2022 Garden Thread

[Dan Freeman]

Shouldn't be a problem growing them all winter, but I would recommend a good quality grow light (or lights). If you want a grow light recommendation, I can give you one. I have been using them for 3 -4 years after trying other cheaper lights. I have 10 of them. I use them for my indoor growing during the winter and to develop my seedlings in the greenhouse in the Spring. They are rated for 50,000 hours of use. At 16 hours a day, that translates into over 8 years of use per light fixture. They are LEDs, so there is no ongoing bulb expense either.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Please on the grow light! I'd been using the aerogardens and before that a couple red and blue LEDs that can be aimed a bit. My current grow lights set the bar for improvement really low.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Happy Leaf LED grow Lights. I have the 33" Procyon 2.0.

Happy Leaf LED | High-Efficiency LED Grow Lights

Happy Leaf - Experience high-efficiency LED grow lights designed and manufactured in the USA with a focus on constant innovation and amazing customer support.

happyleafled.com

I use them indoors on a 36" wide by 18" deep x 6' tall wire shelf that you can get at Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon, etc.


In the greenhouse I string them down both sides of my greenhouse above my seedlings.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Wow, that’s quite the operation you have there!

 

[Dan Freeman]

It seems to grow a little bit more each year even though I say, "I need to cut down next year".

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I have a professional grower friend who has recently recommended “Bloomspect” grow lights. Just another option to investigate. I have no experience with either this brand or the one Dan Freeman uses.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I keep saying I need to cut my garden back every year. I find I have the time to plant, but then work gets busy and it doesn’t get harvested. I’ve solved a bit of that by moving tubs up on our deck with things like salad. We walk a few steps out the door and harvest lunch.

I took a pic of a grow light. All red and blue. Which is interesting as most grow lights have a bit of red and blue, mostly white. *shrug*

I moved the basil out of an aero garden and into a window pot yesterday. I was afraid if I waited too long I wouldn’t be able to get them out without destroying roots. They came out surprisingly easy. Now I need to figure out what to put in it next.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Would the Moroccan lettuce do OK in your warmer Temps? I plan to try that this summer.

I decided to give it a try. I mixed several varieties of lettuce seed, including the Moroccan type, with some green onion seeds, small radish seeds, and green onion seeds, and my little ones and I sowed them generously in between the lettuce that’s already growing in the garden. I’ll need to keep surface watering, but I have some pole beans I just seeded along the arched trellis, so I’ll just do the full bed with the watering cans. Hopefully I can get some germination.

The lettuce row is in the front of the picture. In the background you can see the potato foliage along the side and the garlic beds in the middle of the garden. The garlic grew a lot in our warm, warm December and was hit hard by some freezes in January. It grew back but has never looked quite as good as I would like. At least it’s still got time.



The same day that I seeded the salad row, I also transplanted tomatoes. They were getting so tall that I’ve been having a hard time keeping them watered in the sun and wind (it has been really dry here), and I decided that instead of bringing them back inside for strong weather, I’d just bury them deeply in the garden. The soil is pretty warm even if the air temperature dips a bit for a couple of nights. I have mostly indeterminate varieties set along my trellises, but I have a few smaller varieties in cages.


The onions are coming along. Now that the equinox is past, they should start bulbing up. I’ve pulled a few for using as green onions, and I’ve noticed just a few starting to put up flower stalks. It’s no surprise with the crazy weather we’ve had this year..


I harvested some beets and greens the other night for our supper. I still have a few in the back of one onion bed. I plan to put squash there when we’ve eaten the beets.


And just for fun a shot of my asparagus bed. I’m a bit worried that nothing has come up yet. Last year the early shoots started at the end of February. I’m thinking that our warm weather went on so, so long this year that the plants didn’t think it was winter till January. I don’t know if last year was early or if this year is late or both, but I’ll feel happier if some shoots appear.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I keep saying I need to cut my garden back every year. I find I have the time to plant, but then work gets busy and it doesn’t get harvested. I’ve solved a bit of that by moving tubs up on our deck with things like salad. We walk a few steps out the door and harvest lunch.

