Plant Propagation: The Basics July/Aug 2016

All this talk about tomatoes, thought may be time for some veggie shots. Mine are way behind you guys but quite healthy anyway.
1). Had to try a new tomato this year as my usual one seemed to disappear from the seed catalogues. This one is Primo Red and satisfied so far
2). Shiny Boy watermelon. Vowed this was my last attempt if unsuccessful but looks promising if we get a late fall
3). Corn actually seems ahead of schedule for here
4). Sweet potatoes. You may recall the shot of the black tub plastered in forest tent caterpillars
5).. Vine bunk. Front to back; watermelon, canteloupe, pickling cucumber, and English cucumber climbing at the back

Today's flower shots
1). Succulent hanging basket
2). Castor beans now over 6' tall
3). Another succulent collection by the pond
4). Closeup of coleus on back coleus bunk
5). Firecracker vine

That was a warm one Ju; however, your tomatoes look picture perfect in that heat!

Gypsi, it sounds like you have done a good bit of trial and error but in the end you got do do a good amount of snacking! Good for you!

Keith you have my dream garden but I'm going to have to get out of Texas to have it. Not enough water, our tomatoes come early and late but our plants look awfully burned up. Will try to get a pic tomorrow. My watermelon and canteloupe vine didn't get enough water this year (on years when I am at home I get a lot of both but I was on the road). they burned up, zucchini and yellow squash burned up, I didn't even plant a cuke. I didn't even get a winter squash yet, but I did replant but butternut and buttercup seeds and am doing them in pots for now so I can better control moisture.

As usual Keith, absolutely spectacular! How much do you water there?

Being on this website and conversing with you guys constantly makes me feel better and really appreciate where I live. Yes we have our short season woes but overall I'm feeling so much better about being a Zone 3 gardener. To answer your question Robin all that I can water is pots and you may have noticed , I have a few. Occasionally I water the raised beds but nothing in ground ever gets watered. Mother Nature does the rest. We are on a well and it provides ample for household use but drains quickly when used for watering. It is also brutally cold for watering with. I have 3 large rain barrels as a water supply for the pots and raised beds, 2 at 100 gallons and one at 250 gallons. In drier times I will fill the closest one to my outside tap from the well when it gets empty and let it warm up before using it. That doesn't put too much of a strain on the well except when I forget and let it run till the well goes dry. But this year and last year we have had so much rain I hardly have to fill the barrel from the well. The tub that the sweet potatoes are growing in is a retired 100gallon rain barrel. I think I got the short end of the stick when the kids moved the last time. They stored theirs here the winter they moved and I have had a cracked rain barrel ever since. They tell me theirs was not cracked when they left it but neither was mine! I tried all kinds of sprays to seal it with but that much water packs a lot of weight and I could not make it stop leaking so it is making a pretty awesome sweet potato tub.
Keith. (Pretty appreciative Zone 3 gardener, until the next frost, that is.)

Thanks for the info Keith, great stuff! You're a wildly successful gardener and your work is greatly appreciated on here.

The cracked water barrel story is something you come across again and again when you have kids. What a great way to recycle, a great idea for sweet potatoes. Please consider showing us your water barrel set-up sometime.

ok, as promised, here is a photo of my vegetable garden taken this morning. I let the black eyed susans take over to feed the bees while I was gone to work. Sweet potato bed is a pond underlayment cloth bag filled with garden soil mushroom compost mixture. Under the light pine bark are some purple potatoes, hoping they will do a fall thing but beginning to wonder if the heat scared them to death

Gypsi, it does look hot and dry there and there's not a lot that can be done about it...other than hope the plants survive and will make a full recovery later in the season. We've had lots of drought here and my water bill almost doubled. Sometimes it's good to have a small yard.

That is what I thought looking at that . Dry , and Hot looking ,
I know the feeling ,,

Lol, yes I know the feeling too, it was close to 100 degrees here today.

