2018 thread of gardening like a boss

[Errestaurants 2,570]

Could we get some hard and fast measurements or at least the general neighborhood of recipes for organic methods. I usually won't exceed a teaspoon of liquid dish soap (buddy of mine swears by Joy, others prefer Ivory) for fear of too much being phytotoxic/scorch the hell out of the leaves. I have made tobacco tea like a sun tea. A good three fingered pinch of chewing tobacco(see I can have some half-assed measurements too) or some pipe tobacco in a gallon jug of water set in the sun to steep. A cup of that with a teaspoon of liquid dish soap in a gallon of water. Same thing with peppers. Cayenne, arbol or any other high level Scoville pepper, A cup? Half a cup? I need data people. Even from myself.  Repeatable, shareable data. I am all in favor of organic methods. I make a living killing things or trying to keep them alive. i am not sold on the idea that breaking out the hard core stuff is the best option at the outset. If I can get away with spraying baking soda instead of a twenty dollar jug of fungicide that is pretty easy math even for me. But, does it work? Can we get a set recipe or procedure and see appreciable results? It's evident that things like compost mulch combinations suppress some diseases in garden plants, both ornamental and agricultural. That much has been proven. We know it works, but we do not know why because it is such a vast array of variables. 
 
Hey  [mention=855]Errestaurants[/mention]

2 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon veg oil, couple drops dish soap and a gallon of water. Mix and put in a squirt bottle. Spray every other week or weekly if you see issues.

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[Bat Guano 359]

10 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

Could we get some hard and fast measurements or at least the general neighborhood of recipes for organic methods. I usually won't exceed a teaspoon of liquid dish soap (buddy of mine swears by Joy, others prefer Ivory) for fear of too much being phytotoxic/scorch the hell out of the leaves. I have made tobacco tea like a sun tea. A good three fingered pinch of chewing tobacco(see I can have some half-assed measurements too) or some pipe tobacco in a gallon jug of water set in the sun to steep. A cup of that with a teaspoon of liquid dish soap in a gallon of water. Same thing with peppers. Cayenne, arbol or any other high level Scoville pepper, A cup? Half a cup? I need data people. Even from myself.  Repeatable, shareable data. I am all in favor of organic methods. I make a living killing things or trying to keep them alive. i am not sold on the idea that breaking out the hard core stuff is the best option at the outset. If I can get away with spraying baking soda instead of a twenty dollar jug of fungicide that is pretty easy math even for me. But, does it work? Can we get a set recipe or procedure and see appreciable results? It's evident that things like compost mulch combinations suppress some diseases in garden plants, both ornamental and agricultural. That much has been proven. We know it works, but we do not know why because it is such a vast array of variables. 

 

Hey  @Errestaurants

I'd be careful with the tobacco, at least if you're going to spray it on tomatoes, because it might contain tobacco mosaic virus. I've always heard you should keep tobacco as far away from tomatoes as possible.

[Lazarus Bocanegra 303]

4 hours ago, Bat Guano said:

I'd be careful with the tobacco, at least if you're going to spray it on tomatoes, because it might contain tobacco mosaic virus. I've always heard you should keep tobacco as far away from tomatoes as possible.

[KYHorn 16,851]

My wife and I built a slightly modified version of these this past weekend. They were freaking expensive (around $500 all told) but will hopefully save our backs (we're 6'1 and 6'5, respectively) and produce some good food for us.

 

 https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/how-to-make-elevated-raised-garden-beds

Edited May 18, 2018 by KYHorn

[workswithseed 2,035]

1 hour ago, KYHorn said:

My wife and I built a slightly modified version of these this past weekend. They were freaking expensive (around $500 all told) but will hopefully save our backs (we're 6'1 and 6'5, respectively) and produce some good food for us.

 

 

Fuck, I want y'alls genes. 

[TexasEd 8,064]

Picked my first peaches.

Damned squirrels have thrown about 30 pounds of them to the ground in the last 2 days though.  trying to get them before the tree rats do.

Also have my first yellow squash set.

[thunderlounge 7,752]

On 5/16/2018 at 10:34 PM, cactusflinthead said:

Could we get some hard and fast measurements or at least the general neighborhood of recipes for organic methods. I usually won't exceed a teaspoon of liquid dish soap (buddy of mine swears by Joy, others prefer Ivory) for fear of too much being phytotoxic/scorch the hell out of the leaves. I have made tobacco tea like a sun tea. A good three fingered pinch of chewing tobacco(see I can have some half-assed measurements too) or some pipe tobacco in a gallon jug of water set in the sun to steep. A cup of that with a teaspoon of liquid dish soap in a gallon of water. Same thing with peppers. Cayenne, arbol or any other high level Scoville pepper, A cup? Half a cup? I need data people. Even from myself.  Repeatable, shareable data. I am all in favor of organic methods. I make a living killing things or trying to keep them alive. i am not sold on the idea that breaking out the hard core stuff is the best option at the outset. If I can get away with spraying baking soda instead of a twenty dollar jug of fungicide that is pretty easy math even for me. But, does it work? Can we get a set recipe or procedure and see appreciable results? It's evident that things like compost mulch combinations suppress some diseases in garden plants, both ornamental and agricultural. That much has been proven. We know it works, but we do not know why because it is such a vast array of variables. 

