It is Septoria leaf spot. It starts on the lower leaves and travels up. You should cut off anything you see as soon as it appears. Treating them with a fungicide will help too.
There are 10x20.75" plant heat mats on sale on the walmart site for $8.99 each, if anyone is putting together an inside winter setup.
Yeah, this afternoon was my final "put the gardens away for the winter" stint. It's getting down to freezing now so I picked all the last green tomatoes and remaining peppers (ripe or not) to do some sort of green tomato / pepper chutney thing. We'll see how that goes. But yeah, this is the final pull for the year:
Now that it's turning into winter, do you guys do anything special to your garden in prep of next year, or do you just let them be and pick it up in the Spring?
I am not far behind you Nett, I am pulling things in as the frosts get harder. Today I brought in 10 gallons of sweet peppers and about a gallon bucket of green beans. I have hundreds of hot peppers to get tomorrow....no peppers like the cold like we are getting. Ummm, you can plant cover crops for winter, but I generally do not. I just clean up the beds, stow my cages, have a winter. Come mid February, I amend the dirt with my compost and start roughing out my beds.
So many of these. I am going to chop and freeze single meal portions for cooking, I am out of time for any more creative ideas.
Just reading this now. Last year I put down a layer of leaves but honestly don't think it made a huge difference. Just one more thing to clean up. This year I've just pulled the plants and let it go for the Winter. With three little goats who waste a good deal of hay (well, it provides Winter bedding for a while ) both compost bins are filled and will continue to be. So when that breaks down I'll have lots of fresh stuff to add to the garden beds.
It isn't really "time" to start plants but I had the itch and our winter has been mild. Thai basil needs a repot and a haircut. Spoiler
Those are some pretty happy looking herbs! I am about to turn the bed for onions, my plant date is 2/15. Then broccoli, etc, other cold weather stuff.
I’m travelling this week but next weekend I’ll be firing up the indoor system. At -20 it’s still a wee bit chilly to consider planting even the cold weather stuff yet. I am working on my high-tech remote monitoring and data collection stuff; solar powered “pods” that collect light readings, moisture, temp, and snap a pic every 15 mins and sends it back to a data collector so it can all be processed and analysed later and some stop motion movies made. I think I have the initial design done, and will take about a month to program, build the boards/sensors, and make the weatherproof enclosures. We’ll see how it goes.
@Improper thanks! I am about to do the same. Just bought seeds for kale, leeks, turnips, radish, rutabaga. Also have leftover snow peas (for a little later), broccoli, lettuce. We are getting ducks in March so it will be awhile before I have reliable slug control. I don't think the slugs are that bad out here though. In any case, all these babies are being started today inside so that I can depend on a little success later. Do you use the old farmer's almanac for your planting dates or another source? I am learning what the environment is like out here so I can't predict shit. I have been reading historical weather trends, talked to neighbors, read the almanac for our region. I think because of our location our weather is a bit off from the regional trends. I put in so much work in my last garden but had overall mild success for the hours spent. There were tomatoes here when we moved in, I watered them maybe 4 times, and they produced more than all my plants back home. I think things will work out okay for me. I have some other, ahem, beautiful herbs not shown and in planning decided to upgrade my lights - MH & HPS bulb at 600 watts, though since the plants are small I started with 400watts to save some $$ (you can dial the ballast up). The light setup really was not bad in terms of price compared to the cost of the LEDs. The plants love the new lights. They are way lusher and grew significantly faster than the LEDs I had before. I think that picture is maybe 2.5-3 weeks of growth. Running costs are higher but if I make good use of the light and grow things I will use regularly it isn't so bad.
I use the planting guide from my state ag college, pleasingly available online. Also, my dad used to always remind me of the what and when, some of it seems to have stuck. Meanwhile, good luck with your new seeds in your new place!
Hey Idiots, Well, for me, in Zone 8a, it's that time of year again. Seed catalogs. Fluorescent lights. Plotting your garden obsessively on graph paper. Well, it's past that time of year, actually. I have 6" tall plants sitting under lights now in the basement. I mentioned this last year, but I usually order my seeds from Baker Creek. Which I did this year, again. They always give you a bonus pack of seeds with your order, which is a nice surprise. From them, I am doing Yellow Brandywine Tomato, Cour di Bue Tomato, Paul Robeson Tomato, Pink Brandywine Tomato, Tabasco Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Louisiana Eggplant, Thai Eggplant, and my bonus packages (oh, two packages actually!) - Sweet Chocolate Pepper and Purple Russian Tomato. Quite excited! Also, and I don't know this guy from Adam, but I have watched this YouTube gardening channel for years now - Praxxus55712. The guy is sort of like Mr. Rodgers mixed with a garden gnome, maybe? But, he's wonderful. He does a "Free-Seed-Giveaway" every January. From him, for the cost of a stamp, I started Delicious Tomato, Tokyo Bunching Green Onion, and Anaheim Pepper. Check him out. Such a charming and relaxing guy. So, after gardening now for a few years, one of the biggest takeaways from the hobby has been, YOU LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES! I'll relay a mistake to you all that I made last year, because I had just a real bummer happen. We have a family friend just outside of town that has a couple of horses. It was in May, my plants were in the ground, they were fantastic, chest-high, and I decide to call up this family friend to go shovel some horse shit to lay down around my plants. Now I know that putting manure straight onto plants isn't the best idea. I laid this shit down one or two feet away from the stem, over the mulch. Thought it was fine. ALL the plants immediately responded negatively. Leaf curl. Leaves not even coming out. Just awful stuff. The owner of the horses assured me that they only use organic feed and hay from a local, organic farm. I had to pull out all of the plants. I even took one of the pulled plants to our University's Agricultural Center, and before I even got to the desk the woman told me, "It's herbicide." I had poisoned my garden with herbicidal manure. Ugh. Lessons: Know and trust where your seeds and additives come from, especially if organic. Focus: What are you Idiots growing this year?!
A non-shitty lawn, hopefully. I dont have a front yard since 10 feet out my front door its woods all the way to the road, but the little yard I have down the side of my driveway I had dug up last year to install and wire up lamp posts. Ill probably have the landscaper that dug the original trench come back and spread some soil and loam. I put a ton of work into the backyard last year, so I am going to try to get some pre-emergent down in mid-late April and maybe do a light spring seeding. Im a huge fan of ordering seed from Seed Super Store. It was expensive, but that grass came in really well. I just plugged in my zip code and came up with the right blends for shady and sunny areas.
Rough about the herbicide, Binx. I get some drift now and then, I see a windward row droop all at once. As an aside, I welcome most manure in my compost, but have never put it straight on the garden. A lot of it is too hot. Umm, I have onions going, and snap peas. Broccoli, some red leaf lettuce. On the light shelf, preparing for warmer times, some tomatoes, peppers hot and sweet, cucumbers. My big mistake last year was planting yellow squash at all. The vine borers broke those all down in a matter of days, laying their young in the hollow vine. This year, I am planting a moschata instead, a solid vine squash. Cross your finges it doesn't taste like shit, I have literally never grown it. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromboncino_(squash) )
I’m thinking about doing a Kratky setup indoors under a grow light for lettuce and herbs. Anyone here ever go that route?
Frebis, I have a buddy that uses that system, is a big fan. He also keeps sending me info on growing microgreens, which looks pretty cool. Here are my warm season things, perking along on the grow rack.