Finally it almost feels like spring! Here's a shot of 2 EB's with romaine lettuce planted 4 weeks ago, 8 plants per EB. Hopefully I can start picking in a few weeks. A third EB is planted with buttercrunch and that one will be ready in a few days. As you can see from the picture I have started planting peppers & tomatoes also. How are the rest of you northerners making out in this terrible spring?
Rich
Rich...not a northerner...but your lettuce looks great!
I just got my boxes planted up last week-end & am waiting for them to look that big...
Rich, you're lettuce looks great. As a newbie, I was wondering if your lettuce bolts like spinach and if it does, does it bolt slower in an earth box compared to in the ground or do you just replant and move it to a cooler place? Can you grow lettuce in an earthbox indoors when it gets too warm?
Phil
Hi Rich!
Your lettuce looks yummy. I could go for a "fresh" salad about now.
I finally got all my organic ingredients for the EB's...now I have to assemble everything. Yesterday it was in the 80's so I planted 7 tomatoes in the ground. Today it's 48 and rainy. I saved 2 Delicious tomatoes for one EB plus I have peppers and cucumbers that I want to plant in the other two EB's.
Rich..can you guide me thru once more on how to "mix" all the ingredients in the EB? Do you fill it completely with the potting soil and then put in all the additives and mix them into the upper half of the EB? Also does the soil have to be moistened before I put it in or can I pack the corners and then water them a little to settle in? I'm sorry for the pesky questions...I just want to make sure I get this done right.
Thanks again!
Toni
P.S. If you can please post a pic of your baby tomatoes in the EB!
I'm in the same boat as you toni, 74 here today going down to 45 by tomorrow night. Tomatoes and Peppers dislike temps below 55 and will just sit there and sulk without growing until the weather acts more like May than March. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I remember one June years ago when it went down to 33 one night and I'm near the coast. Spots inland went down into the 20's and lots of people lost their entire garden. As far as setting up a new EB I first pack potting mix thoroughly into the 2 cutouts in the soil screen. I always position the screen so the cutouts are opposite the drain hole which then also puts the fill tube in the front of the box. Don't think it really matters but I'm just set in my ways. I then fill the box about 3/4 full with mix straight from the bag. I then add my fertilizer, in my case 2 cups of the 5-3-3 and a half cup each of bone meal and kelp meal (also 2 cups dolomite for tomatoes) and then I mix it into the soil thoroughly. I then pack it down with my hands and wet it with a full watering can of water. I then add the additional soil to fill, pack it down and water it again. Make sure that the box is filled right to the top and even mounded slightly in the center above the sides. A 2 cu. ft. bag of potting mix should all fit into 1 EB. Put on the plastic cover, make your slits and set in the plants. Lastly I fill the water reservoir and fill again the next day as most of the time the potting mix has absorbed quite a bit of the initial filling. After that, new plantings can go 2 or 3 days between fillings but eventually will require water most every day especially in hot weather. Filling the EB completely before adding fertilizer would create a mess as it would be impossible to mix it in without spilling potting mix and fertilizer all over the ground. Besides I prefer to have the fertilizer towards the bottom since when planting your transplants the root ball winds up half way down right from the start.
Rich
Thanks Rich for your excellent instructions. EB should have you write the instructions for them. I now feel super confident on how to go about it.
I really appreciate your answering all my questions. Thanks again!
Toni
pedally, lettuce bolts just as fast in an EB as in the ground, the benefit of an EB planting is I can plant it 2 weeks earlier and it will mature another week or two earlier so I manage to use it all before the weather turns warm enough to make it bolt. Bringing it into the house would just aggravate the warm temperature problems and besides I don't think you would want to lift a well watered EB without a bunch of help.
Rich
ritchh, great instructions. This weekend I'm going to change out the soil in my 5 EBs and refill the way you advise, now that I finally got the right potting mix. I always wondered why you would put the fertilizer along the top, but I followed their directions anyway. Your way makes better sense to me, so I'll give that a try.
Here's a tip for those who want to move the EB's around once in a while: Set the box on top of one of those square (about 12" x 12") surfaces that have wheels on the bottom that you find in the nursery dept. Too bad they don't make them longer, but you can position them right so that the EB sits on them without falling off.
