Gardening Anyone?

[MountedGoat]

In about another two weeks will be getting the first of the tomatoes off the vine. Punkin, what are you doing with the lime/lemon juice and pulp? Also, that orange wash that I made was awful. I would advise against it. Not really something that is any good and honestly I am dumping it out as it is terrible smelling. Just a thought...

[punkin]

Been freezing it in 2l soft drink bottles, mate. I'll just use an ice cream container of pulp and a couplea bottles of juice for the lime washes.

Tipped 2l of juice in on top of the low wines for a sprit run of lime vodka yesterday, just going out to taste for the cuts this morning. I think it'll be a winner.

Gotta get some parsley and onions in this w'end. Snow peas are starting to get a leg on too.

[MountedGoat]

To revive an old thread and kinda to keep it going. Around here the gardening for the summer is over and I am starting to think about setting up the mulching, and maybe planting some arugula/rocket or lettuces. My freezer is full of pesto, cabinets are full of canned tomatoes and I just finished canning up the last of the peppers for the season. Beets are still trying to grow as is some fennel and the tomatoes are done, done and done.

What is everyone else doing and how about you Ozzies and Kiwis? Tell us about what you are about to plant!

[punkin]

Tomatoes are just starting to flower and set small fruit. Sowed carrotts real thick and are thinning them as required for baby carrots most meals. Supersweet bicolour corn is up and racing, snow peas are finnished, broccoli and caulis are finnished.
Peacns are flowering, so are al the new apple trees. The new fig tree is getting stacks of leaves and the pineapple guava is flowering, maybe we'll get first fruit this year?

Lemonades and Limes are fruiting, herbs are powering, it's just so good to see the end of the drought in these parts and some green pick across the country side. Kangarros are building up to plague proportions

[The Tippler]

Really interesting to hear of the group gardening endeavors. I am in the Northern Rivers N.S.W. We have had good rain and follow up storms,no drought here punkin. I have put in a shade house for the vegetables (should have made it triple the size). My experience with this is you can grow most veges most of the year. 30% shadecloth only for veges. I grow all the bug attracting veges in there Lettuce, tomato (bin pickin 2 weeks punkin) cauly is almost ready to start picking again. First carrots are almost gone ,need to plant some more. Rock melons 2weeks,and of course pumpkins(no reference to the great tutor here)3Weeks. Sweet corn, early, in tassel.Late half grown. The thing I find growing in the shade house,you don't need to spray at all which is the most important thing to me. I cannot still yet,but intensive reading here has me lusting to do it. All components assembled. Still set up below the dam wall, fermenters ready. Molasses 200l,corn,1bag ,barley 2 bags and one burning desire to get some palatable spirit...............Cheers.....Tippler.

[punkin]

Send me a PM, Tippler, i'm over your way three or four times a year chasing the Snapper and the Bass. We might be able to hook up sometime and compare notes.

[Rudi]

I've got chantanay carrotts in,purple king beans are up and running ,more leb cucumbers than I know what to do with . Betroot are a couple of weeks from harvest.The giant garlic that I planted will be ready to dig up soon too. Lots of lettuce and baby spinach in to fill up the gaps couple of tommy toe tomatoes they seem to be pretty resistant to fruit fly .I dont really worry about tomatoes over summer they just get nailed with fruitfly.I'm building a chook tractor in the next month when we get back from our annual migration to Herron Island couple of chooks for eggs and a bit of fertilizer.Got some pics of your setup Tippler? love seeing pics of stills.

[MountedGoat]

For all you cucumber people, how the hell do you get them to not be so freaking bitter? I can't seem to pick em when they are still sweet. Always go to the bitter side. We had some pickling cucumbers that were awful when small and tender, so we didn't pick them and they ballooned up to be about the size of a football (american/australian) before we tossed them in the compost.

[Dnderhead]

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[blanikdog]

What is everyone else doing and how about you Ozzies and Kiwis? Tell us about what you are about to plant!

We've given up on the garden. This effing 'drought' has made it all but impossible. It's too hot and it's just a waste of water.

blanik

[violentblue]

never been much of a gardener, but I gotta build a greenhouse and grow some peppers, considering its thee only veg I eat without a fuss.
had a friend that managed to create a hybrid pepper (by accident he claims) size of a large sweet red pepper but it was mildly hot (half the heat of a Jalapeno)
was great for cooking.

[big worm]

i till a 100x100 all organic garden. thank god for deep wells and drip irragatiion. i have 1200 collards 200 cabbage and 40 broccoli and , six rows of salad for a winter garden.

[Rudi]

We've given up on the garden. This effing 'drought' has made it all but impossible. It's too hot and it's just a waste of water.
blanik

We got 65mm of rain in the last 24hrs neither of my water tanks have been below half full for a while now.

I use gypsum and potash to sweeten up the soil for cucumbers and lettuce etc we can let our lebs get to 20cm long and there still sweet as.

[CoopsOz]

I'm just growing some Habaneros, Jalapeños and hot cayenne chilli's. There are also some tomatoes, and a few herbs but nothing has born fruit yet.

[punkin]

I've just got haberneros in this year. Still have hundreds of dried thai chillis fro the last couplea years. Had to get a saw and cut the birds eye chilli plant off at the base, it was about 4' high and had been cut back each year for four years

[MountedGoat]

I am going to leave my thai pepper plant out this winter and see if it comes back next year like you are doing Punkin. When do you prune them back?

