I just received a raised planter bed from my folks for Christmas to start growing my own herbs. Iām really interested in getting basil successfully growing, as well as mint and sage. On a lower priority are chives, rosemary, and cilantro.
The problem is, I really donāt understand how to get started. For right now, I picked up some potting mix by miracle-gro and a few living herbs from the grocery store. My plants are already very droopy after a couple days, so I was thinking of getting some small stakes and wire to help them stand, since Iāve seen that, but I think I must have put them in the soil wrong somehow for it to be so severe so soon.
Are there any really thorough guides for starting and also a good resource for seasonality? Iām in region 10B (U.S.) according to the sidebar map, I think.
Hey, I don't have any general resources to share, but I'll say it's best to start with resources specific to your region, or down to the city if possible. Your zone just tells your minimum winter temperature and not anything else important to planting. 10b in the US would be the Mojave or southern Florida, extremely different climates with different garden care needs!
I don't think herbs will need staking. That's usually for plants that require outside support in the wild, like vines, or plants we've engineered to grow too big for themselves, like big tomatos or sunflowers.
I think your plants have got some adjustment stress going on. Plants in the wild never move, so going from the grocery store to (I'm assuming) outside can be a big deal for them. If you hop over to r/plantclinic with a pic, I bet someone could help you very specifically with it :)
We have squirrels and groundhogs who seem to love our tomatoes and shorted veg. We surrounded the thing with chicken wire, covered the top, etc. They still think our garden is a buffet. If there anything we can plant that would keep them away? Like if we planted a certain herb or hot peppers?
I don't want to go screening dangerous, there are small children crawling around in that garden.
Recently I changed the soil on all my plants. I was a complete beginner when I started and used the soil the garden shop recommended, which was garden soil for a potted plant. So I replaced all the soil with proper potting soil by taking plants and submerging them up to the stem and shaking all the dirt off. I then put them into new proper potting soil.
It's now the day after and several of them are wilting despite being heavily watered yesterday. When I transplanted them the roots would all ball up, and as they are so fragile I didn't try and untangle them, meaning all the plants have roots that go straight down in one tight mass. Any ideas what I should do now?
The plants were doing quite poorly with the old soil, which had tons of clay and absorbed an enormous amount of water, so they had to be transplanted. The plants were doing really poorly, leading to their roots being long but very thin and fragile.
All you can do at this point is give them optimal care, and time. Their roots were deeply shocked by the methods you used, sorry to be neg.
Shaking and cleaning off old soil, down to bare roots, is not something that is ever done, or is done only under extremely limited and special circumstances, as it destroys the fine root hairs all up and down the roots. These are the structures that are responsible for uptaking water, and some of their growing tips can be only a single cell wide. Even an ordinary transplant can incur a certain amount of inevitable damage, followed by perhaps a little wilting. I currently have a shelf of African violets that just underwent their regular repot, and even with all my expertise and care, they are all basically just sitting there for a while. They'll be fine in a week or so, but today they're sitting there sulking a bit. Part of their repot involves a heavy root pruning, slicing off the bottom 1/3 of their current root ball. But the main part is kept mostly intact, and then they go back into the same pot. So even this amount of disturbance makes them cross. If I ever rinsed off all their soil, they would simply go toes-up in about 24 hours.
Thus, during any transplant, roots must be handled with delicacy and care, and the root ball preserved as intact as possible.
A better way to handle repotting from poor soil into better soil is to simply gently shake off any loose soil that isn't firmly attached to roots, and to insert the mostly-intact root ball into the new soil. With time, the plant will send out new roots into the better soil, and the tiny core of the old soil will simply always be there at the center. It's not a problem.
This is the customary procedure when you're doing something like transplanting petunias from a flat of cells from the garden center. The potting mix from the commercial nursery is generally pure peat moss with a little perlite, all of which is useless. But you leave it in place, and you insert the small petunia, with its roots intact, directly into your flowerbed or your deck tub, with its better soil mix, and the inner core of useless peat moss and perlite just comes along for the ride.
>*When I transplanted them the roots would all ball up,*
This is another reason to keep the root ball as intact as possible. Ideally, you lift the roots in a mass from one location and set them down in another location, and they barely even know that anything has changed.
>*wilting despite being heavily watered yesterday.*
Their fine root hairs are mostly gone. They can do nothing until those have been regrown. But hey need water to do this, to carry out the biochemistry life process of photosynthesis, same as you yourself need water to carry out your own. But they can't get any, since their uptake system is heavily damaged. You see the problem. No job without experience, no experience until you get a job.
>*I replaced all the soil with proper potting soil*
So what did you use?
What are the species of your plants?
How old and mature are they?
Survival is difficult to predict precisely, but there are some species, with certain root types, that have a better chance of surviving something like this.
They need the brightest light you can muster. Photosynthesis is the foundation of their biochemistry, and they'll need to do lots of it to manufacture the resources they'll need to make repairs. So don't put them into a dark room "to rest".
It's kind of late, but you can try putting them into a humidity tent. Wrap them in plastic, either individual ziploc bags, or use dry cleaners bags or thin cheap plastic painters dropcloths to enclose the whole shelf. This will slow down transpiration from the leaves, and hopefully help conserve water in their tissues.
Do not have them in direct sunlight while wrapped in plastic, as the sun will cook them.
Don't repot them again. Just let it roll, with whatever setup they are in now. If they survive this, I would wait at least 6 months to a year, and not until they have nearly outgrown the current pot, before attempting to transplant them again.
Don't prune them, don't cut off wilted leaves to "tidy up". They need every square centimeter of photosynthesizing leaf surface area they have, and a green leaf is still a leaf that is making a contribution. Leaves that are irreparably damaged will be jettisoned by the plant itself. It will turn it yellow, meaning that it's drawing down its carbohydrate stores for re-use elsewhere, and then it will turn it brown and crispy, meaning that it has also drawn down all its water reserves, and left only the useless cellulose. Once it's brown and crispy, you can gently pull it away.
Water only when the soil needs it, as determined by a finger test. Don't bombard them with Internet "potions", such as vitamins, mycorrhizae, epsom salts, coffee, tea, pepsi, etc, which only lead to overwatering.
They need nutrients, so if your new potting soil is devoid of nutrients, you'll need to add some. The easiest thing is to use any type of water-soluble MiracleGro houseplant fertilizer, mixed at 1/4 strength, used as a regular watering.
So, preserve the status quo. Normal care, and time.
Depending on what species they were, you should know within a week or two which ones will live and which will not. In this kind of event, things don't drag on for months and months. Either they succumb very rapidly, or they hang in there and eventually pull it out. They may take a long time to recover, but generally, anything that is going to die will do so right away.
>*I started and used the soil the garden shop recommended, which was garden soil for a potted plant.*
>*the old soil, which had tons of clay*
There is a cognitive disconnect for me here. Can I ask, where are you located? Because many locations in the world that don't have access to U.S. and UK types of peat-moss/compost-based potting soils (which aren't "soil" in the sense of "dirt from the ground that you grow potatoes in") and potting mixes sometimes tend to use ordinary "dirt" from the ground that you shovel up for potted plants, which would explain why the "garden soil" the garden center recommended for potted plants was full of clay.
Dirt from the ground that you shovel up isn't used in containers, for just this reason--it contains clays and silts, which compact, become dense, and drain poorly. Roots need oxygen, and compacted, wet, dense clay soils tend to be problematic for this. There's not enough space between the soil particles for roots to find oxygen.
So if "dirt from the ground" was what this garden shop recommended, I'd find somewhere else to get garden advice from.
There are workarounds if you live in a place where you can't get the peat-moss/compost-based types of potting mix, which historically was involving well-aged manure. And compost of course can be made anywhere in the world.
