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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 5, 2015 19:51:15 GMT -5
I have a wonderful fragrant single white rose with a yellow center which had survived at least 6 years growing almost out of the base of a spruce tree because anything which had ventured out away from the trunk had been regularly mowed down. It has slowly been spreading out from under the tree.. but it is nowhere near any sort of situation which would normally be considered good for roses. It has lots of flowers every year but has never set hips until this year when I just found 4 small hips. Three of them have seeds which look viable.
I've never grown roses and am wondering if anyone has any tips about starting them from seed.. I would love to be able to start some canes somewhere more hospitable. One place said they take up to two YEARS to germinate? We've had maybe a week or so of frost and a couple of light snowfalls, will that be stratification enough or should I put them in something and plunk them back outside to do their thing when they feel like it? Any help much appreciated, I don't want to waste them.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jul 8, 2015 22:43:53 GMT -5
When the garden got nailed by a week of late frost ( I was away) I started some more tomatoes with the plan of replacing the ones that died. BUT.. I wasn't thinking of times to harvest, and planted indeterminate rather than determinate varieties. Is it possible to raise these in a small greenhouse and somehow prune them? How much space (and height) would they need to be given before they start to develop stress issues?
I raised some dwarf tomatoes but they didn't impress me much and they got some sort of issue with the leaves drying down which may have been as a result of being watered with lake water. Everyone swears that nobody cleans their spraying equipment there but the problems started immediately afterwards and with every single plant, probably should have replaced the soil.
We will likely be getting frost in early September if not earlier, it's been a cool summer so trying to think what to do with these seedlings. I have growlights which could theoretically be set about 5 feet above the plants now but should have the bones of a greenhouse in place by the middle of August. Would putting them in a big pot outside and then bringing them back in in the fall work? If they get cut back, will they come back and if so, will they need to be mostly full height again before they'll start to fruit?
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 24, 2015 13:25:28 GMT -5
Has anyone had any experience with bokashi? I tried to make some and it flopped, never got to the "useful" stage. Never got to the SECOND stage. Don't know what went wrong.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 4, 2015 11:09:59 GMT -5
They seem to just dump them into an industrial dumpster. I don't THINK there's any way to access them will have to check again or maybe try to talk to the owner and see if he has any ideas.. the problem there is trying to track him down, he seems seldom to be in town.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 3, 2015 23:21:43 GMT -5
yikes about the nappies! it SOUNDS like it should have been a great idea. Nothing is ever ONLY what it seems to be these days though. It's also very useful to hear about your experience with bentonite. I crushed a couple of handfuls to mix with potting soil to try to make seedballs, with no success whatsoever, it seemed that they would need to be almost pure bentonite to stick together but perhaps it wasn't crushed enough.
Amen on the treated lumber sawdust , which also means places like cabinet shops are out as almost all are heavy users of composite or OSB board with its various glues and resins. OTOH I started out with a couple of raised beds from a farm equipment place, 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, about a foot deep (they start out with bottoms) and aside from slugs loving them they have produced some wonderful veggies for me and indeed even a very persistent rhubarb plant which appears to be determined to live no matter how completely it's ignored. The bottoms must be rotted out now as this spring a groundhog tunnelled up into one and ate all my peas, all that was left was the hole in the dirt in the corner of the box.
You can always use urine with sawdust, takes care of the need for extra nitrogen and at least you know it's not contaminated with anything. I've never noted any smell at all.Just like with biochar. OTOH I ran into a note the other day about using urine to chase away gophers so perhaps that's double the value.
Trying to figure out how to access spent coffee grounds without having to drive into town every day, which would be highly counterproductive. It's hard to figure out a way to make it worthwhile for the coffee shop and still have the grounds in containers that are moveable, the grounds are soaked with water and so are HEAVY. The industrial garbage haulers are designed to lift such stuff.. a dolly and ramp are not the equivilent, and I'm not sure I'm strong enough anymore to wheel a 55 gall drum full of wet coffee grounds up into the truck. Once THERE, I can always take them out by the bucketful but getting them there would be a struggle.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 27, 2015 13:41:20 GMT -5
You aren't burning charcoal, the gasses of which are so dangerous, you are actually burning the gasses themselves. The reason for a hot fire to start out with is to make sure of that...The "fuel" is contained with only a few small holes in the lid for gasses to escape which I generally aim into a very hot flame to be sure they catch fire as soon as they are produced. You can actually see them flaming as they stream out of the holes. You do need the lid to fit tightly or it may pop off from the pressure (not dramatically thrown across the room or anything, it just falls off with a pop..though come to think of it it might have blown a bit further if in an open fire, I don't know about that.You might want to aim the can toward the wall of the fireplace just in case.) If the lid pops off you will get less biochar as the contents become more like regular fuel, although if you've packed it tightly enough some will still turn into char if oxygen can't get at it all to burn the feedstock. The gasses emitted still burn as they pass through the flames of the fire.
