Gardening Gardening

I was incorrect on the coco coir...

It also appears that perlite does indeed help to retain moisture..

Coconut Coir: What It Is, How To Use It, And The Best Brands To Buy

Perlite; a great way to improve drainage (And a primer on what 'organic' means)

 

Found this here:
Epic Gardening | Urban Gardening, Hydroponics, and Aquaponics
Benefits of Coco Coir
Good transition from soil gardening – growing in coco coir feels like growing in soil, because the two media look so similar. You can have a completely hydroponic garden that looks almost the same as a soil garden. The only difference is instead of watering with only water, you’d water your coconut coir garden with nutrient-enriched water.

Retains moisture and provides a good environment – coco coir is one of the most effective growing media for water retention out there. It can absorb up to 10x its weight in water, meaning the roots of your plants will never get dehydrated. There’s also a lot of growing media for roots to work through, promoting healthy root development.

Environmentally safe – although I am a fan of using sphagnum peat moss in the garden, there’s no denying the environmental concerns that peat moss poses. Coconut coir doesn’t have the same problems. It can be used more than once unlike peat moss, which breaks down over time. It’s also a repurposed waste product from a renewable resource, unlike the peat bogs where we get our peat moss.

Insect-neutral – most garden pests do not enjoy settling in coconut coir, making it yet another line of defense in your integrated pest management system for your garden.

Can be less complex than “traditional hydroponics” – if growing hydroponically is new to you, coconut coir is a good first step. You can practice the basics of hydroponic gardening without having to buy or build a hydroponic system and perform all of the maintenance that it requires.

Downsides to Coco Coir
Inert – coconut coir is inert, meaning that it has no nutrients within it. It may look like soil, but it is not soil. This means you will need to add hydroponic nutrients and control the pH when using coco coir. Growing in soil isn’t too different though, as many gardeners amend their soil constantly throughout the growing season anyways.

May need additional supplementation – you may find your plants short on calcium and magnesium when using coconut coir, so supplementing with “Cal-Mag” may be necessary.

Needs rehydration – most coco coir products are shipped in dry, compressed bricks. While this saves on shipping cost, it adds labor to your growing process as you’ll need to rehydrate them before you can use them in the garden. This isn’t too hard though!

Mixes can be expensive – garden suppliers know that coco coir can be annoying to work with sometimes, so they’ve started to offer coconut coir mixes. This saves a lot of time, but is pretty expensive — and making your own mix isn’t too difficult.

 

I had read that in a diff thread here. I know your hubby and a neighbor are working on a work-swap deal to fix/upgrade some of your cistern working. Hope that goes well.

I guess being here in the Northeast, I have difficulty understanding the position you are in with no well water. No tap I understand, but no well seems completely foreign to me, and I DO NOT envy you in that situation one bit.

I do know that the western states have (what we would consider) some crazy laws and restrictions on water collection and use. Isn't the saying "Whiskey's for drinking, water's for fighting over"?
I'm fairly certain it also dates back to the days of the 'ranchers' vs the 'sodbusters' during the settling of the west, and that many feuds were started over water access.

All I can say is that if you are going to plant trees in an otherwise arid climate, you will likely have to do some serious soil amendment. In that I do wish you the best of luck.

 

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to get a clematis to flower. I have been trying to wind it around and through the framework for years. Thanks for any advice.

 

Without more info I'd just be guessing. It's usually a pruning issue, or soil issue. If you haven't pruned, it's the dirt.

Read this. It's got good info.


It won't bloom! Why does my clematis not flower?

 

Thanks very much !! I have no clue as to what type of clematis it is, but I do prune it frequently. I did fertilize it but I picked a generic "for flowering plants" fertilizer so I'll have to read the label and see the numbers. Kinda bummed if I can't sculpt it though.

 

Sculpting the plant is likely your main culprit. As long as you aren't dumping really high Nitrogen fertilizer it should be flowering.
Try letting some of the shoots go this spring or train some over to the fence and let them over season - if it blooms on then fence you have the answer

 

Seedlings up, strawberry barrel started

 

Thanks for the advice !! Last year I wove a lot of the shoots back in and around rather than snipping them off, I have my fingers crossed.

 

I gave up with potting soil and potting mix from the big box stores. Too many sticks and composted lumber and junk. The last Miracle Grow bag s I got were loaded with bugs. The Organic Choice was the worst for fungus gnats.

I get peat moss and add a little fast acting lime to offset the acidity, get a big bag of perlite from HD and add to my compost to make my own mix. Fertilizer depending on how I'm using the mix. If any - for seedlings I usually use fish emulsion - but not in the house - it stinks a bit.
Coco coir , you never find it in stores around here although you can order it.

This year I got a big bag of vermiculite for seed starting from HD.
Got 3 shop lites on seedlings so far.

 

I only have about 12 inches between rows for walking on and then mass plant in beds 24 or 30 inches wide. I'll use a garden fork to loosen and aerate soil in the Spring . A tiller does come in handy when you're making a new bed though especially amending soil, although some people let the worms do that work too.

If you have weeds that grow in the Winter maybe put down plastic to smother them ?
Or a dense cover crop ?

 

Perlite itself doesn't absorb moisture but the pores within the perlite structure retains moisture.
Perlite is great as a soil lightener - handy for it's porous structure and oxygen and lighter weight pots.
As far as the dust - wet it down in the bag before and while handling. You should wet down any soil or soil components that makes dust in the greenhouse to avoid lung irritants in general whether they be known cancer causing substances or not. Do you really want to find out 30 years from now - should have been more careful with such and such ?

 

After a five year hiatus, it's time to get back to gardening. We'll start slow this year to get back into the swing of things, and expand as necessary.

The one thing that's always plagued me is ground hogs. We've lost way too much food to them over the years. At our old place I trapped them and delivered to an acquaintance who actually ate them and used the pelts. Sadly, the gardens will be close enough to another house that shooting the bastards is out, and said acquaintance is no longer an option.. I'm planning to do 3' tall hardware cloth with the top 10' or so left loose around the perimeter, with buried chicken wire to prevent burrowing.

Anyone have tried and true methods they've used to exclude the critters? I've read everything from high dollar ultrasonic rigs to pizzing around the perimeter of the garden to scare them off..

 

Hav-a-hart and Gamo or Hav-a-hart Then Gamo

 

The last coupla years I've had poor germination direct seeding beets so I figured this year I'd try beet seedlings.
Seed pack said 10-14 days for germination and I figure another two weeks in a 128 tray would get me just to our last frost date and hopefully warmer nights.
So I started them Sunday afternoon the 25th.


The first ones popped up on Wednesday. This was this morning:


I hope we have some nice warm sunny days soon.