Apple harvest editionpastebin:https://pastebin.com/Mvfh8b87 (embed)New USDA zone map has been released: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/Koppen Climate Map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/K%C3%B6ppen_World_Map_High_Resolution.png (embed)Search terms:Agrarian, Agriculture, Agrology, Agronomy, Aquaculture, Aquaponics, Berkeley Method Hot Composting, Cold Frames, Companion Planting, Composting, Container Gardening, Core Gardening Method, Cultivation, Deep Water Culture (DWC), Dry Farming, Espalier, Farmer's Market, Forest Gardening, Forestry, Fungiculture, Geoponics, Greenhouses, Homesteading, Horticulture, Hot Boxes, Hügelkultur, Humanure, Hydroponic Dutch Bucket System, Hydroponics, Keyhole Garden, Korean Natural Farming, Kratky Method, Landscaping, Lasagna Gardening, Ley Farming, Market Garden, Mulching, No-till Method, Ollas Irrigation, Orchard, Permaculture, Polyculture, Polytunnels, Propagation, Rain Gutter Garden, Raised Beds, Ranch, Rooftop Gardening, Ruth Stout Garden, Sharecropping, City Slicker Composting, Shifting Cultivation, Soil-bag Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Stale Seed Bed, Sugar Bush, Truck Farming, Vermiculture, Vertical Gardening, Window Frame Garden, Windrow Composting, Alpaca, Snail, Toad, Trumpeter, Turkey, Worm, biochar, vermicompostingLast thread: >>2875147
Horned melon I was waiting the entire summer for it to finally fruit, I don't know if there is something wrong with the plant but it just wouldn't fruit until recently
Apios Americana is coming into full bloom now>>2881075Thanks, I'll dig them out once plant is dying and I'm ready to cook them
Harvested straw grown oyster, decent haul of 800 grams from this batch>>2881101Sounds nice to grow them year round, have them spread and just dig them out when you want to eat themHere they always die during the winter here, not even the underground parts survive because ground tends to freeze to significant depth like 20~60 cm during strong frost, I never had any part survive even during the mildest winter I remember
I had a horrible year for fruit.
>>2881216Pic>>2881283Very nice>>2881318Same, a grapevine I had since 2018 died because of the heat/drought and a young peach tree was seriously damaged by hail.
My main garden bed was built along a property line and the owner has never had an issue with it, but he recently sold the property off and the new owner is going to put up a fence and has asked that I remove it. I'm kind of bummed out because I spent the last few years improving the soil there and my other "beds" are long fabric grow bags filled with shitty garden center dirt that has only ever grown weeds. Rather than get mad at the new neighbor, does anyone have any recommendations for plants that can grow okay in shitty dirt that's 80% wood chips, and any tips on making it better? I'm planning on planting a rye and winter pea cover crop to try and add some real organic material to it, and one bed will probably be a dumping ground for wildflower seeds.
Oh man, I have a lot of dill seed now.
>>2881282Those look like girl baginas. Also what the hell are they? Do you eat em or what?
>>2881341legume cover crops. clover, vetch, lupine, etc. get a good rhizobium inoculant with multiple strains or make sure it's suitable for what you're planting. most rhizobium strains are specific to a single crop or only a few in the same genus and will not work very well outside of what they're specialized for. you wanna fix as much nitrogen as possible to feed the microbes that are gonna break down the wood chips. which crop is best depends on your climate and the soil conditions e.g. ph, drainage, compaction. you could also just sow a bunch of them and see what wins. in general they're a lot easier to grow than anything you actually harvest
surprisingly great stuff, i recommend you to do it for yourselfinb4 what is this, i want to see if you know
Making apple juice. I've been using a grinder like this with a drill instead of using the hand crank but these kind of suck. They leave the apple chunks way too big. What kind of grinder would be a good upgrade for small scale use? Trying to not break the bank.
>>2881380Black cherry (prunus serotina)?
