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frog edition
pastebin:
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New USDA zone map has been released: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
Koppen Climate Map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/K%C3%B6ppen_World_ Map_High_Resolution.png
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>>2852759
the indoor winged bean flowers
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Some of you guys must be fig growers right? It's pretty trendy? My soil sucks for vegetables so I've been reading a lot about trees with useful foliage like Chinese toon and strawberry gum. Fig leaves come up quite a bit in this discussion as being kinda similar to pandan. Is that really true? Do they smell and taste nice, or is it mostly planty with a hint of something nice? If you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them.
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>>2852791
Fig trees definitely have their own smell and it's quite noticeable, I don't think I ever ate the leaves but it should be very aromatic
Also it's very phototoxic and the latex is corrosive as well, so don't be a retard
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>>2852837
Maybe it depends on the variety? It's in some Old World recipes. The claim I see online is there's like a rich nutty fragrance when you crush them. You might have to pick young leaves and toast them to get anything out of them.
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What's up guys I'm gonna grow my own food next year. What are the best sources for info that isn't some retarded YouTuber nor 4chan paste bin of schizo shit post rants
I'm starting with two 4' x 8' x ~16" raised beds and soil from local nursery.
I want to grow enough lettuce onions tomato peppers carrots and more, family of 4.
Experience is hydroponic tomatoes in an apartment that turned out pretty good.
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>>2852908
Grok is pretty good unironically if you give your location and ask for varieties for the climate. He's good at tables and lists so you don't have to read each individual listing on a store page. A lot of advice is going to be specific to your climate and your space, so only you can really decide what to do. I recommend just looking up each plant and learning its life cycle and its general locale/strategy, so when they say some carrot variety has been improved to work in hotter weather or denser soil you can have context for why they needed that and whether you need it too.
For example:
Carrots and anything else in the parsley family struggle if your Summers are hot and they're under direct midday Sun. They like to stress flower, ruining them for eating purposes, so it's important to know their limits and keep them a little shaded or plant them only during the cooler parts of year (they're cool climate plants so they won't die). If you live in a cold area, the reverse is true instead and they need the Summer.
Many crops get overly mature or go to seed and need to be harvested at the right time. Everything takes a different amount of time to grow so you can break up the year into multiple harvests and replantings, whatever can tolerate the weather that time of year. Tomatoes (and peppers and cucumbers) are different because flowering is good and they keep flowering forever until the cold stops them, but the space is basically producing nothing during Spring while they're establishing, and then nothing again once the weather cools and for all of Winter.
As you can see this is mostly a time management problem. With care, you can always have something to harvest. Onions can be planted right away in Spring and you can pick and eat them in the early stages and make room for the mature bulbs later while doing it, so you always get something. Even better, there are perennial onions and stuff like chard you can harvest all year long, but only really the tops.
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>>2852759
How it started: >>2847309
How it's going:
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>>2853259
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I'm trying an indoor herb garden again but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong when it comes to pruning.
I clip off bits above the nodes, leaving enough leaves to keep taking in light, have the grow lights the right distance from the pots, I water from the bottom, etc and they're still leggy as fuck and and half of them are limp
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>>2853260
He's been spooked out.
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>>2853266
typical stuff- parsleys, basils, mints, rosemary, cilantro, etc.
temperature shouldnt be a problem, they're in my apartment which is constantly 65-70F, and the led grow lights are cool to the touch let alone being a short distance above the plants.
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>>2853310
it is easy af if you dont plan on doing it bigtime. all you need is pots. i unironically have more trouble with fucking parsley. it is a very motivating plant and fun to watch grow for sure. crazy fast. you dont need 90 percent of the bullshit they try to sell you. just a proper south window or garden.
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>>2853314
Based I'm growing it in my closet. I want to grow outside in the spring but I'm worried it might get too big. Nobody but my neighbors will see it but I don't know if they approve.
>>2853363
I do want to sell a little bit on the side but most of it is just for fun. I got a cheap grow light off of Amazon and it does work so you are right. I just need to leave it the fuck alone most of the time
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>>2853374
I used to fuss over it a lot. Last few grows I did kratky hydro, it literally just sat in a tote the entire time and all I did was change the height of the light as it grew. Definitely not yield maxing but worth it not to have to think about it pretty much at all. Same method also grew extremely prolific campari tomato plants though I had to prune those a lot.
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>>2853401
I just put water, calmag and maxi bloom in a 20 gallon tote, adjusted ph, put the seedling in a net pot with some hydroton, changed the light schedule after 8 weeks and that was it. Make sure there is no way for light to get into the tote.
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I'm soon buying a house with enough land to stick one of these things on them. Planning on getting a 5x20m model (roughly 16x65 feet). What's the best way to optimise crops in there. I was looking into hydroponics as well. I guess I could even try aquaponics. I even have some caves in which I could grow mushrooms.
What do you guys suggest? Any tips or resources for this plan of mine?
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>>2853646
Depends what you want to grow. If you put some more permanent poles you can support stuff by clothesline or a weave. Frost tender perennials like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, some herbs, etc. can live in there forever and you can also use them for cuttings to propagate outside as annuals instead of by seed. It's a good safe storage place for rooting cuttings and germinating when there's nothing else going on, so you may not want to bother using it fully for crops, just as a prep area during Winter.
Growing plants from seed can really eat into the season, and then their growth plateaus for a while while they set up their roots, which wastes even more time. Starting from cuttings that were allowed to root during Winter saves a ton. I mentioned some nightshades because the indeterminate varieties can flower all year long if weather permits, so having mature plants already established when the weather warms up means the season starts way earlier and therefore goes way longer. It doesn't work for everything but you get the idea, this gives you some special powers you didn't have without a greenhouse.
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...could someone pretty please answer if its bad to spray tobacco solution? i know some dude ITT does it and i think i got the idea from some south american here. it works great but i am scared it might poison the chilis. nicotin is no joke if not smoked unironically.
i guess it grows out?
