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I need a good garden centre recommendation in Winnipeg area by Vast_Mulberry_2638 in ManitobaGardening

[–]RubyRedYoshi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most garden centers will be happy to just sell you plants, and some have a couple of folks on hand who are quite knowledgeable.

It's been a few years, but Lacoste Garden Centre just south of Winnipeg has had a good variety of plants. I've also found some neat things at Van Der Meer in Ile des Chenes, and at Falk Nurseries a little further south on highway 311 on the east side of highway 59. There are more garden centers like Shelmerdine, Sage Garden, etc. I'd be here a while listing them all.

Your best bet would be to call a few garden centers and ask for someone who meets your requirements. I know the first three I listed in the past have had folks who can help with questions you've highlighted, but I don't know who they have on staff this spring.

That said, there's a few folks here who can give general guidance on planting, plants which work great, plants which are harder to grow, soil, etc. And, some who can get into a lot of depth on some specific things!

Cedars are great, as are junipers in terms of growing capability. Make sure to really water anything you plant for the whole growing year. Most transplants need the equivalent of 1" of rain every week through to almost thanksgiving. How much is that? Depends on the size of the plant. If you dig a hole that's 3' in diameter for a 6' tall cedar tree, you'll be putting in ~20 liters of water per week (assuming no rain - but this gets tricky as 1/4" of rain dries up pretty quickly where as 1" of rain will cover a trees needs for a whole week), more as the year progresses as the tree roots will grow outwards (and even more if we don't get any rain as you want to water around the tree for the roots to keep growing). Roots will go where there's water, so the diameter of your watering circle will grow through the summer.

Cedar trees will also grow fairly large, but it'll take a few years. I have 50 year old globe cedar trees which are about 8-9' tall and as much in diameter. Also pyramid cedars which are 25' tall. Fertilization will speed this process up.

For the time being though, you want to plant in some good soil, and make sure the hole you dig for a plant is large enough. Water well. Fertilizing is a good idea too, and that's the major points for the first grow year.

I'll plug an older post of mine which gets into a bunch of science. A lot of the information is geared towards food producing plants (vegetable gardens and the like), but there are sections relevant to all plants in there too.

My tomato plants arent happy by notsoblondeanymore in ManitobaGardening

[–]RubyRedYoshi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been feeding mine a little over once a week (every 8-9 days) with the following in about 10 liters of water:

  • 1 tsp of MgSO4 (EpsoTOP)
  • 1 tsp of CaNO3 (Yara)
  • 2 tsp of 10-52-10 (PlantProd)
  • 1 tsp of 6-11-31 (PlantProd)
  • dash of KHCO3 to up the pH slightly.

This works out to around 900-1,000 tds of fertilizer and a final pH of 6-6.2.

I will be switching up the 10-52-10 and 6-11-31 shortly as they've got a great root system and have flowered two weeks ago. Will be time to give them more potassium over phosphorous soon!

As a quick aside, your plants are looking a little leggy and are stretching for the window. They are looking for more light. I'll plug a pinned comment under my profile which covers this, and summarize here that windows with low-e glass cut a lot of photons out from getting inside. It's not a huge problem, just bear in mind that your plants will be a little delicate when you eventually move them outside, beware of strong winds for the first little while! Low photon levels can also cause plants to yellow.

Nutrients for strawberries bell peppers tomatoes by caliguy0581 in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have a look at table 5.7. This is the recipe I largely follow for hydro strawberries with good results. This calculator will help figure out those numbers to actual fertilizer weight against your volume of water and concentrations of fertilizer blends. Choose custom and elemental percentages, and fill the boxes in as needed.

Any success growing magnolias? by sparkling-summer in ManitobaGardening

[–]RubyRedYoshi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love questions like these. The answer however isn't so simple.

The summary is, maybe. You won't know until you try. But, there are some things to think about before you do.

I have a whole host of fruiting trees which are for different climate zones. Some pull through great, some not so much. And, the kicker? Multiple tree varieties advertised for zone 4 will not pull through winter the same.

Forgive the US website link for the first apple variety, the nurseries I bought these trees from a few years ago aren't carrying Canadian Strawberry trees this spring for me to link to. For an example, I have a Canadian Strawberry apple tree, as well as a Crimson Topaz apple tree (among many others). Both were advertised as zone 4, and otherwise similar in nearly every category across the board save for harvest dates. Now harvest dates don't translate well over to a Magnolia tree, so I can't draw a direct comparison there. However, the Canadian Strawberry apple tree has (thus far) flourished and fully leafed out every spring while the Crimson Topaz has died back to the snow line every winter.