I took a pic of a grow light. All red and blue. Which is interesting as most grow lights have a bit of red and blue, mostly white. *shrug*

I moved the basil out of an aero garden and into a window pot yesterday. I was afraid if I waited too long I wouldn’t be able to get them out without destroying roots. They came out surprisingly easy. Now I need to figure out what to put in it next.

View attachment 294302

I can relate. The real busy season for our business is July-October. It becomes a real chore to try and keep up with the garden, but at 66 we are winding down our business, and with the economy, I'm not sure how much longer we will have it.

Red, blue, white...and green on grow lights is the norm on good ones.

Congrats on the basil transplant. How about some other hearbs next?

 

[Dan Freeman]

I decided to give it a try. I mixed several varieties of lettuce seed, including the Moroccan type, with some green onion seeds, small radish seeds, and green onion seeds, and my little ones and I sowed them generously in between the lettuce that’s already growing in the garden. I’ll need to keep surface watering, but I have some pole beans I just seeded along the arched trellis, so I’ll just do the full bed with the watering cans. Hopefully I can get some germination.

The lettuce row is in the front of the picture. In the background you can see the potato foliage along the side and the garlic beds in the middle of the garden. The garlic grew a lot in our warm, warm December and was hit hard by some freezes in January. It grew back but has never looked quite as good as I would like. At least it’s still got time.
View attachment 294298


The same day that I seeded the salad row, I also transplanted tomatoes. They were getting so tall that I’ve been having a hard time keeping them watered in the sun and wind (it has been really dry here), and I decided that instead of bringing them back inside for strong weather, I’d just bury them deeply in the garden. The soil is pretty warm even if the air temperature dips a bit for a couple of nights. I have mostly indeterminate varieties set along my trellises, but I have a few smaller varieties in cages.
View attachment 294297

The onions are coming along. Now that the equinox is past, they should start bulbing up. I’ve pulled a few for using as green onions, and I’ve noticed just a few starting to put up flower stalks. It’s no surprise with the crazy weather we’ve had this year..
View attachment 294300

I harvested some beets and greens the other night for our supper. I still have a few in the back of one onion bed. I plan to put squash there when we’ve eaten the beets.
View attachment 294301

And just for fun a shot of my asparagus bed. I’m a bit worried that nothing has come up yet. Last year the early shoots started at the end of February. I’m thinking that our warm weather went on so, so long this year that the plants didn’t think it was winter till January. I don’t know if last year was early or if this year is late or both, but I’ll feel happier if some shoots appear.
View attachment 294299

Everything looks great! You have such neat gardens. Love the trellises.

 

[Montanalocal]

The most important factor with lighting is the distance from the light to the plant. The inverse square law describes the intensity of light at different distances from a light source. It says light intensity is proportional to 1 over the distance squared. Thus the light intensity at two inches is one quarter that of the light from one inch.

Thus I always keep my seedlings at least within one inch of the light, and sometimes I keep it just touching. I might burn a leaf tip now and then, but they do grow great.

I also keep the lights on 24 hours. I am just trying to go from a seed to a seedling as fast as possible.

Finally, I use the cheapest most ordinary lights available. As far as I know, the specialized grow lights really only matter when you are trying to get things to flower or set fruit. Just trying to get a seedling up enough to transplant it into the garden has never made a difference for me.

 

[clancey]

Everything looks just wonderful and I will be way laid for awhile but sure enjoying the thread. clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

The most important factor with lighting is the distance from the light to the plant. The inverse square law describes the intensity of light at different distances from a light source. It says light intensity is proportional to 1 over the distance squared. Thus the light intensity at two inches is one quarter that of the light from one inch.

Thus I always keep my seedlings at least within one inch of the light, and sometimes I keep it just touching. I might burn a leaf tip now and then, but they do grow great.

I also keep the lights on 24 hours. I am just trying to go from a seed to a seedling as fast as possible.

