The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Planting things! And watching them grow!
Pheezer
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
WOOOO!
Okay so who has a garden or something going on
I inherited a cayenne pepper plant a half year back, and it died quickly from exposure to cold dry air and I'll hate my girlfriend forever for letting it suffer that fate, but I was smart, and I preserved seeds. I've been growing them since October in some little pots and today I just re-potted one that was trapped in a much too small pot into a big pot of its own. I need three or four more of those moderately sized pots (like 3" diameter I think) to move a few others into less crowded confines, but I'm happy to finally get that guy settled properly.
I'm fertilizing them with used coffee grinds, because I generate a lot of those anyhow, and because I've read that they help plants that like nitrogen in the soil, like tomatoes and rose bushes, and I've heard that pepper plants also like 'em. It seems to be working, because some of them are actually getting pretty sizeable in the larger pots, so I'm pleased with that.
So what are you guys growing? What kind of fertilizer are y'all up ins with? My girlfriend has an ivy plant that she feeds that miracle gro crap, but I refuse to spend money on something that probably fucks up the environment to produce when I've got waste of my own I can put to use.
I'm kind of curious about Salvia Divinorum, I hear it's dead simple to grow and the flowers are pretty. I kind of fucked up my Forget-Me-Nots though, so I'm a little dodgy on my gardening skills. They're still sort of alive, and sort of growin, but they look more like vines and they're not going to flower ever it seems.
Okay so who has a garden or something going on
I inherited a cayenne pepper plant a half year back, and it died quickly from exposure to cold dry air and I'll hate my girlfriend forever for letting it suffer that fate, but I was smart, and I preserved seeds. I've been growing them since October in some little pots and today I just re-potted one that was trapped in a much too small pot into a big pot of its own. I need three or four more of those moderately sized pots (like 3" diameter I think) to move a few others into less crowded confines, but I'm happy to finally get that guy settled properly.
I'm fertilizing them with used coffee grinds, because I generate a lot of those anyhow, and because I've read that they help plants that like nitrogen in the soil, like tomatoes and rose bushes, and I've heard that pepper plants also like 'em. It seems to be working, because some of them are actually getting pretty sizeable in the larger pots, so I'm pleased with that.
So what are you guys growing? What kind of fertilizer are y'all up ins with? My girlfriend has an ivy plant that she feeds that miracle gro crap, but I refuse to spend money on something that probably fucks up the environment to produce when I've got waste of my own I can put to use.
I'm kind of curious about Salvia Divinorum, I hear it's dead simple to grow and the flowers are pretty. I kind of fucked up my Forget-Me-Nots though, so I'm a little dodgy on my gardening skills. They're still sort of alive, and sort of growin, but they look more like vines and they're not going to flower ever it seems.
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Pheezer on
0
Posts
stout's Amazon Wishlist | my lastFM
Yeah, we have cats and not fish. I'm disappointed too.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I haven't used any type of fertilizer since compost piles really gross me out, and I'm scared of the store bought stuff. I've never heard of the fish water thing either, are there any risks involved with that, like dangerous bacteria or some-such?
Dude, do you drink coffee? It's a good fertilizer right there. Just take the grinds after your morning coffee and use those. They'll grow bacterial cultures if you leave enough of them on top of the soil, so dig little pits around the plant, add the grinds, and pad a tiny bit of dirt over them and you'll be good there and your plant will get steroidized on the free.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
If I started using coffee grinds each morning and my tomato plant got used to having it in the soil, and I forget to do it for a week or something, is my plant going to suffer from withdraws?
Have you not renewed the grinds for a while and had a plant suffer, is basically what I'm trying to ask.
I don't think you'd need to add them every day either. I suspect once every few weeks would be enough.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Nana, withdrawal is because the brain gets used to caffeine blocking the uptake of one of the chemicals that signals to the brain that it is getting tired.* So when you stop drinking coffee, the brain has to get used to normal tiredness signals again and goes wtf mang.
Plants don't have a brain.
No withdrawals for them.
*this is an incredibly simplified explanation.
Our veggie garden is about to be planted. I am doing Pumpkins again this year (went over awesome with the 5yo last year at haloween). Probably some sunflowers for the girl and a few root veggies. MIL has green and jalepeno prppers in teh green house with soem tomatos.
The side of the house is getting its Daisies taken out and we put a Lovage where one of the daisy clumps were. I am redoing the borders with this neat no weed wacker needed edging. My tree Peony, oriental lilies, and someother bulb plant are coming up great in the front under our window.
Down by the pond we are redoing alot. We just drained and redid our pond since the previous owner fuckthigns up royaly. There is Wisteria in teh pond area that is just loaded with buds this year. The Rhododendrens and Azalea are doing great, the Corkscrew Hazel is so twisty my daughter laughs whenever she sees it. We have quite a few dawrf and weeping types of evergreens in teh pond area too. Not much to do for them but prune for shape, my favorite kind of plant. Threaten it with death then forget it.
