Gardening and Plant Thread

[Ser Prize]

If you really want to fuck with them, you could use the ol' "They're more advanced than we are" argument since they have chloroplasts and we don't.

I like to remind them that the pleasant smell of mowed grass is the grass version of screaming in pain.

Of course they cope with 'muh fruit 'n berries'.

 

[Darkholme's Dungeon]

Doesn't surprise me. If you watch that video I linked you'll see plants have some reactions similar to animals. Like apparently having a dormant 'sleep' state at night. It's all quite fascinating.

If you really want to fuck with them, you could use the ol' "They're more advanced than we are" argument since they have chloroplasts and we don't.

The "touch me not" (Mimosa pudica) actually closes its leaves in when touched. If you touch it too much it fucks off and stops folding.

 

[NoReturn]

I like to remind them that the pleasant smell of mowed grass is the grass version of screaming in pain.

Of course they cope with 'muh fruit 'n berries'.

The "touch me not" (Mimosa pudica) actually closes its leaves in when touched. If you touch it too much it fucks off and stops folding.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nPf3FbR6eQE

Hell, some of my houseplants "yelled" at me tonight, even. I was just hanging out and smelled something weird and when I looked around for it I found one of my houseplants was in trouble. It was probably just releasing something to protect itself, but the smell caught my attention and I fixed the problem, so there we go. Plant calling for help.

 

[Terrifying Organisms]

I'm growing a tonne of white oyster mushrooms.

Spoiler: Arty pic

 

[HERE YOU GO]

update on kola nuts, the nut quarters have opened and started growing a trunk out of the middle. one of the tips looks like it pinched off and died back.
root side of the nut cracks open first similar to an avocado seed, red kola nuts will turn green when exposed to growing light.


this pineapple sage i ordered didn't survive shipping, but some plants come back from their roots.
i put them in a germination humidity dome in hopes they would come back and it survived.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

My bell peppers are growing bigger, probably the size of a golf ball and a half. One did not survive--I moved the plant in during a freeze warning but it was too lopsided when trying to move it out and a whole branch broke off. So now I only have two...

The plants are enjoying mild weather now, mid-70s. The basil is happy, the sage looks a little better, and I planted another onion that was starting to sprout in the fridge.

I had to throw out a cabbage that was starting to turn in the fridge...but I don't have any room to grow cabbage, and I'm not sure it wouldn't revert to wild cabbage.

 

[HERE YOU GO]

Hello plant frens! Just wanted to post a pic of my orchid, it's constantly growing new roots and I'm really hoping it will bloom in the spring. It's about a year old now, I have it in this container so that it will fit on my windowsill. (It's not usually sitting on this bin.) It gets about 6-8 hours of indirect sunlight, I water once a week with some orchid spray food. Do you guys think I have a chance of it blooming? Sorry if I suck at attaching files my phone doesn't seem to like doing it

just "an orchid" is hard to give you advice for, vanilla beans are orchids and they take 3 - 4 years to mature.
you don't make a plant flower by simply spraying them with nutrients, is it even mature to flower?
if it wasn't flowering because of the lack of nutrients, then adding flowering nutrients could help. but is that the problem?

you wont be able to control the environment around your plant unless you get something like a small GGT 2x2.5x2 for around $100 + a light + air filter or fan for another $200.
a clear bin with a lid and holes drilled in it, a dark bin with a window screen over it with a light shining down, you can get creative with containment but consider the elements like humidity, light, airflow, temperature.
if you knew what kind of orchid you have, google would probably be able to tell you what humidity it likes and where it comes from, even the type of soil you should use.

I'll keep it damp when I remember but houseplants aren't my thing either, maybe it'll survive on a little benign neglect.

my figs have all gone dormant, and I'm trying to keep a fish pepper plant alive with them in the garage. I think it's got aphids. I've got neem so I'm planning to zap it with that.

i was having a huge white aphid problem on apple saplings, they persisted for 3 - 4 months even while using neem oil and soap mix.
instead, i ripped off all the leaves and bare rooted the apples, put them in a bag for a few days and later re-planted them in a new pot with fresh soil.
neem oil will leave oily residue on some plants after treatment that doesn't wash off easy or at all, and softer fleshed fruits can't have friction wash them.

