How's the gardening going?

Just spent 2 hours ripping out blackberries, my skin is now shredded, but i'll soon have garden space for the non-carnivorous plants.  

Uh oh, there's a (sort of) clean spot now!  

Just got 2 raised beds ready for the cannabis. Got one clone; need 3 more. I think we're going to grow the veggies in containers this year - that's next.

Also gotta enclose the pot garden against deer before the plants go out in mid-May.

Garlic is doing well. Be harvesting in June sometime.  Planting cuttings in a few weeks here. Old Farmers Almanac says end of the month for this locale. 

But the new bed is ready to go.

I got tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, butterleaf lettuce, rosemary,  cilantro, parsley and dill planted so far.  I also have about 70 london pound cake and 50 lime og vegging indoor under lights til next week when they will be ready to go outside with supplemental lighting. 

Best o' luck farmers.

Easily spent 150-200 hours on the suburban house since February 

7 hours a day for every day of quarantine 

keeps me "sane" or at least relatively 

did some bricks, pretty gravel, for front roses that were pruned and fertilized the first blooms are insane 

i will take pictures tomorrow ( I hate posting pics on the zone big pain in the ass)

spent the last five days doing long overdue cleanup in the back hard   Don't ever plant runners !!!!!    JFC !!!  have been running 6 garbage cans of yard waste a week for weeks have power washed the bricks twice and the sidewalk/ paths    Weeded and laid bark 1.5 cubic yards from recycling and 15 5 gallon buckets of pebbles   Bought some sealer : wet look I am going to test on the pebbles around the front roses    Tons of weeding   Plant flowers  and bulbs  buying new and reconditioning my solar garden lights   Just now draining the abandoned Softub  gonna get it repaired     I hope

i freaking love it   And it will be spectacular

I am a hoarder / recycler and some of it is paying off  - also three dumpster runs as part of cleanup 

 I am an old man with a pulled buttocks muscle causing sciatica in my leg.   Hard to walk.sore as hell.   Soaking in the tub well over an hour a day 

Film at 11 ( not the soaking)

...Ate our first round of homegrown asparagus today!  We've got purple and green ones...males & females.  Did not realize asparagus was dioecious until we planted some that were donated by a friend, which turned out to be female.  Either way, they all taste great.

Cleaned out and ready to roll. Should prolly be planting spring vegetables but I've been too busy not going anywhere.

Damn!

Not bad!

bumpin' for nice pics!

Here's another before shot to go w/ the above pic 

just a bit of improvement, from a week or so ago

and a bit more

Now i've gone from a briar patch w/ dead things, to having planted 8 types of tomatoes, 9 types of peppers, 11 other veggies (onions, peas, cabbages, etc), and 7 types of herbs (3 x basils, etc).  

Still going to add more...   but the dream of garden to table Bloody Mary's may actually happen!  

(Since these pics, have added Chinese pink celery, might actually grow around here, and horseradish, the most hung of the radishes, but in a pot so it won't go nuts)

Damn!

Visible progress, Noodler.. very cool!!

Still going great I've been very busy all month. Also just replaced my 400 full spectrum MH bulb use in my veg and everything looks happy Happy about that. I should be busy only looking at a 3week lull next month I've got something coming out every week through mid july. 

3 varieties of tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, broccoli, kale, onions and Aloe

2 weeks later, and the briar patch gravel driveway reclamation garden is starting to look like a garden...  (sans all the weeding, lol, but i've seen worse)

Sugar pearl corn, cucumbers, snow peas, red fingerling taters, red / white / walla walla onions,  cabbage mix,  fast and slow growing summer salad mix

several types of basil, cipollini onions, scallions, 9 types of tomatoes, 15 types of peppers, horse radish, Chinese celery, bunch more herbs in another spot.  I grew a bunch of toms / peppers from starts, then did trades on in the local gardening groups to expand the list.  And sold a bunch of carnivorous plants to pay for the rest.  Another month or two and will have farm to table bloody marys! 

My berry vines are producing which makes me very happy. Nothing like a freshly harvested bowl of berries for breakfast! Everything else (besides the radishes) is still coming along, I got a late start.

Drub I think there's a car wash down the street.

the neighbors dead car (got rid of my dead car to methican americans)...   was thinking of using it for a chicken coop, lol

Harvested a dozen garlic. They seem to be ready early. Will harvest a dozen every few days till all hun are in.

5 tomatoes are growing well. Little green ones coming out.

5 varieties of hot peppers growing well, nothing on the serranos, jalapenos or pablanos yet, but getting some cayenne. Flowers all around so only a matter of time.

Pickling cucs doing well.

Zucchini blowing up already.

Green onions, basil, bush beans and a few carrots all doing well.

Got a few milkweeds to come up from seed (in the neighboring lots). Gotta take care of the Monarch Butterflies.

I got a late start this yr but everything seems to be doing OK.

You best get after those weeds there Noodler.

Spent 2 hours weeding today, also, added more basil and celery 

The Sativa that budded prematurely - was it a clone or a seedling? Many clones are grown under 24 hr. light for indoor use. If you get one of these it may bud out when exposed to the 16 hrs. or so of regular sunlight

The cool spells / near frosts have been hard on my Toms / Peppers...  but they're starting to come around, hopefully with this week being sunny those soil temps will come up a bit (before it cools down / gets wet again this weekend)

2 auto flowers

1 indica

tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, Lettuce, Chard, Kale and tomatillos

Found this great article on helpful bugs of the Willamette Valley, enjoy!

https://suburbanhomecraft.com/beneficial-insects/?fbclid=IwAR3iGS6J3J-zU...

