How Does Your Garden Grow?

[DAPPH]

SWMBO always complains if I buy compost from Lidl, says it's "got bits in". She only does hanging baskets. I bought 6 20L bags the other day for my stuff.

Sat here this morning on the patio with a decent black coffee and the cat, very pleasant. Trying to get this latest compost in the small pots and I'm having to sift through it. Decided to put through a 6mm sieve. Loads of solid lumps! All sieved and back in the bag. Only another 5 sacks to do!

https://flic.kr/p/2pS3BNV

https://flic.kr/p/2pS4Ho2

https://flic.kr/p/2pS2wKy

https://flic.kr/p/2pS4eVk

Not long been back from a long weekend away so a bit late in replying to posts .

Products of the forest and crap from the local authority waste recycling depots amongst other unsavoury places supposedly composted and able to be used st4raighht off . Those lumps of wood take around seven years to degrade enough to stop robbing the medium of nitrogen & other vital ingredients .
Check the bag carefully it often says " Can be used as a soil improver or good for growing for six weeks " till the nutritional value drops so much it needs recharging with seaweed & Tomorite liquid fertilizers at the correct rate . Meaning it has had run off from truck loads of stable & cow slurry diluted and added to the materials . I don't think any of these big box stores sell any stuff warranteed to have a declared set nutritional value or be free of adverse chemical taints . ...... such as a residual herbicide lawn weed killers.

Those containers for tubs ,,,, tie a fine point marker pen to a stout baton at a right angles and scribe it around the top just below the filler then use an angle grinder with a thin slitting blade to cut along the middle of the line you have drawn round the container . Use a kissed on its back on the grinder , an old hacksaw blade to make a sharp scraper and carefully scrape away all rough ness on the edges of the cut inside and out of the tub. Run some fine wet & dry onht6e rim fopr a super smooth edge .
,
For seed trays , lay the container on its side , filler to the front use the marking stick to make a dividing line all round the container then again cut it with a slitting blade on your grinder. I have done a slightly deeper seed tray marking the container on its side and making the cut line about an inch above the edge of the filler so the container ends up 5/6 th deep in relation to the container width ...... as it still has the handle on it and the filler it can be used for other things liquid if needed .

Some of these trays have a dozen or so 1/8 in drain holes in the bottom ....so the fill material does not get water logged or stale .
( Draining down water takes vital air down to the micro hair roots and provides the microbial bacteria & micro fungi with oxygen so they can develop yeasts by feeding off the decaying growth medium which produces the vital Humus that all plants need ).

 

[Onoff]

Gave 6 of the biggest Csar and 6 of the biggest Tongue Of Fire beans away up the pub yesterday. Planted a few more random beans in whatever "pots" I could find. Might as well get the most out of my Pret subscription!

https://flic.kr/p/2pSp69U

https://flic.kr/p/2pSmUGB

 

[DAPPH]

When planting out . slip a full potted plant in a premade hole . lightly tamp the fill down then carefully take the plant out the quick drying outer case without disturbing the hair roots .and slip it as a plug in the hole you have just made . Add a sprinkle of compost so it is just above the mean soil level and lightly tamp down again .....water it well .


If you have probs getting plug out the fast drying pot with out damaging the hair roots , make the same sort of hole using the same method but make sure it will be at least 1/2 " deeper than the pot is high , give it a good " Puddling in watering " then cover it level with the mean ground level and tamp again .
Leaving any of the paper fibres or cases above the soil will make a super effective water wick when the hot sun and a slight breeze appears . this will stress your plants leaving them open to insect attack and set back their growth considerably /

It's the main reason I went along to develop my bottomless seed growing tubes a plug of plant is simply pushed up out the plastic tube and slipped into a hole of the correct dimensions and depth .. the plants rarely show any signs of stress,

 

[ukracer]

The sudden rise in humidity and extra sunny days has cause all manner of slow to germinate seeds to sprout . I'd given up on some Ukrainian carrot seeds but after 21 days in bottomless tubes filled with sterile growth medium in the heat of the glasshouse some are sprouting .
Been planting out 18 Ukrainian big tomato plants in 20 litre tubs watered by timed misting irrigation head some for glass house raising some for outside . managed to give both lawns a hair cut for the third time this year ( This time last year it would have be the 20 th or so time. )
Tomorrow I have to make up another 13x 25 litres tubs of new unused Irish peat moss , sterile home made compost and seven year old bagged oak leaf & garden waste compost .. hope fully it will be reasonably weed free for I'm aiming to put loads of just about to flower strawberries in them and site them, in a sunny place ..again all auto watered 2x a day for 2 min each time with a misting spray. Peas have screamed out the bed they were sown in 5 days ago .So have the 250 or so onion sets ,.