>>2881380Elderberries? So what are you doing?
>>2881380Black cherry?Seems a bit late though, do they stay on the tree this long?
>>2881391yes, elderberries1kg of fruits (if you know all this stuff about ripe/unripe-toxic elderberries) for 500-700 grams of sugar, put it in a big jar in layers (or cooking pot if you can keep fruit files away), let it soak for 2-4 days, stir it one of two times per day, use lid or plate to keep fruit flies away, you dont need additional heat so keep it away from radiator and put it in a shaded place (or throw towel on it), after 2 days you can do what is in all other recipes - boil it, add extra ingredients or not, press thought sieve and bottle it, it is syrup so you drink a few spoons mixed in a cup of watereldeberries are nice and tasty (thanks to white sugar), but you have to follow some rules that unripe are toxic and absolutely to avoid, and even ripe ones are toxic without boiling them for 20 minutes syrup from elderberry flowers also tastes great (and will make you sweat a bit)
>>2881399Big fan of elderberry syrup and flower wine but I was too lazy and didn't make syrup this yearWhy do you let them soak for a couple of days? I just cook em right away
>>2881399I made both this year.I'm now busy making apple juice,apple compot,and I'm going to keep juice to make cider.I made cider last year for the firt time and wow,i need more of that.
>>2881399Why do they have to soak for a few days? I pull em of the branch,rinse and then cooking.
>>2881408>>2881430english speaking recipes have this instant boiling method, old school recipes in my language prefer soaking for 2 days, my first touch was with recipes in my languageasked google ai and it said "anglo" method is more "pro health" while other method may have better taste
>>2881431Aha,interesting, thx
Anyone here do vermicomposting? I enjoy gardening, but I'm a lazy fuck who doesn't want to have to turn a compost pile and my dad's an avid fisherman so I think a smallish bin of red wigglers could help both of us. Any advice for someone who might get into it? Is a worm bin as simple to take care of as the internet has lead me to believe? And following up from the fishing thing, would it be possible to start a worm population from the little cups of worms they sell at bait shops if I'm reluctant to pay for a whole bag of worms from an online retailer? Thank you for your time.
Ripening
My favorite part of gardening it picking stuff and then getting busy with other shit and then tossing the whole rotten stinking maggot filled leaking mess to the chickens because I’m a stupid dumbass.
Kangaroos broke into my herb garden and I watched this wiry cunt eat a whole row of chives, bite the purple mustard choy, wave his head around like a mong because it was spicy and fuck off.It's not like there's a shortage of grass and normal shit to eat, and alliums are meant to be toxic to kangaroos so i don't even know what that's about.
>>2881518He's just asserting his dominance, don't mind him
>want to raise chickens and geese for eggs and meat>town has a code that says you can't keep livestock within 1000 feet of a business or residence, essentially banning themIts so over, bros
>>2881542Your town is a bunch of retards. Only restrictions I have are 15ft from the property line. I’ve had 8 roosters in town at once time. Just do it. Make them make it an issue.
>>2881543The stupid part is that I live in an Appalachian town where if you drive for 5 minutes in any direction you're either surrounded by farms or you're in a Wrong Turn movie, they've been doing their damndest to gentrify this place and sell all the properties to Californians but at the end of the day they're trying to put lipstick on a pig. I'm a massive pussy and afraid of conflict so I'm hesitant to press the issue. I'm thinking I might try to raise coturnix quail on the down low, I've heard they're quieter than chickens and can be kept in little cages or aviaries. Anyone here raising them? Would you recommend giving them a shot?
>>2881546Ngl your post rustled my Jimmie’s. I just spent like the last 25 min looking up chicken rules.I live in hellinois and it varies widely by town but they just introduced a bill making backyard chickens legal throughout the state. Like I said bro, if it were me I would get 2-4 hens and push them. Make them be the assholes and come tell you to get rid of them or slaughter them. Then go to your local fb Karen bitch page and start raising Cain about food security and self sufficiency.
