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Gardening Thread

RacerDeac said:
Ok, so hops...with craft beer becoming such a big deal in NC, is anyone really pursuing growing hops in the area? Are there any commercial operations? I would assume the mountains/foothills would be best for growing? Seems like a potential market with the focus in all areas of food production starting to swing towards localized sources.
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NCSU is leading the way in research from what I remember, collaborating with Fullsteam in Raleigh. It would be great if they could be locally produced instead of getting them all from Oregon and Washington.
 
RacerDeac said:
What part of the country? I did a combination of very mature seedlings, some immature seedlings, and direct seed. The good news about this area is that I'll have plenty of growing time and still be able to get in a fall planting that should last most of the winter.

Anyone ever "stored" their carrots in ground through the winter for a early spring harvest? What other crops have you grown through the winter? I've heard Kale actually tastes better after a light frost or two.
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we are in zone 7 (Nashville). this was our first season of trying to use our seeds from plants last season for this year. i am not worried by i would like to be done with it and see them start growing.

we have our cold crops of lettuces, kale, b sprouts, peas and cauliflower. they did OK but not as good as i hoped. i am not sure how many times i will try lettuces...with growth, cleaning and the volume of result just doesn't lend to any saving of time or effort (or money). anyone else feel this way?
 
TownieDeac said:
NCSU is leading the way in research from what I remember, collaborating with Fullsteam in Raleigh. It would be great if they could be locally produced instead of getting them all from Oregon and Washington.
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Yeah, I remember an article from 2010 but haven't really heard anything about the program since. IIRC, while the distribution is different, we have some of the same hardiness zones in NC as where hops are grown in Oregon/Washington, so it seems like this could work. Noted, it may be less a matter of "will it grow" and more a matter of "is there a market?"
 
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Yeah, I don't agree Warak. The seed costs for our kale, spinach, lettuces and chard run less than $2 total. I probably spend 5 minutes a day pulling a few weeds here and there and watering. It took me 5 minutes max to harvest today's kale for supper and another 5-10 to clean it, something that I'd do with store-purchased kale as well. Being able to harvest younger lettuces/spinach for sweeter, softer salads is great as well. And of course, there's the whole "knowing where your food comes from" argument.

ALL THAT SAID, I do feel that way when it comes to watermelon. I've carved out space for them before only to lose decent sized fruit near harvest to some bug or, if I did harvest it, "enjoying" crappy tasting melon. They are so cheap come August -- I just don't think planting them is worth the aggravation.
 
warak said:
we are in zone 7 (Nashville). this was our first season of trying to use our seeds from plants last season for this year. i am not worried by i would like to be done with it and see them start
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Did you use any sort of seed starter? My guru that I've bought all supplies from gave me a mixture of water, suger, coke, molasses and two liquid fertilizers (one is fish/seaweed and the other is bio-something) that has worked really well on seedlings and direct seeds.

You mention using last season's seeds...I don't want to insult by asking an obvious question, but are you sure they were all heirloom and not some sort of hybrid? I buy all of our seeds from Sow True and have had really good luck so far. I'm going to hold off on seeding keeping since this is my first go, but I'll probably start doing that in the future.

warak said:
we have our cold crops of lettuces, kale, b sprouts, peas and cauliflower. they did OK but not as good as i hoped. i am not sure how many times i will try lettuces...with growth, cleaning and the volume of result just doesn't lend to any saving of time or effort (or money). anyone else feel this way?
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Not me. I have more lettuce than I know what to do with and only planted maybe 1/5 of a $2 bag of seeds. Same with some friends. We grew different kinds, so we've been passing lettuce back and forth all spring. What kind of lettuce did you grow?
 
So I was just wondering what people think of the standard Miracle Gro Potting Mix so I did some googling. The first two pages of results are about growing weed in it :p
 
TWDeac said:
So I was just wondering what people think of the standard Miracle Gro Potting Mix so I did some googling. The first two pages of results are about growing weed in it :p
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I've used it for potted plants before and it works well. Not sure if there are better products out there, but for ease of use it's hard to beat.
 
West End Deac said:
I probably spend 5 minutes a day pulling a few weeds here and there and watering.
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This is the key statement. You save so much time by staying on top of it rather than letting it get out of hand. That is something I can never get my wife to understand. She thinks I'm just out there moving dirt around.
 
