2024 Garden Seeds and Starts

[21incher]

Finally got outside and started cleaning up. Best compost ever

[newoodguy78]

Great looking compost 21.
We've been busy here trying to get veggies started earlier this year. Had some hiccups but we're getting through them.
Started pumping water and moving sprinklers before 3 this morning to try and save the first planting of sweet corn from freezing.Tried planting it through plastic then covering it with remay. Got decent germination considering this year's weather so far. Long term forecast seems to look warmer which will be nice. Hope everyone has a good season.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

I built my own tomatoe cages.
I used 1 inch cedar. Should of went with 1½ inches. ...

I got maters in the ground, and 2 cedars stacked up next to the mill!
I was going to save those logs until I know What I'm doing with the mill... but I could gain a lot of practice making 1.5x's...
And there's easily a half-dozen of them just waiting for me to cut them down!

Beans and pea's started sprouting, corn went in the ground last weekend.
I'm trying a small batch of Barley this year. I have a pair of Crystal hops plants producing... I just need to find a special kind of friend, !
I've tried the wine-making thing, I'm trying to avoid becoming a brewer, but it's like there's a pull of gravity or something?. If they legalize it down here I'll never get any work done! 

 -K

[SwampDonkey]

Sturon onion sets arrived today. I need to transplant my pepper seedlings to bigger pots this weekend. Every seed germinated. The older peppers seem to be having another flush of blooms. I have not eaten all of the first bunch yet, probably 6 or 8 left. 
Happy gardening.

[SwampDonkey]

I did get a second fertile cucumber off the vine recently.

Here are my peppers coming along. They won't go outside for another month.



Hand for scale.

[Otis1]

I'm pretty new to gardening, last year I had one 4x8 raised bed and this year I added another one. Everything that I planted from seed did pretty good and a couple store bought tomato plants. Last year I tried indoor starting a couple kinds of tomatoes, couple of peppers, and eggplant. Only had a little success with the tomatoes. That was coupled with experimenting with straw bales.

This year I am doing a little better with my indoor starts. They still don't look like they're as big as they should be by now. I have been starting seeds in small "greenhouse" type things. Should I be starting them in larger nursery pots? My setup is a wire rack shelf with grow lights and heat mats. I can easily turn that into a tent if I need to. A full grow room is not in the budget right now. Most of what I am trying to grow is seeds from Baker Creek. 

Just looking for suggestions, thanks.

[newoodguy78]

Are your plants root bound? Meaning if you pull one out it would look like a solid mass of roots. If they are that could definitely be holding them back.
Depending on your location and when they can be planted I might recommend transplanting them to bigger cells if that's the case.
FWIW when I pull some of our starts that will be transplanted to the field I'm looking for a nice healthy plant that pulls easily from the cell and a root mass that is a 50/50 mix of roots and soil. And everything stays in the shape of the cell.
That's the gauge I use.
Too early and you'll pull the plant with no soil on it too late it's a solid white root mass.
Also before putting them in the ground, setting them outside for a few days to acclimate helps take some of the edge off of transplanting. Good luck would be curious how your garden does this year.

[newoodguy78]

Otis1 I did a little poking around looking at Baker Seeds. Pretty interesting stuff. 

While I'm a fan of heirloom seeds and like to see people keeping them going, one thing you can't do is compare them directly to hybrid commercial type varieties. 

In my experience heirlooms are different in how they grow and how they produce. 
Just don't want to see you get frustrated with growth rates. The heirlooms you have most likely will not grow as fast as commercial varieties fed a lot of fertilizer that are more than likely what you see at your local garden center or box store. 

[SwampDonkey]

Good luck with your plants. Don't over water them.

I planted a bunch of tomato seed on the weekend, 50 cells. I'll not plant all them, I pot over the strongest looking ones of each variety. I'll have more space this year, to space them out more. I'm guessing 36 plants will go in. More plum variety for sauce, last year they bore heavy. So don't the big beef variety I use, trouble with beef they take a long time to ripen unless we get lots of heat along with the water. 

[Otis1]

Thanks guys. I think the problem is that I have been comparing them to the ones you get at the garden center. You're right these are not hybrids and it makes sense that they will be slower growing. I think next year I will just start them earlier. I also think that this round was stunted because of the seed starting medium. I used a coconut coir and I think it just doesn't have the nutrients that a soil based mix has, I ended up giving them a small amount of fertilizer and once the roots were good I repotted them into a soil mix. It seemed to help. 

In the future should I continue to start them in the small 1" x 1" cells or should I just start with a 2" pot? All my starting pots are clear so I can see the roots and moisture. How many hours of light should they get, I have mine set to 12 on & 12 off but I think maybe I should go to 18 & 6? I did about 12 of each plant planning on only using the strongest ones and maybe giving a couple away to friends.

I have a decent amount of experience with house plants so I know about not overwatering and being root bound, so I know that's not my problem. Sometimes plants are frustrating but I enjoy learning a little bit with each attempt. 

[thecfarm]

Tomatoe plants, once they get some size to them, should do fine.
Unless they get some disease after they are planted.
In fact, the way the growing season has been here for the last 10 years, I almost could plant some in mid July for a late crop.

We had a greenhouse for 3 years, selling seedlings and flowers. A customer wanted the best tasting tomato. I directed to one of the heirlooms one. But told him they would not look like a store bought one.
He wanted nothing to do with that. 

[Otis1]

Part of the reason I'm trying the heirloom varieties is because my dad always says tomatoes don't taste as good as they used to and I agree. My grandma had a neighbor that grew one that he absolutely loved. I have no idea what variety it was and he is long since passed. I'm just trying to grow him some good tomatoes. This year I'm trying the mortgage lifter although it's not looking great. 

Because I lack the experience, I have been using an app called Planter on my phone that lets you layout your garden and shows what plants are beneficial to each other or what plants are combative. It also shows calendar dates for starting and transplanting based on your location. 

[thecfarm]

The trouble with gardening in our climate. if a mistake is made, it's too late for that year.