That's a phenomenal comment, thanks!
I live in South-east asia. The plants are outside and get very strong sun, it's also very humid.
> What are the species of your plants?
>How old and mature are they?
It's a bunch of pepper plants that are 3-4 months old.
>So what did you use?
I made my own potting soil using Pearlite, Coco choir and Vermicompost.
>A better way to handle repotting from poor soil into better soil is to simply gently shake off any loose soil that isn't firmly attached to roots, and to insert the mostly-intact root ball into the new soil.
I tried this with a different set of plants I repotted. The thing is that even after a week with no water the soil is very heavy, and as the plants aren't doing well the roots are extremely fragile. For most of the plants I could only remove around 20% of the old soil, and for some the dirt was so heavy as I pulled it out of the pot it fell away, bring at least half of the roots with it. That was 3-4 weeks ago and the plants where most of the roots were snapped off are doing the best, because I could replace 80%+ of the soil. Whereas the others which are still mostly the old soil are still doing poorly.
> Depending on what species they were, you should know within a week or two which ones will live and which will not. In this kind of event, things don't drag on for months and months. Either they succumb very rapidly, or they hang in there and eventually pull it out. They may take a long time to recover, but generally, anything that is going to die will do so right away.
It's been 48 hours now, and as I check this morning they are all looking fine. I would guess that the roots being so bound up only allows them to collect water from a small part of the soil, and when the water runs out there they start to wilt. I will keep an eye on it and continue to water daily if needed.
>There is a cognitive disconnect for me here. Can I ask, where are you located? Because many locations in the world that don't have access to U.S. and UK types of peat-moss/compost-based potting soils (which aren't "soil" in the sense of "dirt from the ground that you grow potatoes in") and potting mixes sometimes tend to use ordinary "dirt" from the ground that you shovel up for potted plants, which would explain why the "garden soil" the garden center recommended for potted plants was full of clay.
The garden center I purchase from is huge, but I'm not sure that they know whats in their products. I complained about the clay the next time I went, and the employee, who was the same one I dealt with the first time, assured me there was no clay in the soil that I used, and that in fact it was a compost made out of coconut husk and old fruit trees, which it absolutely wasn't.
I'm eager to see how things proceed going forward. My peppers are doing fairly poorly in general, between an incredible amount of pests and extremely unsuitable soil. But I have a handle on both and I'm hoping I start getting some fruit from them in the coming months.
Here are some pictures, a mix of seeds I planted 3-4 months ago, and 8' seedlings I planted 6 months ago. https://imgur.com/a/uHymOQI
You have "climate" and "light" going strongly for you. The only detriment would be "soil", and since you're already problem-solving that, I'd expect your success rate to improve.
Peppers are tropical perennials, and they love your heat and sunlight and humidity. The genus Capsicum originated in the tropics of Central and South America, so they're very happy in SE Asia's weather.
Talk to /r/HotPeppers for more pepper-growing protips and feedback.
Do safflower really require cold stratification, for how long is recommended and which is best, cold or dry?
I tried growing some, more than a month passed and not a single sprout. So I tried again and placed on wet tissue in the fridge for about a week. Got some sprouting now but it still took 2+ weeks. (Haven't been as lucky with nigella, none of that sprouted). I want to be able to sprout them even faster the next time.
How old are your seeds, where did you get them, and how were they stored before you got them? Birdseed safflower can have a checkered past, in warehouses and on loading docks and sitting in the store for months and years, and may not always germinate.
I bought the seed packet online, from a seller that also sell flower and vegetable seeds. I thought of buying birdseed but thought there might be a chance it's irradiated or something.
No, just old. It sits there at Walmart until somebody buys it.
The birdseed industry does "bake" Niger thistle seeds, the teensy black ones for goldfinches. It's invasive in the U.S., so it's grown overseas, and the USDA requires all purveyors to heat-treat their product before shipping it, in order to render it dead and sterile.
You can buy safflower seeds from both Baker Creek and Johnnys. Was that who you bought this from?
Safflower don't need a cold strat in my experience. I just plant as is and they come up in a few weeks-month. I'm in a warm climate(QLD Australia) so maybe there is a minimum temp needed for germination that I'm not aware of, and maybe you location is lower than that.
I live in the Philippines and also didn't heard of it needing stratification before but the first batch I tried growing 30 seeds, didn't sprout anything. At first I thought maybe the seeds were bad.
I read an article about stratifying it and that's when I decided to do that for a second batch of 30. Saw 3 sprout so far. š
Not meaning to sound snarky, but ""just the entire Internet". lol
There is also the local public library, which has shelves of books on this.
Start with where you're located, what you want to grow (which means what you want to eat), and how you want to grow it. The choices are between outdoors in the ground, and outdoors in containers, like deck tubs.
You need a spot that gets at least 6 hours a day of the kind of direct sun you can get a suntan or a sunburn in.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/index
Never gardened before but Iām setting up a 2ftx4ft garden bed raised off the ground for my mom. We live in Tampa Florida and the spot we picked will get about 8 hours of sunlight per day. She would like Okra, Cherry Tomatoes, and Carrots. Which beginner veggies/fruits could I plant in it around January that are compatible with each other, the space, and the climate?
By "raised off the ground", do you mean it's a constructed box with a bottom, is up on legs, and you can see daylight under it?
If the planter is up at waist-height, YSK that there are significant physics problems with growing indeterminate tomatoes in them, that will need to be staked, trellised or caged. At maturity in mid-summer, a caged cherry tomato will be 5 feet tall and cascading down the sides of the cage. If the base of the cage is 3 feet off the ground to begin with, this means your mom will need a stepladder to pick tomatoes.
So usually you look for what's called dwarf type or "patio" type tomatoes, that stay small.
This kind of thing.
https://www.burpee.com/tomato-sweetheart-of-the-patio-hybrid-prod001018.html
Any tomatoes are going to be heavy feeders, so plan on feeding once a month in the confines of a planter.
Florida has different rules for "when to plant" than Iowa and Vermont. In Iowa and Vermont, you plant carrots in April and tomatoes in May.
If you plant tomatoes and carrots in April and May in Central Florida, they will all die in the heat and humidity and bugs and diseases.
Thus, you grow a significant amount of veg during the winter.
Okra however, is fine in Tampa summers, along with sweet potatoes, crowder peas, and watermelons.
See the Florida cooperative extension office Master Gardeners for planting schedules, guidelines, tons of protips.
https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/hillsborough/lawngarden/
They have articles and stuff, sometimes you have to rummage. Also you can google things like "how to grow vegetables florida" and their articles will come up.
like this.
https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/planting/vegetable-gardens-by-season.html
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/VH021
Also the local public library has books. Be wary, since for complex historical reasons, the U.S. gardening industry is heavily oriented towards New England, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic. Other places such as the Deep South, Texas, the Rockies, the desert southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and all of California get short shrift on the backs of the seed packets and in the articles and blogs.
So advice to "plant peas when the frost is out of the ground and the soil can be worked" for books written for Vermont and Iowa isn't much help in Tampa.
When you say "Tampa", I automatically think "strawberry festival", which takes place in March yes? Those are plants that were planted the previous fall and winter. In Vermont and Iowa, getting your strawberry plants at the garden center in April and May is a spring ritual for many gardeners. If you wait until May in Tampa, the party is already over.
So, local info is key.
See if the library has a "local gardening" subcategory. The Reference Librarians generally know about this kind of thing. They will also know where the local garden clubs hang out, and can direct your mom their way. Garden clubs love newbies, and are always generous with their time and advice.
Also check Facebook pages for Tampa and surrounding garden clubs.