J
Hi Ritch: I was reading your instructions for the earthboxes, and it does make a lot of sense but I have one question, will the fertilizer burn the roots when mixed into the soil, the earthbox sais to plant your new plants far away from the fertilizer to avoid burning, but I guess you also don't mix it in. Also, when you are going to use the earthbox for the second time and have used potting soil on the box, do you mix as much fertilizer, dolomite (in case of tomatoes) bone meal and kelp meal into the soil or do you reduce the amounts?
I have been watching my plants almost everyday and they are doing good, I am already getting tomatoes, and peppers, and cucumber flowers. The only thing is that all the tomatoes are still green, so I have not tried any of them yet.
I will post some pictures so you can see the growth.
Please! Please! Please everyone! Understand that I use 100% ORGANIC fertilizer (Espoma GardenTone 5-3-3 plus bone meal and kelp meal) and that is why I mix it in with the potting mix (which is as per the instruction sheet that comes with each EB). If you are using standard chemical fertilizer DO NOT mix it into the soil and do use the surface stripe method. Mixing that much chemical fertilizer into the potting mix will surely kill your plants. Organic fertilizer is mostly water insoluable and is released slowly by the action of soil bacteria and therefore cannot burn your plants. Chemical fertilizer is almost completely water soluable and will cause great harm in the concentration normally added to each EB.
Rich
O.K, that makes sense, I know that it sounded stupid but as a new gardener I thought I should ask rather than guess. Thanks for your help.
carminator1 ---- When the season ends and you want to test your soil for the new season, you can use a PH meter. Park's has them for about $25.00 and really well worth it. I have two just in case I break one for it not only shows PH but also soil fertility and if necessary to add fertilizer. A good investment...
Hi carminator 1. Your question didn't sound stupid at all and I was basically trying with my last post to make sure no-one misunderstood what I do and why I do it. As I indicated doing what I do with chemical fertilizer would be a total disaster. I basically go on the premise that last year's fertilizer has been pretty much consumed and add the same amount each year. As far as dolomite goes I add the 2 cups for at least 2 seasons and if I am using the same soil for a 3rd season I tend to add 1 cup dolomite and 1 cup pelletized gypsum. Gypsum supplies calcium without raising pH. Post some pics, I'd love to see them. I took a pic of my Buttercrunch EB before picking some today and put it here. My wife made me a salad of the Buttercrunch along with Radicchio and Belgian Endive in a balsamic vinegarette and I really enjoyed it. I think the Romaine will be ready by the end of next week so I should have 3 free EB's in a couple of weeks to start some basil and zucchini.
Rich
toni5735...here's the pic you asked for of one of my tomato EB's. Not much to see as I only planted them earlier this week. This one is Juliett Hybrid, a grape tomato that I hadn't originally planned on but found the plants at my local garden center and couldn't resist.
Rich
Hi Rich!
I grew Juliett about 4 years ago. It's fruit looks like miniature plum tomatoes. Be prepared for ALOT! I planted it near my neighbors fence and we both shared it and still had plenty to give away.
Thanks for the visual....I'm putting mine together Sunday come heck or high water! Knowing Chicago and my luck it'll probably be both!
Toni
Would you believe I was reminded /prompted to change a certain word because it was considered vulgar. I thought it was just a state of mind!
This message was edited May 14, 2005 1:09 AM
Ritch, Tplant:
My cucumber plant is going insane, it is growing huge, and it is going into the dirt, also today I was looking at my mini cucumbers and some of them are yellowish/brownish color, I will take a picture and hopefully it will help. I also wonder if I shoud place some sort of trellis so the cucumber plant can climb it and so it is not all over the dirt, my back yard is still a mess since we have been renovating
the house.
My peppers were attacked by some sort of caterpillar and yesterday I was spraying with Bug b Gon, I decided to spray all my plants.
Thanks.
Here is a picture of my cucumber plant and also 2 small size cucumbers, like I said before one of them is yellowish color the other is brownish, I am not sure if you can see it clearly on this picture but can you tell me if this is normal.
carminator1 -- Your picture seems out of focus and it is difficult to see the problem if any at all ? Let them grow out and see what happens..
carminator,
I grew cucumbers last year and I hand pollinated the first few of the cucumbers. I used a Q-tip to get some powder from a male flower (short stem) onto a female flower (that has a small swelling that becomes a cuke). Some of the cukes I didn't get to with a Q-tip and the bees didn't get to, became yellow and then brown and shriveled up, but after a while, bees caught on and I had no trouble.