I'll also do continuation sowings of a few radishes, a few curly Rosso lettuce and various other spring salad stuff & herbs ,

What equipment do you use for the watering?

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

When planting out . slip a full potted plant in a premade hole . lightly tamp the fill down then carefully take the plant out the quick drying outer case without disturbing the hair roots .and slip it as a plug in the hole you have just made . Add a sprinkle of compost so it is just above the mean soil level and lightly tamp down again .....water it well .


If you have probs getting plug out the fast drying pot with out damaging the hair roots , make the same sort of hole using the same method but make sure it will be at least 1/2 " deeper than the pot is high , give it a good " Puddling in watering " then cover it level with the mean ground level and tamp again .
Leaving any of the paper fibres or cases above the soil will make a super effective water wick when the hot sun and a slight breeze appears . this will stress your plants leaving them open to insect attack and set back their growth considerably

It's the main reason I went along to develop my bottomless seed growing tubes a plug of plant is simply pushed up out the plastic tube and slipped into a hole of the correct dimensions and depth .. the plants rarely show any signs of stress,

A short photo guide would be helpful.

 

[DAPPH]

Having probs getting pictures off my compact camera into my computer then into a thread .. MSN auto updated things and have made things much more difficult.

The basic tube stuffer tool big bit in the middle places the temporary fosam bung at the bottom of the 75 mm long tube the alu dibber has a big and a little point for small and larger seeds.

I found the round white knob not only protected my palm but can be used to dish a firmed down growth medium. Total length of the stuffer/ram 6 inches , length of the dibber about 4 inches . Gently twisting the dibber in the firmed compost and carrying on gently twisting it as you withdraw your tool leaves a nice clean hole , to drop a seed centrally into the tube . Sprinkle light fluffy compost or very small horticultural vermiculites in the hole to fill it . Vermiculite allows light and air to the seed whilst keeping the area at a consistent moisture level so long as you actually do water the plant tube .

Once seeds sprout take them out the seed tray of 30 tubes and put in old strawberry drainable punnet's in sixes , it's handy to label every single sown tube. Olha our guest had a great time mixing up unlabeled tubes that hadn't germinated as quick as the rest Not so funny when you have thirty or so different seeds to grow where not all will germinate at the same precise time If you leave the tubes pack in their 30's in the undrainable seed tray you'll likely get root rot & dying seedlings if they have too much water that can't drain off.

 

[DAPPH]

Ha ha what a palaver, jumping through several scenes to get the picture . I hope I remember how to do it in a few minutes time after I've had my evening meal .

 

[DanZac]

Ha ha what a palaver, jumping through several scenes to get the picture . I hope I remember how to do it in a few minutes time after I've had my evening meal .

View attachment 450265

Before you have your tea, nip out and water those Lobelia in the front row, they don't look very happy.

 

[DAPPH]

This is a self expanding sleeve /mandrel and is 69 mm long to allow undercutting a the tool tip . I made it to allow me to turn all the tubes to a facing at one end of approx 78 mm then having used a triangle file with a sort of hook ground in the tip used the curve of the hook to round the sharp turned edge off .

I did a hundred tubes at a time , cut every thing to 79mmn on the band saw in one go , then turn up & round one end then with the 100 tubes now ready for the final trim lock the carriage to 75 mm and slip the end faced tube over the mandrel which is against the face plate with a large taper poking out of it . Then using the tail stock ram fitted with another large free running taper gently turn the tailstock handle till the mandrel expands and locks up to the inside of the tube , as it pushed on to the face to the face plate it tends to squarely self align but it is worth checking it is fully square onto the face plate as it helps them stand squarely up right inn the seed trays all at the same height making for stackable filled trays ready for sowing seeds into .

I'm off out to the glass house take some pictures of the watering set up .. hope I can retrieve them for posting .

By the way the 44mm ID waste pipe tubes will grow seeds as big as a broad bean seed and as fine as petunia seeds as well as be a small cutting propagation tube that does not get seriously root bound
Note the 12 mm thick blue foam old gym mat rubber bung in the top rh corner, is cut using the drill press and a 45 mm piloted bi metal Bosch hole cutter to drill down into a thick piece of clamped down wood . Made 600 of these bungs in two days and threaded them on some old 6 mm carbon fibre rodding from a self erecting kiddies garden tent .

