2023 Gardening Thread

[doublearrow]

Pictures of the grow room and the kitchen table as I was getting seeds started in a warmer environment

[SaltwaterSlick]

I also use a south facing window and a grow light initially.

Be careful with using just window light when growing indoors. Light from room lighting is important too. or you must turn your plants regularly. The problem that occurs is the seedlings will get "leggy" growing toward the light if they are not evenly lit.


When using grow lights (we use 6500K LED lights), the lights are placed just above the seed trays, not toughing but very close. As the seeds germinate and sprout, the lights are raised at the same rate of growth so that the light is just above the tops of the seedlings. Also, and especially for evening shades (maters, peppers, egg plants, okra, etc.) if you have a small fan that can blow over them as they grow, it will encourage healthier more robust stems and tough 'em up. Don't need a wind as such just enough air movement to shake the small plants.


We hope to plant tomatoes and peppers today or at least that is our goal...

[eradicator]

Be careful with using just window light when growing indoors. Light from room lighting is important too. or you must turn your plants regularly. The problem that occurs is the seedlings will get "leggy" growing toward the light if they are not evenly lit.


When using grow lights (we use 6500K LED lights), the lights are placed just above the seed trays, not toughing but very close. As the seeds germinate and sprout, the lights are raised at the same rate of growth so that the light is just above the tops of the seedlings. Also, and especially for evening shades (maters, peppers, egg plants, okra, etc.) if you have a small fan that can blow over them as they grow, it will encourage healthier more robust stems and tough 'em up. Don't need a wind as such just enough air movement to shake the small plants.


We hope to plant tomatoes and peppers today or at least that is our goal...

For sure. I only do a handful of starts as most are in my brothers greenhouse. Mine are basically for backup and maybe a couple of items he doesn't have room for. They are under growlight mostly with a few in windowsill. I start to harden off earlier than most to keep them strong and growing properly so they don't get too leggy.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Don’t mind at all sir.
They’re just empty mineral tubs that we put out for livestock. We generally use them for watering when the minerals are gone but I’ve got six who’s bottoms have cracked so I drilled holes in them and decided to try them out for potato’s. I wanted to use Charlie’s idea of using grow bags from last year but got to noticing all these empty tubs that were stacking up and
thought I’d try them instead. When it comes time to harvest I’ll just dump them out onto a tarp, pick out the taters and just dump the dirt back in the tub from the tarp.


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Hey Geoff, if you have a lot of those mineral tubs, those things make the very best wicking tub planters that money can buy!! That's what my bride and I now use for all perennial plants such as blackberries and even have a lemon tree planted in one...



This is the "Reader's Digest" (Burnadel is old enough to remember what this means) version of how to make 'em. But there's a plethora of good videos on YouTube where you can see how it's done.


You will need a mineral tub
5 feet of 3" perforated corrugated line

either some landscaping material or the tubular cover for the 3" drain line
the tube cover is best.
about 4-6" of small diameter pipe or tube (I used 1/2" cpvc)
about 2 feet of 1" PVC or similar

couple zip ties






Begin if you're using the cloth covering over the 3" perforated line by pulling the covering over the whole length of 5 feet of pipe and zip tie one end.





On the other end, put the small pipe/tube in the gathered material and zip tie it so that it is in the covering and inside the pipe.





Using a drill that is the right size so that the pipe/tube just barely fits thru it, drill a hole about 2-2 1/2" up from the inside of the bottom of the tub.




From the inside of the tub, stick the small pipe/tube through the hole you just drilled and then wind the 5 feet of drain line now covered with the cloth around the tub and press it down into the bottom.





Once the line is in place in the bottom, begin to fill it with your garden soil mix and cover the 3" pipe. I use 2 parts mushroom compost, 2 parts peat moss, and 2 part perlite. Pack the mix around the pipe well making sure you get it all down in the open section in the middle of the tub. That is where the soil will "wick" moisture up and feed the plants from.



Once that is done, cut a piece of 1" or similar PVC pipe that extends from the bottom of the tub up beyond the top lip of the tub. This is your fill pipe and where you will do all your watering... I put my stand pipe on the opposite side from where the hole is drilled in the side of the tub.








Fill the tub the rest of the way up and press it down a bit. I fill up to about 1 1/2 to 2 inches below the lip of the tub.





You are now ready to plant. Initially, I plant then water in the whole tub very well so that the soil is good and wet, but not soggy wet.






After you plant, fill the reservoir you have created in the tub with the 3" line by running water down the stand pipe until it runs out the small pipe/tube in the side of the tub. For smallish plants, you may need to water from the top for a week or two periodically, but once the plants get going, you will not have to surface water at all. For our berry plants, during the prime growing/producing season, we water about every 10 days to 2 weeks. Everything we've tried to grow in these wicking tubs has thrived very well! We also fertilize through the stand pipe by injecting soluble fertilizer through the stand pipe.


There are some really good YouTube videos that explain the principle of air pruning and such and why this form of growing works so well. The wicking tubs can be made out of just about anything. Lots of 5 gallon buckets are used along with beer cans as the reservoir... Molasses tubs and 2 liter drink bottles with holes drilled in them are also very good as are 1 gallon milk jugs...


