beginner fruit/veg garden

[AchmatK]

I planted my first avo a few months ago but still need to transfer it to the garden.

It has two stems and just need to know if it's possible to split it and have two trees?

 

[SukkaFoo]

I planted my first avo a few months ago but still need to transfer it to the garden.

It has two stems and just need to know if it's possible to split it and have two trees?

I have a mate who is really big into his avos and as I understand it, it is real hit and miss as to whether you'll get fruit by growing from a pip. He always finds a tree bearing fruit and grafts a branch from that onto what you have there. Just my useless 2c.

 

[wise_guy]

Started this a year ago but the birds got the best of it.
Just finished this canopy using hula hoops and steel rods.

 

[AchmatK]

First Hannepoot harvest. Vine is about 2.5 years old. Grapes are juicy and sweet.

Also harvester lots of granadilla.

 

[AchmatK]

I will be harvesting some olives in about a month or two and will have a kg or two to give away if anyone is interested and willing to collect in Somerset West.

 

[AchmatK]

Enjoying the granadillas. I've given away quite a bit and still have some ripening on the the tree.

 

[Friedpet]

Looks great.
My olive tree isn't carrying any fruit, same as my apricot tree. I had hundreds of peaches and prunes, all full of worms though. At least I could enjoy some mulberries

 

[Inevitability]

Anyone have experience growing peppadew?
My plant is growing nicely and I'm getting peppadews, but they never get red.
The plant gets enough water cos the leaves looks healthy, and its producing ok... But they are all just green peppadews... I left them on the plant for a few weeks and they still don't get red.

 

[AstroTurf]

Anyone have experience growing peppadew?
My plant is growing nicely and I'm getting peppadews, but they never get red.
The plant gets enough water cos the leaves looks healthy, and its producing ok... But they are all just green peppadews... I left them on the plant for a few weeks and they still don't get red.

Plant have plenty sun?

Also, you can take them off the plant, they should ripen on their own.

 

[Inevitability]

Plant have plenty sun?
Also, you can take them off the plant, they should ripen on their own.

Hmmm... It's not the sunniest part of the garden but it gets around 6 hours of sunlight
I'll try that suggestion of picking them and trying to ripen it off the plant... thanks!

 

[AstroTurf]

Hmmm... It's not the sunniest part of the garden but it gets around 6 hours of sunlight
I'll try that suggestion of picking them and trying to ripen it off the plant... thanks!

Biggest advantage is the plant makes less flowers the more fruit it has...

 

[Inevitability]

Ok, so I started this thread in 2016 (Season 1) and its now coming towards the end of Season 2 (S2 = spring 2017 til now).
I had some success and some failures…
Fails:
- lettuce, coriander/cilantro/Dhania, rocket, Spinach, Bell peppers – none grew past seedling
- the jalapeno and pickling cucumber seedlings from early in this thread all died in S1
- The lime and nectarine trees from early in this thread never made it past S1 winter
- I gave up completely on the greenhouse
- Growing anything in pots / grow bags / planters
Successes:
- Worm farm … more on that below, and I should probably attribute all the below successes to (God, via) the stuff I get out of the worm farm. I’ll explain later
- some beans grew ok in S1 from just planting whatever beans I had in my cupboard. Bought some seeds at the beginning of S2 and now I’ve got A LOT of beans in my garden.
- Fig, peach and pomegranate trees are all growing ok, but yet to bear anything.
- Planted some mealies and those all grew, but I over-crowded them (10cm apart) so the mealies are all very small. Haven’t harvested them yet.
- One (out of two seedling) peppadew plant survived and I planted it into the ground in S2 … the post above was about that peppadew plant. It’s growing strong since I put it into the ground.
- A friend gave me a tray of 6 Jalapeno seedlings in S2, and those are going really strong and producing a lot of chillies. I have to pick twice a week and I get a bowl full each time
- I had great success in the beginning of S2 with Zucchini. The plants grew strong and gave me a lot of Zucchini, but then pests got into it. The plant was still growing strong but each time I got a new zucchini the worms made a little brown hole in it and that was that. So then I got rid of the plants cos they weren’t giving me anything for all the space they took up. I had two zucchinis the size of my arm!
- Marigolds from the beginning of this thread have spread through my garden and are growing well.
- Using toilet-paper-rolls for seeds

This post is already too long … more feedback later

 

[cerebus]

Using toilet-paper-rolls for seeds

Are you trying to grow toilet-trees?

