Garden 2021

[elkhound]

planted out 6 european elderberry yesterday evening. i had ordered the root cuttings last spring and potted them up to have close to water till they got to growing a nice root system. i just kept them watered extra good all year. boy howdy did they grow a root system. these were about size clipping of half or three quarter of a pencil.one of them is filled with way more roots the size i planted.theres lots of small roots but was surprised to see the larger ones and the amount.i could have clipped those to start more but i didnt.i have another european cultivar to start this year to plant with these.

 

[elkhound]

@UrbanHunter, I'm sorry to say, but it's possible your ladybug isn't a true ladybug...
These are not ladybugs: Invasive Asian lady beetles are swarming Wisconsin

i have both lady bugs and the asian ones. last year i noticed my potatoes had a few lady bugs on them and soon they were covered with the asian ones as well.i know they are considered a pest but the things were eating aphids off my taters.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thanks for the reminder Urban. I've got a bunch of stuff I need to start as well. Cabbage and such real soon. Mater and peppers won't be far behind

 

[UrbanHunter]

I was reading "Year-Round Vegetable Gardner" and I started finding errors, I think the book is great, but they made a lot of SI to US custom unit conversion errors, it was clear to see that they are using SI daily and tried to convert to US, but they got a D in their math class...... I guess I am just a picky reader.

 

[Neb]

I hope I am not violating rules....

I was catching up on the instructional chaanels that I subscribe to on YouTube. I thought I might share it with y'all because I have learned a lot from MIGardener. In this video he talks about using alfalfa pellets and cubes in your garden.




Yes all his videos are NOT "very exciting" but they are informative. He has a lot of playlists and has been producing them for a long time. I haven't watched all of them.

I hope he can help at least one of y'all as he has done me.

Ben

 

[Terri9630]

I was reading "Year-Round Vegetable Gardner" and I started finding errors, I think the book is great, but they made a lot of SI to US custom unit conversion errors, it was clear to see that they are using SI daily and tried to convert to US, but they got a D in their math class...... I guess I am just a picky reader.

SI?

 

[Patchouli]

Weather has been so mild here this winter and last winter too. I wished last year that I had started anything much sooner and I'm hoping I can this time. So much to take care of besides gardening, I am amazed at how much yall do.

 

[Patchouli]

I was reading "Year-Round Vegetable Gardner" and I started finding errors, I think the book is great, but they made a lot of SI to US custom unit conversion errors, it was clear to see that they are using SI daily and tried to convert to US, but they got a D in their math class...... I guess I am just a picky reader.

Better than being a picky eater.
You amaze me with all the stuff you do in your gardening adventures.
Everybody here posting all their business and busy stuff all the time, I get tired just reading it. Anyway, I should take notes when i read this stuff cuz then I can't remember who said what on what thread about what vegetable and how to fix this or that. Y'all are top notch people.

 

[LadyLocust]

I was reading "Year-Round Vegetable Gardner" and I started finding errors, I think the book is great, but they made a lot of SI to US custom unit conversion errors, it was clear to see that they are using SI daily and tried to convert to US, but they got a D in their math class...... I guess I am just a picky reader.

I’ve read that book via the library. I thought it was “good” but turned it back in with little interest in seeing it again. Maybe that’s partially why- my subconscious didn’t find it accurate. Just a thought

 

[freelove]

Be careful using alfalfa pellets in your gardens. I checked into it and the non-organic has been treated with glyphosate to dry the alfalfa before harvest. I don't remember the brand, but I emailed the company and they said yes, their producers do use glyphosate or other drying chemicals.

 

[Justaguy987]

Yes, I know it is still January it northern Utah, but I am very excited to see my tomato seeds sprouting. January worked out great for us last year so we are hoping for the same this year. I just hope we have enough room inside for them when they get bigger.

 

[Meerkat]

Yesterday, I was looking at the flowers I have on my indoor garden plants, I have a fan blowing on some of them. Lots of stuff in bloom, cucumbers, tomatoes, bush beans, potatoes; yes we had more blooms than spring time!

Woke up this morning with a killer sinus headache, yes I have allergies big time....... I will have to remember to take my allergy meds year round now....

Us too Urban.we have bloms all over our blueberry bushes we had inside plus bean seedlings took off really fast.Bean seedling was just to test the seeds and they are fine.Had to transplant all the aloe vera ,rosemary, blueberrys pinapple and not sure banana tree made it.Greenhouse didn't get closed in last year.So we hve to do that soon.

 

[Meerkat]

planted out 6 european elderberry yesterday evening. i had ordered the root cuttings last spring and potted them up to have close to water till they got to growing a nice root system. i just kept them watered extra good all year. boy howdy did they grow a root system. these were about size clipping of half or three quarter of a pencil.one of them is filled with way more roots the size i planted.theres lots of small roots but was surprised to see the larger ones and the amount.i could have clipped those to start more but i didnt.i have another european cultivar to start this year to plant with these.

