Things that happened with the EvergreenGarden in 2013
Log
Log of things that should be remembered, to avoid doing them again too soon or not soon enough.
- 2013-06-01: Fertilized Banana Pepper Bucket (started setting first flush of fruit)
- 2013-06-01: Fertilized Garden Bed Peppers
- 2013-06-16: Fertilized individual container peppers, habanero/thai/serrano bucket, deck tomato, trellis tomatoes
- 2013-07-11: Fertilized garden bed peppers (+ extra nitrogen to help with regrowth / serious deficiency)
- 2013-07-17: Fertilized Banana pepper bucket, hot pepper bucket, deck tomato, trellis tomatoes, all container peppers
- 2013-07-23: Sprayed all peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and melons with fungicide
- Treatment of active early blight infection in trellis tomatoes, preventative treatment for others (squash, cucumber, and melons are near the tomatoes; plants on the decks had a bit of leaf dying that could either be natural or the early signs of early blight)
- 2013-07-29: Sprayed all plants with Bacillus Thuringeniesis
- 2013-08-06: Sprayed all non-herb plants with Fungicide (tomatoes still suffering blight, others to prevent as it seems to have possibly spread to the melons)
- 2013-08-09: Sprayed all non-herb plants with Bacillus Thuringeniesis
- 2013-09-08: Fertilized non-herb plants
- 2013-09-10: Sprayed non-herb plants with Bacillus Thuringeniesis
Container Media
Not sure... 2:1:1:1 peat:vermiculite:perlite:compost mix, relying primarily upon slow release fertilizers ("plant tone" for now, possibly osmicote later) rather than relying entirely on organic media culture (because it's not possible in a container to supply all nutrients that way).
Several failed attempts were made at producing media of varying proportions and even using pine park fines as a base; the problem turned out to be a lack of surfactant in the mix. Watering each pot with ~1/4tsp Seventh Generation Dish Detergent (basically sodium lauryl sulfate) dissolved in two gallons of water seems to allow the media to fully hydrate and drain without clogging (or not, I think that batch was bad because dried peat moss aggregated around chunks of perlite).
The surfactent may or may not have been the problem. All attempts at making media with available components failed... I'd wager that the peat moss was too fine or something. Gave up and just grabbed a bale of Pro-Mix BX and made the following blend:
- 5 gal Pro-Mix BX
- 1 gal screened compost
- 2 cups Plant Tone (recommended amount for 1 cu ft, close enough)
- 1/2 cup blood meal for initial fertilization
- 1/4 cup bone meal for a bit of extra phosphorous
Idea with compost/plant tone (basically chicken poop)/bone+blood meal is to get fertilizers from a variety of sources. Possibly going to end up switching to slow-release chemical fertilizer granules mid-season.
What We Grew
- Sweet Banana Pepper (4)
- Habenero (2)
- Serrano (2)
- Thai Chile (1)
- Red Beauty Bell Pepper (5)
- Karma Bell Pepper (4)
- Poblano (3)
- Small bucket of Basil (8x)
- Mixed bucket of herbs (oregano, thyme, cilantro, sage)
- Repotted Rosemary
- Repotted Catnip
- Parsley (2 containers and 2 garden squares each with 4 plants)
- New Mint
- Origanum syriacum
- Radishes (one square)
- Chives
- Swiss Chard
- Lettuce
- Arugula
- Cucumber (3)
- Early Hanover Melon (2)
