At 8/4/10 11:33 PM, AnotherAnonymous wrote:
Yo.
Hey.
So I have a 100% organic garden, my second year with it. Unfortunately, this year in my opinion was the worst year we had, simply due to the way we planted everything this year. My mom crowds the plants a lot and I can barely squeeze through the rows (I'm 5'4" and 114 pounds) so our tomatoes are dying of (though there is still a good harvest to be had).
Welp, I don't think I need insult anyone's intelligence and tell you what the obvious solution to this is. :P
Second problem would be possible fertilization. We never used any sort of fertilizer (EVER) and this year it just dreadful because of it. We know the different options we have but my mom and I always argues with me about how much to put in (she never reads the directions, which seem confusing to me).
If you're growing fruit and veg, there's not really any kind of upper limit to how much fertilizer you can use. Especially if the soil has already been exhausted (as evident by a lack of yield, I'm guessing). Most fruit and veg plants need a lot more nutrients in the soil than your average flowers and such, simply because they have to spend said nutrients on themselves AND the fruit they make.
If you want to stay true to the whole organic thing, my advice would be to buy some manure at the end of this growing year and dig as much of it into the garden as you can reasonably afford (and can stand working with :P). It'll rot down over the winter and be ready for use again in the spring. You can also buy compressed manure, if you don't want a garden full of cowshit all winter, which isn't anywhere near as unpleasant to work with, but is more expensive. Still considered 'natural' though, since all that's happened to it is compression (it hasn't been chemically altered or anything).
:Third problem: Ceder Tree Rust. Everywhere on our only two apple trees. I need help on how to stop this ceder rust (removing the ceders is not an option, since we live in the suburbs, and we cannot remove all the ceder trees within a 6 block radius of our house).
This... could be a problem. I can find no 'organic' way of getting rid of cedar-apple rust. There are fungicides that treat it, though, so I suppose it's a simple matter of which you value more: That '100% organic' label or the ability to grow apples in any noticeable quantity.
Personally, I'd go for the fungicide, but then again I never was one for 'organic' ways of doing things. IMO, artificial ways of controlling this stuff were invented for a reason (read: 'natural' methods just don't work that well most of the time). Then again, it's your garden, so it's up to you. Do you go for principle or pragmatism?
I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong computer to show you pictures and all, but I like my garden. A lot.
Cool; looking forward to it. :)
At 8/5/10 01:48 PM, Ronald-McDonald-LoL wrote:
I'm starting to get frustrated with the oaks that I have. They're either all suffering from different levels of transplant shock, or are dead. I've got just one (A good-looking bur oak) that actually seems to be healthy.
How exactly are you transplanting them? I've transplanted things before (admittedly not trees, but anyway), and I've often found that the less damage there is done to the roots, the better the plant handles being moved. After all, a plant of (almost) any type needs an in-tact root system to live, right?
Best way I've found is to dig out as much soil around the plant as you can without damaging nearby plants, and then gently shaking or manually crumbling (NOT cutting / digging) off the excess soil until you can just see the root tips sticking out of the soil ball you have left on the plant.
Then again, this only works on plants that don't have very deep root systems, so I'm not sure how well it would work with trees. I suppose you could give it a go and see if the results are any better than what's been happening with them, though. It cant get much worse, right?
I have such trouble with nut-bearing trees that it's not even funny; I had ordered 4 American chestnuts and 2 American beech trees last year through the mail, and none of them are still alive.
What's the secret here? I know for a fact that chestnuts should not be potted, but some of the trees didn't even leaf out.
Just out of interest, roughly where do you live? Is it hot, cold, windy, or particularly dry where you are? If the trees you were ordering come from the northern border of the USA, for example, and you're living somewhere near the southern border, it could just be that the trees aren't built to tolerate the climate you're in.
If not, my best guess would be too much / too little water. Too much and the nuts rot before they get a chance to properly sprout; too little and... well, the result is the same as with any plant. I can't think of anything else (short of diseases / poisons) that would kill a small tree that quickly.
And sugar maples; what am I doing wrong with these? I have just one, and it's tiny. It simply will not grow.
That looks like something's wrong with it for sure. Have you tried taking the soil mass out of the pot and having a look at the roots? I can see some moss on the soil it's in, and I know moss like that usually grows on damp / wet soil. The roots might be suffering from root rot if the soil is too wet, which would explain the lack of growth (again, no roots = no growth). They should be an off-white colour, and be fairly firm. If they're soft, or a dark colour, you might want to let the pot dry out a little and get yourself some fungicide.
If there's nothing wrong with the roots, it could either be too much sunlight (yes, young trees can actually have new leaves bleached / burnt by being in direct strong sunlight for too long), or it may simply be a weak / sickly plant. You get them every so often: a random genetic mutation or physical deformation in the seed it came from can ruin the plant's ability to survive, even in the best of care. Some plants just don't want to live, no matter how much you look after them. : /
Our garden is very good this year. Except for a few minor incidents involving rabbits, milkweed being blown over by storms, and lots of hot weather, it's all growing very well!
Everything else is either growing normally or exceeding expectations, even the elms. Heck, even the milkweed has returned to our garden!
Nice to know it's just the trees that are giving you problems. Hell, even here stuff's been growing well, despite the windy, cold and wet weather in the middle of summer. :)
Here's some of the links I promised. Most of these pictures were taken today, so it's up to date.
Those are all brilliant. Thanks! I'll post a picture of all the damn ash trees that refuse to stop popping up around my garden when I find my camera. :P
Characters remaining: 1,337. Lol.