 

[River possum]

just "an orchid" is hard to give you advice for, vanilla beans are orchids and they take 3 - 4 years to mature.
you don't make a plant flower by simply spraying them with nutrients, is it even mature to flower?
if it wasn't flowering because of the lack of nutrients, then adding flowering nutrients could help. but is that the problem?

you wont be able to control the environment around your plant unless you get something like a small GGT 2x2.5x2 for around $100 + a light + air filter or fan for another $200.
a clear bin with a lid and holes drilled in it, a dark bin with a window screen over it with a light shining down, you can get creative with containment but consider the elements like humidity, light, airflow, temperature.
if you knew what kind of orchid you have, google would probably be able to tell you what humidity it likes and where it comes from, even the type of soil you should use.


i was having a huge white aphid problem on apple saplings, they persisted for 3 - 4 months even while using neem oil and soap mix.
instead, i ripped off all the leaves and bare rooted the apples, put them in a bag for a few days and later re-planted them in a new pot with fresh soil.
neem oil will leave oily residue on some plants after treatment that doesn't wash off easy or at all, and softer fleshed fruits can't have friction wash them.

I actually have an update about my orchid, following the advice from ppl in this thread I have a flower spike growing now! I forgot the specific species, but tomorrow during daylight I will post a pic of it. I am so proud of it!

 

[River possum]

The "touch me not" (Mimosa pudica) actually closes its leaves in when touched. If you touch it too much it fucks off and stops folding.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nPf3FbR6eQE

I've been growing those from seed for a few years now, we learned fairly quickly to not mess with them. When our first one bloomed with those pink puffs, I just about died from how cute they were! In our backyard we also have a mimosa tree which is gorgeous.

 

[River possum]

I meant to take a pic of my orchid flower spike during the day but I forgot, so it's just gonna have to be less than ideal picture of it. But here's the fruit of what my fellow kiwis helped me grow! I couldn't have done it without you guys. When it blooms I'll post that also. Thanks a million : )

 

[Spitz]

Overwintering my herbs has made them really leggy. Right to left: Marjoram, Rosemary, Thyme.

This cactus got beaten up in two horrible hail storms.

 

[Overly Serious]

Never had a garden of my own before but now I do.

It is a lumpy unworked area of knotty grass, occasionally mowed. Very lumpy.

How do you go about levelling an area out? It's not vast but not small. About 40 sq. m at a guess. Do you get one of those rotavator things and just go up and down it and then rake it? Do you pour in more earth over the top? There's nothing I want to keep in there, exactly.

Ultimately I think I would like to put some fence around it for privacy and grow climbing flowers and then in the garden itself, keep some as lawn for stretching out in and do a couple of raised beds of vegetables. Maybe a modest greenhouse at one end. If any of that influences the answer.

 

[SphinxItOver]

Plant news: The orchids are blooming so nicely and the leaves are tinted a nice purple. The mints and pink dandelions are coming up again and I hope they'll go nuts this year for future tea storage. Out of 80 cloves of garlic planted only 4 failed to come up. There's a lot of volunteer lettuce and mustard starts that made it though the cold weather. Currently prepping a bed to direct sow some carrots and beets soon with a good floating row under some plastic for coverage. The over wintered banana peppers are getting cranky with me and keep putting out buds.

Never had a garden of my own before but now I do.

It is a lumpy unworked area of knotty grass, occasionally mowed. Very lumpy.

How do you go about levelling an area out? It's not vast but not small. About 40 sq. m at a guess. Do you get one of those rotavator things and just go up and down it and then rake it? Do you pour in more earth over the top? There's nothing I want to keep in there, exactly.

Ultimately I think I would like to put some fence around it for privacy and grow climbing flowers and then in the garden itself, keep some as lawn for stretching out in and do a couple of raised beds of vegetables. Maybe a modest greenhouse at one end. If any of that influences the answer.

