Gardening Thread

melons are a pain in the ass. i've had luck with cantelope but watermelons and pumpkins, no dice. pumpkins will flower like crazy but never fruit. black rot on the stems is an issue. vey definitely hard to be successful at. bugs are another major issue to deal with. particularly, the brown marmorated stink bug from asia (which has no natural predator in the US) which love squash and zucchini, and the stem boring wasp that will kill a fully grown squash plant in about 48 hours. also have had issues with three lined potato beetles on my tomatillas and of course, tomato worms on the tomato plants.

if you use existing soil and are seeing slow growth just get a nitrogen supplement and you will be amazed at the impact.

RacerDeac said:

Treated wood is not a concern to me. Arsenic was removed from treated wood in 2003 and the leaching of chemicals only goes about 6 inches into the soil based on studies I've read. Even then, in amounts that aren't harmful, and none are known carcinogens. May use untreated anyway, as this lot could sell anytime...no need to invest too much money in the name of longevity.

I'll come up with something sturdy without spending too much. I always overengineer. Generations of construction company owners and years spent hammering nails and building race cars doomed me when it comes to that.

As for soil, this is an urban neighborhood and a lot where a house was knocked down. All sorts if construction waste, glass, and clay to contend with. The soil is crap and would be full of weeds. Planning to grow organic, so having a good starting point is going to be key.

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I gotcha...I thought it was on a commercial plot you were leasing.

^ Squarefootgardening FTW!

I have no sunlight except in the front yard, and then I'm worried about the HOA crusaders wrecking shop on a raised bed if I drop one down.

I do mostly container gardening, with two raised beds in that small subset of my backyard that gets light. I also use hanging baskets for my tomatoes.

RacerDeac said:

Treated wood is not a concern to me. Arsenic was removed from treated wood in 2003 and the leaching of chemicals only goes about 6 inches into the soil based on studies I've read. Even then, in amounts that aren't harmful, and none are known carcinogens. May use untreated anyway, as this lot could sell anytime...no need to invest too much money in the name of longevity.

I'll come up with something sturdy without spending too much. I always overengineer. Generations of construction company owners and years spent hammering nails and building race cars doomed me when it comes to that.

As for soil, this is an urban neighborhood and a lot where a house was knocked down. All sorts if construction waste, glass, and clay to contend with. The soil is crap and would be full of weeds. Planning to grow organic, so having a good starting point is going to be key.

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really all that means is extra diligence. nonetheless, because you are going organic it is even more important that you know your NPK because you cant add nutrients as easily (say liquid soluble nitrogen) by gardening organic. you must have a solid base before you plant anything. it easier to have it correct from the get go then having to augment once the plants are established.

WakeGal said:

Good luck with the melons. That is the one crop we have never seemed to get to grow well.

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melons are particularly touchy about soil composition. if you have grown curcurbits in that spot in the past 3 years it will be harder to grow them. also if sweetness is an issue, use epson salts. they are cheap, easy option to increase the sugar content in the melon.

discdude said:

melons are particularly touchy about soil composition. if you have grown curcurbits in that spot in the past 3 years it will be harder to grow them. also if sweetness is an issue, use epson salts. they are cheap, easy option to increase the sugar content in the melon.

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Thanks! Now do to limited land, we just don't try any more. It's easier just to go get one from the local farmer's market and gives us more space to grow food that we eat on a daily basis.

WakeGal said:

Thanks! Now do to limited land, we just don't try any more. It's easier just to go get one from the local farmer's market and gives us more space to grow food that we eat on a daily basis.

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yea they can burn a good portion of a growing season.

Dillon Fence said:

melons are a pain in the ass. i've had luck with cantelope but watermelons and pumpkins, no dice. pumpkins will flower like crazy but never fruit. black rot on the stems is an issue. vey definitely hard to be successful at. bugs are another major issue to deal with. particularly, the brown marmorated stink bug from asia (which has no natural predator in the US) which love squash and zucchini, and the stem boring wasp that will kill a fully grown squash plant in about 48 hours. also have had issues with three lined potato beetles on my tomatillas and of course, tomato worms on the tomato plants.

if you use existing soil and are seeing slow growth just get a nitrogen supplement and you will be amazed at the impact.

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OK, you've talked some sence into me. The bug issue is why I have always stayed away from squash and zucchini. Plus they are pretty cheap to buy. I guess I'll take the same approach with melons.

We eat a lot of squash/zucchini...didn't realize they were tough to grow. I guess we'll give it a shot. The farmer's market is always close by if things go bad.

I suppose it varies by area, but I've never had any trouble at all growing zucchini or squash. None whatsoever.

A big help is the quality of seed you purchase. We get some of ours (more exotic peppers and such) from Park Seed and the rest we get from our local Southern States. We've tried the cheap seeds from Walmart/Lowes, but they just arent as good as the others.

tsywake said:

A big help is the quality of seed you purchase. We get some of ours (more exotic peppers and such) from Park Seed and the rest we get from our local Southern States. We've tried the cheap seeds from Walmart/Lowes, but they just arent as good as the others.

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Good to know. Gonna get a start on building my beds this weekend. Mapped out our planting plan for spring/summer/fall last night, so I'll be ordering seeds soon. Will probably get as much locally from a mom & pop hardware store that specializes in gardening and then order what they don't have from Park.