Ahem... I'll just let myself out then shall I?

 

[Inevitability]

Are you trying to grow toilet-trees?
Ahem... I'll just let myself out then shall I?

bwaaahahaha! now you making me think back to when I was a lightie and my dad told me if I swallow bubblegum, a tree will grow from my stomach!

 

[Inevitability]

Let’s talk about worms!
A friend gave me some leftover red worms after his fishing trip in March 2017. From what I had read before that fateful day, red worms are good at eating kitchen scraps and turning it into compost. But all of the info said “buy two pounds to start a worm farm” or “get a few pounds”. What he gave me was the equivalent of a coffee mug of worms and soil. I took them and put them in an old 5L ice cream container with some sand and fallen leaves, and kept throwing in any kitchen scraps I had regularly.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there so I bought a 25L plastic basin and threw then in there with a lot of dried leaves, some sand, some cardboard , some newspaper… and kept feeding them kitchen scraps.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I split them into 3 plastic basins, with the same stuff and kept throing in my kitchen scraps
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I prepared an old bathtub (put it up on some bricks so I could get a bucket under the drain, and then added leaves, grass, cardboard) and emptied one of those basins into the bath tub.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there!

So, what’s this all for??
In S2 I’ve been flooding these ‘worm farms’ with water and letting it sit there for a little while(or in the case of the bathtub letting it drain out into a bucket) and then using this water to feed my plants. From what I’ve read there’s a two-fold benefit:
1. The worms have broken down the organic material (cardboard , leaves, kitchen scraps) into the nutrients
2. The worms feed on the decaying matter and as it passes through them it gets supercharged with all the microbes that are beneficial to plants and soil health in general
Judging by how much stuff is growing now in my garden, I’d say the experiment has been a huge success.
And this is only using the ‘worm tea’ … I still haven’t tried ‘harvesting’ any compost out of there which should be even better for the plants.

I strongly recommend to anyone who can get their hands on some worms to experiment with them yourself… you don’t need to go bananas like me… just keep them in a 5L ice cream container or old bucket with some cardboard, paper leaves, grass … any organic waste, and then keep throwing in any kitchen waste and watch them turn it into fertiliser for your garden.

 

[AstroTurf]

Let’s talk about worms!
A friend gave me some leftover red worms after his fishing trip in March 2017. From what I had read before that fateful day, red worms are good at eating kitchen scraps and turning it into compost. But all of the info said “buy two pounds to start a worm farm” or “get a few pounds”. What he gave me was the equivalent of a coffee mug of worms and soil. I took them and put them in an old 5L ice cream container with some sand and fallen leaves, and kept throwing in any kitchen scraps I had regularly.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there so I bought a 25L plastic basin and threw then in there with a lot of dried leaves, some sand, some cardboard , some newspaper… and kept feeding them kitchen scraps.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I split them into 3 plastic basins, with the same stuff and kept throing in my kitchen scraps
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I prepared an old bathtub (put it up on some bricks so I could get a bucket under the drain, and then added leaves, grass, cardboard) and emptied one of those basins into the bath tub.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there!

So, what’s this all for??
In S2 I’ve been flooding these ‘worm farms’ with water and letting it sit there for a little while(or in the case of the bathtub letting it drain out into a bucket) and then using this water to feed my plants. From what I’ve read there’s a two-fold benefit:
1.The worms have broken down the organic material (cardboard , leaves, kitchen scraps) into the nutrients
2.The worms feed on the decaying matter and as it passes through them it gets supercharged with all the microbes that are beneficial to plants and soil health in general
Judging by how much stuff is growing now in my garden, I’d say the experiment has been a huge success.
And this is only using the ‘worm tea’ … I still haven’t tried ‘harvesting’ any compost out of there which should be even better for the plants.

