Planted in the pot picture
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Growing Cucumbers
Types of Cucumbers
Standard cucumbers are often called slicers. Slicers are usually 6-9 inches (15-23 cm) long, but may be as short as four (10 cm) and as long as 14 (36 cm) inches. "Burpless" varieties have been bred to avoid a common side effect.
Pickling cukes are usually shorter (6 inches or 15 cm) and "blockier" than slicing cucumbers, and have a bumpy or spiny skin. They're also crunchier, which is why they're best for pickling. Some cucumber varieties are bred to be good for both slicing and pickling.
Gherkins are actually the fruits of the 'West Indian Gherkin' (Cucumis anguria), a close relative of the cucumber, which produces 1-3 inch long (25-76 mm) spiny fruits. Gherkins are grown just like cucumbers. Many pickles called "gherkins", however, are made from regular pickling varieties.
Round, yellow "lemon cucumbers" are about the size of a tennis ball. Lemon cucumbers are sweet and don't contain as much of the chemical that can make some cucumbers bitter. They also make colourful pickles.
English hothouse (also called Dutch or European) cucumbers have a ridged or smooth skin, virtually no seeds, and do not require peeling. As the name implies, they are usually grown in greenhouses. Japanese cucumbers, which are also long, slender, thin-skinned, and virtually seedless, are a good substitute.
Armenian cucumbers (Cucumis melo) are long and light green with thin, ridged skins that also don't need peeling. Asian cucumbers come in a wide variety of lengths, colours, and flavours.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Growing Strawberries
Choosing Plants
There are three types of strawberry plants: June-bearing, ever-bearing, and day-neutral. For a strawberry pot, the best types are the ever-bearing and day-neutral varieties. They will provide you with a regular harvest from late spring until early fall. You'll get higher overall yields from day-neutral
Planting a strawberry pot is a fairly simple process
- Get the pot adequately moist. Terracotta pots will wick all of the water out of your soil unless you moisten them before planting. To do this, simply lay your pot in a tub of water for about an hour. It will soak up water so it won't suck it out of the soil later.
- Place a piece of window screening or broken flower pot over the drainage hole so the soil doesn't leak out.
- Fill with soil until you reach the lowest level of pockets. Insert your strawberry plants in these pockets, filling around them with soil. Make sure the crown of the plants is just above soil level.
- Insert either a one-inch PVC pipe drilled with holes along its length or a cardboard tube from wrapping paper near the center of the pot, but not directly over the drainage hole. You will be using this as a watering pipe to ensure that all of the pockets get adequate moisture.
- Continue filling to each level of pockets and inserting plants.
- Stop adding soil when you get to two inches below the rim of the pot. You can add three to four plants in the top of the container, and fill in with soil around them.
- Water everything in well. Pour water down the tube, on the soil at the top of the pot, and into each pocket (do this slowly so the water doesn't make the soil slosh out.)
- Place your pot in a spot that gets at least six hours of sun per day.
Ongoing Care
Basically, you'll be keeping your plants watered and fed for the remainder of the growing season. Test for moisture by sticking your finger into the potting soil up to your first knuckle. If it is dry, you'll need to water. Strawberries are shallow-rooted plants, and start to slow in fruit production if they are allowed to dry out. Fertilize your plants every other week with a diluted seaweed fertilizer to keep your plants producing. Harvest berries as soon as they are ripe, and remove any rotted fruit or yellowing leaves as you see them.
The type of soil you choose for your strawberry pot should be one that is high in organic matter. Any good, organic potting soil will work. Adding compost, peat, or leaf mold to the mix will make your plants even happier. Also, it's a good idea to mix some blood meal and bone meal into your mix before you plant. These will feed the plant and help them get off to a good start.
Strawberries are perennials, and will produce happily for years. If you want to overwinter them in the pot, you'll need to place the entire pot in a sheltered location such as an unheated garage. If you have some ground available to overwinter in, you can dig the plants out of the pot, place them in plastic pots, and bury these pots into the ground with their rims at soil level. Your plants will overwinter beautifully and you can revive them by potting them up with plenty of rich, fresh soil in the spring.Thursday, May 7, 2009
Container Vegetable Gardens
Friday, April 24, 2009
A Dyer's Garden: From Plant to Pot: Growing Dyes for Natural Fibers (Paperback)
Product DescriptionA Dyer's Garden touches on the history and nature of dye plants and walks you through a garden season from design to planting to harvesting for the dyepot. About the Author
Rita Buchanan is the author of Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping.
Rita gives CLEAR instructions on WHAT part of the plant to harvest for which color; which mordants and which fibers produce which colors; and what time of the year to harvest the plant. In addition, her color photos of the color outcome are neatly stacked along the right edge, enabling the reader to flip through the book to see the colors. There is also an appendix listing where the reader can get seeds for the plants in the book. Anyone interested in trying GOOD dye plants (almost any plant will give you at least tan) should have this small, well-written and beautifully illustrated book. Rita is one of the best.mstore08-20
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Pumpkin grown in pot
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Flower and Vegetable Seed
Although some seeds will keep for several years if stored properly, it is advisable to purchase only enough seed for the current year's use. Good seed will not contain seed of any other crop, weeds, or other debris. Printing on the seed packet usually indicates essential information about the variety, the year for which the seeds were packaged, germination percentage you may typically expect, and notes of any chemical seed treatment. If seeds are obtained well in advance of the actual sowing date or are stored surplus seeds, keep them in a cool, dry place. Laminated foil packets help ensure dry storage. Paper packets are best kept in tightly closed containers and maintained around 40°F in a low humidity environment.
