KEEPING Things rolling through out Winter
Comments (37)
plantmanagerkaren
8 years ago
Phil UK zone 8b
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Trying to keep things growing in the winter
Comments (13)The key to garden during winter is to get crops mature enough to hold & use the garden as your refrigerator storing until you want to eat as well as figure out a way to reduce the rain pelting upon them. We pick the hardy greens (parsley, swiss chard, kale, arugula, corn salad, broccoli & sometimes spinach) all winter long. I let them all reseed except for broccoli. Freezing weather sets them back some, but we just go out & pick what has frozen then cook right away. Broccoli side shoots keep on producing during milder weather and as long as the stalk is alive will sprout anew in spring. Everything looks pretty ragged by March, but the kale still grows. Several carpets of kale, lettuce, radish, and parsley have sprouted in different areas after the rains returned. If they don't mature we'll just eat them as microgreens. Onion sets planted now produce green onions. We usually harvest the last of the potatoes & root vegetables by Thanksgiving. However, you can protect the beds from excessive rain helps a lot, too! I've used upturned clear totes (cheapies that have cracked from years of storage use) with stakes on corners to prevent wind damage and have one side a bit higher to let air inside. It's easy to remove stakes from one side & harvest. This year's mature kale, broccoli, & cabbage don't fit inside the totes, but I have hoops up ready for plastic covering hopefully by the weekend. I have used fabric row covers on cold nights in the past & it helps. Both purchased row cover or translucent window sheers or shower curtains work great! When our son was young he asked why I had decorated the garden with butterfly fabric when it was winter and no butterflies out there. I still use those some shower curtains, but my purchased row cover has tears in it after covering some of our tomato plants this fall. Hope that helps, Corrine Here is a link that might be useful: Read Linda Wilkeson's past articles on winter gardening...See MoreJalapenos - how to keep them through the winter?
Comments (5)HH, I don't understand the question. Are you wanting to keep the plant alive or just store the pods for future use? For pods I let them get red ripe and throw in the freezer as they ripen. Zip-lock bags. Jals are not easy to air dry before they mold. I suggest a dehydrator and slice the pods 1/4" thick. Dry at 125-130°. Will take 2-4 days depending on humidity and how good a dehydrator you have. jt...See MoreLet's Keep the Intrigue and Learning Up through Winter 2016/2017.
Comments (14)Hi Pagan, in answer to the above...yes and yes! As you rightly mention, till April 2013, if memory serves me correctly, Adeniums were part of c/s and I for one found it annoying to have to trawl through the posts for the Adenium info and connections to like minded ppl. Whilst one could argue that every individual specie of plant could warrant it's own dedicated forum, I would imagine that's exactly how a gardening set up like this is started, with a few topics that get added to over time so it evolves to be what it is today? Yes, a few die hard c/s enthusiasts seemed a little peeved that we split away saying in their opinion there wasn't any need for it. I contacted GWeb as it was then and was told they wanted evidence for the need. I asked in the c/s forum for Adenium fans to reply to a thread I made to see if they wanted a separate forum to c/s and would they pledge their support by using it. The thread received pages of support. It was looked at by the powers that be....and the rest you know! I have always though that jades could do with their own forum as at times every other c/s post is about them! It makes things so much easier I think. Any takers, Pagan?? Bragu, Elena, it's a pleasure. I know lots of posters on here both past and present have not only gained knowledge, but also plants, seeds and more importantly friendship from using it, so that makes it all the more worthwhile. Gill Edit....also, there doesn't seem to be the arguing that I notice elsewhere! Good work everybody :-)...See MoreKeep roses alive through winter & differences in roots/rootstocks
Comments (21)Rooting roses teach me what cause black canker on canes: 1) Acidic & too wet soil 2) Pockets of wetness, either a clump of wet clay, or wet sand Perlite helps to create "air pockets" and fast drainage of water so canes don't rot in rooting roses. In OUTSIDE garden, can't use perlite (it decompose & flatten out), but pine-bark-mulch in planting hole is FANTASTIC for fast-drainage, and help tremendously with winter-survival: prevents feeder-roots from being frozen & destroyed. Digging roses up from Dec. 26 to Jan 1, at 40 to 37 F, here's what I notice: Dee-lish bought end of June is green to the tip, with green leaves, the soil below is made fluffy with pine-bark mulch, drains very fast, upper soil is alkaline clay to retain moisture. Same with W.S. 2000 with green & healthy leaves this Jan: excellent drainage dug down to 3 feet. While digging up Comte (grafted-on-multiflora), I notice where I mixed sand with clay: it's frozen into solid-ice. But where I have gypsum and pine-bark mixed it .. that PREVENTED SOIL FROM BEING FROZEN. I once spent 1 hour researching on whether potassium fertilizer helps with winter-survival: some site said it helps, other studies showed it did not. With my own eyes, my verdict is "No". Where I put high-potassium cocoa mulch: it's frozen solid at 40 F, same with soil below high-potassium red-lava-rock. But high calcium, esp. gypsum helps to keep soil fluffy, thus prevent roots from being frozen solid. I used gritty lime to de-ice my front-walkway, and it worked great in the winter. There are studies that backed this. CONCLUSION: Digging deep for drainage, plus make soil fluffy with gypsum & pine-bark-mulch helps with winter survival: leaves are still green & lush as OWN-ROOTS despite previous weeks of -10 to -13 below zero. Below are green & lush leaves of Dee-lish rose, picked on December 26, in my zone 5a:...See More
rooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
8 years agoI was thinking exactly the same thing. Last winter I took a bit of a break from indoor plants to focus on other things while I let things languish on a windowsill, but it was a sad winter and I decided some bright lights and baby plants would make things much nicer this year.
