Topic: Gardeners

[demon78]

My #$%*ing tomatoes still haven't ripened what a season/year. Balls
Bill the demon.

[trueblue]

You need warm weather to ripen tomatoes, If you can get some sort of hot house over them you may stand a chance.  Dunno how cold it is in Canada though, might be already too cold.  Over here tomatoes won't ripen if the daytime temp is consistantly below about 22C.

[demon78]

Here we're barely pushing 20-21 it's been a crap year now right at the moment the weather is great, what it should have been in June ah well next year.
Bill the demon.

[70CB750]

Harvested my grapes, nice solid 21 Brix. Will make very drinkable red.

[trueblue]

Water around my area has been tight over the past few months so I have been experimenting with passive deep water culture hydroponics.  I started with a kale plant, it had been stunted as a seedling for nearly 6 months.  In 2 weeks it had tripled in size now is a monster.  I then tried some herbs, I took some cuttings off our herbs around the place and set them in the boxes.  I think the following picture shows the basil likes it.  I've never seen basil leaves so big.  The plant I took the cutting off of has leaves no longer than an inch long.  Now they only use about two litres (about 1/2 us gallon) of water per week for the herb box, which has 10 plants in it.  Next I'm going to try some gold nugget pumpkins.

Hey Blue, could you share some more photos& info on your hydroponic setup? I've been thinking about doing something similar

Bootsey,here are some pics of the hydro setup, on the left is the kale plant that my daughters keep going.  They love the stuff, and will eat it all day, I personally don't see the attraction, in my opinion it tastes like #$%*.



The box on the right is the one I was running my basil in last year, I have now set it up for dill.  This time I have put in a plastic liner to stop it going green around the box, to start with you have the box filled to the brim and lower the level as the roots grow. 





Here are the roots of the kale plant.



Here is my autopot setup, it is a very easy way of doing hydroponics, albeit a lot more expensive than the styro box method.  I use soil as the medium, as I have found it works best and holds moisture nicely.  The autopots feed from a 30l tank which is hanging from my verandah, and has what they call a smart valve inside the base.  It is essentially a float valve that doesn't refill until completely drains.  I currently have two varieties of tomatoes in them. 

[Bootsey]

Water around my area has been tight over the past few months so I have been experimenting with passive deep water culture hydroponics.  I started with a kale plant, it had been stunted as a seedling for nearly 6 months.  In 2 weeks it had tripled in size now is a monster.  I then tried some herbs, I took some cuttings off our herbs around the place and set them in the boxes.  I think the following picture shows the basil likes it.  I've never seen basil leaves so big.  The plant I took the cutting off of has leaves no longer than an inch long.  Now they only use about two litres (about 1/2 us gallon) of water per week for the herb box, which has 10 plants in it.  Next I'm going to try some gold nugget pumpkins.

Hey Blue, could you share some more photos& info on your hydroponic setup? I've been thinking about doing something similar

Bootsey,here are some pics of the hydro setup, on the left is the kale plant that my daughters keep going.  They love the stuff, and will eat it all day, I personally don't see the attraction, in my opinion it tastes like #$%*.



The box on the right is the one I was running my basil in last year, I have now set it up for dill.  This time I have put in a plastic liner to stop it going green around the box, to start with you have the box filled to the brim and lower the level as the roots grow. 





Here are the roots of the kale plant.



Here is my autopot setup, it is a very easy way of doing hydroponics, albeit a lot more expensive than the styro box method.  I use soil as the medium, as I have found it works best and holds moisture nicely.  The autopots feed from a 30l tank which is hanging from my verandah, and has what they call a smart valve inside the base.  It is essentially a float valve that doesn't refill until completely drains.  I currently have two varieties of tomatoes in them. 

Cheers for the pictures & info mate, looks great!
I might have to give it a shot if I come across some of the hydro fertiliser solution.
What sort of fertiliser did you add into the system for the autopots?

[trueblue]

At the moment I am using some stuff a mate of mine makes.  He grows hydroponic zucchini and button squash commercially, he gave me enough to make up 20,000L of nutrient.  I used to use the autopot stuff, it worked great but got a little expensive when you start running a few tomato plants, as they are thirsty buggers, especially in summer.  A 5' mature tomato plant in the height of summer can drink up to 10L of water a day.  I was running 6 plants at one time, all of them over 10' tall, I had them up and over the roof of the greenhouse, it didn't take long to go through the stuff.  Here is the stuff I used to use, it produced excellent veggies, I would still be using it if it weren't so bloody expensive. 

http://www.gardensmartshop.com/Powder_Nutrients_p/117.htm

[78 k550]

My garden did great this year for harvest time. Still 70 here weather changing soon maybe.