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>>2853764
Shilling for pyrethrin again
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>>2853808
yuzu and yuzu hybrids and kumquats do ok slightly below freezing, poncirus hybrids potentially can go lower but vary a lot and most if not all varieties are highly questionable, and neither is suitable for your area; i'm planning on thomasville citrangequats but i live in the south
the foliage basically dies back more and more the colder it gets but they can come back if the root survives, but they do ok with protection during wintertime though sometimes the fruits arent ready by then, i'd say dont do it unless you are confident you can keep them in a greenhouse or something
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>>2853808
Howdy neighbor. I have two lemons, two limes and a kumquat that live inside during the winter. They're not hard to grow, a sunny southern facing window is all they need. The smell of the blossoms is heavenly
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no matter what the fuck I do these fuckers keep appearing back in my potted plants.
I need a final solution
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>>2852759
Remember to eat your seed before planting for next year lads.
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>>2853962
Imagine someone walking in on you kneeling over the toilet, tearing your poo logs apart with your bare, shit-covered hands, and all you can tell them is "the san marzanos are gonna be great this summer"
And also there's poo all over your mouth and teeth for some reason too
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>>2853971
>Over your mouth and teeth
Got to get that extra fine mulch bud, what're you complaining about?
I tend to just pull me kegs down and squat over the compost bin in the local parish allotments. It's nicer to be surprised by tomato plants popping up randomly in the plot.
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Do you guys have any experience with ground cherries? Is there any easy way to support the branches and make them a little taller? If you don't know, imagine a tomato plant but half the height and twice the width, long horizontal branches.
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>>2854047
If you're gonna be mean you could at least humor the question... I was just hoping there was a simplified solution rather than massive supports everywhere. I guess I'll just give up and not grow them, thanks for your help.
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>>2854068
Sorry anon, didn't realise it came across as mean, I didn't intend that.
Just gave it a quick guggle and found this pic which is an interesting take on support frames.
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>>2853962
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/tomato-sewage-pegwel l-bay-b1955704.html
Huh, it's real.
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next problem: what is it and how do i murder it? i think it might be some fungus.
this is starting to piss me off.
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>>2854339
sorry i was out for a run.
yeah like crumply but tiny mold freckles. i do hav a slight problem with these tiny flys that you get from the soil but these are different i think. i though its some shroom. also this is happening rapidly and this time actually seems to damaga the plant.
its never easy is it?
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>>2854343
For the mould it might just be a type of mildew. Bordeaux mixture is what i'm reading as a pretentativ measure rather than a cure. Perhaps if you did a spray after cleaning/dusting most of the surface mould off would work.
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>>2854350
it is really fucking hard to control pests indoors. all these problems started when i took my plants back inside under the lamps.
they also didnt have a winter i just kept them going. some i cut down and they grew again into little chili bonsais. i wanted to know how far i can take that. ive heard they can get 10 years+ with some species like habaneros.
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>>2854351
well i dont use a grow tent etc i just have a quarter of my livingroom with plants and lamps amd some milar foil on ze floor. so i dont really get to adjust air dryness etc. and i cook in the same room. and there is a fireplace.
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im getting ready to start sweet potato slips, does the size of the sweet potato matter? im using sweet potatoes i grew last year that all originated from the same sweet potato and i have big ones i could use but i also have some really small ones that are already sprouting slips just sitting in storage. since the plants dna is the same the little ones should be fine? i guess what im asking is if i use these little ones will they grow big ones?
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Found some white oak acorns that the fuckass squirrels didn't get to back in September. Three months later they became sprouts, and just 6 days after sprouts they shot up this big.
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>>2854766
You either need to be prepared to take care of them all winter or just start over in the spring. It's not like oaks are a rare tree. Also giving your pic a second look, are you sure those aren't some species of red oak? (pointed lobes)
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>>2854902
I presumed white oak because white bark. This is the tree I got it from.
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>>2854902
And an acorn. Lost the but it was really spikey. Your verdict?
Also oaks are rare where I live. We mostly get elms and cottonwoods.
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>>2854962
>because white bark
They're called that because the underside of the leaves are white. Generally white oaks have rounded lobes and red oaks have pointed lobes. Does that tree have any leaves left on it? Oaks will keep some of their leaves til the new buds push them out in spring (marcescence)
>acorns were cracking open on their own in mid fall instead of spring
That does sound like white oak. Chinkapin in this video looks almost identical to your seedlings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIKGm4VSKDQ
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>>2854515
I just discovered the Prague Chimera, it's allegedly cold hardy down to 0F with dessert quality satsumas. I'm gonna try to get my hands on one come springtime
https://hardycitrus.blogspot.com/2020/02/prague-citsuma.html
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i think id like to try one of those setups where you have a pot and then a pipe that leads to perlite or charcoal at the bottom and thats how you water it. anyone know what im retardedly referring to? what are those things called?
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>>2855213
Wicking beds.
My veg garden is 100% wicking beds due to large trees everywhere ganking all my resources otherwise. Doesn't need to be perlite or charcoal (expensive) I use socked ag drain pipe in the bottom of half an IBC as a water reservoir. Cover that with scorea, a large flower pot of sand in the middle to wick water right from the bottom. Then a layer of geo textile, thick layer of straw, then soil on top of that. Need an overflow pipe at the top of the scorea level, and a fill pipe going into the end of one of the ag pipes so it can't block up.
The plants use as much as they need, not a drop is wasted. Always amazes me how much water plants actually use. Grew a block of corn in one of those beds and swore it had a hole in it, how else could it use that much water but nope corn is just thirsty as fuck.
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>>2855220
thanks anon! just watched this diy video of one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODjQKSssg8
looks like a manageable project, though that video made one that's way overkill size-wise for my purposes.
any concerns about microplastics at all with these btw? geo textile is typically made of polyester and from what im seeing on youtube everybody uses plastics for the tubes as well.