Good luck with all of this y'all! It's been a fun learning experience for my wife and me. Where we live, often times in the Spring it is too wed to plow an in-ground garden because of Spring rains... This and grow bags have both proven to be very viable alternatives to in-ground gardening...
A side benefit to wicking tubs and grow bags... practically ZERO weeds!!

[Geezy Rider]

Never heard of those Charlie. Gonna be watching some utube videos tonight. Thanks.

[SaltwaterSlick]

This is a link to the guy's site that started all the wicking tub craze...

He has LOTS of videos about them and many ways to put them together.


http://www.youtube.com/@gardeningwithleon2816



This is one from TP2 (Texas Prepper 2). I like this hybrid version and it is described above. Old TP2 is hard to listen to and watch sometimes because he's so wordy, but that sucker knows more about planting/growing/propagating and harvesting blackberries than anyone I ever knew... He has a very good video on comparing wicking tubs, grow bags, and earth boxes that is worth a watch too...


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=radHBan7-BI"]💥New HYBRID Self-Wicking Tubs 💦MUST WATCH! 👀 THIS IS A GAME CHANGER ❕ 👍 - YouTube[/ame]


Don't know why the first one did not embed... ??

[MooseontheLoose]

Glad to see the 2023 thread up and going.

Been busy knocked out projects on my end and still have several more to do. Just finished framing up another raised bed last night. Cut some tree limbs out of the way too to give it a bit more sun throughout the day. I’ll get dirt in it next week and it’ll be ready to roll.

I kept about a dozen pepper plants going through the winter. Most really slowed down but a coolapeno and a petin have been producing almost the whole time. I’ve got cabbage and brussels sprouts in the ground right now, but I planted them pretty late so we’ll see how they do.

I need to get a couple of tubs prepped. Going to give those a go with some plants this year. That’s next on my list.

I planted my peppers on Sunday. Picked up a number of new (to me) varieties this year, so I’m ready for those plants to start growing. They're on the heating pads under the grow light now.

Anyone have recommendations for a good determinate tomato to plant? I’ve got a couple indeterminates in the seed pile but wanted to try something new this year too.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Well, we got 4 more trays with 162 slots each planted this morning... peppers, maters, egg plants, okrey, and some spinach... The spinach was just a filler for a couple rows in one of the trays that my wife didn't have more evening shades to fill up with...








A trick we learned last year to save some time is once the seeds are planted and watered in good, we wrapped the trays with cellophane stretch wrap and put them on a heating mat. This does 2 things. With the trays wrapped, they stay moist and no need to repeated watering/spritzing until they sprout. Secondly, with the addition of the heat mats, peppers n maters like warm soil to germinate (85 or higher degrees)... This we found cut the germination and sprouting time by at least 50%. Once the seeds have a good sprout going, we remove the stretch wrap and proceed normally. However this year, we will immediately move them to the greenhouse and natural light to avoid most of the hardening off process we failed to do properly last year... We are hoping for stronger healthier plants that can take the sun quicker...





My crazy blackberries think it's Springtime already!! They've come out or dormancy and are now blooming all in one week!! If you look closely, you can see dried blackberries still on the plants that grew after we pruned them back last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas!! I've never seen berries do this before!!

[Mitchell8]

What’s best to fill raised beds with?

[SaltwaterSlick]

Depends on what and how you intend to plant...
I generally put started plants in the ground whether raised beds or in-ground garden (except for things like peas, beans, corn and such). In a raised bed putting in started plants, I use 2 parts compost (I use mushroom compost), 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part perlite... I use no dirt in raised beds unless I'm just trying to fill in a deep bed where I don't want to waste the above mixture of products. For in-ground planting in a raised you can mix good topsoil and a good vegetable garden mix or even topsoil and bank sand... Lots of options there.

[eradicator]

Depends on what and how you intend to plant...
I generally put started plants in the ground whether raised beds or in-ground garden (except for things like peas, beans, corn and such). In a raised bed putting in started plants, I use 2 parts compost (I use mushroom compost), 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part perlite... I use no dirt in raised beds unless I'm just trying to fill in a deep bed where I don't want to waste the above mixture of products. For in-ground planting in a raised you can mix good topsoil and a good vegetable garden mix or even topsoil and bank sand... Lots of options there.

I mix topsoil and compost. Peat moss is good, but a little bit goes a long ways. Its HOTTTT. I typically use peat to top dress my yard since it's straight sand in my area.

[huntandfishguy6]

I was waiting for someone to start a 2023 thread. My question is last year i learned about vine borers on squash plants. That lesson was learned to late, and i lost all my plants. So can i plant squash this year in the same raised bed ?

[eradicator]

I was waiting for someone to start a 2023 thread. My question is last year i learned about vine borers on squash plants. That lesson was learned to late, and i lost all my plants. So can i plant squash this year in the same raised bed ?

You're not really supposed to. The vine borers have become really bad in our area. Almost to the point it's not worth planting squash. I started planting in fall garden recently which seems to help alleviate it to an extent

[Geezy Rider]

Got potatoes and onions in today. Getting them watered in now. Hope they both do better than last year. Also planted a couple of strawberries.



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[Big_gun]

Anyone have great and east ideas to keep weeds at bay. Lol I grow some mean weeds. Did pile on a bunch of leaves from my live oaks a couple years ago that took a while for the weeds to come through


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