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FBG Gardening Thread - 2025 (4 Viewers)

Did a lot of experimental planting in the fall/winter.  My reward is mostly some really nice beefsteak tomatoes. And a #### ton of nasturtium.  And the papayas.  Can't give them away.

 
Thanks for the bump @E Street Brat. I couldn’t find this thread lol.

I started some seeds inside last week.

Better Boy and Early Girl tomatoes, Anaheim and Marconi Red sweet peppers.
I also started some Hatch chili seeds mild and medium, excited to see how they make out.

Winters over!!!!

Snow flurries coming here Friday morning lol

 
Thanks for the bump @E Street Brat. I couldn’t find this thread lol.

I started some seeds inside last week.

Better Boy and Early Girl tomatoes, Anaheim and Marconi Red sweet peppers.
I also started some Hatch chili seeds mild and medium, excited to see how they make out.

Winters over!!!!

Snow flurries coming here Friday morning lol
Ooh, I forgot.  I have 1 Hatch pepper that is about 6 inches long right now. And I've got a bunch of small pepper plants that I haven't transplanted outside yet.  One I'm really excited about is called a Trick or Treat pepper. it's basically a heatless habanero.  Planning to use those to rig a hot pepper eating contest!

 
Better Boy and Early Girl tomatoes,
Warm weather came early in so-cal this year so I was able to get seeds in the ground mid February.  Did Better Boys and Early Girls as well also did a Roma  and a Cherry tomato.  All are a couple feet tall already and starting to flower.  I’m really hoping for a late season round 2.  

Also did 6 Lettuce, eight cucumber plants- two different types, a bunch of onions and some jalapeños.  

 
Had my garden in the ground for a few weeks.  Probably too many tomato plants, one 'Sweet 100' (grape), two 'early girl', seven 'jet star'.  2 jalapeno plants, one 'jumbo' and one standard.  One bell pepper.  Two cucumber, one bush and one standard, both burpless.  Two zucchini.  Also planted onions, green beans, and collard (or mustard, I forget) greens.  May still add some herbs.

I'm having a big battle with ants right now.  I usually don't have this problem, but they have already almost killed one of my cucumber plants.  The ants will die.  

 
Asked wife to harvest some kale for me and she cut a bunch of leaves of a broccoli plant (until she saw the flower growing) 🤦‍♂️

Also think one of my oregano plants is dead because it is yellow with some browning but it's buddy is a nice bright green. Not sure how I did that one. They are side by side and get the same amount of water.

 
It’s been a incredibly busy offseason for us. Deer have been a big problem until recently. I replaced the old 4’ post and metal wire fence and installed an 8’ knotted metal deer fence around the entire back yard. Currently looks like Auschwitz but I have 140 Nellie Stevens holly saplings coming for a eventual hedgerow that will conceal the fence and help with Mrs Kravits next door. 

 Finished building our second 16’ x 4’ bed yesterday.  Plan on building one every year. Pretty exited about this years “crop”. A few months ago the wife bought a grow light and hundreds of these organic growing cups you just plant right into the ground. Things are coming along nicely. The entrepreneur in me has visions of a produce stand out front. We have a good chunk of land but live on a busy street. 

Lol, when I was much, much younger I thought it would a great life to have a nice Amish cart out front and sell vegetables and cocaine. I guess we can still to the vegetables but it won’t be nearly as profitable. 
 

Tomatoes of several varieties cucumbers, zucchini, kale, okra, and much much more. Big plans this year!

 
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Spread some compost from the bin onto the garden yesterday.  We still had morning frost one day last week, so will likely wait another week or so before getting plants out.

 
First year growing Onions.  Any tips?  How do I know when to harvest?   TIA
I’m curious about this myself.

Moved 5 better boys and 4 early girls from the small seed starter thing into solo cups today after work. 
 

Started some burpless cucumber seeds in the seed starter thing also.

Hoping to get the garden going in 2 - 2.5 weeks

 
I’m curious about this myself.

Moved 5 better boys and 4 early girls from the small seed starter thing into solo cups today after work. 
 

Started some burpless cucumber seeds in the seed starter thing also.