>>2881475are you growing in poor soil? your plant looks pretty nutrient deficient. is there much scorching/necrosis around the leaf margins/tips? I'd check the soil ph and give it a bit of calmag if it's low and then give it a bit of potassium if you find edge scorching
>>2881518don't you have boxing gloves?
>>2881602How do you type with boxing gloves on anyway?
>>2881618ijkmlilokkjml,defsx ygrftgjhbuolijkfsd
This years weed for compost was enormous, easily 9c/ft. I wonder what the street value could've been.
>>2881640Unripe/5 shit out of ten. Needed to be started indoors.
1/3 of the carrot raised bed. I actually grew a real harvest this year probably due to the extra sun they got jacked up on logs. Any tips for storing them? I figure they'll be fine in the frig as they are.
The best of the harvest. Some of the smaller/unripe/rotten ones have already been sent to the compost bin. The 3 small at the front were grown in grasses at a near by park.
>>2881645Cut the greens off as soon as you can. It's also preferable to leave the dirt on but too late for that. If you have a cold room/basement, you can layer them with sand in a bucket, making sure they don't touch each other. If you plan to store them in the fridge, put them in plastic grocery bags with some holes poked through so they can breathe
>>2881674Why remove the greens?
>>2881677NTA but they’ll continue to draw moisture from the root and make them go bad.
>>2881546I’m not a pussy and I’m thinking of getting a goat and seeing what the city does. Technically, it’s allowed but they have an acreage requirement I don’t meet up to.Fuck those people though. I don’t give a fuck if my livestock are a nuisance. “They make noises and smells!” Fuck off karen.
>>2881677>>2881679What anon said
>>2881279It's been a month into spring so far this year and my fig tree in a pot hasn't started getting leaves yet. Should I be worried that it died over the winter? The neighbours fig trees have started getting their leaves back and a person tree is getting their back too
>>2881706Does it have buds at least? If not it's probably dead
At long last. 10(?) day old photo, prairie winecup stocks are going up
A second winecup sprout and wood sorrel too. I think it hitched a ride on the mulch since I've never seen it in my neighborhood.
>>2881648How whimsical if there are park pumpkins
>>2881708No budds but the branches still seem flexible.Also my cumquat tree in apot text to it seems to have branches dying and leaves falling off despite it being healthy over the winter. What's going on. Should I trim the dead branches off and hope it springs back to being more healthy
>>2881706Cut a small branch you can spare and see if it's green inside
>>2881712Are they both in pots? Are the neighbors' in the ground?
End of the summer garden season is a little bittersweet.Do you guys plant anything over the winter (5b zone here) or just let it rest?
>>2881724My trees are in pots but the neighbours fig trees are in the ground.My persimmon is in the ground
>>2881744I was thinking the soil temperature is probably lower in the pot than it is in the ground, so the nights are still colder for your trees.
>>2881725I am also 5b and have had moderate luck in the winter. Pay attention the the forecast and cover things with plastic and I inherited a lot of cloth table clothes I use to cover plants… because what else am I going to do entertain guests? The very notion.Anyway, each layer of plastic or glass drops you one usda zone lower. Cold frames surrounded by straw covered in a couple layers of plastic can let you grow a long time. You can do small bunches of crops in buckets and keep them surrounded and covered. I did carrots one year and usually I eat a BLT on New Year’s Eve with fresh garden tomatoes. Woody herbs like rosemary lavender sage and oregano also do well for me. Oh, and kale I’ve had kale that kept growing all winter despite snow with no cover. It was glorious.