Some gardeners save seed from their own gardens; however, if such seed are the result of random pollination by insects or other natural agents, they may not produce plants typical of the parents. This is especially true of the many hybrid varieties. Most seed companies take great care in handling seeds properly. Generally, do not expect more than 65 to 80% of the seeds to germinate. From those germinating, expect about 60 to 75% to produce satisfactory, vigorous, sturdy seedlings.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
How to planted in a pot
2.growth of the vegetables. Small containers tend to constrict the plant and it dies quickly. Choose from a variety of clay, wooden or plastic pots. It is advisable to use a plastic pot with small holes for adequate drainage and root growth. Other pots tend to dry out quickly, whereas a plastic pot retains moisture and is considered a good medium for homegrown vegetables
3.Purchase a mixture of good quality pot soil, vermiculite, sphagnum peat moss, compost bark, perlite and a fertilizer. Do not use garden soil as it usually contains insects and small pests that eat away the vegetable sprouts.
4.Put the soil in the pot and bury the vegetable seeds inside. Press down the soil and sprinkle water on top. Place a fiberglass sheet underneath the pot to keep insects and bugs away from the vegetables. This also prevents the soil from spilling out of the pot
5.Place the planted pots on a stand or hang them on your patio wall so they receive an adequate amount of sunlight. Remove the vegetables once they are ripe.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Pot mushroom
The cultivation of mushrooms. The one thing I would dream. But have previously thought But read Then do not. Because not buy infected mushroom sources. Time to do it. Because the teachers have known? You hear one. I want that mushroom cultivation Fang Teachers say it will to buy infected mushroom cultivation thatch to try. After a few days teachers is infected mushrooms buy 4 bags to throw money I have not. How to add culture to tell. Infected mushroom is the ago do now Disease combined with mushrooms to go I do not have time to think up a few days to take good . If culture is like a pile infected mushroom vegetable bed is too small. ? Do that recorder for Fang does not take a better view in the book is how blurred the mushroom cultivation in a pot he not purchase the chemicals ? If the seed money in the pot to buy a potted take good reason to find the last side. Buy it buy pot. Mushroom trail is not used to take pot. Decided to buy size 12-inch plastic pot leaves 8 per license price a 200 C 25 C chemical they use. I try not to see it mushroom trail, it's time hands.
Grow vegetable in Containers
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Growing Vegetables in Pots
Vegetables Plants Suitable for ContainersSeed companies realize that homeowners have less and less space to devote to vegetable gardens. Every year they come out with new vegetable plant varieties suitable for growing in small spaces and vegetable container gardens.Be on the look out for key words like: bush, compact, and space saver. Here are some vegetable plant varieties to get your vegetable container garden growing.- Cucumbers: Salad Bush Hybrid, Spacemaster, Bush Pickle- Eggplant: Bambino, Slim Jim- Green Beans: (Pole beans give a higher yield in a small footprint) Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder, French Dwarf- Green Onions: Beltsville Bunching, Crysal Wax, Evergreen Bunching- Leaf Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Salad Bowl, Bibb- Peppers: Frigitello, Cubanelle, Sweet Banana, Apple (Hot) Red Cherry, Jalapeno, Robustini- Radishes: Cherry Belle, Scarlet Globe, (White) Icicle- Squash: Ronde de Nice, Gold Rush- Tomatoes: Patio, Pixie, Tiny Tim, Saladette, Toy Boy, Spring Giant, Tumbling Tom, Small Fry
Varieties for container grown vegetables
Patio, Pixie, Tiny Tim, Saladette, Toy Boy, Spring Giant, Tumbling Tom, Small Fry
Peppers:
Yolo Wonder, Keystone Resistant Giant, Canape, (Hot) Red Cherry, Jalapeno
Eggplant:
Florida Market, Black Beauty, Long Tom
Squash:
Dixie, Gold Neck, Early Prolific Straightneck, (Green) Zucco, Diplomat, Senator
Leaf Lettuce:
Buttercrunch, Salad Bowl, Romaine, Dark Green Boston, Ruby, Bibb
Green Onions:
Beltsville Bunching, Crysal Wax, Evergreen Bunching
Green Beans:
Topcrop, Greencrop, Contender, (Pole) Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder
Radishes:
Cherry Belle, Scarlet Globe, (White) Icicle
Parsley:
Evergreen, Moss Curled
Cucumbers:
Burpless, Liberty, Early Pik, Crispy, Salty
How to Plant Vegetables in the Pot
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Watering Newly Planted
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Watering vegetables.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Spreading Seeds
Birds help some fruits like the cherry by eating the fruit around the seed. The mistletoe's seeds are covered with a sticky substance that sticks to the bird that tries to eat it. The mistletoe's seeds have to land on the tree or they die.
Some seeds travel by sailing in the wind. Others float in the water to get to the land. Others hitchike on animals. Some just get blown in the wind. Seeds can also grow in a flower and drop to the ground. When the seed leaves the flower or whatever it was in, it's called dissemination. This is one of the most important steps in the seed's life. Some tree seeds drop directly below the parent and die because there is not enough light or food for them to grow.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Photosynthesis
Thursday, April 2, 2009
How Plants Grow
The inside of a root has four different parts. The epidermis is the outside part. It is like our skin. It protects the inside parts of the root. Plants take in water from the soil through their roots. The water passes through the vascular rays until it reaches the center of the root, the stele. This is where the veins are located. The veins are called xylem. They carry the water and food through the plant. Between the epidermis and the stele is the fleshy cortex.