official veggie gardener's thread

[IceBergSLiM]

I finally built my very rudimentary raised beds. 4x8x12

Ordered 3 cubic yards of top soil and 2 bales of peat moss to fill them with.

 

[Doodoo]

Whatd you build them out of? Trying to decide whether to use cedar or just plain douglas fir.

 

[silverpig]

I bought a few neat heirloom tomatoes and ate them yesterday, but scooped the seeds out to see if I can start them. I'll give a plant to my mom if I can get them going, and then I'll save the seeds for next year.

 

[BoomerD]

Whatd you build them out of? Trying to decide whether to use cedar or just plain douglas fir.

Doug fir will rot pretty quickly. If that doesn't matter to you, then use it...it's certainly cheaper. Otherwise, cedar or redwood heartwood are your best choices.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

Shit. I've got a frost warning for my area. Thankfully I haven't put my maters and peppers in yet. Seedlings will be inside tonight.

Pay attention to your last frost dates folks and do not plant before then and watch the forecast.

i planted out a tomato and pepper plant last weekend. the first weekend after the last average frost. My wife picked up these insulator things that you fill with water and it forms a teepee over them. they seem to have done a ok with temps hitting 34 last night.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Whatd you build them out of? Trying to decide whether to use cedar or just plain douglas fir.

I have no idea I used whatever the standard is at home depot.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Doug fir will rot pretty quickly. If that doesn't matter to you, then use it...it's certainly cheaper. Otherwise, cedar or redwood heartwood are your best choices.

it was probably douglas then cuz it was the cheapest they had.

 

[snoopdoug1]

I finally built my very rudimentary raised beds. 4x8x12

Ordered 3 cubic yards of top soil and 2 bales of peat moss to fill them with.

Is that 4 foot by 8 foot by 12 inches? 3 cubic yards is too much soil isn't it?

 

[snoopdoug1]

Whatd you build them out of? Trying to decide whether to use cedar or just plain douglas fir.

I just built a 4x4 raised bed with cinder blocks. It's cheap and should be very rot resistant

 

[TraumaRN]

Planted everything out last night, tomatoes, peppers, all my started flowers, my squash seeds, green bean seeds, cowpea seeds...will transplant my cuke, cantaloupe and watermelon starts next week. So far so good nary a wilted leaf on the transplanted veggies. I'll take pics soon.

 

[sgaliger]

Just planted . . . 3 rows of corn, roughly 12' a piece; 2 rows of wax beans, also 12'; one row of cucumbers, 5 "mounds" total; 1 row of cantaloupe, 4 mounds; 1 row of watermelon, 5 mounds, 2 varieties; and 9 tomato plants, various variety. It's my first summer in this house, we'll see if anything grows, I have a lot of trees and am a little worried about the sunlight I will get, might do the front yard next year.

 

[BoomerD]

Put in 4 more sunsugar tomatoes today. The ones we bought earlier in the season are starting to look like cherry tomatoes...(bastards!) I have 5 or 6 fruits that are about the size of a quarter...and are already turning orange. (fucking pricks...I didn't want cherry tomatoes!)
Plus, I picked up a large jalapeno the other day...turns out it had 3 separate plants in the container, so I divided them up and planted them separately.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Put in 4 more sunsugar tomatoes today. The ones we bought earlier in the season are starting to look like cherry tomatoes...(bastards!) I have 5 or 6 fruits that are about the size of a quarter...and are already turning orange. (fucking pricks...I didn't want cherry tomatoes!)
Plus, I picked up a large jalapeno the other day...turns out it had 3 separate plants in the container, so I divided them up and planted them separately.

score! That's going to be a lot of jalapeno's though, isn't it?

 

[BoomerD]

score! That's going to be a lot of jalapeno's though, isn't it?

Gawd...I hope so...I loves me some jalapenos...

I think this year, if we get enough, we're going to try canning jalapenos as well as tomatoes.

 

[spidey07]

I've got some Early Blight on my tomatoes.

Pro-tip: This is why I do half heirlooms and half hybrids. The heirlooms are having the trouble, hybrids are fine. You just about can't kill hybrids. So even if you do get hit with something you'll still have fruit with the hybrids.

I'm also noticing lowes/HD carrying more seedling heirlooms from Bonnie. Nice.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I've got my tomato seedlings and have the beds prepped. Another week or two before I can stick the plants in the ground, we're still in the frost danger zone.

 

[BoomerD]

I've got my tomato seedlings and have the beds prepped. Another week or two before I can stick the plants in the ground, we're still in the frost danger zone.

Damn...I already have cherry tomatoes turning orange...

(and those plants will probably come out next week...they were NOT supposed to be cherry tomatoes. )

 

[HydroSqueegee]

radishes and lettuce have sprouted!

planted 4 tomato plants this weekend. still need to build a planter box for the deck railing to put my tumbling toms in.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I've got some Early Blight on my tomatoes.

Pro-tip: This is why I do half heirlooms and half hybrids. The heirlooms are having the trouble, hybrids are fine. You just about can't kill hybrids. So even if you do get hit with something you'll still have fruit with the hybrids.

I'm also noticing lowes/HD carrying more seedling heirlooms from Bonnie. Nice.

whats the best way to fight the blight?

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Is that 4 foot by 8 foot by 12 inches? 3 cubic yards is too much soil isn't it?

yes we have some left over but not much. 3 was the round number.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

whats the best way to fight the blight?

ive never successfully beat blight. i was able to keep it in check one year with heavy amounts of fungicide, but it got costly. final solution was to pull the plants. but by then everything was infected. so i just let nature take its course. everything died by august.

 

[meltdown75]

i need to weed my beds and turn the soil over. i'll be planting maters and various peppers in a couple weeks. thank God some nice weather has arrived... it needs to dry out for a few days here

 

[spidey07]

ive never successfully beat blight. i was able to keep it in check one year with heavy amounts of fungicide, but it got costly. final solution was to pull the plants. but by then everything was infected. so i just let nature take its course. everything died by august.

I think I'm going to yank the infected seedlings and clean up the area and replant. It's been raining like crazy here in KY with record breaking rainfall amounts. Plus it's been somewhat cool. Perfect conditions for fungus.

I'll be very careful to remove any and all plant material including infected leaves that have dropped off.

 

[herm0016]

you all make me want land. i have a pepper plant, dill, basil and cilantro in a mini greenhouse i built out of lexan and a styrofoam box on my porch.

I imagine the apartment complex manager will do an inspection and require me to take it down anyway, they are real sticklers about anything on the porch. They made me take down the fence so the cat could not fall off.

going to go out and get a grow light and another desk lamp today.

as far as being well drained, would a peice of screen under the soil work, with a small gap between the screen and the bottom of my greenhouse? i figure i will have to expand the space in a few weeks and get the plants in a larger containers, or just use soil on the bottom of the house to plant my herbs in.

 

[spidey07]

Notified Ag Extension of my early blight. Confirmed it's going around big time thanks to all the water and cool temps. Yanking all my maters, been in the ground less than 2 weeks.

Will let the soil bake for a week and replant with store bought seedlings. Dammit, dammit, dammit, WHY didn't you save some for a late plant or stagger them spidey? Dammit.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Live and learn. Lesson learned.