2024 Garden Thread!

[EbS-P]

Spent more time clearing out the new garden spot. 10x20 green house arrived. Just need to clear a few more stumps and figure out where it fits best.

 

[EbS-P]

Next bunch of tomatoes is ripening. It a bit outta control so I’m not too sure what variety it is. It could be a Sasha Altai.

Greens have taken off. They now need an automatic watering system. Arugula was the first to bolt.

 

[begreen]

I think winter has broken. We had 52º today and potentially hitting 60 in a week. I started tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions, and some flowers yesterday in the greenhouse. The heat lovers are on nursery warming pads.

 

[EbS-P]

I got the bag garden relocated today. 3/4” bird net has been enough of a squirrel deterrent so far. One 50x25 net is enough for a 10x 7 and a 20x10 hoop houses. About 15 tomatoes have been bagged so far. Another 15-20 will get done this week.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

Knowinhg we were getting a storm today I laid some black plastic over a small dug oug garden space and expnaded it to double in size. I put some ginger into one of those sprouting trays on a heat mat inside. I am optimistic for this season.

 

[EbS-P]

I Miss snow. This makes up for some of it.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

I Miss snow. This makes up for some of it.

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Those are nice looking! We are still five months away from seeing anything like that in northern NH. Enjoy!

 

[EbS-P]

Those are nice looking! We are still five months away from seeing anything like that in northern NH. Enjoy!

I really think everyone should plant a couple of these cool climate / short time to harvest tomatoes. Grew these inside for almost 9 weeks. I grew under two 4’ grown lights. Then transplanted to the perlite media buckets.

 

[begreen]

I really think everyone should plant a couple of these cool climate / short time to harvest tomatoes. Grew these inside for almost 9 weeks. I grew under two 4’ grown lights. Then transplanted to the perlite media buckets.

We're waiting for a taste test. Which variety do you like the most?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I Miss snow. This makes up for some of it.

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That’s how I felt when I lived in Texas, though we did get a couple of surprising snows there that had us scrambling to protect the tender plants like citrus. Even there I never grew tomatoes all through the winter except a small one or two in the Aerogarden inside. You’ve done well.

Your greens are looking great as well.

My mom and I have some transplants hardening off. She’s been working to clear grass roots out of the garden where they’ve invaded a large, old strawberry bed. It’s going to be colder next week, though, so the tomatoes and peppers won’t be spending as much time outside.

 

[EbS-P]

That’s how I felt when I lived in Texas, though we did get a couple of surprising snows there that had us scrambling to protect the tender plants like citrus. Even there I never grew tomatoes all through the winter except a small one or two in the Aerogarden inside. You’ve done well.

Your greens are looking great as well.

My mom and I have some transplants hardening off. She’s been working to clear grass roots out of the garden where they’ve invaded a large, old strawberry bed. It’s going to be colder next week, though, so the tomatoes and peppers won’t be spending as much time outside.

We have 40 tomatoes outside 24/7 now. We can put greenhouse cover over the frame if a frost is predicted (it’s not). It will be 82 today. Too hot to keep the cover on even with windows and doors open if there is not a stiff breeze.

We didn’t get our acts together to get straw bales. I’m hoping I can get 6 conditioning this week.

I need to get drip irrigation system set up for he bags and I’d like to get a fertilizer injector installed too. That way it could just be automated. The key to bag gardening where you get 40”+ a year in rain is to fertilize fertilize fertilize.

 

[begreen]

Picked our first green pepper from the indoor plants yesterday. They have been moved to the greenhouse to start hardening off and get ready for transplanting when the soil warms up.

 

[EbS-P]

I have 18 tomatoes in bags. And 6 straw bales. I need to fit probably 12 more bags from my dad’s green house. Not everything will need to be under the net.

The bales will get some peppers zucchini cucumbers string beans and a one or two with tomatoes. As usual my plans are bigger than my space.

