Got my plants in the ground
 

I got my garden prepped up and planted a few tomatoes, bell peppers, hot chili peppers and eggplant. It might be a smidge early, but it's been a warmer "Winter" this year. Also trimmed the Crepe Myrtles and roses. Yards needs a haircut too. Hope I don't get a late freeze up this way and ruin it all.

Anybody else planted yet?

I was going to also, but i think i'm gonna give it a couple more weeks

Got my plants in the ground.
Boy does that statement have a different meaning 20 years later!

Don't you know it!!!:smokin:

Eman
 

Eman, I swear I though the exact same thing. I have my tom. and peppers ready to go into ground but still a little scared. I did plant some cucumbers, via seed, and now there are up about 1 1/2". Checked at Lowes for tom. plants and they are asking $3.35/per plant. I am glad I started mind from seeds some weeks back.

My grounds too wet to make rows, i'll need a week of sun and no rain before i can get in there

got mine ready but making sure we got the last freeze before i drop em in....

Over the last 150 years March 25th is the average last day of frost. My Nonc B has been making a garden for 45 years and he always plants the weekend after March 15th.

I noticed someone mentinoned Lowes for tomatoe plants, do you shop you local feed store for plants, I find they cheaper and grow better.

I tried to get a jump on it last year and planted in early March. Everything came up good then we had a frost. I'll wait a little later this year.

The frost is what's kinda scaring me too, but I did it anyway. My Paw paw always planted the week of Valentine's day. (He lived in Baton Rouge). I guess I'll gamble! If they die, I can pick up some more at the garden store.

Never hurts to send off a soil sample to lsu or tex a&m, find out what nutrients you have and whats lacking. I understand for most its a hobb, but why not make your hard work to maintain it pay off with more product. Liebigs law....plants can only grow as much as the most limiting nutrients allow. Planning on planting a few in some planters myself.

Plants in the ground, plants in the ground

Got some info on how to do this? :confused:
I live much closer to College Station than LSU nowadays.

do a search on their ag department, think LSU charges like $10 and you send it to them so distance from them isn't such a big deal

Big time. And I gotta to steal your tractor.

Thought you weren't planting?

prolly just do 5 or 6 rows and space them wide enough to get my tractor between them for weed purposes.

Shawn you better sprout me some of dem peppers!
Anyone know where i can buy a cayenne pepper plant thats already sprouted to grow em in a pot.
My green thumb aint so green . . . . .

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/webpages/forms.html

Click on soil submittal form. Dont know how big your garden is, but with a spade did a "v" and take a sample 6-8 inches down from several area...helps if you do an "m" or "z" sampling pattern across your plot. Need a little more than a pint from all areas. The basic test is $10 and covers your pH, n, p, k, as well as other micro nutrients. The reason that you take the sample at that depth is because that's the depth most plant roots absorb nutrients. If you wanted to know soil texture and make-up (sand/silt/clay ratio) its a little bit more money but it will give more detail. Or you could do the basic and determine texture for yourself. If I cant find the graph online I will try to upload one on here from my class.


Hope this helps, because if you add the right fertilizer in the correct amount, it will increase your yield and you will have more to eat :D. The pH is also important, some crops require a different pH range than others...and remember the more nitrogen you add, the lower the soil pH. The test will tell you.

Soil testing is also a good idea for the food plot guys..

Man everytime I see the title of this thread my mind thinks of growin that green haha

Wally World but they didn't have them in yet , as of last weekend.

Not yet, waiting till this nice rainy trend subsides a bit... Planted early last year and got away with it, still waiting on that "sneaker" front to pass...

When the title of the thread read "finally got my plants in the ground" and the last poster was "Hydro", I just had to see whassup . . .

Curious George :D

Curious Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nugg or reggie? LOL

soil
 

The county agent does this also

A few years ago I would have said " got my plants on the ebb n flow table in the basement" lol

Thanks McJSamich & Bluewing for the info.

Check out Home Depot for the Cayenne Peppers. Saw some yesterday when I got my maters.

Check out Plank Road fo da "Chronic"!!!:smokin:

you can go to the county agent, and they will take your sample and mail it to one of the testing centers. They cover the cost of shipping.

I should be able to get you some,if your passing this way. Ill prolly start bringing in some veggies to the nursery maybe next week.

I am still waiting to plant. I will check the weather in Mid March and if no cold weather is coming our way, time to plant.

I bought my seeds at the Country Garden [337 462-8298] on Hwy 171 a few miles north of Longville. I went there to get some rose bushes [$ 16 each] and saw there seeds inside. I found what I wanted and the cost only about 1/3 of what I normally pay. They buy the seeds in bulk and package them there. I even looked at there catalog at somethings I was not familiar with.

Veggie plants..... Last spring I found a guy parked along Hwy 171 across from Fred's. He had a good varity of veggie plants and they looked/were very healthy. His cost was a dollar or more lower than Walmart. I remember he said that he was from the Lacassine area and he had a 1 acre garden. I sure wish I would have gotten his phone number to find out when he will be back. Anyone know this old man?

It's not really hard to grow a plant from peppers, just get a red solo cup, fill it will some planting soil and put it on a hot window seal till it sprouts......get your seeds from pepperlovers.com order more than a few packs and they send you a little something extra.

