2023 garden season

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As the years go by, more and more of my garden is grown in containers. I usually grow Little Marvel peas, I wonder how they'd do in a container?
The more I use containers, the more I seem to like it. One advantage I seem to find is with containers, I am not planting long rows of something in a single planting and letting much of what grows go to waste. With containers, I can plant a few pots of something like tomatoes, or potatoes and then later plant a few more pots and keep the veggies coming in staggered instead of having alot all at once. This is the first year I have ever tried to get two crops of potatoes in one growing season. While my second crop didnt produce what the first planting did, I attribute it to not planting the crop eairly enough and the fact it didnt recieve any new compost or fertilizer.. Another advantage is reduced weed pressure. The intended crop pretty much shade out any weeds. Also it seems insect pressure is reduced since most of the leaf eating beetles live in the soil, they cant establish a decent size colony in the pots to do any real damage. Another thing the wife likes is when canning, she is not faced with hugh bushels of produce to process at one time. She much prefers to do one canner run and done till next week instead of peeling and washing for hours and spending long hours cutting up and putting in jars and waiting all day long next to the stove. Of course the amount one puts up depends on how much you need and how much you grow and there is no doubt you can grow more in the ground than you can in a pot, but for two old folks, the pots seem to be working well for us. I still grow taters and corn in the ground, and it would take to many pots to grow the onions and orka we eat. Things like squash and cucumbers that make long vines do well in pots. Peppers and tomatoes and even carrots seem to do well in pots also. I have also grown cabbage in pots with great success, and my broccli I planted a few weeks ago seems to be growing well, along with the onion sets I put in the pots with it. I also had decent luck with sweet potatoes in a pot last year. One thing I have learned is to not plant to much of anything in a pot. Taters seem especially prone to over crowing and producing small taters if they dont have enough room to grow.
 
We are still in spring down here. Has been a struggle we've been in drought but just got 3inch of rain and things are starting to get going now.
Should be picking Zucchini in the next few days I've 4 varieties of Zucchini in.
This is one of my veggie garden beds.

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Tried a sweet potato experiment this year. Very disappointing. Any ideas on what I did wrong.
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Sweet potatoes do not get the space needed for feeder roots in pots and do not fertilize them once they start to vine. I hope you saved all of the small ones as they are the best for spring planting as seed. This year we used the ditch in front of our house for sweet potatoes. I tilled a 16 inch wide row 50 feet long, top dressed with 1 inch of compost and planted saved seeds at 8-10 inch spacing. We harvested well over 100 pounds of eating size and another 25 pounds of seed size. We watered 2" a week when no rain fell for more than 5 days, harvest with a fork at 100-110 days from the time they send vines out, no later. Worry about the days not flowering or yellowing of leaves. Do not fertilize with any nitrogen once they begin to vine, thats why the compost is important. A neighbor did not listen and applied 10-10-10 and miracle grow on his and they grew vines in mass and little to no taters.

I planted 5 types of lettuce, 2 types of cabbage, 2 types of radishes, broccoli, collards, snow peas all by seed 2-3 week ago because our temps down here are just now staying under 85 day time 60 at night. It's been over a month since our last real rainfall so peoples yards of grass are turning brown and starting to die, we really need a good rain with a following cold front...I est I have 40 tons of firewood to sell by spring LOL
 
Do not fertilize with any nitrogen once they begin to vine, thats why the compost is important.
Very important point. Nitrogen causes alot of top growth. I buy those small bags of 0/46/0 phosphate and 0/0/50 potassium sulfate to fertilize my pots. No nitrogen in the mix. Most folks dont know that crops need as much sulfur as they need phosphate. I will use a little 10/10/10 when mixing the soil to put in the pots. My chickens provide food for my compost pile and that compost is what I use to top off the pots. I dont use raw manure unless I am tilling it into the soil, and that is usually in the winter or early spring way before planting time. Of course, I aint planting long rows or acres of anything so that makes it easier to use those little 5lb bags of fertilizer. With that said, I used to get my fertilizer for hydroseeding special mixed and I could buy totes or 50lb bags of tripple super phosphate and 0/0/50 and they would mix it for me at the plants and deliver to my place of business.
 
Sweet potatoes do not get the space needed for feeder roots in pots and do not fertilize them once they start to vine. I hope you saved all of the small ones as they are the best for spring planting as seed. This year we used the ditch in front of our house for sweet potatoes. I tilled a 16 inch wide row 50 feet long, top dressed with 1 inch of compost and planted saved seeds at 8-10 inch spacing. We harvested well over 100 pounds of eating size and another 25 pounds of seed size. We watered 2" a week when no rain fell for more than 5 days, harvest with a fork at 100-110 days from the time they send vines out, no later. Worry about the days not flowering or yellowing of leaves. Do not fertilize with any nitrogen once they begin to vine, thats why the compost is important. A neighbor did not listen and applied 10-10-10 and miracle grow on his and they grew vines in mass and little to no taters.
I fertilized with 12-12-12 when I first planted them. Then nothing after that. I did save the small ones like these:
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Even some root fibers that are sprouting. Should I store them in refrigerator over the Winter? Keep them in water over the Winter so they sprout?
And why dig up at 110 days, no later?
 
