Anyone else getting ready to start this years veggie plants?

[21incher]

Starting to think spring. Finally got my seed orders and also saved many seeds last fall so I am ready to go. Trying to grow sweet potatoes for my first time this year and have them soaking not hoping to start my own slips. Lets see what everyone is starting and how they do it. 



 

[BradMarks]

Planted peas a while back and they are about 2-3" tall now. Still have decent cilantro that refuses to die, and greens too, from the fall. Holdover carrots in the ground, garlic off and running. Time to start onion seeds. 

[BradMarks]

By the way, a very mild winter here. All the bad weather of snow and ice storms from two weeks ago were 60 miles north of us. Nary a snowflake in town this winter.

[DDW_OR]

had just enough snow to say we had snow
grass was green all winter
January, picked wild daisy's.
February, Frogs can be heard in the creek. and trees are budding
March, warm weather so far

garden will be in 2022. too much stuff to do this year.
will prep the new garden area this year. now it is all grass
have a 4 foot PTO rototiller and a single bottom plow
and an OLD troy-built rototiller. do not even know if it will start.

Potatoes, we just cut them into 2 inch squares, so each piece has at least two Eye's

never soaked them. sweet potatoes may be different.

[Jeff]

 

 Since I am heating the polebarn this winter and there are two south facing windows, I'm starting my own pepper and tomato plants and perhaps some others.



 
 

 

[21incher]

Potatoes, we just cut them into 2 inch squares, so each piece has at least two Eye's

never soaked them. sweet potatoes may be different.

Sweet potatoes grow from plants (slips) so you just  can't  cut them up and plant them. Supposed to take 6 weeks till vines start growing from the potatoes and develop roots. You then break them off and plant the vines. Then when you harvest  them they must be cured for a couple weeks at 80 to 90 degrees with  80 to 90 percent humidity that turns the starch to sugar giving them the sweet flavor.  


Jeff you may want  to add a couple grow lights for tomatoes until the sun gets higher in the sky.  They usually need 14 to 16 hours a day of sunlight right after germination to keep them from being tall spindly plants. Peppers germinate fastest if you use a heat mat to start the seeds.  You going  to add more beds this year?

[Jeff]

Already have the lights. My son had them for other reasons. They have red blue and mix. Ill take a pic. I just have the pepper seeds in. Tomatoes tomorrow. Some things just need pondering first

[SwampDonkey]

I'm going to start some big beef tomatoes and red bell pepper this weekend. I want at least 18" plants when I set them out. I have a big tall - wide window upstairs that you can look out and see the overhang at the roof peek, so it gets lots of sun and lots of heat to. I'm going big on tomatoes this summer. I need lots for sauce because the juice gets reduced a great big deal to make it thicker.

We are getting close to 11 hrs of daylight up here now. 7:15 am until 6:15 pm and we gain light really fast in March.

[thecfarm]

I don't start much. 
But on peppers plants, bigger ones are better, even if they have blossoms on them. Mine plants gets so big I have to put tomatoe cages around them. The fruit will make the plants tip over if not supported. I get stocks the size of my thumb.
I wet down the ground first, don't make it real muddy, but wet, than a sheet of black poly. I weight it down with rocks. You will need rocks in between the plants too to keep the poly from blowing up and covering the plants. Than where ever you want a plant, cut an X into the poly and put your plant in.
 These instructions are for the ones that still have a glacier covering their garden. 
I usually push my plants some. I water with a watering can, and some go go juice, with a length of garden hose on the end, so I don't have to bend over.
I like the ace peppers for sweet one. They are like tomatoes plants, they keep producing until frost. I pick them not much bigger than  golf balls before frost.
I have done the black ploy on tomatoes too. Did not notice a difference on yield, but does help out on weeds. Yes, I tried the red poly too. But the peppers really like the black poly, heat.
We use to sell veggies. Had a UPS driver stop in to buy some stuff. He could not believe the size of my peppers. I took him down to the garden to show him how I grow peppers. He was not the only customer that wanted to know either.

[SwampDonkey]

Yep, water and heat for sure along with feeding them. I've always had more luck with jalapenos, but only because the bell pepper plants were too small to start with.  They take a long time to grow from little plants.

I'm going to have my lights on them for 18 hrs on timer. Got a couple grow lamps coming from Amazon. Big grow op here.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm getting ready but for me it means I am cutting tomato stakes for one main customer and a few incidentals. I've cut about 25 dz so far and have about 8-10 more to trim to length and tie into bundles tomorrow. I find its a good use for real low grade logs. 

[21incher]

I have one of those 3 ft x 3 ft  pot growing tents with a commercial light that I am using this year to start plants. Have had a steady supply of fresh lettuce since thanksgiving from it in my cool basement. 


 

 

[DDW_OR]

I was thinking of removing the dirt in my greenhouse floor to a depth of 2 ft
then lay foam insulation on the bottom and sides of the pit
then a loop of Pex tubing from the OWB.
then re-fill with dirt.
have the pump controlled by a thermostat probe in the soil to have a 40 deg soil temp year round.
OWF water is 150 to 180

will my idea work?

[Don P]

That sounds like a great idea as long as you don't fork the pex. I'd run the soil temp on up into the 60's. One thing that gets the high tunnel (unheated greenhouse) through the winter is the soil temp. It warms up during the daytime and on colder nights if we cover the rows with a layer or two of remay on black pipe hoops it creates a warm enough tent to keep greens going through the winter... most of the time. The next batch is starting under lights in the house. We just use the strip leds, I think 6000K for the plant shelf.

One of the local country stores gets in sweet potato slips, its a bit early yet. It looks like the garlic failed, as it did from the same supplier in a friends garden... I think there must have been a storage/harvest problem upstream. One thing with plastic under tomatoes is it seems to help a bit with late blight, that is usually what ends our season. In the tunnel if we close up every night to keep the dew off and drip irrigate it really helps, dry leaves and it can't grow.

[DDW_OR]

the green areas are for plants in the ground or in raised beds
the center area for tomatoes in the ground and their vines suspended on string from the rafter.
like commercial growers do

the squares are walk areas that the Pex pipe will be 2 ft under.



 

[SwampDonkey]

My little grow op with 1000 w LED's. Stuck in some maters, peppers, radish and lettuce.

[21incher]

Those LED's with the proper spectrum really make for stronger plants.  

[Paul_H]

I started Jalapeno peppers about a month ago and overwintered two plants in the basement from last fall and started a bunch of yellow onions 3 weeks ago. Beefsteak tomatoes will be started next weekend and then broccoli and cauliflower early April.

[SwampDonkey]

I've got 64 cavities planted there, I'm going to get another 2 trays. Veseys is shipping me a bunch more other seed I have to get started. I even start cukes, I had English cukes the size of zucchini last summer. But you know what, the cukes only do there thing for so long then go the other way. So mine were all done before the end of July. Still had more than enough for pickles and eat'n.

Dad's aunt used to say, don't let me die during gardening time.  She was a crazy old coot and not blood relation.

[SwampDonkey]

Those LED's with the proper spectrum really make for stronger plants.  

My brother thought I was up late last night. It was them LED's lighting up the whole upstairs. He lives 1/2 mile down the road.