2020 Gardening Thread

[S&W Fan]

Well yet again another year of me getting fucked on my fruit trees. They are in full bloom and we are getting down to 27 tonight. I’m sure they will be ruined. Also my blueberries are bloomed out. I hate these late season cold snaps. I’m pissed. Trees looked great this year and I had high hopes!!

Yeah this weather blows. Damn fruit trees are budding a bit early because of the unusually on and off warm temps and now the last three days have had a good morning frost. Not to mention temps in the upper 20’s and snow are now predicted for tomorrow and Sunday. WTF I’ve been covering my new blue berry plants every night to keep them from damage from the frost. My peach tree flowered a week ago and the frost has trashed those. The Apple tree is fairing better, so far.

 

[Saltwater60]

It will also require a bit more attention to watering . The compost drains and dries out often. I would go 60/40 for better water retention and still have decent drainage

You can mix some peat moss in there too. Holds water but drains well. A bit of sand so it doesn’t compact down too.

 

[Saltwater60]

Yeah this weather blows. Damn fruit trees are budding a bit early because of the unusually on and off warm temps and now the last three days have had a good morning frost. Not to mention temps in the upper 20’s and snow are now predicted for tomorrow and Sunday. WTF I’ve been covering my new blue berry plants every night to keep them from damage from the frost. My peach flowered a week ago and the frost has trashed those. The Apple tree is fairing better, so far.

My apples holding in there ok as well. They haven’t bloomed out yet.
My apricot is done flowering but a lot of the buds got trashed from the cold and snow 2 weeks ago.
I was really looking forward to getting some descent fruit. I’m a bit disappointed here.

 

[S&W Fan]

You can mix some peat moss in there too. Holds water but drains well. A bit of sand so it doesn’t compact down too.

Exactly, not to mention it would help the soil ph level. Most all veggies like a ph level in the 6.0 -6.8 range

 

[S&W Fan]

My apples holding in there ok as well. They haven’t bloomed out yet.
My apricot is done flowering but a lot of the buds got trashed from the cold and snow 2 weeks ago.
I was really looking forward to getting some descent fruit. I’m a bit disappointed here.

I can definitely sympathize. My peach tree bore fruit for the first time last year and even though it was hard for me to to do I followed guide lines and culled all the fruit in expectations of a better second season harvest. That very likely isn’t going to happen now.

 

[S&W Fan]

@Saltwater60 How are your espalier apple trees coming along?

 

[Saltwater60]

@Saltwater60 How are your espalier apple trees coming along?

They look nice. I’ll grab a picture tomorrow for you. So far so good. Hoping to get some nice growth out of them this year.
I’m going to espalier them horizontally they go up the top in a vase shape I think they have some nice buds on them and I’m hoping to get a few more apples this year. Last year I got 4 apples.

 

[Saltwater60]

I can definitely sympathize. My peach tree bore fruit for the first time last year and even though it was hard for me to to do I followed guide lines and culled all the fruit in expectations of a better second season harvest. That very likely isn’t going to happen now.

You’re a better man than I am. I never could bring myself to cull the first years crop. I was always excited to get some fruit. I hate to tell you this but the first year was the best for my peach and apricot tree. I had one other food year with my peach but the apricot blooms too early and it’s too cold and rainy To get any pollination even though it’s self fertile.

 

[Acer-m14]

hows the hydro going @fnfalguy .. ??

i found some seeds . LOL

 

[Acer-m14]

my friend has some plum/prune trees lots of fruit but really small and not use able ,,, black fungus on the branches too .. cull them and start over ?

 

[fnfalguy]

@Acer-m14 the hydro is going well. Far better than imagined. Couple of photos from this AM. The only “problem” that I’m having is that stuff grows much faster than I expect. So I’m running into situations where the seedlings are out growing their homes before it’s time to put them out.

 

[S&W Fan]

You’re a better man than I am. I never could bring myself to cull the first years crop. I was always excited to get some fruit. I hate to tell you this but the first year was the best for my peach and apricot tree. I had one other food year with my peach but the apricot blooms too early and it’s too cold and rainy To get any pollination even though it’s self fertile.

I’m starting to suspect that you may be right but we’ll see. It’s a very hardy peach tree. This regions growing pattern for stone fruits may be changing though.

 

[Robin]

Frost three nights in a row and last night a hard freeze!!! I hope everything that is in bloom or is budding makes it. My American plumb's are in full bloom, currants and blueberries are budding. I was hoping for some plumb pudding this Thanksgiving, and currant jam to enhance my venison harvest.
Robin

 

[Saltwater60]

Frost three nights in a row and last night a hard freeze!!! I hope everything that is in bloom or is budding makes it. My American plumb's are in full bloom, currants and blueberries are budding. I was hoping for some plumb pudding this Thanksgiving, and currant jam to enhance my venison harvest.
Robin

I woke up to no frost!! A bit of a pick me up this morning. I credit the wind. A few more to make it through though.

 

[BDinPutnam]

It has certainly been an unusual Spring here; usually April/May are wet and windy but not nearly this cold. Woke up this morning to about 1/2" of snow on top of frost from last night's rain/snow mix, 34 degrees and feels like mid-20's with the wind. Typically I am done with the fireplace by mid-April and there is currently smoke coming out of my chimney.

