Shake them, or take an electric tooth brush to the stalks. Self polinating, just needs vibration to move the pollen inside the flower. Each blossom pollinates itself.
I have a question about indoor tomatoes. My wife planted some around new years in our basement. They are now nearly 3' tall and covered with flowers. But, it is still about 1 month until we can safely plant them outside. Is there a good way to pollinate the tomatoes without wind or insects? I'd like to get some tomatoes growing and not lose these early chances.
Thanks, I'll try that. It has been fantastic eating homegrown microgreens and lettuces for most of the winter. Hopefully, we can get some spring veggies going well before they'd normally be ready.Shake them, or take an electric tooth brush to the stalks. Self polinating, just needs vibration to move the pollen inside the flower. Each blossom pollinates itself.
I need to build 2 more raised beds. With these I will have 3 in total. I am going to use one for spinach/other leafy greens, one for eggplant, and one for tomatoes.
We also plant Indian vegetables (squash, bitter gourd, chinese okra, lemon cucumber, tindora, etc)
I have access to some left over wood and want to take a crack at building a couple raised beds. Do you have any tips? Do you know of any good guides on the matter?
Yeah, we finished re-roofing our greenhouse in February. I started some lettuce boxes in March which I have been munching on for quite a while (did my 4th "harvest" the other day). Now most of the space is used for starts that we will put in the ground in a month or so.
Total area cultivated is probably approaching 3 acres with ~1 acre dedicated to 27 rows of raspberries. Lots of renovation was needed, though as some of the growing areas are over 10 years old here, and the desert is not exactly kind to gardens and the various systems needed to support them here.
My biggest project is getting good at vermicomposting, and designing a better compost sifter. I am a bit fanatical about soil.
We have some huge "crops" of bindweed (morning glory) that are overtaking the raspberries now that it is getting warmer. Kind of tricky to deal with because we are pretty much all organic (we have to poison tree of heaven because it is by far the most insidious plant I have ever encountered).
Basically, my life is devoted to gardening between late May and early November. Now that the greenhouse is fixed next winter will involve lots of cooler crops year round too.
I am building one right now with 6 inch wide fence boards and fence posts. I just want it to last one season... cheap as hell, I will have a 6' x 6' x 18" for around $30!!!
I finished this, filled it with about 18" of soil. cost around $50, total cost (including plants) ~$100
Here is my questions though, not all plants are growing up fast and healthy, I am thinking about using some of Urea and phosphate based chemical off the shelf fertilizers like Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Advance. Any cons? recommendations against it?
It's not that difficult...IMO, the most important part is location. You need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight on the area where you want to plant.
Building a raised bed is simple...make a large box out of 2 X 6 or larger lumber. Redwood or cedar will last for several years. Pine/fir will rot in a year or two.
I built my raised beds out of 2 X 12 redwood.
(got a killer deal...2 X 12 X 12' for $8.00 at Lowes at the end of the season...I bought all they had that wasn't split)
Ordered the wood for my raised bed garden last weekend, built and set up on Saturday. Waiting on fill and soil next week.
I built two boxes, one for the garden and another for the herbs. We have some wild mint my wife wants to transplant, so those will be going into a couple of containers. The herb bed is only 4ft x 4ft x 24" high. The garden bed is in the shape of an L. 12ft on the long sides, 8ft on the inner boards and 4ft wide along the L. Again, it's 24" tall. In between the two gardens I'm putting in a 3" layer of red cedar mulch over some landscape fabric.
The reason why I built it tall was because my mother-in-law, who lives next door to us, wants to get back to gardening and she can't bend over that much anymore. Hopefully this helps her get out and get active again, because she's woefully out of shape.
Pics coming up once I get home. But I'm excited about this project. My question is should I use a couple inches of stone at the bottom of these boxes or should I fill it straight with soil? I'm concerned with burrowing animals that might decide to dig up into my garden. Or is it more economical to put down some 1/2" chicken wire mesh at the bottom of the garden?
What did you use for soil? I don't have any problems with using commercial fertilizer/plant food products for the garden...in fact, I use them myself, but you need decent soil to begin with.
Mostly used el'cheapo "Top Soil", which was like $1.5 for 40 pound bag @ wal-mart and then topped off with Miracle-Gro's Garden Soil for Flowers & Vegetables, about 4 inches of it. I hope that's not a problem... :'(
Mostly used el'cheapo "Top Soil", which was like $1.5 for 40 pound bag @ wal-mart and then topped off with Miracle-Gro's Garden Soil for Flowers & Vegetables, about 4 inches of it. I hope that's not a problem... :'(
Getting ready... Hopefully, Saturday I pick up a new plow for the tractor. If so, then Sunday I'll put in the pea plants. Possibility of snow (no accumulation) today; so that kind of sucks. But, I'm looking forward to planting a lot this year. Wife and I decided that this is our outdoor year - we've already earmarked the money for a dozen blueberry bushes, some apple, peach, pear, cherry, and plum trees.
It's almost time to start seedlings, but I'm not sure if it's worth the bother. Sure, it'd save me some money, but I can get 6-packs of started plants (tomatoes) for $1 from the Amish greenhouses.
Somethings wrong with my plants, I think they are infected. I didn't plant anything for the last 2 years, but I remember the last time I planted the same thing happened and almost killed all the plants except for the Okra ones. They too had a low yield coz of this. Any idea what's causing this? How can this be cured? Is it fungus or insects? Fungicide, insecticide, what brand? I do see some very very small insects, looks like spiders on the soil sometimes.