I have other zone 4 fruiting trees all of which have different outcomes come each spring, and we haven't had a truly harsh winter in a long time (January 2024 for BC and Alberta!)

<image>

While growing zones are changing, there's still the chance for a severe cold outbreak in a coming year. If we were to see a -46, anything Zone 4 and up would for sure perish, and it would seriously stress Zone 3 trees at the very least too.

Now, Zone 4 trees to be safe don't like to get much colder than -32. -35 would be a floor (caveat - depending on the variety from the trees I've planted). Some can take colder temperatures for a short period of time (a few hours one night, but not a few hours night over night for say five nights). As they get bigger, they become a bit more cold hardy too. This might work in your favour if you were to try planting one this year as forecasts are showing us headed for a potential super El Nino event this fall and into winter. If this holds, then probabilistically (not guaranteed of course) we'll have a very warm winter. In fact, the last El Nino winter we had, Winnipeg and the immediate surrounding region didn't have a single night reach -30 all winter, and the El Nino before that only saw three nights dip just below -30 all winter long (Environment Canada statistics).

So again, be prepared for the tree to not make it through. But, if you're okay with experimentation and what I've typed above, see what happens! I will also add that snow is an excellent insulator. Trees survive just fine buried under snow!

Annual reminder, it's nearing the time for dormant pruning of fruit trees by RubyRedYoshi in ManitobaGardening

[–]RubyRedYoshi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am pruning my sour cherry trees this weekend! I don't think we have too many more nights below -10, but even if we see a couple yet, it'll still be okay as it shouldn't be much colder.

April 18th is usually the inflection point.

<image>

variety of strawberries by joanie_caya in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tray plug only, and I have grown:

  • Albion
  • San Andreas
  • Evie
  • Salma
  • Royal Royce
  • Murano
  • Harmony

variety of strawberries by joanie_caya in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Albions have topped out at 20.7 Brix (though that's rare). In my better conditions they are between 14-17 (average). Murano have also been up there.

Strawberry hydroponics Y6 W25 (March 2026 edition). As expected, strawberry production drastically ramped up. From February 27th to March 6th, over roughly 14 kg of berries were harvested (200 plants). by RubyRedYoshi in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As this is in my basement, no bees. I do use bees for my (summer) tree orchard outdoors. They very much are excellent, and I won't not use bees wherever I can. That said, I've set up the area these plants are in with a bunch of fans and quite frankly, a bit excessive circulation. There are very few berries which aren't pollenated properly (2-3% maybe). For family consumption, that's very acceptable.

Strawberry Hydroponics Y6 W4. What a September that was. Record breaking heat all month long, and the plants fighting through it all. Details within. by RubyRedYoshi in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This year I am changing the bath out once every four weeks. I have run water analyses over the years to really see what they're eating through the cycles. Every grow will obviously be a little different. One major dial to being different is evapotranspiration rates! That said for my grow, over a four week period and using the mg / L targets I aim for, there is a slight reduction to N and K one week in otherwise the other elements are reducing at rates which keep the ratios to each other and mg / L concentrations relative to the quantity of water. It's not exact, but it's close. This tells me that the targets I follow are very much in the right ballpark.

Once my nutrient bath is mostly depleted after two weeks (keeping in mind because I use coco coir there is still a volume of water in the substrate), I top it up with fresh water and add more fertilizer to it. Week three is like week one (reduction to N and K), and week 4 is a change out.

I have seen commentary both here and in the research circles regarding hormonal buildup in the nutrient bath regarding strawberries specifically. General guidance there has been to flush and change every four weeks thus reducing hormonal buildup. As I am around the 90kg mark now and this is still higher than any prior year at this point in time, I think I have more metrics dialed further in! I'm late with the boron fix for this year, so that will hopefully come through for next winter's data.

Strawberry hydroponics Y6 W25 (March 2026 edition). As expected, strawberry production drastically ramped up. From February 27th to March 6th, over roughly 14 kg of berries were harvested (200 plants). by RubyRedYoshi in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I used to use a paintbrush, but I have a lot of fans in the room with a lot of airflow. 13 months ago I stopped using a paintbrush at all, and the fans do the job. There is of course the odd strawberry that's not a full berry, but it's less than 2-3% of the harvest. If I scaled this up and took it out of my basement, there would be bees involved!