TWDeac said:
So I was just wondering what people think of the standard Miracle Gro Potting Mix so I did some googling. The first two pages of results are about growing weed in it :p
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Forget that. If I'm smoking something, it better be organic. :thumbsup:
 
TWDeac said:
So I was just wondering what people think of the standard Miracle Gro Potting Mix so I did some googling. The first two pages of results are about growing weed in it :p
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haha, nice.

completely anecdotal, but i don't even remotely have a green thumb. and i used it for the planters in my front yard. the flowers look awesome. given that i have actually killed a cactus before, having something that is still living a week after i planted it is a pretty big accomplishment :)
 
DeacHoops said:
completely anecdotal, but i don't even remotely have a green thumb. and i used it for the planters in my front yard. the flowers look awesome. given that i have actually killed a cactus before, having something that is still living a week after i planted it is a pretty big accomplishment :)
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TW and Deachoops: The only thing I recommend when using Miracle Grow to grow non-food items is mix in some peat moss and/or vermiculite to help keep the soil from getting so packed down over time. Plain potting soil just seems to become too packed down, choking off the plants over time in my experience.
 
I'm growing a monte jalapeno plant... chillin in my work window for now till it gets big enough to move to a big pot. Any random tips? I don't do anything other than water it every couple days.
 
RacerDeac said:
You mention using last season's seeds...I don't want to insult by asking an obvious question, but are you sure they were all heirloom and not some sort of hybrid? I buy all of our seeds from Sow True and have had really good luck so far. I'm going to hold off on seeding keeping since this is my first go, but I'll probably start doing that in the future.
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no, no hybrids. we have some black cherries, german-orange-strawberries, manyel and Cherokee purple. we ended up just buying a sweet cherry 100 also, from lowes or hd. we literally have hundreds of small plants growing right now, they are just a little small to put outside. we have already given a bunch to a nice old lady at the garden store around the corner...

we are also growing, from seeds, red okra, regular okra and a few types of herbs. they all are doing well...just our first time and our timing was off. should have started earlier.


RacerDeac said:
Not me. I have more lettuce than I know what to do with and only planted maybe 1/5 of a $2 bag of seeds. Same with some friends. We grew different kinds, so we've been passing lettuce back and forth all spring. What kind of lettuce did you grow?
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well we did some Mesculin mix and Arugula...such a pain to clean. our red tip romaine and butter lettuce is doing fine. i don't think we planted enough of them.
 
warak said:
well we did some Mesculin mix and Arugula...such a pain to clean. our red tip romaine and butter lettuce is doing fine. i don't think we planted enough of them.
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What's so tough about cleaning them? Maybe I'm missing something that I should be doing differently.

Unrelated: Looks like as much as 1" of rain tonight and through tomorrow for much of NC. Looks like I got my seeds and seedlings in the ground at the perfect time.
 
RacerDeac said:
What's so tough about cleaning them? Maybe I'm missing something that I should be doing differently.

Unrelated: Looks like as much as 1" of rain tonight and through tomorrow for much of NC. Looks like I got my seeds and seedlings in the ground at the perfect time.
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Got mine in the ground yesterday and this morning. 3 varieties of green beans, 2 of zucchini, 2 of cucumber, 2 of carrot, yellow squash, beets, limas, okra, lettuce, 3 varieties of tomatoes, 2 of peppers.

Corn, gray peas, hercules peas, watermelon, cucumber, and sweet potatoes will come later.

Onions, garlic, and red potatoes are already growing nicely although the potatoes got bit by the cold snap.
 
WFFaithful said:
Onions, garlic, and red potatoes are already growing nicely although the potatoes got bit by the cold snap.
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I hope my potatoes will hurry up. I only planted a few because they had sprouted on our counter and I wanted to see how they grow so I could plan for them next year, but they are in the bed next to where I planted sunflowers, and I just read that sunflowers are antagonists for potatoes. Oops.
 
RacerDeac said:
What's so tough about cleaning them? Maybe I'm missing something that I should be doing differently.
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maybe i am doing it wrong. first i soak them, then spin them...repeat. they still end up gritty, which i can't stand!

WFF - are your cucumbers near your watermelon? i heard that it is not a good thing...racer?
 
warak said:
maybe i am doing it wrong. first i soak them, then spin them...repeat. they still end up gritty, which i can't stand!

WFF - are your cucumbers near your watermelon? i heard that it is not a good thing...racer?
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no- i try to keep the runners apart
 
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