Going to do some indoor repotting later today, the Aronia berry bush is ready for a bigger home and would like to start getting some of the seedlings into bigger pots. Almost everything seems to be coming in really well with the exception of Rosemary, which is ok as we already have some existing plants. I'm getting inspired by some of the posts here and elsewhere to maybe put together an enclosed area out there that we don't really use, thinking deer fencing and maybe even bird netting over top with some raised and elevated beds out behind the keyhole garden. We have a ton of deer and all kinds of birds here so always concerned about losing harvest to the fauna.

@fnfalguy that looks great, definitely a "problem"! How do you deal with pollination or is it not an issue with the type of plants that you do in hydro? Probably a dumb question, but up to this year my wife has mostly been the gardener and I've mostly been the hunter/gatherer.

 

[fnfalguy]

@BDinPutnam that first photo was of seedling that are destined for the garden. My plan was to only use the hydro setup to start seeds and see if they would be less leggy than our previous attempts.

the one thing that we did transplant for indoor usage was some small cherry tomatoes and they are self pollinating. Those took to repotting well and we have had a few salads with them.

 

[Toecutter]

Gardening may 2020.

 

[Toecutter]

wish i could find the series of photos i took on the pepper plants .. every day you could see the growth .. started them in the house , they would flower and then the flowers would fall off.. nothing .. searching and asking questions .. pepper will drop flowers if the temp is to high .. so had to move the
hydroponic unit outside.. and then keep the water cool at the same time .. buried a 25 gal ( i think, the biggest the store here sold at the time ) tote in the ground .. and set the unit back up ..

3 sweet peppers on the left and 5 habenero peppers

View attachment 65244

View attachment 65245

I was thinking of doing a similar hydro setup un my vegetable garden . Is it possible to do this with no electricity? Dont want to run extension cords out to my garden.

 

[Acer-m14]

@Toecutter .. with hydro you have to either keep the water moving to keep it airiated or inject the water with air bubbles like a fish tank pump ..

 

[Acer-m14]

The only “problem” that I’m having is that stuff grows much faster than I expect.

yeah .. that one of the problems .. when i was doing the peppers , every 24 hours you could notice the growth ..

and the other problem with hydro is if your not careful in feeding .. you can kill it really really fast .. nutrients burns .. they don't know how to stop
eating ..

 

[Saltwater60]

I think last night will do me in. It was really cold here. Hard frost and ice in my neighbors gutters. Besides I don’t think it matters if the cold did me in or not I’ve had blooms out for a week and no good weather. I’m sure zero pollination has taken place.
At this pace I’m about to give up. Pisses me off since I wanted fruit trees for years and never had a space at my other house. Now I get them and Mother Nature screws me every turn. Between the cold this year, the wet, wet spring last year I just never get any fruit. My cherries last year looked awesome along with my peaches. Cherries never got pollinated last year and all but 8 dropped off. Peaches got leaf curl so bad I lost 50% of the crop. Then the momma squirrel got the rest. Year before was a light crop and the squirrels got all them. Apricot tree is useless since it blooms so early the buds never get pollinated.
I was going to add more trees but fuck it. My apples are still holding on but I can’t eat apples. They seem to ferment in my stomach and I get sick from them. I grow them for the wife and kids.

 

[Saltwater60]

Here’s the pictures of my espalier apple trees. One free much more than the others. Also hopefully since the buds are still within the leaves that I will get some fruit.

 

[Toecutter]

@Toecutter .. with hydro you have to either keep the water moving to keep it airiated or inject the water with air bubbles like a fish tank pump ..

Now does this have to go on all the time. If i got a solar pond aerator would it be fine just running during the day? Or a solarpond pump running with the roots not 100 percent under water runnjng during the day.

 

[MilesTeg]

Plants are still coming along nicely in the basement. I'm hoping this weekend to assemble my raised beds and start the soil prep work.

 

[Acer-m14]

@Toecutter this is the simplest system if you can keep a air pump going ... when you start the plants in this the bubbing water also creates a mist
that keep the roots wet till they end up down in the water .. the bubble bucket ..

 

[fnfalguy]

Today is the day that they fly from the nest. Will be nice to have the rack out of the house. Photo of the kids without the pink lighting.

 

[MilesTeg]

Heres a picture of my long term plan for my garden.

 

[S&W Fan]

This is some of the most messed up weather that I can remember in years.In the last week and a half We’ve gone from light Morning frosts to a hard Frost to snow accumulation, back to a hard frost/ freeze and now today we made it all the way up to 80 before the thunderstorms rolled in . WTF

 

[phatfarmerbob]

Tomatoes are in let’s hope the cold is done 2600 plants for the first planting, another 2600 seeded in the greenhouse, 900 waiting to be seeded June 15... also first planting of eggplant, cabbage and kale in. Peas are up potatoes are up and first planting of sweet corn is up( second is sprouted but not up)

 

[S&W Fan]

I’m not holding out any chance that my peach tree got pollinated when it flowered before the last hard frost that we got burned the buds but I should get some apples again this year.