A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
September 20, 2010
Yesterday I started a bunch of trays of seeds. The trays I'm using hold 42 small peat pellets (7 rows of 6)
Anyway, I made a point of planting one tray in such a manner that I can do another tray the same (I often do each row as a type of seeds since I'm not likely to need 42 of any one thing all at once, I'm not commercial.) So since yesterday was ranked as a good day for planting above ground crops and today is a poor day for planting according to the almanac, I'm doing a test.
Tonight I planted my last tray out with all the same seeds as I did that one tray yesterday. Then we will have to wait and see if there is much difference in germination.
The past few days I was planting mostly cool weather stuff but I still did plant some of the Warm weather plants like squash and zucchini (since they are so fast they will be done before any real cool weather sets in.) The winter squash and stuff takes longer but it is highly likely they will also be done before any actual freezes hit unless it is a strange year again. If I am lucky the fall will be not so hot and the cool weather crops I've planted will be able to grow and not fry at least until the weather does actually cool off.
See seasons here are wonky and learning to garden here means learning to ignore most gardening books written for temperate climates. Sub-tropical gardening is just different since the seasons don't line up right. Cool weather crops that don't mind frosts or freezes are great since things like broccoli will smile and beam at you even when covered in ice but it will still do well with daytime highs in the 80's and full sun. However, plants that don't like heat and also burn with a frost are far more challenging (like potatoes, we have never really had much success with regular potatoes.) And of course there are those plants that Temperate climates think are hot weather plants but I'm gonna call them warm season. Stuff like tomato, see tomatoes are kinda picky about temperatures. They might like it warm but only so warm and they need it to cool off overnight or they won't bother setting blooms or fruit for ya and bigger plants tend to get attacked by pests and disease if kept through the worst of our summers and tomato plants started in fall tend to be a bit too late and will get caught with fruit on the vine come frost season. I did start some tomato plants in the wicking bed this summer and have transplanted some into the AP systems for fall growing, will see how they do.
Tropical plants are another challenge. Well if I can't grow apples, shouldn't I be able to grow some tropicals? Well we have managed to grow one bunch of bananas here, lucky fluke that I think but maybe we will manage more in the next year. Also papaya, but both of these can be killed back to the ground in a hard freeze and that will dash the next year to year and a half possibility of fruit. Loquat seems to be an exception in our area, I've read that they can't handle freezes but mine doesn't seem to notice the cold. And Mulberry There is a wild mulberry growing over on my vacant lot and in spring we ride the bike down and pick jars of mulberries and get all stained with dark juice. I've now planted three more mulberry trees around the house here and hope they do well.
Some other trees/shrubs I've planted this past year that I hope will do well and produce something we like include;
Jujubee (two types that are growing fast and look beautiful)
Gumi (two bushes that are supposed to get red tart/astringent berries)
Paw Paw (not the ausie term for Papaya, but the American PawPaw, I've planted two standard and two dwarf)
Plums (I've planted some chicisaw plums and some Guthrie variety)
And I also planted some nut trees but so far only two seem to be surviving.
I also planted a couple natal plumb bushes
Wild Rasberries, dug some canes up from a friends property and planted here.
In the AP system I have a couple dwarf barbados cherries
Several yeast ago I planted some Pomegranates, Odd thing is the ones that are still in containers are the ones been flowering and fruiting while the ones in the ground are only growing. The fruit are about golf ball size and not always ripening right before they split.
The property came with a tangerine and a ruby red grapefruit tree that provide a nice amount of fruit over winter.
And of course the Loquat which I have spread seedlings off all over the property.
And I've planted lots of banana plants (the ducks and chickens love eating the leaves) There are bananas all over the property now as well as in the AP systems. Right now there are only papayas in the AP system though I should start more papaya seeds in containers soon to overwinter them for planting out next spring.
Today was mostly a non garden day, I ran errands and got some good deals at Good Will (8 or of 9 things happened to be the color of the week so I got 50% of most of it) good thing too as I've been wearing out most of my garden clothes to the point that I probably shouldn't wear them outside anymore. And then for a few things I couldn't get at good will I stopped at K-mart and on my way through got another armload of useful stuff off the clearance rack! I think I'm all set for polo shirts for a while. So now that I have some new work cloths, I can retire the older things to garden wear and not get arrested for being indecent in the garden.
Now if I can figure out why the darn chickens have rejected their perches lately I might be in better shape. Spent about 45 minutes around dusk herding chickens. The 4 younger ones have been trying to leave their paddock and perch in the crepe myrtle again (instead of on the covered ladder that they had been using for the past month or so.) And the older chickens have been trying to sleep in the nest boxes again.
I fear that something must have gotten into the yard and spooked them all lately cause I'm missing a chicken as of some time yesterday or overnight the night before. Though mosquito hour chicken wrangling is a pain in the behind, it was a little funny seeing three chickens trying to climb into the nest box with the white duck who is sitting on a clutch of eggs.