You got some sprouted?
Ill be passing through wednesday!!
Im so excited to get my hands on some of those peppers lol they are delishes!!! :D

I am going to wait until March. Will start getting my garden ready to plant when I get In from offshore. This year I am raising my garden and installing a watering system. The drought last year messed me up pretty bad. I didn't get nearly what I usually do from my garden.

If you go the drip irrigation system, you will be happy. Less water wasted and more on the plants. It can be a pain to take care of, check it routinely for cracks or areas of failure and you should be good. Some people use very small tubing with nozzles and the like to where the it drips on the plant, but the same can be achieved by building your rows a little wider. Put a normal garden hose running parallel to the plants on the extra bit of row, and poke a hole where each plant is on the hose. Cheaper in the long run and accomplishes the same job. :)

man you sure do know alot about growing....................................

I did not plant a fall garden this past year. It was still so dry and I did not want to struggle to keep the plants watered.

I even looked into getting a small sump pump and pumping water from a ditch 200' away. But after getting pricing on pump, hose and wiring.....way too much money.

Here is a picture of my overhead water sprinkler system. That is a $2 sprinkler from Walmart on top of a 12 foot PVC pipe.

.

General agriculture major/wildlife management minor. Had a lot of plant science classes. Taking a soil fertility class right now. Also interned at the Louisiana Environmental Research Center a couple summers ago. Did a germination study on a native prarie plant. Found some good info for those who grow legumes.

To those planting this spring, try this with your plants that have a harder seed coat. High grade sand paper in the bottom of a shoe box, same grade wrapped on a brick. Place about 40 seeds in the shoe box. Dont force the brick down but let its weight do the work. Move back and forth about 15 times. The bad seeds will crack. Take the good ones and plant. My study showed this method had a 95% germination rate over the 6 week study, with 78% coming in the first 2 weeks.

Any questions feel free to ask. I will help if I can.

your not supposed to plant until after Good Friday -- that's what the ole' timers say!
Not ON Good Friday cause if you dig in the dirt blood will come up! Again, what the ole' timers say!

Yo bluewing!!
 

Are you a yankie or a Texan, cause cajuns don't use that word. Try parish and people might know what your talking about.

:shaking:
I was in 4-H and FFA all through school in Acadia Parish and we called them County Agents.

I went to school in St. Martin, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, and Avoyles parishes in middle school and high school.....only had the term "county" explained to me once. On a side note, the USDA updated its hardiness zone this year. It mostly applies to perennials. Link follows. I usually wait for the birds to come back to start planting. I have planted as early a the second week in February but got burned by frost. Red maples and elms are dropping seed in my area and some oaks have small leaves right now. Spring might seem early this year but I will still plant annuals after March 1.

http://http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/

In your study..... 1) without doing this "crack" test, what was the germination rate. 2) what percent of the seeds "cracked" doing this test?

Last spring I had very low [~40-50%] germination with my yellow squash & Zucchini and cucumber success was not much better. I had to replant several times. I had ordered seeds from Gurney's.... same as other years, never had this bad luck planting these type seeds.

I buy from farmers mercantile in orange, tx great prices on plants, seeds, and anything else you need. Plus its on my way home from work. Only seed problem ive had was a bad batch of cabbage seeds. 0%germination! Oh and they sell all seeds in bulk

The control group (no method) had a 36% germination rate over 6 weeks. We took temps from jan-march on 2010 and averaged the lows and highs. Seeds were planted in a petri dish with miracle grow soil. 10hr cycle in the germination "fridge" with 70 as high temp and 45 as low temp. Day cycle ran a light inside. Baptisia sphaerocarpa (wild yellow indigo) was the plant I used. Very hard seed coat. Pods were bean like thag held seeds.

Usually 1-3 seeds would crack each time I scarified them.

I've been looking at making a square foot garden this year. Anyone ever tried this. Gonna do mostly cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. That is about all I've ever had luck with. If I make it 4x8 it shouldn't take long to get it back in shape after being offshore.

Best advice I have to control weeds........ Weed Killer.

When I started....my garden was just a grass area of my yard. I staked the 4 corners and sprayed it with weed killer. This was in July. After a couple week every thing was dead. I took a tiller and chopped up the first inch of soil to remover the grass.

Then I tilled up the soil, bought 6 yards of mulch and added a bunch of 13-13-13.

If you kill all..... and I mean ALL the weeds, there will be very little problem in the next few months.

While the veggie plants are growing bigger..... I sometimes spot spray using a garden sprayer, any weeds that start to grow.

I sprayed my garden a few weeks ago, but I need to respray when all this rain stops.

Just remember most of your weed seeds are in the original dirt,so every time you deep till, you bring them seeds back to the top,making them easy to sprout. My sons garden is a raised block garden of about 12x20. we usually add a lil organic compost(bed builder) from my nursery every year,and never hafta till. He can plant just about any time,cuz the dirt is easy digging,and is never too wet,and hardly any weeds.This is a batch of carrots he picked earlier in the week.

Do you have any pictures you can post of it. I used to make mine in the country but, I live in town and have to downsize. My oldest is about to be 12 and he needs something to keep him out of trouble.