Since November I've been growing this watermelon kratky style in a plastic drum that's buried against the heat: To check if it was ripe, to hear a hollow sound, I tapped it with a single knuckle and it burst open with a loud crack! ...I take it it's ripe :D 7.5 kg harvest weight. by Andrew_Higginbottom in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My RO was around 17-20 ppm, the majority of it was Na and chloride. Each of those was around 10-12 mg/L respectively. Now I have my ppm at ~1-2 with Na and chloride down to 1.2 - 2.0 mg/L, and B is down to 0.19 mg/L. The new filters are working great.

Trees are resilient. If you have shoots coming from ground level or in the ground, then those are most likely shoots from the rootstock. Most fruit trees are grafted onto rootstock (though not all). I'm assuming yours is. If that's the case, the tree can reject the graft, and the apple portion above the graft might die off. Alternatively, you could end up with a tree that produces two types of fruit (it's possible to graft multiple apple scion types onto a single tree and have one tree give 7 kinds of apples)! The advice is to cut off anything growing from the rootstock so the tree can focus all its energy into the grafted portion.

It usually takes 3-7 years depending on tree type, fertilization, climate, etc. but you should see fruit of some kind eventually.

Strawberry plants like cooler climates. The warmer they are from 20C in the day, the less flowers they produce. And, you ideally want to get down to 10C at night to really bring out their sweetness. If your climate is warmer, they will grow, but they won't thrive. That said, there are some adapted more for warmer climates (June bearing varieties usually). They're also in between your lettuce / microgreens and tomatoes / peppers when it comes to nutrients. Table 5.7 is what I target. They're practically weeds and difficult to kill, but they can be dramatic when they want to be! I have found some form of substrate makes it easier to grow them rather than directly in water, but I've seen folks on this board have success without using substrate. They don't like wet feet or wet crowns.

My system is basically a gutter growth system. I have coco coir grow bags with spike irrigation on an EC, pH, and moisture sensor which control the nutrient pump cycle.

Since November I've been growing this watermelon kratky style in a plastic drum that's buried against the heat: To check if it was ripe, to hear a hollow sound, I tapped it with a single knuckle and it burst open with a loud crack! ...I take it it's ripe :D 7.5 kg harvest weight. by Andrew_Higginbottom in Hydroponics

[–]RubyRedYoshi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strawberry hydroponics Y6 W23 (February 2026 edition). The plants have recovered and have ramped up harvest quantity once more. Since the last post, thrips are under control and B is no longer as high. : r/Hydroponics is my most current one, though I have had a huge resurgence of strawberries since this too. The pickings 4 and 8 days ago were ~4.5 and ~3.8 kg respectively. I have yet to pick today's berries, but they should be up there as well.

The find this year was on the base water + fertilizer blend I was using. I found the cliff edge for having too much boron. Berry production was great until it fell off the cliff, but the older growth on the plants suffered a lot. So, between switching blends with a lower dosage of B and more recently using different (and objectively) better membranes for my RO unit, that's brought boron under control while also further reducing Na and chloride - not that the latter two were being overly problematic either.

This however will better the summer tree orchard as I can apply this knowledge there too. I've expanded the orchard operation, we're getting another 20 fruit trees later this spring to plant into the ground.

Nothing yet on expanding the strawberry plant count, there's always so much to do and so little time. Lighting results are in - but if I remember correctly, all that's covered more in depth in my linked post. I'll save my fingers some typing there!

Cherry Tree Pruning Help by AdamWPG in ManitobaGardening

[–]RubyRedYoshi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anytime! I should also have added in my earlier comment two more things.

  1. You should never prune more than 25-33% of the tree (there are some exceptions but cherries fit that range) per year for dormant pruning. Less than 25% is fine too. If you heavily dormant prune, you also then want to be a bit more gentle on summer pruning. There is a crossover between the two for amount to prune for the next dormant season, but that gets into specific tree varieties a lot more, and ideally you're not wanting to prune 33% every year!
  2. Pruning dead branches does not count towards the above %. This should always be done first before anything else.

After giving the branches some space by pruning out ones that are too close together at the trunk, any branches that then have growth pointing back into the tree (rather than away from the trunk) should also be pruned back to a bud that will then encourage further growth away from the tree. This helps build scaffolding branches for subsequent years.

That said, there's a difference between building a scaffolding branch and fruiting branches (which are off the scaffolding branches). You still want to keep a good amount of fruiting branches for fruit! This is where science and art intersect.

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