Celebrity Tomato

Roma

Peppers: Cayenne, Serrano, Jalapeno

We harvested 6 heads of Bibb lettuce the week before Mother's Day. Just finished up the last of those yesterday. We replaced the lettuce with cucumbers, they have a while to go before we see anything,  I always say I am going to do a fall garden with more lettuce but I am always burned out by then and wait until spring. 

It's been a real chilly spring up here in the hills for the most part, so things are just starting to come along nicely in the last week or two. I have to do everything in containers because my yard is overrun (underrun?) with gophers. From left to right, this season I have grape tomatoes, Anaheim chiles, cherry tomatoes, 7 kinds of cannabis from seed (in various stages of development to replace any males and/or for a staggered harvest), a few remaining sunflowers (that weren't eaten by rodents), and a few mixed bloomers. I'm working on mainlining my pot plants this season. I might still sow some Oriental poppies.

we had our first spinach this week

so good!

ganja wise, all indoor thus far but tasty

(((Neville)))

The reclaimed driveway continues to progress...  with all the recycled soils in the pots, turns out I had a bad batch that made it to 4 or 5 pots, those plants didn't flourish like the rest, but thanks to fertilization, they're started to abandon they're yellowish hues for the more prosperous green!

(edit for double post)

Swiss Chard and Romaine haven't been great but all else (leeks, red lettuce, cabbage, brussels, kale) seem to be doing fine. Tomatoes and peppers went in a couple weeks ago...those are the only ones that really matter to me at the end of the day. The other stuff is just exercise. 

A pruning goof and the herb bed w/ some tiny new ones from last week's run to Alsea, OR.

Harvested all my garlic.  100 bulbs drying in the garage.

Everything else coming along nicely.  Wish I had not planted so late this yr, but should be a good season anyway. 

Ken's inside picture is really something.  Outside made me jealous too.

Use to grow some until they passed a law saying they could confiscate your house for having a plant.

I think it would be cool to live in a state with some freedom.

This Thread Is Awesome ! Cool Gardening 

In my earlier post, I mentioned I was working on mainlining my pot plants this season. That involves a combination of topping the plant four times along with low-stress training to produce sixteen growth tips, which will hopefully yield sixteen fat colas with almost no small buds. Here's a pic of a Grapefruit Haze from this morning; each branch off the mains have four growth tips:

In other news, my tomatoes are looking very happy and starting to fruit. That's grapes on the left, cherries on the right, with Anaheim chiles in between:

Sadly, I did have to cull one male OG Kush cross yesterday. Oh well, these things happen when planting from seed. Keep on growing Zoners.

I LOVE YOU ALL

Hey Now, Mike - that is a nicely topped/split there!

I do the same thing and love the results of big bad well-developed colas/buds. I have a newfound appreciation for staggerred harvests as well, if the plant is big enough or really bushy.

Thanks, Strawbud. I've only been growing a few years, but I'm fascinated with the structure of the plant and how we can coax it to do our bidding. The last couple of years I've done one topping and trained the two resulting tops to horizontal, and then would get about 32 tops of varying sizes from the branches that rose up from the main branches, but I like the idea of 16 branches all about the same size and roughly the same distance from the main stalk.

What do y'all plant midsummer?  Got some space after garlic harvest.

Tom

<<What do y'all plant midsummer? 

Leafy and rooty things are good (cabbages, lettuce, raddishes, beets, carrots, etc).  If you've got a long season, even peppers and tomatoes.

Looks like my Venus Flytraps are going to put out some seeds!!!  I'm very stoked about this, 3 cheers to the windowsill farmers of the world!!!

(meanwhile, picture my above garden pics w/ another week or 2 worth of growth, lol)

my pineapple patch, after a replanting the two old plants, they are starting to sink their roots and stretch out some.

we replaced a dying palm tree with a Crepe Myrtle with Red Flowers. Hope to get it above the purple plants and I will cut it to umbrella above the the lower plants. I was wanting the tree type of Crepe Myrtle with white flowers, but the wife knows best. 

I have the white tree type in the front

the spot the crepe will reside, center stage

Nice backyard.  And pineapples? Awesome.

Thanks Noodler.

Nice job, Skyjunk!

Bought a cherry tomato plant on sale today for $4!

more good midsummer plants  -- broccoli varieties, brussel sprouts.

Brussel sprouts and parsnips are meant to be left in the garden until first frost, just before the winter holidays.

My "other" garden is at a friends house, now freshly planted

Pepper growing in straw bale

Pics are 2 or 3 weeks old

Mostly maters,beans, and green pepper, I'll have to take some new pics. Been dry here

...

Harvested and planted the Venus flytrap seeds today, pretty cool tiny black shiny seeds!  

Garlic harvested and dried. 98 bulbs.  Anybody know the best way to store them without a basement or rootcellar? They say they need to be kept @40 degrees but not to put them in the fridge. I will be fermenting a bunch and am already giving some away, but will need to store quite a few.

