'm thinking about getting some tomatoes too.
s
I can't believe how the potatoe bed came back. Really, some babies got left last year and sprouted this spring and are making potatoes. Yummy. I'm going to get fresh potatoes and haven't done a thing.
Sally, I'm not sure because there were quite a few varieties that were sown in that spot. I'll save the seeds from this one if you'd like! Well, that is, if it ever blooms!
yehudith, free potatoes yum! lol rooting your son....
that's perfectly OK Terri, I know how it is!
I grew this vinca from seed!
It was surprisingly easy.
yay!!
It is beautiful and perfect, SSG!
Thanks! It really is a lot of fun to grow annuals from seed, and so much cheaper, too.
I'll need to look for vinca seeds. They sound like they have been easier than the pansy was!
Definetly!
harvested my garlic the past two days. now drying inside dry shed with good air circ.
elephant garlic flowers are quite pretty.
I really love to go into the herb section of nurseries and just breathe all the scents in. Mmmm.
Smelling-good herbs and flowers are one thing that are even more lovely during those humid days...
Are any of you growing Aleppo peppers from Critter?
They're starting to fruit now, but the plant's only about one foot tall! Is that normal? My fish peppers are about 2 feet tall, which I expected since they're supposed to be dwarves.
coleup congrats on your garlic, mine was terrible!
not me ssg, that does seem like a small pepper plant
My Aleppo's haven't grown more than maybe 18 -24 inches tall by the end of the season, guess they're just shorties. Brilliant flavor, though, especially if you have the patience to let them ripen to red... glad yours are producing!
My veggie garden is in a state of neglect. Shame Shame. Tomorrow I'll be on that. That damaged yew took the best part of a week to beat into submission, I think I won. LOL
For those of you that got a "lady-in-red" Salvia from me--they have been blooming
away already. Mine are full size--and branching out...
Anyway--if yours are also that far along--the 1st bloom shoot by now
is done blooming and is starting to dry out. carefully, snap it off at the bottom
and put it on a big paper plate to dry. Assuming you want to collect seeds from this plant.
Each of the old. little bases where the bloom was now holds about 4 seeds.
This takes patience--but, using a wooden toothpick, you can coax the seeds out of there.
A slight squeeze with your fingernails at the base makes them almost pop out.
A leisurely chore while watching TV.
1--The harvested bloom stem
2--A close-up of the seed nubbies all up and down the stalk. THey're IN THERE!!!
G.
No disrespect, to GIta's method, but I just collect the stems and let them dry in a paper bag, eventually, crunch and shake them, and get enough seed in the bag. Seems quicker to me., in the long run.
Sally---
No disrespect taken.....Jill does it the same way as you....faster...
BUT--you see---I enjoy the process of picking seeds....sometimes it
fills empty evenings.....Sometimes it is an excuse not to do something else
that HAS TO be done...
In about a month--it will become a chore I will hate. NOT the picking--the mess
on my DR table! It will not be clean again until Christmas!
WHY do I collect seeds? I don't know.....it is just a part of the "saving everything
for posterity" dysfunction I live with.
A small part of it has a positive side though--such as having seeds to something
that someone...somewhere..is dying to have. And--I have them!
And--I can make that person's day by mailing the seeds to them N/C. Just ONE stamp!
That makes MY day! G.
what a lovely generous soul you have, Gita.
No Aleppos here, but I do see one small green bean hanging from the phaseolus vine that I sowed from Critter's seed, and I have one small, unripe tomato! yay! My watermelon plant is also growing nicely.
Disappointed right now in my cuke plant--there were flowers but there are no tiny cukes now, so I must not have done the hand pollination thing correctly...
This message was edited Jul 10, 2014 8:04 PM
Ahh, Sally!
And you are a wonderful friend to have---because you understand ME.
Wish we lived a bit closer--I would come and dump on you--you always
have something wise to say. Makes me see things from a different angle.
I think what I like best about you is that you are totally non-judgmental.
Moi
If only I wasn't so busy these days paying college tuitions...!
Picked the first cucumber and squash today from my spring seeds.
I have a forest of melampodium butter daisies out there, from their dropped seeds. I like them but I have to wade through them to get to the cukes! I dug some and planted them out front, where they are settling in very happy due to the rain this week.