Gardening tips thread

[blackemerald1]

Thank you @Friday - I read up on the soap today via google. I am going to give the powder a couple of days and if that doesn't stop the invasion I will make up some soap. Apparently its relatively easy to make at home. I have the spray bottle, oil and soap so that will be the next step... if I have any plants left to save... sigh..

 

[Lionheart]

When preparing to plant morning glory seeds, soak the seeds overnight in warm water with miracle grow liquid added to the water. They will sprout much quicker.

 

[blackemerald1]

So today I finally planted some of my vegies. Guilt got the better of me... I bought the punnets several days ago and really must have had my mind elsewhere bc I bought 3 punnets of tomatoes (all different varieties) but still !??

So my vegie garden now consists of rocket, spinach, tomato, egg-plant, chilli, capsicum, green beans and... some other things that I have forgotten. But I put the tags into the ground so that will remind me...lol

Just as I was finishing it began to rain... I watered everything in and mulched anyway. But it's been raining very gently for about 4 hours now... so really could not have wished for a better start for my seedlings :)

Update: My passion-fruit are in a coma. Idk what to do. They grew some new green leaves shortly after I planted them but these were eaten by SOMETHING (unknown offending garden marauder).... I have dusted them and sprayed them. I don't think they like me!

My Black English Mulberry cuttings are also not showing any new signs of life in their special purpose min hot-house. I need patience... much more patience....

I bought a Black English Dwarf Mulberry and have finally settled on the place to plant it in my back-yard. Tomorrow it goes in the ground too. No more pussy footing around....

This is my first veggie garden in so many years I don't even care to count. My back-yard has never had a veggie garden in it. I am the first owner to try - so I'm starting from scratch and I feel like it's such a big deal, lots of hard work and my indecision and dallying around is driving me crazy...

 

[blackemerald1]

I had Basil seedlings for oh about three days and then poof! They disappeared... just like THAT!! Same with the spinach and rocket..

Is it rabbits....no...
Is it birds....no....
Were they stolen.... no...
Did they die....no.....

Did I really plant them or just imagine I did... yeah....

So... I went out late last night with the torch and oh..... long expletive...... there were millions of earwigs.... grosssssse.... !!

I sprayed my chilli spray all over the place and they ran away but it's not a long lasting solution.

I need to murder!!!!!

I went to the shop today after doing even more extensive research about how to murder everything lol and came back with a Pyrethrine spray concentrate.

I watered all of my babies. Sprinkled lots of snail and slug pellets about because they are doing a marvellous job killing the several million slugs I have... gross too...

Then I sprayed every single plant in my garden!!

Result... I will have a fabulous, lush garden with a bountiful supply of fruit and veggies that will be so bloody toxic ... ugh... :rolleyes: BUT...

I will have killed the earwigs, slugs, snail, grasshoppers, mealy bugs, thrips, caterpillars, little red strange spiders aphids... and.... deep breath......myself I guess, when I try and eat any of it. :sorry:

 

[blackemerald1]

I have failed to stop the plague of earwigs... How bizarre to think they are in plague proportion. Mice, rats, cats etc., fine...but earwigs :wtf: strange thing happened in the environment that allowed them to become dominant.. I wonder?? Last year it was cockroaches or mozzies... depending on where I was.

So..a lot of my young garden has been eaten and the spray either did not work or I killed a lot and more came along. Either way I have lost almost half of my garden. :( So.. no more sprays, powders etc., which I am rather relieved about tbh.. sigh...

Some things they have just left un-eaten... marched right past and eaten the same species of plant a foot away. The paranoid part of me thinks but... WHY??? What is wrong with those plants...since you are eating everything else??

I tried the trap - some soy-sauce in oil in a jar planted in the garden and it got a few but not enough to save my plants. Plagues are plagues unfortunately...

My lemon/lime tree has lost a lot of it's tiny fruit - they were only about 1 cm in diameter. I have read that a tree will drop fruit it cannot sustain. I've also read since this is it's first whole year of production I should cull the lot and let the tree concentrate it's resources on growing.. anyone have ideas on this? It's also lost a lot of leaves recently but that was during a fairly wild storm...

I've fed it citrus food and it's getting watered once a week. It hasn't been hot enough to water it more often. I check the moisture with my finger around the drip line and the soil is moist but not wet. I have mulched around it heavily..

We are having very strange weather lately. A few days up around 40 C then sudden cool changes, wild North winds the humidity then back to colder temps... Maybe my tree cannot keep up with the variations. Idk.. My Mandarin tree is looking very good. :) It hasn't tried to fruit this year I presume bc it's too young too.

A lot of my black English Mulberry cuttings do not appear to have 'taken', the leaves I left on them, have yellowed and some have fallen off... Idk... but I am still maintaining them.. just in case one puts up a sign of life. :unsure:

One of my two passionfruits seemed to muster up some courage and daring and grew some new leaves. I had to fight 1200 earwigs off it - poor thing. I have made a executive decision I'm moving one of my passionfruit to another area of my yard. Or maybe I will go and buy another passionfruit and just try again :unsure:

I know this is supposed to be a gardening tips thread :sorry:

 

[blackemerald1]

I'm back and seeking assistance....

My passionfruit threw really vigorous water sprouts from below the graft line.... so I had to cut them off bc they will not grow bloody passionfruit or even ordinary passionfruit. :sorry:

Why...???