My poblanos are doing well, 3 plants and there must be 25 nice peppers already some are half size. Serranos and jalapenos are finally getting going with many small peppers. Many sungold cherry tomatoes and  a few will be eaten tomorrow. Almost ready today. My dwarf heirlooms are blowing up but no sign of ripening.  Romas are doing OK. I will be taking first zucchinis in next couple days.  Half a dozen are 5 0r 6 inches long. Just right.  Got itty bitty cucs, long way off yet. As are  the carrots. Bummed that some of the basil are flowering already.  The bush beans I planted turned out to be pole beans.

Maybe your name should be Rosemataz?

My Lotus bloomed today. Cool plant. 

Yeah sure noodler, asking for friend.....

The foliage on that lotus is quite cool too.

In my haste, I forgot to post pics of some of the flowers (the rest of the outdoor garden has grown a lot)

Flowers in general doing great. 

This one is is from two months ago, on April 30. But the Rhodies looked bad ass there for two weeks or so 

Mark D, I grew several different varieties of hardneck garlic: porcelain, purple stripe, and rocambole garlic in the mid nineties for extra money selling at the local farmer's market. I grew around 800 plants each summer for 5 years and garlic should never be grown in the same spot two years in a row. Rocamboles are the most "garlicky" but are the  shortest ilived in storage (3 months tops before sprouting.). Porcelains and purple stripes land around 6 months; 8 months if you have ideal storage conditions and are almost as equally flavorful. Depending on variety, keeping 20 to 30% of  harvested garlic bulbs for Fall planting will give you 100 plants again.  Silverskins, or softneck varieties can be planted in the Spring and will store up to one year. These are the kind that look cool braided hanging in a kitchen, but they are also the least flavorful.

If you have a hardneck variety but aren't sure of the variety, I highly suggest drying your garlic if you want to preserve the flavor, nutrients and get the longest use out of it. Peel, cut into thin slices and put it in a food dryer until cracker dry. Garlic "chips" are great in stews, soups or turn them all into the best tasting garlic powder you'll ever experience. It seems like a lot of work, but these are activities designed with friends and joints in mind and it will go quickly.

1st rain in about a month, lawn and gardens going sluuuuuuuuuurp. The lawn, just starting to turn a bit brown, back to green.

Rainmaker rainmaker, make me some rain, make all my crops grow tall

Thanks Joe. 800 plants was a lot of work I am sure.  The softneck varieties grow best around here so I planted Lors.  Gonna plant half  soft and try half hardneck this time. And maybe not plant so early in the fall. I need to build the next raised bed by then. I know to stagger planting areas.

I will try drying some. I had not thought of that. I know I will be fermenting a few jars.  And giving away some. 

My mainlining project is going well. I just finished up the topping and most of the training about a week ago, and then started seeing some pre-flowers this week. I need to get things started indoors much earlier next year; I got a bit of a late start this season because of the pandemic, but there's no doubt in my mind that this training method is the proper way to grow.

These are two pics of a Green Crack: the first is sixteen growth tips as seen from above, and the second shows the branch structures below. I'm fascinated by the flexible geometry of these plants, and their fractal growth patterns too.

Lookin Healthy Mike and trippy topping

Good Stuff up in here!

Mikee, that puppy looks like it'll be gaining some nice weight! 

Joe, what are the downsides of planting garlic in the same place over consecutive years?

The driveway garden is doing great, meanwhile, the alternative garden is happy, good rooting weather as it's been a rather cool / damp May / June, got a late start too

> trippy topping

No doubt, Rob, It's like 16 plants growing out of one main stem.

Indeed! Sometimes less (plants) is more (yield) as you can really focus and get things dialed in and fine-tuned.

Exactly, StrawBud. The last couple of years, I kind of stumbled into this kind of training by topping a plant once, and then training the two resulting branches horizontally; the result was 24-32 tops that then grew vertically from the nodes of those two horizontal branches. That was pretty neat, I thought, but the vertical branches were all wildly different lengths, like from 6 inches to 3 feet long or so. With mainlining, each top is pretty much equidistant from the main stem (and all of the resources it carries), and they're all about the same length, so hopefully they'll all yield about the same.

Weather turning hot and humid here in the 203. Cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes rapidly growing. Brussels and beets not doing quite as well.

I harvested the early and mid-season garlic varieties today, as well as the scapes. I'm going to make garlic scape pesto with pepitas instead of pinenuts. Should be a fun experiment.

The biggest, best looking garlic heads are mild, and excellent keepers called Inchelium Reds. I'll keep an eye on the late season plants, should be a month or so.

My pear and apple trees are looking beautiful with lots of fruit. It seems to me that they're a bit earlier than most years, but maybe not. I lose track of time.

I love looking at everyone's pictures. Great gardens!

I have a qt of my garlic fermenting.  So far. Gonna try several methods, but first is straight lacto. Just distilled water and sea salt.   Heard that zucchini ferments well(in only 3-5 days) and taste great so I am trying that out. Already have too much zucchini.

Sungold tomatoes are delicious. One day there will be enough ripe to make it inside. The dog loves em and so do I.  Had a delicious slicer yesterday. Many more coming.  Romas are prolific but still very green. Serranos and poblanos are blowing up.  Biggest "Persian" cucs I ever saw. WTH? I wanted to make whole pickles. Still can. One per qt jar.

