Bonnie killing off the mainstream retail veggie plant market?
robert567
6 years ago
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Kevin Zone 6b - PIT, PA
6 years agoHappy Hill Farm
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Does Roundup kill hostas?
Comments (66)There is so much misinformation about RoundUp on this thread, it is difficult to comprehend!! The "original" RoundUp was just glyphosate and a surfactant. Glyphosate is a broad spectrum (read: non-selective) herbicide........it has the ability to damage or kill anything it touches, although it takes more and in higher concentrations when you are addressing anything very large or very woody. It is NOT restricted to grassy weeds and it DOES translocate down into the plant root system. It moves through the phloem and so will be transported to ALL parts of the plant tissue. That is why painting the cut stems of woody saplings or other plants with glyphosate is an effective method of control. Plants that develop a waxy cuticle on their foliage - like many BLE's or English ivy - are somewhat more resistant to a glyphosate application than those that lack this protective covering but they are not immune!! Also the larger and more established the plant, the less likely it will be for a single application of glyphosate to kill it outright. Which is likely the case with the OP's large hosta. Even with some larger weeds it takes more than a single application to do the deed. Glyphosate tends to be bound by chemical action when in the soil and dos not move through the soil easily and evidence of it leaching into groundwater is difficult to document. It is suggested not to be used close to waterways due to its toxicity with aquatic life but I would suspect that is more a drift issue rather than leaching through the soil. And it does breakdown very rapidly once in contact with soil biology....it has an estimated half life of 47 days under average conditions but can degrade in as fast as just a few days if conditions are favorable. Newer formulations of RoundUp may include other herbicides that have other, longer reaching or more pernicious effects. But pure glyphosate (Monsanto's patent has expired so you can purchase under any of several dozen brand names), remains one of the most useful and safest herbicides that currently exists....See MoreBonnie Plants--If You're Not Growing From Seed,,,,
Comments (15)Heeheehee - I agree with you Ezzirah. Often the stores, like the big box stores for instance, are more of a problem because they don't take care of the plants well at all! I try to catch them early in the year when the plants are just coming off the truck to grab them. I buy herbs like Lavendar, Rosemary, and Bay that are said to be difficult to grow from seed. I've never actually tried to grow them from seed because it seems like such an effort in futility, taking a long, long, time to grow to any substantial size. Bay in particular is very slow growing and is often more expensive to purchase because of that. It is not hardy in the ground in Oklahoma and must be brought inside during the winter. Use care when purchasing Rosemary, too. There are hardy varieties such as 'Arp', which is the hardiest. 'Madeline Hill' and 'Hill Hardy' are other hardy varieties, but if conditions aren't just right, they are questionable. So beware if you buy locally. The one I see most often marketed here is 'Tuscan Blue'. While it might make it thru a mild winter, it is really only hardy to zone 8. I buy tuberous or bulbing plants, too, rather than growing from seed, because not only do the plants generally put most of their energy into growing their tubers or bulbs, they often take a long time to reach flowering size for that reason; sometimes a year and sometimes many years. I'm not saying you can't grow the plants I mentioned from seed, because you can. They're just a little more finicky to start from seed and they take a little longer to have any impact in your garden. Larry, whatever it takes for a person to be happy, I'm all for it. I don't know too many of us that wants to change once we reach a certain age and are used to doing things the way we have done for a long, long time. Count me among them, too! Susan...See MoreLeeks, Kale, and other cold weather veggies