Paul

[78 k550]

How did everyone's garden do.
My Habanero's are extremely hot this year a co worker bit into one. It about floored him and he is used to them. He instantly was asking if that was my cheese in the frig. I could not stop laughing, I didn't think I could grow them that hot. I'm saving some of those seed's. I do have some Carolina Reeper's also, there not ready. They are pruned up like there a 100 years old person or been in a bath for half a day.
everything else did ok. My peppers seem to do the best.

Paul

[faux fiddy]

I threw in the towel. Huge rainfalls, no time and ferocious crabgrass. It has almost smothered everything and my life is bogged down with family business.

[Demon67]

Don't feel bad Fiddy mine is a disaster to, weeds holy #$%* Weeds, bunny rabbit weeds.
Bill the demon.

[70CB750]

We had millions of japanese beetle this year.  They ate the vineyard down to sticks.

[honda_dog]

My wife's garden was a washout this year. Looked to be a good year until we had a week of rain in June.... 8" total, I think. No corn, green beans, etc. Some tomatoes and peppers survived. I've already mowed down most of the garden, weeds were terrible, as were the insects.

[Radam]

I've just added a bunch of compost and started some seeds in the greenhouse. It's time to get the summer garden started here in NZ! It has been predicted that it's going to be a dry summer here, but I've got my irrigation hooked up to a timer! My peach tree is in bloom now.

[Bootsey]

I've just added a bunch of compost and started some seeds in the greenhouse. It's time to get the summer garden started here in NZ! It has been predicted that it's going to be a dry summer here, but I've got my irrigation hooked up to a timer! My peach tree is in bloom now.

They're saying that the El Nino is going to make for quite a dry summer for eastern Australia as well, best of luck with your garden!

My peach tree is in bloom too, hopefully the peach twig borer won't be as bad as last year.

[evanphi]

OK Gardeners... please help. I'm generally good at taking care of my inherited plants (bought a house last year)... but this one is stumping me. What is it? How do I care for it? Should it be pruned? Low branches cut back? etc etc?

Also any good advice for caring for rose bushes?

[faux fiddy]

I would say trim it to the shape you want. It looks pretty healthy. Wait to see if it looses it's leaves in the winter. Most things that keep their leaves can be cut back to the shape you want and are not adversely affected.

Usually they say cut roses back after growing season, but I have cut mine in the spring without any problems.

[evanphi]

I would say trim it to the shape you want. It looks pretty healthy. Wait to see if it looses it's leaves in the winter. Most things that keep their leaves can be cut back to the shape you want and are not adversely affected.

Usually they say cut roses back after growing season, but I have cut mine in the spring without any problems.

It loses the leaves in the winter. Should I wait to trim it, or just do a little bit at a time?

[trueblue]

I would say trim it to the shape you want. It looks pretty healthy. Wait to see if it looses it's leaves in the winter. Most things that keep their leaves can be cut back to the shape you want and are not adversely affected.

Usually they say cut roses back after growing season, but I have cut mine in the spring without any problems.

It loses the leaves in the winter. Should I wait to trim it, or just do a little bit at a time?

I find with my deciduous plants that they respond best when pruned just before the start of the growing season, the same with roses.  Around here it is the end of Winter but I would expect a colder climate would be a little later.

[WhyNot2]

usually best to prune/trim when plants are in their dormant state.

Unless it's dead stuff being removed.

Best to get that off so plant can concentrate it's nourishment to the live growth.

[faux fiddy]

Best to get that off so plant can concentrate it's nourishment to the live growth.

Yeah, they can get disease through the dead stuff, too.

I think that thing looks out of control healthy  like trimming back isn't going to hurt it. 

I need to hack on my holly and privet for months now, been putting it off.

[evanphi]

Thanks folks. Looks like I have a bit of trimming to do before all the leaves fall off!

[faux fiddy]

My wife's garden was a washout this year. Looked to be a good year until we had a week of rain in June.... 8" total, I think. No corn, green beans, etc. Some tomatoes and peppers survived. I've already mowed down most of the garden, weeds were terrible, as were the insects.

I mowed around where I thought there might be a tomato plant but I don't think there's anything there.

I got basil  and one kale plant that will go through the winter, and planted a few purple kale plants.  I brought in four pineapple plants the other night when it was going to frost.

It's hard to find snow peas seed at the usual places this time of year, and lots of stuff can make it through a winter, especially this el-nino' predicted.