Garden 2022

[Wingnut]

Holy Cow, Neb!!! Looks like a late-'70s or early-'80s disco!!!

Filled my large trash bin with weeds, then went on to pull more weeds while the ground is damp... once the ground dries out, pulling weeds becomes much more difficult. We're talking tough high desert weeds here, lol. But I reckon I'm almost through weeding for this season, and I even cleaned up a few stray goathead vines which were trying to establish a toehold on my property. I'm seeing less & less of those miserable goatheads, so I'm definitely winning the war!

When the trash bin is emptied next Monday, I can instantly refill it with the extra weeds I pulled today (which I left in piles around the property). I got rid of a bunch of tumbleweeds today, and some other scratchy weeds which I don't want on my property... next season should be MUCH EASIER when it comes to weeding! I even put my propane torch or flamethrower away in the large metal shed, I don't think I'll need it again this year, except for arson purposes, lol...

 

[hashbrown]

Running a batch of auto flowers at the moment 67 days from seed to finished buds with this grow.

 

[hashbrown]

Since imitation is a sincere dorm of flattery.... consider yourself flattered.

Installed the four foot lights today.

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They are installed via tie wraps to the shelf above.

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All the lights are on a single timer with each shelf having a unique switch.

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I turned on the seedling starting mat for the top shelf and turned on the space heater with a set point of 50 degrees F which is the minimum possible for the heater.

Hoping for good results.

Ben

Blurples, I have used some of those.

 

[Peanut]

Well, 2 nights at 30 degrees and I called this garden season over. Still had a boat load of peppers to harvest and one watermelon I think is bad.

Got a big pan of serranos, med pan of jalapenos and a big pan of tabasco peppers. It took me an hour and a half to fill the tabasco pan. They are little!

It was getting late and felt a little chilly in the garden for a tshirt so I took my big scissors and started harvesting whole limbs off the tabasco peppers. Easier to pull off little peppers sitting in a warm house.

Still unsure what to do with them all besides dry them. Last night I dug out all the little glass bottles I’d been saving. Thinking of make several more bottles of pepper sauce, maybe give them away at christmas.

But, I can plow up the garden tomorrow, it's done. I left the gang disk hooked up to the big tractor last week just for this reason.

 

[hashbrown]

Starting my next round, 4 autos and two photos. The strawberry pie seeds were $18 each l sprouted them so I hope they take!

 

[Wingnut]

$18 per seed? Damn. I'm not sure if I can buy specific seeds from our local dispensaries here in the boondocks, last time I bought a hodgepodge of 10 different chronic strains for $30, which I thought was a rip-off, lol. Do you order your seeds online or something? Can I buy known strains that way? Just askin'...

P.S. I really appreciate the photos, even though I'll do all my growing outdoors... it's good to see how things should be done with indoor growing operations!

 

[elkhound]

 

[UrbanHunter]

This morning I checked the temps, 33F outside, 59F in the greenhouse, and 68F in the house. I plan to work in the garden today, may try to harvest some sweet potatoes just to see what I get.

 

[Peanut]

I learned some new to me info about peppers today. I cut off a bunch of limbs from the pepper plants late yesterday. It was getting late and I was going to plow them under anyway. I got around to pulling the peppers off this morning.

They broke off the stems much easier. Two bowls, one I picked from the living plants. The other was today, it’s clean. I only had to pick out a few stems.

The one from yesterday is filled with stems. I’ll have to go through them all again and get the stems off.

Next year at last harvest… I’ll just pull up all the plants, let them lay there for a day or even a 2nd day then harvest the peppers off them. They come off easy and clean.

This is my take from last harvest… 2 watermelons, 2lb jalapenos, 3.5lb serranos and 4lb of tabasco peppers.

 

[Bacpacker]

Last harvest of the year always feels nice.

 

[Neb]

Blurples, I have used some of those.

I added some full spectrums to the mix so it is less purple.

I have two more of the 2 foot fixtures in reserve.
I may use them for the lower shelf or use them for the citrus olive and coffee tree whole they spend the winter on the front porch.

I sid transplant two leaf lettuce into 4 inch pots.

