Seed Any new vegetable/fruit/herb you are going to try to grow this year?
- Thread starter dioptase
- Start date
Babs
Veteran Member
I got my seeds last month, and put my orders in off the cuff, going with the cultivars I was most familiar. : (
Only thing new at this point is trying to get my blueberries to thrive. Soils' ammended to right ph, and I've babied em according to all current wisdom.... but
I couldn't keep enough water on mine. They struggled because of it. They really need quite a bit of water every single day.
Meemur
Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
I'll be trying to grow eggplants for the first time in Iowa. I used to grow them in Michigan. I also got talked into growing squash, but it'll be in the community garden. I just have such limited space at home, where the priority is the salad and herb gardens!
No corn. No mellons. I draw the line at those. I have plenty of sources for sweet corn, and I'm not a huge mellon fan.
We'll see what happens. My main concern is getting a good potato and onion harvest. Both were in short supply last fall. I'm also going to stealth plant an onion patch out near the bike path with hardy natives. I've sometimes found that a few onions do better if you just leave them alone until it's time to harvest.
No corn. No mellons. I draw the line at those. I have plenty of sources for sweet corn, and I'm not a huge mellon fan.
We'll see what happens. My main concern is getting a good potato and onion harvest. Both were in short supply last fall. I'm also going to stealth plant an onion patch out near the bike path with hardy natives. I've sometimes found that a few onions do better if you just leave them alone until it's time to harvest.
Maybe think about some stealth pole beans here and there? I bought seeds from E-bay a few years ago... it was a combo of several different types and colors of pole beans. Two of them were stringless round pods... green and yellow. They produced and produced, and produced a bumper crop of seeds (which could be used for barter or saved for baked beans and bean soup). Tall telephone peas could also be used that way...
Summerthyme
Have you tried "vertical gardening"? I'm thinking of trying it this fall.
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
there's a thread here in the garden forum I started two or so years ago on vertical gardening, lots of great ideas and advice in that thread. We grow our cucumbers on cattle panels, makes it easier to pick the cukes.
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
link to the vertical gardening thread.
www.timebomb2000.com
Planting - Vertical Gardening
Anyone here vertical gardening? I need some ideas, I got a few yesterday from a new FB group I joined for raised bed gardening. We have a very small back yard with about 6 - 7 hours of direct sunlight per day. It has three large raised beds, two small 30 x 30 raised beds and a horse water tank...
Honey Berry
Senior Member
We also grow our cukes on cattle panels. Works great and makes it easier to pick them.
We are trying leeks for the first time this year. I like leek soup.
My husband likes to grow eggplants. They grow well here in Iowa.
We are trying leeks for the first time this year. I like leek soup.
My husband likes to grow eggplants. They grow well here in Iowa.
Martinhouse
Deceased
Seraphima, I have gotten celery seeds to germinate in one week by soaking them in a bowl of water. I carefully pour off most of the water and replace it with fresh every couple of days,, so it doesn't get moldy or slimy.
On about the seventh day, tiny little white roots started to show, so I carefully lifted them, one at a time, out of the water with pointy tweezers, and planted them in little six-packs I'd saved from the year before. The soil was only moistened from the bottom so the seeds were never disturbed or washed bare. I can't remember how long it took for all of the seeds to finally sprout.
The growing season was long enough the first time I did this that the plants thought they'd had two seasons and actually bloomed. I collected lots of seeds but later in the fall a lot that had dropped began growing all around where the little row of plants had originally been. I moved those to pots in my greenhouse and I kept them a few years before they finally played out.
On about the seventh day, tiny little white roots started to show, so I carefully lifted them, one at a time, out of the water with pointy tweezers, and planted them in little six-packs I'd saved from the year before. The soil was only moistened from the bottom so the seeds were never disturbed or washed bare. I can't remember how long it took for all of the seeds to finally sprout.
The growing season was long enough the first time I did this that the plants thought they'd had two seasons and actually bloomed. I collected lots of seeds but later in the fall a lot that had dropped began growing all around where the little row of plants had originally been. I moved those to pots in my greenhouse and I kept them a few years before they finally played out.