Gardening

[DriftingCrow]

My Peace Lily hasn't flowered in a few years, despite being replanted, carefully fertilized, carefully watered, and given happy amount of sunlight*.

Any tips on getting it to flower?

*Regarding sunlight, man, these plants are really temperamental. I basically can't open the curtains at all around them, or else the leaves start getting burned.

Actually, I think it's "soluble salt damage". I've never heard of it before, but I leached the pots last night so hopefully that'll help.
http://voices.yahoo.com/soluble-salt-damage-secret-killer-house-plants-400048.html?cat=32

[ThePhoenix]

Woohoo!  My first seedlings (a trio of mustard greens) peaked out from the soil today!

[Crowley]

Hooray! It's about time to start uprooting the garden here to replant for spring and summer, so that's going to be a fun time.

[ThePhoenix]

Here is my grow list for the year.  The number indicates the number of plants growing or seeds planted so far.

HOT PEPPERS
Orange habaneros (14)
Caribbean red habaneros (new) (6)
Tabasco peppers (new) (4)
5 color Chinese peppers (new) (4)

SWEET PEPPERS
Orange bell peppers (new) (6)
California Wonder bell peppers (new) (6)

TOMATOES
Mortgage lifter tomatoes (new) (12)
Azoychka tomatoes (new) (6)
Green zebra tomatoes (new) (6)

LEAFY GREENS
Bloomsdale longstanding spinach
Wild rocket arugula
Black mustard greens (new)
Tender green mustard (new) (3)
Giant curled Southern mustard greens (new)

OTHER VEGGIES
Royal burgundy bush beans
Bronze D'Amposta Onion (new)
Cosmic Purple carrot (new)
Danvers carrot
Waltham broccoli

FRUITS
American green pineapple melon (new)
Ozark beauty strawberries (4)
Fuji apple (1)
Granny Smith apple (1)
Belle of Georgia peach (1)
Earliblue blueberries (2)

HERBS
Slo bolt cilantro (1)
Elephant Dill (1)
Hot spicy oregano (1)
Greek oregano (1)
Stevia (1)
Genovese basil (1)
German thyme (1)
Common thyme (new)
Purple leaf sage (1)
Common sage (new)
Catalogno parsley (new) (1)
Chives (new)
Bay laurel (new)
Spearmint (new) (1)

[Joelene9]

  I got out of the bedroom today that I was restricted to all of the "Winter of my discontent" due to very painful neuropathy in the feet that caused me to pass out if the pain got too high.  I did not pass out today when I erected the portable greenhouse that is stored in the garage otherwise.  I even washed my pickup truck.  I got tomatoes, peppers, onions, leeks in the seed starters downstairs under the grow lights.  I am still eating 2012's tomato products I canned.  My relatives get the summer 2013 products I canned.  My grow list:

  Peppers:
  Sweet cherry peppers for pickling.
  Ancho, hot.
  Jalapeno Gigante, hot large jalapenos.
  Sweet Golden Giant bell peppers.
  Montebello, my own hybrid of a wild Tunisian pepper with 200,000 Scovilles of heat.

  Tomatoes:
  Summer girl hybrid
  Brandy Boy
  Super Sauce, a giant Roma type that was real successful last year.
  Roma
  Steakhouse
  Principe Borghese, an Italian cherry tomato that can be dehydrated easily.
  Yellow pear, a small pear shaped tomatoes that are pickled when still green. 

  Gourds:
  Watermelon, Moon and Stars, an heirloom type with small yellow spots on the melons and leaves.
  Pumpkin, New England pie, a small pie and jack-o' lantern type.  I had the grand nieces and grandnephews over last fall to harvest.  Ate a lot of roasted seeds also. 
  Cucumber, Suprimo Hybrid. A cucumber with non-bitter skins are good for pickling and slicing. 

  Roots:
  Potatoes, Yukon Gold
  Carrots, Scarlet Nantes
  Beet, Detroit
  Radish, cherry belle
  Onion, Red hamburger
  Leek, Hannibal

  Greens:
  Lettuce, gourmet blend, single leaf mixture.
  Spinach, Salad Fresh.
  Peas, Sugar Snap.
  Lima, Burpee's best pole. 
 