It's been vegging and stretching time the last week or so, and my plants have been doing much the same too. The Grapefruit Haze is popping pistils all over the place, and the Green Crack and Girl Scout Cookies, which are from feminized seeds, are looking like they'll be females. Lots of hot, sunny days with temps into the 90s lately, but my girls seem to be digging it.

Grapefruit Haze

Green Crack

Girls Scout Cookies

Nice work, Mike, those are some healthy looking girls.  And, yes, less is more. So nice to see diy. And it's very gratifying.

Ken, my only other advice for garlic storage is to know which garlic strain you are growing. That is the only way to know the longevity as it will vary quite a bit within the two main types.  Hardnecks are anywhere from 3 to 8 months, at best, before sprouting. Softnecks avg. 9 - 12 months. One other method I used for long storage (about 1.5 yrs and I only grew hardnecks) was to peel garlic cloves, pack into a wide mouth mason jar and fill with apple cider vinegar. Both partially took on the flavor of the other wile the acidity kept the cloves from sprouting/degrading. A very highly recommended variety is Spanish Roja., a rocambole hardneck that is considered by many to be the gold standard for garlic flavor but only lasts 3 months tops in storage. Nice girls you've got, too!

Filaree Farm in central WA is one of the oldest registered organic farms in the US and their food and seed garlic quality and selection is second to none, imo. 

https://www.filareefarm.com/

Here's Oregon States take on Garlic, lots of great info!

https://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/oregon-vegetables/garlic-1?fbclid=I...

and a few planting charts for the Willamette Valley in Oregon

https://portlandnursery.com/docs/veggies/VeggieCalendar.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3...

https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog/files/project/ht...

I am actually not a Fan of Huge Pot Plants - Bring On The Dank Stubby Ones ! 

Noodler I've used that Portland Nursery planting chart for years... saved the PDF to my phone. 

Got a gardening question.... my culinary herb garden is doing great, but some things are blooming (oregano and marjoram)... should I cut the blooming branches to force new growth ...and dry the branches or is there a better approach? 

Joe, try fermenting the garlic. Much healthier. Probiotics etc. Just add brine. 2-3 TBSP sea salt(Celtic works great for brining)in distilled water.  I have bought from Filaree too, but their organic selection is weak.

It is time to order for the fall because most outlets sell out early.

Llollo, I know when basil starts to flower you need to top the flowers whereever they pop up cause the flavor diminishes greatly after the flowers take hold.

"I have bought from Filaree too, but their organic selection is weak."

This is incorrect. I think all their stuff is organic.

You have some wonderful looking gardens, zoners!  Pretty happy with the tomato plant as it seems to grow two inches a day lately.  Looks super healthy from when I purchased the last one they had on 6/21.  Just using a back deck so I'm pretty happy. Hanging petunias and planted begonias as far as flowers.  Maybe next summer the pots.  We'll see.

first flower on the crepe, did not take long

Everything coming in crazy this week. After living my life equally on both coasts, the garden is an apropos metaphor for each sphere. West Coast even and mellow, pluck it a bit throughout the lunar calendar, live your life in tandem. East Coast fast and furious, grabbing the golden bell before the Poe-inspired shadows fall upon the commonwealth. 

Red Cabbage. First time growing.

Matty Matherson savage braised red cabbage recipe - https://youtu.be/KrLGwpgG94Q 

I made pesto using garlic scapes from my garden - NYT recipe. I posted it in the recipe thread in the Creative/Cosmic folder.

That looks really yummy!

Here's the new herb over iris memorial driveway encampment, a basil lovers delight

good job all, so jealy of you that can grow a veggie garden`

Tatters, that looks delicious and making food using things from our own gardens makes it even better. This is a link that worked for me to that guy and his recipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLGwpgG94Q

6 day fermented zucchini are amazing.   Gonna keep doing this all summer.  Great probiotic snack. Gotta figure out how to get more heat from the serranos.

Bees and Butterflies love Milkweed, pooch keepin an eye out

Ras, is that amaranth you have growing in your garden? The red flower bunches? Pretty cool!

I just planted 70 bulbs yesterday. Mid-winter here, so, my gardening report is a bit different from you alls. Just planted 70 tulip and daffodil bulbs, I'm hoping for a colorful spring. Also pruned back the jasmine bushes big time. Now I have to prune a couple rose bushes and other bushes I have up front, do some moving around of plants that are blocking some pipes and what not. Lots of work ahead but it'll all pay off come spring. 

My indoor garden is turning 7 weeks on Friday, cream cookes and zkittles. I've been puffing like Bob Marley during lockdown and can't seem to grow enough to keep my head in check - it's a real issue. I went through like 200 grams in two months last round. Gonna need to start measuring my intake if I want to make it harvest to harvest. That's too bad, I really like puffing like a champ!

And Ras, I love that you have milkweed. I don't know where you are but do you ever get any Monarchs stopping by on their route? My understanding is that they LOVE milkweed.

Yeah, I grow a couple different types of amaranth, Love Lies Bleeding is my fav, I'll post more photos as they bloom up.

Last year my milkweed was a genuine monarch nursery. Watched a couple dozen grow from wee bit dots. This year not a one, and have only seen one transient passing thru. Lots of bees this year, but sadly no monarchs - yet. Will post updates.

