Gardening Problems Thread
-
@CarrieVS said in The Official First World Problems Thread™:
Have you tried living herbs?
Yes, I currently have basil, rosemary and sage on my balcony. Unfortunately, parsley, peppermint and chives don't grow well there, probably because my balcony is too sunny. I haven't tried to grow thyme there yet, that might work as well.
-
@asdf Do we have a gardening problems thread yet? >.>
-
@Yamikuronue I don't think so. You just volunteered to create one. ;)
-
I got 99 problems but an herb garden ain't one.
-
Awesome!
I keep getting root rot in my hydroponic garden. It's insane. After the first time it happened we scrubbed the whole system and pumped peroxide through it, but it happened again. I've got two healthy plants that are hanging in there and four dead plants. It seems like the chives die first, but I'm not sure if they're the ones spreading it or if they're just extremely susceptible to it. We tried adding a bit of peroxide to the water they sit in, but it didn't help any.
-
@Yamikuronue said in Gardening Problems Thread:
chives die first,
In my experience alliums always have this weird slimy coating on their roots when they're grown in water.
Is there oxygen in hydroponic water? If the water is unoxygenated the roots can probably suffocate.
-
@Yamikuronue My garden's doing great.
-
My biggest problem is that there are only so many hours of daylight
REM - Gardening at Night (Studio Version) – 03:31
— Fracco
-
@Luhmann said in Gardening Problems Thread:
My biggest problem is that there are only so many hours of daylight
Bad Religion - "Atomic Garden" – 03:17
— Epitaph Records
-
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Is there oxygen in hydroponic water?
Yeah, it's agitated and air is pulled into it during that process I believe. There's also fancy grow-lamps on timers. I didn't built it myself, so I'm not 100% on how it works.
-
Speaking of my gardening woes, I've got a basil plant that's grown into a hardy little bush and is slowly consuming all the available lamps. I should probably move it to a pot, maybe with a grow lamp of some kind? It'd get less light out on my porch. Any tips?
-
I forgot we had this thread.
So, does anyone have advice on how to clear an overgrown patch of garden? I've taken a strimmer to it, and but there's a hell of a lot of growth. Is it just a matter of elbow grease with a fork to get all the roots out?
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
I've taken a strimmer to i
that's step one, yes.
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Is it just a matter of elbow grease with a fork to get all the roots out?
unless you have something like a rotatiller.... yeah that's step two.
-
@Yamikuronue said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Any tips?
it's basil, that's a hearty bastard of a plant once established, just trim it back to size and make pesto with the leaves you cut. ;-)
-
@accalia I do. But it's rapidly running out of space:
-
@Yamikuronue said in Gardening Problems Thread:
@accalia I do. But it's rapidly running out of space:
ah. cut the stems not just the leaves. take that rally thick one back to about an inch above thr ground, leave the thinner one tall for a bit until the thicker branch sprouts more leaves then do teh same to it.
seriously, don't be afraid to be brutal with basil, like chives it's pretty damn near impossible to accidentally kill once it's established
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Is it just a matter of elbow grease with a fork to get all the roots out?
If it's completely out of control, there's always soarlizing.
-
@Yamikuronue
uh ... I don't know if it needs that much light ... ours is standing on the kitchen counter besides between the bread bin and the coffee ...
-
@Luhmann Mine's in the windowstill on a north-facing window, as the instructions it came with said not to put it in direct sunlight. It's been doing fine.
-
-
@Jaloopa If you can afford the time it may be worth covering the area with a tarp. It should be easier to clear once everything is killed dead.
-
@Boner said in Gardening Problems Thread:
If you can afford the time
I have no deadline, and not much free time. There's not much that can be planted in late summer onward anyway is there? If I can have it ready to start planting by spring, that would be an achievement
-
@Jaloopa Get one of those Polish chaps in to do it before we send them all back
-
@Jaloopa I'd turn it with a shovel. It sounds counter-intuitive, but that's actually less labor than forking out a hundred roots.
Turn it with a shovel, give it a week or two for stuff to die out, then pull whatever weeds survived.
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
There's not much that can be planted in late summer onward anyway is there?
Depends on where you live, but at this point you've probably missed the deadline on pretty much everything sorry.
That said, you could still give it a go. A seed pack costs like $1.50. It's not a lot of money to lose if it doesn't work out.
