What Are Your Garden Tricks?

[Goat Herder]

Sounds great M.T. I do not spray any of the Neem or Murphy stuff on my plants ether. Just don't like the way the plants ever behaved with it. A foilier feed and old fashioned water blasting is one of my favorites. I will fall back to the Capsicum spray job I do if it comes to it. It is pretty much desert environment here this year.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Fish oil stuff I used diluted once and it did not help anyway.

News: Getting on with my fish cover for my motor bike to convert from dirt bike to art mobile. My garden sort of does not require much of anything, perennials are easy to deal with. I need all the time I can get to fin ish the cover

MT

 

[rustycase]

Foliar feeding...

Gosh, I've read quite a bit about that... and the jury is still out!

Some sites, with championship growth claim it is their super top secret...
Other sites declare it will indeed green everything up visually, but no measurable increase in production.

I just don't know... but it sounds neato!

...but so does a Boost Bottle...


rc

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

GH, my use of the diluted fish oil stuff was to make a the bugs sprayed that were on the leaves have a hard time moving. They say it does not usually kill them, it just is so viscous to them there limbs get tired in it and they fly away elsewhere to eat easier stuff.

Come to think of it I bought some fish oil stuff that was touted as fertilizer and I used it diluted to add to the soil. It could have really been the same stuff.

More of the leaves are being attacked and I think I will give it a try again, but I think it really does not do much. The tree takes a hit with leaf loss, but not so bad and the bugs get fed.

The Miracle Grow fertilizer was touted as be one to use in the water spray feeder as others I suppose say too.

MT

 

[Goat Herder]

I have used Mir grow before in conjunction with a pesticide. Like Malathion. One year the leaf Hoppers were like the plague. It was really last resort at that time. 99 percent of the time I use nuttten at all. I will occasionally do a Foilier tho. However I would never spray a pesticide myself with out not killing two birds at once and do a Foilier as well in one swoop if it needed it. My garden pictures in the beginning of this thread had everything kind done to them. Including pretty regular Foilier feeding. Was just plant food.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

A volunteer orange Re: What Are Your Garden Tricks?

I had this orange fall off and it was only just a day on the soil. The orange tree hangs over a few other smaller planters. No harm done, I took time out from working on fixing up some model sail boat and the orange was the best!

MT

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I'm quite sure that there are no more of the thick skin oranges that are drier inside and less sweet and flavorful.

I have to find out what causes some of the oranges to do that. The big orange that did not change color to as much orange on the outside was not the only thick skin orange. It happened to about 2 other ones.

I do know that the color change is not important so much in determining when they are ripe. It is if they soften some. I know there all ready now, the ones that are for 2013. I'll just leave them on the tree and pick them before they drop off themselves. They keep better that way.

I only got around 25 oranges total, but the tree is only 4 years old since I got it and it was probably only a year old when I got it in the 3 gallon container.

2014 overlap crop of the smaller green oranges, I have not counted how many there are, but I expect I have maybe twice or more for next year to ripen into the normal size good oranges.

MT

 

[56cc]

Haven't needed any tricks this years as the weather has been ideal. Heck some of my cherry tomatoes are already 3" in diameter and nowhere even near ripe. Don't ya just hate it when the garden store incorrectly labels the spring seedlings!

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

The answer to my 4 year old Valencia Dwarf Orange Tree:

I searched and found that too much P and too little K may make thick skin and inside dry oranges. My problem was not that, as it was only a few oranges that way.

Therefore the other way this happens is that a young tree may do this. I'm glad it was just a small percentage that were like this.

In addition it was said that as happened to my orange tree had one year, a young tree may not have any oranges that formed, stayed on the to ripen, and were good, if there was a lot of foliage growth that year.

I'm past that now and the only thing I will want to try is later after it is cooler in the Fall, I will prune the tree to have it so the branches won't break. They are way too thin at certain places and I let them get too long with the weight of oranges. The trellis I am using I will continue to use, but I would like to get it to be more sturdy and bush out than string bean growth it has been so far.

MT

 

[chainmaker]

I'm an indoor gardener(nothing illegal) but we have about 30 various plants mostly succulents, cactus, and Norfolk Pines..mostly warmer climate plants. We just give them water as needed and organic fertilizer and have good results. This is a picture of my San Pedro Cactus in bloom the other night, they only bloom at night for 1 night there are still several blooms that should be opening the next few days.

 

[KenX]

A garden will only produce as much effort as you put into it. If you want to live off a garden you have to live in it. It's a lot of work. If you have the time to put into the effort the rewards are incalculable. (IMHO)

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Only 2 or 3 thick skin oranges from about the 25 total from this 4 year old Valencia Dwarf Orange Tree transplanted from 4 gallon bucket into half wine barrel.

With 2013 crop only left 4 more to harvest, I see the overlap crop for 2014 maybe producing 2 to 3 times as many. There only these small green golf ball size oranges now, but in 9 to 12 month I can be harvesting the next crop.

And of course the 2015 flowers and pea size oranges start out in Spring 2014, what a deal.

The seeds of the parsley plant I have to check on and see if I need to dry them out to try to use them. I did take a couple and have planted them already to see what happens.

Blueberries did OK, but I'll see what can be done better to have more harvest.

Overall pretty good year.