Good job on the bulb plantings. If you plant ice, you don't harvest much

Make yourself a nice cbd alcohol tincature with some'a that green, plenty of instructions online. It's a great addition to the arsenal.

For tincture instructions, check the Viva Cannabis folder:  https://vivalazone.org/cannabis/how-make-tinctures

After 25 years, this is my first year without amaranth which has been growing as a volunteer. It's weird without it. My neighbor was going to garden in my beds that have always had peppers/tomatoes/amaranth/tomatillos and flowers but he bailed and finally copped to it yesterday. He over-commits. I did spread a lot of amaranth seeds in the alleys around here in the early spring but haven't seen any plants. Maybe I'll spread some more.

Wow! I didn't realize so many people grew amaranth or that it was that common. You don't see it anywhere in Chile. Have either of you tried growing quinoa? It's pretty much the same as amaranth but the only problem is quinoa has a protective coating that has to be removed before consumption, either through processing it in fire ash or with a special machine. Not very practical either way.

Ras, that's awesome that the monarchs hang out in your yard. I love monarch butterflies and think it's really cool that you're garden is a home for them. Awesome!

CBD tincture, huh? I've been following the tincture thread over on cannabis, actually, but hadn't considered making a cbd tincture. I'll look into it, thanks for the tip!

Love seeing and reading up on what everyone's dirt has produced, lol...  

Here's some updated pics of my reclaimed driveway project, been very pleased with the results so far, and have learned from the disasters too!    

Basil, scallions, cipollini onions, etc

Lots of growth, yippie!

Some of the tomatoes got shuffled around (needy little social climbers)

A lot of these I got for free, or did trades in local gardening groups on FB.  Peoria Gardens annual sale was great, picked up flats of 18 (mix and match) for $5 per flat, and last saturday they had "used" soils for $10 a pickup load!   Otherwise supported a lot of friends at the local nurseries and at Saturday Farmers market.   

Everyone's gardens are looking great. 

I planted some Milkweed for the Monarchs this summer. They are only a few inches tall and don't seem to be growing.  Hoping they will be ok by next yr. Planted a ton of seeds but only a few came up at all. Hoping some of the other seeds will sprout next yr too.

You won't get CBD tincture from THC dominant plants no matter what parts you use. You need CBD dominant strains to make CBD tincture.

Your backyard must look empty Judit.

Hard to discern what is what in the pic, but it's SD seedling, Light Saber, Durban Poison, and Lemon SD.

^^Cucumbers Tomatoes Basil and zucchini. And a few flowers.

The center of the yard looks really empty but the fruit trees are bearing billions of fruits, other things are making comebacks and I sure miss Al working with the peppers. I'll see if I can find one of the pics of how it looked even last year.

Serrano, jalapenos and pablano peppers, borage  and a sunflower.

Todays harvest.  That's the first sungold to make it inside. The pup and I eat them as they ripen.

I got home yesterday from a quick weekend trip up to Reno, and found that my grape tomatoes are just starting to ripen, but also found some brown rotting spots on my Anaheim chiles. Google sez the icky stuff is probably due to a calcium deficiency, but I'm having a hard time believing that's the problem because my water is so hard here. In other news, a bunch of my cherry tomatoes are fruiting, but a bunch of them are almost the size of tennis balls; I don't know what's up with that.

I got a little of that going on with my pablonos.

Meanwhile, the windowsill garden's been doing quite well, love the nepenthes! 

>but I'm having a hard time believing that's the problem because my water is so hard here.

Mike, try adding two capfuls of apple cider vinegar to each gallon of water. Calcium carbonate (or bicarbonate) is bound calcium and plant roots can only utilize free calcium.  Dropping the pH a bit will free up some calcium and you should see the spots disappear on the remaining tomatoes that haven't ripened yet.

Your cherries may simply not be cherries. Mislabeling at a nursery, especially vegetable plants,  is commonplace, either by staff or from a previous customer.

Beautiful pics all

Hey, Joe. I've been using a 30% phosphoric acid solution to bring the pH of my water down to about 7.0; it runs about 7.8 untreated. I've read about using apple cider vinegar, but I've also read that it's not very stable, so the effects don't last as long as the H3PO4.

And yeah, some of my local gardening friends have suggested the cherry tomatoes might have been mislabeled, or cross-pollinated somehow. I found a couple this morning that had brown spots on their bottoms, which google is telling me might be Blossom End Rot, which can be caused by a calcium imbalance. It all comes back to calcium it seems.

Last year, I used RO water and treated it with a Cal-Mag supplement, but this year I decided to simplify things by using tap water treated for pH. Maybe next year I'll go back to RO water and continue treating for pH. This is one of the things I love about gardening though; it's an exercise in problem solving, and while I'm focused on what's going on right now, I'm always thinking about next year too.

Molasses works as ph down. Probably the most benign of household items most already have around. 
 

You will want to use unsulphured blackstrap molasses for this.

great pics everyone

Mike, If you're growing in peat, 7 is a bit high. If you can get closer to 6 - 6.5, your entire range of nutes becomes more available. It might just be the pH. We see calcium deficiencies in weed if pH is allowed to drift above 6.5 for anymore than a few days.

>>it's an exercise in problem solving

This is a true statement.