Sorry Robin,
I haven't been ignoring your request for a peek at our watering setup. We have been entertaining my mom and sister for the past few days. They live about 3 1/2 hours away and have been with us since Wednesday noon
1). 250 gallon water barrel. It is filled from eaves trough that covers only about 1/3 of the roof on the back side of the house. It was given to me by my brother in law and is actually a 500 gallon tank cut in half. "Texaco" was printed on one end so I guess it started its life as a fuel tank. I hand water pots from here with the 2 watering cans shown in the next picture. We got near an inch of rain last night so this tank is right full again. As you can see it is in dire need of a paint job next spring
2). 100 gallon barrel serviced by the trough on the entire front roof. This would be a better location in a way for the larger tank however it is not too attractive. To the far left you can see the garden hose and outside tap. This is the tank that I fill with well water when necessary. The garden hose itself is used very little for actual watering. It comes in real handy in the spring for dragging all over the yard performing CPR. after a frosty night. I will also pull it out to top up the pond and bog gardens.
3). Second 100 gallon barrel behind the wood shed. There is no eaves trough here so it doesn't fill right up vey often but usually collects enough to water the 40' lattice wall. Both these 100 gallon barrels are actually sold as cow or horse watering troughs
Keith

Wow, thanks for all of that great info Keith, I've always wanted rain-barrels even though I hardly have room for them and they're an eyesore. Collected rain is so much better than our Village water...cheaper too. I'll have to design one and search for supplies. I want one!

BTW, answering is always at your convenience, don't ever worry about getting back to me right away (or at all). I was asking for a good chunk of your time, thanks for graciously obliging.

Glad to be of assistance
Keith

I have never had a rain barrel, but I might try it someday. The problem here is the water is needed in summer, and it hardly ever rains in summer, so it would not get filled up again. So the cost would be a bit bigger for us Seattleites who get months of "dry rain" where it drizzles all day but the rain gauge still reads zero!
Anyway I have a question: Do mosquitoes breed in there? Can this be prevented?
I see the commercial ones advertised have childproof lids. Are they mosquito proof too?

I am enjoying the conversation here ,
Where I am it is raining now , I like that this time ,

I planted a Rare Milkweed vine , Did not get the seeds all planted as a cloudburst I did not care to play in began
My largest little aster was looking a little yellow earlier , so I am going to have to see if I can green it some ,
I have too many and not enough little seedlings That going on a day or two ,

More seed gathering in Wisconsin, watching the stormclouds since yesterday. Had to call for help - but got it done before help arrived. This is a picture of a 'Jesus Bolt' - it's the ONLY thing connects a tractor to a trailer except for airlines. This trlr was dropped way too high even for the yard dawg when he showed up and saw it, so he lowered 5 other trailers for his own drivers. Normally when I slide under a trlr, I pick the trailer up 2" off the ground. Groan, low gear crankin cost me 45 min and a hitch in my get along thats eased up now.
I like your rain barrels Keith. We go from flood to drouth and my stock barrel has acquired a seep I need to fix- also has to be constantly mosquito bt'd. Our summer plants are so wildly messy...

I use fish in part of mine, the ones that are stock tanks, but I keep bog plants in them so not much use for watering, my 2 main rain barrels have screen stapled over top opening, tightly, so the skeeters can't get in to lay eggs, and a tap on the side down low. One of them has a hose connected to its tap so it never gets over 8 inches of water, the water goes down that hose to my peach tree farther out in the yard. Haven't done the screening on the newest rain barrel, but mine really are bright blue plastic 55 gallon drums so they are "plumb ugly". I can't hold enough water to go through a day in a Texas summer.

Pistil, I'm thinking the mosquitoes will breed in an open container but not in a closed one. I'll be looking for a drum with a lid, that should be about $80.

Ju, I sure hope your rare Milkweed does you proud! It's not always bad to get kicked out of the garden due to inclement weather. I'm really looking forward to rain and lot's of it.

Kitt, it's about time they have electric trailer hydraulics and no more of this hand-cranking nonsense. They have electric landing gears for RV's.

It has been storming all day here so far , suppose to through tonight , Soooooo I've Got rain !!! lol
I might clean some more seeds later while thinking the rain might make it easier to dig a few bilbs , roots , etc

Robin ,, Thank you!!! about the Milkweed!!! , I'm Hoping ,!!! Maybe I will some Monarchs to go with that , lol


This message was edited Aug 13, 2016 1:21 PM

Monarchs are good, I'm hoping to get some here too in the near future.

Robin Think pink ,it may happen ,


Shades of pink lol

Good job with the pink collection Ju. Dryden, our nearest centre of any size, only about 11 miles from here was all over the news in Canada today because of a flash flood they got yesterday. They got over 6" of rain in less than 2 hours. We only got about 5/8" here and even my 2 daughters that both live just out of town got very little rain. It was very localized but did all kinds of damage in town.

