SOIL Grow journal 📓 2021

[amy24]

Lots to report...I was up to 7 seedlings, went camping for three days and tried to convince my husband to let me take them with us haha but alas when we came home a couple had died and then over the next few days another couple bit the dust. I think it was my fungus gnat problem from my house plants I tried to kill them all in February but there were a few stragglers and I found tons of them living in this bag of flower bulbs I bought recently. I could literally see a little “bite” or stress point on the stems as if they had been pinched and then they just dried up. I still have two strong seedlings, one from the first round of seeds and one from the second. Good learning point here, the first round I used sea soil like I always have, but this year realized it’s been a silly seed starter because it’s just so dense. Second round, I switched to an organic potting soil starter mix and that seedling is doing WAY better than the first one. The sea soil one from a week earlier looks stunted beside the starter mix seedling.

Also did more to my garden plot haha I just can’t stop. I was reading about trench composting for my root vegetables and thought I mays well dig a big hole under my planting area and trench some stuff there! So I did. Dug deep into the clay part of the soil and really tilled it up and added peat moss, sand and seal soil to break up the clay. Then, I added banana, coffee grounds, wood ashes, seaweed, worm poo, some compost from my bin, egg shells (and the carton) and some dandelions I had pulled out of the yard earlier. (Side note dandelions have big long tap roots that get lots of nutrients from deep in the ground.) Then I put all the soil back on top, making sure to break up the thick clay chunks and break it all down. I’m going to try to take it super easy on the fertilizing when they are flowering this year so happy to have a deep pocket of nutrients waiting to be used

I have six more seeds soaking, and that’s the last of them. I can only grow 4 plants so wondering if I should get more seeds or just clone the ones I have when I top them which worked a little too well for me last year to the point where I had way more than I was allowed. One is definitely feminized the other is a total random.

Hope you all are enjoying your start to Spring too! 💐

 

[Canuck147]

Bummer you lost some younguns. Good on ya to keep at it. Maybe get a few autoflower seeds - they only take 90 - 100 days or so from seed to harvest.

I think once you get them growing they are going to do very well in that grow medium you concocted .

 

[amy24]

Still growing! Lots of sun this week! Was bringing them
outside with me in the afternoon, now have been putting them out right when I get up in a super sunny spot in the yard and the. Then they end the day in my super sunny window. ❤️

 

[jacoby37]

Nice growth...wishing you a healthy harvest.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Looking good boy do they love the sunshine, that's where mine would be if i did'nt have big pots big plants right now to many steps to take back an forth.

 

[amy24]

Jealous of your big pots! Do you think these two are ready to go in the ground tomorrow?

 

[amy24]

Put them in the ground yesterday! They were starting to look like their roots were ready for some room and three days of gorgeous weather coming up followed by a few days of rain. Thought it was good timing plus I was just excited!

I did one last till of the area, a little bit of movement of some calendula and other seedlings to open up a little bit of room. I dug the hole, added some myke (mycorrhizae, beneficial symbiotic fungus that works with a plants roots to increase nutrient uptake and water retention) then put the plants in, and gently covered them with soil. Then gently watered I also did some companion planting, adding some marigolds to the borders near the seedlings. Marigolds are so great for pest protection! Also have yarrow, sunflowers, borage and chamomile seedlings growing, and mint spreading. If I could recommend just one of these I would say chamomile. I put it ALL over my garden this year. They call it the doctor plant, it is antibacterial so will prevent mold and infections. Ok and sunflowers, but not too close cus they can create shade but I’ve read that they can increase oil production in your plants!

The soil is so nutritious, but wondering when you all would recommend starting a liquid fertilizer? I usually use a seaweed based one during veg.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Beautiful garden, I am jealous of all the work you’ve put in. Chamomile smells great, I had some last in my herbs last summer. My favourite part of my outdoor garden is my asparagus patch. A couple summers of work and then they basically grow themselves - the plants last about 15 years and it is a spring crop. Nothing tastes as nice as fresh asparagus!

I doubt you will need added nutes for quite a while. When/if you decide to use nutes try for higher nitrogen in veg and low nitrogen in flower. Some outdoor growers don’t use them at all if the plants are directly in the ground. The one thing I would watch for is making sure the soil isn’t too dense.

Good luck!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Hi amy24 i caution you on outdoors just keep them safe they are way to young for my view to go outside. But you already did it so make something so rain does not drill them into the soil, too little too you for the elements sorry to be a debbie downer just hate to see excited growers jump to soon.

 

[Sylvester]

Soil looks great. They look so small + vulnerable , I wish the best for your plants.🙏🏻
SoOrbudgal has a point. Maybe you can shelter them from any rain that comes soon.
Your garden looks great 🌻 wish my garden wasn't shared, even tho nobody uses it.

 

[amy24]

I had a feeling that might be what I would hear 😬 hopefully others will hear this warning in advance, silly of me to not wait.