MT

PS, the idea of don't judge a book by its cover sort of is analogous with orange skin looks and what is for eating. I would always look for less blemished stuff at the market, but in my garden, seems nothing was so bad after slicing the oranges up that look like this!

 

[2door]

Anyone ever see anything like this? My wife always has a veggie garden and she was harvesting tomatos and found this Frankenmater. We have no idea what caused this anomaly but I thought I'd share it with you. I swear, it's natural. No photoShop stuff.

Tom

 

[rustycase]

Hi Tom,

I think it's either a gmo freakazoid, or a hybrid, with seed possibly saved from fruit grown a prior year. Sry, no definite answer.

Probably ok for me, or you, but I'd be reluctant to feed em to my kids and grandkids.
It's a whole new world out there!
rc

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Those are neat looking tomatoes. I also like knuckle surfaced pumpkins. I didn't go for that type this year, just the regular. I just finished eating the last of the oranges off my tree that are for this year, but the golf ball size green oranges are on the tree for 2014 ripening season.

I gathered the seeds off my parsley plant and started a bunch of seedlings from them. I gave away some of the seedling to neighbors.

The heirloom tomatoes have sometimes looks like the pictures you show above. I don't know if those are heirloom type, but maybe you can hope so. GMO I'm not interested in buying the seeds or plants thyat are GMO. Heirloom tomatoes I get at the little produce market (they are 1/5 the cost of supermarket) are the only tomatoes worth eating. There not hard as rocks and without taste as most store bought tomatoes are.

MT

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

A garden will only produce as much effort as you put into it. If you want to live off a garden you have to live in it. It's a lot of work. If you have the time to put into the effort the rewards are incalculable. (IMHO)

I agree. When I started off my own small vege garden when I first moved into this cottage where I'm presently living, I trenched the garden area out to a depth of about 3 feet and dug in compost, peat and sawdust into the soil. I grew so many Italian acid free tomatoes I was giving bags of them away to the neighbours because I couldn't eat them all.

I've been growing stunning crops of weeds this past year though as my health wasn't good enough for me to get into the garden.

 

[kathypel]

We have a small farm, no more animals(sad), but my garden got infested with those Japanese beeetles. They made a mess even of our elm trees. I had to resort to some strong insecticide, but although it helped, next year they say the bugs will be much worse. so any ideas on some home made recipes to help would be appreciated.

Also, I began using PVC piping to make mini greenhouses to start my plants out this year,
it is a great way to begin your plants. I use long plastic roles from Walmaart to cover, so early planting and preventing frost is possible.

 

[rustycase]

Kathy, a few years back we lived in a small town in which Dutch Elm trees had been planted all over the place, a number of years before.

Then, a plague of beetles came in that really liked the elm trees, which were now very large. The beetles killed any number of trees by eting the leaves completely from the trees, a number of seasons in a row. The trees then became un-sound, and it was necessary to take out lot of them.

We liked the one at our home. It presented a very nice visual improvement, and quite a bit of shade and natural air conditioning.

The larvae of the beetles dropped from the trees to the ground, then all marched to the trunk and began making their way up again, where they apparently went through their cycle after eating all the leaves.
We had to stop those beetles from reproducing!

I had no chemicals to use... But I had Duct Tape and plastic!

About 3ft up the trunk from the ground, I wrapped the clear plastic around the tree in a 1ft wide band, held in place with a few pieces of the tape.
Then, the upper edge of the plastic was tucked into the irregularities of the bark, to block the pathways. The bottom edge fluttered in the breeze, like a skirt.

Lastly, but most important, I made a few complete double passes round the tree with the duct tape, above and below where the plastic band was in place.

But I put these wraps of duct tape STICKY SIDE OUTWARDS !

The larvae got stuck on the duct tape! Those that made it past got to the plastic, and slipped off in any bit of breeze.

It was necessary for me to use the garden hose to wash away the huge pile of dead larvae at the base of the tree... more than a few times before they stopped, for that year!

It was a number of years back, and that tree is still standing, and healthy.
Many others were taken out.

Rather than using expensive storebought chems, I might suggest using dish detergent in water in a hudson sprayer... a pretty stout mix. It kills beetles on my squash plants on contact, in minutes. Actually less than minutes!

Downside?
Well, most bug-killing chems are toxic, and the chems in the dish detergent probably are too. But I *guess* they are ok, once rinsed???
We like dawn detergent best.

Good luck!
rc

Pls tell us how your fared in the battle!

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I got a six pack of seedlings to grow saffron shallots. The orange tree has done alright and all the oranges are the smaller Valencia size they should be.

The larger freaks have a dry inside. I heard sometimes it is that you might wait too long to pick an orange and it grows bigger, then it gets a thicker skin and is dryer.

Mostly I have had them not ready to eat and they are already too big for a few strange ones. Younger trees have these few odd ones, now I guess the tree is maturing.

Blueberry bushes are doing great and flowering. One variety always looses all its leaves and grows a new set and it is budding now for what become new leaves.

I also got a spearmint plant that is gone wild, maybe I can dry the leaves if I have a lot of growth. It seems that is the only way you get a strong flavor develop. Lots of leaves it seems just keep sprouting so harvesting won't hurt it.

MT

 

[NunyaBidness]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if you have a problem with squirrels getting into your tomatoes, put a bowl of water out near your garden and they will go to it to drink instead of drinking from your tomatoes. You kind of have to keep fresh water in it but it is worth it to keep the critters out of your garden.