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The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Aslanisthebest » Jun 16, 2010 10:59 pm

For the first time this season, we've actually had vegetable plants grow quite well.
We purchased the Buzzy Seeds pack that comes with seeds, pot, soil and all. (These being Cilantro, Tomato, and Cucumber.) I would have liked to pick what kind of Tomato, but I'm not so skilled a gardener yet, and this was satisfactory for first-time. The tomato and cucumber plants have shot up and now the roots of the 3-4 plants in there are sticking out of the bottom. The instructions just said, "Whne 3", transplant to bigger pots and give plant food."
1. I don't know if they mean the root/stem/stem + leaves in 3"
2. How is plant food administered?
3. Is there any specific care for the plants, because I'm suspecting that's not quite it.
I also recall something about tomatoes being extremely hungry plants, so...
Help!!! I mean, tips? :) ;;) Thank-you, most reliable garden thread!
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jun 18, 2010 10:15 am

Heya Aitb :D I've been wondering if you'd turn up in this thread eventually (I saw your botany post on my sister's Facebook page.)

"Whne 3", transplant to bigger pots and give plant food."
They mean from the top of the soil to the top of the plant, if it's 3" tall. Don't include the roots. Course tomatoes are one of the less sensitive plants I've worked with and can take a bit of a beating. I usually transplant mine when they're a lot smaller than that.

How is plant food administered?
Does your plant food come with directions? Usually I mix it with water and pour it in, but you'll want to be careful not to overfeed your plant cause that can zap it.

Is there any specific care for the plants, because I'm suspecting that's not quite it.
You know, I've found that vegetable plants are amazingly not that picky. (Course it depends on which one, but tomatoes and cucumbers are ok.) Most often causes of death are lack of water or too much watering. I'll check too see if my plants need water by putting my finger on the dirt. If it's wet, leave it, if it's dry, check just under the surface. Again, if it's wet, leave it, if it's dry, then it could probably stand to be watered. :)

Are these plants ever going to be put outside or will they be kept indoors in pots?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Aslanisthebest » Jun 20, 2010 9:00 pm

Hullo to you too, f_k! Ahee, I was intending to drop by. ^.^

They mean from the top of the soil to the top of the plant, if it's 3" tall. Don't include the roots. Course tomatoes are one of the less sensitive plants I've worked with and can take a bit of a beating. I usually transplant mine when they're a lot smaller than that.
Oohh, okay. Phew, I was thinking they meant the roots and thought I was craazy behind in transplanting them. ;)) Tomatoes are pretty strong, hey? Good to know, good to know! Ah, ok. I'll probably transplant them this week. :) For transplanting, should I put the plants in pots seperately to avoid further headache or it is fine to put them together until they grow larger?

So it's a easy as that; put water and pour? :D I was thinking there's some looong process of feeding. Thank goodness. :P I'll be sure to check the directions when I buy the plant food, yes. *stores in memory not to overfeed it*

Mm, I see. I'll keep in mind to do that; oftentimes I end up flooding the plant or leaving it parched. :ymblushing:
Well, thank-you a ton for answering my questions!! I feel much calmer about planting the vegetables, knowing that they're not incredibly hard to manage. :)

Currently, they're outside. Is that pretty much okay for young plants? :/ However, as they grow eventually, we might put them out daytime and bring them in at night to avoid racoons, pigeons, and squirrels from taking them. Now to see if cucumber, cilantro, and tomato plants are safe for cats.... ;))
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby wolfloversk » Jun 20, 2010 9:13 pm

Ahhh! It's been raining so much here. Our plants are begining to turn yellow and drown :( That is the plants that haven't been eaten by deer and bluejays are. I was planting corn the other day and I got stuck inthe mud. I had to pull my feet out of my shoes jut to get out!

At least my mom's flower garden is raised so that should survive. It's close to the house to so its safer from the deer. But we'll be lucky if we get any vegetables this year. :((

*Edit:
here's a thumbnail of what my shoes looked like after getting stuck in the mud. Click to enlarge. They were black.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jun 25, 2010 2:25 pm

Aitb wrote:For transplanting, should I put the plants in pots seperately to avoid further headache or it is fine to put them together until they grow larger?
In the winter, I will start anywhere between 50-100 tomato plants (not kidding) for a lot of family members and friends. I never have enough pots so I'll put two or so per pot. But if you have the option of one tomato plant per pot, I highly recommend it. They will be happier, you will be happier... yeah. ;))

Aitb wrote:So it's a easy as that; put water and pour?
Yeah, usually the plant food I get will say something like "mix one tsp of plant food in one gallon of water and feed to the plant over x amount of time."

