--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300027 Date: 12/02/97 From: MARILYN BOISSONEAULT Time: 04:48pm \/To: WL-SKI (Read 1 times) Subj: Canning/preserving -=> Quoting Wl-ski to Marilyn Boissoneault <=- MB> I think you are talking about what I call kale maybe. Wl> Kale is something else... "Savoy cabbage" is a Brassica oleracea ... Wl> Kale is a Brassica oleracea also, but a different variety (both leaf Wl> crops, but still as different as Kale and Wl> Mustard :) Oh I know the difference between those 2, I've grown both. I've just been trying to figure which cole crop Marie is growing. When she first mentioned a curly leaved cabbage I thought of the savoy, but then in her next message she mentioned it didn't head and then I decided it might be kale. Guess I'll see when I next hear from Marie. I grow mustard too, well I grow something called mustard spinach, it's supposed to be much milder than regular mustard. I'm not a southerner and haven't acquired a taste for the strong greens. The mustard I grow doesn't have curly leaves, looks more like turnip greens I guess. I've seen pictures of mustard with curly leaves also. Marilyn ... CATALYST (n.): An alphabetical list of cats. ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- Alexi/Mail 2.00 (#10000) * Origin: Space Coast REACT, Melbourne FL <407> 255-9069 (1:374/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300028 Date: 12/02/97 From: MARILYN BOISSONEAULT Time: 04:48pm \/To: ROB PRINGLE (Read 1 times) Subj: cuttings??? -=> Quoting Rob Pringle to Marilyn Boissoneault <=- RP> Play it by ear and pH test then. I see that some stated it as 1 RP> Tbs, while in another place it was 1 Tsp. Quite a difference. Of RP> course, the peat moss can be extremely acid so the only way to be RP> sure where things are at is to test the pH after the mix has "cured" RP> for a couple of weeks - and even that may not be completely RP> accurate. Remember though - that mix was also for plants that like a RP> very slightly acid "soil". Yes testing sounds like the best idea. You think 2 weeks is long enough to "cure" it? RP> Not sure, but you might try adding a lot of garden lime to that RP> soil as you recycle it. If you have a compost, that might be the RP> best place to put it instead of directly into the garden The RP> problem might be the soil is literally "toxic" with nitrites. (Not RP> nitrates). Time and composting will change that back to normal RP> though. I added some dolomite to it, but not sure if I added enough. I thought if I tilled it in over a large area and added some dolomite it might be okay. But maybe the compost idea might be better. Well I was using it in large 7 gallon containers, and they are self watering. I imagine it has salt buildup or whatever from fertilizer also. I guess that is what you're talking about with the nitrites. Maybe you're right and i should give it more time before adding it directly to the garden. RP> Can do. A complete description will follow in a day or to. Oh good. RP> No, it does not sound normal. Now are these cuttings with RP> developed roots? Or are these cuttings you have just placed in RP> water? How long are these cuttings. Well actually I was very optomistic and only took one cutting at the moment. I plan to try some more though. It's only maybe 3-4 inches long. I picked the flower buds off, but I didn't mess with the leaves, other than the ones at the node I was burying. Since the leaves started dropping so fast I went ahead and picked all the big leaves and only left the very small ones. They seem to be holding their own. RP> If these wilting cuttings are already rooted - but just being RP> transferred to the soil - thats one of the problems of doing RP> rooting in water. The roots that develop are not well adapted to RP> work in soil so until the plant does develop "soil roots", there is RP> a good chance of problems. Actually - I had much better luck just RP> leaving the cuttings in water and growing them hydroponically until RP> the Spring - where they were then planted in the garden. Well on the advice I've gotten here I didn't put them in water, just in a pot, so no water roots. Are you talking about impatien cuttings in water? I have a couple of real pretty ones and would like to get some cuttings going. I guess I need to try quite a few, then I might be sure of getting a couple of them at least. I suppose I could experiment, put a few in soil in pots, and a few in water and see what happens. Marilyn ... A confident manner is important: Computers can sense this! ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- Alexi/Mail 2.00 (#10000) * Origin: Space Coast REACT, Melbourne FL <407> 255-9069 (1:374/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300029 Date: 12/02/97 From: MARILYN BOISSONEAULT Time: 04:48pm \/To: ROB PRINGLE (Read 1 times) Subj: Texas style pots. -=> Quoting Rob Pringle to Marilyn Boissoneault <=- RP> Texas style might not be what you want to use, but many people RP> swear by it. (I don't use it myself - but thats another story - RP> wicking). RP> There are a number of variations for self-watering pots available RP> - but that sort of information is probably best geaned from your RP> gardening magazines or books on (especially) growing indoor RP> plants. The large pots I use are self watering. They have a wick that goes down in the saucer. Most of the time they work well. Ocassionally we get some real heavy rain for days. Then it's hard to not have them too wet. I try to drain the saucers but sometimes even that doesn't