They looked very happy today, but I will be sure to do that! Someone told me to get kid umbrellas from the dollar store for veggies, maybe do that here?

 

[amy24]

Also, thanks for the advice on asparagus, I had no idea they lasted for so many years! Two Springs of a global pandemic will do that for a garden, horrible circumstances, but I have a lot of time on my hands. And thanks on the nutes advice too, would be cool to see what they do on their own.

 

[Sylvester]

Dont worry , I have feeling they will make it. While they are still small, any big plastic bottles or cartons you can find & cut in half will work perfectly for rain shelter.
Mini umbrellas! lol 🙂 What's that stuff people put round plants & pots to stop slugs coming near? Is it copper? That be a good idea, they hate eggshells too.

 

[amy24]

OK, after an hour of over thinking this, haha... tell me if this is worth it.

I have three huge totes I used last year that I’m
planning on using for some clones I’m going to get this week. I’ve been doing the same routine to them as the garden pretty much, minus the trench composting. Does it make sense to dig wide around the seedlings, transfer them to the totes and put the clones in the garden? Or is this totally pointless at this point? I was thinking how the small plants might benefit from the smaller space, plus I could put the totes under the edge of my house so they are protected from the rain?

 

[amy24]

Ok thanks Sylvester 🤞🤞 I like the bottle idea! Cheaper, and reusing is always good too!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Well amy24 i would if you really want to harvest a decent couple plants outside. Inground is great it just takes alot of do diligence and care to keep the bugs and varments off your garden. Veggies are one thing but as you have seen online all commercial growers it seems they use large fabric bags above ground. No bugs can get into those pots unless they crawl up them as with any outdoor pot. I elevate some pots even outdoors on blocks and such. You get 1-2 chances if were lucky to raise outdoor weed then you have to wait a whole year to do it again. It's really hard to keep MJ from getting chewed up outdoors not gonna lie so give them the best home you can keep up with without pulling hairs out LOL.

I truely wish you the best grow season

 

[DeadlyFruit]

No worries. Let me know if you try asparagus. I will probably re-plant mine this summer as it is producing less now. I last planted them about 15 years ago and for most of the years went gangbusters. If you’ve never grown it before you will like the plants. Asparagus is basically the young shoots for nice soft palm frond type plants that grow about waist to chest high. Grow from crowns rather than seeds as it will shave a year off before you can start harvesting (you need about 3 years for them to get to that point from seed but only 1 or 2 years from crowns.

 

[amy24]

Wow, I’m so excited!!! That sounds wonderful, I’m so into establishing things in my garden right now. Where would you recommend planting them since it sounds like they are quite the commitment space wise?

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Yes, they do take a bit of space, although not an extreme amount. The way it works is the roots stay in the ground and apparently can stretch down about 15 feet so it is quite drought tolerant, and it grows for about 15 years before they wind down and die. The shoots come up in early spring and you basically clear cut them for about a month and eat like crazy. After that you let them grow undisturbed for the rest of the summer to feed the roots for the next spring. It is pretty low maintenance for such a great plant. I have a stretch along the fence where they are out of the way but nothing stopping you from digging a row in the Center of your yard. The plants are relatively nice to look at. I think my bed is maybe about 5’x15’. In the early years they grew almost to my chin (I am 6’2”) and are a really soft green fern (I think I said palm earlier - I meant fern). They have a red berry type of seed in the late summer but mostly they are just lush green soft ferns. Now they are a little smaller and winding down their lifecycle. Where I am I should see the shoots peek through in a couple weeks, depending on the weather. They say you should cover the ground during winter with straw or something to protect the plants but I stopped doing that after a year or two and it didn’t matter.

To get them established, if memory serves (it was 15+ years ago), you dig a trench pretty early in the summer, I think it was a couple feet deep. Lay in the crowns (basically an asparagus root system) and cover them a little at a time throughout the summer as they grow. I did a double row in my bed and it worked fine but it is a bit of a squeeze. Leave them alone without harvesting any for that first summer and the next to strengthen and establish their root system. The summer after that you will have more fresh asparagus than you can eat (for at least a few weeks). The best part is you are eating them in spring while the rest of your garden is just starting. If you grow from seeds you will probably start harvesting a year later, but who knows what sort of new faster varietals they may have come up with in the last 15 years.

 

[amy24]

I’m so torn! I did the fabric pots a couple years ago, a combo of fabric, plastic totes and in the ground last year, and then this year was going to do two in the ground to start and two in the totes, then clone one into the other tote and maybe sneak a couple more clones into the fabric pots if I’m lucky. Last year I had four in the ground in this location and they got to be taller than my fence and me! But needed more room... sorry I’m rambling now!

The reason I’m torn is that I get the clones today anyways! Happy 420!!! So... my thinking now is that I may’s well protect the ones in the ground and move forward with the clones as backup in the totes. 🤞🤞