@UrbanHunter ,

What size pots do you grow your indoor lettuce in?

Ben

 

[joel]

I learned some new to me info about peppers today. I cut off a bunch of limbs from the pepper plants late yesterday. It was getting late and I was going to plow them under anyway. I got around to pulling the peppers off this morning.

They broke off the stems much easier. Two bowls, one I picked from the living plants. The other was today, it’s clean. I only had to pick out a few stems.

The one from yesterday is filled with stems. I’ll have to go through them all again and get the stems off.

Next year at last harvest… I’ll just pull up all the plants, let them lay there for a day or even a 2nd day then harvest the peppers off them. They come off easy and clean.

This is my take from last harvest… 2 watermelons, 2lb jalapenos, 3.5lb serranos and 4lb of tabasco peppers.

View attachment 96276View attachment 96277

Peanut, you not going to transfer a pepper plant indoors for the winter?

 

[Peanut]

Nope, I already have more peppers than I can use in the next year. I'm not about to drag one in the house and have to care for it.

I'm thinking about making a pepper tincture just to see how it turns out.

 

[Neb]

Peanut, you not going to transfer a pepper plant indoors for the winter?

WHAT?

How does one bring any things back inside without bringing troublesome critters?

Full disclosure:
I did bring in my potted trees to the front porch with the greenhouse on the back.

Curious because The Princess wants the trees to someday over winter in the greenhouse.

Ben

 

[Amish Heart]

Peanut, you should pickle some of those peppers. I did 27 pints of them. But now I have 3 more buckets in my kitchen. Some are the big ones I'll be roasting.

 

[Peanut]

Peanut, you should pickle some of those peppers. I did 27 pints of them. But now I have 3 more buckets in my kitchen. Some are the big ones I'll be roasting.

I've never had "pickled peppers'. Don't know how to make them. How do you use them? Unless you're referring to pepper sauce which is just peppers in vinegar. I'm confused...

 

[Amish Heart]

Like the sliced jalapenos sold in stores. You can water bath them if you add pickling salt, sugar, and vinegar.

 

[Neb]

I stuck 8 fig cuttings in a pot of dirt a few months ago and 3 took.

They got their own pots today.

Eventually I hope they will join the citrus olive and coffee trees as part of the potted tree collection. Maybe even taste my own figs some day.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

The wife was sick last night and I woke up with a killer sinus headache. So I gave up on hunting and slept in.

This afternoon I did get started on the greenhouse project. I switched out the charge controllers, replacing 40Amp units with 60Amp units. Now my garden solar array is a single pair of parallel 400 watt strings with separate diodes and fuses. I also started cutting all the wood to go on the roof of the greenhouse that will support another 800 watts set up like the other array. I finished making the collection ducts for the planned hot air extraction from under the new solar panels. I also ran the solar panel wires up there, so tomorrow all I have to do is finish making the frame, connect all the ducts and temperature sensors, install the "reserve" solar panels and connect it all together. I did notice that 1 set of my battery tray feeder cables was a little light, so I ordered a heavier pair. I really like the new charge controllers, they have the ability to track input to the battery bank. The one charge controller was delivering 700+ watts today and it was putting a lot of extra heat into the space. I guess when it is all said and done the two charge controllers should act like a space heater.

Today, the high temperature was 60F and the temperature in the greenhouse got to 95F, the night time temperature in the greenhouse is now holding about 20 degrees warmer than the outside temps. Today was a bright sunny day and the bottom of the existing solar panels got to 115F, so there should be some supplemental heat available when I get the new panels installed.

Oh, while talking with the wife the other night I told her about my plan to capture heat from the bottom of the solar panels, she said it's too bad you can't heat the house with it... I said, you mean like opening the sliding glass door?

On a side note I did get all my beans pulled up, I need to plant my onions there as soon as possible. I have been removing the plants from my indoor growing stations so I can clean them up... there is always so much to do. I need to start harvesting my root crops soon.

With winter approaching I hope to have everything functioning before we start seeing "bad" weather....

