Gardening and Plant Thread

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NVLLS BR0k3n D!€K said:
I’ve been throwing small food scraps directly onto my garden beds. What do you guys think about it? When I try google University, all I can find is crap about compost heaps. It’s just old rice, diced vegetables, coffee grounds, tea leaves (not from bags), crushed eggshell, etc. tossed thinly across the garden bed.

I have a compost bin but this method seems easier.
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throwing scraps into your garden beds here and there should be fine, somethings might take a little longer to breakdown but thats not a big deal. Compost piles or bins are only really needed if you have a lot of compost.
 
NVLLS BR0k3n D!€K said:
I’ve been throwing small food scraps directly onto my garden beds. What do you guys think about it? When I try google University, all I can find is crap about compost heaps. It’s just old rice, diced vegetables, coffee grounds, tea leaves (not from bags), crushed eggshell, etc. tossed thinly across the garden bed.

I have a compost bin but this method seems easier.
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There are a million ways to compost so it's easy to get lost in details. Your method works if you have small amounts of waste, but it might attract pests and is probably unsightly. An alternative is to bury it, but digging up the soil regularly is disruptive.

A compost pile just lets you centralise the waste material, and an increased volume to surface area ratio increases the rate at which it decomposes. Then when it's done it's easy to harvest and apply. I have two compost piles running which takes all biodegradable waste. You have to balance fresh material (everything you listed) with dried material (cardboard, leaves, etc.). I just put a shredded cardboard layer down, then grass or food scraps or chicken manure, then cardboard again and repeat. Leave it for 9 months to a year then harvest it.

If the volumes you're working with are that small you could consider worm composting, which makes a really high quality product that boosts plant growth.
 
Anyone propagating via cuttings over the winter? I’ve got figs, blueberries, grapes and pears in the works. If 1/10th of them root I’ll be pretty pleased. I’ve started exactly 1 fig via a cutting but since then I’ve had lousy luck.
 
Corydoras said:
Anyone propagating via cuttings over the winter? I’ve got figs, blueberries, grapes and pears in the works. If 1/10th of them root I’ll be pretty pleased. I’ve started exactly 1 fig via a cutting but since then I’ve had lousy luck.
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Man once my bushes are established I'm going to have to start propagating my currants, blackberries, and raspberries.
 
Idk if this is the right place to ask but do you guys know of any way to hull grains without buying a super expensive machine? I bought dried wheat grains online for koji and they turned out to still have the hull, I thought it will probably be fine since I did steam it thorougly but just in case it doesn't work I would like to know how to hull my wheat since I bought like 3 kilos of it and I have nothing else to do with it.
 
Joe Shmoe said:
Idk if this is the right place to ask but do you guys know of any way to hull grains without buying a super expensive machine?
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Anecdotally: grew wheat as a learning experience with my family, so the answer is: make the kids do the work. We used a small wooden board to rub the wheat against a wire mesh (also on a wooden board) to remove the hulls, which wasn't 100% but worked fairly well. After rubbing a bit, we'd pick up the mesh from the lower board and sift the hulls out, but this was inexact.

Winnowing was the fun part.
 
Aunt Carol said:
Anecdotally: grew wheat as a learning experience with my family, so the answer is: make the kids do the work. We used a small wooden board to rub the wheat against a wire mesh (also on a wooden board) to remove the hulls, which wasn't 100% but worked fairly well. After rubbing a bit, we'd pick up the mesh from the lower board and sift the hulls out, but this was inexact.

Winnowing was the fun part.
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Sorry I probably phrased it wrong by "hull" i didn't mean the papery dry thing but more this brown stuff on the inside, I guess "bran" would be a more accurate word.
Think this, but obviously without the super expensive machine. Thank you for responding though.
 
Joe Shmoe said:
Sorry I probably phrased it wrong by "hull" i didn't mean the papery dry thing but more this brown stuff on the inside,
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I think I didn't word it well either. OK, I looked up a diagram to figure out what the hell I was talking about:
AnatomyGrain_1200px_LOGO_D1-01[1].jpg
Winnowing is the part where you get the papery dry chaff away with a fan/wind. After that, we were using wire mesh and pressure/abrasion to break the harder hull/bran apart and rub it off. This was just regular wheat, although it had been freshly picked and was probably not as dry as purchased wheat.
 
