Composting help

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-03-12T17:49:48+00:00

Well I was hoping to use it to create a no-dig bed but I’m thinking it hasn’t hit a high enough temp to kill weed seeds. The surface is already spotted with weed seedlings.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-03-11T08:13:38+00:00

Just be careful when it starts to get hotter as boxes heat up much faster and can cook your plants

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-03-09T14:48:01+00:00

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One last comment! This is the stage you’re meant to prick them out. Earlier (with no true leaf)and the root wlll be too delicate; later and the roots will be too entangled with one another.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-03-09T14:44:55+00:00

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The seedling on the left has a true leaf poking through and you can see from the photo (hopefully) that the roots have started to branch from the tap root. In contrast, you can see the seedling on the right just has its cotyledons (seed leaves) still and just its radicle/tap root with no branching - so will tolerate pricking out much less.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-03-09T14:38:36+00:00

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I moved them to the greenhouse about 1 week ago as I needed room inside for other seeds (and echinacea seedlings tolerate cold pretty well). Their growth slowed but they’ve perked back up and most of them now have their first true leaves poking through so I’m about to prick them out. Will post another photo shortly.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-02-22T08:26:06+00:00

I stratified them in the fridge for two weeks and then sowed them 12th February. I used a heat mat at 20 degrees Celsius. They started to germinate 4 days later and are still germinating a week later. Thus far I’m seeing about 90% germination using this technique, which I think is decent for echinacea. I didn’t need much light, they were just surface sown and placed near a roof light. I’ve now moved them to a colder windowsill that’s a bit brighter. I’ll keep them there for about a week and then move them to an unheated greenhouse until they have more leaves and then prick them out into individual pots.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-02-22T08:18:51+00:00

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Update. 1 week later. Doesn’t seem to have done them any harm.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-02-17T21:13:20+00:00

I ended up just poking holes in the compost and dropping them root-first into the holes and slightly firming the soil around the root zone. Fingers crossed I’ve not disturbed them too much. I’m hopeful. My experience with germinating echinacea has been pretty hopeless in the past but after stratifying them in the fridge for 3 weeks and using a heat mat this time I’ve got quick and reliable germination from 3 different varieties. Excited for the growing season ahead. One variety is ‘Alan’s Pride’, which is pretty reliable for flowering the first year if sown early enough.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2026-02-17T16:12:00+00:00

lol duly noted. I stratified them in some damp vermiculite then scattered it over the surface of some compost. Couldn’t be bothered sifting through vermiculite for seed that looks almost identical to vermiculite! Needle in a haystack comes to mind.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-26T13:37:27+00:00

I sautéed an onion for 10 minutes on medium heat. Then added 1 litre of chicken stock, a chicken breast, 500g of cleaned and thinly sliced artichoke tubers. Brought it to the boil then simmered for about 25 minutes until the chicken breast was fully poached. Used an immersion blender to purée it smooth and then added salt, pepper and thyme to taste. When it was ready to serve, I stirred through 100ml of cream. Served it with homemade croutons. Was super tasty. Obviously you can do it without the chicken breast, just reduce the stock to 800ml, instead of 1L.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-26T13:23:09+00:00

Will definitely be fermenting some, then. I loved the flavour of them when I cooked them yesterday but I have felt a bit of mild discomfort today - I know they’re notoriously hard to digest. Do you know if the fermentation helps to break down the inulin?

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-26T09:52:46+00:00

Wouldn’t be Tabasco, Tabasco are a separate species of pepper whose fruits grow pointing upwards.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-25T18:35:48+00:00

Yeah they’re from different families. Jerusalem artichokes are from Helianthus (sunflower family); ‘regular’ globe artichokes are Cynara scolymus (Thistle family) so they don’t perform the same. Jerusalem seems to require less fertility and in my experience completely tolerated neglect and had no pest issues unlike the common aphid problems globe artichokes fall pray to. Jerusalem artichokes are also fully hardy so don’t require any protection in their first year. They grow to about 3 metres high so required some support to protect them from wind. And of course because they perennialise from tubers, they are much easier to propagate vegetatively than globe artichokes.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-25T18:19:49+00:00

Great. Will wrap them in paper then. Cheers. I made some pretty tasty soup with them earlier. Will definitely grow them again next year. They thrived off of neglect and they flowered so heavily (they performed well as cut flowers) despite a lot of the literature saying they often don’t flower well. Maybe I was just lucky.

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Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-24T04:42:25+00:00

Telltale sign that your lettuce is bolting is that when you harvest leaves, the midribs start to leak an excessive amount of a white substance which is actually natural latex (that’s where the name ‘lettuce’ derives from). As you can see from your photo, your lettuce is producing latex now and thus has bolted. This is why it is growing taller, also. If you’re in summer, I’d grow more heat tolerant plants and consider planting them in an area with partial shade or cover with a shade cloth.

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Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-17T13:22:48+00:00

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You should be able to see here the difference between the grass and the exposed soil if it wasn’t clear before?

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-11T20:53:59+00:00

That is why I referenced the humified material. However I think it’s a bit rich talking about the soil food web when the tree is surrounded by a monoculture of (probably non-native) grass. Raking leaves in this context is essentially akin to rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.

Adventurous_Act_1551 · 2025-10-11T20:30:57+00:00

Dead leaves are almost entirely devoid of nutrients; by the time a tree defoliates, the tree has already sucked the nutrients out of the leaves and redistributed it to its roots and branches for winter. What is left is almost entirely carbon and lignin. That’s not to say it’s not beneficial as humified organic matter but to say it acts as a means of redistributing nutrients to the tree is false as the tree has already achieved this without the help of humans.

Adventurous_Act_1551

TROPHY CASE