Comments (14)I'm gonna jump in here with a few comments! Am I right in assuming you're looking for things that you can basically "store" outside to save room in the fridge and in the house? If that assumption is right, you can store carrots, parsnips and beets outside right in the ground--without digging them up! Most of my beets and carrots and all of my parsnips are still out in the ground! I was planning to dig up some of them this past week with the nice weather, but haven't been feeling all that good, so I put it off for our next batch of warm weather! Before we got our first REALLY cold snap, I dumped a couple big bags of maple leaves on them! When I stored them outside a couple years ago I put a lot more leaves on them and then covered the whole thing with an old sheet to keep the leaves from blowing away--didn't bother doing that this time, and I'm expecting them to be just fine. You said you don't like beets, but have you ever tried the gold ones? And if you like pickled things, pickled beets are really good--and don't really taste a whole lot like "beets" anymore! Digit, where are you finding so many varieties of parsnips? Almost everywhere I look carries Harris Model, and most places seem to only have one, or maybe two other varieties. I was planning to try Hollow Crown one year, but never got around to getting the seed! Overall I've been very happy with Harris! Considering my really heavy clay, they seem to be able to easily bully their way down into it, and I've had a few up to 14" long! I think I have more trouble digging them up than they do growing! Do you have a particular variety that you like more than Harris? I think they're incredibly sweet and yummy! A couple comments about carrots! I tried Purple Dragon this year, and I guess I was expecting it to be--at least partly--purple inside, but discovered that the only thing that's purple is the skin! Have to say I was disappointed! There are lots of sites online expounding on the increased health benefits of the purple ones, but I always peel carrots, so, there goes the purple! If anybody knows of a purple variety that's purple all or most of the way thru, I'd love to know about it! The Purple Dragon I grew this year stayed VERY small, and since they aren't purple inside, I wasn't planning to grow them again! Interesting factoid: When I peeled them some of them were nice and orange inside, and some of them were a pale, kind of anemic looking yellow! Looked identical on the outside! One other thing while I'm thinking about it! If you grow carrots and decide to dig and keep them in the fridge, don't wash them! Just brush off any excess soil, be sure they're not overly wet, and stick them in a plastic bag! A couple years I still had a few left in the fridge when I was planting the following year, and they were still just fine having been stored that way. I'm not sure about this, but based on my experience it almost seems as if washing them washes off some sort of "natural" protection, and they don't seem to keep as long if washed first--IMO! (I don't wash any root crops if I'm storing them in the fridge.) I grow a Chantenay type--specifically Royal Chantenay, but there are several others. They get big around--easily up to a couple inches, but stay fairly short--usually up to about 4-5" for me--tho I really don't have ideal growing conditions considering both soil and light. The Chantenay kind are also supposed to be one of the easiest to grow in heavy soils. With my awful soil, based on having tried the Nantes type that digit recommends, I definitely get the biggest and best carrots from the Chantenay's! My brother in Illinois grows them (which is how I discovered them), and with his good Illinois black dirt, his get HUGE. More than 2" in diameter and at lest 4-5" long. BUT, no matter how huge they get, they are always sweet and tender all the way thru--no nasty core in the middle. He stores his in a bucket, in dry sand, in an unheated building over winter. See the link below for info about some of the different types! I tried a white one last year too--mostly for the novelty of it, but they also didn't get very big at all, and since most of the health benefits are in the deep colors, I decided it wasn't worth using my limited space to grow them again. About the quality, I think the home-grown ones are noticeably better for all the root crops. I use a lot of store bought carrots, and usually keep my home grown ones to eat raw or to use when I'm having company! They really are good--tho you sometimes run into really good store bought ones, but you never know what they'll taste like till you get them home! With parsnips, since so few people seem to know about them, I don't remember finding really fresh, good ones in a grocery store--ever! Before I started growing them I bought store bought ones a few times, and they weren't awful, but they were always just--old, having laid around in the store for so long. I've never bought produce department beets. it's either my own or canned--and home grown trumps canned by a mile! I'm not into all the "weird" kinds of greens you're asking about--that Digit tends to grow, so I can't help you with answers for any of that stuff! I don't like bitter AT ALL! Tried orach once when I got some seeds at a swap and even that was too bitter for me! I grew leeks one year when a pack of starts (Lancelot) jumped into my basket at Paulino's, and I really liked them, but with my dearth of sunlight, they really didn't do that well or get very big, most of them, so I haven't tried them again since then. I would like to grow a few again some year, maybe try to get them into a place with a little more sun. BUT, the year I did grow them, I also covered them with maple leaves and left