For your other beauties, Im highly envious of all the beautiful outdoor Cali plants posted here. Nothing beats the sun for overall quality, especially terpene production. ((((((gardening)))))

<<Molasses works as ph down

The sugars also help with terpenes and overall bud taste.  Best to get the molasses working in the soil months ahead of harvest. 

<<Molasses works as ph down

The sugars also help with terpenes and overall bud taste.  Best to get the molasses working in the soil months ahead of harvest. 

Ahhhh, exciting geometry. And a bee.

I thought about starting a garden blog this season, but posting here is so much easier, and nicer too.

My gape tomatoes are starting to ripen; it looks like this will be a busy week that way. My cherry tomatoes that aren't cherry tomatoes have a few nice clusters fattening up (whatever they are) and will probably start ripening this week I'm thinking. I found just a couple more with blossom-end rot, but they were actually cherry tomato-sized, so I didn't feel too bad about pitching them onto the waste heap. And I haven't seen any more brown soft spots on my Anaheim chiles, so I'm happy about that.

As for the real stars of my garden, I have three confirmed females and two of them have just started flowering with little pistils competing with new leaf for space in the growth tips. My other three (aka The Stragglers) are trucking along, but they're at least a couple of weeks behind the big girls, which I hope means I'll be harvesting over a couple of weeks at least.

Grapes

Cherries (Not cherries)

Anaheims

Grapefruit Haze ~ Green Crack ~ Girl Scout Cookies

Finally getting a warm week here in the great Pacific NW, which means the peppers and tom's are actually starting to explode, a little late, but welcomed.  

Meanwhile, the Peas are being harvested, and i've been sharing basil / herbs with the entire neighborhood!  Good times!  Definitely been a fun pandemic project to reclaim the driveway from the briar patches, and this weekend we got rid of the dead car, and dead water heater.  Haven't figured out a final arrangement for everything yet, but spread the toms / peppers out so I could weed them, give them a good soaking!

Plants look good mike! I have such little space I'm gonna try some form of that with the 2 from seed...I just dunno what they are and I guess this won't help

Turtle, I only have about 12' x 6 ' of usable space, so finishing six plants is going to be tricky. It's a near perfect, fairly discrete location that gets direct (south-facing, high elevation) sun from about 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM this time of year; by the time harvest rolls around, those hours will be reduced to about noonish until 4:00 or 5:00 PM, so it's a narrow window of opportunity, but it's just about perfect for getting in a crop of bud.

Girl Scout Cookies

nice! my space is a pallet...raised 6' with a hoop/net. the moths here are crazy.

i'm 100' elevation....but that spot gets light from 8am-8pm or more. i already got 2 lil 2 gal pots that my friend had started in december indoors. one i harvested on the solstice which was nerdy.  i get a lot of fog/marine layer...it's been solid for 3-4 mos...and windy, (both more so than usual?)....but it gets sun by the afternoon usually if so...

i have 1 more nice lemon jack going that's kinda going crazy and will test the limits of the space...just starting to flower.

The venus flytrap seeds are starting to sprout, took almost a month...  soon tiny bugs will feel like they live in Portland when the feds are in town

nice work Mikee 

i love Florida fishing, Florida bird watching, and Florida greenery, does not take long with the right choice in plants

next year I will have it shaped more like an umbrella, but for now just watching the wheels turn 

Bloomers be blooming.

Nice.  My sunflowers are darker. Not as pretty.

Anybody ever use try to use a 6ft chainlink fence as a trellis when growing berries or grapes?  I am thinking a one ft wide box running along the fence.

A small deer ate one of the two milkweed plants that grew. Tiny hoveprints. Hope the other one survives.

My Friend in Talent Oregon reported On one of his plants One is 7 x 7 foot already and a couple white hairs starting.

hey ken quick question. what is the radius and level of smell coming off those when they start flowering? 

Hey Now, Ken, those are some big beauties there! Curious when/how you may have started them (via seed or clone, indoors?) but also please keep us posted over the next 2 months when they really BLOOM! I have never had a serious outdoor crop but they sure do seem to have a high potential to get HUGE.

Any apple-growing experts on this thread? 

How does one know when the apple is ripe enough to pick? 

If they fall and it rains before I discover them, then the apples will rot in the grass or it's food for a critter.
 

Some days, Zone search > Google search

I'm not an expert. I've had a wonderful tree (Liberty) for 20 years and the test I use is to turn the apple 1/4 turn and if it comes off the tree it's ripe. If it doesn't, it's not ripe. The apples ripen over quite a time span, not all at once. Many of them do fall off, but somehow they're not always ripe when they fall. It's a mystery.

Ah, Judit I'll try that, thanks!  Nature is a mystery and a science, isn't it?

My girls are starting to put on some weight.

Great job Mike. Better get some stakes or other support in soon.

Thanks, Mark. I don't know if I'll need to stake them, the branches are pretty beefy and mostly vertical, but if they do need additional support, I'll probably do it from the interior and brace them to each other.

Found one of my Akane-variety apples on the ground yesterday... it was totally edible! 
Did the quarter-turn test on the remainders and they don't want to let go yet. 
I can see little critter bites and holes on some already.. so hope they ripen soon.

Baby venus flytraps first traps forming, looking forward to it's first kill!   (loving all the weed pics)

Nice job on that mainlining/manifolding, Mike!

Looks like a fragrant candelabra.

Thanks for the pics.