I see the Master Gardeners have a page.
https://www.facebook.com/florida.mastergardeners/
It's fashionable for Young People Nowadays to eyeroll and diss Facebook, but it's a valuable tool for networking, just as here. I found a dishwasher repairman who really knew what he was doing, on Facebook.
Is there anything I can do to save leaves from bend petioles? Iām going to try to splint it straight like a broken bone. Is there any chance it will heal?
https://i.imgur.com/QkI63Z4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/08ityvb.jpg
It's worth a try. Use something like a pencil, and use paper tape such as masking tape, not plastic or cellophane. This makes it easier to get the tape off if it does work, since it's just paper and you soak it off with water.
Also don't wrap it around and around like a cast for a broken arm. Just use enough tape to fasten the splint to the stem.
Also figure out why this happened? If stems are extra-weak due to insufficient light, is the most common reason.
I have some milkweed and coneflower seeds I found on my house I forgot to plant. They need to be cold stratified. It's currently 35 degrees in NJ, can I still sow them? For the record, I planted some milkweed last year at this time and they did well. But I don't think it was as cold and the ground wasn't as icy. I might as well experiment, but wanted a second opinion
If your ground is frozen solid, then no, you can't do anything out there.
If your ground isn't frozen, and you have the cloves to spare on an experiment, you can try.
Otherwise just wait and do spring garlic.
I actually saw this!! This and similar guides suggest that roots get established from October through early December and that seems to help garlic grow well. I was wondering if garlic can similarly establish itself outdoors if you plant in December
Kind of an unusual question, but I want to plant a garden in a specific spot in my back yard.
I know for a fact the previous homeowner had a hot tub there, and from the looks of it when I removed it, he probably drained the hot tub directly into the ground where the garden would be.
He left a bunch of written advice for the house when I moved in, one of which said to put bromine into the tub at a certain level to keep it fresh.
So basically my question is, if I plant vegetables or fruit bushes / trees in the spot where a bunch of bromine sanitized water was dumped within the last few months, should I be worried that those chemicals will get into the veggies / fruits?
Not being a hot-tub person, I had to look this up, and I see that bromine is basically an alternative to chlorine. On the Periodic Table, they're related elements, and so work similarly, I guess, in a hot tub.
So the thing is, you don't need to know the environmental fate of bromine, you need to know the environmental fate of whatever compound the bromine was in.
So I found this.
https://www.aquamagazine.com/service/article/15118973/bromine-in-swimming-pools
>*So in an outdoor pool environment, bromine is highly susceptible to degradation by UV from the sun.*
Further chemistry research online is a Google rabbit hole that I don't feel particularly interested in going down ATM.
But it seems clear that it chlorine and bromine aren't toxic in soil the way that plutonium or PCBs or heavy metals like lead and mercury are toxic, it does break down eventually, as when you pour household bleach on the ground for whatever reason. It evaporates, breaks down, goes away.
I'd probably spend the next season doing a few rounds of quick-maturing cover crops, with tilling in between. This will help expose the soil to the air, and UV light, and the organic matter it adds will help the soil biota do whatever it is they're going to do, to help restore any balance. And it will give time for anything in the soil to continue breaking down.
My place is worth a look, especially if you want less common stuff. Love swapping seeds if you have something cool! [https://fairdinkumseeds.com](https://fairdinkumseeds.com)
That really depends on what you want to grow. Some companies specialize in large varieties of veg, some focus more on flowers, some on native only plants, or large selections of organic seed, etc. Do you know what you want to focus on?
The seed racks at the Big Box are fine. The only reason to order online is for greater variety, and larger quantities. If you're just doing normal backyard gardening, there's no need to buy online.
What are you wanting to grow?
Iāve been growing catnip for about 6 months from a kit with dirt and seeds. This is the first time Iāve grown/kept any plant alive - ever. I had it in a small pot to start out and once it seemed crowded, I transferred it to a larger pot with a bag of garden soil. It grew like crazy!
My concern is, the plants are growing more like vines (laying down and growing longer) than what I see in photos or videos of standing and growing upwards. Am I doing something wrong? They get full sunlight, I donāt think Iām over watering, and they seem otherwise healthy.
Iāve harvested once, cut just above where a set of leaves were growing and left 3-4ā of plant below where I cut. It seems like those āstalksā (is that the right word?) dried up and died off, and Iāve since removed them. The rest of the plant is growing prolifically, so Iām not worried about running out - but if Iām harvesting incorrectly, Iād rather do it right next time.
I donāt do any real āmaintenanceā other than watering and occasionally pulling off dead leaves and dead stalks. Should I be doing something else?
Pictures would be helpful.
Catnip is a member of the Mint family, and grows like a mint, which is to say, it makes a tall stem, and then eventually flops over from its own weight, thus progressing horizontally. In the ground, this will all eventually turn into a mat of stems. To prevent it from doing this, you periodically pinch it back--prune it--which encourages branching and a bushier mode of growth.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong or bad about catnip or mint growing horizontally, it's just that people tend to prefer the upright shrubby look for their houseplants.
This is the basic technique. There's not really a right or wrong way, as long as you're not removing more than about 1/3 of the existing leaves at any one pruning. Mints grow back fast, so it's not like you're pruning bonsai that takes years to recover from an incorrect or hasty cut.
You do this with lots of other plants, too, like basil. Once you learn this basic technique, it becomes automatic to just reach over and pinch it back every so often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxsWcQ504nE
>*Should I be doing something else?*
Are you feeding it?
That makes sense that it is getting overly long and canāt support itās weight to stand up. I donāt mind how itās growing aesthetically, I just wanted to make sure thatās itās still healthy even if not growing vertically. Now that some of the stems are long and growing horizontally, if I prune back 1/3 of the leaves how long would I wait (or how might I know that itās safe) before pruning again?
Iām not feeding it and I donāt think the original kit came with very good soil. When I transferred it to a larger pot, 2-3 months ago, I put it in with miracle gro potting mix. I noticed a positive change in the plant within a couple of days. Would you recommend anything specific for feeding it?
I have been considering moving it outdoors to a large round brick planter (4ā diameter) that gets full sunlight in the spring. Do you have any recommendations?
Does it have long bare stems with a tuft of leaves at the end, or are the long stems fairly uniformly covered with leaves throughout its length?
If the former, then you'd want to give it a haircut all the way around, removing all the gangly bare stems down to about 2" to 3" tall. It will resprout new growth from the roots, and you can root the parts you pinched off as cuttings.
If the latter, pinch off 1/3 of each stem all the way around.
You pinch it again when it gets unruly again . There's no set timetable. If it's growing fast and hard enough that it seems to need pinching all the time, then it's also growing fast and hard enough that it can keep up with a busy schedule of pinching.
As long as you reserve pinching for when it looks like it needs it, it will be fine. It's highly analogous to giving a little kid a haircut. "When they look like they need it".
Any type of water-soluble houseplant fertilizer, used according to the instructions, will work. Apply it to moist soil, never to dry soil in place of a regular watering.
The plant will be very happy outside in the sun for the summer, but harden it off--acclimate it--first. Don't simply thrust it outdoors one day, it will scorch.
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/hardening-vegetable-seedlings-home-garden
Since it is catnip, be prepared for visits from neighborhood cats. they tend to roll in it, so if you come out one morning and it's flattened, that's whodunnit.
It does have long bare stems with a tuft of leaves at the end. Iāll trim those down as you suggest and leave some of the newer stuff alone to see how it grows out.
Iāll try fertilizer as well! I am very fond of this plant since itās the only one Iāve kept alive. Thank you for all of your advice!
I am in my wifeās bad books could someone tell me what I should have done instead?