Some important questions:

1. North or South Hemisphere?
   • If NH now is the time to be starting seed for transplants. Like the hot weather stuff that would otherwise take forever if direct sown like chili/pepper or head starts for tomatoes and other spring veg.
   • If SH now is the time to work your garden set up quickly and plan for Winter gardening. Alliums and Brassicas like onions, garlic, cabbage, and other winter hardy salads.
2. What type of soil?
   • What color is it? The darker black it is the better, you may want to test for micro/macro nutrients as well.
   • Is it hard packed? If so you will need to till and add organics to help promote plant roots getting air.
   • Is it sandy or clay heavy? This affects water retention and you will want to add organics based on water retention.
3. How much rain/wind/cold/heat do you get?
   • Water is insanely important for plants. You need to ensure the roots aren't drowned by soggy soil but get enough to not die out from lack of it.
   • If you have a long cold season you need to plan more on starts and transplanting for hot weather crops.
   • Wind is a tricky bitch that will suck the moister out of you plants, whip them to death without blocks/supports, and bring pests.
4. How much sun/shade do your planned garden area get?
   • You need at least 8hrs of direct sun where you plant to plant.
   • Early morning sun is cool. Late day sun is brutal on plants during summer.
   • Too much shade caused by buildings, trees, or even other plants in the garden will also affect the placement.
5. What do you want to grow?
   • Buy multiple varieties for each type of plant you wish to grow. If one fails you'll be okay. If all fail you need to re-access all the above.
   • Plan ahead. Make a list, mock up a layout, and learn about companion plants/succession planting. You'll be surprised how many things you can crowd together in a small area.
   • Consider cover crops and crop rotation, if you plant the same crop in the same spot every year you're gonna struggle with pests and nutrient issues.

Fencing, a motorized garden tiller, and greenhouse will cost you a bit but would be a good investments. You'll need a good spade shovel, hand shovel or dib, rake, garden fork, and hammer. Focusing on building the beds and gathering seed stock should be the first priority as that can take several weeks. I made a post earlier in the thread about cheap raised garden beds with stakes, cardboard, chicken wire. They are also easy to pull apart and move by pulling the stakes up and rolling them up in the wire. The other week I moved a 26ft bed to extend out a walkway for water drainage control and it only took a day including shoveling the dirt into other beds. Once you have the beds built, then go for fences. Last year went from hard flood to drought and some of my crops failed, but I was still producing enough food to give away to family/friends/neighbors from a small area.

 

[Otterly]

i was having a huge white aphid problem on apple saplings,

I had a terrible aphid problem and realised the ants were farming them on the trees. Had tried neem and soap. I got birch tar glue, and painted a very very thick band of it on each trunk. The ants can’t cross it, and they don’t farm the aphids on the trees any more.

 

[Pickman's Modeling Agency]

Anyone here heard of Paul Wheaton? I grabbed a book of his from the library while researching permaculture and he's apparently a big name in the field (ba-dum-tish). He's kind of kooky, but I've been intrigued by some of his ideas. I live in a heavily-forested area and so something like hügelkultur is very appealing to me. Unfortunately there seem to be no solid studies on this technique.

Edit: the potatoes are sprouting a bit early but damn I do love the way the plants look. About ready to add some more soil.

 

[Ser Prize]

So I've got some ideas for my thoroughly quack grass infested garden and would like some advice from fellow kiwis.

My first thought is say fuck topsoil farming with the garden and make raised beds for this. But I want to make sure those fucking rooters don't get into my new raised beds. So I figure, since my property is kind of slanted anyway, I'll buy some bricks and make that the base of my raised beds, putting the bricks in the earth and packing it in without mortar.

Then, just to be extra super safe, I'll put down double layers of cardboard ontop the soil and bricks. Then I'll fill in the bed with soil and manure and garden from there. This may seem like a pretty scorched earth approach but I can't overstate how badly overgrown it got in the last few years. I wasn't aware of what I was dealing with.

So the problems with this plan are thusly: firstly the cost of all this. The wood for the raised beds shouldn't be too bad but the bricks might hurt and I know for a fact the soil and manure will suck financially.
Secondly getting my mom to sign off on this. She's a bit leery about raised beds but she definitely won't like the idea of effectively sealing them off. She's worried it'll seal it off the nutrients and the worms.
Also we like growing vine crops like tomatoes and cucumbers. Can those grow in a raised bed?
And does anyone know an alternative to the bricks? Keep in mind it's a pretty severe slope.

 

[Overly Serious]

Plant news: The orchids are blooming so nicely and the leaves are tinted a nice purple. The mints and pink dandelions are coming up again and I hope they'll go nuts this year for future tea storage. Out of 80 cloves of garlic planted only 4 failed to come up. There's a lot of volunteer lettuce and mustard starts that made it though the cold weather. Currently prepping a bed to direct sow some carrots and beets soon with a good floating row under some plastic for coverage. The over wintered banana peppers are getting cranky with me and keep putting out buds.