Aitb wrote:Currently, they're outside. Is that pretty much okay for young plants?
Sorry, I meant, planted in the ground outside. Yeah, it's completely fine to set plants outside in pots.

wolfloversk wrote:It's been raining so much here. Our plants are begining to turn yellow and drown
:(

wolfloversk wrote:here's a thumbnail of what my shoes looked like after getting stuck in the mud.
Nice. ;))


Meanwhile, after nearly flooding here two weeks ago, it has suddenly gotten HOT. (Heat index today.... 99F :D ) So my tomatoes and peppers have taken off like crazy. I must be sure to remember to water tonight. I checked my garden and it's looking rather parched.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Aslanisthebest » Jul 02, 2010 9:36 pm

So plants are repotted, I'm worrying, and they look fine. I was pretty scared when seperating the roots...and it was two days ago and they're not wilting, so I think I've done well.

Ahaha, your boots, wolfloversk!

My word, 50-100 plants, F_K?! :-o That's...amazing.

Following your instructions, I put two tomato plants and a cucumber one in seperate pots and am waiting for results. I'm quite elated! To think of fresh tomatoes... But now I'm going to ask a really dumb question-- the potting soil said, "complete, ready-to-use, etc, etc." but do I still need to put in plant food? I haven't fed them yet, but I've been wondering... (And, the plant food looks so synthetic! I was expecting dried herbs, or something... :P )
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Pattertwigs Pal » Jul 10, 2010 5:27 pm

Aslanisthebest, I'm by no means an expert but I have used Miracle Grow vegetable potting soil and then feed my peppers with Miracle Grow as well. I'm not sure if that was what I was supposed to do or not. The plants grew great but took forever to bud. This year I used the same pots with the same soil as last year for my peppers but I just feed them and my other plants for the first time tonight. I was almost afraid to feed them because they have been doing so well with out it. /:) My pepper plants and two tomato plants each have at least one veggie growing and all of my plants have many flowers. It could be that we had been having rain often but not in huge amounts and that helped them grow. I tend to be sporadic in my watering. :ymblushing:

I have a question. My cucumber plants always attach themselves to my tomato plants. They won't attach to the lattice behind them. This year at least one of the thingies that grow out to attach to things (I'm sure there is a name for it but I don't know what it is) attached to the tomato's cage but two attached to the plant. Does anyone know how to get those thingies to attach to things? I've tried in the past to take them and wrap them around things but they end up shriveling up and breaking in a few days. Anyone know if it is harmful for the tomato plant to have a cucumber plant attached to it? :-s
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jul 15, 2010 5:03 pm

AslanistheBest wrote: But now I'm going to ask a really dumb question-- the potting soil said, "complete, ready-to-use, etc, etc." but do I still need to put in plant food?
Does it say anything on the potting soil bag? You probably won't need to give them plant food any time soon if you're using fresh potting soil but EVENTUALLY you'll need it. As in, several months later.

Pattertwigs Pal wrote:Anyone know if it is harmful for the tomato plant to have a cucumber plant attached to it?
The only problem I see is the cucumber pulling it over and snapping it, but aside from that, not really. Just out of TOTAL curiosity, are your tomato plants closer to the sun than the cucumber plants? I've never actually tied up cucumber plants before, I always just let them run.

Now it's my turn for a question, though I don't know if there are many hard-core gardeners around to be able to answer, but I'll ask anyway. ;))
I'm having a horrible problem with tomato blight this year. When I look up tomato blight online, the obvious solution is rotate the tomatoes around every year so they're not in the same spot blah blah blah. Well, the problem is I don't have a lot of room to rotate and while they're not in the same exact spot this year that they were last year, they're apparently too close or something. If we get another week of this 100F+ heat, they're done. I'd prefer to keep them going a bit longer, but that may not happen. Anyone have any solutions to tomato blight aside from crop rotation?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Pattertwigs Pal » Aug 03, 2010 2:17 pm

fantasia_kitty wrote:Just out of TOTAL curiosity, are your tomato plants closer to the sun than the cucumber plants? I've never actually tied up cucumber plants before, I always just let them run.

