Hey, southern gardeners. I have never had good luck with sweet potatoes because our growing season is too short but I started some slips a couple of months ago and they are FLOWERING. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I can't put them outside for more than two months. I can plant them in something deeper but I can't even remember blooming sweet potatoes. Whites, yes, at the end of the season.
How big are the plants? I don't think the flowers hurt anything but you need longer than 2 months for sweet potatoes.
Some say to cut the flowers and seedheads to divert the energy back to the bulb. I personally liked the flowers, it could be why most of my harvest was on the thin side. As a rule of thumb they say to harvest when the leaves start turning yellow or wait till the first frost.
I started my seedling on 2/17, my basil all 10 pots were sprouted yesterday, in addition today there is one delicious tomato seedling sprouting. I've seen some weed seeds growing also, that's because the soil I used was leftover from 5 yards of topsoil we ordered 2 years ago to fill in the pond. Usually I use sterile seed starter soil to start my seeds. The weeds I will pull as they sprout, I have a bigger concern of my plants getting fungus, I might have to treat the soil/plants. We haven't done much gardening work so our backyard starting to look like a jungle. In particular I'm concerned about a 60 ft maple that has branches going into my neighbor's yard right over our new fence. I want them cut back to the tree trunk. After walking through the property last week we realized that there's a lot of work to be done more than we can handle, so we hired a tree/landscape Group to trim, remove overgrown trees and shrubs, clean the property. We expect them to start next Thursday, if the weather cooperates.
I only have onions and celery started, but long season peppers are next. Wife has started petunias and some other flowers i think.
I have tried growing tomatoes in 'grow-bags'. Slugs were a huge problem, even in a greenhouse. I gave up and now grow tomatoes indoors. I always thought that brambles were wild plants. I didn't know you could buy them, but I saw some recently. Next time I go into town I'm going to buy some and create a prickly hedge as a substitute for barbed wire.
Planted my longer season peppers today. I only have two flats so far and they are on the heat mats for germination. Spring is coming...maybe?
A few years back we had a slug problem, after a rainstorm They were "out", I went around picking them and put them in the jar. I must have picked about 200. I went to the Dollar Tree and found the perfect depth bowls, I purchased about 10 and put out beer traps. I cleaned and refilled every night until the traps were empty. I still put out traps on occasion to keep them under control. Another method I used When I see evidence of plants being eaten, is to lay a board or a wet cardboard near the plants, the slugs go under to get out of the sun and I would pick them in the morning.
Can't wait. I saved some cutoffs and unused pieces of 2x10 from the construction that went on here, hoping to make a raised bed out of them.
I am pretty sure Brambles are the same as Blackberry bushes. I do remember a customer of mine having a large one in a bed by the house. Trying to rake leaves behind it during cleanup was torchure, because of the large thorns.
I have also started putting out trays of alcohol. I bought some Bucks Fizz but didn't really like it. The slugs love it and die happy! When I moved my bird bath to clean it, I saw what I thought was a snake curled up under it. It turned out to be several large snails which has gathered together to spend the winter there. I tossed them over the fence onto grass. Plenty there for them to eat instead of my plants!
We introduced slugs onto our property some years back as they are not native here, but come it on introduced nursery plants. We started with beer traps, but those didn't touch the problem, so we started spraying with ammonia and water. This spray is safe for most, but not all, plants and breaks down into a nitrogen fertilizer. You would be amazed at the number of small slugs that you cannot see until they start wiggling after being sprayed. We combined that with a garden torch that takes care of weeds, bugs and slugs, and iron phosphate slug bait. The problem is about gone now. We also got rid of our raised beds, as we found the slugs would lay over-wintering eggs along the walls of the beds.
When we have any bugs; I spray them with jalapeno juice from the ones we grew. I just take some of the peppers and put them in a quart jar, add a little water, to fill, let sit awhile, then put some into my pump sprayer, and spray plants; it's organic and bugs hate it; but it doesn't hurt plants or soil. One time I grabbed a tiny bite of one from the plant and it tasted fine so I took a big bite and it took my breath away. Won't do that again.
I usually buy petunia transplants every year. Easy to care for and very pretty, one of my favorites. Looks like we will have a yard full of Black 'eyed Susans this spring, which I like although we mow some down.
My tomato seedlings are getting their first true leaves. The seeds that did germinate are looking good, however my mortgage lifter seeds did not germinate, I'm surprised because they were seeds I purchased this year. I'm debating if I should try some more seeds.