Sigh, fun on the farm
Anyway, I made a point of planting one tray in such a manner that I can do another tray the same (I often do each row as a type of seeds since I'm not likely to need 42 of any one thing all at once, I'm not commercial.) So since yesterday was ranked as a good day for planting above ground crops and today is a poor day for planting according to the almanac, I'm doing a test.
Tonight I planted my last tray out with all the same seeds as I did that one tray yesterday. Then we will have to wait and see if there is much difference in germination.
The past few days I was planting mostly cool weather stuff but I still did plant some of the Warm weather plants like squash and zucchini (since they are so fast they will be done before any real cool weather sets in.) The winter squash and stuff takes longer but it is highly likely they will also be done before any actual freezes hit unless it is a strange year again. If I am lucky the fall will be not so hot and the cool weather crops I've planted will be able to grow and not fry at least until the weather does actually cool off.
See seasons here are wonky and learning to garden here means learning to ignore most gardening books written for temperate climates. Sub-tropical gardening is just different since the seasons don't line up right. Cool weather crops that don't mind frosts or freezes are great since things like broccoli will smile and beam at you even when covered in ice but it will still do well with daytime highs in the 80's and full sun. However, plants that don't like heat and also burn with a frost are far more challenging (like potatoes, we have never really had much success with regular potatoes.) And of course there are those plants that Temperate climates think are hot weather plants but I'm gonna call them warm season. Stuff like tomato, see tomatoes are kinda picky about temperatures. They might like it warm but only so warm and they need it to cool off overnight or they won't bother setting blooms or fruit for ya and bigger plants tend to get attacked by pests and disease if kept through the worst of our summers and tomato plants started in fall tend to be a bit too late and will get caught with fruit on the vine come frost season. I did start some tomato plants in the wicking bed this summer and have transplanted some into the AP systems for fall growing, will see how they do.
Tropical plants are another challenge. Well if I can't grow apples, shouldn't I be able to grow some tropicals? Well we have managed to grow one bunch of bananas here, lucky fluke that I think but maybe we will manage more in the next year. Also papaya, but both of these can be killed back to the ground in a hard freeze and that will dash the next year to year and a half possibility of fruit. Loquat seems to be an exception in our area, I've read that they can't handle freezes but mine doesn't seem to notice the cold. And Mulberry There is a wild mulberry growing over on my vacant lot and in spring we ride the bike down and pick jars of mulberries and get all stained with dark juice. I've now planted three more mulberry trees around the house here and hope they do well.
Some other trees/shrubs I've planted this past year that I hope will do well and produce something we like include;
Jujubee (two types that are growing fast and look beautiful)
Gumi (two bushes that are supposed to get red tart/astringent berries)
Paw Paw (not the ausie term for Papaya, but the American PawPaw, I've planted two standard and two dwarf)
Plums (I've planted some chicisaw plums and some Guthrie variety)
And I also planted some nut trees but so far only two seem to be surviving.
I also planted a couple natal plumb bushes
Wild Rasberries, dug some canes up from a friends property and planted here.
In the AP system I have a couple dwarf barbados cherries
Several yeast ago I planted some Pomegranates, Odd thing is the ones that are still in containers are the ones been flowering and fruiting while the ones in the ground are only growing. The fruit are about golf ball size and not always ripening right before they split.
The property came with a tangerine and a ruby red grapefruit tree that provide a nice amount of fruit over winter.
And of course the Loquat which I have spread seedlings off all over the property.
And I've planted lots of banana plants (the ducks and chickens love eating the leaves) There are bananas all over the property now as well as in the AP systems. Right now there are only papayas in the AP system though I should start more papaya seeds in containers soon to overwinter them for planting out next spring.
Today was mostly a non garden day, I ran errands and got some good deals at Good Will (8 or of 9 things happened to be the color of the week so I got 50% of most of it) good thing too as I've been wearing out most of my garden clothes to the point that I probably shouldn't wear them outside anymore. And then for a few things I couldn't get at good will I stopped at K-mart and on my way through got another armload of useful stuff off the clearance rack! I think I'm all set for polo shirts for a while. So now that I have some new work cloths, I can retire the older things to garden wear and not get arrested for being indecent in the garden.
Now if I can figure out why the darn chickens have rejected their perches lately I might be in better shape. Spent about 45 minutes around dusk herding chickens. The 4 younger ones have been trying to leave their paddock and perch in the crepe myrtle again (instead of on the covered ladder that they had been using for the past month or so.) And the older chickens have been trying to sleep in the nest boxes again.
I fear that something must have gotten into the yard and spooked them all lately cause I'm missing a chicken as of some time yesterday or overnight the night before. Though mosquito hour chicken wrangling is a pain in the behind, it was a little funny seeing three chickens trying to climb into the nest box with the white duck who is sitting on a clutch of eggs.
Sigh, fun on the farm
Comment
© 2024 Created by Sylvia Bernstein.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Aquaponic Gardening to add comments!
Join Aquaponic Gardening