Hoping to get the garden going in 2 - 2.5 weeks
It always trips me out when I hear things like this as living in California don’t think about the weather elsewhere. My tomato plants are all four and 5 feet tall with tons of green tomatoes on them and will start harvesting within the next few weeks hopefully.  

 
It always trips me out when I hear things like this as living in California don’t think about the weather elsewhere. My tomato plants are all four and 5 feet tall with tons of green tomatoes on them and will start harvesting within the next few weeks hopefully.  
Mmmmm....fried green tomatoes 

Memorial Day weekend is the rule of thumb for planting out here. I’m hoping it warms up before then, 30s for nighttime lows later this week ☹️

 
Mmmmm....fried green tomatoes 

Memorial Day weekend is the rule of thumb for planting out here. I’m hoping it warms up before then, 30s for nighttime lows later this week ☹️
Never tried them. 🤔 might need to give it a shot...

Normally I plant my seeds around early/mid March, but a mild winter these year allowed for mid February.   

 
Tomatoes producing like crazy, but had an irrigation snafu so had to plant some more.  Nasturtiums have been terminated.  It's getting too hot for my lettuce and cilantro already...they're trying to bolt.

 
First year growing Onions.  Any tips?  How do I know when to harvest?   TIA
I've had by far the best luck with seedlings in loose soil.  Went to my local small town nursery to buy a couple dozen and the guy made me a deal if I bought a whole tray (36).  So I have way more onions than what I need this year. 

Master gardener guy pretty much said "never let them dry out, don't let a weed get near them, and fertilize 5 times a year."  They grow an acre of softball sized onions for the farmers market.  He went on to say an inch of water a week (not all at one time) depending on the weather.  More if it's a hot dry spell, less if cool and wet.   :shrug:  

I've always just harvested them when they looked about right.  Early they will be green and very strong.  Wait too long and they can get mushy.  With the extras I have I can probably pull a couple testers early to figure out how much longer to let them go.  I don't think they grow much more after producing their flower pod, so I think it would be safe to harvest at that time.  :shrug:  

 
He went on to say an inch of water a week (
Thank you for the post.  Good info.  But re: the quoted.  What is an “inch” of water.  I’ve never been able to get clarity on this from anyone whenever I’ve heard it.  What does it equal to?  How do I know if I’ve watered an inch or not.   

 
Thank you for the post.  Good info.  But re: the quoted.  What is an “inch” of water.  I’ve never been able to get clarity on this from anyone whenever I’ve heard it.  What does it equal to?  How do I know if I’ve watered an inch or not.   
That's a good question, and I guess I've just always gone by, "that looks about right" when the ground gets soaked and starts to puddle.   I wouldn't get hung up on the inch of water comment I passed along as needing to be exact.

I water my garden by hand and just go by feel.  My dad uses a sprinkler to water the sweet corn in his garden and will sometimes put a shallow container out in the corn to measure how much water the sprinkler is putting down. 

 
That's a good question, and I guess I've just always gone by, "that looks about right" when the ground gets soaked and starts to puddle.   I wouldn't get hung up on the inch of water comment I passed along as needing to be exact.

I water my garden by hand and just go by feel.  My dad uses a sprinkler to water the sweet corn in his garden and will sometimes put a shallow container out in the corn to measure how much water the sprinkler is putting down. 
Thanks. Wasn’t so worried about the inch in regards to the onions, more just in general as I always hear that but no one can ever explain really what it is.  Lol.  

I water by hand too but live in a dry hot climate so it’s tricky. Feel like proper watering is the art, one I’m not sure I’m confident in yet.   

 
Thank you for the post.  Good info.  But re: the quoted.  What is an “inch” of water.  I’ve never been able to get clarity on this from anyone whenever I’ve heard it.  What does it equal to?  How do I know if I’ve watered an inch or not.   
I could never figure that out either. I just try to go by feel/experience.

Last yr I mostly watered with a 2 gallon can because it hardly rained here all spring/summer and I was a little worried about my well. That was alot of fun 

 
Last yr I mostly watered with a 2 gallon can because it hardly rained here all spring/summer and I was a little worried about my well. That was alot of fun 
Lol.  Me too!  Only I did it to understand how much water was going down as through a hose it’s a crap shoot.  