I've managed to make this oak survive throughout the peak of a critical drought on an eroded slope that faces full afternoon sun. From here it will even grow stronger, and I've been watching it's trunk getting thicker.It's on the far side of a rather wide lake wall, 50ft(?) away and 10ft higher from the lake and it's usual peak fill. Just recently doubled its mulch too. I added these elm braches for some scattered shade near sunset, but when the heat damage was really getting bad, I came across these cottonwood twigs that were just the right size to shade the base perfectly (for a time, they fell and got put back up).This current influx of mulch also made it quite the party destination for isopods too. I considered that I could've smothered some grass and start trees in a much easier spot that would eventually shade this slope, but sometimes it's fun doing it the hard anyway and we're talking decades' scale.
>plant 4 bottle gourd plants>get 1 mature gourd out of the lot, the rest wither on the vine from poor pollination>have less than a month until average first frost date>thanks to cooler temps suddenly have like 8 tiny gourds growing>no way in hell they'll mature before the frost zaps themFuuuuuck. I've heard that immature gourds can be used as a vegetable, anyone have any recipes?
>>2881780here's mine :Dkeep him in my bedroom
A pear from my garden weighed 778 grams on the scale.
>>2881790Hell yeah. Having an easier time than mine. What sort of soil are you using there? For my biome I heard from one dude that q 50/50 mix of local dirt and garden soul is ideal so I just rolled with that since.
>>2881357Apios Americana, potato bean, both tubers and beans are edible although the ones I have are way too late for any beans, like other legumes they also fix nitrogenI'll find out if tubers are any good for eating once plants start to wither
>>2881399Last time I tried making elderberry wine it tasted like shit (yes I did cook the fruits to get rid of toxins) and I had to get rid of the entire batch>>2881542There are rules about where you can and can't do composting where I live and I ignore every single one of them when I set up my compost piles and no one gives a shit, maybe it's because I never let it go anaerobic but still, if I was you I would get some chickens and see if anyone gives a shit before giving up >>2881725I always have garlic and onions planted in Autumn if that's what you mean, I also did winter rye several times but not this year >>2881788You can stretch the season by covering them overnight although with sun already this low I doubt you'll get any full sized even with that
>>2881357Bean flowers are like that. There's a whole genus of them called Clitoria.
>>2881832Nice.>>2881838Hehe. Nice.
>>2881472Still interested in this, if anyone has any experience
tatsoi is the goat brassica>1 week to germination>4 weeks to first harvest>been harvesting it for 6 weeks with no sign of slowing down>tolerates down to -10C/15F>famously harvestable from under snow>currently pushing 30C/85F and rising where I am (southern hemisphere) and zero sign of bolting>low rosette growth habit insulates the soil and stops it drying out meaning it requires very little water>good taste, nutritious, usable in anything you'd use spinach or asian greens innext year I'm gonna grow these instead of mulch, just plant them in a grid and grow something else like an allium in the gaps, as it'll cover the soil quickly to keep water in and weeds down without growing so high as to compete with the allium. that or I'll put a net over it to keep the caterpillars off it. either way I'll be planting 10x as much
The dwarf Gemini apple tree I planted last fall did well in its first year. It added about a foot to the end of the branches and grew 5 apples. If there are a lot more apples next year I may end up staking it.Still getting cherry tomatoes from the Super Sweet 100 plant in the greenhouse. Cleaned up the raspberries removing this years floricanes. I planted some beans after pulling my garlic and they are about to finish up. A lot of carrots to pull before the nights get too far below freezing.
>>2881831honestly its just some recycled stuff that my dad mixed and used a few years back and i'd have to ask himthe tree doesnt seem to mind however
>>2882022Yeah if it's a homemade blend from someone who knows their stuff it's probably very good.
>>2881472Yes it's easy. I pre compost my kitchen scraps to break them up for the worms to digest. Otherwise you're waiting for them to break down in the bin slowing everything down.Container with bedding (high carbon and absorbent. I've used hay, straw, shredded cardboard ). Add worms. Cover ( worms will migrayenif bin is too wet. Feed about 2 inches of food a week. The bath should not leak, it is a sign of too rich an environment. Add absorbent carbon.Buy worms wholesale. You're wasting your money if you get them from a fishing shop. Get 500g per 10kg of food waste produced each week. They will breed, but their lifecycle is pretty slow.