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They be growing
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The root balls were getting tied together, so I'm hoping that I didn't damage the two big ones. I definitely got the taproot of the big one at least.
Never done trees before, but i tried a mix of potting soil with some dirt from the garden bed and another random patch. My thought is to help them acclimate to different soil types.
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>>2855224
>microplastics
Never considered it, there is no doubt microplastics generated during the assembly since you have to cut plastic with a saw/drill etc. I'm not concerned about the geotextile since its buried and out of sunlight it should last a while. The IBC bladder itself isn't UV stable so it can break down eventually, I clad my beds in reclaimed wooden fence panels, actually looks half decent that way.
It would be hard to make this style without using any plastics. Not impossible though. The fill and overflow pipes might be a challenge.
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>>2853962
This is true, plant seeds naturally spread from animal droppings. It's just the ideal conditions for them.
>>2852759
Not sure where to post this, checken /an/ and they don't have a farm thread, and this seemed like the best /out/ thread.
I just want some unbiased opinions and expertise if anyone's got any, I'm gonna be raising coturnix quail in my shed next month, they'll have 1.5 square feet each and I'll have 30 of them inside city limits.
And actually I guess I'm not even asking for people's opinions, I'm just here to rant about how RETARDED most quail farmers seem to be online. They all seem old and decrepit, they struggle to do basic math, that myshire farms guy acted like his math video on how much it costs per egg was really complicated but I did all the math in my head already before he said the answer and found a couple mistakes.
And it's like, man, is this why quail eggs and meat are so expensive? It reminds me of those SMASHED and SLAMMED breeders, like they still do give their birds good conditions and stuff but so many of them cut corners and outright are just lazy.
But insomma, 20 dollars a year to raise a jumbo quail, I'm getting 30 of them and will get meat and eggs out of my shed. EZPZ.
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>>2855753
A YouTube channel I watch called Shaun Overton / Dustups does use human shit and piss for fertilizer but he doesn't talk much about it. Maybe three mentions in 3 years with the last one being how he set up the outhouse to collect.
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>>2855753
I don't have a running water let alone watery toilet so naturally all our waste eventually go to our crops, and i once lived in a commune that was in a similar situation but they also didn't use any other fertilizers but human poop, urine and crop rotation and had about a dozen people who needed the said facilities. What you want to know?
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>>2855765
Will check
>>2855769
Kek
>>2855778
Basically if the whole taboo surrounding it is based on evidence or lack of it. I've always heard human shit is not good for the plants and even asking grok will tell me something similar until I mention said technique, so I wanted to hear about success stories, and if it's good enough compared to herbivores manure
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>>2855867
Of course there's variables you should take into consideration like your source's diet, medication, parasites and infectous diseases and if your toilet system poisons your precious fertilizer with chemicals or something, but in the end, humans are large mammals and shit is shit. Use a non-fancy dry toilet, put nothing in there but human waste, toilet paper, dry leaves and maybe charcoal, let every pile compost for atleast a year, don't spam your body with ultraprocessed food or antibiotics and you're good to go.
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What plant is this?
https://youtu.be/bt03fdAYPZQ?t=822
Guy says "lettuce", but I've never seen a tower-like lettuce like those, and when I look it up, I get only tower-shaped pots for vertical gardening, but the guy doesn't seem to be using anything of the sort.
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He got the mango first.
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>>2856090
The usual lettuce shape is just a basal rosette; it makes an actual stem when it bolts (i.e., matures to create flowers). Very common strategy for lots of plants both wild and domesticated. It'll happen when they reach full maturity or in response to stress usually from too much heat. Stuff in the carrot family (which includes lettuce) are really prone to bolting in hot weather, but most vegetables that have an edible leafy "top" are the same way. Leaves get tough and bitter in mature plants, and the energy reserve in lots of root vegetables get used up to form this stem, so that's why you don't see it; you're harvesting it as a baby as soon as it reaches an edible size but before the quality drops.
You can see this behavior pretty clearly with common dandelions: they make leaves at first to collect energy and then switch to forming stems with their energy reserves once mature. You rarely see cultivated vegetables in this form unless they have an edible seed worth a shit, but you can sometimes find radish and cicely pods mentioned. Sometimes the stems themselves are eaten like with garlic scapes or Turkish rocket, and it's a bit esoteric but a couple of goosefoots like huauzontle and strawberry blite are raised specifically for the flowers. There are, however, a handful of brassicas that unironically grow a long stem like walking stick cabbage and tree collards.
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>>2856132
He made his burrow bellow a java plum tree, looks like a hobbit house entrance.
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>>2856204
>also how are your bees doing?
Fine, stingless honey bees only swarm once per year tho, they start in December and stop swarming in February.
I am trying to get two boxes now, it's hard, spiders keep putting webs on the entrace for the box to try and catch them.
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>>2856204
>are they somewhat tame since you can get so close to take pictures?
They are goofy, if you stand still they have such poor eyesight they don't recognize what they are looking at.
Sometimes they bump on your leg and then run on the opposite direction once they realize you are there.
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>>2856290
I don't need more berries in fucking June, I want them in fucking October!
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Ended up becoming a master gardener.
Signed up for a bunch of webinars and workshops from my extension.
I noticed that abosrists and pesticide applicators renew their license through the extension.
-Wondering what anons think of their local extension office if you use it for things?
My extension is Penn State. They have a lot of classes about bee keeping and dairy. I feel like Penn State is too professional with its stuff and I think their fees could be cheaper. Given the government just gave land to colleges in each state and told them to use it for teaching the public about trades, farming and business.
-Also might an anon have an ISA study guide or ISA materials. Possibly pesticide applicators study materials?
