Official Gardening Thread 2015

[Dagonet]

It's that time of year again folks. For me, alot of my sources for tailgating/football Sundays starts this time of year. I'll be doing my normal herbs, hot peppers, and going to do some okra, but this year just a few tomatoes and etc. I'm prolly just going to buy my tomatoes from the local Amish farmers for canning purposes as I'm concentrating on hot peppers this year.

To start off early, I'm naturally going with lettuce (romaine, green leaf, and red leaf), baby spinach, red onions, and beets. I would like to try some new greens though. Looking for possible suggestions from any gardeners/farmers out here in ROD land. Rhody gave me a suggestion last year and I forgot what it was..

This is also my first year of buying seeds and starting plants indoors. I think I have a decent handle on growing kits, but a rookie in lighting kits.. Any info here from gardeners/farmers appreciated. Here's one of the seed start kits I'm looking at..

 

[RhodyRams]

Chrissy just ordered her seeds I think. I know she has some already, but not sure what.

Think last year I suggested arugula,swiss chard and boch choi (chinese cabbage) is what we usually plant. This year we are trying mesclun and mizuna also...both leafy greens.

Last year a friend of mine planted sunchokes (or Jewish artichokes) and they werent bad

 

[cracengl]

I have that same seed starting setup. It worked well for me. I also bought the add-on thermometer temp controller. I would recommend insulating it depending on how warm you need. For me, I started super hot pepper a to back in January which require soil temp of 85 to germinate. I ended up buying some 1/2 foam pieces that come on a pack of 6 at Lowes to build a box around the seeds to keep them warmer. That heat mat needs a little help.

Also I just rigged up a fluorescent light from my basement floor joists and sat the mat and seeds on top of an old piece of osb on top of 2 saw horses. Worked well. I read about those fancy grow lights, but haven't needed them yet.

 

[Dagonet]

Chrissy just ordered her seeds I think. I know she has some already, but not sure what.

Think last year I suggested arugula,swiss chard and boch choi (chinese cabbage) is what we usually plant. This year we are trying mesclun and mizuna also...both leafy greens.

Last year a friend of mine planted sunchokes (or Jewish artichokes) and they werent bad

I didn't realize that arugula was a member of the cruciferous family. Will definitely have to get on that. That said, besides the lettuce and etc above, my game plan is to add arugula, napa cabbage, and okra this year. Rhody, arugula was what you brought up last year and thanks again.

Mesclun will work well for you. I usually just time plant my rows of different lettuces and then we combine when making salads. I have used mesclun before though. I'm looking forward to planting more beets this year. I did one small row last year as a test and wish I would have done more.. The beet greens alone are good in salad. The stems can be used in a celery like fashion also. Then of course you have the fruit/beet itself.

Depending on when we get our old shed torn down, I'm prolly going to do some pumpkins too.

 

[Dagonet]

I have that same seed starting setup. It worked well for me. I also bought the add-on thermometer temp controller. I would recommend insulating it depending on how warm you need. For me, I started super hot pepper a to back in January which require soil temp of 85 to germinate. I ended up buying some 1/2 foam pieces that come on a pack of 6 at Lowes to build a box around the seeds to keep them warmer. That heat mat needs a little help.

Also I just rigged up a fluorescent light from my basement floor joists and sat the mat and seeds on top of an old piece of osb on top of 2 saw horses. Worked well. I read about those fancy grow lights, but haven't needed them yet.

Thanks for the input @cracengl . I need the soil warm for the ghost and carolina reapers and other hot peppers. I shall insulate. It's nice to know the heat pad needs a little help. I assume you speak of foam insulation board? I'll look for the add-on temp controller but didn't see one where I am purchasing the seed startup from. I also saw another model with a lower greenhouse top then the one above. I wonder if that would help keep the soil warmer? The insulation box sounds like a definitely good idea.

On the lighting I was thinking of getting regular lighting fixtures for fluorescent and getting the grow lights that fit them. I'm also going to get a timer to run them off of.. A buddy of mine grew herbs back in the day and that was his setup. One thing I didn't realize was you don't want the lights on all the time. Plants must have nights. Good idea on the floor joists, but I don't have that luxury. I have to grow out in the laundry room. I'll run chains across to hang the lights.

Do you have any recommendations on soil to use? I was leaning towards store bought organic, but may take some right out of my garden..

Long story short here.. I got ripped off on so many plants last year (ghosts, carolinas, and scorpions) even by my local green house (caribbean reds), I decided to get seeds from a reputable vendor and start my own. I also grow alot of hungarian hot wax peppers for pickling and poppers, so no need to spend $$$ for plants if i can start my own seeds.

