The Plant and Garden thread!

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Well, thank you. 

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

I counted my chickens too early. The whole bud fell off today. I'll necropsy later. Boo. 

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  I was really hoping for fruit on that one!

Our little planters delivered a little bit of fruit yesterday:

I think the US calls the peppers "wax peppers', but here I'm not even sure they have a name.  They're in every garden, store, and farmers market and Hungarians eat them by the cart-full. To us, they're just "peppers" and it's practically mandatory that you grow them.

The tomatoes are "Elf tomatoes" and we only bought those plants because our dog is named "Elf" and we thought it was funny (Mano, in Hungarian)

^ I thought that guy's nose was funny.

Anyhoo, still working on strawberry reproduction and I finally got pictures of that operation:

This was the result of one of our "million mistakes".  I had no idea that strawberries got smaller every year the plant grew them.  So when I saw that the plants I just picked up were growing tiny strawberries, I thought I got a bunk variety.  When I learned about the age thing, I started the reproduction thing and that's been going good so far.  I've prepared a space above the garage and hope to overwinter them up there.

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks Bill! Its all good. It was fertilized though! So that was a first. My theory on its "fail" is that because the dead part of the flower that naturally dries up and falls had laid on top of a neighboring pot and stuck to it, so as it dried it was actually pulling on the little fruit. 

but im still satisfied knowing the pollination technique worked. There is already a few more flower buds starting to pop on other dragonfruit, so i'll be back at it soon enough. 
 

I also have Nectarine flowers popping, june plum(not a real plum, its "spondias dulcis") has big fruit that will ripen soon, and is starting new panicles of baby fruit. 
and a ton of other plants that are newer so they arent producing yet, but im turning our .68 acre yard into a food forest.   Mangoes, avocadoes, MANY types of odd tropical berries and "cherries", there is probably over 40 banana plants in at least 3 different varieties. Tons of mulberries, fruiting cacti, edible leaf plants. Bunch of good stuff. 

In reply to markvince :

Looks like standard bagged potting soil or a good aged compost.  I get "1 yard" of pure compost for 36$ at my local mulch/shed place. It basically fills the bed of my nissan frontier for 36$ which is SUPER CHEAP. Then i cut it with our local deeper loamy soil or just normal florida "sugar sand" from the trails. 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I've always seen them called Hungarian wax peppers, so I guess that makes sense now! We just picked our first few about a week ago. 

After an auspicious start, it's been a bit of a mixed bag for us this year. Decided to knock down the old raised beds and just till up the whole plot, which was great until I got behind in the weeding and it's turned into a bit of an overgrown mess.

The beans, lettuce, and rhubarb never sprouted, rabbits got the cantaloupe and snow peas before they made it very far, and the carrots seemingly just disappeared somehow after what looked to be a good start. 
 

The corn blew down in a severe storm last night, which is really disappointing as I'd never had space for it before and was doing so well. Might still be able to salvage something there.

On the bright side, our peppers and tomatoes are doing great, which is traditionally where we've had the most success, and should be ready to start harvesting this weekend. Radishes and arugula did ok. The raspberry patch has finally filled in enough to generate a decent crop  and we made a nice big batch of jam last month. Last but not least, the two watermelon plants are looking great so far (knock wood) and the first tiny fruits have started to appear!

Furious_E (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I've always seen them called Hungarian wax peppers, so I guess that makes sense now! We just picked our first few about a week ago. 

Came here to post this.  Very prolific.  Mild taste, with just a bit of "heat."  I munch a few every day.

In reply to hobiercr :

That is BEAUTIFUL!

The corn is 7 foot tall and looks like it is pollinating nicely, it should be ready for harvest in about 2 weeks.

Weed management is something I need to work on a better plan for next year. It kinda got away from me.

I'm hoping our growing season is going to be long enough for the watermelons to fully mature and ripen but they are growing really well so far.  We have about half a dozen Black Diamond fruit 3-4 Jubilees and a hand full of the other two varieties that we planted (can't remember the names right now).

We are absolutely drowning in zuchinni, squash and cucumbers right now so my wife put up over a dozen jars of pickles this week and lots of zoodles in the freezer.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Dude your watermelons look great! I shoulda done what ya'll did and just planted right into my ground on my terrace.

Deer got to my tomatoes and chewed off several limbs to test their flavor  thankfully there's still most of the fruit left, so it's likely they were just "testing". Bastards.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

The watermelons are definitely getting more space next year to spread out. As for deer, a 5 foot tall electric fence seems to be working pretty well at keeping them out. I did have to add some bright pink string on some 8 foot t posts on one edge to keep them out 100%.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

It doesn't help the fence into my backyard has a bigass hole currently when I lost a section  But i'm mostly complaining because I only have myself to blame, lol

I just finished up this greenhouse project for the missus:

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. 

markvince said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

What's in the soil, why is it looking so blackish?

No idea!

It's just store bought stuff.   Translated, the bag just says "general plant soil" and it seems to work (We keep this planter very wet though, so that might be contributing to the black color)

Furious_E (Forum Supporter) said:

The corn blew down in a severe storm last night, which is really disappointing as I'd never had space for it before and was doing so well. Might still be able to salvage something there.

That must have been a helluva storm!!  We get some good winds out here, and the corn is still standing (not ours, the landlord farms that plot)

We're fixin to go on a long camp trip, and don't want our plants to die.  I printed up dome bottle stakes, and they've been working out pretty well.

Here's hoping they're alive when we get back 

Time to pickle more jalapeños for use on burgers, sandwiches or snacks.

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

Are some frozen? Just curious. 
i have some jalapeno's and long cayenne's that are still putting fruit out but i just let my neighbors eat them. 

Our sugarcane is showing some "cane" now. Its supposed to be red and green. The green is obvious but the red looks more black. But i wanted some black sugar cane also so its cool either way. 

The lemon cattley guava gave us a few nice little fruits. Little tasty guava that goes yellow when ripe(or over ripe). Seeds are hard but edible. Taste will improve with tree age. We ate most of them before i could take a pic. 

Is this finally the official thread?  I feel like a new one of these gets started twice a season.

Anyway, here is the ultimate lazy/engineer garden solution IMO.  All the work is in the inital setup.  After that its just a matter of giving it water a couple times a year, and topping off dirt in the spring.  In the winter it can double as an open compost bin.  Rough math was this holds something like 40-50 gallons in the reservoir.  It will naturally refill in heavy rains/winter also.  Depending on the plants you put in them, it may never require manual watering (peppers for example).  But some plants draw mega water like tomatoes & watermelon.

Sub irrigated planter made from a stock feed tank, in order. 

Water reservoirs:

Put in place:

Fill it with dirt

install some plants

Mega yield:

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

Are some frozen? Just curious. 
i have some jalapeno's and long cayenne's that are still putting fruit out but i just let my neighbors eat them. 

Yes about half were frozen.  My mother in law the professional chef said they'd be okay.  Sadly I ended up tossing them out.  It made them rubbery.  I tried to stop it but living with 3 women ain't easy.  

We have been enjoying sweet corn and my wife has been enjoying her tomatoes lately.  Big harvests of both the last two days and only more to come. This is just a drop in the bucket we have almost 400 row feet of sweet corn so lots of freezing and canning in the near future for us.

Our peppers are filling up with fruit that just need to ripen and the watermelons are getting close.  This mid/late summer harvest is when all of the good stuff shows up.