Hi Tom

Go to your nearest feed store, they have them. I bought last week granex onions and shallots and if you want to try potatoes, they have them too.

I grew this potatoes in a bucket last year

{{gwi:23142}}

Give them a call before you go to see if they have what you want. Good luck!

Silvia

Funny, every time I see a really good picture of some really good looking veggies, I know it has got to be Silvia, without even looking at the name at the bottom. Way to go Silvia! Your garden is awesome!

Hi,Silvia,

Your harvest looks so nice, as always. You are my inspiration and motivator in gardening. I get so inspired when I see pictures of your garden and harvest. Wow! My jaw drops everytime I see your veggies and fruits.

The banana pups that you gave us are doing well. All three bananas are Art's plants now. He's been caring those babies so well. Looking forward to some banana fruits soon :0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Freya

Tom

If you can not find them locally, I can get them for you and send them. They are sooo cheap! in the feed store. Hopefully I get there Monday, I need some hay. They sell them in sets of 60.

Thank you Shar, it is very nice that you like my veggies, I just love growing them and sharing with family and friends. Maybe one day you can visit the garden in person like Freya did.

Hi Freya
So nice to see you posting and I am glad that Art is happy with his bananas and thank you for your encouraging words.

I thought that you were with family already for the holidays, we are keeping busy with the dinners for friends after the harvest. We had a girls night last night and we gave them a tatsoi salad with oranges, cranberries, pecans and a vinaigrette dressing. They love it! and ask for the recipe.

Here is my tatsoi that I am growing now

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Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Silvia

sylvia, remind me your bucket-method of potato growing? compost and hay, right?

Hi Michael

I put about 6 inches of soil or compost in the bottom, it can be a mix of anything you have. Put a little hay on top. When you see some leaves keep adding hay and a little bit of soil. I added more hay than soil and they grew fine. If we get any freeze they are lightweight for me to move them to the porch. Water only if dry.

I started 6 potato buckets, I need to get the hay. When I go to the feed store I ask them for hay with no seeds. Whatever they give me it works for me.:o) I love to shop in the feed store!

Did you get your onion sets already? they also have shallots for cheap, cheap!

I also noticed that they are selling at Publix garlic, grown in USA, that is good news for us.

Silvia

Thanks Silvia,

There is a feed store relatively close to my work, I'll call them Monday. When HD has them they're usually only about $3 for 60, and that's usually enough for us.

How big (gallons) are your potato buckets and how many potatoes do you get out of one bucket?

I've got a bunch of seeds to send you but was waiting to send them with a Mahoi banana pup. I'm on the fence about the Baby Blue Jade corn seeds I have, I keep thinking I can put 6-8 buckets on the west end of the upper walkway but I honestly don't think there is enough room there either, and if these seeds are not true once they exceed four feet I'll be forced to throw them out...to Silvia, not to Silvia :-) :-(

Tom

Tom

Very funny! You can throw any seeds at me, I will take them, and if I don't use them I will be giving to someone else that does. :o)

Remember the Everglades tomato seeds? I sent them all to a schoolteacher, that is for good use. The Matt's went there too. To this day people from another states like Utah, Kansas are asking me about this seeds. lol

And I tell them the same story, I don't have them anymore and I send the Hawaiian currant and the seminole pumpkins.

And this week I got new tomato seeds that the Department of Agriculture had given Trudi to try, I am so excited with the new varieties!

A lot of good news are happening with her and her winter sow program, it is getting national attention and there is an article in some Washington magazine about her method of saving seeds. She is getting the credit she deserves. She is also great on recycle bottles, containers and others for seeds. Very interesting.

About the onion sets they were so cheap for 60 Willy said that he does not remember either but were less than $2. And I also bought the full paper bag of shallots for cheap.

About the potatoes they were cents for the pound.

I grew them last year in half a whisky barrels, this year I am growing them in large bags like the smartpots. It is only filled 1/3 of the bag now, I will be adding hay and and soil as the plants grow.

And I don't remember how many pounds I got, but the container was full and I only planted 1 pound in each container. Same thing this year.

On the corn, I really don't recommended for you, because you like to see big results and that is not going to happen. And I am sure that you don't want to be dealing with the corn worms either. Don't plant them close to tomatoes because they attract the same bugs. And what I usually do when planting corn, I drop a little bit of oil and soap where the worms enter.

Silvia

I've been looking for sweet onion sets as well. Can't find them anywhere

jwahlton

Where in zone 9 do you live? I bought my sets in Winter Garden feed store. They are open Monday to Friday. If you can go there give them a call first to see that they have them. They also have shallots.

I have to go there on Monday, I will ask about them...

Silvia

On the corn, I really don't recommended for you....

That's what I've been thinking, this close to the water I stay so buggy here that I think corn would be doomed to failure. The banana pups have slowed down so much that I'm going to go ahead and send these seed packets, and I'll send a pup later.

Tom

Silva

I'm in Kissimmee. I may call our local feed store to see if they've got them. Thanks for the idea

What are Granix onions?