Aunt Carol said:
This was just regular wheat, although it had been freshly picked and was probably not as dry as purchased wheat.
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Well that's kind of the thing, if it was fresh wheat then I see that working but I have dried wheat berries and it definitely won't work on these. Maybe I could ask in another thread for something for rice polishing because I think that would work, thanks nonetheless
 
Aunt Carol said:
Winnowing was the fun part.
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Speak fer yourself! I crunched up and shook buckets of my "wheat harvest" in front of a fan for days. Got pricked, scratched and covered with it. Under a merciless sun. Bleah. Never again. Kek.

waffle said:
What is everyone's prefered method for garlic?
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Which part? Planting, curing or processing?
 
NVLLS BR0k3n D!€K said:
I’ve been throwing small food scraps directly onto my garden beds. What do you guys think about it? When I try google University, all I can find is crap about compost heaps. It’s just old rice, diced vegetables, coffee grounds, tea leaves (not from bags), crushed eggshell, etc. tossed thinly across the garden bed.

I have a compost bin but this method seems easier.
Click to expand...
The Ruth Stout method, which I did before building proper compost piles, is to tuck kitchen scraps under the mulch (you are, of course mulching 😉) and it gets broken down pretty quickly with the least amount of effort.

Last year I grew onions from seeds, and it went so great I don’t think I will use sets ever again. But I have to start them about now. So my winter break is over!
 
Started germinating a bunch of seeds, first time doing it (outside of doing tobacco before) so we’ll see how it goes. Keeping all of them inside for now.
Big Jim’s peppers
Jalapenos
Habaneros
Gigantia peppers
Thyme
Basil (soaked first iirc)
Cilantro (soaked first)
Mustard
Peppermint
Supersweet tomatoes
Lettuce (butterhead or something)

There’s a couple others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Any advice on some of these for germinating and growing?
 
GungusDingaling said:
Started germinating a bunch of seeds, first time doing it (outside of doing tobacco before) so we’ll see how it goes. Keeping all of them inside for now.
Big Jim’s peppers
Jalapenos
Habaneros
Gigantia peppers
Thyme
Basil (soaked first iirc)
Cilantro (soaked first)
Mustard
Peppermint
Supersweet tomatoes
Lettuce (butterhead or something)

There’s a couple others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Any advice on some of these for germinating and growing?
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My knowledge is mostly cold-climate related. When does spring arrive in your area?
 
GungusDingaling said:
~end of march
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Lucky you! My last frost date is late May/early June 😂

Anyways, do you have grow lights, or just sunlight from a window or something?

Where I am we need lights because the days are still terribly short and the sun has little intensity at this time of year.

I just keep the flats moist in a warm spot and nature does most of it.

I try every year to grow peppers, which is always fun but kind of a waste of time without a greenhouse. I’m jealous, they probably do great in your area!

One thing I have learned with peppers more than anything is to transplant into bigger pots as they grow, if they stay in little cells/pots they seem to get a bit stunted. Tomatoes seem to tolerate crowded roots a bit better, peppers are more sensitive to that.
 
Flan Handler said:
Lucky you! My last frost date is late May/early June
😂


Anyways, do you have grow lights, or just sunlight from a window or something?

Where I am we need lights because the days are still terribly short and the sun has little intensity at this time of year.

I just keep the flats moist in a warm spot and nature does most of it.

I try every year to grow peppers, which is always fun but kind of a waste of time without a greenhouse. I’m jealous, they probably do great in your area!
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It sounds like you live in zone 5-4 or an equivalent if you're not in the US. You can grow peppers quite well, it just takes a bit more work. If your last frost date if late may early June you'll want to start your pepper seeds at least 12 week ahead of that so probably around late February, place them in a sunny south facing window and look into growlights if you don't already have them. They don't necessarily need to be labeled "growlight" to work, if you have the space a shop light with at least 5000 lumens will work and probably be alot cheaper.
Pepper plants are heavy feeders and you'll want to give the seedlings a small dose of diluted water soluble fertilizer when they form their first true leaves, you can find different recommended dilution ratios online, I personally do 1/4 the recommended dose for my seedlings. Once they're established plant them in a spot with good soil and full sun, or a large pot with full sun and regularly fertilizer with the previously mentioned water soluble through out the growing season.

There are a I think it's 5 different species of peppers with some needing longer growing seasons and hotter weather than others. if you want to grow super hot peppers it might be easier for you to go to your local nursery and buy plants as the seeds for hotter pepper varieties tend to have much longer germination times, slower growing rates and in general require longer warmer growing seasons, if you purchase already established seedlings you might be able to get a flush of peppers before your killing frost.

Of course please do your own research before you act on any of the information I've given as I'm going off of memory and I'd hate for you to fail because I misremembered something and gave you poor info.
 
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