Here's a picture of their positioning (sorry it is a little blurry):
Veggies.JPG
Veggies.JPG (52.22 KiB) Viewed 22120 times

By the way, how does one know if cucumbers are ready to be picked? How does one know when green peppers are ready?
Here is a picture of my cucumber plant attached to the tomato plant.
cucumbertomato.JPG
cucumbertomato.JPG (37.28 KiB) Viewed 22120 times

The last two years I have had a horrible time with my cherry tomato plants. I buy them already partially grown. Last year my cherry tomato plant was a grape tomato plant and this year it is a regular sized tomato plant. 8-|

Sorry I can't answer your question, fantasia_kitty. I don't even know what tomato blight is.

I ate my first tomato yesterday and today. :D I had to throw away some of it because it hat a big bad spot. :(
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby wolfloversk » Nov 18, 2010 9:31 pm

Well I recently obtained a few more indoor plants. My roommate's family got me a cactus and I bought a tropical plant... (can't remember the xact name, I'll look it up later)

the tropical plant is doing quite nicely :D It recently started to grow new flowers. I hope my parents remembered my poor ivy plant that I had to leave at home, I have a feeling they didn't... I'll find out if its alive on Tuesday... :-s
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby johobbit » Dec 29, 2010 11:59 pm

*pulls this topic up to the first page because of certain folk who are itching to begin gardening again now that Christmas is over* :D
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby Shadowlander » Dec 30, 2010 5:49 am

jo, the jogging hobbit wrote:*pulls this topic up to the first page because of certain folk who are itching to begin gardening again now that Christmas is over*


It'll be late March at the earliest before I can plant anything, and I'm in the south. We have Hawaiians on here or something? ;))
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby DiGoRyKiRkE » Dec 30, 2010 11:34 am

My Burpee catalog arrived in the mail yesteday, and although we very rarely buy anything from them (as our local market has all the seeds you could possibly imagine) it does excite me to see the gardening stuff starting to appear! My mind is already spinning off in a dozen different directions, trying to figure out what I'm going to plant this year.

The first thing I'll do to start will be over spring break, when I get my garden tilled up, place some fertilizer in it, and get some red potatoes in the ground ;)
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby stargazer » Dec 30, 2010 8:40 pm

With luck our gardens may emerge from the mountains of snow by April...but like Digs, the seed/plant catalogs are starting to arrive here too. People like to look through them to think about spring, and plan their gardens.

Some friends who are avid gardeners (Ryadian's parents) often begin vegetable plantings inside in late winter so they have a head start once the danger of frost is past (sometime in late May). The growing season here is much shorter than in southern climes, so this jumpstart is quite helpful.
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby DiGoRyKiRkE » Dec 31, 2010 8:04 am

Here's a quick question for my fellow gardeners: What's the secret to growing good root vegetables? I have had rotten luck with onions and turnips in the past. Our onions get about the size of a golf-ball, and then start to rot in the ground. The turnips do magnificently as a plant, but their roots are shriveled, straight, and unedible.

I really hope to plant radishes, carrots, and potatoes this year. . . but haven't had any luck with roots in the past. Any suggestions?
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Re: The thread for people who have Green Thumbs (Gardening)

Postby fantasia » Jan 11, 2011 9:22 am

All of my seeds for my 2011 garden(s) are either purchased or on order (except one tomato that I buy as a plant and the potatoes which aren't in yet). Yay! :D Probably in another week or so I will get my Pepper seeds started. Last year I started my tomatoes too early, so I'll wait til mid-February to start those.

DiGs asked me for a list of what I'm growing this year, and it's long, so here goes....

Peppers - California Wonder, Flavorburst, Habanero, Jalapeno, Poblano, Cayenne, Anaheim, Hot Thai (dunno the official name of this one, we got it from one of my husband's co-workers who's from Thailand), Green Chile

Tomatoes - Juliet, Red Lightning, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Sun Gold, Honeybunch, Italian Ice, Early Girl.

Purple Tomatillos

Leafy Greens - Mesclun, Spinach, Iceburg (first time trying an actual head of lettuce), Cabbage, Swiss Chard

Peas

Green Beans

Brussel Sprouts

Celery

Cauliflower and Broccoli

Root Veggies - Carrots, Spring Turnips, Fall Turnips, Radishes, Onions (red, yellow, white and green), Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Beets

Squash - Zucchini, Saffron Summer Squash, Butternut Winter Squash, Decorative Gourds

Cucumbers - Both for eating and pickling

Pumpkins

Watermelons :ymdevil:

Corn

Okra

Eggplant

And my usual stockpile of herbs. :)

In other news, my husband bought me a greenhouse for Christmas this year. :D We're in the process of building it in the garage, but are now at a standstill because the next step is to move it outside and the snow on the ground is making that difficult. :P
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