Someone gave me a pot of peppermint. We didn't like the taste - rather more bitter than tangy. I experimented trying to kill it by putting the black pot on a tree stump. It never was watered and was in quite a bit of shade. Two years later it is still there, still green, and still bitter. The conclusion of my experiment is that you cannot kill mint, even if you try.

Nancy the nancedar

Nancy - now that is what I call an experi-MINT!

My biggest successful experiment involved Delphiniums (you know, the ones you can't grow here!). While down in Charleston SC, Thanksgiving of 2004 I bought a bunch of good sized seedlings and drug them home and planted them in a mound of rich compost-y soil. I protected them with a wimpy tent of remay fabric all winter. I lost some to black rot, but about 4 of them survived and got huge. That same winter (now 2005) I found cold treated Delph seedlings at Logan's in downtown Raleigh so I bought some of them to add to the experiment. They were planted beside the SC seedlings so I could tell which group did better. By June I had 5-6 foot flower spikes in the most wonderful purple/blue and pale blue/white. So tall and heavy with flowers that I couldn't support them and many of them bent over (they outgrew my support posts).

This year I am only gonna watch for the seedlings here in Raleigh and hope I find some. Even though the overwintered seedlings bloomed taller - there was only a difference of a foot or so, otherwise the two groups were identical.

oh, but you can't grow them here.....

My most "interesting" experiment??? Hmmmmm, I SURE AM GLAD you qualified that by adding the word GARDENING to it, Cary!!! :-P

Others may disagree, but so far it's probably using the dead tree stump I just COULDN'T get to burn away completely as a PLANTER, instead... After 40 or 50 pounds of charcoal on this 2-foot weeping-cherry stump, I still had outsides a couple inches thick all the way around -- albeit with a few "drain holes," where I had previously drilled holes for ventillation for the charcoal and before that for all the 34-0-0 fertilizer I had put into 1" holes I drilled all around the inside of the stump to supposedly encourage the bacteria to rot it out faster... I waited a year or so with that before I tried the charcoal, lol...

Anyway, the charcoal got a "hole" close to a foot deep down into the stump -- big enough to hold a good-sized bag of potting soil, so I planted pansies in it a winter or two ago, and they did well... so then I planted a single, leftover Campanula "Berniece," in it last fall of 2004... It made it through 2005, and kindasorta bloomed a little bit, and I watered it only when I watered the Peggy Clarke Flowering Apricot I planted near it about the same time... We'll see if it comes back this spring.

One thing I'll say is it did at least as well as 90% of the ones I planted it two different beds around oak trees in the back yard, where they have nothing but soil beneath them -- better than most of them, in fact.

Who knew? Use an old tree stump as a planter! :)

Happy New Year!
Jeff

I think of my whole gardening venture as an experiment. Experiment one: is it possible to kill weeds and have good soil without Round-up and tilling? Yes, it is, if you have horses. But this is hardly anything new, as that's pretty much a description of lasanga gardening. Experiment 2: will the climbing rose Mermaid live here? yes, easily. As it turns out it's more cold hardy than previously thought, or more cold hardy than Antique Roses Emporium previously thought. Experiment 3: is it possible to grow roses and actually be satifisied with their performance? It is if you pick the right roses and hide those that lose their leaves during the summer, like my Ballerina. Ha, it also helps not to have high expectations and be grateful for whatever you get. However I have found that to be true of gardening in general. Whenever DH says something like, "That's going to look incredible next year!" about a border or a particular plant, I immediately say "Don't say that! Now it'll probably die." It's not so much that I'm a diehard pessimist as that Nature's plan may not coincide with my plans. Better to be pleasantly surprised.

I'm experimenting with my hydrangeas, trying to figure out why they do not bloom. Currently, I have them baled up in wire cages with tons of leaves stuffed inside....like little and big R2D2's marching down the hill. If, come spring, I don't get more than one or two mops and caps, I'm going to move them to a morning sun spot, if I can find one. My expectations are low, but I am SO determined.

This isn't so much an experiment..... but the findings are shocking.

Our garden is triangular shaped following a rock ridge and widening under the electrical easement. Let's just say that next year it will NOT be under the easement.

Standing on a ladder pounding in tomatoe stakes was fun (not at all) Yes, aluminum does conduct electricity and those rivets conduct even more! But I thought it was a small price to pay and I'd only be shocked once a year.