  Herbs and others:
  Corn, Sun and Stars bicolor type.
  Spearmint, already in the ground, perinneal.
  Greek Oregano, already in the ground, perinneal.
  Sage, local native cultivar already in the ground, perinneal.
  Dill, State Fair. Volunteer plants are pulled where not needed. I only planted the seeds once in 1985, they come up everywhere, every year.
  Grapes, Concord.  Already on arbor, 28 year old plants. 
  Zinnia, the only ornamental grown in the backyard this year.  I am letting the front lawn go to pot, it needs replacing, I cannot afford it. 

  Joelene
 
 

[ThePhoenix]

  Steakhouse

I'm curious about whether these tomatoes are really as huge as Burpee claims.  If they are, then how would one support the tomato plants? 

[Joelene9]

I'm curious about whether these tomatoes are really as huge as Burpee claims.  If they are, then how would one support the tomato plants?

With 2x4's.  I did add 2x4's to prop up the tomato cages in the past.  Also that may have been the larger fruit of the test vine plus a small child was holding the tomato. 

  Joelene

[DriftingCrow]

I figure it's time to start planning for gardening this year. I think I am going to get some of those planters that you grow your veggies out of on the deck instead of the yard. There's too much rocks to really dig much, and then someone weedwhacked the rose bushes down anyways. Someone else threw a ton of rocks in the asparagus patch.

I bought some Mandan Bride seeds on Amazon, I'll try to plant some of those by the side of the house (hopefully no one will weed whack those down) and maybe just a few in a planter (saw someone successfully do that on YouTube).  I saved some turban squash seeds, and I'll probably be buying some hot chilies from native seeds.

[serenityfaith]

Actually, I think it's "soluble salt damage". I've never heard of it before, but I leached the pots last night so hopefully that'll help.
http://voices.yahoo.com/soluble-salt-damage-secret-killer-house-plants-400048.html?cat=32

Running tepid water through the pot will decrease the amount of salt build up. I always use distilled water. I hope your peace lily blooms for you!!!!

[serenityfaith]

For those of you who go through burpee (and pay an arm and a leg) I highly recommend seeds now. They have sampler packs for 99 cents of almost every veggie, fruit, and herb you will need for your garden this year! all of their seeds are Non-GMO (which personally I could care less seeing as thats just helping the plant evolve against pests and disease, But to some this really matters) They're located in L.A. check them out here -- http://www.seedsnow.com/

[DriftingCrow]

Running tepid water through the pot will decrease the amount of salt build up. I always use distilled water. I hope your peace lily blooms for you!!!!

(I am LearnedHand)

I did run it through water to decrease salt build up. They still haven't bloomed. I figure it's a lost cause and they'll likely die eventually.

[serenityfaith]

(I am LearnedHand)

I did run it through water to decrease salt build up. They still haven't bloomed. I figure it's a lost cause and they'll likely die eventually.

What are the temps in its current location? Humidity? Light source and strength? Also if you could post pics that would really help. Often, if you increase the relative humidity and the heat they will bloom, option #2 is gibberellic acid, which is a natural plant hormone that stimulates cell division and elongation, you can get it here (makes about ten gal) for about 15$ --http://www.amazon.com/SuperGrow-Gibberellic-Acid-Starter-Kit/dp/B0098R2F5E.

[DriftingCrow]

What are the temps in its current location? Humidity? Light source and strength? Also if you could post pics that would really help. Often, if you increase the relative humidity and the heat they will bloom, option #2 is gibberellic acid, which is a natural plant hormone that stimulates cell division and elongation, you can get it here (makes about ten gal) for about 15$ --http://www.amazon.com/SuperGrow-Gibberellic-Acid-Starter-Kit/dp/B0098R2F5E.

I keep them in relatively low light, because I find the leaves get burned easily if I keep the curtains open (and I also read they actually prefer low light).

I am unsure on the humidity, it changes with the seasons. Winter, it's pretty dry since we heat entirely on wood. Summer, depends on the weather, we don't use A/C or anything like that. I wouldn't use a humidifier since it'll ruin the wood in the house.

I'll look into the gibberellic acid.

[serenityfaith]

I keep them in relatively low light, because I find the leaves get burned easily if I keep the curtains open (and I also read they actually prefer low light).