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
So, does anyone have advice on how to clear an overgrown patch of garden?
How big of a patch? Unless you have a tiller, spray it with Round-Up and then turn it over with a garden fork or shovel.
-
@Polygeekery said in Gardening Problems Thread:
spray it with Round-Up
DO NOT SPRAY IT WITH ROUND-UP IF YOU PLAN TO PLANT CROPS IN IT.
Also a roto-tiller doesn't become cost effective until you have about a quarter-acre or so to turn.
-
@blakeyrat said in Gardening Problems Thread:
DO NOT SPRAY IT WITH ROUND-UP IF YOU PLAN TO PLANT CROPS IN IT.
depends on when he is planning to plant again and what you are going to do with it. If he did it now to get the plot ready for next spring with a decorative garden ...
-
@Luhmann I wouldn't put Round-Up on anything unless you want it plant-free for at least a full year. That stuff sticks in the soil forever. Especially if it's somewhere under eaves, where rain won't hit it.
-
@blakeyrat said in Gardening Problems Thread:
DO NOT SPRAY IT WITH ROUND-UP IF YOU PLAN TO PLANT CROPS IN IT.
Why?
-
@Luhmann said in Gardening Problems Thread:
decorative garden
No, looking to do veg. Probably not roundup ready seeds.
I did put a call out asking if anyone local was throwing out any old carpet I could cover it with. Seems that will do mostly the same as turning it
-
@blakeyrat said in Gardening Problems Thread:
@Luhmann I wouldn't put Round-Up on anything unless you want it plant-free for at least a full year. That stuff sticks in the soil forever.
You're so full of shit your eyes are brown. Round-Up is only effective for a day or two. After that, plant away. I have sprayed on Wednesday and planted on Saturday. No ill effects.
-
@blakeyrat said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Also a roto-tiller doesn't become cost effective until you have about a quarter-acre or so to turn.
They can also be rented, and there are a ton of people on our local Craigslist that can be hired for cheap to till a garden plot.
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
looking to do veg.
then I wouldn't spray it either. better turn it over. you'll be needing looser soil in any case. this doesn't matter as much for fixed plants but for crops ...
-
@Polygeekery Fine; do what the fuck you want.
I'm not planting food I expect to eat in poison. If you want to, knock yourself out.
-
@blakeyrat Do you eat crabgrass? No? Then don't worry about it you Seattleite hippy. And put on some deodorant, it doesn't give you Alzheimer's.
-
@Polygeekery Yes I am a conspiracy theorist, this is true entirely.
-
@blakeyrat It must be. Millions of acres of crops are planted every year in fields sprayed with Round-Up.
-
@Polygeekery Look, here's what I know:
- Turning the soil is 99% effective and quicker than even driving to the store to buy Round-Up. (Unless you don't already own a shovel, I guess. Then you have to run to the store and buy that.)
- My garden is incredibly fertile and productive
- I don't like putting poison on things
Again: you can do what the fuck you want on your own land. I don't care. Burn a big swastika into it with gasoline, knock yourself out.
I won't.
-
A lot of crops are 'round-up ready' which means they're immune to glyphosate(Round-up). The average half-life of round-up in soil is 32 days, although it can be more or less depending on temperature/water/the phase of the moon.
As usual, Polygeekery is light on facts, and blakeyrat is heavy on FUD. (Round-up is poison, but it's not very poisonous. It's no agent orange but it's not good for you, mostly because it's a powdered acid)
-
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
As usual, Polygeekery is light on facts
I did not realize that I needed to back it up when I dispute the assertion that the most widely used herbicide in the world is safe to use on your garden. But, sure.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/long-should-wait-plant-plants-after-applying-roundup-79033.html
Or, if you want to look at facts and not FUD:
Or, if you want something to read that is truly light on facts, you can check out: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/
If they have forums, you can probably find @blakeyrat on there claiming that Round-Up causes lymphoma and autism and such.
-
@Polygeekery said in Gardening Problems Thread:
I dispute the assertion that the most widely used herbicide in the world is safe to use on your garden.
(I'm not sure that's what you meant) In fact I'm certain it's not what you meant but I'm a jerk so...
I know you like being an argumentative , and so do I, so let's get started.
Your conclusions are correct but your methodology is flawed.