Last year I threw my small sweet taters into a bowl on top of my refridgerator and forgot about them. Got to looking and they where putting on leaves. Those are the ones I planted in the big pots. Not the best way to store a sweet tater I am pretty sure, but it worked.
 
I fertilized with 12-12-12 when I first planted them. Then nothing after that. I did save the small ones like these:
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Even some root fibers that are sprouting. Should I store them in refrigerator over the Winter? Keep them in water over the Winter so they sprout?
And why dig up at 110 days, no later?
After around the 110 day mark the potatoes become bulbus, more fibrous, the skin is more likely to split, moisture content drops and they can even begin sprouting shoots and vine out.
After harvest I keep them in zippered burlap bags from buying 20lbs of rice, it keeps them arid and dry as well in the dark cool space in a pantry or under counter cabinet. Those are your seed taters, plant them in spring :) you can even cut the long ones up some a week or two before planting for more seed.
 
at one Texas-based seed co can get 1/4 oz tdr sweet carrots ( 5,750 seeds approx) $4.35 pkt
or 1 oz (23,000 seeds approx) 23K seeds?? :surprised3: $6.20! hmmm 🤔
23,000 carrot seeds, now that is a lot of carrots!
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or 1# for $30. (368,000 seeds!)
or 5#s for $127.60 ( 1,849,000 seeds)
and that makes a really big carrot garden....
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with a 1/32nd oz pkt at $ 2.55 (720 or so seeds)
prob go with 1/4 oz even though its an over-kill!. just a better buy. 5,000 more seeds for an add'l $1.80 or so... some for the garden and some to give away to friends, etc. 👍
got my tendersweet carrot seeds in. 300. went with the A-z deal. $7 and change. same money would have bot over 5,000 another seed co. but, i decided on practicality. i still have a large bag of carrot seeds from one of these bigger seed count buys. practicality: 25-30 a season. and with A-z CC credits cost was nada. nada tain't bad!!! well, imo. seeds are quite small. looking fwd to the harvest. and their sweet taste.
 
do you have any vine borer problems there with squashes? we sure have them here ~
No nothing touches the squashes. I don't really have any pests to worry about I don't spray any pesticides or anything. I do gets some aphids depending on the time of year and plant type but I have a mass of lady beetles that keep them in check.
I have lots of native bees and a wild honey bee hive in a old hollow gum tree so I don't have any pollination problems.
 
got my tendersweet carrot seeds in. 300. went with the A-z deal. $7 and change. same money would have bot over 5,000 another seed co. but, i decided on practicality. i still have a large bag of carrot seeds from one of these bigger seed count buys. practicality: 25-30 a season. and with A-z CC credits cost was nada. nada tain't bad!!! well, imo. seeds are quite small. looking fwd to the harvest. and their sweet taste.
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i don't plan to count them, but seems like more than 300 there! i will keep in this carrot seed pkt i had in my seeds bin...

pot up for them is today... 25 /30 or so
 
Cant have greenhouse here in central IL. due to the high winds we have here. We do live in the middle of 3 windfarms with total of over 500 turbines and the wind year round is 92 to 97% with a lot of 60+ mph gusts so keeping a greenhouse up is out of the question!
Bummer 🙁
 
So, who’s still growing things in their greenhouse?
we have a bunch of hot peppers, dug up and transferred to pots and some lettuce and spinach starters so far.View attachment 1128233
my gh is still nib in the box! lol... down here, still growing open air! :)

reminds me, i need to do a row of spinach! thanks....
 
Cant have greenhouse here in central IL. due to the high winds we have here. We do live in the middle of 3 windfarms with total of over 500 turbines and the wind year round is 92 to 97% with a lot of 60+ mph gusts so keeping a greenhouse up is out of the question!
wow, no wonder it is so windy!

i googled:

greenhouse for windy area
 
Our warm weather continues, so I recovered my 3' x 16' Spinach/Lettuce raised bed. I had Horseradish planted there. I dug it out and will plant elsewhere. I amended the soil with a lot of compost and got it tilled in. Can't wait to start planting in it. I've never had luck direct sowing so I was going to try getting plants tarted in the 1" cell packs. Anyone ever done that?
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Our warm weather continues, so I recovered my 3' x 16' Spinach/Lettuce raised bed. I had Horseradish planted there. I dug it out and will plant elsewhere. I amended the soil with a lot of compost and got it tilled in. Can't wait to start planting in it. I've never had luck direct sowing so I was going to try getting plants tarted in the 1" cell packs. Anyone ever done that?
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our warm weather continues here, too! but colder next couple of weeks. i scrounged up off a neighborhood curb a 1" circle of cell paks/pods. did my brussel seed starts in them, then transferred... some small seeds i pot up others i direct seed.

not as warm as our hot summer, but warm enuff to get my okras to continue on and upward. i harvested 3 nice okras today. nbd, by auction or bushel standards. but, will be tasty enuff! and behind these 3, i have at least another couple dozen forming up... gottal love grow zone 9! :) i will pan fry them tomorrow.
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