I definitely plan to grow a few peppers for use next football season. What kind of peppers have you had success with? Definitely planning jalapeño and plobano. Want to plant some hotter varieties.

Bugs and squash? The ants like the flowers but I've never had a problem with the fruit. And since I'm growing them from seed (and organic) the cost is literally no more than $.50 for the season (under a penny a squash!). So if you love them, grow them. They are my biggest producer. But melons? They take up so much space and are hard to grow -- we buy a watermelon a week from our grocer during the season and I think it's money well spent.

Tomatoes -- I know a lot of people like the big boys and other steak/sandwich tomatoes but I've had a lot more success with cherries and roma varieties. I don't even try the bigger varieties anymore. Regardless, tomatoes and cucumbers are perfect trellis varieties, but watch those cuc vines -- they are fast growers and will bind to anything you let them (including other plants).

My most difficult yield for the price are bells. Jalapenos, Anaheims, Asians, poblanos -- no problem. But bells of any variety seem to be the main target of bugs in my garden. I maybe yield 20 a season with six plants -- still a profit at $.99 a pepper during prime season but I toss many more over the fence.

A great idea for bug control is to plant some flowers in your boxes. I plant marigolds and I do think they repel some pests.

JHMD -- I have square footed 4+ years but I may not lay my grids back down this year. They are really worn and I'm not I want to assemble new ones. That said, I guess I could go with the string method. Without a doubt, starting gardening by square footing completely educated me to just how much you can grow in a limited amount of space (I have a 4x4, 4x6 and 4x8 box + a little in-ground plot).

You guys have me pumped for the season! I love leaf veggies (spinach, lettuce and kale are my favorites). Planting season will be here before you know it.

RacerDeac said:

We eat a lot of squash/zucchini...didn't realize they were tough to grow. I guess we'll give it a shot. The farmer's market is always close by if things go bad.

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I've had great luck with okra. Once it gets going, you're going to drown in it.

After some practice, I've had good luck with tomatoes. I buy them in their infancy at Wally world, start them to containers to the point where they are viable and then transplant into a sunny raised bed loaded with compost, vermiculite and black kow.

Anyone had luck with root vegetables? I'm growing garlic bulbs, but would love to get potatoes and onions going.

There's little that makes an amateur gardener feel more like a farmer than buying seeds from the jar at your local mom and pop spot, is there?

Reynolda Nursery for me -- I love the jars of seed and the conversation that strikes up b/t the gardeners and the folks weighing them out for us. An ounce of seed costs next to nothing and lasts a season or two. I always walk out of there with seeds for something I didn't intend on planting -- just too tempting.

Lots of good stuff at the CES NCSU website -- Wolfpack folk serve our state very well in this area.

tsywake said:

I suppose it varies by area, but I've never had any trouble at all growing zucchini or squash. None whatsoever.

A big help is the quality of seed you purchase. We get some of ours (more exotic peppers and such) from Park Seed and the rest we get from our local Southern States. We've tried the cheap seeds from Walmart/Lowes, but they just arent as good as the others.

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RacerDeac said:

I definitely plan to grow a few peppers for use next football season. What kind of peppers have you had success with? Definitely planning jalapeño and plobano. Want to plant some hotter varieties.

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I grew jalapenos, serranos, and the infamous ghost pepper this past season. I like to alternate year to year since peppers freeze very well and I've always got a variety in the freezer. I did Habaneros and Poblanos last year. I'd recommend noting how much fruit each variety typically puts out since you can overplant easily. I have way too many ghost peppers now. The fucking things are so inhumanly hot I can't use them in bulk and can't find anyone else crazy enough to use the goddamned things.

You can add a little sulfur to the soil when planting pepper seedlings to increase the heat, if desired. They just need lots of sun and well-draining soil.

jhmd2000 said:

Anyone had luck with root vegetables? I'm growing garlic bulbs, but would love to get potatoes and onions going.

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I did sweet potatoes for the first time last year, and they did amazingly well. We've done onions, and they just didnt turn out that well. The garlic is easy and continues to produce year after year. I've also had great success with asparagus. This will be the first year we can harvest them regularly, so I'm pretty stoked. The few we got off them last year were very, very tasty.

I don't even want to touch a ghost chili. Habaneros and Thai are probably as hot as I want to grow. Anything else just seems like it would be too hot to be all that useful.

We went with ACQ pressure treated lumber. After some research, I decided I wasn't too worried about it. We're going to line the inside of the box with landscaping material to provide a barrier between the wood and the soil, but being truly organic wasn't a major priority for us.

Interesting to me that so many of you are using black kow; Charleston County has set up a composting center, so I'm going to go buy some of their stuff to try it out this year.

when you buy seed just make sure you ask what about that particular group's minimum germination rate. there is a minimum legal rate that must be met in order for the seed to be sold but local stores sometimes don't put out that kind of information. Just watch yourself.

I tried composting on my own a few years ago. It started out well, and I got my neighbors (all family) to bring stuff over to contribute. About halfway in I started noticing a horrific smell and maggots. My grandmother had decided to use it as a place to put her food scraps and leftovers.

Down the road, I'd like to try my hand at composting with worms.