Fact the first: Roundup is safe. Hilariously, so, in fact. The oral LD50 is something like 5 grams/kg, putting it at fifty times less toxic than caffeine. If you get it up your nose you're going to have a bad day, but the same is true of powdered soap. Every time a study shows a round-up cancer connection it fails to hold when the study is scaled up. On the other hand, connections keep popping up. It probably causes cancer, but not quickly enough to outpace smoking, fresh air, and sunshine. Next.
Evidence for roundup's safety: Lab trials in mice, epidemiological studies of humans.
Non-evidence for roundup's safety: widespread use in fields. Anything google says.Fact the second: Roundup persists in the soil.
Evidence: You can detect it in the soil months later. Quantitative measurements of Round-up concentrations show a half-life that varies widely, but the average is about 30 days. See Monsanto's field persistence experiments they did around the world. See also conifers can't be planted for much longer than grasses or ornamentals. Glyphosate has a pretty specific mode of action, and some plant classes are just resistant.
Non-evidence for its persistence: A blog telling me I can. Hell, I don't even believe monsanto when they tell me I can. It's much less toxic through the roots than through the leaves, but it's demonstrably there and it has an effect. Monsanto doesn't even care if you use roundup on your garden. They have roundup ready corn and don't give a shit about your begonias.
-
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
(I'm not sure that's what you meant) In fact I'm certain it's not what you meant but I'm a jerk so...
Either my brain outpaced my fingers, or my phone did some strange autocorrect, but yes that is exactly the opposite of what I meant. :)
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
Fact the second: Roundup persists in the soil.
Evidence: You can detect it in the soil months later. Quantitative measurements of Round-up concentrations show a half-life that varies widely, but the average is about 30 days. See Monsanto's field persistence experiments they did around the world. See also conifers can't be planted for much longer than grasses or ornamentals. Glyphosate has a pretty specific mode of action, and some plant classes are just resistant.
Non-evidence for its persistence: A blog telling me I can. Hell, I don't even believe monsanto when they tell me I can. It's much less toxic through the roots than through the leaves, but it's demonstrably there and it has an effect. Monsanto doesn't even care if you use roundup on your garden. They have roundup ready corn and don't give a shit about your begonias.So what if it does? Glyphosate is really only effective if you spray it on the leaves where it is directly taken up by the plant, killing it. By the time it makes it to the soil, it becomes dilute. Rainwater drags it down through the soil, spreading it out. I don't know how everyone else uses RoundUp, but when I apply it I do not soak the soil. I lightly spray the leaves well. I find it very hard to believe that small amount when spread throughout the soil poses any risk to future plantings.
Also, yes I know it is anecdata, but I have sprayed RoundUp to prepare a garden patch and planted seedlings three days later with no ill effects. Not once have I had anything more than normal attrition on freshly planted plants. Every year our herb garden gets overgrown at the end of the year and in spring I spray it, add compost and turn the soil a few days later and plant seedlings and seed. The only areas I manually weed are those containing chives, sage, etc.
Maybe @blakeyrat thinks that people mix it up in 55 gallon drums and saturate the soil with it? I don't know how he fashions his tinfoil hat. But as far as I am concerned, the science is in on glyphosate. I use it because if I don't, the weeds come back super quick after I turn the soil because you are not killing the plant when you turn the soil. You are just damaging it and reburying it. Some weeds will make it through that no problem. I spray the fuckers and get rid of them. But, then again, I don't live in Seattle and I don't wear flannel.
-
@accalia said in Gardening Problems Thread:
rotatiller
-
@Jaloopa said in Gardening Problems Thread:
I have no deadline, and not much free time.
The beauty is that "put down tarp, put bricks on it to hold it in place" doesn't take much time at all. Leave it like that for 3 weeks and you should find nothing alive underneath.
-
@FrostCat The drawback is it doesn't let you start a Round-Up flamewar.
-
@FrostCat And what a drawback it is.
-
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
@FrostCat And what a drawback it is.
All depends on what you're trying to get out of life.
-
@FrostCat said in Gardening Problems Thread:
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
@FrostCat And what a drawback it is.
All depends on what you're trying to get out of life.
In this case roundup/GMO corn interplay is professionally interesting to me. Indirectly, but it's nice to keep a handle on what the unwashed masses think about the horrors perpetrated in the name of science.
-
@AyGeePlus said in Gardening Problems Thread:
the unwashed masses
I hear washing gets rid of roundup.