NOOOOOOOOoooooooooo. The only time I don't get shocked is when I don't go out to the garden. Did you know that weeds conduct electricity? What about tomatoes? or peppers or even cucumbers? Yes, they all shocked the crap out of me. Sometimes I got fed up with it and left ripe tomatoes out there for another day.

I have a date with my tiller one day soon to break new ground again this year.

Tanya

I'm experimenting with reseeding things right in the pots. I know this is pretty elementary to most but for a beginner like me it's fun. I realized that I keep putting certain things in the same containers so starting in the fall I started letting part of each container go to seed and then just started sprinkling the seeds in the container.

So far I have petunias, snapdragons, flowering maple, geraniums and mums growing and blooming in the greenhouse.

I also took tons of cutting but I had 0% results there. I must not have been holding my mouth right when I cut them. LOL

So far I have managed to winter over a mandevilla and a depledenia (sp) without the bugs taking over them. I'm not sure what those little white bugs are but they are a problem sometimes.

Cindy

tietie,
Is your power easement regular electric wires running from pole to pole across your yard? If so you should not be receiving shocks and it means that one or more poles have not been grounded properly. Call your electric company and complain. I had this happen at my nursery when I brought additional power into the back forty so I understand what you are describing.

Trying to replace the back 1/4 acre of my grass with dianthus. I figure that if I set the mower on high it will keep the major weeds down? I have 3 different patches of dianthus in the yard already that get fairly ignored and somewhat abused. They are all thriving so I am hoping the dianthus lawn experiment might have a chance.

My only concern is with snakes hanging around in the deeper grass. I am thinking about feeding the neighborhood cats to encourage them to hang around and do snake patrol.

Nandina,
thanks for the info, my electric easement has those big metal structures on concrete footings and the wires humm. When it is misty or very high humidity it makes a sort of rice krispy sound.

MIL has the same thing as her place. They are only about 20 miles from the power source so they have much bigger poles. DH says you can hold a light bulb under the power lines in high humidity and it will light up.

Well, I don't know how "exciting" it is, but I tried winter-sowing several different ways last January. I sowed purple fountain grass:
1) in pots indoors,
2) in milk jugs outdoors,
3) direct sowed outdoors in ground with clear disposable cake cover from grocery as kind of a mini-greenhouse.

All 3 did OK, but outdoors direct-sow with cover was far and away best. Best big clump, earliest. This year I'm trying it agin with everything I winter-sow, using all shapes of clear disposable grocery and fastfood covers. I have trouble usually anyway with direct sow, because I lose track of where I sowed the seeds. Now I have little clear "bubbles" to mark the spots. I'm trying some new things too: labeling cover with paint pen, handfull of good potting soil on soil surface along with seeds. I put a handful of hardwood mulch around outside of cover, so you can't see the "bubbles" unless you're standing over them. I'm wintersowing same seeds in 2L soda bottles as well, so I'll see who does best.

Brenda, how are you securing the bubbles? I'm not sure mulch would do it in my windswept yard.

Shari, small rock on top, large enough to hold down, small enough not to crush.

I am jumping into wintersowing with both feet. I have direct sowed early spring annuals in the fall before (larkspur, nigellia, poppies) but this will be my first time with doing perennials and annuals. I have over 150 different types of seeds so it will be a major project. I am really excited about it.

I am not sure if this qualifies as an experiment but....
for years I have grown daylily seedlings inside under a grow lamp. Met a vetran in our DL club who told me to try direct sowing the seeds in my beds in January! I was a doubting Thomas, and put some less important crosses directly in the ground and kept the others inside. The direct seedlings did well and were hardy. This is my 3rd year I will be out sowing seed this month!

i have pondered this thread for days now, trying to isolate one single, exciting experiment. i keep returning to my initial reaction, which is: all of my gardening efforts are experimental. having gardened most of my life up north, i had to re-learn everything when i landed here under these 7a loblollies with property that had been ravaged by 30 yrs of erosion and neglect. so, after the first 5 years of hardscaping, soil repair, and erosion control projects, i've spent the past 5 years experimenting with what "full sun" and "part shade" means in north carolina. every plant & shrub i put in the ground is an experiment in soils & exposures & tolerances of all kinds.

but, i did rig-up a pretty cool straw bale & glass cold frame that's wintering-over my pot ghetto plants quite nicely (thanks to annie-from-oklahoma) :)

I don't think of experiments as being 'exciting'. Rather, I would call them important to the horticultural world as new ideas, especially organic ones, are trialed and reported for others to verify or reject. Over the past three years my reports here on GW about using cornmeal as a plant fungicide have elicited great interest and much helpful advise from those who experimented along with me.