help. But on the whole I've been very pleased with them. RP> The Texas-Style just struck me as extremely practical, and did not RP> require a person go out and buy a specially constructed pot. You RP> can make your own from regular green plastic pots - to even RP> styrofoam cups! I'm getting the information for this method from RP> a book by Pauline Bartholomew, "Growing to Show". (It's a "must" RP> for anyone into serious African Violet growing). My mother was big into African Violets but I've never gotten into it. I don't have anywhere indoors for them. The Texas style is very interestings with the perlite etc. Thanks for the info. I'll store that away for future possiblities! There is such a fine line between not enough water and too much! So I'll be sure to save your info. Marilyn ... Dry Ice: A Carbon Dioxymoron ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- Alexi/Mail 2.00 (#10000) * Origin: Space Coast REACT, Melbourne FL <407> 255-9069 (1:374/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300030 Date: 12/02/97 From: MARILYN BOISSONEAULT Time: 04:48pm \/To: CHRISTOPHER GREAVES (Read 1 times) Subj: bake-sterilising soil -=> Quoting Christopher Greaves to All <=- CG> In the meantime I seem to have lucked into a soil sterilising CG> tray for free. The pinhole won't matter to me when I pop a few CG> trowel-fulls of composted soil into the tray to bake it to kill CG> off weed seeds (aka pumpkin seeds and the like, that the worms CG> didn't eat). Question is: Are you talking about baking the soil in your oven? I've heard that is an extremely smelly job. It's usually recommended to do that outside! If you are having cold temps and your furnace running you might not like having to open the windows to get the smell out. Hopefully someone else here knows more on the subject firsthand. Marilyn ... I do not suffer from insanity...I enjoy every minute! ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 --- Alexi/Mail 2.00 (#10000) * Origin: Space Coast REACT, Melbourne FL <407> 255-9069 (1:374/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300031 Date: 12/02/97 From: MARILYN BOISSONEAULT Time: 04:48pm \/To: RITA BUSSELL (Read 1 times) Subj: Rust stains -=> Quoting Rita Bussell to All <=- RB> Is there any way to remove the so-called rust stains that seem to RB> appear out of nowhere from a white cotton/poly blouse? I saw some stain remover bottles at Walmart recently. They were by Carbona I believe, but they had a brochure and a bunch of different formulas for different types of stains. Maybe one off them was for rust. I know they had some for quite a few types of stains. Marilyn ... Danger! **Attention Span Exceeded!** ___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30--- SF-Quick 1.20 --- Alexi/Mail 2.00 (#10000) * Origin: Space Coast REACT, Melbourne FL <407> 255-9069 (1:374/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300032 Date: 11/30/97 From: SANDRA PEAKE Time: 12:54pm \/To: HELEN PEAGRAM (Read 1 times) Subj: mexican hat plant HP>I used to have a plant called mexican hat plant that would grow little plant HP>all around the leaves that would drop and start new plants. I don't know HP>it's proper name or what it goes by. Does anyone have any idea what this HP>plant is? Hi Helen, noticed your origin line is from the States. Have you left us temporarily? Anyway, there are numerous plants that spring to mind, but the most available (to us) is Mother of Millions (Thousands, if yours is a piker. :-)). It is a succulent with long narrow leaves, deeply indented, and babies grow at each indentation. I'm sorry I can't track down its botanical name. Another one is a grayish-green succulent shaped like a rosette when young. As the stem elongates with growth, the rosette remains only at the top, but each easily detachable leaf, if merely left on the windowsill, will grow a tiny plantlet. Any that fall into other pots will root also. At one point, I had 50 or 60 of them in various stages of "pregnancy" lying on the windowsill. :-) Again, I haven't found the botanical names for these plants. ...Sandra... --- * QMPro 1.52 * Eagles fly, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines! --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: The Fire Pit BBS Paris Ont (519)442-1013 (1:221/1500.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300033 Date: 11/30/97 From: SANDRA PEAKE Time: 03:48pm \/To: CHRISTOPHER GREAVES (Read 1 times) Subj: gar-in-a-jar CG>CG>up a rather simple tubing mechanism that would pass air into the CG>CG>gravel bed of the first jar, and from the top of the first jar CG>SP> Good way to spread disease, Christopher. An ounce or two of water CG>Disease? I'm not involving the fish in this, just house plants. I CG>was thinking of it being a high-powered forcing nursery - CG>"cuttings to plants in seventeen hours" sort of thing. CG>Perhaps you mean plant fungii, blights and such? I sure do, Chris. Closed in quarters with a lot of moisture favour the spread of inimical plantlife forms. :-( Nurseries that root cuttings in under a week use a spray mist, light and heating system. The timed sprays wash beginning moulds off the surfaces and control them, the heat spurs rooting, and the constant moisture (in strong light!) allows roots to form w/o letting the leaves and stems dehydrate. CG>SP> every couple of weeks, some succulent/cacti type plants, and a small CG>SP> opening in the lid would be easier, cheaper, and less risky. :-) CG>You're right. This is the traditional low-maintenance route. I CG>will treat