Thank you Tom, whatever you send me I always appreciate. I believe that you can never have too many seeds.:o)

jwahlton
Granex are the sweet onions, they are also sold as Vidalia. That is what I bought at the feed store.

Silvia

fwiw the granex i planted last year--all of them performed well and i got a great harvest. the yellows, tho, weren't sweet. the tasted exactly like the yellow 'spanish' onions from the grocer.

the whites and reds were pretty sweet, but not nearly as weak as vidalias (which i really don't care for). i decided that it wasn't worth the cost/hassle/real estate to grow yellows, but definitely to grow whites and red.

sylvia--any chance you can post pics of you potato bags?

Michael, too late to post the pics now, I will do it tomorrow.

I saw a video were the potatoes were planted in dog food bags.

We just have to be ingenious. I used to plant some tomatoes in Arizona in grow bags. I like that they are lightweight and can be stored easy.

Silvia

Michael

Here are my potato bags and containers taken this morning. I will add hay today. I have them against the fence to protect them from wind.

This are last winter

Silvia

thanks, sylvia! any advantage to the bags over nursery pots?

i've been buying fingerling potatoes from publix (very tasty & florida grown), and culling the smallest ones for use in my nursery pots. i already have 15 small seedling potatoes--blues, reds, bananas, russian fingerlings, etc.

last year i grew mine in the ground, piling straw over them as the season progressed. i was very happy with the yield and surprised that, despite the fact that they were growing in basically straight-up sand, they still produced well and had no disease problems. i grew them until they were wilting from out heat, probably sometime in may.

interestingly the yukon golds did very well. but i like the fingerlings better.

Silvia
I LOVE THE IDEA OF bags, I may use my blue Walmart bags or green Publix bags lol. ok Seriously Are the bags fabric, burlap, paper or what. Size, are they near the size or say a 5 gallon bucket? or bigger.

I have no way to get hay and no where to store it even if I got a bale,

Do you buy hay?, as in what you feed horses or straw... what you use for bedding. I had horses for over 20 years and cant imagine buying alfalfa for gardening. Remember I am from Washington State and maybe they dont even use Alfalfa here.
Is there anything you could use to replace the 'hay'in your bags?
Could you explain in VERY SIMPLE TERMS, HOW THIS IS DONE. Do you start with soil in the bottom of the bag, how much 6" or 12"?? Then do you plant in the soil?
After that, what do you do next, when do you add more of what (soil or hay). Can you tell I want to know it all and I want it right now,,,ROFLOL

I am a visual person so the written instructions have to be simple ...

New QUESTION what is a Banana Pup? I've seem that term mentioned several times lately. I have two or three small banana trees that I bought from LOWES last year. They haven't grown much, they are supposed to be CAVENDISH.

HEY, I AM IN FLORIDA AND I LOVE ALL THE TROPICAL FRUITS AND THE SUNSHINe AND THE YEAR AROUND GROWING. I AM DRIVING MY DAUGHTER NUTS but what a way to go...heheheheh

I want so badly to grow my own bananas. How many years does it take a tree to produce real bananas?

Do you know anything about Avacado trees? If I buy a small one, say 6' how many years will it take to produce. what kind should I buy

I would like to see bananas and avacodos in my life time. I am 64, so I can wait forever...lol .

Last year I got to eat my first home grown fig and my first little dwarf Pomegranit. I also have a Pumello tree and a Buddah's hand Lemon. Yes I know I have a few years to wait on them.

I have a small yard but I dont care if every inch of it is covered in food producing plants..

Has anyone ever successfully grow black pepper in zone 9?

Ok one more question....for this post.. I bought 5 cuttings last year that are now well rooted (DRAGON FRUIT) How many years do you think it will take for them to produce fruit??
Oh you should see (SNICKER) my 15 coffee tree seedlings..If they all make it, I will have a coffee forest.LOL..OR plants for an exchange.

I am sorry to fill up this post with such varied question but the more I ask, the more I learn, which creates new questions in my brain. lol

Silvia you have my email if I have asked to much you can write to me and let me know
SSMITTEE

Hi Michael

I don't know the advantage yet about growing the potatoes in a bag or container. I have both now and will know the difference at the end of the season.

I planted French fingerling, all red, all blue, rose, German Butterball(my favorite)and Yukon Gold. All are late varieties, Yukon Gold is early variety so I will be eating that one first.

Smittee

The bags are bigger than 5 gallon buckets and made of strong material.

I remember when I told them in the feed store that I want hay with no seeds, they said they will give me what they use for horses bedding. As you can see, I don't have too much knowledge in this department. :o)

I use alfalfa in my raised bed in Arizona, it is a good fertilizer. Unfortunately, here I live in a HOA, so I have to be careful about what I use.

It is nice to hear that you had horses, wonderful experience.

And yes we are going to talk about one subject at a time. This way I can explain better, sometimes I lack skills on trying to say what I think. :o)

We have wonderful, experienced people in this forum. We will get more answers and to the point if we ask one question in a thread. I have your email, and will get to answer some of your questions.

My Brogdon avocado tree

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: potato bags