 

[DAPPH]

Before you have your tea, nip out and water those Lobelia in the front row, they don't look very happy.

They did indeed suffer whuilst we were away on a long week end , our house guest forgot to give them a watering each evening . They are now happily ensconced in six auto watered hanging baskets & looking much happier this afternoon. Did you notice the petunia inthe rh tubes .. sodding snail gobbled all 27 leaving me with only 6 , the very night they were transplanted as pinched out plugs

 

[DanZac]

Did you notice the petunia inthe rh tubes .. sodding snail gobbled all 27 leaving me with only 6 , the very night they were transplanted as pinched out plugs

Really frustrating when that happens. All your hard work gone in a few slug size mouthfuls.

Your petunias have still done better than mine this year though. I sowed mine as I always do, in a propagator on a sunny window sill at the end of Feb.

It took at least a month before they even sprouted, and then they just sat there looking miserable until I finally gave up and chucked then out at the weekend.

They never even got big enough to prick out, and I need the greenhouse space for other stuff now. So, there'll be no petunias here this year, which is a shame because I love them.

There's plenty of other stuff which is doing OK though, so I can live with the odd failure. That's all part of the gardening game.

 

[gaz1]

Having probs getting pictures off my compact camera into my computer then into a thread .. MSN auto updated things and have made things much more difficult.
View attachment 450262
The basic tube stuffer tool big bit in the middle places the temporary fosam bung at the bottom of the 75 mm long tube the alu dibber has a big and a little point for small and larger seeds.
View attachment 450263


I found the round white knob not only protected my palm but can be used to dish a firmed down growth medium. Total length of the stuffer/ram 6 inches , length of the dibber about 4 inches . Gently twisting the dibber in the firmed compost and carrying on gently twisting it as you withdraw your tool leaves a nice clean hole , to drop a seed centrally into the tube . Sprinkle light fluffy compost or very small horticultural vermiculites in the hole to fill it . Vermiculite allows light and air to the seed whilst keeping the area at a consistent moisture level so long as you actually do water the plant tube . View attachment 450264

Once seeds sprout take them out the seed tray of 30 tubes and put in old strawberry drainable punnet's in sixes , it's handy to label every single sown tube. Olha our guest had a great time mixing up unlabeled tubes that hadn't germinated as quick as the rest Not so funny when you have thirty or so different seeds to grow where not all will germinate at the same precise time If you leave the tubes pack in their 30's in the undrainable seed tray you'll likely get root rot & dying seedlings if they have too much water that can't drain off.

the black trays at bottom
your reference of the tubes
another good one is plastic mesh where you slot your tubes into or rod wire can be used to seperate them

all the parts can be gotten for free though

 

[God mode restorations]

Evening everyone. Any of you guys n gals having trouble this year with the influx of little slugs chomping everything in the garden...

 

[Onoff]

Evening everyone. Any of you guys n gals having trouble this year with the influx of little slugs chomping everything in the garden...

Nah, the big ones have eaten them all.

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

Evening everyone. Any of you guys n gals having trouble this year with the influx of little slugs chomping everything in the garden...

There are a lot of Portuguese red slugs. By autumn they will be giants the size of a small cucumber. I use granular poison based on iron salts, it works great.

 

[Anguz]

Lost a cucumber plant and 4 tomatoe plants the other night... lasted 36 hours

 

[Morris]

There are a lot of Portuguese red slugs. By autumn they will be giants the size of a small cucumber. I use granular poison based on iron salts, it works great.

No poisons used here. An annual dose of nematodes, never seen any now.

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

No poisons used here. An annual dose of nematodes, never seen any now.

As far as I know, poisons for slugs and snails based on iron salts are environmentally friendly and approved in the European Union.

In Britain, most likely, they did not have time to cancel the common European rules for the internal market.

 

[Morris]

As far as I know, poisons for slugs and snails based on iron salts are environmentally friendly and approved in the European Union.

In Britain, most likely, they did not have time to cancel the common European rules for the internal market.

A substance called EDTA is added to iron salt slug pellets to make them more effective. It is not listed on the label as it is not an active ingredient. It is not wildlife friendly.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045653518324342

There are concerns re other areas as well.

 

[Sergei Slovenija]

A substance called EDTA is added to iron salt slug pellets to make them more effective. It is not listed on the label as it is not an active ingredient. It is not wildlife friendly.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045653518324342

There are concerns re other areas as well.

About undeclared EDTA, this is an assumption.