>>2881281I am currently growing some of these although I have never eaten them or seen them at the shop before, I have heard you can only eat the internal flesh is this true? does it taste nice and have you tried picking it yet?
>>2882131I believe you wait for it to fully mature, or close to it, so the outside is really hard.
>>2882011Any reason for the straw-looking mulch over wood?
Haven't posted in 8 weeks because been busy with school.Strawberries had a bad fungus gnat problem and fixed by not watering until they were all gone. New problem, flies are taking big chunks out of the strawberries before they even ripen.Haas Avocado is being a sensitive bitch with blackened branches and dropping leaves. Already applied antifungals now need to switch to distilled and/or rainwater.I also let some weeds grow so identifier app could figure out what they actually were. All invasive crap that I finally pulled this morning.
Any beekeepers here? I love honey and am kind of interested in keeping bees. How do you control swarming? Splitting the hive every year seems daunting.
>>2882215Beekeeper here. If the hive is big enough you dont need to split but you need to be on time giving them empty frames in spring. Combine frames of wax foundation and already drawn comb if you have it - the latter enables the queen to lay eggs there immediately. Swarming "atmosphere" in the hive starts forming when there is more capped than uncapped brood. Watch out for varroa too!
>>2882205Laziness. I had straw and never got around to getting mulch this year. Definitely moving up the priority list since squirrels started burrying nuts in there.
Solanum unilobum - Bolivian Tamarillo, flowering in the solanarium today.I didn't realize there was a thread for this, glad to find it.
the acid farm is doing well
>>2882338These bastards. I let some go to seed in 2023 and I've been fighting them ever since
>>2882339u gotta move bro
>>2882339They grow wild here so they're already in the seed bank...
If youre tired of one of these....
>>2882430....then do yourself a favor and buy this.Ive had it for a few years and its amazing.I tow it behind my mower.They have different models with different "finger" size for different nuts. This one is for pecans.I just did a cleanup run to get early nuts that were knocked off in a storm (had both hoppers full before this pic).It took like 5 minutes to fill a 50 pound feed bag.Mine was $700 iirc.Be aware though that it doesnt work by magic. The ground needs to be flat(ish). If youre working with an orchard thats been dug up by armadillos year after year then all thos little divets will be below where it can grab nuts.My field is good but far from perfect so I run this then go after the stragglers with the hand held roller.
another autumn, another jar of dried mushrooms
Anyone use isopods to eat leaves and food scraps? I don't know how their frass compares to worm castings, but they can certainly munch through stuff quickly once their population gets going.
>>2882541>isopodsWoodlice... these things have too many different names. There are millions in my yard, they're the main digestive factor for my leaves I'm sure.
>>2882541I don't know anyone who raises them specifically for that, but I have a friend who breeds them for use in terrariums and as feeders for reptiles and he uses the frass in his garden to good results. I'd say it's something worth experimenting with, especially if you can get some of the ornamental varieties like Rubber Duckies and make a side business out of selling them.
Plant identifiers don't really work so well, had to pry around to find out that this is "snow aster". Has a breif, brilliant bloom in September and then dies back quickly. I also know what aster is and can always identify now.This is a weird one to plant I read. It needs nothing but bare, shitty dirt, sun, and snow. It hates any extra moisture passes that and an unexpected spring rain can kill the sprouts. You also don't want the seeds buried. You just place them on some most dirt and most and pray for the snow. This would be easy to cold stratify. But, not enough room. Maybe I'll get an ice cooler and set it outside in the shade. Either way this would be cool.
>>2882541They have favorite foods in a priority.I find that it's roughly:1) Wood chips 2) Wilted/ Rotted plants 3) Dry Leaves4) Food Scraps
>>2882529You gonna die.
>>2881542get muscovy ducks, they're quiet.