Finally, I use the cheapest most ordinary lights available. As far as I know, the specialized grow lights really only matter when you are trying to get things to flower or set fruit. Just trying to get a seedling up enough to transplant it into the garden has never made a difference for me.

View attachment 294315 View attachment 294316

24 hours is a mistake. Plants actually need a period of darkness each day to grow properly. You should have the grow light on no more than 14-16 hours a day.

You are also right about the distance of the light to the plant, but the distance depends on the type of plant and the PAR energy of the light. (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) PAR is the energy between 400 and 700 nanometers that plants use for photosynthesis to convert CO2 and water into sugars.

The type of light you use is also crucial. "Brightness" to our eyes means nothing when it comes to growing. It is important to understand that lumens are a measure of how we (humans) perceive light and are not related to how plants absorb light, whereas PAR energy is not particularly important to us (humans) with respect to how we see light. For this reason, we should not determine which lights we use for growing plants based on either lumens, lux, ft-candles, or watts. These are all units of measure for how we perceive light and how much power the light source consumes to make the light we see.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Everything looks great! You have such neat gardens. Love the trellises.

I don’t think there are many upsides to drought, but it does help keep weeds at bay. We’ve moved back to “extreme” drought at this point.

My sweet potato slips have been growing like crazy. About a week ago, the long ones were starting to twist around each other, so I cut of the ends and stuck them in a little terra cotta planter to root. They’ve been doing well, and the slips in the big planter needed another “haircut” yesterday. I put fifteen more cuts in a pot to root in.

I am still having aphids showing up on the tips, so I’m back to spraying with neem. I need to get these outside when it warms up today and spray more vigorously, I think. It’s still too cool at night to put them in the garden, but I’m very glad for the abundance. I introduced my neighbors to growing sweet potatoes last year, and I’m planning to give them enough slips for two beds full this year.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I was hoping to get more t-posts driven in for the food forest fencing today, but it looks like there will be periods of showers, and I don't want to run the electric cord and have the compressor down in the field if it starts to rain. I'll wait a while and see. Perhaps I can finally get our potatoes and onion sets planted. Our garlic was shooting up through the straw about 6 inches high when we had the freezing night temps earlier this week. All the shoots died, but I read that is not a problem with garlic. They will send up new shoots. Today, I also want to take a close look at all the fruit trees and bushes and see the damage on the buds from the freezing weather. Everything in the greenhouse is doing well.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The garlic has done this before. Don’t worry, it’s got this covered!

Last night I ordered more aerogarden pods and some baskets.

The basil is starting to grow fast again. It must like the soil. I was worried it’d shock it too much. I guess I didn’t need to be.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

The garlic has done this before. Don’t worry, it’s got this covered!

Last night I ordered more aerogarden pods and some baskets.

The basil is starting to grow fast again. It must like the soil. I was worried it’d shock it too much. I guess I didn’t need to be.

I transplanted some kale and komatsuna as well as a bit of Mexican Mint Marigold (a tarragon substitute for this far south) yesterday and potted up some a few peppers, an eggplant, and some basil. It’s forecast to get down to the low forties at the end of next week, so I’m keeping the super heat lovers out of the ground for just a bit longer.

The tomatoes I transplanted earlier in the week seem to be settling in fine, and the pole beans just started showing a few sprouts above the soil yesterday. I always get very excited when they pop up.

I have cucumbers sprouting in the Aerogarden now along with a bunch more herbs and flowers. I think my luffa seeds (just two) may be rotting instead of germinating, so I might try soaking them in warm water and sprouting them in a jar to see if that helps.

 

[Dan Freeman]

40's and windy today. I really don't feel like leaving the warmth of the house to work outside, but I have to get more fence posts in the ground around the food forest.

I have some more bushes and vines coming in today. My greenhouse is getting crowded with trees/bushes/vines that need to get planted, but I want to wait until I have the whole food forest fenced in, so I don't have to make individual cages for each plant like I had to do for the ones already in there.