 

Hey  @Errestaurants

 

In one of the older threads (2016, maybe?) I put up my “tobacco tea” recipe. I don’t steep in the sun, I boil it. This adds the benefit of killing any potential virus from the leaves. I boil a small pack of redman (i get a box of pouches pretty cheap) and use it to make a gallon of tea. Then add dish soap, garlic powder, and cayenne to the mix. 

It kills and deters really well. You want to keep it away from flowers and such so that you don’t get pollinators with it. I’ll see about putting on the hazmat suit and looking for the post in the next few days or so. 

[cactusflinthead 27,594]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:20 AM, Errestaurants said:

2 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon veg oil, couple drops dish soap and a gallon of water. Mix and put in a squirt bottle. Spray every other week or weekly if you see issues.

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Outstanding 

[BrickTop 474]

so I may have planted too many cucumbers, these are all from seed.


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[TexasEd 8,064]

7 hours ago, BrickTop said:

so I may have planted too many cucumbers, these are all from seed.


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Pickles.

 

You need the extra plants to get enough at the right size to make it worth the trouble to pickle them. 

[BrickTop 474]

There is already about 200 of these


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[Bat Guano 359]

17 hours ago, BrickTop said:

so I may have planted too many cucumbers, these are all from seed.


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I'm jealous. My cucumbers are off to a really slow start. Maybe the cool nights early in the season? I've got about 10 plants, but they're nowhere near as big as those (that's what she said).

Tomatoes are doing great, though. I've never figured out what combination of factors make some years 'good' for specific crops and not others. I would have thought that if cool nights early in the season set back cucumbers, it would do the same for tomatoes, but that seems not to be the case this year.

[BrickTop 474]

We ended up planting everything else in troughs with some”magic dirt” the tomatoes jalapeños and herbs are doing just ok, the cucumbers seem to really like the ground here in SE Texas, I swear when the sun is out you can stand outside and hear them growing.


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[Errestaurants 2,570]

some pics of the garden and chicken coop project

[BrickTop 474]

Looking great, that’s a hell of a setup


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[miguelito 11,216]

Deer have been nibbling on my peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and potatoes.  And my garden is in the front yard, and I live in the 'burbs. 

Yesterday I found a couple of black swallowtail caterpillars on some parsley that survived from last year.  I don't eat much parsley, so I'm just gonna let them be.  They look pretty cool.

not my pic:

[Bat Guano 359]

1 hour ago, miguelito said:

Deer have been nibbling on my peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and potatoes.  And my garden is in the front yard, and I live in the 'burbs. 

Yesterday I found a couple of black swallowtail caterpillars on some parsley that survived from last year.  I don't eat much parsley, so I'm just gonna let them be.  They look pretty cool.

not my pic:

Ah. Is that what those are. I'm not as forgiving as you are. I've killed probably about a hundred of those that were eating my dill and parsley this year.

Just for fun, pull one off the plant. You don't have to kill it if you don't want to. Report back.

[miguelito 11,216]

Haha.  I did that last year.  They get ... aroused, with their stinky little antenna. 

 

[Bat Guano 359]

Yeah. I used to throw them in the pond for the goldfish to eat, but after a few they stopped eating the smelly little bastards.

[swraith 336]

I had these eating milkweeds this year.

[heso 2,748]

Grandmother in law wanted to plant some tomatoes but has trouble getting down to the ground so I slapped this together out of some scrap wood from the garage.



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[BrickTop 474]

they’ve been loving the rain over the last few days


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[TexasEd 8,064]

I think this goes here

One daughter said it was the best fruit based desert she ever had.

[miguelito 11,216]

I just licked the screen.

[deft 6,797]

I had these eating milkweeds this year.

Wtf do you have milkweed for if not for monarchs?

[swraith 336]

I think this goes here



One daughter said it was the best fruit based desert she ever had.

So jealous.

My peaches are still green and hard. A few have been knocked off the tree in the past week. Plenty still on the tree but no sign of ripening yet. Getting a little worried.

[TexasEd 8,064]

One thing I learned is the recipe I used called for way too much sugar.  The peaches were so sweet I could have cut the sugar in half.

The top half of my tree is bare from the squirrels dropping them all.  The ones low to the ground are too close to the dogs for the tree rats to venture down there.

I also took a 1/2 bushel to work and gave them to two people that were making ice cream and sorbet.  I also ate my first plum in a couple years.  Still have a few on the tree that did not drop.

This has been a good year.

