A different way to make raised beds with tires

Re: [MittleiderMethodGardening] A different way to make raised beds with tires

Unless I am misunderstanding your idea, Berny, I believe it may have a fundamental problem. You suggest putting the bottles inside the beds of tires. The Peruvians had the water outside the beds. With bottles inside the tires, there would not be much room for plants, and with the beds filled with soil, the bottles wouldn't be exposed to sunlight anyway.

I believe the black tires will absorb enough heat that something else is rarely needed, and I wouldn't want the appearance bottles create, even if they are on the outside. In addition, the bottles filled with water would stop the natural absorption of sunlight onto the tires.

May I recommend the solution Dr. Mittleider has found works extremely well - that has been tested and proven in many locations? If you need more protection or heat than the box itself provides, build "mini-greenhouses" over the beds using "A-frame" PVC pipe and greenhouse plastic. A picture will be posted at the group site, and instructions are in The Mittleider Gardening Course.

When to Plant - Some Seeds Must Wait!

Q. over three weeks ago I planted several vegetable seeds: Onion,
carrot, radish, pumpkin, cucumber, squash, sunflower, corn and green
beans. I planted them all according to the instructions, (I think).
The only thing that has sprouted great are the radishes. The
sunflowers have few sprouts, but they look really weak. Do you have
any advice on how long I should wait to replant or what I can do
differently?

A. On warm days in early spring we are often enticed to plant things
that require warm temperatures to grow. Then we are sorely
disappointed when cold temperatures return and the seeds rot in the
cold ground or die trying to grow in the too-cold environment.

Your onion, carrot, and radish seeds may be able to live in early
spring temperatures, but onion and carrot will be slow to germinate
and grow, so don't give up on them just yet.

As for all the others you mentioned, they must have warm soil
conditions to germinate and grow, and any frost would kill them if
they did come up.

Just wait until after all danger of frost is past before planting. Alternatively, you can plant them in a greenhouse
or under grow-lights 3 or 4 weeks earlier. Remember to give them maximum light immediately upon emergence, and plant in 6-paks or pots, to minimize transplanting shock, because everything you named does very poorly as a bare-root transplant.

Sweet Potatoes - Storage

First, avoid breaking whenever possible, and clean broken ends with a hydrogen peroxide solution, then dry for 2 to 3 hours. Next, place them in a dry area holding the temperature at 85 F and 90 to 95% relative humidity for 4 to 7 days. Curing helps prevent the entrance of decay organisms by healing cuts and other injuries received in harvesting and handling. After this curing period, place them where the temperatures will range from 55 degrees to 60 degrees F. with a relative humidity of about 85 percent. Immediately remove any roots that show signs of deterioration or decay.

Cross Polination

Cucumbers & Melons, Zucchini & Pumpkin

Hopefully, we can all learn from Joe s question. I will assume
that the answer is not a very over-ripe zucchini and a very under-ripe
watermelon, although those may have been factors in either or both
situations.

In talking with Dr. Mittleider about this, he said he never says never about
these things. Although the research I have been able to read all says
plants won't cross pollinate between different genus's, sometimes we see
some strange things, such as Joe Mandell just mentioned.

The only thing I have been able to find that may be a partial explanation
for this phenomenon is the following: In talking about the fruit growth of
seedless watermelons, researchers Beste et al. (1999) found that fruit
enlargement is stimulated by growth-promoting hormones provided by the
pollen placed on the stigmas of the seedless watermelons. Perhaps it's
possible that growth-promoting hormones from an adjacent cucumber plant
could influence more than just the growth (?)

It may have nothing to do with it, but at least it's a thought. Does anyone
else have more wisdom or experience in this matter?

When to Transplant Celery - and Other Crops

The section called Preview Plants in the Garden Master and Garden Wizard CD's is a terrific resource for learning when to plant almost all common vegetables. Many of you have one or the other of the CD's and perhaps haven't even noticed that large illustrated database of helpful information.

I highly recommend everyone consider one of these. The Garden Wizard has the complete Garden Designer Software, and is only about $10. When added to the Mittleider Gardening Library, you have a very comprehensive library of vegetable production knowledge that many Agriculture Universities and County Extension Agents around the USA and in other countries own and use.

There are 5 categories for every plant, including Planting, Fertilizing, Watering, Weeding, and Other Notes. Here is a part of what the Garden Designer says in Preview Plants for Celery - Planting: "Celery is a cool-season plant that is frost tolerant. Transplant seedlings 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost of spring, 2 rows per bed, 6" apart".

Preparing a new garden "From Scratch

"

Q. If one were to begin anew - from a previously untilled field covered in an assortment of vegetation, including grasses, broadleaf weeds, etc., what is the best course of attack? Kill everything that grows with a short-term herbicide like round-up, then till and proceed from there?