 

[RhodyRams]

last year we did almost a whole raised bed in salad greens, with carrots and beets mixed in...about 75 sq ft worth. I like bringing salads to work for lunch when the temp is above 90 outside. Enough to keep me going thru the day, but not too much that feel lazy after lunch. Throw some dried cranberries and a sliced apple on top and BAM !!!!

 

[Dagonet]

last year we did almost a whole raised bed in salad greens, with carrots and beets mixed in...about 75 sq ft worth. I like bringing salads to work for lunch when the temp is above 90 outside. Enough to keep me going thru the day, but not too much that feel lazy after lunch. Throw some dried cranberries and a sliced apple on top and BAM !!!!

I can relate to that man. I mean when it's hot. When it's that hot here, the lettuce has already bolted, but I would take cucumbers and large cherry tomatoes for lunch.. People thought I was crazy, but I also stayed hydrated. Plus you are most certainly correct in that you don't feel lazy. Funny how eating good works eh? I look forward to trying the arugula. I just ordered 3K seeds on ebay.

 

[RamFan503]

So someone finally found a use for the old waterbed heaters - eh?

We just passed recreational use so my garden might look a little different than most this year.

 

[cracengl]

Thanks for the input @cracengl . I need the soil warm for the ghost and carolina reapers and other hot peppers. I shall insulate. It's nice to know the heat pad needs a little help. I assume you speak of foam insulation board? I'll look for the add-on temp controller but didn't see one where I am purchasing the seed startup from. I also saw another model with a lower greenhouse top then the one above. I wonder if that would help keep the soil warmer? The insulation box sounds like a definitely good idea.

On the lighting I was thinking of getting regular lighting fixtures for fluorescent and getting the grow lights that fit them. I'm also going to get a timer to run them off of.. A buddy of mine grew herbs back in the day and that was his setup. One thing I didn't realize was you don't want the lights on all the time. Plants must have nights. Good idea on the floor joists, but I don't have that luxury. I have to grow out in the laundry room. I'll run chains across to hang the lights.

Do you have any recommendations on soil to use? I was leaning towards store bought organic, but may take some right out of my garden..

Long story short here.. I got ripped off on so many plants last year (ghosts, carolinas, and scorpions) even by my local green house (caribbean reds), I decided to get seeds from a reputable vendor and start my own. I also grow alot of hungarian hot wax peppers for pickling and poppers, so no need to spend $$$ for plants if i can start my own seeds.

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/thermostat-for-seedling-mat/

Above is the link to the thermometer and the place I got it from. Actually, my setup had the shorter lid like you were talking about. I figured by the time my peppers were that tall, it'd be time to transplant, which I have into larger peat pots. I wanted to give them as much room for roots as possible.

As for soil, I bought some plugs that fit the trays from that same site as part of the kit. You add water and they expand to fill each space in the tray. If you go with something else, I bought some organic stuff from Home Depot to transplant that is good. It's in a greenish bag, but I don't remember exactly who makes it. Last year I used some Miracle Grow seed starting soil and don't like it as much. It is really heavy on peat Moss, which I find hard to work with and hard to get to take water. It's not impossible, just kind of a pain. If I were to use it again, I'd soak it first. I would not recommend soil from your garden to start seeds. I've read that you need to make sure your soil is sterile and I don't know that you can be sure of that with garden soil. Once you transplant to bigger containers I'm sure it'd be fine.

I took you advice on the lights. If been leaving mine on all the time. I mainly did it because I figured I'd forget to turn it back on. But maybe I'll remember.

I bought seeds last year from www.pepperjoe.com. He's supposed to be good, but I had a hard time getting any of the seeds that were supposed to be hotter to germinate. Then some that I did in a Caribbean hot pepper mix turned out to be some weird species I never could quite identify. They were like scotch bonnets, but not quite. And they had good flavor but very little heat. This year I bought from a website called www.midwestchiliheads.com and had better luck so far. I got something like a 20% discount around Christmas and then he threw in 6 or 8 extras just to be nice. So long story short, my idea to have a smaller garden turned out to have around 3 dozen super hots. I plan to get a soil test before long to make sure my soil doesn't need amended so hopefully they will reach their potential in terms of hotness. If you don't have better luck with yours this year, I'm sure I would be willing to share with a fellow Rams fan. It looks like I'll be giving them away again this year.

Oh and the insulation is white and resembles Styrofoam. They sell it at Lowes in a pack of 6 and they're about 1/2" thick. I wouldn't call it foam board as its not that dense. I just bought it because it was only about $10. I couldn't see buying a real piece of XPS just to hack up for a box.

 

[Dagonet]

So someone finally found a use for the old waterbed heaters - eh?

We just passed recreational use so my garden might look a little different than most this year.

You know that didn't even fooking dawn on me.. The old water bed heaters I mean. Kudos's buddy..

On the recreational make sure you have permits and electric fences.. or grow them inside..