>>2882314I was curious on the effects or benefits there might be, since I know straw is used for veggies
You can just ask tree guys for their mulch. :)
>>2882673As long as youre not in SoCal. Majority of wood chips will be eucalyptus (im not a fan of the oils).
>>2881318At least you got some. We had a freak late frost back at the end of May, killed every single apple, plum, and peach that was starting to form.
>>2882727Nah, great plains. Don't know what tree(s) this was, probably honey locust, willow, and tree of heaven / elm. No stranger to weeding those out either.
>>2882857Gonna get a light frost here tonight I covered what I could do hopefully I can get another week or so out of the tomatoes and peppers. I know them fruit feels bro. Sucks. Here’s the peppers I picked today.
>>2882727I used to think so, but now I've seen a few places using euc trees for mulch in their food forest and seems to have no negative effect. I think claims of allopathy are massively overstated. The benefits of the much would be way greater than any potential harm.
>>2882672>I was curious on the effects or benefits there might be, since I know straw is used for veggiesI'd been using straw in my garden, one downside is it gives slugs a place to hide during the day. I skipped straw except for my potatoes this year and there was much less slug damage to my beans.
cool stuff, i always saw it as low quality fruit and ignored it, letting it rot under a bush, but they are actually useful and taste good (with tons of sugar)
I've bought one of those soulless new build homes here in the UK. For the first time I've actually got a decent sized garden (by UK standards). I've previously had an allotment so I'm looking forward to growing stuff on a blank slate. I'm determined to not let the garden become just an empty patch, so was planning next year to put in some beetroot, corn, and runner beans as I'm familiar with growing them. I'm going to do them in raised beds because I can't trust the builders to have not just thrown rubble under the grass. Until next year I'm just planning on sorting the essentials, so raised beds, water butts, and compost bin, and not growing anything until we're out of winter.The turf is pretty well established as we've had loads of rain. When's the best time to cut it? I don't want it too long because I think that can kill new growth beneath but also don't want to cut it before it's properly rooted.
>>2883558>the essentials, so raised bedsInsane how effective the raised bed psyop was, just 10 years ago barely anyone mentioned it, now it's considered an essential.You can cut the grass whenever as long as you are not cutting it just above the soil level, it'll adapt just fine.
>>2883567I have to do raised beds because the soil quality here is absolutely dogshit because builders don't expect people to actually grow stuff in gardens any more. Once I've got my own compost going again I'll probably plant directly in the soil. I've just checked the turf and it's not rooted into the soil beneath, I guess I'll leave it for longer.
>>2883558Idk about your grass but I have the same issue with rubble, and even sections of carpet buried in shitty new build garden not far under the surface. A lot of spots stuff just doesn't grow. Just be aware if you aren't already, that filling raised beds is expensive business, calculate the volumes you need and how much it'll cost from local suppliers
>>2883558If there's plenty of sun and you're willing to entertain an anon and use up precious space for their musing, I would love to see someone do raised beds + maxmillin sunflowers. They're allowed on the UK from what I can see. Given plenty of sun and water, they can get up to 3.3 meters tall, give or take a little more, + the raised bed height. It would be an absurd amount of extra privacy on whatever two sides get sufficient sun. I wanna see someone pull it off. The dried stems also make for easy kindling and it'll attract bees too.
>>2883337Yeah quinces often go overlooked largely because they're too soft with a slippery slope between inedible and turning into mush from transport. Same with permissions for the most part, so it takes a slight amount of wisdom to know there's this whole world of extra fruit to enjoy.My mom's back yard, due to some inattentive neighbors, is infested with goji berries, and similar thing she thought it was some weed with untrustworthy fruits on it, but as it turned out it was just free little nibbles this whole time.
>>2883600"japanese" quince is a bit different than normal quince, it is sour like lemon, lemon that is growing well in colder regions
>>2883594>filling raised beds is expensive businessHugelkultur