I have a wood space heater with a door but even with the door open there's absolutely no evidence of any gasses escaping the flames..no smell, no sore eyes or headaches or sleepiness or anything to suggest they aren't being totally burned. The one time the fire got lower than it should have, although the can was resting on red hot coals, the only actual flame was actually the gas from the biochar, sort of like a propane torch keeping itself going in fact. Not recommended though,.. it seems best to have it in a healthy fire both as a safety measure AND to have the most complete biochar you can get, rather than bits of uncharred fuel.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 20, 2015 8:57:11 GMT -5
Any clues about what the neighbors are like? especially if you will have people coming to pick up produce a neighbor who gets owly about traffic or some such can cause grief even if not justified. It's also much nicer to be around like minded people.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 19, 2015 8:13:38 GMT -5
This IS bentonite,or so the package says, but it isn't exactly powdered form, which is why I was wondering about it. I was trying to use it to make a rocket mass heater but the test blocks turned out to be too brittle, so now looking for ways to make the rest of the bag useful.
Adding organic matter is central but one of the best ways to do that effectively (if you don't have animals which I no longer do) is to grow it then do chop and drop, especially if it's a large area like 25 acres or so as this is. This field has been a very curious/interesting field to watch as it tries to restore itself in areas that have had various combinations of organic matter (alfalfa hay fed free choice to horses in various areas of the field), where the wind has been blocked, and where I haven't been able to do anything but hopefully scatter wild gathered seed around, everything from plantain to clovers, brome and reed canary grass.
It's getting to be very iffy bringing in ANYTHING to put onto the soil as the new "norm" is to spray everything, including straw. In the first load of hay years back there must have been one bale out of 60 which had caught wind drift or something..the horses happilly ate it but where it sat NOTHING would grow for about 7 YEARS and even now, several years later, the soil is an angry, sullen black rather than a healthy dark brown. The plants that eventually started to colonize it were recumbant weeds, finally now grasses are slowly beginning to move in.
I'm so relieved that it was only one bale, no way at all to tell. Farmers routinely spray hay (and cereal crops) with glyphosate to dry it down these days, they have no idea what they are doing to themselves, the soil and the food we (and our animals) are eating.I think that bale had something even more lethal in it though, many farmers have "graduated" to 2-4D and even worse now that glyphosates have created resistant plants, insects etc.(As of course these new ones will do). Scary and very sad.
The main problem with trying to fix the fields is that it seems to be attracting all sorts of wildlife, which is fine for the deer and such, but the gophers I could definitely do without.. not enough yet to ask the gopher hunters out to shoot them but enough to damage anything I plant. Planted chestnut trees in area probably half a mile from where any gopher sign had ever been seen and within two weeks they were busy tunnelling from precisely one tree to another, just that specific. So frustrating, I lost all the seedlings.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 18, 2015 13:46:47 GMT -5
this may be a dumb question but going to ask it anyway. Plain clay kitty litter (clean of course!!) ... would there be any future in mixing a handful of that with a handful of soil when transplanting into desperately sandy soil? I was thinking it would maybe act like those water saver crystals (which supposedly don't work anyway, never tried them, don't trust weird chemicals in veggie gardens). Thought it might be a way to help buffer the transition from pampering to reality for the seedlings. and that will help the soil building process. It's bentonite clay - also used for lining ponds and such so the question might be if the plants can get the moisture out of it, maybe. Anyone ever tried this?
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Post by prairiegarden on May 16, 2015 23:36:08 GMT -5
Mike, a most generous offer thank you. There is a place in Ontario which offers aronia as seedlings but they are a) unnamed b) only available in lots of 25 or more( WAY more than I need) and c) out of them anyway for two years running now, apparently you have to order them in January.
The trebizond date I couldn't find at all. Although eleagnus augustifolia is relatively easy, the variety seems not. A year or so ago I was looking for them and for shipova for weeks. Found shipova on Vancouver Island but after all that, gave it a pass, takes way too long to come into production.
I've got a bunch of sweet lupin started so will see how they go, had to transplant them into bigger containers and they are pretty much a tap root plant so will see if they forgive being manhandled so much. They were supposed to be in the ground by now but it's supposed to hail and freeze in the next few days. If nothing else, if they survive, they will be pretty and supply some nitrogen to the soil...
What about russian almond? It's a very decorative plant, supposed to be about as tough as seabuckthorn. There seems to be some disagreement about edibility but as long as the nut isn't too bitter? I am getting some of those this year if I can find someone to help plant them...
blueadzuki I wonder what sort of Job's tears the ones Fedco has are. Any way of telling? It really sounds as though it isn't worth the effort for my situation though. If it won't be reliable for you it will likely be totally disinterested in growing in my neck of the woods.