To all out there what is your favorite thing to grow? I would say peppers and tomatoes for me.

[duds2u]

Punkin,
Do you feed your limes with anything special?

I've got one that flowers well but keeps dropping the immature fruit. I gave it some trace elements and fertilizer about 6 weeks ago but it doesn't seemed to have helped much.

[Dnderhead]

getting enough water? grubs (pruning roots) , diseased limbs/trunk

[Uncle Jesse]

Probably late for me to plant a winter garden this year. I think I'll just sow a bunch of clover to till under next spring.

[big worm]

we do a lot of cukes tomatos okra beans peppers egg plants...wife trys for herbs and spices but she has a brown thumb i can drop a quarter and sprout a dollar...hehehe it kills her

[blanikdog]

We've given up on the garden. This effing 'drought' has made it all but impossible. It's too hot and it's just a waste of water.
blanik

We got 65mm of rain in the last 24hrs neither of my water tanks have been below half full for a while now.

I use gypsum and potash to sweeten up the soil for cucumbers and lettuce etc we can let our lebs get to 20cm long and there still sweet as.

G'day Rudi. We are forecast to get 30+ mill today. Now 2.30, overcast, hot and no sign of the rain.

blanik

[punkin]

As far as the chillies and peppers we cut the bushes back when the frosts have come, strip all the remaining fruit and cut em back to a four or five branch stump with no leaves. you could throw some straw or something over the stump if ya liked i spose to protect em from freezing, but the frosts kill passionfruit vines right next to the chillies here. We get down to minus 5 or 8 C most years on occasions. mostly minus 1 or so though.


Fruit dropping early is either trace nutrients or low water i reckon.
My Limes get fed special, they share the homebrew beer dregs from the fermenter with the oranges and the mandarine tree, probably four or five litres of yeasty goodness every few weeks. only the beer though, some of the bolder ferments are a bit skanky for that.

The lime tree is also the closest cover to the backyard entertaining area and i do a lot of entertaining
I only have one toilet in the house and in the aussie tradition it's reserved for the girls, so the Lime tree becomes a close place round the corner in near darkness, if ya get my drift











VeryAcidicLimesRoundHerePunkin

[blanikdog]

I only have one toilet in the house and in the aussie tradition it's reserved for the girls, so the Lime tree becomes a close place round the corner in near darkness, if ya get my drift


One has to be very cautious of "drift' around a lime tree.

blanik











VeryAcidicLimesRoundHerePunkin

[Rudi]

Punkin,
Do you feed your limes with anything special?

I've got one that flowers well but keeps dropping the immature fruit. I gave it some trace elements and fertilizer about 6 weeks ago but it doesn't seemed to have helped much.

I had this problem with a lime tree ,apparently SE Queensland has a magnesium deficiancy in the soil and just sprinkling and digging into the soil isn't enough to really help.I made a solution up to spray on the foliage with seaweed extract, gypsum, epsom salts cant remember the whole lot but I'll refer to my notes and post the recipie later. Made a world of difference the tree has never been healthier no more yellow curled leaves or premature fruit dropping.

Blanik hope you get that rain we got another 30mm overnight and today. Got some more beetroot and carrott seed in this arvo to take advantage of the wet weather

[HookLine]

Magnesium, calcium, and potassium are closely connected nutrients and need certain minimum ratios to each other (as available nutrients). IIRC, the Ca has to be at least twice the Mg (about 4 times is a good number), but I can't remember what potassium should be relative to the other two. Will try to dig it up (pun intended) in my old ag notes.

[The Tippler]

If you ppl run an open fire,or slow combustion fire ,1/2 tray of ash and some CK55,Like 2 cups under the leaf area. I cannot believe the s'mkts have the hide to charge 80c E for limes. I thought Ned was dead.I put a steer into the coolroom tomorrow,not a good time ,it is raining picks and pickhandles now. All the waste goes into the garden. You have to go as much green as you can, but an $80 bag of CK55 goes a long way (big bang for the buck)

[Rudi]

Ok found it

put 15 l water into a 20 ltr bucket
1/2 a cup of fish emulsion
1 cup of seaweed concentrate
3 teaspoons zinc sulfate
3 teaspoons epsom salts
give this a good mix then put 5l of water into a sprayer add 1/2 a litre of the brew and spray away .
I just snapped a lid on the rest and stored it for next time.

Be interested to hear what ratios of the three Hook.

[HookLine]

From 'Growing Media', by Handreck and Black.

Mg, Ca, K ratios.jpg (64.85 KiB) Viewed 3228 times

[duds2u]

Thanks Guys,
The tree is growing like mad but just drops the immature fruit.
Rudi, I'll try you recipe.
Cheers
Mal T.

[big worm]

I only have one toilet in the house and in the aussie tradition it's reserved for the girls, so the Lime tree becomes a close place round the corner in near darkness, if ya get my drift











VeryAcidicLimesRoundHerePunkin

we just piss off the porch here.....lol round here folks just go where the are, well not in the walmart parking lot anyways
one of the best soil admendments are worm castings....a compost pile/bin with working worms should be in every home. most all kitchen waste is worm food and, the castings are the best thing for plants...they are what nature intended them to eat