Finally starting to see some of my pepper and eggplant seedlings emerge in the greenhouse. Tomatoes are already 2-3 inches tall. Over 100 pots with flowers all coming up: zinnias, marigolds, Forget-Me-Nots, and Shasta Daisies.

We got 72 potato seedlings planted yesterday in 3 raised beds.

Well, enough stalling; I better get outside and get to work.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Today was a metal bending day at the cabin. Wile chatting with the wife on the phone I opened a coil of steel trim. It sprang open and sliced up my knuckle. Hopefully it heals enough to get the metal bent up tomorrow.

I got the metal roof on last fall, but couldn’t get the fascia’s done, lol.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Today was a metal bending day at the cabin. Wile chatting with the wife on the phone I opened a coil of steel trim. It sprang open and sliced up my knuckle. Hopefully it heals enough to get the metal bent up tomorrow.

I got the metal roof on last fall, but couldn’t get the fascia’s done, lol.

Ouch! Hope you are OK.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Well, we got the posts with diagonal supports for the two back corners in plus the 11 posts driven in for the back section. We just have to do the sides now with the gate openings. I was so tired I couldn't even take pictures. We also filled another raised bed and got all our onions planted. The grape vine, elderberry bush, 20 asparagus plants, and 2 gooseberry plants came in today. We put the asparagus plants in the refrigerator. The grape vine (very small) was already in a pot, along with the elderberry, but the two gooseberries were bare root, so I filled pots with soil and planted them. Everything is in the greenhouse. We are both exhausted. Chinese takeout on the menu tonight!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Today was a metal bending day at the cabin. Wile chatting with the wife on the phone I opened a coil of steel trim. It sprang open and sliced up my knuckle. Hopefully it heals enough to get the metal bent up tomorrow.

I got the metal roof on last fall, but couldn’t get the fascia’s done, lol.

Knuckle slices can be tricky. I had one many years ago that got smashed with some rusty metal and tore a good gash. It kept reopening and needed stiches, but the stitches pulled out until the doctor immobilized the thumb. Then I ended up with a frozen knuckle and, believe it or not, a visit to a physical therapist to get it activated again. It was a whole lot of hassle for what seemed very minor when it happened. I hope yours isn’t that tricky, but be careful with it.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Well, we got the posts with diagonal supports for the two back corners in plus the 11 posts driven in for the back section. We just have to do the sides now with the gate openings. I was so tired I couldn't even take pictures. We also filled another raised bed and got all our onions planted. The grape vine, elderberry bush, 20 asparagus plants, and 2 gooseberry plants came in today. We put the asparagus plants in the refrigerator. The grape vine (very small) was already in a pot, along with the elderberry, but the two gooseberries were bare root, so I filled pots with soil and planted them. Everything is in the greenhouse. We are both exhausted. Chinese takeout on the menu tonight!

I had a deer in the backyard the other day. We’ve been having a lot of high winds, and our gates don’t always stay latched. We’re now adding rocks to block them shut, as the last thing I want is a deer coming and nibbling away the plants I am growing for my garden that live on the back deck. (You would think that a deer wouldn’t come on a deck, but I don’t put anything past them down here. There are way too many, and with the drought, they must be feeling food pressure.) The deer also seem to like nibbling at our citrus trees if they do get into the yard, and right now one lemon has lots of tender growth as it recovers from freeze damage. The other lemon and lime have yet to show growth, but there is still green in the stems, so we hope they’ll recover. I just don’t want any deer near them.

We chipped cedar branches today. It was hot. I would have preferred 40 degree weather so that I could wear coveralls. Instead it was in the mid 80s. We tried to stay in shade as much as possible, but it’s hard to escape the sun all the time down here. It was pretty exhausting.

My husband just finished grilling hamburgers for our dinner. I’m grateful.

 

[clancey]

you might need some stitches and for me I am way laid because I broke three more vertebrae so taking an easy but trying to read everyday this thread..Sorry that happened and please be more careful and I say the same to myself..clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Ouch, Mrs Clancey. Hope you heal up and are feeling better soon.