Could this be the problem with your cucumber plants?
tmm
Hi carminator1
The picture shows the result of a female flower not being pollinated as tmm99 suggested and he is also correct that the bees will soon find the plants. I avoid this whole issue by growing mostly parthenocarpic varieties such as Sweet Success, Cool Breeze, Tasty Jade, Diva and Park's Improved Whopper. A normal cucumber plant has both male and female flowers. Each female has a small cucumber attached to it that will grow if the flower is pollinated with pollen from a male flower or turn yellow and dry up if not. Parthencarpic varities have all female flowers that require no pollination to set fruit. A Q-tip works fine as does a small fine artist's brush and the best time to do hand pollination is early morning. All my cucumbers grow vertically on homemade trellises made from scrap fencing and some 6' hammer in fence posts. I simply don't have the room to let them sprawl as some varieties can reach 12-14 feet long. Besides you will get straighter fruit if the vines are trellised.
Summer squash works the same way (male & female flowers) and I usually hand pollinate the first few of them but within a week of the first flowers opening the plants are swarming with bees.
Rich
Thank you so much for all your help, I realize that the picture is not the best, I tried taking a bunch more but they all look out of focus, I was hoping to take a couple of pictures if the cuckes got bigger. I think that you both are right I did not hand polinate my cucumbers at all, this is my first year growing them. I think I am going to make a trellis or buy one and hope it helps keeping the plant out of the ground. Ritch would you happen to have some pictures of your home made trellis so I can get an idea.
Thanks again.
I just went out and took a pic for you to see carminator1. Not much to look at since the 3 cucumber EB's aren't planted yet. As you can see from the picture it's another wonderful NJ spring day...52 degrees, cloudy, drizzle and a stiff NE wind. I direct seed cucumbers into the EB's and the weather just won't cooperate even in late May.
Rich
Ritchh: That looks wonderful, you are truly a professional, hopefully next year I can build something like it, my husband still has to place the vinyl siding in our house and we will probably have to move the plants. By the way we are in the 90's here in Pensacola, it is hot and humid and you can't be out much ( thanks lord for air conditioning and ice cream).
Carmen
By the way, I forgot to ask you, Where did you get that netting, I went to Lowes today and I was only able to find netting with small openings, not big ones like yours.
Good to know about Diva since I got Diva cukes this year. I didn't know that Diva pollinated itself (or bi-sexual or whatever you call it). I also have English Telegram (I imagine this one is like the english cuke we get at grocery stores. At least, I'm hoping so.) I also got Armenian cucumbers but the plant is not getting very big. It's been raining a lot here and the temp hasn't been very high so that may be why.
I was sooo very disappointed with the Japanese cukes I got last year since all of them were half way bitter and I couldn't eat them. Anyway, this year, I chose only the bitter free varieties and with EB's, I think it will all be alright.
tmm
That's not netting Carmen, it's galvanized fencing with a 2" x 4" opening size that I buy by the roll at Home Depot and cut as needed with a decent pair of wire snips. It's also available with a green vinyl coating which looks a bit better and I have a roll of that but have just started using it. You may be looking at the green ties hanging on the fencing from last year. They are twist ties that can be bought by the roll with a built in cutter at most garden centers (sort of like the twist tie on a loaf of bread). I use them to train the cucumber vines to the fencing when they don't cooperate. I used to remove them each year but finally figured out that they can be reused by just untwisting them as needed and using them with this years crop. The green posts are also very inexpensive and have punched out tabs every 6" or so that the fencing just slips into making attachment easy.
Rich
tmm99, FYI the English Telegram (I assume you mean English Telegraph) is also parthenocarpic and is one of the varities used for commercial greenhouse production of those plastic shrink wrapped beauties you can buy at the market. In fact if grown in isloation from other varieties will produce seedless fruit. Never heard of a cucumber being called bisexual before (lol) but maybe asexual would be more appropriate. Sort of the cucumber equivalent of an immaculate conception. Also as I grew them 2 years ago, be prepared for very large vines!
Rich
Actually I purchased some seeds from Parks, the diva kind I am glad that these do not need to be polinated, I was thinking of trying this kind for next year, I had no idea that the cucke I am growing needs to be hand pollinated as it did not specify in the package, this seeds I bought from walmart for 10 cents and it is called straight eight, I guess I can't complaint since it was only 10 cents and men it is really growing. I purchased a small trellis yesterday at Lowes but as soon as I finish all the projects from the backyard I'll start making my own. I'll try to check my home depot and see what they carry.
