The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

How to make your own onion sets

14 years ago onions, outdoor seed starting 4 Comments

For a couple years now I have attempted to start onions from seeds and the same thing happens each year.  All is going well, good strong seedlings, then I run out of space in my grow box and the poor seedlings get kicked out to fend for themselves a few weeks to early leading to very few survivors.

This summer I decided to try something new, during the end of July I spread onion seeds generously over about two square feet of my garden.  Now after a month and a half I have some nice little onion seedlings coming up.

I plan on keeping them in the ground until after the first frost the leaves will go yellow/brown and I will harvest my onion sets and lay them out to dry for a few days and store them in an old mesh container where I have bought onion sets a couple of years ago.  Where I can replant them this spring as soon as the soil can be worked.

The benefits of growing your own onion sets is you can grow varieties from species that you can not find even at your favorite online seed company.  Obviously the sets are also much cheaper than buying them already in the set form.  You can grow the onion sets to the specific size you want, which is important because small onion sets grow up to be onion bulbs with the larger ones growing up to become onion flowers.

The best part of this with the amount of rain we have been getting here in the Pacific Northwest the past month, I haven’t even had to water these seeds, so other than a few minutes of sprinkling the seeds, no real effort on my side.

How to ripen tomatoes indoors

13 years ago ripe, tomato 9 Comments

With temperatures starting to drop and heavy rains on the way it has come time to start pulling some tomatoes to ripen indoors.  Tomatoes need ethylene to ripen, this occurs naturally by the tomatoes plants releasing this during the later stages of growth thus causing the tomatoes to change color.

You can do this indoors with the by simply taking your tomatoes that are just beginning to blush and place them in a convenient container.  Though you might get some ethylene from the stems remaining on the plants I also will add a ripe banana which also naturally releases ethylene which will assist to the ripening process.

I do this in a contraption I like to call my ethylene tomato gas chamber…

Ok, I know it is just plastic shoe box with a banana in it…this provides a portable area I can add my tomatoes as needed and also able to put a lid on it to contain the ethylene while also keeping fruit flies away from the nice ripening banana.

This technique gives the tomatoes adequate humidity not dry enough to create sundried tomatoes, but low enough to prevent the tomatoes from being too moist which would lead to rotting.

After just a couple days your riper tomatoes should be fully red and ready to eat, now these will not taste quite as good as the ones ripening on the vine, but little tastier than the ones you get in your local grocery store and you know exactly what was sprayed (or better yet…what wasn’t sprayed) on the plants.

Update (Day #2)

Update (Day #3)

Update (Day #4) Put in a new banana

Update (Day #7) Already ate a couple of tomatoes

How to sharpen hedge sheers (hedge trimmers)

13.3 years ago garden sheers, sharpen your axe 3 Comments

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” —Abraham Lincoln

The above has to be one of my favorite quotes, a great summary of working smart versus working hard.  I have used this quote in reference to doing work such as creating tools to make the overall job take more time…in this sense I will be using it in the more literal terms in actually “sharpening your ax” or in this case your hedge sheers.

As you can see from the picture above I have let these sheers go a little and they provide a bit too much of resistance when trimming the hedges.  With proper maintenance the only resistance you should feel is from the bushes you are trimming.

The process to sharpen your hedge trimmers is actually quite simple and can be done with a very limited set of materials.

Materials:

• 3-in-1 oil
• Steel Wool
• Medium and Fine metal file

Step 1: Clean surface.  Apply a small amount 3-in-1 oil to one of the surfaces of the blade and rub with steel wool to remove any dirt/grime from the blades.  Repeat process for all four sides of the blades.

Step 2: Remove rough edges from flat side of blade.  Use your medium metal file to remove any rough edges on the blade.  Repeat with fine metal file until edge is very smooth.

Step 3: Sharpen rounded edge of blade. Using the fine metal file carefully make create a sharp cutting surface.  If the right work was done on Step 2 there should not be much work do do here.  Just keep gently apply pressure until there is very little resistance, pay attention to the sounds this is a case where you can hear when your work is done.

Step 4: Clean and oil up.  Clean off and remaining grime with old rag and apply some more 3-in-1 oil to the blade and any moving parts as needed.

Now you have some hedge sheers that will easily slice through your shrubbery with much less effort and allowing you more time to more exciting projects in your garden.  When it comes to other tools in your garden hand sheers or an old shovel you can use these same tips to make those work like new as well.

Many uses for egg shells in your garden

13.4 years ago easter, egg shells 9 Comments

This time of year you probably have a larger number of egg shells heading to your trash.  Between dying Easter eggs and our new tradition of making Ukrainian Easter bread (uses over a dozen eggs) I end up with quite a pile of egg shells.

The good news is there are many uses for these to use in your planting and in your garden.

Use #1 Soil amendment: Egg shells consist of calcium carbonate which many of your plants desperately need; apples, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherries, citrus, conifers, cotton, curcurbits, melons, grapes, legumes, lettuce, peaches, peanuts, pears, peppers, potatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes (just name a few)   What I like to do is collect the egg shells and throw them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer.  Once I have a dozen or so saved up I put them into the oven (when I am warming it up to bake something else) and give them a good toasting.  I quick spin in the coffee grinder and I have some great calcium powder to apply to plants when planting, or seep in some water overnight to give your tomatoes a quick boost if they are appearing sufficient.

Use #2 Compost nutrient additive: If you start getting too much lying around you can also add some to your compost pile to give that black gold a little extra boost.  Just be sure you crush them finely (or powder as mentioned in Use #1) or you will just find a bunch of whole eggshells in your finished compost.

Use #3 Seed pots: If you are even just a little bit careful when cracking these eggs you can add a little soil to these egg shells add a seed and use them to start seeds.  Provided that the seeds are round you will want to also save the egg carton to keep them upright.

Use #4 Pest deterrent: Using the same method of creating a powder in Use #1 this granule form can be sprinkled around the base of your plants to deter cutworms and slugs who will find these abrasive surface undesirable.

Seedlings thriving in the grow box

13.5 years ago indoor growbox, indoor seed starting, onions, peppers, tomato 5 Comments

I have almost everything planted at least germinating in my grow box.  As you may be able to see from the labels I am growing a variety of peppers this year as well as a few different onions and tomatoes.  I also have garlic and some onions I overwintered already outside and peas already in the ground.

I did successfully grow some peppers in the grow box over the winter, though as you can see below their size was lacking and the plant has been perking up a bit with some new growth once I added some better controlled heating and the LED lights.

I forgot to plant cilantro, but mother natures got my back

13.4 years ago cilantro, coriander, outdoor seed starting 3 Comments

Being busy with work and a new baby at home, I completely forgot to plant my cilantro.  Though I got a little surprise when I pulled back the shredded leaves I used on my beds…I nice blanket of cilantro seedlings, almost like mother nature knew I was going to be lacking focus this season.

I was pretty good about picking my cilantro (or coriander at this point) at the end of the season a little prior to the flowers were completely dried out to allow for crop rotation.  Crop rotation is the process of moving species of plants to alternate locations to prevent build-up of specie specific diseases, fungi, or miscellaneous annoying pests.  By not planting the same plants in the location for a couple years this causes these undesirables to die off making it safer to plant at that location on the third year.

In the previous years I have been lazy and just let the plants self seed but after 3 years probably a good idea to move things around…oh well maybe next year.