Coincidentally, just before seeing this thread I popped some newly received thai soco 'petch banana' and 'golden bell' from adeniumcenter into paper towels via Christine's method, and more (but not all) of my evil plan to thwart winter is here:
Daniel
bragu_DSM 5
8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Kadie
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoPhil UK zone 8b
8 years agoKadie
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agoKadie
8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years ago
Pagan
8 years agoKadie
8 years agorooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Dain (Zone 5a, high NM Desert)
8 years ago
addicted2plants Southern IL USA
8 years agoDain (Zone 5a, high NM Desert)
8 years agoTracy, don't worry, I'll post some blooms, too. Two of mine from Rinoa have buds. And another one that I've got going in a shallow bonsai pot bloomed on Wednesday.
Jericson Pastor
8 years agoDain (Zone 5a, high NM Desert)
8 years agoRick, I know winter is a sad time for plant growing, so I thought this might cheer you up a bit. Here's one of Rinoa's as of a few minutes ago.
And here's a better view of my pseudo-bonsai:
addicted2plants Southern IL USA
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoaddicted2plants Southern IL USA
8 years agorooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoIts kind of funny that you ask that Tracy, the honest answer is I don't really know :)
I'm totally disorganized with my plants and never keep cultivar's straight. I really need to get some kind of system going.
Anyway, I decided I was going to keep these seedlings well labeled. I attempted to germinate the seeds in two identical small plastic containers, that I labeled with sharpies. BUT, I labeled the lids and not the containers. One day I opened both containers at the same time, put the lids on the kitchen table, and when I went to put them away realized I had no idea which lid went with which container. Long story short, I attempted to germinate 3 each of petch banana and golden bell. I lost one seed one day when I opened up a container, separated the paper towels, and didn't realize a seed stuck to the top towel that I removed, and it flew ... somewhere.
The two remaining seeds from that container both germinated. The three in the other container all stuck out root tips then turned to mush. Probably my fault.
Based on reading various things here, it seems like everyone's biggest thai soco adeniumcenter success was golden bell, so I decided the two that germinated were golden bell. maybe time will make it clear, i'm hoping.
For anyone who managed to read through my sob story, some pictures as a reward:
the 2 babies where they live (under some 6500k t5ho). I find a plastic bag just loosely draped over pots provide a perfect level of humidity - it breathes just a little out the bottom, but stays pretty moist and I check on them every day or so anyway, so mist as necessary. This doesn't scale well though, so I can see how someone with a tray full of seedlings would use something fancier. I have very little space, so work slowly with few plants at a time.
Under the bag. One has only a single cotyledon leaf, not sure if I knocked it off or thats just how it is - hope it makes it.
My evil plan coming to fruition. This is the second prototype, just about done. I have little floor space so use shelves, and I don't really have the option of putting the fixture far away from my plants. So I decided it was important to have good control of intensity. It's easy to set up an LED to be dimmable if you're putting it together yourself, but I wanted more control - so I'm using an arduino to give myself the ability to modify intensity over time - now I can ramp up and down sunrise/sunset style each day, and also gradually increase maximum intensity over a number of days/weeks.
The first prototype is currently sitting over a small Ficus, some jades, and a 6 month old mr. ko obesum seedling, kind of a test. It's not easily dimmable though.
I will have 3 or 4 shelves total, with 2 of these fixtures each, hopefully all controlled from a single brain. My shelving unit is 18x24". I'm using full spectrum ("white") leds, that I'm pretty sure will soon replace all the purple stuff you guys currently use. It's what the cutting edge cannabis growers are using now, which is where I drew my inspiration from. google "diy led cob" if you want more information there's a bazillion threads on cannabis forums.
The first shelf should be operational this weekend.
and oh yeah, since I decided the golden bell germinated, I now have 2 more petch banana in process. I used some hydrogen peroxide when soaking this time, and am crossing fingers. It's been two days and one of the seeds shows the tiniest pale green root tip poking through.
Daniel
rcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agoKadie
8 years agoKadie
8 years ago"Night Shadow"
Thanks to Rick who advised me to shelter my blooming adeniums from rains, "Night Shadow" went from this:
To this:
11-25-2015
This is wondrous..outer petals are rounded, inner petals are pointed! Definitely a keeper.
Dain (Zone 5a, high NM Desert)
8 years agorcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years agoplantmanagerkaren
8 years agoKadie
8 years agoKadie
8 years agoplantmanagerkaren
8 years agoDain (Zone 5a, high NM Desert)
8 years ago
bragu_DSM 5