I've rung the nursery where I purchased them from... they sounded a bit skeptical but I offered to send pics... the bloke said that maybe the rootstock is too vigorous for the passionfruit and therefore it is using up all the water and nutrients instead of growing the passionfruit part.

But I've not heard of this before on grafted plants.

I know water sprouts occur on established trees that have been wounded or suffer from damage... but in the instance of tiny little passionfruits which are less than 30 cm tall and have no new leaves.

Anyone got some ideas how I can force my passionfruit to grow?

They are getting sun and water...

 

[bellbird]

@blackemerald1 had any luck this past week? When I've stopped isolating I'll ask a friend of mine who has passionfruit plants ?

--
Getting there!! ?

 

[blackemerald1]

Oh wow @bellbird they look delicious indeed.

I've got a lot of well established tomato plants growing wildly, flowering profusely and well over 5 feet tall... Sounds glorious I know but I have only 5 - yes five single tiny cherry tomato's in total and they are green..

I look at them every time I water and pray that they will hang on and ripen. If that's all the fruit I get from my garden they will be the most expensive cherry tomato's ever!!

I still don't know what to do with my passion fruit... the poor things. I think I am going to transplant them. It must be the soil. I certainly have enough sun now, We've had over 35 - 45 C days for ages. I've been watering them.. so the only thing left to consider likely as suspect must be the soil. I am so disappointed because I worked the soil over and put in blood and bone and manure. If anything they should have been too vigorous not comatose.

What do your cherry tomato's taste like bellbird? I've read sprinkling a little potash sulphate helps make them sweeter.

 

[bellbird]

I've got a lot of well established tomato plants growing wildly, flowering profusely and well over 5 feet tall... Sounds glorious I know but I have only 5 - yes five single tiny cherry tomato's in total and they are green..

Goodness! There's still time, though.
Last year at my old flat I had many self-seeded cherry tomato plants popping up, and many of their fruit didn't turn red until quite late in the season. One or two months from now.

If that's all the fruit I get from my garden they will be the most expensive cherry tomato's ever!!

Haha! I've had that thought myself about my own garden many times.
My zucchini plant has definitely not enjoyed the sub-par soil I planted it in (the location was perfect though), and has subsequently thrown up a protest in the form of a heap teeny zucchini ~1-2 inches long.
But one of them has in the last 2 days decided to expand and reach full-size!! There is hope, afterall :)

I still don't know what to do with my passion fruit... the poor things. I think I am going to transplant them. It must be the soil.

Seems feasible, though super frustrating.

I've been watering them..

Could over-watering be possible?

What do your cherry tomato's taste like bellbird? I've read sprinkling a little potash sulphate helps make them sweeter.

I ate the ripest from the vine of the photo I shared, and it was deliciously sweet! Like tomato-flavoured sunshine, I was quite pleased :)
That particular plant is my over-achiever as he's planted in his own pot in special tomato-growing mix (a gift from my parents), which I believe had fertilisers incorporated into it already, so probably potash as you say!
My other tomatoes are planted in my garden beds, with some compost and fertiliser, though I really need to fertilise again -- on my to-do list for today! Thanks for the potash tip, I'll have to check my fertiliser bag; I've actually no idea what it's comprised of. That and de-caterpillaring my tomatoes and purple sprouting broccolis. Little blighters :wtf:

 

[blackemerald1]

heap teeny zucchini ~1-2 inches long.

Can you give the Zucchini some liquid fertiliser? That might make the zucchini a little happier. But the flowers are so yummy too... Do you eat the flowers as well? Seaweed or worm juice? (diluted) Do you have a worm farm? I'm going to start one when we stop having these huge heatwaves.

I didn't plant zucchini - I decided to go all in with capsicum and they have been a monumental failure too. I am not sure why... all the plants around them seem happy but not the capsicum.

I've got to put my shoes & a hat on and go do some more serious mulching.. it's 41 C outside right now... ugh

I think Potash is Potassium and tomato's need a super,duper amount of it.. a deficiency will restrict growth.

I think at the end of the season if weather permits adding some potash and trimming up the plants can help wring out a little more fruit before it gets too cold.

:) So glad you have a garden too.

 

[blackemerald1]

I've found more tomato's... yay!! :)

My eggplants are booming and I have little tiny chillies double yay!! :)

 

[bellbird]

Can you give the Zucchini some liquid fertiliser? That might make the zucchini a little happier

Don't have any liquid fertiliser.
I think my student budget will require me to just use the powder fertiliser I have and then water straight after :)

But the flowers are so yummy too... Do you eat the flowers as well?

I've never eaten one myself! But I knew you can do some delicious things with them; stuff them etc.
I just get worried I'll have picked the flower before it's been fertilised and then that zucchini won't grow ..I think that's how it works?

Do you have a worm farm?

No, wish I did though!

I've got to put my shoes & a hat on and go do some more serious mulching.. it's 41 C outside right now... ugh

Omg. That's insanity! I think the highest we've got to this summer so far is 30!

I think Potash is Potassium and tomato's need a super,duper amount of it.. a deficiency will restrict growth.

Good to know, thanks.

:) So glad you have a garden too

Likewise :)

I've found more tomato's... yay!! :)

My eggplants are booming and I have little tiny chillies double yay!! :)

Hey, there you go!!! Awesome stuff :) The chillies will be loving the heat.