View attachment 57510

View attachment 57511

Who roots look good ElkH.

 

[elkhound]

got out in woods this morning and planted about 2000-2500 ramp seed in the cold rain. great day to be out in the wilds.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Got my order of tomato seeds.Got an extra packet of seeds just as a "tomato blessing" which was nice. Each envelope has 20-25 seeds and since they're all heirlooms you can save your own seeds from year to year.
Considering how shipping and mailing is now I was happily surprised how fast they came in the mail.
The only "Con" I can find is that the envelopes don't have any instructions or information about that variety of seeds. Its just information about their company and the seeds saving project.
You'll have to make a cheat sheet off the website for the varieties you buy.
I'm making sticky notes on the back of the packs for each variety right now. Just taking a break now. I'll do them when I have the time.

https://www.tomatofest.com/default.asp

 

[UrbanHunter]

I am now seeing more flowers every day. There are about half a dozen cucumbers on the vine now and the bush beans are showing, the indoor carrots have sprouted now.

I have set up some food storage shelves on casters so I can push them around making better use of the space. I converted one 3'X18"X 6' growing station into food storage and replaced it with a larger 4'X2'X6' unit that is mounted on rollers, the shelves are much sturdier than the older unit. I have installed 40 LED grow light rails in this system using 5 circuits. This will help with the extra poinsettias that the son wants me to keep alive. It also has a shelf spaced to fit seed starter trays, I checked and I can easily get 3 trays on the shelf, that will allow me to have 54 seed starters going at any given time.... The clock is ticking to the first spring seed planting here, just 19 days!

I will inventory my outside containers and be starting to gather materials to rearrange my rain water storage barrels weekend after this.

Imagine, in just 3 months we will be working outside and wishing for cooler weather

 

[Neb]

Got my order of tomato seeds.Got an extra packet of seeds just as a "tomato blessing" which was nice. Each envelope has 20-25 seeds and since they're all heirlooms you can save your own seeds from year to year.
Considering how shipping and mailing is now I was happily surprised how fast they came in the mail.
The only "Con" I can find is that the envelopes don't have any instructions or information about that variety of seeds. Its just information about their company and the seeds saving project.
You'll have to make a cheat sheet off the website for the varieties you buy.
I'm making sticky notes on the back of the packs for each variety right now. Just taking a break now. I'll do them when I have the time.

https://www.tomatofest.com/default.asp

I purchased an heirloom variety of tomatoes were the name started with " Heinz" followed by a number. They are a determinant (? don't need to be supported) variety good for making sauce (? Roma?). Inevitably some fruit falls to the ground and will rot. The next spring I find the clumps of sprouts and move them to where I want them to grow. A week or 2 later I thin all but the biggest.

I haven't planted a tomato seed in more than 5 years yet I always have a 4'x4' raised bed full of tomatoes.

Granted mine come ripe about 2 weeks after other's but don't seem to to be shocked when I move the clumps.

Ben

 

[Tank-Girl]

It's still too hot here to start growing European vegetables but I did take the pup out into the back yard/jungle and did some prep work to get it back under control.
At the end of the cooler season I'm so burnt out that I just open the gate to the chicken pen and let the girls have the run of the entire yard.
They have a hard time staying on top of the guinea and elephant grass that comes up after a few heavy storms, finding eggs is a chore and stepping on a snake is a very real danger.
Still it keeps the feed bill down and the girls really get on top of the cutworm, pill bug and soil cockroach issue as they head straight to the old vegetable beds where the soil is richest and work them over.
The eggs when I find them need to have the float test done to them before use.

I put the lawn tractor's battery on charge and I had to go out and buy a 12vlt compressor because the tires are flat.
I'm thinking I'll have to buy a new fuel filter because the fuel tank is bone dry.
I'm not sure in-line fuel filters like being dried out. Something is telling me they get tacky inside and get blocked.
I guess there's only one way to find out.
I prefer to be on the lawn tractor to cut down the massive growth because being on foot with a whipper snipper with all the snakes around is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Meerkat]

I purchased an heirloom variety of tomatoes were the name started with " Heinz" followed by a number. They are a determinant (? don't need to be supported) variety good for making sauce (? Roma?). Inevitably some fruit falls to the ground and will rot. The next spring I find the clumps of sprouts and move them to where I want them to grow. A week or 2 later I thin all but the biggest.

I haven't planted a tomato seed in more than 5 years yet I always have a 4'x4' raised bed full of tomatoes.

Granted mine come ripe about 2 weeks after other's but don't seem to to be shocked when I move the clumps.

Ben

That sounds great,have to try it in our raised bed.