Today's pics. Not much new just updates. Sorry.
Won't hear from me for a couple days as kitchen Reno has gotten green light so off to the city again to order new table set and probably buy ceramic tile for floor and backsplash.
Keith

Keith Rain has a way of doing that , be careful traveling and enjoy the city
Your garden looks wonderful ,Delightful yesterday , today and tomorrow ,,

RV's dont haul 46000# of goodies in them. That crank has a hi and lo and neutral gear, just some are old and cantankerous, chuckl.
Mipii, skeeters breed in septic tanks with lids on them in the south. Not sure if eggs are rained into them like fish eggs and frog eggs...do know they can breed and grow in the condensation on the grass down here in the south.
Summer rains are localized right now. I pass thru them and accumulation happens after I am gone. I am also a trained weather spotter, as well as watching the systems as they follow the winds thru the seasons. Currently I run for a company that has specialized runs in the north eastern areas, so am just not where everything goes down. The last 2 pictures are from the front porch - different rains, chuckl. I love the seasons

I got a 1/8 of an inch of rain yesterday in the big storm, send some here please

"skeeters breed in septic tanks with lids on them in the south"
Are there any openings in those septic tanks like vents or vent stacks?
That's a lot of water on your front lawn Kitt, it was probably that deep in your house too. Wow.

That was the 500 yr flood Robin, didnt get in the house - most southern homes arent built flat to the ground unless they are in cities, or know they are on hi ground. Louisiana and Ms are the ones getting these rains. Some of the internet places I visit like 'Twisted Truckers' have updated other drivers where roads are closed in these storms in the south. In the winter they get the worst of the northern storms and we see other trucks. Just as they update us on all the fires trucks are having -
Ugh, I do not mean to hijack a thread.
I am here to see you guys GROW stuff.

Replying to the flooding and septic stuff on the back porch thread.

Garden is calling, it cooled off.

I am still here, following along with not much to report. Enjoying the thread (including trucker hijack it is fun to get a glimpse of it). I have now started saving seeds from the garden. Yesterday I sorted and cleaned seeds while watching the Olympics.

Here is a water beaten Morning Glory ..
Growing on a Nanking Cherry Bush

Nice Pic's above Kitt You always have interesting views and memories to share !

Those are some great pics Kitt.

Back from whirlwind trip to the city with a truckload of ceramic tile.
Cherokee Sunset Rudbeckia came into bloom while we were gone. Taller and more variety of colours than Tiger Eye Gold. They are a little more prone to falling over as they aren't quite as sturdy. But they are still a pretty long lasting bloom

pretty ,, I am still hoping about seasonally , Next year and my natives ,

Those look like Dahlias Keith! (and I have determined that in North Texas Dahlias should be considered excellent potted annuals.... so buy em cheap cuz they ain't gonna last) Wonder if rudbeckia grows here.

One of the red Milkweeds came up about an inch or so tall but it has no leaves , hoping that is normal for a vine , I have seen that before ,,
Under a wormwood that went crazy , I have a Hibiscus several Delphinium , Snapdragons , Echinacea and more , interesting that was
A mint and an Agastache managed to grow through that , but it seems to have destroyed several of my attempts ..
Most of the Aster and Erigeron seem to have a good chance of living ,
Planted a few greens type plants as it started raining , their up and growing in less that two days , (i like that ,, I love that ,lol )
Bunches of Fennel , hoping for next season ,

I love it too when seeds germinate and out of the soil in two days, but it rarely happens for me. Mints are vigorous growers, I've had to relegate all mint to pots so they don't out compete everything else. I didn't know Agastache were that determined. Your Wormwood must have like all of that precipitation and I understood it to be drought tolerant. Learning new stuff all the time from you guys!

I'm also looking forward to seeing all of your new Erigeron and Milkweed blossoms next season...that's exciting.

Red Milkweed seedling ,(s)

Looking good Ju!

Their suppose to be Hardy to zone 3 or 4

Bunches of mulching to do .
I think I finally got some Blue Erigeron to grow , those have been slow ,, A few flat topped aster ,, One may be narrow leaved or willow I am not sure as of now ,
I have even more to do upcoming