them in the ground well into the winter. A couple other things that you can grow well into, if not all the way thru, winter are parsley and cutting celery. Depending on the winter, you can pick and use them all winter long. The cold doesn't phase them, and they are NOT covered at all! They will, being biennials, bolt as soon as it gets warm in spring, so you do need to start new ones each year. My other "winter crop" is tomatoes! They, of course, need to be stored inside, but I'm still picking them--up in an unheated bedroom. They started out again hung in the garage, but when it was gonna get well below freezing the first time I carried them in and laid them on a sheet in the bedroom--where they're (mostly the cherries now) still slowly ripening. Oh, and I haven't gotten around to this yet, but spinach, at least some varieties, can be planted in fall in time to germinate, and they'll be the first thing you can use in the spring. Charlene did this the first year she had a veggie garden when she planted them in fall hoping to get a crop then, but didn't and figured it had been a waste, and then she had an amazing crop in early spring--and we all had a wonderful spinach salad at the very first swap, which was at her house! I have been planning to start some in fall for three years now, and just never get it done. Regret it every spring since I haven't yet been able to successfully grow spinach when I start it in the spring. It always immediately bolts! That's all I can think of right now--and the second season of Downton Abbey just started, so I have to go! If I think of anything else I'll be back! Skybird P.S. When you want to do two posts in a row, just change the subject, or a word or couple letters in the subject, and it's no problem! GW doesn't seem to recognize it as a second post that way! P.P.S. Digit, what does kale taste like??? Is it like cabbage? I alway thought of it just as an ornamental when I sold it, and I know you can eat it but just never thought about growing it. Do you eat it fresh too, or just cooked? Tell me all about it! Here is a link that might be useful: Different types of carrots...See MoreBonnie Plants a Monopoly?
Comments (89)Bonnie Plants keeps getting bigger and bigger, and driving the local entrepreneurs out of business, and has sewn up the market with exclusive contracts from Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot nationwide. A few years ago they introduced Late Blight to New York by shipping plants there from one of their two Georgia greenhouse complexes and caused a major uproar. In order to grab all their market share and squeeze out the little guys who's heart is closer to business, they offer the big retailers the plants on consignment, so the Walmarts of the world have not a responsibility when the plants aren't taken care of, so it is so easy for disease to spread on the outside displays on weakened plants, and after the plants are beat, Bonnie comes to pick up the fallen from their battlefields if they had no time to care for them or a heat or cold wave hit, sometimes they delay and that is when people notice how bad the quality can be. All of this would be fine if they offered a benefit to the consumer, but instead they use their monopoly status to drive up the prices, give the Big Box stores a a large commission and plenty of hapless consumers get sick plants or terrible quality depending if they come when the shipment arrives or after the plants have been a while. Single plants in a 3 1/2" bad pot are $3.73 here. The same size in 4" nursery pots are $1.50 - $2.00 in the last planting nursery left here. Close to the same prices also apply to the 4 or 6-packs of seedlings. Last year we lost a major nursery here that raised tomatoes and always had interesting varieties, due to its inability to compete. Of the two major nurseries left, one only has a tiny table of varieties (interesting ones) in the back which really shrunk and was de-emphasized this year, amd the other nursery for the moment a large selection but buying the plants from out of town from the same source as Ace. Ten years ago we had 10 nurseries to serve our large southern city. Ace still is not Bonnitized here, but they order from out of state anyway. Bonnies has grown to have over 60 greenhouse complexes covering most states and will ship anywhere they have to to meet their contractual obligations though of course in-state is cheaper to ship for them and more profitable. I do not buy Bonnie Plants because I plant seeds myself, but when the opportunity comes up I am very glad to support a local independent, if nothing less, for the experience of walking around the nursery instead of seeing a mix of sick and some decent plants in the hot sun on modular shelves too big for their pots, filled with Septoria, drying out or just plain sickly, in a hot Home Depot parking lot. More fun at an independent than paying for a $10 movie ticket :-) Cheers PC...See Morefarmerdill
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