A. THE HERBICIDES WILL ONLY KILL LIVING TISSUE THEY REACH SYSTEMICALLY WHEN APPLIED TO LIVING LEAVES. THIS CAN LEAVE MUCH OF THE ROOT SYSTEMS VIABLE. NEARBY PLANTS CAN ALSO BE DAMAGED OR KILLED. APPLICATIONS OF 2-4-D TO WEED CEREAL CROPS HAVE TRAVELED A MILE OR MORE ON THE WIND AND KILLED OTHER VALUABLE CROPS, SUCH AS TOMATOES.

Q. Alternatively, should we Till the entire plot and fight the good fight with the runner type
vegetation like knot grass?

A. IF YOU HAVE AN INFESTATION OF PERENNIAL WEEDS, YOU SHOULD REMOVE THEM, INCLUDING ROOTS, RHIZOMES, AND RUNNERS. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL DOOM YOU TO MANY YEARS OF FIGHTING THEM.

Q. Or should we use some other method, perhaps cover the plot with black plastic and smother/cook the vegetation and then till?

A. BLACK PLASTIC WILL WASTE A GROWING SEASON WHILE IT DOES ITS WORK, AND WILL NOT KILL ROOT SYSTEMS THAT GROW MORE THAN A FEW INCHES BELOW THE SURFACE. AND TILLING WILL BRING A FRESH BATCH OF WEED SEEDS TO THE SURFACE TO GERMINATE AND MAKE YOUR LIFE MIZERABLE.


Q. How about if we concentrate on the grow-beds and leave the pathways covered in grass and mow them so they do not provide weed seeds?

A. LEAVING WEEDS OF ANY KIND IN THE AISLES PROVIDES "BUG HOTELS", SO THE BUGS (AND DISEASES) CAN ATTACK YOUR PLANTS EASILY. ALSO, THE WEEDS WILL GROW INTO YOUR BEDS, AND YOU WILL BE OVERRUN WITH WEEDS IN THE ENTIRE GARDEN.

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PROPER PREPARATION OF A GARDEN, AND ELIMINATING ALL WEEDS IS A MAJOR INGREDIENT OF THAT TASK. WE RECOMMEND YOU START WITH A MUCH SMALLER GARDEN THAN YOU PLANNED ON; PREPARE THAT SMALLER SPACE RIGHT AND COMPLETELY, AND YOU WILL GROW MORE IN THE SMALLER SPACE THAN YOU WOULD HAVE DONE IN THE LARGER SPACE YOU ORIGINALLY PLANNED. THEN, NEXT YEAR, IF YOU STILL WANT
MORE VEGETABLES THAN YOU HAD LAST YEAR, PROPERLY PREPARE ANOTHER SECTION OF YOUR GARDEN PLOT BY ONCE AGAIN ELIMINATING ALL WEEDS, INCLUDING THEIR ROOT SYSTEMS.

CONSIDER USING A SOD CUTTER TO REMOVE MOST OF THE WEEDS’ ROOTS, RHIZOMES AND RUNNERS, AND TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM THE GARDEN ENTIRELY. DO NOT TRY TO COMPOST IT AND RE-USE THE COMPOST IN THE GARDEN. WITHOUT SUSTAINED HEAT OF 140+ DEGREES FAHRENHEIT FOR THREE WEEKS YOU WILL NOT KILL EVERYTHING.

Watering – Every Week or Every Day?

I'm a brand new Mittleider gardener this year, and my garden is doing SO
well!! It is really amazing. I've never had such success. Even my
seasoned Pro gardener Grandma is impressed with my garden. Thanks so much
for everyone's help and expertise.

Here's the question. I was reading the message about watering
tomatoes, and I'm confused. I thought that tomatoes needed deep watering
less often. I've only been watering twice a week, but really deep. So
far it appears to be working pretty well, but then again it hasn't been
all that hot (low to mid 80's most days). So should I be watering every
day? And if so, should I be watering everything every day or just
tomatoes? Are there vegetables that need watering less often?


Traditional watering is for deep watering once a week or thereabouts. I believe
- at least in the West - that it originated with the irrigation turns that were
every 7 or 8 days.

Remember that we are doing "The Poor Man's Hydroponic Method", and that
hydroponic growers obtain about 10 times the yield that a good tractor farmer
gets.

Remember (or learn) that hydroponic growers water something like every 15
minutes, and the fertilizer is in the water! So just consider the yield you
want and water accordingly.

Plants need water at the root zone all the time. If the ground dries out the
plant will spend energy sending its roots further into the ground following the
water. We want the plant using its energy growing fruit.

We recommend you do not let the soil surface dry out, which may even require
watering more often than once per day on very hot days.

An interesting observation about the amount of water required with this method
of gardening: People here in Armenia water by flood irrigation, and not very
often. Our neighbor is the Village Water Master this year, and when he saw our
watering procedures he was amazed! He has informed the entire village not to
deny us water any time we want it, because we use so little. he said "you can
even water with a few buckets!", and another time he said something like "You're
only using a drinking glass!"

Water every day.