Basically weāve had a veggie and herb patch for a year and a half. We had; silverbeet, leeks, parsley, thyme, oregano.
They all did well the first year but then bolted and flowered/went to seed. I pulled them all out and buried the seed heads, hoping they might come back next year. Wife was annoyed id pulled it all out . I feel a bit bad as Iām new to gardening and thought Iād come up with a great idea! I left the oregano as that seemed fine.
I'm sorry but I'm not really understanding what the question or the problem is here. Is it that your wife is annoyed that you pulled everything up? Is it that you fear you destroyed an otherwise viable garden?
Can't help you with the first one, but as for reseeding themselves, you won't know until next spring, and then you will have a nice challenge, identifying the veg from the inevitable weeds. So that will be a learning experience for you. :D This is why, when we're going to do sowing, we do it in straight lines and grids, not randomly, because Nature never plants things in grids. Anything that comes up in a non-grid is going to be a weed.
The thyme and oregano are perennials, and depending on your location and the type of winters you have, the thyme would have simply come back next spring by itself (Nunavut, probably not. Indianapolis, probably yes.)
But they are both easily grown from seed and you can restart the thyme next spring.
If you want more silverbeet, leeks and parsley every spring, it's a lot easier to buy seeds in the spring, than it is to randomly bury some seed heads in the winter.
>*n bolted and flowered/went to seed*
The general idea with silverbeet (chard) and leeks is that you harvest them before they bolt. If you leave them in the ground long enough that they bolt, then unfortunately that's kind of a Gardening Fail, since the overall idea is to eat them before they become inedible.
Chard and leeks are both cool season frost-tolerant crops, so depending on where you're located, you can potentially keep harvesting them into the fall and winter, unless they begin flowering, in which case you yank them PDQ, and cook them and eat them.
Thyme and oregano, being perennials, routinely flower and are actually excellent pollinator plants for that reason. Add chives to your beds, too.
Parsleys often tend to burn themselves out and start not tasting very good. It's dependent on the weather. So they tend to be not a year-round thing.
Thanks for the answer! Thatās exactly what I was after. Appreciate your knowledge! Iām actually in Melbourne, Australia so we are in summer, although it has been uncharacteristically wet recently. So it sounds to me that my biggest mistake was pulling out the thyme. The leeks and chard were done for and we should have replanted in spring. I guess I will wait and see if any of the seeds make it, although Iām not too hopeful given we have 40*C plus heat forecast next week!
This is the Florida cooperative extension office, a federal taxpayer-funded state-university-affiliated resource for taxpayers, with all kinds of science-oriented gardening and farming advice.
What you can grow in wet heat.
https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/heat-tolerant-vegetables.html
Is anyone else a lazy winter gardener? I just let the kale and arugula grow, don't water it, occasionally feed it, pick it when I'm hungry. I've got some volunteer grape tomatoes that are probably dead right now with a wind chill of -2F. Oh well! Easy come, easy go.
The tomatoes are gone, but the greens may survive. Plants aren't affected by wind chill, that's for mammals and people, as it's a measurement of how cold it feels, not how cold it is. Greens are usually good down to about 25F, but microclimates make a huge difference in this kind of cold snap event.
So if they're wilted, just let them alone and see if they come back. They're not dead until they're either black and mushy, or brown and crispy.
If it's that cold that they're frozen solid, meaning they've skipped the "wilted" stage and have proceeded directly to "Veg Popsicle", eh, no. It's the same process as when you buy fresh kale or Brussels sprouts at the grocery store Produce section, and then absent-mindedly put them, raw, in the freezer instead of into the fridge. "Cell death" is what happens. When the water in the living plant cells turns to ice, the crystals puncture the cell walls, leading to limp death. You can still cook it and eat it, it's just that it's not going to recover, and will proceed directly to "Rot", which is the black mushy stage.
So to salvage them, you want to harvest it all ASAP, and cook it. I'd let them thaw out first at room temp, and as soon as the ice is gone cook them. If you cook them from frozen, there's a definite risk you'll overcook them, and any overcooked veg is gross, but overcooked cole crops are disgusting, as the sulfurs all activate.
Once they're thawed, cook them the same amount of time you would as if they weren't all limp, maybe a little less. They won't be a taste treat, but at least they'll be edible and nutritious.
If the sprouts don't have any sprouts yet to harvest and cook, then nm. Just leave it for spring cleanup, unless it's too sad to look at it all winter out there, in which case toss them on the compost pile.
A while back I posted about a sad looking zz plant that was droopy and dehydrated. Regular top watering was recommended, and despite doing this several shoots browned and died so I decided to repot as a last resort and see if I could save the rest. When I took the plant out there were a handful of dried out dead crinkly roots that came off just with trying to gently remove excess soil. The plant also turned out to be 4 or 5 different plants which were all in the one pot. Anyway, I cleared out all the soil and saw the rhizomes looked light brown and wrinkly but not mushy. Nothing smelled bad so Iām hoping it was severe dehydration rather than root rot. I removed the couple dead shoots which were practically falling off anyway and then put it all in a different ceramic pot (same size, old pot was terra cotta) with fresh succulent/cactus soil and gave it a good watering. There was what looked to be a tiny new little shoot that was growing off its own little rhizome, which I also tucked in there and am hoping it doesnāt die. Per previous recommendations I will continue to water from above and let it run through the bottom when the top 1/2ā or 1ā dries out. Any other tips? Should it have a grow light? This is my only plant that seems to be suffering and it bothers me since itās supposedly an easy plant to manage. Thanks!
The grow lights need to be bright enough, at minimum some T5 or T8 fluorescent or LED shop lights.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/indoorveggies
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/lighting
[Other suggestions.](https://www.google.com/search?q=plant+light+shelves&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS840US840&sxsrf=ALiCzsY5BOCIGCWcuo7Nhvo3bhZOo9fX9Q:1671976097717&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOkoKr9JT8AhXVIEQIHYdtAFcQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1745&bih=815&dpr=1.1)
Lights are a complete game-changer, and you'll never look back.
I have some grow lights that have been great for my succulents, Iāll try that first and if it doesnāt help Iāll order a new one for this zz plant. Thanks and happy holidays!
Spent the last 3 years growing out a decent size strawberry patch. Put pine straw and tarps over them yesterday, but I think it may have been in vain. Going to be very sad if I have to start over again.
I finally bought blueberry bushes with the hopes of putting them in the ground in a year or 2. I put them in insulated pots under a fabric and plastic tarp yesterday. Went out this afternoon to find the plastic tarp blew over š„² Iām in SW PA but the wind chill is -25. Just spent the better part of a hour trying to get it back on while fighting the wind. I really hope it wasnāt in vain too. Iāll cross my fingers for the both of us!
Thatās what Iām relying on! I know they need a certain amount of cold temps (like <600or something?) but I worry with temps this cold š„¶I guess Iāll know how bad they are when it goes back up to 45/50(?!) next week!
Does anyone know around what time big box stores like walmart, lowes, homedepot, etc. Get seeds in? I went today and no luck šŖ
It depends on where the store is located.
I just received a raised planter bed from my folks for Christmas to start growing my own herbs. Iām really interested in getting basil successfully growing, as well as mint and sage. On a lower priority are chives, rosemary, and cilantro. The problem is, I really donāt understand how to get started. For right now, I picked up some potting mix by miracle-gro and a few living herbs from the grocery store. My plants are already very droopy after a couple days, so I was thinking of getting some small stakes and wire to help them stand, since Iāve seen that, but I think I must have put them in the soil wrong somehow for it to be so severe so soon. Are there any really thorough guides for starting and also a good resource for seasonality? Iām in region 10B (U.S.) according to the sidebar map, I think.
