Now what to do...

[drivepirate]

Have you ever been in the garden area and find a deal that you couldn't pass just to get home and realize you just created a lot more work for yourself?

Well it happened to me! I found these great looking 4" veggie pots at Bi-mart for $1 each and I went nuts and got all our summer starts. I rationalized getting them early knowing that I was too late to sow our summer starts, plus a buck each! Come on!

They look a little crowded don't they?


I figure we have about a month before we can plant the summer stuff here in the PNW so I'm considering setting up a grow light so the plants don't get too spindly. I have a florescent shop light with 2 bulbs but I'm not sure if that's the right kind of light. I have a timer I can put the light on extending the amount of daylight but I'm not sure how many hours to give them. I thought about setting the light up on pulleys from the ceiling so I can keep the light just a few inches from the plants (saw my dad do this with his pot in the 80's). Right now they are sitting on our dryer in the mud room in front of a western facing window that gets to be about 75 degrees in the afternoon.

Any thoughts?

 

[mr_yan]

I recognize the tomatoes and peppers in there but not the ones to the right of the pic.

Have you pulled one out of the pot yet to see if it is becoming root bound?

What might be best is to treat these like you're hardening them off. This is probably the most work too. I have my tomatoes and the like under lights but they only are two or three inches tall at this point.

Don't worry too much if the tomatoes get leggy. When planting I always pinch off all but the top two or three sets of leafs and bury the plant stem and all up to an inch or two below the leafs. Tomatoes will set roots along the stem.

You'll probably find that wind and rain is the hardest thing to fight when they're outside at this point.

 

[RonsGarden]

The ones on the right look like artichoke seedlings.

 

[Randy]

I have used both the expensive gro-light tubes and regular fluorescent tubes and have seen little if any difference in their performance. I use small cheap chain though with S-hooks to adjust the height of the fixtures.

 

[drivepirate]

Today was a good day. I started by making a trip to the local feed store. I walked right up the counter and said "I need some gardening advice". The lady at the counter called for an older guy who happens to teach a master composting class. I told him that I need to improve my clay soil and what my ideas where. He said that sand helps in most places but not in the Willamette Vally because the clay is actually so fine that it fills in and clogs the pores of the individual grains basically creating concrete. Apparently I was on the right track with compost but it takes more than what I could produce so he gave me the number of a horse boarding place that had composted manure. He said that I need to mix that stuff into the soil each spring and also in late fall. In late fall he said to plant clover as a green manure crop and to till the clover right into the soil in spring. He also told me that I should use lime, that the lime helps prevent the clay molecules from sticking together and clumping up. He also sold me on an "organic?" slow release fertilizer that should last me 5 years :shock: Last but not least he said that it could take up to five years to get the soil the way I want it. I'm not going anywhere so I'll do what I gotta do.

The couple whom owns the horse boarding farm filled the back of my ranger with a mixture of manure and sawdust that was steaming when he dug into it with his tractor. I offered him a $20 bill and he waved it off saying "naw that's ok". I insisted he took it, after all I spent twice that at the store on bagged compost. I told the man that I would be back next year and he said "it's allways here" with a smile we shook hands and I headed off with a whole S&*^tload of compost. Back home I first removed about 9" of soil from one bed at a time sifting out any chunks larger than 1". Then I put down the recommended amount of lime and mixed it into the soil. Next I put down an entire wheel barrel load of hummus (thats what the master gardner called the horse poop) and smoothed it out. Lastly I put the sifted soil back on top of the hummus and mixed in more lime and the slow release fertilizer.

I feel really good about this configuration. I think that having the lime down low will help with drainage, I'm hoping that the hummus being in the middle will give it a chance to cool off a little before roots get down that far. Finally the lime and fertilizer should keep the clay suitable for sowing/planting. Also I decided to put down slug bait in the pathways between the beds in case they try and infiltrate before I plant(this has worked in the past).

The vegetable starts got a full day of real sunlight today and they are looking thicker than last week. I'm so happy that the grow light in the garage is working. I'm thinking that a little research on when to put tomatoes in the ground here is in order. Maybe if the plants are getting root bound then I'll need to put them in the ground and make some plastic tents around them. I found some little peat pots for starting seeds in the shed and brought them in the house. Not sure what I'm going to start this late in the year... flowers if nothing else.

The onions look good, they have all grown a new shoot out of the center so that must be a good sign. The old timer at the feed store said that I got them in just in time (before the equinox). The wife brought around 8 new herbs today and they are very weak looking. Most are falling over. She had them in her trunk on the way home. I can only imagine how hot it got in there on the 17min ride home. I put them in garage under the grow light and I'm thinking I need to harden them off a bit before we plant them. Hopefully the wind will make them get a little thicker but I don't know...

I'd like to get 2 beds of seeds and the asparagus starts planted tomorrow. I wonder if having the starts "sleeping" out in the garage every night for the last week has hardened them off enough to plant them in the ground yet.Then again if the asparagus aren't root bound I don't need to rush it.

 

[Randy]

That was good advice at the feed store. I have benefited from the 'master gardener' program through our county extension office in McMinnville. I thought briefly about becoming one, but it also requires lots of volunteer hours to maintain the status and I don't have that time available. I do volunteer work in other areas however. Another way to use horse/cow poop is to spread some of it on top of the ground around your fruit trees in the fall. It rains a little bit around here and that helps take the nutrients down around the root system.

 

[GrowLightGuy]

I build my own CFL grow lights. As a general rule go with 6500K lights and 20w per sq. foot. Don't go by the "Puts out as much light as a xx watt bulb", go by the actual wattage of the bulb.

 

[mr_yan]

I've been thinking about building some LED arrays. And with this I could quickly digress into a topic better suited for a homebrew electronics forum. Ultimately the sun is the best and cheapest option.

I have my starting operation under a duel tube 4' shop light - it's just what I had on hand at the moment.

 

[GrowLightGuy]

I've been thinking about building some LED arrays. And with this I could quickly digress into a topic better suited for a homebrew electronics forum. Ultimately the sun is the best and cheapest option.

I have my starting operation under a duel tube 4' shop light - it's just what I had on hand at the moment.

I've heard and read LED's are good for lettuces but that's about it. You're right though, nothings beats sunshine.