As for container we have some Hostas that I can't kill and love. there are a lot of pots and built in containers on the deck that we are doing with herbs and small flowers for the girl.
Oh yeah I got my garden on good this year. We are not doing anything special by way of fertilizing, just using the conposter and when we drain the pond using the water on the plants in that area.
Daisies are reputedly hardy, so I think I can pull it off.
tomacco
I suddenly feel some affinity for your wife. I once managed to kill a Rhubarb. Yes you read that right Rhubarb. Daisies are quite hardy adn putting them in a container is ideal. I am in the process fo digging up about 20 square feet of daisies the previous owners though would be nice along the house. The suckers take over and are huge!
In other news, does anyone know the name of the weed plant that grows somewhat close to the ground, with spade-shaped leaves attached to a whitish stem/root that goes BASICALLY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH? Because holy shit do I hate those things.
Check your local and state drug laws first. Salvia's a controlled substance in a lot of places, and you don't want your garden to get you busted for intent to distribute.
In my area, the law says you can have Salvia without getting busted, as long as they don't find any paraphernalia or other drugs on the premises.
Here.
I'll probably start growing some pumpkins again soon too.
Salvia's uncontrolled in MB.
Is Lychee something you can grow indoors in a pot? I'd think growing a fruit bearing plant would be kinda cool
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I did pot it in one of those transparent glass pots; are these bad for plants? Should roots have any exposure to light at all?
I'm growing it in a pot right now, but soon it will get to large an I'll have to put it in the ground. From what I've read about it it needs warm, wet conditions to live, which is kind of surprising to me because where I live it's very humid, but pretty cold.
Someday I'd like to try Salvia. I hear it isn't very fun, but the effects are very, very strange.
Not sure if its for this thread, BUT my experience with Salvia:
I was working at a local head shop and we gave out free samples of the most potent Salvia we had (bad idea). One day, whilst on the clock I decided to give myself a free sample in front of my friends because I was soooooo cool. Welp, I hit the bong we had for the samples and about 30 seconds later it felt like I was melting into the counter. Then, everything went movie style hippie trip. A shit ton of book cases fell on me (this was hallucinated) and while I was trying to keep them off of me, Jimi Hendrix was making fun of me. Then I just sat on the floor for about 10 minutes while my friends tried to help the customers.
I also had some interesting experiences with giving the samples out. A lot of the time people would just sit in a chair we had and just laugh. One time, however, someone hit it and started shaking the bird cage we had (with very very expensive Parrot-type bird inside). After my co-worker tried to get him to stop, he had no choice but to tase him. The guy then ran out of the store (minus one shoe he lost along the way) and started running down the street. The cops were called and he was apprehended, however funny enough we weren't held responsible at all for his actions.
That said, it was the most powerful stuff... the less powerful stuff, obviously, isn't as intense.
More OT though: I recently got a book on growing and maintaining Bonsai trees.. very excited to give it a shot!
On the bonsai topic, you probably already knows this, but most of the classic bonsai species are temperate trees. If you intend to keep your trees indoor year-round, or in the winter, you will need a tropical/sub-tropical species. I've been keeping indoor bonsai for some ten years now, and numerous trees have died on me during that time, so it is not that easy. Although, only a few of these I have grown from scratch so to speak, the rest have been bought at garden-centers. This is always a gamble, since you do not know what kind of conditions they have been exposed to. Bonsai are funny, because sometimes you really do not want a tree to die. Ordinary potted plants you can always replace, but bonsai are true individuals. My largest tree I have had for seven years now, and it is probably something like twenty years old. I would be sad if that one died.
Anyway, if you want to do indoor bonsai, I would recommend starting with an elm of the genus Zelkova. The most common species is:
Zelkova serrata, and it looks like this:
They are hardy trees, and easy to keep. Also, they are a classic bonsai species.
Some other species that are often found in garden centers:
Serrisa foetida:
These are common but are hard to get to thrive. They seem to drop their leaves all the time. However, they are easy to propagate, so buy one cheaply and take cuttings. Ones you have grown yourself seems much ahrdier, and it will only take a few years for it to at least resemble a real bonsai.
Sagerethia theezans:
This one is also fairly common, but not as easy to care for as the elms. They have a tendency to drop their leaves and dry out.
Carmona microphylla:
Another fairly common one. I've found these easy to care for as well, and they are really pretty with their dark green leaves, tiny white flowers and red berries.
So, I can truly recommend growing indoor bonsai. They are not that much harder to care for than regular house-plants, but last much longer and it is good to have something that will outlast you if you care for them properly. One day I would like to get a real coniferous bonsai, but I will need a garden first....
