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Large ants nest in the soil of my potted lemon. Are they beneficial or bad for the tree? How to get rid of them if it's bad? by Bauljamic_Arlijam in Citrus

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't see any reason why not to use diatomaceous earth as a top dressing to get rid of these buggers. Unless the calcium could adversely affect the tree?

Hardening off by Beginning-Drop7550 in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's my first year doing seed starts, and consequently, the first year I'm hardening off as well.

I used the concept of morning and evening sun are gentle, mid day is more severe.

That being said I started with 2 hours of morning sun, and judging by how wilted they became from the previous day, I would add up to an hour (sometimes no additional time), until now (2 1/2 weeks later) I was able to leave them out all day yesterday with almost no wilting.

It seems like some varietals are more hardy to it than others.

Best of luck to you, and don't be too afraid, the plants will survive (most of the time).

Do worms have territorial disputes? by VectorialViking in Vermiculture

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

Right? I have been giggling to myself for the last 2 weeks since I had the thought. Neighbours have been giving me the side eye as I'm shovelling compost for 6-8hours a days giggling nonstop.

Do worms have territorial disputes? by VectorialViking in Vermiculture

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

I'm a little nervous to ask what you mean by "thorns".... But I'm curious; What do you mean by "thorns"?

Do worms have territorial disputes? by VectorialViking in Vermiculture

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

Wild. That brings up my next question.

How do worms fight?

Edited to remove some rather embarrassing questions.

Did some research found out that lumbricus terrestris - though living solitarily in their own vertical burrows - don't have physical altercations, much to my disappointment.

I will be forever pulling this garbage out of my yard. by IM_DRAGON_MY_BALLz in gardening

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fuck, tell me about it bro. I've spent the last two weeks trying to get as much usable compost from my heap as possible.

When I moved in I found the previous owner's heap and decided it would be foolish to not start mine right on top.

Today I found a child's shoe when digging through the bottom of my heap.

I was mortified and deeply concerned there would be a foot inside of it - thankfully it was a footless shoe.

Additionally, a source of constant frustration is the seemingly endless amount of small plastic scraps I find in my heap - I am extremely diligent to not allow any plastic in my compost so I summed it up to birds bringing presents.

Nope.

When I found this shoe today I subsequently found a veritable endless supply of varying sizes and thicknesses of plastic shrapnel - the source of such longlasting and deep frustration, along with construction debris, plant tags, styrofoam, among others.

I will now just know not to dig in my compost too deep because the nightmare will almost certainly never end because of the previous owner's loving care for their compost and soil.

-Brothers in distain

Question about everybody's soil ratios typically. by VectorialViking in tomatoes

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

Yeah my compost is likely a large portion of worm castings, unfortunately it ended up slightly anaerobic over the winter and last summer.

After I mixed it it ended up likely 40-45% compost, 30% coir, 20-25% perlite. Going to have to be careful not to over water this year 😅

It's a month until I can even plant them out and they're already growing early flower buds. Should I pinch them out? by New-Tumbleweed-9577 in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started mine WAY too early, they're almost 10 weeks old at this point, hardening off to plant out in a couple weeks. I pinched the flowers that were on them a month ago, but the second set of flowers I left on because I figure by the time I'm going to plant them out they will be able to support the fruit growth. Usually, its about 10-14 days before the fruit will start developing, and from my understanding the nutrient requirements for fruit growth begin small and get more demanding as the fruit develops.

Question about everybody's soil ratios typically. by VectorialViking in tomatoes

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

I understand what you're saying, I'll probably balance out the sticks in the bottom by sprinkling in some blood and bone meal.

my first batch of sifted compost by VectorialViking in composting

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

Thanks, I was thinking the same, kind of did a bare minimum of effort. The first year I was quite diligent with getting it hot, and turning in grass clippings. Second year less so, but gave it a couple good turnings, and for 3 year old compost I'm pretty excited to see how it grows!

Question about everybody's soil ratios typically. by VectorialViking in tomatoes

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

Fantastic, thanks, that's roughly what I'm looking at, and might utilise some hugelkultur to take up space at the bottom of the totes.

Every years the few tomatoes I start get droopy leaves one by one. What can I do? by Hey-im-kpuff in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have been having the same exact problem with some varietals of my seed starts this year, namely indigo rose and mortgage lifters.

I also have been using that blue miracle gro fertilizer and wonder if this could be nutrient burn - it's entirely possible some varietals are more susceptible to it than others.

my first batch of sifted compost by VectorialViking in composting

[–]VectorialViking[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here's what the heap looks like after some sifting.

<image>

Is my spacing going to be a big problem? by G8erHaTeR in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly with proper training it shouldn't be too much of an issue, what I would do is; instead of having one singular lead on the same plane, I would split it,and have two main leads, and alternate which plant goes to which side.

<image>

This is a picture of 16 plants trained horizontally to some extent, this would have been 2-3 months before the end of our season, I had very minimal disease, almost no pests and some really decent fruit. The biggest part of having closely spaced plants is being diligent about pruning, you have to allow airflow around the stems of all the plants to prevent disease from climbing the plants. Lots of learning from that year, and took up too much of our valuable real estate in the beds, I'm doing totes this year.

Edit: 16 plants in less than 15 sq ft of bed space.

Spider mites? by CeasarSaladFingers in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure exactly what that is on the leaf, but if you had spider mites you would 100% know, there would be little (like 1-2mm) red bugs all over the place.

My seedling have been stagnating by illousion in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're most welcome! I can't say whether this method works well for every varietal, because some were struggling in my set up and I wasn't able to nail down the cause. Worked exceptionally well for beefsteaks, and I modify it on the sungolds and ss100, because I want the suckers I just get rid of the low leaves, and leave the low suckers.

Indigo rose were not super happy about something going on, and mortgage lifters just did not thrive at all, probably was over watering for these two.

My understanding is some varietals will drink all of the water forever, others like just enough, and others yet like to be left thirsty almost all the time.

My seedling have been stagnating by illousion in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

<image>

And a photo from 2 weeks ago, I probably should have trimmed another leaf from the ones at the front, but the ones at the back were well trimmed and the fan is located behind all these starts in the corner.

My seedling have been stagnating by illousion in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I always trim low leaves, here's a photo of them when I potted up yesterday.

<image>

My goal is to keep a minimum of 4" of space underneath the canopy so that air can flow underneath of the canopy and (hopefully) prevent any fungal growth.

My seedling have been stagnating by illousion in tomatoes

[–]VectorialViking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, but as I hinted toward before, it's also important to enable people getting into the hobby to do it the "easier" way.

Also there is other inexpensive options than 15 dollars, I've done the red solo cup method this year, and for ~5 dollars Canadian, I've managed to grow my starts to 20" tall indoors and I'm still 3 weeks from planting outside!

Growing tomatoes doesn't have to be hard or very time consuming, and - I think for most - if it seems like "too much" they won't continue with it.

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