Gardening was going pretty well until two days ago.  We had a nasty storm roll through and part of my tomato plant was damaged and almost snapped in half.  A few tomatoes went bad.  After talking to a couple of people I've decided to see what happens in another day or so and then decide.  Do I repair with a stake or cut it off?

It sounded like that derecho storm that blew threw the Midwest the other day was pretty fierce, 4winds. If your tomato plant hasn't wilted yet, there's a good chance you can repair it.

After a rough start with some weird rot from uneven watering, my Anaheim chilies are starting to come in. These are all about 6-8 inches long.

I've been harvesting a couple of good handfuls of grape tomatoes a day for the last couple of weeks. They did much better than my cherry tomatoes that aren't cherry tomatoes, which have mostly developed big cracks from uneven watering.

Just some flowers and a couple of Scotch Bonnet pepper plants on the deck this year.

...

>>It sounded like that derecho storm that blew threw the Midwest the other day was pretty fierce, 4winds. If your tomato plant hasn't wilted yet, there's a good chance you can repair it.<<

Yep, in Chicagoland.  Fast and furious.  Good to know about the repair, thanks.

Still Awesome all. thanks 

First flytraps opening on my little killers...  be afraid, be very afraid!

Mike, I am not an expert, but I think tomatoes split when they are over ripe. To free the seeds.  Try picking them sooner.

Nice pics.

Mark, from what I've been reading, vertical cracks can develop when there's heat stress and uneven watering; they absorb water faster than the skins can grow. Also, most of them started cracking while they were still green.

Last week, I won a microscope that connects to my phone for some close-up photography.

Sweet!

Had an unwelcome visitor in the garden today. The good news is I haven't found any damage.

Ash Wednesday. I hope this blows off before it sticks.

Dan, I've been shaking my branches to get the ash off. I'm kind of skeptical about spraying them with water, since water + hard wood ash = lye.

>>>I've been shaking my branches to get the ash off. I'm kind of skeptical about spraying them with water, since water + hard wood ash = lye.

No help Mike, they are resin-ed in place. California fire terrior.

 >>>I've been shaking my branches to get the ash off. I'm kind of skeptical about spraying them with water, since water + hard wood ash = lye.

>>> No help Mike, they are resin-ed in place. California fire terrior.

a very wise brother had said this in the cannabis folder.

and I was told from a friend whose been in the game for 30 years,

this is what's up.

seems sketchy af, but he swears by it, it's definitely not for the lazy...

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Rob Matanaska on Saturday, March 21, 2020 – 01:43 am 

10 day flush is too much.  Flushing really isn't necessary unless your using nutrients with lots of salts.  The nutrients your using shouldn't require flushing for 10 days.  I won't be flushing mine more than a couple days if at all.  I use organic nutrients that utilizes anaerobic bacteria with soil that is alive.  I also wash my bud after cutting it down.  Removes any dust, bugs and kills any possible mildew or mold plus it brings out the terpenes more .

https://www.docbudsbrix.com/ 

Here's a better link

https://www.docbudsbrix.com/bud-washing

Bud washing sounds legit. All of my previous grows were indoors and had no issues, but for an outdoor grow this sounds like the way to go.

I only have indoor experience as well and have never washed the stalks in that manner but probably would next time. 

I like the lemon juice idea and the series of buckets but also have read about people using a dilluted peroxide solution too. Anybody here ever do that or have thoughts on that?

So, I'm looking at harvesting one of my girls in a week or so, and thinking about washing my buds, but I have a couple of questions. First, how does washing them bring out the terpenes more? I like that idea, but I also like understanding how and why things work. Second, should I pH the water I use to wash them? I'm guessing that it won't make a difference because the plant is done growing, but the pH of my local water is really high, like 7.5+. I'll likely be using RO water because the local H2O is really hard too, but should I pH it?

my plant is fu-barred worm shit.

>>> I'll likely be using RO water because the local H2O is really hard too, but should I pH it?

nah, you're good with RO.

crisp, clean, green, serene 

sorry to hear, turtle. hope you catch a positive break. 

i'm dealing with a major white powdery mildew outbreak that i'm praying won't destroy my crop.  the moist and smokey fog isn't helping out one bit. 

moral of the story for me, is to plan ahead and spray early and often even when there isn't a problem before reaching this stage of the plants lifecycle.  also, have read that buying clones from dispensiaries can be dicey as many of them aren't sanitary and the clones you bring home many times have WPM or other hidden problems that come to life later. 

We've been wondering what to do about the forest fire ash on our plants...  don't want to wash it off, and a gentle leaf blower engagement didn't work well enough to want to escalate.  Decided to just let it be.  Tonight is our first chance of rain, but I think we're going to get missed (maybe some brief drizzle), so now have to start worrying about mold (none so far).  Thursday is the next chance of significant rain, will have to decide if we should harvest, put up a tarp, or risk mold (one plant ready now, i'd love to see the rest get another week if not 2).  Amazing how a forecast of 90's for a week became highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's due to all the smoke and inversions (was 20 degrees warmer 3,000 feet above us)

In the meantime, the baby flytraps are doing great, but now the baby sundews are emerging, so more meat eating vegetation on the rise!   

5 7 5

this year was a fail

roses glorious at first

dahlias just failure

>>>First, how does washing them bring out the terpenes more?

it doesn't; pure internet bs. Breaking the trichome heads open brings out the terpenes more.