Wow, those are so beautiful! Man, after looking through the book I got.. nothing is cooler than a nice bonsai. The ones I was looking to get were Azalea bonsai. I am very interested in following through with this.
The Zelkova Serrata that you mentioned looks beautiful! I must ask, what do you recommend? Getting a bonsai that has already been started or growing it from a seed?
Where should I look to purchase a bonsai to start with?
Well, growing from seed is probably more satisfying in the long run. But it will take a long time before you have somthing resembling a tree. Maybe start some seeds and check the garden centers for nice candidates you can practice on? Usually you only find ugly trees that looks like stumps with thin branches in the top, but sometimes you can hit gold. Most of my trees I have found in garden centers over the years and bought since they had a nice trunk, the branches you can work on. Besides, you will loose trees while learning to take care of them, so it is nice to have some not so nice to practice on.
So, check your local garden centers and nurseries!
Since I am bored at work, I put up pictures of my own trees for anyone interested. These are nice examples of what you can find at garden centers if you look around a bit, none of these cost me more than approx. 10$:
A small Carmona in the shape of Buddha's hand:
A Sagerethia in slanting style:
A Serissa that I took as a cutting some years ago, it still needs to get a bit thicker. Informal upright:
This is a Zelkova that is pretty nice, I think I paid 7$ for it, also informal upright:
And the pride of my collection, such as it is. A zelkova that is feeling a bit sad after the winter, but it is getting new leafs now in the spring. Style is informal upright:
Edit: Changed to correct species name... and I am supposed to be a biologist!
Edit 2: And another thing. Be careful when using coffee or other waste as fertilizer. It is not balanced the way ready-made fertilizer is, and I would not use it on anything I that I really cared about. Also, be careful not to over-fertilize, once every month should be enough with the coffee I think. To much nitrogen, which is usually what is limiting to plant growth shows itself on the leaves, they turn a very dark green when the plant has to much nitrogen.
Werd. Little trees are just fucking neat.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I planted a few varieties of radish seed, some lettuce seeds, some basil and cilantro, and some different flowers including giant cleomes that I'm hoping come up and cover the ugly cement backdrop.
I started my tomato plants kind of early, but was caught by the frost. I think this weekend is the one to get them and some pepper plants into the ground, though with our climate you never know.
My mom was a big gardener and my uncle owns a rad seed company, so I guess it grows in the family. She was forced to move from a house with a really spectacular garden to one with xeriscape, so I guess I kind of started it for her. Crossing my fingers that all the flowers come up.
And about the succulent, I think it is more common to give them to much water than to little. Start giving it a little less water and see if it improves, i usually wait to water my succulents until I actually se that they are wilting... but I am bit mean like that.
Question on bonsai: are the light requirements any different? Our house gets little to no light whatsoever (it was marketed as 'the hobbit hole' back when it was up for sale :P), so I'd like to know if bonsai would somehow let plants grow in these conditions. And if anybody knows of any household plants that grow in dim lighting, that would be great. Back when my mum lived here, she couldn't get anything to grow/live (except one plant that I forget). She does fine at her new house, where the windows actually let light in.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
I've also started tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries from starter plants. I'm hoping for fruit off of the tomatoes and strawberries this year, but it may be a few years before I get anything off of the others. I don't know much about the non edible plants we have going. I just planted a japanese maple that I'm pretty excited about and a rose bush that I'll most likely kill. I even built a cedar planter box for some flowers by the front door. The box turned out really great, so I don't even care if the flowers in it die.
I try not to use chemical fertilizers at all, especially on stuff I'm going to eat. I use compost and worm castings in the garden areas. I'm going to build myself a worm box so I can collect my own castings. The previous owners had a really good compost pile going, but I've pretty much used it all up this spring, so I'll have to start over on that.
Hm, hadn't thought about using a flourescent source. Thanks!
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
If you're giving your plant fertiliser which is rich in nitrogen alone you might want to use some of your lady's miracle-gro in parallel just to ensure that it's getting sufficient quantities of potassium, phosphorus and calcium, amongst others. This shouldn't be all that great a concern and you should only really worry if your plant's manifesting odd colouration or it becomes flaccid even after watering.
The main problem that most amateur growers face is through over or underwatering their plants. If you dig your finger into the soil(careful to avoid damaging roots) it should feel slightly damp. This is absolutely fine. If it feels dry then you should water it. Many people get into a routine of daily watering and wind up giving their plant far too much.
As for salvia divinorum, if you aren't intending to smoke or chew it then there are plenty of cheaper and prettier alternatives.
Only thing is though it's just turning into winter here, and I wonder if that's going to suck for any growth. Especially considering my part of the house is rather dark as it is, and I'll need to remember to move it around to get good light at times.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com