Anyways I hit a real low point . My last job sent me into an existential spiral and didn't bother gardening last season. I gave away all my seeds to my mom and dad though I think they are saving them because I think they know I'm just having a bad patch. My mom's sisters were upset that the grounds were looking ratty.
Ended up quitting my job in September.
I'm so done with human services and social work. I'm looking to get a job in plants and trees. Or if I get back into human services I'll either do part time, and or work with kids.
The only thing I did successfully is grow a clutch of chestnut saplings that didn't get chewed up by varmints.
I want to prune the apple trees around the home probably end of Jan or Feb.
Thanks anons , and thanks for reading my blog.
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>>2855585
It's so weird farming these things, the information available is so all-over-the-place, like it's either brain-damaged homesteader petkeepers or phillipino megafarmer efficiency-maxxers, the homesteaders say
>Yeah I like to give my birds each 1 square feet and I give them a little sand box I clean out and I use this special flooring so their feet don't hurt and any sign of stress is bad for the bird and you have to change something
And then the megafarms say
>I have 5 birds per square foot and make them fight over food
Like clearly if they can live in such poor conditions without dying from stress there's some kind of inbetween, but it's so hard because it's either larp or factory farming.
>>2855876
I don't have any that have produced fruit, my seed grapefruit is maybe 2 or 3 years old? It produced a tiny fruit that fell off and died. The thing is BIG for its age and does fairly well, covered in pretty thorns, and it's sharing a pot with 2 other grapefruits.
I'm trying to keep it small so it's easy to haul so I've been aggressively cutting it back every time it's brought inside or outside for the change in seasons. No fruit yet, it could take 3 or 5 more years, or could happen next year, I couldn't find any consistent answers.
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>>2853365
>hope the fruits wont give me nicotine poisoning
You're in no danger, not even if you were pregnant. You'd have to drink several pots of nicotine as a dark tea before being in any danger. Zoomers are zaping and dipping pouches at extreme doses that would outright kill your houseplants.
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>>2856225
I found these and wasn't impressed with their taste, but I think I was a couple weeks early. They always grow in the time of year when too much stuff's going on and I don't go outside.
They might be a neat potted plant.
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>>2856414
Yeah, that's pretty sad, the main reason for the "mailbox" is that the quail will run around and burn a couple extra calories a day, thus eating .001 cents more food per day.
But I plan to integrate a very slight slope into mine so the eggs don't roll naturally, but the quail running around and kicking their own eggs like soccer balls because they're terrible parents will cause the eggs to roll to the front.
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>>2856413
I'm not really a prepper guy so I'm instead trying to have a somewhat perpetual berry forest so I have something to snack on or bake if I want. My yard is divided into a deathly hot clearing and shady mixed pine forest, so I'm trying to fill in the little microclimates in-between. My current planting is:
>Mulberries -> early blueberries -> blackberries -> blueberries -> gooseberries -> currants -> raspberries -> chokeberries -> fall raspberries
This is still very clustered around the Summer so I'm trying to find stuff that goes earlier and later like juneberries and huckleberries. I figure my next step to get a crop later into Fall is some foreign plants like Chilean guava or autumn olive. For the record I've heard the selected varieties are better, except for the yellow ones which are bland even on a good year. I'm open to other suggestions though. I know there are some mahonias that fruit in Winter after the leaves fall, but they're miserable houseguests and they need a lot of sugar.
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>>2856420
Juneberries are a good choice yeah, really anything that's "ornamental" but yields fruit just means that it's fairly disease-resistant and doesn't require special care - so hands-off that some city could plant said crop and not worry about it.
So if I was you I'd look at whatever edible ornamental you could get for that season.
Side note, my neighbor had some great crab apples that were pretty lame throughout the whole year, but after the first frost were sweeter than storebought apples and had a great texture. There are now crabapples you can buy that also are meant specifically for eating.
Don't know about berries for that late honestly.
>>2856421
>Cornelian cherries
Ah, that's the other ornamental I couldn't remember the name of. I'd say this one too.
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>>2856422
Want to add in that juneberries really cannot compete with raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries ECT for taste if you're talking the ones bred for taste, it's just not gonna happen because those things are peak berry.
But in terms of easiness of harvest and how hands-off they are juneberries are a great berry, you can go and fill a bag of them in a couple minutes. They're a great berry for cooking for this alone, I've used them to make coffee cake and I bet they'd make good pie too.
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>>2856421
I'm hesitating on haskap because I've heard it's really low-producing and not great, even the good ones. Most of the testimony I've seen on them says they aren't really ripe when they change color and you need to wait like 3 more weeks, so they overlap with earlier blueberries. I'm going to put up a big hedge of feijoas eventually but I need permission to cut down the existing trees.
>>2856424
I am growing raspberries, but the primocane varieties have a really nice (and rather long) late harvest too so it seemed more appropriate. I'm in 8a and from what I understand, juneberries flower when the weather warms up so they're more like mayberries here, making them more or less completely uncontested. I have looked at crabapples quite a bit but most of the varieties people recommend seem to hate it here, except for Dolgo and Chestnut. I spent some time looking into hawthorns too since they also have May and October species, but I dropped it since the payoff seems really weak, but you can see tons of people chowing down on improved crabs.
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>>2856420
If you're southeast US, muscadine grapes may be native to your area. They are September-ish. Persimmon trees are also wild in the US and are late fall into winter. Persimmon are super astringent until they fully ripen at in a dark orangeish purple, which also means they don't get nibbled by pests.
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Homestead-sisters, I just had a great idea.
Instead of doing all this extra work making those quail cages I saw online I'm gonna garbage pick a couple dressers off the side of the road for zero dollars, cut some pieces off, and then put a floor on them and wire doors on the front. BOOM, instant quail coops.
Man that is a life hack, even the pros spend all this money making a cage that is basically just a box, so what if I took boxes that people throw out monthly on the side of the road for free and stapled some wire to them?