View attachment 4440888


Some important questions:

1. North or South Hemisphere?
   • If NH now is the time to be starting seed for transplants. Like the hot weather stuff that would otherwise take forever if direct sown like chili/pepper or head starts for tomatoes and other spring veg.
   • If SH now is the time to work your garden set up quickly and plan for Winter gardening. Alliums and Brassicas like onions, garlic, cabbage, and other winter hardy salads.
2. What type of soil?
   • What color is it? The darker black it is the better, you may want to test for micro/macro nutrients as well.
   • Is it hard packed? If so you will need to till and add organics to help promote plant roots getting air.
   • Is it sandy or clay heavy? This affects water retention and you will want to add organics based on water retention.
3. How much rain/wind/cold/heat do you get?
   • Water is insanely important for plants. You need to ensure the roots aren't drowned by soggy soil but get enough to not die out from lack of it.
   • If you have a long cold season you need to plan more on starts and transplanting for hot weather crops.
   • Wind is a tricky bitch that will suck the moister out of you plants, whip them to death without blocks/supports, and bring pests.
4. How much sun/shade do your planned garden area get?
   • You need at least 8hrs of direct sun where you plant to plant.
   • Early morning sun is cool. Late day sun is brutal on plants during summer.
   • Too much shade caused by buildings, trees, or even other plants in the garden will also affect the placement.
5. What do you want to grow?
   • Buy multiple varieties for each type of plant you wish to grow. If one fails you'll be okay. If all fail you need to re-access all the above.
   • Plan ahead. Make a list, mock up a layout, and learn about companion plants/succession planting. You'll be surprised how many things you can crowd together in a small area.
   • Consider cover crops and crop rotation, if you plant the same crop in the same spot every year you're gonna struggle with pests and nutrient issues.

Fencing, a motorized garden tiller, and greenhouse will cost you a bit but would be a good investments. You'll need a good spade shovel, hand shovel or dib, rake, garden fork, and hammer. Focusing on building the beds and gathering seed stock should be the first priority as that can take several weeks. I made a post earlier in the thread about cheap raised garden beds with stakes, cardboard, chicken wire. They are also easy to pull apart and move by pulling the stakes up and rolling them up in the wire. The other week I moved a 26ft bed to extend out a walkway for water drainage control and it only took a day including shoveling the dirt into other beds. Once you have the beds built, then go for fences. Last year went from hard flood to drought and some of my crops failed, but I was still producing enough food to give away to family/friends/neighbors from a small area.

Awesome - it's going to take me a while to go through all that. I'll post answers when I have them. Thanks for the reply!

And does anyone know an alternative to the bricks? Keep in mind it's a pretty severe slope.

Let me get this straight - you just want to seal off the bottom of your raised beds so that they're JUST the soil and compost you fill them with, no access from below? Can you not just buy some of that impenetrable sheeting that you put under patios and artificial lawns so that nothing come up? Should be a lot cheaper than bricks.

Though I'm not certain that it's a good idea.

 

[SphinxItOver]

Anyone here heard of Paul Wheaton? I grabbed a book of his from the library while researching permaculture and he's apparently a big name in the field (ba-dum-tish). He's kind of kooky, but I've been intrigued by some of his ideas. I live in a heavily-forested area and so something like hügelkultur is very appealing to me. Unfortunately there seem to be no solid studies on this technique.

Edit: the potatoes are sprouting a bit early but damn I do love the way the plants look. About ready to add some more soil.

Now is the time to plant potatoes and onions (feb 15-20 depending) so just toss 'em in the ground. Was just doing that myself yesterday. Not very familiar with perma culture myself but I do enjoy enjoy this guys channel I jokingly call the Bob Ross of perma culture.

So I've got some ideas for my thoroughly quack grass infested garden and would like some advice from fellow kiwis.

My first thought is say fuck topsoil farming with the garden and make raised beds for this. But I want to make sure those fucking rooters don't get into my new raised beds. So I figure, since my property is kind of slanted anyway, I'll buy some bricks and make that the base of my raised beds, putting the bricks in the earth and packing it in without mortar.