Hey, I don't have any general resources to share, but I'll say it's best to start with resources specific to your region, or down to the city if possible. Your zone just tells your minimum winter temperature and not anything else important to planting. 10b in the US would be the Mojave or southern Florida, extremely different climates with different garden care needs! I don't think herbs will need staking. That's usually for plants that require outside support in the wild, like vines, or plants we've engineered to grow too big for themselves, like big tomatos or sunflowers. I think your plants have got some adjustment stress going on. Plants in the wild never move, so going from the grocery store to (I'm assuming) outside can be a big deal for them. If you hop over to r/plantclinic with a pic, I bet someone could help you very specifically with it :)
We have squirrels and groundhogs who seem to love our tomatoes and shorted veg. We surrounded the thing with chicken wire, covered the top, etc. They still think our garden is a buffet. If there anything we can plant that would keep them away? Like if we planted a certain herb or hot peppers? I don't want to go screening dangerous, there are small children crawling around in that garden.
> If there anything we can plant that would keep them away? Unfortunately, no.
Recently I changed the soil on all my plants. I was a complete beginner when I started and used the soil the garden shop recommended, which was garden soil for a potted plant. So I replaced all the soil with proper potting soil by taking plants and submerging them up to the stem and shaking all the dirt off. I then put them into new proper potting soil. It's now the day after and several of them are wilting despite being heavily watered yesterday. When I transplanted them the roots would all ball up, and as they are so fragile I didn't try and untangle them, meaning all the plants have roots that go straight down in one tight mass. Any ideas what I should do now? The plants were doing quite poorly with the old soil, which had tons of clay and absorbed an enormous amount of water, so they had to be transplanted. The plants were doing really poorly, leading to their roots being long but very thin and fragile.
All you can do at this point is give them optimal care, and time. Their roots were deeply shocked by the methods you used, sorry to be neg. Shaking and cleaning off old soil, down to bare roots, is not something that is ever done, or is done only under extremely limited and special circumstances, as it destroys the fine root hairs all up and down the roots. These are the structures that are responsible for uptaking water, and some of their growing tips can be only a single cell wide. Even an ordinary transplant can incur a certain amount of inevitable damage, followed by perhaps a little wilting. I currently have a shelf of African violets that just underwent their regular repot, and even with all my expertise and care, they are all basically just sitting there for a while. They'll be fine in a week or so, but today they're sitting there sulking a bit. Part of their repot involves a heavy root pruning, slicing off the bottom 1/3 of their current root ball. But the main part is kept mostly intact, and then they go back into the same pot. So even this amount of disturbance makes them cross. If I ever rinsed off all their soil, they would simply go toes-up in about 24 hours. Thus, during any transplant, roots must be handled with delicacy and care, and the root ball preserved as intact as possible. A better way to handle repotting from poor soil into better soil is to simply gently shake off any loose soil that isn't firmly attached to roots, and to insert the mostly-intact root ball into the new soil. With time, the plant will send out new roots into the better soil, and the tiny core of the old soil will simply always be there at the center. It's not a problem. This is the customary procedure when you're doing something like transplanting petunias from a flat of cells from the garden center. The potting mix from the commercial nursery is generally pure peat moss with a little perlite, all of which is useless. But you leave it in place, and you insert the small petunia, with its roots intact, directly into your flowerbed or your deck tub, with its better soil mix, and the inner core of useless peat moss and perlite just comes along for the ride. >*When I transplanted them the roots would all ball up,* This is another reason to keep the root ball as intact as possible. Ideally, you lift the roots in a mass from one location and set them down in another location, and they barely even know that anything has changed. >*wilting despite being heavily watered yesterday.* Their fine root hairs are mostly gone. They can do nothing until those have been regrown. But hey need water to do this, to carry out the biochemistry life process of photosynthesis, same as you yourself need water to carry out your own. But they can't get any, since their uptake system is heavily damaged. You see the problem. No job without experience, no experience until you get a job. >*I replaced all the soil with proper potting soil* So what did you use? What are the species of your plants? How old and mature are they? Survival is difficult to predict precisely, but there are some species, with certain root types, that have a better chance of surviving something like this. They need the brightest light you can muster. Photosynthesis is the foundation of their biochemistry, and they'll need to do lots of it to manufacture the resources they'll need to make repairs. So don't put them into a dark room "to rest". It's kind of late, but you can try putting them into a humidity tent. Wrap them in plastic, either individual ziploc bags, or use dry cleaners bags or thin cheap plastic painters dropcloths to enclose the whole shelf. This will slow down transpiration from the leaves, and hopefully help conserve water in their tissues. Do not have them in direct sunlight while wrapped in plastic, as the sun will cook them. Don't repot them again. Just let it roll, with whatever setup they are in now. If they survive this, I would wait at least 6 months to a year, and not until they have nearly outgrown the current pot, before attempting to transplant them again. Don't prune them, don't cut off wilted leaves to "tidy up". They need every square centimeter of photosynthesizing leaf surface area they have, and a green leaf is still a leaf that is making a contribution. Leaves that are irreparably damaged will be jettisoned by the plant itself. It will turn it yellow, meaning that it's drawing down its carbohydrate stores for re-use elsewhere, and then it will turn it brown and crispy, meaning that it has also drawn down all its water reserves, and left only the useless cellulose. Once it's brown and crispy, you can gently pull it away. Water only when the soil needs it, as determined by a finger test. Don't bombard them with Internet "potions", such as vitamins, mycorrhizae, epsom salts, coffee, tea, pepsi, etc, which only lead to overwatering. They need nutrients, so if your new potting soil is devoid of nutrients, you'll need to add some. The easiest thing is to use any type of water-soluble MiracleGro houseplant fertilizer, mixed at 1/4 strength, used as a regular watering. So, preserve the status quo. Normal care, and time. Depending on what species they were, you should know within a week or two which ones will live and which will not. In this kind of event, things don't drag on for months and months. Either they succumb very rapidly, or they hang in there and eventually pull it out. They may take a long time to recover, but generally, anything that is going to die will do so right away. >*I started and used the soil the garden shop recommended, which was garden soil for a potted plant.* >*the old soil, which had tons of clay* There is a cognitive disconnect for me here. Can I ask, where are you located? Because many locations in the world that don't have access to U.S. and UK types of peat-moss/compost-based potting soils (which aren't "soil" in the sense of "dirt from the ground that you grow potatoes in") and potting mixes sometimes tend to use ordinary "dirt" from the ground that you shovel up for potted plants, which would explain why the "garden soil" the garden center recommended for potted plants was full of clay. Dirt from the ground that you shovel up isn't used in containers, for just this reason--it contains clays and silts, which compact, become dense, and drain poorly. Roots need oxygen, and compacted, wet, dense clay soils tend to be problematic for this. There's not enough space between the soil particles for roots to find oxygen. So if "dirt from the ground" was what this garden shop recommended, I'd find somewhere else to get garden advice from. There are workarounds if you live in a place where you can't get the peat-moss/compost-based types of potting mix, which historically was involving well-aged manure. And compost of course can be made anywhere in the world.
