My 2016 Garden Thread

Amended with compost and dug out a dozen holes in the yard and planted tomatoes in them today… kicked my ass… finally had a nice day.

With just one nice day yesterday and again today stuff is starting to pull through… things were looking pretty shitty a couple days ago. It’s like when it’s too wet out the plants can’t take up nitrogen or something… I gave all of this stuff a good kelp spray yesterday but I’m going to let it all dry out so the roots will grow. .

Bed of peppers

Tomatoes I planted yesterday with rabbit guards…

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IT is pron, indeed, considering that’s Southern California we’re talkin about.

One of my AK 49 autos bit the dust and the other is on life support. I built her a tiny little brace structure out of coffee stirrers. I should know in the next few days if she’s going to make it. I have an available planter now, so I’m germinating a Cream of the Crop auto to replace the gal who died. The LSD 25 auto is doing okay… just very slow growth. I’m seeing now that the auto strains are not really suited too well for outdoor growing. I wish the seed purveyors would tell you this shit.

All of my other regular gals are vegging pretty good. No concerns. 4 of them are growing incredibly fast. I’ll take a few pics over the weekend.

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Lettuce that got “accidentally planted” last fall is going great guns, stuff I planted this spring looks like death on a pale horse.

Go figure.

The lettuce I planted late winter is great, just went out and picked some more, about a 1/3 of a 4x8 bed has been providing great salads almost every night. All the lettuce I planted directly in the ground spots looks bad though.

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I’m gonna put in a block next November and see if it works.

I had some oak leaf I planted in the fall once survive a mild winter 4-5 years ago, it died back but the roots stayed alive, then when it started warming up it really took off and I was eating some very early salads.

So, are there any fruits or vegetables that don’t require much direct sunlight? I wouldn’t mind trying to grow something on the north side of my house, which gets almost no direct sunlight. I ripped all of the sod out and right now it’s just a bare patch of soil.

Not that I can think of offhand… I’ve never really tried to grow anything in a spot that only gets north light… what about a fern like plant like asparagus, you’d probably need to put in a raised bed type setup for it though.

Did a little research. Asian Greens and scallions can do well with only 2 hours of direct sunlight. I think I’ll give them shot if I can find any seeds locally.

Here’s my poor AK 49 gal on life support. I do think she’ll pull through if we can get a few more days of sun and light wind.

Here’s my 2 fastest growers… OG Kush and White Widow. These ladies might just produce a hefty amount of fruit.

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What size containers are those bottom two in?

Here are my container tomatoes and peppers…

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I think you may have misspelt yer sign.

https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13315336_1072053769500249_3034648041773456147_n.jpg?oh=60db529150b31505868ccca56629ec09&oe=57DCA801

Planting lots of watermelon, cantaloupe, and some pumpkins/zucchini… from seed… but I’m trying to amend the soil well so hopefully the shit will grow great.

Overall I’m putting a lot less work in than I did last year but should produce a lot, probably the most yet. I’m hoping to grow a whole bunch of these small sugar baby watermelons if I can find enough spots for them. They’re really good, I could eat one every day.

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I had some melons before They may grow better from seed. There was this maggot like worm that attacked them. Thank Dawg for the benefits of chemical bug killer.

They are good!

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I grew a few last year for the first time, trying to grow a lot more this year… I use some diatomaceous earth on bugs sometimes but it’s just fine silica/ground up quartz. Works mechanically by cutting them to shreds and sucking all the moisture out of their bodies. I’m probably going to make a hot pepper spray this year too for organic pest control…

I’ve also been using some of this on my tomatoes and peppers as a foliar spray occasionally, makes the plants less attractive to bugs… potassium silicate… also seems to make the stems a lot thicker and sturdier too…

https://www.repotme.com/orchid-fertilizer/img/Pro-Tekt-800.jpg

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I haven’t grown anything in a few years, but I always had good success using Neem Oil as a foliar spray. It’s completely organic, inexpensive and you only need to use it once a week or so. It’s also supposed to help prevent mold and mildew, but I never had a problem with that anyway, so I don’t know.

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I’ve never tried it but I should get some, I think they also sell something called “Neem Cake” you can put in the soil. PM powdery mildew I think is mainly caused by mites shitting on the plants and then the shit turns into mold/mildew.

harvesting most of the lettuce tonight and tomorrow before it bolts… got lots of it…