Then, just to be extra super safe, I'll put down double layers of cardboard ontop the soil and bricks. Then I'll fill in the bed with soil and manure and garden from there. This may seem like a pretty scorched earth approach but I can't overstate how badly overgrown it got in the last few years. I wasn't aware of what I was dealing with.

So the problems with this plan are thusly: firstly the cost of all this. The wood for the raised beds shouldn't be too bad but the bricks might hurt and I know for a fact the soil and manure will suck financially.
Secondly getting my mom to sign off on this. She's a bit leery about raised beds but she definitely won't like the idea of effectively sealing them off. She's worried it'll seal it off the nutrients and the worms.
Also we like growing vine crops like tomatoes and cucumbers. Can those grow in a raised bed?
And does anyone know an alternative to the bricks? Keep in mind it's a pretty severe slope.

You don't need brick. Fresh wood chips and cardboard are your friend. You don't even need a ton of soil, manure or compost for your first raised bed if you don't want to shovel flip the grassy soil. Honestly don't think you'd have to worry about if you flip grass side to grass side. Just as many dead leaves as you can get to fill in the bed then put soil on top. Avoid any form of grass clippings pre or post composted. Your probably unfamiliar with Bermuda grass, but it's a rhizome type grass that is an absolute nightmare. Even if you till it up, if a root is left behind it comes right back. My yard is made up of it, but it's not in my garden. However, my soil is heavy with clay and I used that to my advantage. I don't suggest using weed barrier plastic/fabric unless you're planting directly into the tilled grassy soil. Every single raised bed I've seen it used in has failed hard. There's enough nutrients already in the ground to feed the grass that is there, but putting down fresh wood chips sucks that up and begins the composting process which will cook the grass roots from the heat it produces.

Anti weed grass method:

1. Mark out your garden boundaries and raised bed locations.
2. Lay down an inch of fresh wood chip where your walkways are and where you want to build your beds.
3. Layer cardboard where your placing your raised beds.
4. Build and fill in raised beds.
5. Reapply wood chips to walkways where ever weeds/grass start to come up.

You'll still get plenty of good worms coming up into your raised beds. But if you're worried you can always start a worm bin.
As for crops? Yes, you can grow anything in a raised bed with proper water, nutrients, and sun. Vine crops simply require support structures like posts, twine, or fence line to grow on.

Raised beds on a slope method:

1. Tools needed; stakes, hammer, scissors, black permanent marker, and a good level.
2. Hammer in some 4 or 5 ft stakes at the corners of your garden area using the level to make sure it's straight and deep enough into the ground it wont shift from pulling against it with a finger.
3. Tie twine from one stake to the other with an adjustable, but easily tightened knot of of your choice. I like the cow hitch or sailor knot myself.
4. Use the level on the twine and move a side of your choice up or down to your desired raised bed height.
5. Use a marker on your stakes where you adjusted your line to just in case you need to remove the twine before you're done building.

Now you can mark the line with the marker or small bits of twine where ever you want to hammer in a stake for the corners or side supports of your bed and they will be level even if your walkways aren't. This will allow for excess water to wash down hill. In the 'countryside' we would also add some tuber flowers like iris or aggressive spredding mints to the base of the raised beds on the lower slopes side to help prevent wash out.

on a slight slope too, it just werks

 

[Ser Prize]

@SphinxItOver
Quack grass is another name for Bermuda grass, I think. So you're familiar with what I'm dealing with. It took over the garden so bad last year that I'm not sure I can deal with it via the wood chip method, though it does sound promising.

The idea behind the bricks was to create a level area to construct the bed, because apparently raised beds on hillsides can be precarious. And I live on a mountainside so my garden is pretty sloped.

Your garden looks pretty btw.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

My neighbor abandoned his cacti garden when he moved and I took it in, nursed them back to health. I made the mistake of being too lazy to research what to do with them in Winter and left them alone for two weeks (they'd be fine, right?). They weren't and they're all dead, but I haven't brought myself to throw them away yet. I regret it more and more because the originals had a story to them - a lot more value keeping the same thing alive instead of just going out and replacing it - and now if I want to replace them I have to pay the expensive price of buying up a bunch of new cacti. FML

I have considered planting a garden of mainly historically significant plants, like having yellow roses, chrysanthemums, tulips, roses, and such in it. I like geraniums.