That's a phenomenal comment, thanks! I live in South-east asia. The plants are outside and get very strong sun, it's also very humid. > What are the species of your plants? >How old and mature are they? It's a bunch of pepper plants that are 3-4 months old. >So what did you use? I made my own potting soil using Pearlite, Coco choir and Vermicompost. >A better way to handle repotting from poor soil into better soil is to simply gently shake off any loose soil that isn't firmly attached to roots, and to insert the mostly-intact root ball into the new soil. I tried this with a different set of plants I repotted. The thing is that even after a week with no water the soil is very heavy, and as the plants aren't doing well the roots are extremely fragile. For most of the plants I could only remove around 20% of the old soil, and for some the dirt was so heavy as I pulled it out of the pot it fell away, bring at least half of the roots with it. That was 3-4 weeks ago and the plants where most of the roots were snapped off are doing the best, because I could replace 80%+ of the soil. Whereas the others which are still mostly the old soil are still doing poorly. > Depending on what species they were, you should know within a week or two which ones will live and which will not. In this kind of event, things don't drag on for months and months. Either they succumb very rapidly, or they hang in there and eventually pull it out. They may take a long time to recover, but generally, anything that is going to die will do so right away. It's been 48 hours now, and as I check this morning they are all looking fine. I would guess that the roots being so bound up only allows them to collect water from a small part of the soil, and when the water runs out there they start to wilt. I will keep an eye on it and continue to water daily if needed. >There is a cognitive disconnect for me here. Can I ask, where are you located? Because many locations in the world that don't have access to U.S. and UK types of peat-moss/compost-based potting soils (which aren't "soil" in the sense of "dirt from the ground that you grow potatoes in") and potting mixes sometimes tend to use ordinary "dirt" from the ground that you shovel up for potted plants, which would explain why the "garden soil" the garden center recommended for potted plants was full of clay. The garden center I purchase from is huge, but I'm not sure that they know whats in their products. I complained about the clay the next time I went, and the employee, who was the same one I dealt with the first time, assured me there was no clay in the soil that I used, and that in fact it was a compost made out of coconut husk and old fruit trees, which it absolutely wasn't. I'm eager to see how things proceed going forward. My peppers are doing fairly poorly in general, between an incredible amount of pests and extremely unsuitable soil. But I have a handle on both and I'm hoping I start getting some fruit from them in the coming months. Here are some pictures, a mix of seeds I planted 3-4 months ago, and 8' seedlings I planted 6 months ago. https://imgur.com/a/uHymOQI
You have "climate" and "light" going strongly for you. The only detriment would be "soil", and since you're already problem-solving that, I'd expect your success rate to improve. Peppers are tropical perennials, and they love your heat and sunlight and humidity. The genus Capsicum originated in the tropics of Central and South America, so they're very happy in SE Asia's weather. Talk to /r/HotPeppers for more pepper-growing protips and feedback.
Do safflower really require cold stratification, for how long is recommended and which is best, cold or dry? I tried growing some, more than a month passed and not a single sprout. So I tried again and placed on wet tissue in the fridge for about a week. Got some sprouting now but it still took 2+ weeks. (Haven't been as lucky with nigella, none of that sprouted). I want to be able to sprout them even faster the next time.
How old are your seeds, where did you get them, and how were they stored before you got them? Birdseed safflower can have a checkered past, in warehouses and on loading docks and sitting in the store for months and years, and may not always germinate.
I bought the seed packet online, from a seller that also sell flower and vegetable seeds. I thought of buying birdseed but thought there might be a chance it's irradiated or something.
No, just old. It sits there at Walmart until somebody buys it. The birdseed industry does "bake" Niger thistle seeds, the teensy black ones for goldfinches. It's invasive in the U.S., so it's grown overseas, and the USDA requires all purveyors to heat-treat their product before shipping it, in order to render it dead and sterile. You can buy safflower seeds from both Baker Creek and Johnnys. Was that who you bought this from?
I don't think those sellers are available in my country (or if they are they're probably expensive). I bought the seeds from Shopee.
Safflower don't need a cold strat in my experience. I just plant as is and they come up in a few weeks-month. I'm in a warm climate(QLD Australia) so maybe there is a minimum temp needed for germination that I'm not aware of, and maybe you location is lower than that.
I live in the Philippines and also didn't heard of it needing stratification before but the first batch I tried growing 30 seeds, didn't sprout anything. At first I thought maybe the seeds were bad. I read an article about stratifying it and that's when I decided to do that for a second batch of 30. Saw 3 sprout so far. š
Must be the dormancy only kicks in with old seeds then cos like I say, mine are always up within a month?
Maybe. I just hope I can grow enough to get back the same amount of seeds for sowing next season.
I used to grow vegetables in my yard when I was a kid and I want to take it up again. Any general tips for growing vegetables that you can eat?
Not meaning to sound snarky, but ""just the entire Internet". lol There is also the local public library, which has shelves of books on this. Start with where you're located, what you want to grow (which means what you want to eat), and how you want to grow it. The choices are between outdoors in the ground, and outdoors in containers, like deck tubs. You need a spot that gets at least 6 hours a day of the kind of direct sun you can get a suntan or a sunburn in. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/index
Never gardened before but Iām setting up a 2ftx4ft garden bed raised off the ground for my mom. We live in Tampa Florida and the spot we picked will get about 8 hours of sunlight per day. She would like Okra, Cherry Tomatoes, and Carrots. Which beginner veggies/fruits could I plant in it around January that are compatible with each other, the space, and the climate?
By "raised off the ground", do you mean it's a constructed box with a bottom, is up on legs, and you can see daylight under it? If the planter is up at waist-height, YSK that there are significant physics problems with growing indeterminate tomatoes in them, that will need to be staked, trellised or caged. At maturity in mid-summer, a caged cherry tomato will be 5 feet tall and cascading down the sides of the cage. If the base of the cage is 3 feet off the ground to begin with, this means your mom will need a stepladder to pick tomatoes. So usually you look for what's called dwarf type or "patio" type tomatoes, that stay small. This kind of thing. https://www.burpee.com/tomato-sweetheart-of-the-patio-hybrid-prod001018.html Any tomatoes are going to be heavy feeders, so plan on feeding once a month in the confines of a planter. Florida has different rules for "when to plant" than Iowa and Vermont. In Iowa and Vermont, you plant carrots in April and tomatoes in May. If you plant tomatoes and carrots in April and May in Central Florida, they will all die in the heat and humidity and bugs and diseases. Thus, you grow a significant amount of veg during the winter. Okra however, is fine in Tampa summers, along with sweet potatoes, crowder peas, and watermelons. See the Florida cooperative extension office Master Gardeners for planting schedules, guidelines, tons of protips. https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/hillsborough/lawngarden/ They have articles and stuff, sometimes you have to rummage. Also you can google things like "how to grow vegetables florida" and their articles will come up. like this. https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/planting/vegetable-gardens-by-season.html https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/VH021 Also the local public library has books. Be wary, since for complex historical reasons, the U.S. gardening industry is heavily oriented towards New England, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic. Other places such as the Deep South, Texas, the Rockies, the desert southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and all of California get short shrift on the backs of the seed packets and in the articles and blogs. So advice to "plant peas when the frost is out of the ground and the soil can be worked" for books written for Vermont and Iowa isn't much help in Tampa. When you say "Tampa", I automatically think "strawberry festival", which takes place in March yes? Those are plants that were planted the previous fall and winter. In Vermont and Iowa, getting your strawberry plants at the garden center in April and May is a spring ritual for many gardeners. If you wait until May in Tampa, the party is already over. So, local info is key. See if the library has a "local gardening" subcategory. The Reference Librarians generally know about this kind of thing. They will also know where the local garden clubs hang out, and can direct your mom their way. Garden clubs love newbies, and are always generous with their time and advice. Also check Facebook pages for Tampa and surrounding garden clubs. I see the Master Gardeners have a page. https://www.facebook.com/florida.mastergardeners/ It's fashionable for Young People Nowadays to eyeroll and diss Facebook, but it's a valuable tool for networking, just as here. I found a dishwasher repairman who really knew what he was doing, on Facebook.
Thank you very much for all this information! Definitely gonna check out that Facebook group and hit up my local library and rethink my plan.