 

[Cascadian]

I made a seed sprout set up for my wife. She is the Gardner I am just the muscle. The led grow light was $70 at a local shop. We also got a heating mat to help germinate while we were there.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today, the wife had me harvest some carrots from the raised bed outside, I have the retractable top on it so the 6" of snow on it had no impact on my ability to continue to harvest even now (Feb).

I have 2 - 3 gallon buckets with in-door carrots that are just getting started, I thinned them yesterday, they should be ready in mid-summer...

My bush beans are now making flowers and fruit, so we will have a mess of ham a green beans sometime soon.

I spotted a sugar snap pea yesterday, it was so cute, I ate it....

I am currently in the process of planning my first batch of seed starting for the spring garden... Tried to get the wife's input on what was a priority, but she couldn't grasp that you have to choose what, how much, and when. This is even more important when you are working with limited space.

 

[elkhound]

everything is covered in snow and frozen solid now...its going to be awhile till this is gone and see real dirt now...i done next best thing..ordered a few seeds to try..tomatoes from remiers...WOW...big delays and another corp i have a credit with is out of 80% or more of their items. glad i dont have to have anything..i just want to be sure and not lose the gift certificate i got from their mess up last season.

 

[elkhound]

Inventory Update

Updated January 29, 2021
Dear customers,
The seed industry has faced extraordinary demand so far in 2021. To keep our own operational processes working smoothly, we are only selling seeds that we have packed and available to ship. The good news is that this is allowing us to ship a high volume of orders very quickly—most within just a few days. The bad news is that the demand is greater than our current production capability, and we are doing our best to catch up.
For many of the varieties that are currently out of stock on the website, we do have bulk seed available. But with the COVID-safety limits we have placed on workplace capacity, our production ability is limited and is not keeping pace with demand.
We are working as fast as we can to pack more seeds and restock our shelves. We expect much better availability across all categories beginning the week of February 8th, but if demand remains this high, items will go out of stock again quickly.
So here are our recommendations:

• We cannot currently advise on back-in-stock times for any products. If you see a product you would like to purchase and it is currently in stock, please purchase it immediately; if it goes out of stock, we cannot guarantee when (or in some cases if) it will come back in stock again.
• If a particular product you need is currently out of stock, enter your email address on the product page to be notified when the product is back in stock. See the red circle in the image below:

https://hudsonvalleyseed.com/pages/covid-update

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

When I was retrieving my truck from the repair shop yesterday, the main store was setting up a rack of display seeds. Very odd since no one else knows if they will even be getting any at the end if February, even. I took a shopping bag full of seeds they hadn't gotten sorted yet. Will see what's in there when I get a spare minute. They were expensive but this isn't the time to get choosy.

 

[Terri9630]

Hubby, the kid and our neighbor were looking at me funny when I started ordering seeds before Christmas. The neighbor got an email like Elkhounds and one of the catalogs we both get already had seeds marked out of stock.

 

[UrbanHunter]

My son saw that I have 3 ammo cans in the refrigerator in the MAN CAVE (basement), he said this is ridiculous, why you do you have ammo in the fridge? I said those are air tight containers full of seeds..... He still couldn't get it... I think come summer a lot of people are going to be getting it.

 

[Bacpacker]

I ordered and have recieved all my stuff already, except for my onion slips which are scheduled to ship last week of Feb and last week of April. Within 2 weeks of ordering my seeds I got emails from 2 of the vendors that they were going to be experienceing delays soon. Didn't affect mine, but if I had waited it would have.
The only thing I need now is seed taters.

 

[Terri9630]

All I'm waiting for are my seed taters.

 

[Erin]

I didn't need much so I had small orders (might've made it faster?), one arrived today, another is scheduled to be here tomorrow. Placed both less than two weeks ago.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I decided to get some of those seed starter mats (ordered them on-line), this morning I ran errands and picked up some seed starter trays, some seed starter soil, some 3 gallon buckets, and some plastic trays for the buckets to sit in (after I add a few holes in the bottom). By doing it this way I get a 3 gallon growing container with tray for about $6. Similar sized self watering containers can be up to $25. I am planning to so a set of staggered seed starts this year, I have reached out to see if anyone needs some plants (I figure if I am starting 30, 60 is no big deal), but they can't decide if they are going to garden this year, waiting till April to make a decision....

I expect things will start to get busy for me soon, in 10 days will start transplant seeds, then will need to build the new supports for my rain water storage system, after that I will need to get all the beds and containers ready, sometime in the mix I will need to plant my Canadian Maple that I have grown in a container for 5 years, it is now 6' tall and will get a permanent home on the south side of the house. Then I will need to make sure my irrigation system is assembled and working properly. Right after that summer will be here, just a wink of the eye and everyone will be as busy as little beavers....