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>>2856450
Yeah, basically what I'm gonna do is roughly sand them and then put some kind of sealant on them so the shit doesn't stick to them, possibly quickly paint the interior, this has basically turned my cages from a 300 dollar operation into a 30 dollar one + 1/10th the labor required. I already have an old garbage-picked dresser, gotta get a couple more and just EZ-convert them. I'll do the same when making their brooding box too.
This is making me think that maybe I could get some dressers and use them as vertical grow boxes for strawberries too.
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I want to build plants that help retain moisture around the ground and provide shade. I need a little ecosystem TODAY since the epic drought is coming in soon. I'll keep my grass longer at least. I wanted to build green fences that aren't eyesores to me or my neighbors. I have a big property with a low fence and great soil but have little skill in planting things.
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>>2856465
Plant native things that are well adapted to drought
>>2856426
3 weeks is exaggerated, it's more like 4-7 days once they turn blue. I like the taste of them and mine are small enough that it's easy to net. If you're really trying to extend berry season as much as possible, this is as early as it's going to get. Also, pomegranates, definitely grow pomegranates
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Have some dangerous trees to remove this season, the problem is that some of them are 300 foot tall, some have been wired previously but have snapped the half inch thick steel wires, and the price is got quoted to remove them is more than I even earned this year
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Got a young apple tree about one inch at the base.
forgot to put a guard and rabbits ring barked it during the frost.
Is it a dead loss?
It's not a graft so I wondered if I can salvage it by doing something like cutting it down to he base and hoping it throws up new shoots?
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>>2856610
The trees were sort of left to grow because of how hard they would have been to remove, so now they're 300 foot and contractors don't want to go near them.
The trunk of one splits in three about 30 yards up, with one of the trunks now dead. So some arborist wired all the trunks together at 150 feet to prevent any of them just falling off.
So now the tree can't be felled from the base, none of the three trunks can be dropped with the tree standing, so I suppose someone will have to drop the tops of all three by the wire, drop the trunks one by one and just pray it doesn't fall over. With three trunks there's really no safe place to put the picker either.
The second tree is even worse, two trunks, split at the base, each trunk must be six foot wide. It must weight 150 tons.
The risk of it splitting straight down the middle is obvious, so nobody wants to climb it, and nobody wants to put a picker under it to reduce the weight. It stands to flatten 150 square meters of my yard on either side.
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>>2856704
Normally you'd graft bark as soon as possible, just repair the ring barking.
You wouldn't stump it, it would take years to grow and have a poor form, just buy a new one.
Interesting option: use it as scion stock and bark graft several species of apple onto the stump. If it fails, again just dig it out.
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>>2856505
No, they might go for sweet potato or cassavas but I have not seen these eat any of these yet.
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Temperatures went down to -15 C two nights in the row with days at -10 C, ideal to test my fig overwinter protection, I might plant more if this works
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>>2857054
Basic beehive, you can even DIY it, it's not that hard, other than that just a bee smoker and with a docile hive you don't need more protection than just gloves and something on your face, everything else is optional or easily replaced with DIY
Neighbours and adjacent streets are the biggest problem usually, karens might call cops on you so check your local regulations, where I live you can't have a bee hive closer than 10 meters from your property boundary and 30 meters from occupied buildings unless you have agreement from the owner, you also have to register your hives, additionally some communities have their own separate rules you need to follow
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>>2857052
Past few years it dipped to -12C and both my panache and rdb survived without protection.
Everything above ground died but roots survived and there was new growth.
It was too late though and I didn't have any figs.
Kinda hoping that as the plants mature, the roots get eventually powerful enough to pump up figs despite these conditions.
At least the rdb. That should be one of the earliest varieties out there(I have few more that are supposed to be early as well, but less known)
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>>2857078
I was actually considering not covering it at all to test how it would perform in a snowless freeze, it can get even colder here and having snow cover is not guaranteed
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so i have a stihl mm 55 tiller and a can of what i think is the correct fuel. i have this 2 stroke fuel used for a chainsaw, am i correct in being able to use it with the tiller as well? im not familiar with these sorts of engines
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Anyone have an opinion on a Hybrid Still with a 30L capacity? Are all stills.(distillation) powered by gas or are there any that use coals? I always pictured them to be made of thick glass but they all appear to be metal drums. I'm interested in a hybrid still because I want to extract essential oils and concentrate alcohol mostly.
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>>2857304
Rabbits can be persistent little pests in a garden—they chew plants right down and dig under barriers. The most effective fence design combines these key features:
Height — At least 24–36 inches (2–3 feet) above ground, since rabbits can jump or stand to reach over shorter fences.
Mesh size — 1-inch openings or smaller (chicken wire, hardware cloth, or welded wire) to stop both adult rabbits and tiny babies from squeezing through.
Dig-proof base — The critical part: bury the bottom or create an L-shaped apron extending outward (away from the garden) so if they dig along the fence, they hit the horizontal wire and give up.
Recommended Practical Design: Buried L-Shape Chicken Wire / Hardware Cloth Fence
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I have a rat problem. Every year those little shits demolish my tomatoes, take a chunk out of every one. Eat all the cucumber flowers every night so I get none. This year they attacked my carrots and chewed around the tops on nearly 40% of the crop, had to pull them all up and hope we can eat them all before they go bad.
They're too fucking smart, traps don't usually work. But a new type I got this year with a heavy sliding drop door they can't lift, caught 2 big fat females in the same week. Was fucking chuffed. No damage to the tomatoes yet this season (touch wood)
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Swallows migrating from the US and Canada.
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There are a lot of them.
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Hey /out/ first time poster here.
Asking on behalf of my mum.
She has a Swiss Cheese plant in her kitchen, had it for probably as long as I have been alive but it is dying now.
It has been withering for a few months and only has a few yellow leafs left.
I'm not sure what the cause is, it might have been related to some kind of bugs.
She's tried spraying it with a mixture stuff, not sure what. And I think she's put it in different soil twice but it is still dying.