Edited May 24, 2018 by TexasEd

[Walden Ponderer 12,639]

So yesterday we had some fun. There's a 1st grade class at the school two blocks from our house which incubated some eggs around Easter time, and the teacher was desperate for a place to keep give away the chickens where she could tell the kids they weren't going to be eaten. My wife volunteered us. And this week, we had the class over as a field trip.

I spent two hours talking about chickens, and chicken poop compost, and gardening, and native fruit plants. And some of the kids who live in apartments went wild over the wildflowers and bees all over our yard. They also dug on picking blackberries, and tomatoes, and we sent them all home with more veggies and herbs than some of them have probably eaten in a month.

They were attentive the whole time, though. Made me happy to see that the future is not totally screwed. Some of those kids will be doing their own gardening some day.

[miguelito 11,216]

I propose a Surly field trip to WP's garden.

[KYHorn 16,851]

19 hours ago, TexasEd said:

I think this goes here

One daughter said it was the best fruit based desert she ever had.

Would really like to have a peach tree here in KY, though I hear they struggle. What's been your experience?

[TexasEd 8,064]

2 hours ago, KYHorn said:

Would really like to have a peach tree here in KY, though I hear they struggle. What's been your experience?

I live near Austin.  It has been easy to grow and get it to set fruit.  Defending the fruit from the Plum curculio and squirrels is a problem.

[Errestaurants 2,570]

Working in the garden this afternoon

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[Spaulding Smails 1,551]

Spring garden in full effect.  Picked our first tomato yesterday.  Soooooo good.  

[TexasEd 8,064]

Anyone need a good rear tine tiller?

 

[cactusflinthead 27,594]

Man, that's tempting. 

[miguelito 11,216]

My tomatoes look like shit (husky cherry).  I think the deer nibbled on them, and those leaf footed bugs are having parties on them.

[Errestaurants 2,570]

Cherokee Purple, Roma and Sioux Reds coming along. I think.

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[Both Tacos 1,805]

Things are starting to take off now. Just wish it wasn't so damn hot. I think the corn is stressed as the tassels are starting to already develop. Hopefully that doesn't stunt the growth of the ears. Still trying to get in tune with this Ruth Stout method of gardening, but I can tell you that weeding has been cut down dramatically.

[thunderlounge 7,752]

Mulch with straw to cut down weeds, then till it under?

[Eugene11 375]

What the hell is this? Artichoke? Flower turns purple when it blooms. These are mostly all volunteers popping up.


Something munching on the leaves


Volunteer raspberry and some sort of white wine grape vine, Lilly’s just popped up also. and the finished fence.



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[Both Tacos 1,805]

1 hour ago, thunderlounge said:

Mulch with straw to cut down weeds, then till it under?

This Ruth Stout method is to use straw to keep the weeds down, not water as much and just leave it there year around without tilling. It is one of the "no till" systems that you just keep adding more mulch (straw) as needed. 

[thunderlounge 7,752]

Interesting. I’ve done the same, but till it into the ground after the season. 

[miguelito 11,216]

It must rain where some of you live.

[thunderlounge 7,752]

Irrigation on a timer is your friend. 

[4th and 5 4,914]

I don't know if other cities do this but mine will give you a separate water account for irrigation. I don't pay sewage on it, saving about 40% on water costs. 

It is connected to my sprinkler system, and I have a valve where I can insert a key to connect a hose so I can water my garden and spot water with a sprinkler to specifically target the driest areas.

If you have a large yard or garden it might be something worth looking into.

 

[Both Tacos 1,805]

It must rain where some of you live.

Nope, just a high water bill.

[Bat Guano 359]

23 hours ago, Eugene11 said:

What the hell is this? Artichoke? Flower turns purple when it blooms. These are mostly all volunteers popping up.







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Yup, those are artichokes. Look like they're about ready to eat, too. Cut them before they flower, steam 'em, and enjoy.

Never heard of volunteer artichokes before. Pretty cool.

[BrickTop 474]

Production slowed way down, pinched off a lot of the foliage per the interwebs sure enough as soon as I do it and expose all the flowers here come about 30 bees, I’m hoping it speeds up now, also untangled all the vines and guided them on the trellis and fence. Won’t plant so many seeds next year


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[Both Tacos 1,805]

7 hours ago, BrickTop said:

Production slowed way down, pinched off a lot of the foliage per the interwebs sure enough as soon as I do it and expose all the flowers here come about 30 bees, I’m hoping it speeds up now, also untangled all the vines and guided them on the trellis and fence. Won’t plant so many seeds next year


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Need to do the same with mine so the pollinators see the flowers.  Looks like you have lots of cucumbers coming along. 

[BrickTop 474]

Have a decent amount of cucumbers and way more flowers than I thought, the foliage really covers them up , was surprised how fast the pollinators started after pruning, hoping for a bumper crop of pickles, will update next week.


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