Currently I am working with the 'aspirin technique' on tomatoes as a method to encourage plants to continue growing/producing when hit by disease. (For the purists, technically aspirin is not an organic product.) If you wish to trial the idea is is quite easy. Disolve 1 1/2 aspirin tablets in one gallon of water. Begin spraying tomato plants (or any other plant you are growing prone to disease) at the seedling stage when four true leaves are present, once a week. Continue spraying once a week through the growing season. Doing this last year I was able to keep my tomatoes healthy and producing through the whole season despite the heat, diseases and humidity of the Low Country. I would suggest that you purchase on line, although quite expensive, a wetting agent (surfactant) called yucca root extract and add 2 tablespoons to each gallon. I am using various ways to make my own yucca root extract due to the cost of the commercial product, but want to experiment with that a bit longer for the best method.

Also, I have several NC. friends gardening in heavy clay who have been experimenting using different types of surfactants. It is helpful, as you know, to keep heaping compost and leaves on clay to break it down. Spraying a surfactant on top of the amendments once a month speeds the process when working with clay. After two years of experiments my friends both agree that filling a hose end sprayer with Simple Green and setting the dial on 3 tablespoons per gallon is the cheapest and best way to improve clay soils and lawns. Those of you with clay might want to try this in the corner of your yard once a month. Report your observations, please. Note: I have not used Simple Green on tomato plants so have no idea if it would hurt them or not. But, SG is very helpful for lawns and clay.

Nandina - I also saw a report this past summer about an experiment where they were growing tomatoes in tight clusters (I think it was like 4 plants stuck right up beside each other in a grouping and normal space between groupings). The effect was to make tight clusters of plants that were somewhat stunted but produced more fruit due to competition. I have yet to try it but intend to this summer.

I did use cinnamom on my seed tray soil to hold off 'dampin off' disease. It seemed to help somewhat.

Will regular detergent work as a wetting agent? I know that commercial wetting agents sold for greenhouse use doesn't even last a season. Many business use it when they pot things up and think they are done for the year but the word I heard is that it only lasts a month or so.

Any detergent is a surfactant. I've seen recipes for hose sprayers using pet flea shampoo.

nandina
what are the benefits of yucca extract vs detergent?

Marsha, I've never used yucca extract, but yucca contains a natural saponin, or soap. Most commercial detergents and soaps are not natural, although many are now biodegradeable. I guess I'd tend to substitute something like pet shampoo, or baby shampoo, or insecticidal soap diluted, because they should have less harsh properties. If one used too strong a detergent, you could kill a plant, by removing the waxy protective coating, among other effects.

TriangleJohn,
Yes, I saw the same report on tomato growing. There are several other ideas kicking around. This summer I plan to try one. Plant two tomatoes in the same hole and then lightly secure the two base stems together so they will graft onto each other. Probably I will use regular florist tape for this purpose as it is lightweight and stretches plus being easy to remove without harming plants. This method is supposed to increase fruit production, also. Maybe others will try our ideas and provide us with their observations.

Surfactants (wetting agents) seem to be very misunderstood by many here on GW. All contain soap with yucca extract having its own natural form of soap (saponin). But I shudder when someone states that any detergent can be used as a surfactant. Not true as many detergents contain degreasers and/or anti bacterial agents, both of which will kill plants. My suggestion, for tender leafed plants is to use either yucca extract, baby shampoo or Nitron A-35 as wetting agents. Yes, John, surfactants should be used once a month, especially on clay soils. Surfactants not only help soils to 'open up' and drain they also help plants to absorb fertilizers. You should be able to reduce your fertilizer needs by one half using a surfactant on a regular basis. Try the following on your indoor plants...everytime you water add 1 teaspoon of a surfactant to a gallon of water along with whatever fertilizers you use. In a few months you should note a difference in plant growth. By the way, John, this is how you win blue ribbons at State fairs.