Any help would be appreciated.
I can try and find out more. Thanks in advance.
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Help me /grow/ you're my only hope.
I have just taken ownership of a beautiful tall Wollemi pine. I intend to keep it outside but in a garden pot. It came with with this sphagnum moss-like mat over the soil. Should I keep that in place or do I need to be rid of it? I don't want to risk any rüt röt and I wonder if this is just how they package them for sale or if it's a good idea to keep it in place.
It's a big tree and a fairly small pot, so the risk of the soil drying out quickly during summer is real as well, and the mat might prevent that. Once the roots get dry it's fucking gone. What do you think?
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>>2857775
just my humble non-expert opinion but those plants propagate very quickly from cuttings, you might want to try and cut a length off and put it in water so the nodes can sprout new roots and then replant. It won't save the mother plant, but it will start you fresh with a new plant which technically is still the same old one.
I started with one of these and now have like 5 of them around the house from this method. It's better to try than let it die and not carry-on.
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>>2857819
This is the whole tree btw. It's a beaut!
The backstory here is that 5 years ago I bought a baby sapling Wollemi and have kept it alive and happy and growing this whole time, and now finally due to some unusual weather, the ever-increasing shade of my garden as the fig trees grow thicker and taller, and some unfortunate choice of placement, the poor thing got the rot and died. So I stubbornly bought a new one because I was mad.
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>>2857821
And the old one looking its best. †RIP†
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>>2858057
Bro I hate this so fucking much. I tried to help my friend dig his own patch and we dug out a shitload of masonry like bricks, concrete bits, tiles, even a large piece of broken toilet. That shit is a crime
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Burp
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>>2858021
The deed is done. I took the mat out and cut the hole a lot bigger so that it doesn't touch the trunk and gives it plenty of space. it fit back nicely and gives the soil plenty of cover without touching the base. Should be nice for summer, it's been super rainy but tons of hot sunny days coming later this week
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>>2857958
Really depends on the plant and your climate. Some seeds are best started indoors in pots, while others should be sown directly. If you live in a temperate climate and want to grow plants that are originally tropical or subtropical, I've had good results letting them germinate in a wet paper towel inside a plastic bag in a warm spot (like the top of your fridge). That being said, always do what's written on the package and accept a low germination rate.
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>>2858697
In that case, you can most likely direct sow everything. Look up a local sowing calendar and keep an eye on the weather report - late frosts can be devastating. If you want to be really fancy, keep checking your soil temperature.
If you are unsure, you can still start your seedlings in a pot. It avoids frost risk, gives you better control over soil temperature and an overall better germination rate (I think). The only downside is, it's more labor and space intensive.
One exception I’d make are legumes as they don’t like being transplanted.
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middle of winter. perfect time to grow grass seed for spring in vegas. also, cheers to some anon from a year ago who said he would just go nuts with prickly pear clones if he had one. i have a massive mother prickly pear and installed a bunch of pads around the property last year. they grow up so fast.
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Using giant knotweed or japanese knotweed as soil improvement plant, does it make any sense in any situation? So i'm not planning to do this and and i'm not advising anyone to do this since even if it could work, it's still very risky, would need absolute commitment for years and is propably illegal, depending of course on where you live. But still, the properties of these plants are somewhat interesting. They grow and spread extremely efficiently when they take hold, their roots go deep and wide preventing erosion and sucking water, minerals and nutrients from depths that few soft plants could ever, and the plant matter they create is easily biodegradable. Even if they are locally very invasive and hard to get rid off, they solely spread by their roots instead of seeds so the problems they cause would stay somewhat isolateable.
I have some personal experience from managing infestations of both plants with different severities and know that the green parts make excellent compost (as long as you cut them high enough that they won't just root straight back), in our current garden there's some giant hogweed in the corner ant the soil below that is the finest black mulch i've seen. I've seen an old parking lot turn into pic related within five years. The speed and efficiency these things turn dead wasteland into biomatter is simply astonishing.
So, let's say you have a plot of unmanageable land, like an old gravel pit or depleted agricultural field, that you just can't grow anything on. It doesn't have the moisture or nutrients to support most plants, nothing is protecting it from winds or eroding effects of heavy rain. Plant this. Leave it spread and flourish. After a decade or so, start cutting it down every couple weeks, leave the stems at spot to decay. Eventually it'll just wither out since you don't let it to photosynthesize enough to maintain itself. Once you have got rid of it you should have some very fine soil just waiting for the garden.
Any thoughts?
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>>2858807
>Plant this. Leave it spread and flourish. After a decade or so, start cutting it down every couple weeks, leave the stems at spot to decay. Eventually it'll just wither out since you don't let it to photosynthesize enough to maintain itself
Anon doesn't know
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>>2858809
I do, i've dealt with these fuckers for years. After all, it's still a plant. It needs light, it needs moisture, it needs nutrients. In it's league it's uncannily efficient in gathering them from it's surroundings, but it still needs all of them in decent amounts. The bigger the infestation, the more it needs to sustain. Remove one and it dies.
It just need active boring labor and constant vigilance.
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>>2858807
>So, let's say you have a plot of unmanageable land, like an old gravel pit or depleted agricultural field, that you just can't grow anything on
Grow native nitrogen fixers.
Since they are native, they won't require almost any maintenance and will actually improve your land.
I would never plant knotweed since it emits nasty stuff in the soil to kill everything else and its a bitch to deal with.
>Any thoughts?
The dilemma you are describing is the same they have in Iceland with lupine, but its much easier to get rid of lupine.
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>>2858816
Knotweeds aren't nitrogen fixers so wouldn't make sense to replace them with such. Their potential role in soil management would be:
>carbon fixing
>mechanic erosion prevention
>mechanic breaking of compressed soil
>transferring nutriens from deeper soil levels closer to surface
It's also not true that lupine is easier to get rid of. Lupines spams hundreds of seeds per plant that can stay fertile in the soil for years if not decades. Knotweeds spread asexually by cloning through their root system either simply expanding the edges of already existing growth or from place to place via small bits of roots when humans move infested soil around.