Surprise rich now is how well the tomatillos

 

[Northern NH Mike]

I planted 25 San Marzano seeds in peat pellets with a heat mat on Sunday afternoon and as of this afternoon I have 24 seedlings! Got those and pepper plants going under blue lights. Oh, and there is 8" of snow on the ground and 8-10" more coming on Saturday.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

My mom and I have some trays of cool-season plants and some of warm-season plants. Both have spent time outside, but the cool-season gets much more time out there after our recent return to cooler temperatures. They’ve been having to come in at night recently, but I’m hoping that’s going to chance in a day or two. We did have a good freeze last night, and our average last frost date isn’t until the middle of April, but after tomorrow lows are forecast in the forties for the rest of the week instead of the thirties.

We had some good rain Friday night into Saturday morning, but it dried up enough in the afternoon that my husband was able to chip up some good loads of mulch for me, and I put that down in my mom’s strawberry bed. She had let it get large and overrun with grass, and she has spent many hours over the past couple of weeks pulling out grass and roots and old berry plants. I put a couple of cartloads of mulch around the plants she left, so hopefully that will slow the grass down a bit. It could still use more, but it was a good start.

 

[begreen]

We just dug up, fertilized, composted, and replanted our strawberry bed. I'm planning on building a screened frame over the bed to keep out the chipmunks and squirrels.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

The nights are now looking to be warm enough for the cool season plants like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and leeks to stay outside in their trays before going into the garden. That frees up some space on the indoor plant stand, which I needed in order to have a place to pot up the eggplant and pepper plants I started in the Aerogarden about three weeks back. They were getting large and crowded, and I even trimmed their roots a bit while waiting for space for them. I managed to pot [or bag] them up today.

Even though it was much warmer last night than it has been, the temperature during the day didn’t warm much. I actually transferred potting soil from its bag outside to an old stock pot and brought it inside beside the wood stove for a while before I did the potting up. I didn’t think the eggplant and peppers would like cold feet.

I don’t think they’re really visible in the picture, but I also have a couple of tiny rosemary and stevia seedlings in this same batch.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

I'm going to be moving my pepper and tomato seedlings from the trays to small pots this weekend. Anyone have a recommendation on grow lights for this next stage? They will be on a table in the basement so I'm looking for something that will cover a 2' x 5' area. Meanwhile we are expecting a bit of snow this coming week 😣

 

[EbS-P]

I'm going to be moving my pepper and tomato seedlings from the trays to small pots this weekend. Anyone have a recommendation on grow lights for this next stage? They will be on a table in the basement so I'm looking for something that will cover a 2' x 5' area. Meanwhile we are expecting a bit of snow this coming week 😣

3-4 four foot leds would be what I’d do. My biggest issue has been not enough light. I’ve had good luck with my Amazon purchases with lots (more than 1000) of 4 start reviews. Get a fan blowing across them to promote thick hardy stems.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

This was my progress on my plants from 2 weeks ago.. I dont have anything recent..

 

[begreen]

The starts are looking good. Are there holes in the bottom of the cups? How is the 1"? space being maintained under the potting soil?

 

[Northern NH Mike]

3-4 four foot leds would be what I’d do. My biggest issue has been not enough light. I’ve had good luck with my Amazon purchases with lots (more than 1000) of 4 start reviews. Get a fan blowing across them to promote thick hardy stems.

Thank you. I've got four two foot multi-color LEDs that I am going to set up. I had the fan on my brain but walked out without one this morning. I have used one in the past.

 

[EbS-P]

Thank you. I've got four two foot multi-color LEDs that I am going to set up. I had the fan on my brain but walked out without one this morning. I have used one in the past.

I keep meaning to make the lights easily height adjustable when I first hang them. Never do. Then i kick myself as they always spend two weeks longer than i want before they get planted.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

The starts are looking good. Are there holes in the bottom of the cups? How is the 1"? space being maintained under the potting soil?

No holes in the bottom of the cups. As we get closer to may the greenhouse gets pretty hot. I can only water the cups when I get home from work. As it gets warmer Ill water heaver and fill the bottom with water and the roots will drop through and be able to take up water and the plants get bigger

I have an irrigation system that automatically waters the big containers when I have full size plants in them

 

[begreen]

It looks like there is a gap between the potting soil and the bottom of the cup. How is that space maintained?