The lemon and baking soda solution is a classic organic produce wash. Together, the chemical reaction acts as a surfactant....

https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/science-soap/ch...

sorry, but neither lemons nor baking soda by themselves or in combo create a surfactant (surface active reagent). A true surfactant would dissolve the trichomes into the rinsing water and you'd be left with resinless weed.   In reality, growing weed makes you an essential oil producer, whether the essential oils stay on or are extracted from the leaf surface, it's the resin production that we want to achieve, and only remove intentionally.

For anyone affected by the ash, the plain RO rinse might be worth a try to dissolve the ash (lye is sodium hydroxide, wood ash plus water makes potassium hydroxide...still a base but more plant friendly), although, I would be more gentle dunking my branches than what the video shows. Aggressive dunking could easily break away precious developed trichome heads that you have been working and waiting for so patiently. Worth a try, but your dry room conditions need to be good to handle the excess moisture. Or like Druba mentioned, if you can live with it, why not?  God only knows what we smoked that was in the plastic wrapped, compacted bricks sent from the pristine conditions of central and south America years ago. At least this foreign substance is known. That's good. 

@Jeff, PM is tough to get away from. In the midwest, PM spores are pumped along the warm, moist air coming up from the gulf states in the spring, so there is literally no hiding from it. Some strains are severely nonresistant to it (kushes that developed in high, dry regions and didn't evolve much of an immunity to it).  And you're right, clones are often cut from a mom that has PM but are sprayed with neem oil to suppress the bloom, so they look clean but the nonvisible hyphae stays in the tissue and develops as the plant grows and conditions become more favorable for bloom (visible).   Starting from seed helps, but environmental stresses like you mentioned provide ideal conditions for growth and almost any plant can be infected. I have grown several non resistant PM strains indoors and have never seen PM. The only spray I use is a liquid kelp in veg. Nothing in flower, ever. The key is air movement - In flower, 2 to 3 air exchanges/minute. Air movement is critical (24 hrs/day) as the spores need still air to land and have time to attach to plant tissue.  There are plenty of internet soln's for PM at harvest. Not many don't involve chemicals. For outdoor growing where conditions are favorable, strain selection is key. This is a decent site for PM education, but the seed recommendation at the bottom looks much more like a sales sight than Pm resistant strains.  Buyer beware.

https://moldresistantstrains.com/6-ways-cure-powdery-mildew-cannabis-org...

Thanks, Joe. I had a feeling about the terp thing. Sounded to good to be true.

From what you've written here, I'm thinking I'll just shake my girls out real good when I cut them. It seems like that and trimming should get rid of most foreign matter.

Here's a pic of the ash on the plants...   not a horrible amount, but if a leave blower from a distance had little effect, not worth beating them up close up I figure

It is what it is

> my plant is fu-barred worm shit.

Well that sucks. Sorry to hear that, Turtle.

Noodler, the ash on yours looks like the ash on mine. So far, shaking the branches seems to get rid of most of it.

Getting frosty. Hope this little plant makes it a few more weeks before inevitable northern Oregon bud rot sets in 

Spring/summer flowers were shot .....

https://vimeo.com/457350564

Nod, I love your photo garden. I've never seen one like it and I think it's really good. Thanks.

I have apples and pears hanging hanging on the trees in the smoke, covered with ash. I hope there'll be more breeze and some rain to wash them off. What an end to the Summer season.

That's very cool, and the video soundtrack put a weird smile on my face too.

I like how the elements are contained within the garden structure (metaphors abound), and the framing of multiple perspectives really makes it for me.

Many thanks ....

So sorry for your apples & pears Judit. My son, wife and dawg just moved from an apartment in Portland to a house with a yard and they are stuck inside.

Mike.... can't kick that song. Prolly heard it 1000 times as a youngster. Metaphors R Us....

Your son and his family are still in such bad air! It is so oppressive. My son and his family are just north of there in Vancouver, WA and it's equally bad. They're trying to move down here but the house they're moving into was having some exterior work done on windows that got held up by the smoke - it's causing quite a delay - I'm sorry for the hold up, but working in the air we've had should never be allowed. It's crazy to me that the mail carriers and everyone else have been working in it.

I'm ready to get back to the regular anti-Covid life. Never thought I'd say that.

I still have tons of serranos and poblanos on the vine, but they do not seem to be ripening anymore. The poblanos only get to purple and then they go bad, so I have been harvesting at purple. But they taste so much better when they are red. The Hundreds of serranos still on the vine, but only a very few are turning red everyday. I was getting around 50 each time(every couple days or so). Are they done for the year? Should I just harvest them green and go with that? Again, they are so much better red. Thanks.

MarkD 

If cold

cover it up 

ride

Hi Mark. Covering will most likely extend the pepper season, watch out for mold/mildew, but they may also turn redder off the vine in storage. I've had that happen but wouldn't count on all of them doing it. I miss the pepper garden here.

Thanks TOD.

Thanks Judit. I remember your pepper gardens . Awesome. Why don't you start one yourself?

Sad to say, it starts with my back, Mark. Also, I don't eat very many hot peppers, but I love poblanos, anaheims, red pimentos and red bells. I love growing flowers, too. Parts of my past, for now.