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Getting ready for seed starting by building height adjustable supports for my Barrina grow lights. Last year I just stacked my trays on boxes. I also had the trays facing the other way last year so I could only get 2 per shelf.
I made some sliding clamps using 1" PEX pipe cut into 1.5" long pieces and 1/4 of the circumference cut out using diagonal cutters. Then screwed the clamps onto 1x2 wood cut to the width of the rack (I should have gone a little wider to prevent wood splitting). For the cross beams I got some aluminum railing pickets from a second hand building supply store. I predrilled holes for the light clamps and larger holes on the ends to sit over screws I added to the wood to act as pins to keep the light from getting knocked off.
I tested the light spacing after taking the photo and saw the spacing wasn't ideal for 3 trays and that I only need 1 light per tray. So I modified that one and finished supports for the other 2 racks. That leaves me enough lights for the top rack but that one will need to be built differently with no poles above the rack.
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>>2858926
I can slide the lights all the way down to the trays.
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>>2858807
What I've seen is that knotweed is intolerant of shade. It grows on the edge of forests like alongside roadways and creeks but not actually in the middle among all the trees.
Makes sense because it is a pioneer plant that serves to break up volcanic soil in its native range. Once trees start growing it disappears. The reason its a problem here is because it doesnt have insects to eat it. There is the knotweed psyllid but they were only just released after like a decade of testing because of retarded USDA rules so it will take a while to see any results.
Also it is one of the best erosion control plants especially alongside waterways.
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>>2859091
Get the stick out your ass or go back to r/nativeplants
Knotweed isn't special. It's a pioneer plant that serves to turn volcanic ash into usable soil for other plants. Its only advantage in its invasive range is that it doesn't have the knotweed psyllid to feed on it. Knotweed actually has a ton of biocontrols but because they're generalist insects the USDA is anal about releasing them.
>This will never happen, it blocks everything
I will never understand how you people can be so "passionate" about the environment yet have no fucking idea how it actually works
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>>2859137
It keeps rotating my photos for no reason
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>>2858702
I was thinking of sowing in vases at first and keep them inside...outside temps can go as low as -1C (+30F) and the ground isn't ready for working it at the moment.
I am gone most of the day but I would like to leave the vases next to a window.
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>>2859137
I picked up a few more aluminum pieces today to make the light support for the top rack which turned out far better than I thought it would. The used building supply place charged me $1 a piece instead of the $2 last week. I cut two 11" pieces out of one two to bolt the two full length pieces together. I used threaded inserts though it would have been just as easy to use nuts since it was right on the end.
I was going to use one T plate to attach the frame to the vertical post but went and got another since the tubing wall is thin (I bent the ends of the short pieces tightening the bolts).
To attach the vertical piece to the rack I used u-bolts and two half pieces of the pex pipe. Once piece of pex is zip tied to the rack and the other I ground a notch out so the u-bolt will keep it in place. I was able to tighten the u-bolts enough that the lights won't move, but pex still allows me to slide the post up and down.
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>>2859361
One of the two spots where the post attaches to the rack. I think if it rotates enough for that corners to line up with the gap between pex pieces it will slip, but I shouldn't need to worry about that.
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>>2859297
Quite good, similar to red currant but a bit more astringent, makes for a good jam, berries are tiny, takes quite a while to harvest a lot of them.
Personally I would just plant red currant instead
>>2859343
Modern cultivars bred for taste are much better than wild plants, just like with Aronia berry
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>>2859361
This rack is really nice for growing, wire lets light through so it isn't wasted.
What brand is it?
Are those shelves adjustable in small increments when I need to move lights closer ot further out?
Can they be removed completely if I was growing something tall?
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>>2859400
That style rack gets sold under a bunch of different brands. I did a search and that design first came out in 1969 for food service use, so any patent would have run out and has been blatantly copied. The shelves are adjustable but its not something you want to do often as you have to knock each corner upward, pull out plastic wedges and move them to a new position. The shelves have closed rings that go over the poles so you can really only remove the top one easily. Last year when I needed more space after moving the rack outside I moved the second rack from the bottom to directly on top of the bottom one turning it into a 3 shelf rack. The racks also come in a 72" 5 shelf version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_D1KmCn0mc
I uploaded a series of pictures I took while building the light supports. https://imgur.com/gallery/adjustable-grow-light-supports-wire-shelving -unit-V7FHdK0
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>>2859430
Maybe you should. It's relative to the environment it's in. We don't have a problem with them here, which is why I never had a chance to try them before buying. The red currants that were suggested are also a foreign invasive. The native US currants I'm planting are also invasive because they're native to a different part of the US. The Youtuber-approved goumis are also invasive. What you're trying to describe is a particularly aggressive spreader, which is not what invasive means and I already have plenty of natives that fit that description too.
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>>2859466
The racks are quite sturdy, but can bend under concentrated load of a heavy pot. The shelves on the 36" wide unit are rated for 350 lbs evenly distributed. For heavier pots maybe put wood under them to distribute the weight. I mostly use trays on mine.
I used heavy commercial aluminum baking trays to hold the bigger plants after up potting, mostly for shuffling plants in and out of the house early in the season since the plastic ones collapse. Last year I zip tied the lights to the rack. I also had 2 cheapo clearance grow lights that got far too hot.
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>>2859559
Once it is warm enough to put plants in the greenhouse during the day I move the rack outside.
One thing I learned the hard way two years ago is that plants won't harden off in a greenhouse since it blocks the UV. That year all my tomatoes got sun scald after planting. Last year I hardened them off and they did fine after planting.