 

[hashbrown]

I potted 3 Strawberry Pie auto flowers and I Blue Dream photo period plant this morning. Alex trimmed up a little auto flower that’s in full bud. It looks like it might make 3 oz by harvest. This will probably be my last run of auto flowers. It’s a lot of time and work to harvest 3 or ounces. After the plants I potted today I think I’m going to grow photo period plants from now on. They take twice as long but the harvest is much larger.

 

[Wingnut]

That's really amazing, how y'all can get so much bud off one little plant, lol. Do you know of an online site that sells specific strains of seeds? I only ask for the next outdoor growing season, so no hurry in response, lol. Maybe I should just punch "cannabis seeds for sale online" into my computer, somebody has to sell 'em somewhere!

 

[Wingnut]

Homegrown watermelon for breakfast (first course, more food later, lol), quite tasty but I still get the feeling that the flavor would be more robust if these melons had fully developed. Also, I seem to have gotten a full complement of seeds out of this melon, which wasn't quite the size of a football. I suppose that if the melon had fully developed, there would've been more 'flesh' to the fruit, aye? I'm hoping that's what happens next season, when I intend to plant a hundred melon vines in my yard under the high desert sun, lol. Things will be worse than goatheads, but instead of getting stabbed by the melons, I'll be trippin' over 'em in the dark when I'm drunk, lol.

 

[hashbrown]

That's really amazing, how y'all can get so much bud off one little plant, lol. Do you know of an online site that sells specific strains of seeds? I only ask for the next outdoor growing season, so no hurry in response, lol. Maybe I should just punch "cannabis seeds for sale online" into my computer, somebody has to sell 'em somewhere!

Atlantic Seed has been the best for me so far. They have a nice inventory of Auto flowers and ship quickly.

 

[Tank-Girl]

From what I'm hearing from the private Grower + Cancer patient co-ops it's becoming increasingly difficult to get seeds past customs esp for the packages sent by sea.
A few have a few growers who produce seed but they are always crosses and so the effect and percentages of THC vs CBD is not known.
Pretty short sighted when the flow of "pure" genetic material coming into the country has almost stopped.
It's almost tempting to have a crack at breeding pure stock myself but then again, given the area I live in, that would be too cliché for words!
Talk about fitting in with the hood!

 

[Peanut]

My pepper harvest is over. I made 12 bottles of pepper sauce total, already gave 3 away. I made 8 bottles today plus another quart jar of pepper sauce. I plan to hand out some at Christmas.

Dry peppers, about 4 quarts finished. Jalapeno's, Serrano's, Thai and Tabasco peppers. I have 11 trays in the dehydrators right now. 7 trays in the old Nesco will be ready for jars in the morning. I just put the last of the fresh peppers in the Excalibur just a bit ago, 4 trays.

 

[Wingnut]

Okey-dokey, HB, I'll look them up... I'm WAY behind the times when it comes to this whole MMJ growing scene.

And Peanut, all I can say is "WOW! THOSE LOOK GOOD!!!"

 

[Wingnut]

Pulled two mini melons off the vine today, they each had a browned-out pigtail (or tendril) nearby so I figured I'd yank 'em before they rotted on the vine. I'm gonna eat these melons just to get the seeds for next growing season... I reckon once I plant the vines in areas where they'll get heaps of sunshine clear into fall, then I'll be golden with a bunch of full-sized fruit to eat, hand out to friends & cool neighbors, make watermelon wine in the fermenter, whatever, lol. But first, I eat these minis and get the seeds. That mini melon on the left was already there, waiting its turn to be eaten, 10-4?

Now, a quick question about sunflowers: are seeds from the 'giant sunflower' the ONLY ones which can be eaten? Or the only ones worth eating? I ask because I've seen giant sunflowers before, just loaded with seeds, while this sunflower plant in my yard never got anywhere NEAR as large... perhaps it too was stuck in the shade when it should've been in the blazing sun to boost growth? I took some pics of the dried-up flowers, which are rather small but they should still have seeds, right? Can I just clip those entire dried flowers off the dead plant and store 'em in a bag till spring, then plant each flower head or whatever it's called in its own hole with amended soil? Would that be feasible? Or would I be wasting my time with plants that don't produce edible sunflower seeds? Here are the dead flowers, lol... maybe I should send 'em to an ex, but that would be SMALL-MINDED, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated... even advice telling me to go jump in the lake, or off a tall cliff, lol.