I am unsure on the humidity, it changes with the seasons. Winter, it's pretty dry since we heat entirely on wood. Summer, depends on the weather, we don't use A/C or anything like that. I wouldn't use a humidifier since it'll ruin the wood in the house.

I'll look into the gibberellic acid.

What is your potting medium? and how long have they been in it? Also, as far as humidity goes, you can place a tray of water under (with river rock to keep the pot up out of the water) or without rock and just near the pots, that will raise the relative humidity but wont hurt your wood hahaha

[serenityfaith]

I keep them in relatively low light, because I find the leaves get burned easily if I keep the curtains open (and I also read they actually prefer low light).

I am unsure on the humidity, it changes with the seasons. Winter, it's pretty dry since we heat entirely on wood. Summer, depends on the weather, we don't use A/C or anything like that. I wouldn't use a humidifier since it'll ruin the wood in the house.

I'll look into the gibberellic acid.

Also reducing the light aids flowering. Since spring is here I would go ahead and re-pot the little guys, looks to me like your potting medium is too dense and is retaining too much water, ergo the small size of them :/ any soil for houseplants will be fine, but I would go ahead and add a bit of perlite to the mix just to ensure proper drainage
Are you fertilizing at all? If so with what?

[Lyric]

I really miss vegetable gardening. If you've never tried it, it's absolutely worth all the work (if you do it right). I finally gave up after the trees ate all the sunlight in my back yard. I started gardening on a lark after saving the seeds from a particularly good supermarket watermelon. I planted a watermelon patch that covered nearly a third of my back yard. That summer I had so many great melons I was leaving them on the neighbor's front porches. The next year I went all out with multiple veggies. There's nothing like backyard-grown tomatoes or pepper. I also did well with eggplant and squash. Though I tried again, I never had much success with watermelons, though. I love okra, but it only yields about one per day per plant. I never got very far with strawberries, either, though I love to eat them.

I suppose every so often I need to move someplace with a lot of sunlight.

[Joelene9]

  I never planted trees in my yard because of the garden for one thing and the local climate and area is semi-arid desert, treeless high plain. I seen my neighbors' trees die during drought cycles. I have onion, leek, tomato and pepper seedlings started already in the greenhouse. Cool weather greens to be planted soon.

Joelene

[ainsley]

My wife, kids and I do gardening and canning every year.  We always plant sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and pumpkins.  We go with differing varieties every year.  I think we are going to add potatoes this year.  We can the tomatoes to make juice, pizza sauce, salsa and chili.  We blanch the corn and freeze it on and off of the cob (after we have gorged ourselves on the harvest).  Last year we had 36 tomato plants and 1/2 acre of corn.  We were overwhelmed, needless to say.  Gonna be in the 60's and 70's (F) this weekend, so I plan to put in the cold weather stuff.  We really need to try and get the others in early, too, because the sept. harvest time of corn and tomato canning will be a bit difficult since my GRS is scheduled for August 31st. lol

I will update as we go along this year.

[serenityfaith]

My wife, kids and I do gardening and canning every year.  We always plant sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and pumpkins.  We go with differing varieties every year.  I think we are going to add potatoes this year.  We can the tomatoes to make juice, pizza sauce, salsa and chili.  We blanch the corn and freeze it on and off of the cob (after we have gorged ourselves on the harvest).  Last year we had 36 tomato plants and 1/2 acre of corn.  We were overwhelmed, needless to say.  Gonna be in the 60's and 70's (F) this weekend, so I plan to put in the cold weather stuff.  We really need to try and get the others in early, too, because the sept. harvest time of corn and tomato canning will be a bit difficult since my GRS is scheduled for August 31st. lol

I will update as we go along this year.

Way cool Ainsley! Thats alot of work!! Keep us posted!!

[MattAverage]

I got into gardening around the same time I discovered what fresh herbs can do to a dish. I've only been gardening for around three years now, and last year was the first time I grew a vegetable. I yielded a whole four peppers last year off of three plants and even though there weren't that many (made the mistake of putting them in the same pot) it was still really nice to lay on my porch in the middle of the night, watch the stars and enjoy a fresh green pepper off the vine. I'm looking forward to more nights outside enjoying the fruits of my labor this year.