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Thanks to this shitass weather I actually got some sweet squishy Thorny Olives. One in particular had really big berries. The ones I usually sample are bland as shit, but these had a noticeable tangy Hawaiian Punch note.
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>everything in the world is suffering from enshittification
>except my garden
Are you planning to grow anything new this year, /hgm/?
I'm going to try some perennial kale and work on maximizing my tomato yield which has been mid-tier the past few years, so I'm testing out some new varieties to see how they do in my garden.
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>>2859661
>Are you planning to grow anything new this year, /hgm/?
Almost too much stuff. Four grapes, six currants, two European pears, two American plums and hazelnuts, two new serviceberry species, a bush cherry to replace one that died, and three more pawpaws as far as perennials go
>so I'm testing out some new varieties
Which ones?
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>>2859661
>Are you planning to grow anything new this year
So far I have seeds of tomarillo, tomatillo and perila.
I also want to try maypops, but not sure if I can get some seedlings or will have to get seeds as well.
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>>2859661
>Are you planning to grow anything new this year, /hgm/?
First year when I don't actually plan for anything new
Well, maybe I'll get a persimon in a pot (too cold here in the ground for Japanese cultivars) but I'm not committed to this
>>2859665
>pepino
I had pepino last year, it's kind of mid in taste imo and takes forever to ripen even at first frost it was still a bit from full ripeness, I might plant one next year but no more
>>2859745
>tomatillo
Inferior sour tomato imo, it's not that popular for a reason, cape gooseberry is slightly better but also not that good.
The husk is pretty nice tho, you can pick it up from ground or mud and just remove it to get the clean fruit
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>>2859755
Thanks but I'm in Europe and it's not that popular here it seems.
We will see.
Some sites say it's cold hardy up to zone 5, some say you need to move them inside.
I'm in zone 7, so if I start from seed, I guess first year it will be in a pot and I'll plant it outside in the second year.
Also some sites say one plant is fine, others that you need two plants.
>>2859767
>Inferior sour tomato imo
I want to try authentic salsa verde. Never had it, but apparently it's good.
In the end it doesn't matter, it's a new plant so I'm excited.
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I'm getting good at this, -10 C in day and -15 C night meanwhile my compost is still maintaining 30 C
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>>2859770
Zones 5 and 6 are in its natural range, but it might depend on where precisely it's from. It's only perennial because the root lives on and regrows the plant every year, so it shouldn't be that hard to keep alive.
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>>2859770
Definitely get at least two plants. Only one of my three plants flowered last year, quite prolifically even, but no fruit. Also be warned that if you put it in the ground it will sucker like crazy, I have shoots popping up 3m away
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Sup niggers, I'll have rooftop (30 sq m) available in urbain western europe, but I'll be working off shore. So I'm looking into some small fruit trees and maybe a hazel or something because they would be able to survive on their own while I'm away for weeks at a time. Are there certain fruit types that are more hardy or should I just pick the survivalist cultivar for whichever tree I like?
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>>2859767
>cape gooseberry
I used to love them but haven't had any in years. This year I will grow a bunch of them. Hope they hold up to my memory.
>>2859796
Fruit trees only handle drought well after being established in the ground. If you grow them in pots on the rooftop, they will be less tolerant. I grow dwarf cherries and figs in containers in central Europe and while they are hands-off most of the year, they will need watering during summer.
In your case, olive trees (personally I never got mine to bear fruits), sand-thorn or Jerusalem Artichokes could work well. I would also suggest looking into cacti. Some opuntias (prickly pears) are surprisingly cold tolerant. Put them in your driest spot, ignore them and eventually harvest the fruits or young pads.
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Last year I bought one of those Vitamix Foodcycler things that basically make shredded up dehydrated food; i figured this would be great for the winter time when i can't get to my compost tumbler outside.
At the end of the season last year i dumped what little dehydrated stuff i had into the outdoor tumbler along with leaves and remaining plant scraps after clearing out my garden.
Right now I have about another good couple of gallons of this dehydrated stuff inside thats going to go out whenever the weather gets warm.
My question is, what can i add to the compost tumbler to help re-activate this dehydrated stuff to get it going for compost? Dirt? more greens? more browns?
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I'll probably repost this in the next /hgm/ thread, this one's about to reach limit.
Can I build a coop here?
Just bought my first property. This space is all I have available at the moment. Considering building a coop here, it's too shaded for veggies.
Thinking of 6 egg laying hens or 10 quails.
Thoughts/advice?
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>>2860057
It's on the small side for six chickens I'd say, would definitely need some toys and very regular cleaning. I used to have four of them in a similar space, two of those four got quite bored and aggressive pretty soon.
Don't know much about quails.
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>>2860100
How many eggs would you get on average with 4? I'm looking to get 3-4 eggs a day on average, which is sorta why I wanted 6 leghorns or rhode island reds. I don't think I'd mind too much if I got less, I'd rather have em healthy and living longer than producing more
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>>2860107
Depends on the age of the chickens and the season, breed, feed. A lot of factors. Mine were 'saved' from the local egg factory, so it was their retirement basically, but they were an egg heavy breed. Would get 3-5 eggs daily from them in summer/autumn, 0-2 in winter.
Look into what foods they prefer, what character they usually have. And of course think of what you can provide for them. If you want a lot of eggs you should definitely make sure their nutrition is on point. If they lay 'soft shell' eggs or the shell is incomplete, it can get stuck in the cloaca and you're going to be the one that has to remove it because the other chickens will peck at it.
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>>2858704
made prickly pear jelly with fruit from the mother plant at the end of the season. it was a neat experiment. scissors to trim off the fruit, tongs to pick them up, blowtorch the fruits real quick to burn off the needles, rinse, toss in juicer. its not a common jelly at all, so i had to mix and add pectin by feel. came out perfect in one batch, other batch was really thicc.
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Starting the first seeds of the season. Germinating 11 kinds of petunias plus geraniums and red/orange peppers.