 
@Ron Swanson Can you detail how you made your drip irrigation system in the picture on the last page?
Sure.  It's mostly stuff from HD. I originally had it timed off of one of the branches of my lawn irrigation controller but I had issues dead-heading the well pump so I converted it to connect to a hose bib on city water. I've got a Wifi connected hose bib controller (Rainpoint) that connects to a garden hose to 1/2" OD tube connector and then I have 1/2" irrigation tube run around the perimeter of the garden. I then punch in individual 1/4" drip lines with little drip heads for each plant.  I run it every other day for 15-30 minutes depending on the season. The heads are all adjustable so I can control which type of plants get more water. As an example, hot peppers just get a dribble but tomatoes get full flow.

I did just upgrade to the Rainpoint. I previously had a non Wifi connected hose end timer but it never failed that the batteries would die and I wouldn't know about it until crispy plants. I tend to get lazy with the garden once things are going and don't babysit it as much as I probably should unless I'm in planting or daily harvest mode.

The Rainpoint gives me automatic rain override, remote battery alerts, and remote control which is nice for adjusting heads.  It also has a flowmeter so I know how much water I use each day and I can add a soil moisture sensor to it as well and trigger watering cycles based on that rather than timed.

 
In Phoenix - garden is in full swing.

2 tomato plants producing well

1 Green pepper plant with 6 small peppers

1 squash with 8 small squash

1 zucchini with a few zucs 

2 broccoli plants, with one starting to sprout some broccoli 

1 strawberry plant with  about 15 berries on it

4 lettuce, all ready

1 cucumber with no cucumbers yet but looking strong

1 eggplant with about 5 small eggplants on it

The only thing we’ve been able to eat so far is the tomatoes, but in the next month or so we should be flush with fresh veggies 🙂

 
Kale, broccoli, and cauliflower all doing well (and pretty big. I have a ton of these). Blackberry, 1/2 oregano, and cilantro all dead. June Strawberry are TBD. Planted winter mellon a few weeks ago, will see how they do. Worried I messed up one transplanting.

 
Put my plants in today.

 Cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, watermelon (my granddaughters plant ❤️). My peppers I started from seed aren’t quite ready. 
 

Seeds tomorrow

 
Already pulled 2 messes of collard greens and the tomatoes and jalapeños are coming in great.  We have some lettuce but I don’t know what I’m doing - need to read about picking it.

 
Leaf.  I’ll try to take a picture later.  I’m new to this thread and gardening.  I’m shocked I got anything to grow!
For leaf just cut them off at the base when they look right to you. Super easy honestly.  Once they start to shoot (grow up and tall) their done.  Pull’em and plant new ones. Leaf lettuce is hard to get wrong.  

Wecome to the world of gardening!  Nothing better then food grown from your own yard. 

 
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Well, I was an idiot this year. I got excited to plant my garden but did it in early to mid April and killed all my cukes. Then replanted more only to get another cold spell killing them all again. Third time was the charm!🙂

 
Well, I was an idiot this year. I got excited to plant my garden but did it in early to mid April and killed all my cukes. Then replanted more only to get another cold spell killing them all again. Third time was the charm!🙂
I'm usually an early planter and fight the frost.  This year I bought my plants but kept them in a window in the house for 10 days or so.  Had 2 frosts in that time so I saved myself the trouble of having to cover or replant.

Old gardener guy through in some cabbage plants with my purchase.  I've never grown cabbage or any leafy vegetables.  The rabbits like them, so I had to put a little fence around them yesterday.

 
Planted romaine, spring onions and zucchini seeds. 
 

Hoping to get my pepper plants in this weekend but it’s supposed to rain. I’m hardening them off this week. They’re a little small 

 
Wife wont go outside with the cicadas. In her defense, Im pretty sure my yard is the epicenter of the brood. The entire yard is moving. In some places you cant see the ground anymore. Its the cicada version of the Battle of the Bastards. 

So I have to crunch around and water the garden. Luckily we had a pretty severe thunderstorm yesterday so I can probably skip today. 