You are right Rich. It is English Telegraph, not English Telegram, and thank you for letting me know that my other cuke is asexual (I like your term "immaculate conception" better - it is exactly that, isn't it.) too!! It seems there are fewer bees in my garden after the 2 wks or so of off and on rain but at least I don't have to worry about my cukes.
Carminator, hand pollination is not a must and it is not even necessary if there are bees around. I just did it the 1st two weeks of the flowering of my cuke plants because I am greedy and didn't want to lose any cuke from not maturing due to lack of pollination. Last year was my 1st year I did any kind of veggy growing and I was very very anxious to see "the fruit of my labor" so I wasnt gonna miss out on it just because bees weren't around. Like I said, for some reason, bees came around more later on once I had greater numbers of flowers and I didn't hand pollinate any of the flowers anymore. I lost maybe three or four cukes due to lack of pollination but once you start getting a bunch of cukes, a few misses don't matter anymore. (Besides my cukes were bitter so I didn't care to eat them anyway, but that's another story...)
tmm
Hey Everyone!
Well, I finally have everything in dirt for this years crop. I have a ton of basil going, about 10-15 pepper plants, and 6 plum tomato plants (3 diff varieties). The Squash and Zuchini are exploding in the earthboxes, and everything else is coming along nicely.
I had to supplement some of my plants with stuff from Seeds of Change and The Tasteful Garden. We had a late chill that was pretty tough on the transplants. I've replaced everything dead, and would even have pictures for you, if my girlfriend hadn't absconded with the Memory Card for the camera! :) I'll have them later tonight.
Of course, I do have questions for the wise! Does anyone have recomendations for Purple Basil? I am having the worst luck, even having moved them into part shade. They just don't seem interested in growing, and the ruffled basil looks absolutely horrendous, wilted and sagging. Is it possible the Purple basil likes a dryer soil than what is found in the earthbox?
I think most of my other plants are ok, minus some overshade on a couple. Once the pictures are up, hopefully they will provide more insight into my plants ailments. :)
Hope you all are well,
Chris
I guess I made a mistake when I used the black side up..here in Texas, the soil is getting too hot. Other than removing that covering, is there anything else I can do at this stage of the game?
The plants are getting very large, but the peppers get wilty in the heat of the day, even though the soil is not dried out.
Just cover the black with some burlap, old sheets, T-shirts, or the like. Secure it with clothes pins. Hope that helps.
This is what is confusing to me as there are a lot of places hotter than So. Fl. but the instructions say to use black side everywhere else ? Also try slicing straight lines in the cover and water lightly from the top in addition to tube watering. Hope others see this thread....
I live in South Texas and am using the white side. I had some bell peppers planted in an EB that weren't doing well. Bugs and disease from the nursery got most of them. I decided two bells in an EB was a waste of space so I dug them out and transplanted the good ones in the ground. When I dug them out of the EB the roots and soil were HOT. Not just warm but hot. That was with the white side up too. My plants get a pit wilted looking midday in the EB so in the morning I usually give the base of the plant just through the holes a mist of water.
Laura
I've been to Corpus Christi and I know it gets stiffiling hot and no breeze. I don't know if you can grow anything but melons under those conditions.
*Pokes Tplant* Hey! I'm in 9a too! At least lie to me about what I can grow and make me feel better! :)
There are some areas of all zones that are hotter than others.
whoo thank goodness..ahh but I did tell you to lie to me so...*G*
Actually, it is usually very windy here. It drives me bonkers! It breaks new plants if I don't go put out something to try and break the wind a bit. The heat is as you describe though. The humidity is what really kills you though. I supposein FL you know all about that though! Every summer I ask myself why why why do I live here. For about 6 weeks in the fall/winter/spring it is gorgeous!
Usually you can plant starting in Feb. so that you are done by June when it's just too darn hot for anything. Then you can start seeds again near end of August for a 2nd warm weather growing season. This year I am hoping to extend my growing season by maybe rigging up a sort of sun shade during the hottest part of the day. I hope it works! It would be nice to have produce all summer!
I have been thinking about wrapping my EB in something less heat absorbing but I haven't figured out what yet.
Laura
How about wrapping it in alumium foil to reflect the heat?! Anyone try that???