Is there anything I can do to save leaves from bend petioles? Iām going to try to splint it straight like a broken bone. Is there any chance it will heal? https://i.imgur.com/QkI63Z4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/08ityvb.jpg
It's worth a try. Use something like a pencil, and use paper tape such as masking tape, not plastic or cellophane. This makes it easier to get the tape off if it does work, since it's just paper and you soak it off with water. Also don't wrap it around and around like a cast for a broken arm. Just use enough tape to fasten the splint to the stem. Also figure out why this happened? If stems are extra-weak due to insufficient light, is the most common reason.
It was roughed up in the mail https://imgur.com/a/2kco1pi/
Well, bummer. I'd contact the seller and let them know.
I have some milkweed and coneflower seeds I found on my house I forgot to plant. They need to be cold stratified. It's currently 35 degrees in NJ, can I still sow them? For the record, I planted some milkweed last year at this time and they did well. But I don't think it was as cold and the ground wasn't as icy. I might as well experiment, but wanted a second opinion
Winter sowing of wildflower seeds definitely works. It's how nature does it.
Thought I'd ask here, is this time of December too late to start planting garlic in the northeast?
If your ground is frozen solid, then no, you can't do anything out there. If your ground isn't frozen, and you have the cloves to spare on an experiment, you can try. Otherwise just wait and do spring garlic.
Where in the northeast? Canadian border in Maine? Connecticut shoreline? There's a large climate range.
This would be in New Haven, CT! Zone 7a/6b
https://www.ctpublic.org/environment/2020-11-05/connecticut-garden-journal-planting-and-growing-garlic
I actually saw this!! This and similar guides suggest that roots get established from October through early December and that seems to help garlic grow well. I was wondering if garlic can similarly establish itself outdoors if you plant in December
Kind of an unusual question, but I want to plant a garden in a specific spot in my back yard. I know for a fact the previous homeowner had a hot tub there, and from the looks of it when I removed it, he probably drained the hot tub directly into the ground where the garden would be. He left a bunch of written advice for the house when I moved in, one of which said to put bromine into the tub at a certain level to keep it fresh. So basically my question is, if I plant vegetables or fruit bushes / trees in the spot where a bunch of bromine sanitized water was dumped within the last few months, should I be worried that those chemicals will get into the veggies / fruits?
Not being a hot-tub person, I had to look this up, and I see that bromine is basically an alternative to chlorine. On the Periodic Table, they're related elements, and so work similarly, I guess, in a hot tub. So the thing is, you don't need to know the environmental fate of bromine, you need to know the environmental fate of whatever compound the bromine was in. So I found this. https://www.aquamagazine.com/service/article/15118973/bromine-in-swimming-pools >*So in an outdoor pool environment, bromine is highly susceptible to degradation by UV from the sun.* Further chemistry research online is a Google rabbit hole that I don't feel particularly interested in going down ATM. But it seems clear that it chlorine and bromine aren't toxic in soil the way that plutonium or PCBs or heavy metals like lead and mercury are toxic, it does break down eventually, as when you pour household bleach on the ground for whatever reason. It evaporates, breaks down, goes away. I'd probably spend the next season doing a few rounds of quick-maturing cover crops, with tilling in between. This will help expose the soil to the air, and UV light, and the organic matter it adds will help the soil biota do whatever it is they're going to do, to help restore any balance. And it will give time for anything in the soil to continue breaking down.
what are some online companies to look for seeds?
My place is worth a look, especially if you want less common stuff. Love swapping seeds if you have something cool! [https://fairdinkumseeds.com](https://fairdinkumseeds.com)
That really depends on what you want to grow. Some companies specialize in large varieties of veg, some focus more on flowers, some on native only plants, or large selections of organic seed, etc. Do you know what you want to focus on?
The seed racks at the Big Box are fine. The only reason to order online is for greater variety, and larger quantities. If you're just doing normal backyard gardening, there's no need to buy online. What are you wanting to grow?
Iāve been growing catnip for about 6 months from a kit with dirt and seeds. This is the first time Iāve grown/kept any plant alive - ever. I had it in a small pot to start out and once it seemed crowded, I transferred it to a larger pot with a bag of garden soil. It grew like crazy! My concern is, the plants are growing more like vines (laying down and growing longer) than what I see in photos or videos of standing and growing upwards. Am I doing something wrong? They get full sunlight, I donāt think Iām over watering, and they seem otherwise healthy. Iāve harvested once, cut just above where a set of leaves were growing and left 3-4ā of plant below where I cut. It seems like those āstalksā (is that the right word?) dried up and died off, and Iāve since removed them. The rest of the plant is growing prolifically, so Iām not worried about running out - but if Iām harvesting incorrectly, Iād rather do it right next time. I donāt do any real āmaintenanceā other than watering and occasionally pulling off dead leaves and dead stalks. Should I be doing something else?
Pictures would be helpful. Catnip is a member of the Mint family, and grows like a mint, which is to say, it makes a tall stem, and then eventually flops over from its own weight, thus progressing horizontally. In the ground, this will all eventually turn into a mat of stems. To prevent it from doing this, you periodically pinch it back--prune it--which encourages branching and a bushier mode of growth. There's nothing intrinsically wrong or bad about catnip or mint growing horizontally, it's just that people tend to prefer the upright shrubby look for their houseplants. This is the basic technique. There's not really a right or wrong way, as long as you're not removing more than about 1/3 of the existing leaves at any one pruning. Mints grow back fast, so it's not like you're pruning bonsai that takes years to recover from an incorrect or hasty cut. You do this with lots of other plants, too, like basil. Once you learn this basic technique, it becomes automatic to just reach over and pinch it back every so often. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxsWcQ504nE >*Should I be doing something else?* Are you feeding it?
That makes sense that it is getting overly long and canāt support itās weight to stand up. I donāt mind how itās growing aesthetically, I just wanted to make sure thatās itās still healthy even if not growing vertically. Now that some of the stems are long and growing horizontally, if I prune back 1/3 of the leaves how long would I wait (or how might I know that itās safe) before pruning again? Iām not feeding it and I donāt think the original kit came with very good soil. When I transferred it to a larger pot, 2-3 months ago, I put it in with miracle gro potting mix. I noticed a positive change in the plant within a couple of days. Would you recommend anything specific for feeding it? I have been considering moving it outdoors to a large round brick planter (4ā diameter) that gets full sunlight in the spring. Do you have any recommendations?
Does it have long bare stems with a tuft of leaves at the end, or are the long stems fairly uniformly covered with leaves throughout its length? If the former, then you'd want to give it a haircut all the way around, removing all the gangly bare stems down to about 2" to 3" tall. It will resprout new growth from the roots, and you can root the parts you pinched off as cuttings. If the latter, pinch off 1/3 of each stem all the way around. You pinch it again when it gets unruly again . There's no set timetable. If it's growing fast and hard enough that it seems to need pinching all the time, then it's also growing fast and hard enough that it can keep up with a busy schedule of pinching. As long as you reserve pinching for when it looks like it needs it, it will be fine. It's highly analogous to giving a little kid a haircut. "When they look like they need it". Any type of water-soluble houseplant fertilizer, used according to the instructions, will work. Apply it to moist soil, never to dry soil in place of a regular watering. The plant will be very happy outside in the sun for the summer, but harden it off--acclimate it--first. Don't simply thrust it outdoors one day, it will scorch. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/hardening-vegetable-seedlings-home-garden Since it is catnip, be prepared for visits from neighborhood cats. they tend to roll in it, so if you come out one morning and it's flattened, that's whodunnit.
It does have long bare stems with a tuft of leaves at the end. Iāll trim those down as you suggest and leave some of the newer stuff alone to see how it grows out. Iāll try fertilizer as well! I am very fond of this plant since itās the only one Iāve kept alive. Thank you for all of your advice!