P.S. Going back to that watermelon wine, let's hear the CLASSIC COUNTRY TUNE by Tom T. Hall!!!

Tom T. Hall

 

[joel]

Pulled two mini melons off the vine today, they each had a browned-out pigtail (or tendril) nearby so I figured I'd yank 'em before they rotted on the vine. I'm gonna eat these melons just to get the seeds for next growing season... I reckon once I plant the vines in areas where they'll get heaps of sunshine clear into fall, then I'll be golden with a bunch of full-sized fruit to eat, hand out to friends & cool neighbors, make watermelon wine in the fermenter, whatever, lol. But first, I eat these minis and get the seeds. That mini melon on the left was already there, waiting its turn to be eaten, 10-4?

View attachment 96756

Now, a quick question about sunflowers: are seeds from the 'giant sunflower' the ONLY ones which can be eaten? Or the only ones worth eating? I ask because I've seen giant sunflowers before, just loaded with seeds, while this sunflower plant in my yard never got anywhere NEAR as large... perhaps it too was stuck in the shade when it should've been in the blazing sun to boost growth? I took some pics of the dried-up flowers, which are rather small but they should still have seeds, right? Can I just clip those entire dried flowers off the dead plant and store 'em in a bag till spring, then plant each flower head or whatever it's called in its own hole with amended soil? Would that be feasible? Or would I be wasting my time with plants that don't produce edible sunflower seeds? Here are the dead flowers, lol... maybe I should send 'em to an ex, but that would be SMALL-MINDED, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

View attachment 96757
View attachment 96758

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated... even advice telling me to go jump in the lake, or off a tall cliff, lol.

P.S. Going back to that watermelon wine, let's hear the CLASSIC COUNTRY TUNE by Tom T. Hall!!!

Tom T. Hall

It is my understanding that you can eat the whole plant of the whole family of sunflowers.
Like the leave of young plants as greens.

 

[Pearl]

Pulled two mini melons off the vine today, they each had a browned-out pigtail (or tendril) nearby so I figured I'd yank 'em before they rotted on the vine. I'm gonna eat these melons just to get the seeds for next growing season... I reckon once I plant the vines in areas where they'll get heaps of sunshine clear into fall, then I'll be golden with a bunch of full-sized fruit to eat, hand out to friends & cool neighbors, make watermelon wine in the fermenter, whatever, lol. But first, I eat these minis and get the seeds. That mini melon on the left was already there, waiting its turn to be eaten, 10-4?

View attachment 96756

Now, a quick question about sunflowers: are seeds from the 'giant sunflower' the ONLY ones which can be eaten? Or the only ones worth eating? I ask because I've seen giant sunflowers before, just loaded with seeds, while this sunflower plant in my yard never got anywhere NEAR as large... perhaps it too was stuck in the shade when it should've been in the blazing sun to boost growth? I took some pics of the dried-up flowers, which are rather small but they should still have seeds, right? Can I just clip those entire dried flowers off the dead plant and store 'em in a bag till spring, then plant each flower head or whatever it's called in its own hole with amended soil? Would that be feasible? Or would I be wasting my time with plants that don't produce edible sunflower seeds? Here are the dead flowers, lol... maybe I should send 'em to an ex, but that would be SMALL-MINDED, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

View attachment 96757
View attachment 96758

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated... even advice telling me to go jump in the lake, or off a tall cliff, lol.

P.S. Going back to that watermelon wine, let's hear the CLASSIC COUNTRY TUNE by Tom T. Hall!!!

Tom T. Hall

Not sure about the sunflower seeds. My advice is have a beer!!

 

[Wingnut]

Good advice, but it comes too late... I'm already working on my 4th or 5th, lol. Hey, didja like the Tom T. Hall tune in the 'Garden 2022' thread? I kinda snuck it in there, lol... I know there's an excellent music thread here somewhere, but why, I ask, WHY can't GARDENERS (and even wannabe gardeners such as myself) have a little FUN? That weeding $h!t gets OLD, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Here's Dwight Yoakam:

Dwight Yoakam