Zaps And Keeps ...New in 2015
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
8 years ago
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New Amorphophallus seedlings for 2015
Comments (23)I'm not using the metal halide bulb at all since that amount of energy doesn't appear to be necessary, but some of my tallest ones are within 2-3 inches of touching the t5 light bulbs. I have about 8 of them fully leafed now, and the only issue I've seen with them is that some of them appear to be very light, almost yellowish. I'm guessing this may be due to genetic variation, nutrition, or a combination of both. It may also be due to overlighting, but they're still doing fine so I'm not that worried about it. I think if they it should be find if they are gradually getting close to the metal halide bulb, but anything closer to 2ft would probably cause burn, especially since metal halides generate a large amount of heat. A titanums are also mainly adapted to indirect light in a tropical rainforest so I doubt they can handle that much, but if you do have them used to strong light already and they are leafed out, you should be able to give them a good amount of water. Last year, I tried adjusting them to full sun, and only managed to get one of them to survive, and it is still barely hanging on so I would be careful about giving too much light. I'm finding that the pots with the leafed out plants appear to always dry out faster than the ones, partially, or not leafed out yet. I have them on a 16/8 light schedule. I only intend to use the metal halide light for veggie seedlings started early indoors....See Morenew: fotess snowflake sweetheart swap: begins jan. 2015
Comments (177)Finally found my way back to this topic. LOL I'll give my input on Facebook. I'm on Facebook. but I wouldn't want to use it for something like this. I don't want to post my comments about why here, but will be happy to share them by e-mail if anyone is interested. And now for today's Bingo word: Love Story Did I forget to post one yesterday? I'll have to look back over the list. Our internet connection seems to go out several times a day lately so I don't know what's up with that. Sometimes if I try to sign on several times that day and can't get through I give up and try again the next day. It went down to 12 degrees last night. Also our high for today was a new LOW for a record high if you can understand that. I think it was for 2 days in a row that happened. Brrrr! But no snow so that's a plus. I do have some good news. The round robin package from Melinda arrived here today. She enclosed a note that she can't get on houzz so I hope she gets it worked out. There were really nice things in the package. I think some members added more things than they took out. I won't list all of it, but I got flower stickers, baking cups with a snowflake design, a spool of wired ribbon, tissues, magnets, and note cards. The seeds are great, too -purple fountain grass, big juicy strawberries, baby's breath, variegated tomatoes, and several more. Thank you, everyone! I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to try to e-mail Melinda to let her know her package arrived. I'll ask how she's doing because I know we all hope she is doing better. Well, the later it gets in the day, the colder I get so I'm going to burrow under my afghan again. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow. Jeanne...See MoreNew 2015 Home in SLC, UT area, no lawn/sprinkler how to begin
Comments (8)You are more in left field than you might think. Your neighbors are pushing you that direction. Unless you know of a specific drainage issue you're having, then don't bring in any more topsoil. Topsoil always changes your drainage. What you don't want to happen is to change it from good drainage to poor drainage. With a brand new home the builder likely left you with a perfectly profiled and draining landscape. That means the soil begins about 4 inches below the sill plate of the house and slopes away from the house for about 10 feet at least to a depth 6 inches further below the sill plate. It also means all the water drains toward the road or an official drain on your property. If you or your neighbors believe there might be a problem with the ability of the existing soil to maintain healthy planting, that can be fixed. Bringing in new topsoil means you have to test that soil instead of the old soil. It does not automatically fix anything. If you want a soil test, now would be a fine time. The soil test will fix the chemistry. Adding organic fertilizer will help fix the biology. Then growing grass and plants will further help the biology. After some months of growing stuff, your soil should be much improved over whatever it is now. Actually your weeds are secretly helping improve your soil's health. You have a lot of prep work in front of you before the grass gets delivered. You need it all done first. Don't let grass sit around on pallets or on the truck waiting for you to dig the sprinkler system. Start by NOT rototilling. Rototilling will not do whatever you think it will and it will ruin your existing soil structure. Your existing structure is still figuring itself out, so don't monkey with it. Sod will go down directly on the soil as is once the weeds are killed and raked away. Mow the weeds and kill them with Roundup spray once. Then start watering 2x per day to moisten the soil and try to grow new weed seeds. Water like that for a week. Then spray any new weeds that start to grow. Then you can do your plumbing. When you take soil out of the trenches, ALL THAT SOIL THAT CAME OUT GOES BACK INTO THE TRENCHES. Do not make the amateur mistake of leveling the tops of the trenches. There should be a mound on top of each one so that soil can settle back down to level with the rest of the soil. Otherwise in 2-3 years you'll see your trenches reappearing as the fluffy soil settles. Then you can put down your new sod. After the sod goes down it should be rolled with a water fillable roller to ensure the bottom of the new sod touches the top of the old soil. Roots will not grow down through the air to reach the soil below. You don't need to aerate. You are starting with newly profiled surface, so it should be relatively soft. Furthermore, aeration does not do what you think it does. At this point I'm not sure it does anything, so give us your reasons for wanting to aerate and we'll probably suggest something else. If any of this gets delayed, keep in mind that mowed weeds look like a lawn. Just keep them watered and mowed and you can push this project into fall if you want to. I just bought a house last summer. It's 90% weeds, so I can sympathize. Here is something I put together several years ago to help people like you. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide....See MoreI think I might need an intervention...
Comments (14)Lol...I'm mostly marveling over the fact that I amassed so many. I didn't realize I had bought that much until I received all my seed packets. Now I have a small mountain. I didn't make my spreadsheet until they all came in the mail...I'll count myself lucky I didn't buy dupes (I got 2 Cherokee Purples as bonus packs) :) I do not ever anticipate growing 46 varieties at once...probably wouldn't go over 20 plants if I do get the room eventually. I do love to can (as does my sister and Aunt), and my entire family loves tomatoes...the fresher the better...so if I did have the room, I would probably be ok if I did that many. My sister has a brown thumb, but is an awesome canner...so she is always looking for fresh tomatoes. As I live in Portland, OR I could probably find a restaurant or two that would be willing to take them off my hands as well :) I also have coworkers who are already lining up for my extras this year. I grew up on a little farm and my dad planted almost exclusively tomatoes...a little corn, peas, and beans too, but 3/4's of the garden was for tomatoes. So while I have a tiny garden now...I do have some experience helping my dad out with his. My ever growing wish list does have some reds on it beyond the few I purchased...but I tend to lean towards orange, bi-color, yellow varieties (and I have put myself on seed buying hiatus...we will see how long that lasts). My husband really likes Black/brown and green tomatoes. I grabbed the Mix for fun...I thought it would be interesting to grow out one or two seeds from the packet each year and see if I can figure out what it is. (obviously if the one doesn't germinate I would have to start another one.) As I find varieties I don't particular care for personally, I will probably donate the rest of those seeds to our local seed library....See MoreSeysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
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