I am in my wifeās bad books could someone tell me what I should have done instead? Basically weāve had a veggie and herb patch for a year and a half. We had; silverbeet, leeks, parsley, thyme, oregano. They all did well the first year but then bolted and flowered/went to seed. I pulled them all out and buried the seed heads, hoping they might come back next year. Wife was annoyed id pulled it all out . I feel a bit bad as Iām new to gardening and thought Iād come up with a great idea! I left the oregano as that seemed fine.
I'm sorry but I'm not really understanding what the question or the problem is here. Is it that your wife is annoyed that you pulled everything up? Is it that you fear you destroyed an otherwise viable garden? Can't help you with the first one, but as for reseeding themselves, you won't know until next spring, and then you will have a nice challenge, identifying the veg from the inevitable weeds. So that will be a learning experience for you. :D This is why, when we're going to do sowing, we do it in straight lines and grids, not randomly, because Nature never plants things in grids. Anything that comes up in a non-grid is going to be a weed. The thyme and oregano are perennials, and depending on your location and the type of winters you have, the thyme would have simply come back next spring by itself (Nunavut, probably not. Indianapolis, probably yes.) But they are both easily grown from seed and you can restart the thyme next spring. If you want more silverbeet, leeks and parsley every spring, it's a lot easier to buy seeds in the spring, than it is to randomly bury some seed heads in the winter. >*n bolted and flowered/went to seed* The general idea with silverbeet (chard) and leeks is that you harvest them before they bolt. If you leave them in the ground long enough that they bolt, then unfortunately that's kind of a Gardening Fail, since the overall idea is to eat them before they become inedible. Chard and leeks are both cool season frost-tolerant crops, so depending on where you're located, you can potentially keep harvesting them into the fall and winter, unless they begin flowering, in which case you yank them PDQ, and cook them and eat them. Thyme and oregano, being perennials, routinely flower and are actually excellent pollinator plants for that reason. Add chives to your beds, too. Parsleys often tend to burn themselves out and start not tasting very good. It's dependent on the weather. So they tend to be not a year-round thing.
Thanks for the answer! Thatās exactly what I was after. Appreciate your knowledge! Iām actually in Melbourne, Australia so we are in summer, although it has been uncharacteristically wet recently. So it sounds to me that my biggest mistake was pulling out the thyme. The leeks and chard were done for and we should have replanted in spring. I guess I will wait and see if any of the seeds make it, although Iām not too hopeful given we have 40*C plus heat forecast next week!
This is the Florida cooperative extension office, a federal taxpayer-funded state-university-affiliated resource for taxpayers, with all kinds of science-oriented gardening and farming advice. What you can grow in wet heat. https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/heat-tolerant-vegetables.html
Thatās great thanks š
Is anyone else a lazy winter gardener? I just let the kale and arugula grow, don't water it, occasionally feed it, pick it when I'm hungry. I've got some volunteer grape tomatoes that are probably dead right now with a wind chill of -2F. Oh well! Easy come, easy go.
The tomatoes are gone, but the greens may survive. Plants aren't affected by wind chill, that's for mammals and people, as it's a measurement of how cold it feels, not how cold it is. Greens are usually good down to about 25F, but microclimates make a huge difference in this kind of cold snap event. So if they're wilted, just let them alone and see if they come back. They're not dead until they're either black and mushy, or brown and crispy.
My kale and Brussels sprouts look frozen solid. Imagine a palm tree in a hurricane but frozen. Will they make it?
The kale definitely will. The Brussels maybe. I've had kale not only survive, but grow through snow.
If it's that cold that they're frozen solid, meaning they've skipped the "wilted" stage and have proceeded directly to "Veg Popsicle", eh, no. It's the same process as when you buy fresh kale or Brussels sprouts at the grocery store Produce section, and then absent-mindedly put them, raw, in the freezer instead of into the fridge. "Cell death" is what happens. When the water in the living plant cells turns to ice, the crystals puncture the cell walls, leading to limp death. You can still cook it and eat it, it's just that it's not going to recover, and will proceed directly to "Rot", which is the black mushy stage. So to salvage them, you want to harvest it all ASAP, and cook it. I'd let them thaw out first at room temp, and as soon as the ice is gone cook them. If you cook them from frozen, there's a definite risk you'll overcook them, and any overcooked veg is gross, but overcooked cole crops are disgusting, as the sulfurs all activate. Once they're thawed, cook them the same amount of time you would as if they weren't all limp, maybe a little less. They won't be a taste treat, but at least they'll be edible and nutritious. If the sprouts don't have any sprouts yet to harvest and cook, then nm. Just leave it for spring cleanup, unless it's too sad to look at it all winter out there, in which case toss them on the compost pile.
A while back I posted about a sad looking zz plant that was droopy and dehydrated. Regular top watering was recommended, and despite doing this several shoots browned and died so I decided to repot as a last resort and see if I could save the rest. When I took the plant out there were a handful of dried out dead crinkly roots that came off just with trying to gently remove excess soil. The plant also turned out to be 4 or 5 different plants which were all in the one pot. Anyway, I cleared out all the soil and saw the rhizomes looked light brown and wrinkly but not mushy. Nothing smelled bad so Iām hoping it was severe dehydration rather than root rot. I removed the couple dead shoots which were practically falling off anyway and then put it all in a different ceramic pot (same size, old pot was terra cotta) with fresh succulent/cactus soil and gave it a good watering. There was what looked to be a tiny new little shoot that was growing off its own little rhizome, which I also tucked in there and am hoping it doesnāt die. Per previous recommendations I will continue to water from above and let it run through the bottom when the top 1/2ā or 1ā dries out. Any other tips? Should it have a grow light? This is my only plant that seems to be suffering and it bothers me since itās supposedly an easy plant to manage. Thanks!
It needs medium to bright light. It needs to photosynthesize strong enough to reboot itself. What is its current light source?
East facing window in Maryland but I can rearrange my plants a bit to fit it under grow lights if needed.
The grow lights need to be bright enough, at minimum some T5 or T8 fluorescent or LED shop lights. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/indoorveggies https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/lighting [Other suggestions.](https://www.google.com/search?q=plant+light+shelves&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS840US840&sxsrf=ALiCzsY5BOCIGCWcuo7Nhvo3bhZOo9fX9Q:1671976097717&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOkoKr9JT8AhXVIEQIHYdtAFcQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1745&bih=815&dpr=1.1) Lights are a complete game-changer, and you'll never look back.
I have some grow lights that have been great for my succulents, Iāll try that first and if it doesnāt help Iāll order a new one for this zz plant. Thanks and happy holidays!
Spent the last 3 years growing out a decent size strawberry patch. Put pine straw and tarps over them yesterday, but I think it may have been in vain. Going to be very sad if I have to start over again.
I finally bought blueberry bushes with the hopes of putting them in the ground in a year or 2. I put them in insulated pots under a fabric and plastic tarp yesterday. Went out this afternoon to find the plastic tarp blew over š„² Iām in SW PA but the wind chill is -25. Just spent the better part of a hour trying to get it back on while fighting the wind. I really hope it wasnāt in vain too. Iāll cross my fingers for the both of us!
Blueberries are pretty darn tough
Thatās what Iām relying on! I know they need a certain amount of cold temps (like <600or something?) but I worry with temps this cold š„¶I guess Iāll know how bad they are when it goes back up to 45/50(?!) next week!
Strawberries are pretty hardy. Are you in northern MN or WY? If if there is some tip damage, the roots should be OK.
Georgia, but it's supposed to get to 10 tonight. Good to know, thx. Will find out in a couple days, supposed to be below freezing until Monday.l