As I said above, Simple Green, applied once a month, appears to be an excellent surfactant for clay soils. Give it a try.

Well, don't shudder, Nandina! All detergents and soaps ARE surfactants, or wetting agents, chemically, but I clearly stated that many were either too harsh or nonbiodegradeable for use on plants and soils. And you are of course correct, some commercially available household detergents contain solvents and other chemicals as well as the chemical detergent. Simple Green is biodegradeable and contains no solvents, but dilution is still important. Niton A-35 is not actually a detergent, it enzymatically chews up "water-hating bits" (hydrophobic) in the clay into "water-loving bits" (hydrophilic). Surfactants work by surrounding the hydrophobic bits and thus making them water-soluble. It should not be used with time-realease fertilizers, because it will dissolve time release coating and release all fertilizer at once. Thanks for reminding me about the use of surfactants - I had forgotten about how well diluted pet shampoo can help a lawn - in Phoenix the clay was even stickier than it is here! Still, now that I've become a composter and aware of the "microherd", I wonder about the effects of any surfactant on theses little critters - does anyone know if it adversely affects the balance of microorganisms in the soil? Insecticidal soap works the same way and kills insects, so you'd think it might.

Extremely interesting, Nandina. I wonder if any university studies have been done along those lines. Even though you don't consider it exciting, I do. I admire your inquisitive scientific nature. Clay soil is such a huge challenge right across the board that we need all the fresh ideas we can muster.

Isn't it amazing what some of these threads will bring to the surface!

Brenda,
I have only had about 30+ years of experience using and testing surfactants in all sorts of situations from golf courses to nursery stock plus houseplants. Just sort of a dirt farmer/landscaper here who kicks the sod trying to make it more productive organically, if possible. I have never noted any harm to the 'microherd' or worms. Insecticidal soaps would not be my choice of a surfactant. Thanks for the reminder that surfactants should not be used with slow release fertilizers. That is correct.

Yes, puppyscruff, there have been studies done on surfactants mainly for those working with the golf and nursery businesses. Very little is ever written about its usefulness in the home garden. One of my major uses was around new construction sites where soil had been compacted by heavy equipment. Usually one or two treatments would make average soil friable again. And, those of you with clay should find it very helpful, not with overnight results, rather over a period of time with repeated applications once a month.

Not this past summer but the summer before I tried out making "Soil Soup" by using a fish tank aerator and bubble stone in a bucket of compost and rainwater and then diluting the mixture even further and spraying it all over the garden. I do believe it helped but I didn't see the phenominal results others have witnessed.

Soil Soup is a concoction where you are making super charged microbes in water - the theory is that when you spray this 'soup' onto soil or leaf surfaces the excited microbes eat up all the available food matter thereby starving any fungus or pests that you would normally have. The soup microbes die off as the leaf surface dries up. They are also supposed to really get your soil born micro herd on a rampage. A great way to enhance the microbial life in your soil and on the surfaces of your plants but I don't really think it will cure all the garden worlds problems.

Nandina - no more blue ribbons for me! I am now the man in charge of the flower show (today the state fair - tomorrow the world!!)

John, What a cool idea - do you have recipe?

"So what are we going to do today John?"
"Why we are going to do the same thing we do every day Pinkie - we are going to TAKE OVER THE FLOWER SHOW"
{{gwi:590781}}

There are a bunch of recipes out there. Most involve taking a gallon or more of water (preferrably not tap water due to the chloramines or chlorines) and adding a few cups of rich compost. You mix it up real well and then aerate it with some sort of bubbling device for 12 hours. At this time the microbes are supercharged and your soup looks like weak coffee. You can then shut off the aerator and filter the debris out of the soup and then dilute it again to about one cup of soup with a gallon of water. You only have a short period of time to spray the mixture til the microbial frenzy dies down. But you can charge it back up again by adding a little more compost and firing up the air pump. They sell mixing chambers and pumps as home made soil soup kits - and the guys at GardenWorks were selling it by the gallon I believe last summer. There are also things like sugars and yeast that folks sell for you to add to the soup to enhance its properties. Don't know much about that stuff - I was trying to rig it all with scavenged parts I already had.

Telling a gentleman friend I had hidden a 6 pack of his favorite imported beer amongst the fallen leaves (kinda like an easter egg hunt) and handed him the rake. It worked great cause I only hid 5.