myself to some cactii today. There's a reason for certain traditions. :-) CG>With all the hydroponic gardening going on, I wonder why large- CG>scale growers don't do this sealed/controlled environment. They CG>must know something. maybe it *is* the rapid spread of disease if CG>once it gets into the system. Ever hear of the Greenhouse experiment that the gov't of Nova Scotia picked up? They built $2 million worth of fully automatic greenhouses to raise cucumbers (a high-profit item) hydroponically. The man whose brain they picked had persuaded the gov't of Alberta to sink a few millions into a similar project, and it failed due to disease just as the crop was maturing. The same thing happened in N.S. (I personally think mother nature was trying to tell them something.) Was it the Springer project? Not sure. The most successful hydroponic crops are greens and sprouts, but even here, intensive care (human care!) is needed. No robots need apply. :-) Tomatoes are another good one. ...Sandra... --- * QMPro 1.52 * All stressed out...and no one to CHOKE !!! --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: The Fire Pit BBS Paris Ont (519)442-1013 (1:221/1500.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300034 Date: 12/02/97 From: CHRISTOPHER GREAVES Time: 04:53pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Worm bins CG>For $24 I can get a 10-foot length of six-inch diameter PVC It is done. Hardest part was wrestling the 10' length of pipe back inside the Hyundai Excel after each set of streetcar tracks ..... I used the old Vermicomposter bin the city sold me for $10 a while back. Cut off 48 inches of pipe (I'm 5'6" tall and wanted to be left with some advantage!) and used three short and stubby woodscrews to screw through from the outside of the bin, into the tube, which I held with a block of wood some three inches above the base of the bin. Self-tappers would have been better, but then the washing-machine would have fallen apart. The whole thing is surprisingly stable. I thought I'd have to use a wooden brace, an L-shaped platform under the bin and a vertical to anchor the pipe, but at four feet, it doesn't seem too bad. heigh-ho! and don't waste time tidying up the jar of nuts screws washers and bolts in the bedroom - there's a continual-feed composter in the kitchen waiting to be primed. (headline tonight on local TV: "Nut screws washers and bolts in the bedroom!") The 13-litre ice-cream pail makes a great pourer of sifted soil, as the pail is quite flexible and the rim can be pursed to funnel soil + worms into the composter. The worms let out wild shrieks the likes of which i haven't heard since I watched those five teenage girls playing truant at the roller-coaster at Mission Bay, San Diego five years ago. Or was it six? Now I have a tallus-slope of sieved soil at the base of the tube, starting to spread out across the base of the bin. Into the top of the tube goes the composter-pail I started a few days ago (phew!) and it gets topped off with today's garbage from the 1- litre sink-strainer and a few trowels of earth from the base of the tube. That lot will settle over the next few hours, after which I'll be able to load a little more sieved soil from the other six pails - although maybe I'll leave them to finish maturing in the laundry closet. Providing there is as little odour from the tower as there was from the pails, it'll be a treat to have the composter right in the kitchen. The footprint is so much less than the pail method. With the pails I had the pail-being-loaded and an ice-cream pail of sieved soil to top it off after each batch of garbage was emptied. Now I have just the bin, and I can just scoop a few trowels of composted soil from the bin and pop them back into the top of the tube. Based on my limited experience, it will take about three weeks for me to gauge the speed of the tower. I may yet set up a second tower (I still have six feet of tube left). Obtaining soil for potting will be as simple as dragging some soil from the base of the tower and giving the worms a head-start to retreat to darkness and safety. christopher.greaves@ablelink.org www.interlog.com/~cgreaves * 1st 2.00b #6263 * Don't Brake! --- PCBoard (R) v15.3 (OS/2) 5 * Origin: FidoNet: CAP/CANADA Support BBS : 416 287-0234 (1:250/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300035 Date: 12/02/97 From: CHRISTOPHER GREAVES Time: 04:53pm \/To: DORIS DIGNARD (Read 1 times) Subj: Soil DD>Hey, Chris, you know I didn't use sea sand..... Debbie of Reeves says the limestone screenings would pack too hard. She mentioned vermiculite, so I asked about foam chips, and she said yes, give my blender-produced foam chips a try, so that's what I'll do. christopher.greaves@ablelink.org www.interlog.com/~cgreaves * 1st 2.00b #6263 * Don't Brake! --- PCBoard (R) v15.3 (OS/2) 5 * Origin: FidoNet: CAP/CANADA Support BBS : 416 287-0234 (1:250/710) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 208 HOME & GARDEN Ref: EG300036 Date: 12/02/97 From: DORIS DIGNARD Time: 10:08pm \/To: CHRISTOPHER GREAVES (Read 1 times) Subj: Soil CG>I'm not trying to scare-monger here. I just recall that we had to >be careful with what we did vis-a-vis tomato plants at the end of >the season. I'm pretty sure that Willie puts our dead tomato plants in the garbage pick-up. Doris Dignard dorisdignard@better.net doris.dignard@capcanada.com * 1st 2.00 #9125 * A library is thought in cold storage. --- PCBoard (R) v15.3 (OS/2) 5 * Origin: FidoNet: CAP/CANADA Support BBS : 416 287-0234 (1:250/710)