I strongly recommend to anyone who can get their hands on some worms to experiment with them yourself… you don’t need to go bananas like me… just keep them in a 5L ice cream container or old bucket with some cardboard, paper leaves, grass … any organic waste, and then keep throwing in any kitchen waste and watch them turn it into fertiliser for your garden.

Great advice. I'll do worms again in future and will read back to this when I get there.

 

[cpu.]

Your soil need compost (with nutrients etc) and regularly (every 2 weeks), otherwise bad bacteria in the ground take over and "attack" your veggies. Or so I've been told.
I use bags (cow lick) a farmer sell to me to make compost in. Leave them for 2 or 3 weeks and it is wet, hot (smokey even) and rotten. I can't as yet say if it's any good, but it look good.

 

[maumau]

Let’s talk about worms!
A friend gave me some leftover red worms after his fishing trip in March 2017. From what I had read before that fateful day, red worms are good at eating kitchen scraps and turning it into compost. But all of the info said “buy two pounds to start a worm farm” or “get a few pounds”. What he gave me was the equivalent of a coffee mug of worms and soil. I took them and put them in an old 5L ice cream container with some sand and fallen leaves, and kept throwing in any kitchen scraps I had regularly.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there so I bought a 25L plastic basin and threw then in there with a lot of dried leaves, some sand, some cardboard , some newspaper… and kept feeding them kitchen scraps.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I split them into 3 plastic basins, with the same stuff and kept throing in my kitchen scraps
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there, so I prepared an old bathtub (put it up on some bricks so I could get a bucket under the drain, and then added leaves, grass, cardboard) and emptied one of those basins into the bath tub.
After a few months there were a lot of worms in there!

So, what’s this all for??
In S2 I’ve been flooding these ‘worm farms’ with water and letting it sit there for a little while(or in the case of the bathtub letting it drain out into a bucket) and then using this water to feed my plants. From what I’ve read there’s a two-fold benefit:
1. The worms have broken down the organic material (cardboard , leaves, kitchen scraps) into the nutrients
2. The worms feed on the decaying matter and as it passes through them it gets supercharged with all the microbes that are beneficial to plants and soil health in general
Judging by how much stuff is growing now in my garden, I’d say the experiment has been a huge success.
And this is only using the ‘worm tea’ … I still haven’t tried ‘harvesting’ any compost out of there which should be even better for the plants.

I strongly recommend to anyone who can get their hands on some worms to experiment with them yourself… you don’t need to go bananas like me… just keep them in a 5L ice cream container or old bucket with some cardboard, paper leaves, grass … any organic waste, and then keep throwing in any kitchen waste and watch them turn it into fertiliser for your garden.

Great info tks.

So you only grew the worms for a few months, then used liquid or the first time when you put them in the big bathtub?

Did you cover the drainage hole with netting or something to keep your worms from falling out?

 

[AchmatK]

Gave some olives away to a few people. This is some of what was left.



And two hours later after scoring each one with a pairing knife. A month of standing to get the bitterness out and it should be ready for the brine.

 

[Inevitability]

Great info tks.

So you only grew the worms for a few months, then used liquid or the first time when you put them in the big bathtub?

Did you cover the drainage hole with netting or something to keep your worms from falling out?

Yes I only started collecting the liquid once I had the worms in the bath tub... I was a bit overprotective cos I was scared I'll kill them all. Now I just flood the plastic basins and leave it like that for a while and then tilt them so that the liquid falls out... I angle them on my stairs and use an old 5L ice cream container to collect the liquid. (i hope that painted a clear-enough picture). I'm just too lazy to drill holes into the plastic basins.
The bath tub is waaay easier... Hose down the tub and collect the liquid from the drain (i use rain water that I collect in an IBC tank - not as pretty as a JoJo but way cheaper).
I need more bath tubs.

And yes... When I prepared the bath tub I covered the drain with some fabric mesh I had, threw some gravel stones over it, then loaded it with leaves, grass, cardboard and kitchen scraps, then threw in the red worms.
Top it all off with a layer of newspaper or cardboard to keep in the moisture and keep out any birds and other unwelcome visitors. Red worms seem to like it better on the wetter side.