Help stop the plant Murderer!

[TigaHawk]

and by plant murderer, i mean me :(

And mods - unsure if ive picked the right forum for this.... :S



I'm turning my balcony into a vegetable garden! annnnnd as ive never tried to grow anything in my life before this is trial and error.

To get an idea as to just how bad i am at this - I have onion seeds - i got them to germinate - when the other plants etc have been germinating ive assisted them with "getting out of the soil" as i thought the peat moss i was using to be realy stiff? so i'd use a toothpick to move the soil away from the bit that was trying to lift up out of the soil.

Well i did that with the onions too, but the onions diddnt want to come out of the soil they wanted to go in (so essentialy i got the onion's arse mixed up with its head) and diddnt realise what i'd done till the end growing from the onion thing started getting a lump at the end - that's when the oh...thats the end that's meant to be in the soil! bit clicked :doh: :doh: :doh:

Currently i've got 2 problems :S


I have Red kidney beans up 1 end of the balcony, and Mammoth snowpeas up the other end.

The red kidney beans leaves are starting to die ? and curl up - but not inward, their curling up and in?? its only some leaves over the plant, others are uneffected. Cut a few of the dead/dying leaves off thismorning just incase its something thats eating the plant that can spread?


annnnnnnnd down the other end of the balcony is the snow peas, the leaves are starting to turn yellow from the bottom of the plant and slowly creeping up. The top of the plant seems to be going strong, still growing etc.



The good news:

The tomatoe's are fine. I think i'd have trouble trying to kill them if i wanted, which is a good thing, with them having me as their carer, ahh dear :P


Thanks in advance and when my other half gets out of bed i'll steal his phone and go take pictures of the garden and post them up :)

[John Parslow]

Hello Tigahawk

If you are trying to grow stuff on your balcony that probably means they are in containers so don't forget to give them plant food as well as water if they are just in peat. Also it is much easier to plant onion 'sets' rather than seeds which take forever to grow. I have experimented this year growing plants in old water bottles; I cut the bottom off turn them upside down fill with peat, put 12 into a container and bingo an instant garden.

Best of luck growing growing your food. JP :cool:

[Teakai]

Hi Tigahawk, I put a garden in my back yard this year. Haven't noticed any bees - which is strange - but that might be due to the weather which is quite cold - even though it's the end of the 1st month of Summer here - and we've had lots of rain.
Global warming my a&se.

I found a yates gardening book at a book sale which is handy - and have found there's lots of good gardening advice on the internet.

[Ammit]

Bees are struggling to survive, I cleared some waste land this year and found a bee nest burried underground, white bottomed bees. I protected the nest as best i could to allow then to finish their cycle for the season, even was lucky enough to see the queen leave before the cold hit.

I have experimented too this year, I made boxes which i could plant above but were compost bins below. The heat given off the composting keeps the soil warmer or the seedlings and hence better end crops. Dustbin bags full of old peat and a mixture of either manure or compost makes an excelent potato grow bag.
If you have chickens or can get chicken poo, mix it in a container of water and leave, plants will grow like no other.

Blessings

Ammit

[Teakai]

Bees are struggling to survive, I cleared some waste land this year and found a bee nest burried underground, white bottomed bees. I protected the nest as best i could to allow then to finish their cycle for the season, even was lucky enough to see the queen leave before the cold hit.

I have experimented too this year, I made boxes which i could plant above but were compost bins below. The heat given off the composting keeps the soil warmer or the seedlings and hence better end crops. Dustbin bags full of old peat and a mixture of either manure or compost makes an excelent potato grow bagIf you have chickens or can get chicken poo, mix it in a container of water and leave, plants will grow like no other..

Blessings

Ammit

Great idea, Ammit. Thanks.

[Ammit]

Thanks teakai, I missed out that the chicken poo mixed with water can then be water to your plants once a week to act as a food, must be atleast 20 parts water otherwise the plants just rot.

Blessings


Ammit

[TigaHawk]

i failed miserably with the pictures with the cellphone, but wound up getting my hands on a proper camera instead.

the first trellace that i had made got demolished, and took 90% of the snowpea's with them. I had 1 end of the trellace attached to a shelf rack, which the guy whom was installed the aircon unattached, so the trellace fell over and snapped the stem's of all but 1.




The new trellace doubles as a windbreaker, as i think the wind has been too harsh on them - perhaps windburn on the plants? Just a stick of wood, mesh, and gardening wire. Hopefully they'll go better this time :P



Still thinking of how i'll do the trellace/windbreaker for the beans, but i think they've suffer'd windburn too :(






Tomaties are fine ^ ^ Got some basil in with them too but it appears basil takes forever to grow higher than 1" :P



Here is the Broccoli, or is it Cauliflower? I cannot remember, and i honestly cant tell which is which yet! how long till they start growing the head? :P




I have carrots, and beets as well on the ground in large styrofoam boxes. they're too small to show as anything other than a green smudge in the camera tho :(



will take more pic's once it's grown more, so you're not as dissapoint from looking at not-much-plant pictures :P




and here's the Master of the house. Fonzy :)

[meeradas]

i feel with you... don't give up!
cheers, m