 
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Wife wont go outside with the cicadas. Im pretty sure my yard is the epicenter of the brood. The entire yard is moving. In some places you cant see the ground anymore. Its the cicada version of the Battle of the Bastards. 
That's nuts!  Where I live if 2 flys buzz around I'm annoyed and pissed.  Can't event image.

 
Wife wont go outside with the cicadas. In her defense, Im pretty sure my yard is the epicenter of the brood. The entire yard is moving. In some places you cant see the ground anymore. Its the cicada version of the Battle of the Bastards. 

So I have to crunch around and water the garden. Luckily we had a pretty severe thunderstorm yesterday so I can probably skip today. 
You're in MD, right? I was trying to sell a house in Clarksville/Howard County last time this batch came out in 2004. That was all kinds of fun. The screens on the windows looked like they were alive and so the sidewalk/driveway turned into a Pollack painting. 

I haven't seen the first one this year and I'm not all that far from there.

 
Wife wont go outside with the cicadas. In her defense, Im pretty sure my yard is the epicenter of the brood. The entire yard is moving. In some places you cant see the ground anymore. Its the cicada version of the Battle of the Bastards. 

So I have to crunch around and water the garden. Luckily we had a pretty severe thunderstorm yesterday so I can probably skip today. 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-eating-cicadas-protein-benefits-182428626.html
 

:oldunsure:

 
We've hit a mid to upper 90s spell in eastern Nebraska.  A little early in the season to be having to water every day.  Had frost not that long ago.  Will be out of town for work next week, but fortunately have someone that can stop by and water.

 
🥕🍅🍎🌶️🍏🙂🍉🌻

Love this thread.

Got all plants in and have a side project where I collected seeds from cherry tomatoes and green peppers, the seedlings are doing well but aren't ready to transplant till roots take hold.  

May not get 'much' if anything from that experiment because I started too late but what the heck.

 
Picked my first jalapeno from my garden last weekend.  First thing from the garden this year.  All my plants looking good, except my collard greens. 

I had never done collard before and something ate them up pretty bad.  I kept spraying them with insect stuff, but the rains kept washing off the spray.  Finally gave up and trashed the mostly eaten greens.  Oh well.  

Every year I forget how long it takes for the first tomatoes to ripen.  I have cherry and regular ones on the plant that look so great, but so green.  Come on, get to turning!

 
Picked my first jalapeno from my garden last weekend.  First thing from the garden this year.  All my plants looking good, except my collard greens. 

I had never done collard before and something ate them up pretty bad.  I kept spraying them with insect stuff, but the rains kept washing off the spray.  Finally gave up and trashed the mostly eaten greens.  Oh well.  

Every year I forget how long it takes for the first tomatoes to ripen.  I have cherry and regular ones on the plant that look so great, but so green.  Come on, get to turning!
Mmmmmmm, fried green tomatoes

 
The weekend after I planted everything except my peppers was 40 degrees and poured rain

Lost 2/4 eggplant plants. Not a big deal , could’ve been worse 

 
So thanks to an early Southern California season I’m swimming in tomatoes. Cucumbers have already produced probably 25 awesome yummy-ness.  But my jalapeños have stalled for some reason. Grew to about 2 1/2 feet tall and have done nothing since. Look very green and healthy but literally haven’t grown any taller or produced one single bit of peppers.  

 
So thanks to an early Southern California season I’m swimming in tomatoes. Cucumbers have already produced probably 25 awesome yummy-ness.  But my jalapeños have stalled for some reason. Grew to about 2 1/2 feet tall and have done nothing since. Look very green and healthy but literally haven’t grown any taller or produced one single bit of peppers.  
I'll trade you my one jalapeno for your fresh tomatoes!

 
So thanks to an early Southern California season I’m swimming in tomatoes. Cucumbers have already produced probably 25 awesome yummy-ness.  But my jalapeños have stalled for some reason. Grew to about 2 1/2 feet tall and have done nothing since. Look very green and healthy but literally haven’t grown any taller or produced one single bit of peppers.  
Do those pepper plants  have blossoms?

 

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