What about cowpeas or pigeon peas? do either of these self seed or are they dependent on people to do it all for them now? Legend has it that the many in the south survived the aftermath of the civil war because the northern soldiers didn't recognize cowpeas as something edible.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 16, 2015 6:45:57 GMT -5
There you go learned something else on these forums, i had no idea about that! I was looking for it in online health food stores to try it but everyone seemed to be out of it, now it seems as though not worth it. Thank you.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 15, 2015 9:03:54 GMT -5
What about aronia melanocarpa? Supposedly highly nutritious, especially in antioxidants and vitamin C but unpalatable raw. Highly ornamental brilliant red leaves in the fall, although it's not particularly exceptional to look at at any other time. It's another one that's considered a weed some places, but apparently is grown extensively in Europe and someone in Ontario is selling the juice for absurd prices like $100 for 6 -12 oz bottles. I got a bush last year but I don't think it survived the winter, didn't get it in the ground early enough, although I got a dozen seeds that I'm not sure what to do with.
WHERE or where do you find Trebizond date? One place used to sell it but they say they don't anymore and in any case they don't ship across the border. Baker Creek had something but the identification seemed a bit iffy, and in any case, they were out of whatever the seed was.
Dahlia tubers are edible, apparently at one time they were considered as a possible substitute for potatoes, but they went on to be developed for decorative glory rather than edible qualities.
Job's tears would maybe work well for people with longer growing season, it's a major crop in Asia (look up chinese pearl barley).
I got a bunch of sweet lupin seed from Australia that you don't have to rinse and rinse that I'm trying this year, but it may need a longer growing season than I have. You also have to keep it well away from any other lupin, apparently, or it will revert to the bitter type. AND people with peanut allergies may react to it, but the seeds are highly nutritious and virtually nobody thinks of lupin as edible, since the ornamental sorts are considered to be poisonous.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 15, 2015 7:25:03 GMT -5
That long white bush one reminds me of what my father called vegetable marrow. Although -if I remember correctly - that may have had faint green stripes (I haven't seen it in years, what I've seen sold as vegetable marrow seed doesn't look anything at all like what he grew). If it's the same thing it's very mild flavoured to the point of having almost none, so he cut the flesh up and made it into jam with ginger and lemon. In one of my old cookbooks it says that any housewife worth her salt would grow them to make an inexpensive jam for the winter. Sort of a statement on how much things have changed since THAT cookbook was written! The jam was very tasty.
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Post by prairiegarden on May 14, 2015 20:33:48 GMT -5
You don't need anything fancy to make biochar. I punch a few holes in the lid of a gallon can, fill it tightly full of whatever..trash mailings, twigs,etc. and put the lid back on then pop it into the wood space heater usually with the back higher than the front so that all escaping gasses get burned rather than escape up the chimney. Some of those gasses such as methane are extremely toxic and worse than carbon dioxide for greenhouse gas.If you do it right, the finished product will have almost the same volume and shape as the original material, but will crumble into dust like particles with just hand pressure. You need to make sure the lid is on tightly or it may pop off and then your end product is not as good as it then will somewhat burn.It is still usable though you will lose volume.
It's neat to watch the gasses shooting out blue and then catching fire, frequently you will hear a loud roar like a small jet engine, and the process adds heat to the house with the combustion.I've even seen the gasses maintain combustion when the fire was, um, less than enthusiastic, but that's not optimum.
All that said, I tried a very small experiment in two raised beds, one with and one without, and didn't see any difference in anything, vigor, height, production, but both were made out of such things as grass clippings and compost so they probably were already rich enough in habitat. A study (in Sweden, if I remember) concluded that biochar is much much more useful in tropical countries where material breaks down to nothing so quickly, not so much the case in more temperate climates. So I mostly use if for extra heat and getting rid of the stuff that nobody wants to recycle like glossy flyers and so forth. Soft brown cardboard boxes work VERY well but it's a bit difficult to pack in there, I find rolling it tightly works best for me. You need a hot fire for it to drive the gasses out as completely as possible, but that's not often a problem.
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Post by prairiegarden on Apr 29, 2015 19:36:24 GMT -5
Well, I suppose I was taking a couple of things as a given, the first being that the things WILL grow and the second that there will be at least a minimum degree of productivity. Keeping them healthy is another issue.. As far as productivity, I am gearing this to a different client than most, namely older people, who may live alone and often don't eat as well as they ought to. Therefore a fabulous tasting tomato which only yields a few tomatoes a week which they can hardly wait to finish ripening might do them more good than a plant which produces 10 pounds of fruit they won't particularly care to eat and may indeed waste. No idea if that's right but it sounds right to me. That's why it wasn't high (or even on!) the list, but perhaps that's worth a rethink. Excess can always be shared and that might help with the loneliness and other issues that many endure.
Carotene is important!
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