Strawberries?

[smokey de bear]

I have been gardening for years and have tried just about everything that I have read or heard about. Then when I had purchased new carpet for my mothers house, I had ripped all the old out and was going to take it to the dump when it occured to me to give it a try. I wanted to expand my existing garden at the time so I mowed the grass as close as I could and pinned it down and put landscape timbers all around. I did not even till it up. When I want to transplant a seedling, I cut an X in the carpet. Then I use a bulb planter to pull a plug of dirt out. I put a tablespoon of Osmocote fertilizer in the hole. I mix another tablespoon of Osmocote into a bowl with the dirt from the hole for backfill around my seedlings. Since it worked so well I added a few more squares over the next few years. I am convinced it keeps the bugs down too. The worms love it under there and help the soil. Most people ask me how do you till it then ? There is no tilling. It is the easiest thing to do and it conserves water too. I water it a little every other day and the carpet lets it go right through unlike plastic, but keeps it from evaporating off. I wish I had tried this years ago. The only other thing you have to do is pick produce !

I bet it's easy on the knees too, keeps the clothes cleaner. Im going to give it a try, I have some pieces left over from a project. I'm open to new methods, the carpeting Im using is left over new pieces tho no cat and dog piss with 20 years of human sheddings carpet. But who knows it may be a new form of fertilizing lol. If this works good +rep to u, Bah you get it either way because I know Imma get worms for fishing just laying it down whether it works or not. lol

i hate weeds but this time of year is great for me cuz its so hot any thing that don't get water dies so the sun is like a nuke for all un wanted plants , and about the judging of gardens, i think growing Mj is the same, unless you can really taste it you can never really know hell i wish there was tech that could transmit smell. like a scratch n sniff for comps hahaha. but that has the potential to be evil lol

Lol thats awesome a scratch and sniff text, I can see scooby snacks being sent all around. lol

The comp could be something like anyone participating has to order the same veggy or fruit seed from the same site, everyone uses the same container and put it in the dirt at the same time, deadline date for the harvest thats it, soil mix and ferts is up to the grower, there could be diff classes like biggest, heaviest, largest plant, largest harvest, most creative grow style, etc.. I know taste would be great but i like the false sense of anonymity i have and sending out addresses to sample the winners would kill that. lol

 

[mcpurple]

I have been gardening for years and have tried just about everything that I have read or heard about. Then when I had purchased new carpet for my mothers house, I had ripped all the old out and was going to take it to the dump when it occured to me to give it a try. I wanted to expand my existing garden at the time so I mowed the grass as close as I could and pinned it down and put landscape timbers all around. I did not even till it up. When I want to transplant a seedling, I cut an X in the carpet. Then I use a bulb planter to pull a plug of dirt out. I put a tablespoon of Osmocote fertilizer in the hole. I mix another tablespoon of Osmocote into a bowl with the dirt from the hole for backfill around my seedlings. Since it worked so well I added a few more squares over the next few years. I am convinced it keeps the bugs down too. The worms love it under there and help the soil. Most people ask me how do you till it then ? There is no tilling. It is the easiest thing to do and it conserves water too. I water it a little every other day and the carpet lets it go right through unlike plastic, but keeps it from evaporating off. I wish I had tried this years ago. The only other thing you have to do is pick produce !

im glad the carpet works good for you man, maybe ill give it a go some time. i am curious though if you dont pull the carpet up and dont till how to you add any thing to the soil? like compost and manures

 

[smokey de bear]

Something to post on Strawberries, tonight I planted 24 Sweet Fresca Strawberry seeds. For those of you who know strawberry strains they are a Fragia x ananassa strain, I dont know shit about strawberry strains but these look kick ass on the package and the little guy picked em out so they have to be good lol. Ill keep ppl updated on the berries.

 

[mugan]

very nice, and don't worry i am doing it commercially and i don't even know which strain i got growing

 

[smokey de bear]

Commercially like you have a farm and let ppl pick, or u supply grocery stores n stuff.

 

[BullwinkleOG]

anybody have some pictures of some dense super chronic homegrown strawberries?

 

[Gyroscope]

im glad the carpet works good for you man, maybe ill give it a go some time. i am curious though if you dont pull the carpet up and dont till how to you add any thing to the soil? like compost and manures

I don't deal with compost or manure anymore. I like to keep it as simple as possible. I use a time released fertilizer called Osmocote.

When I transplant seedlings I use a bulb planter to pull out a plug of soil. I put a tablespoon of Osmocote fertilizer in the hole. The dirt from the plug gets put in a ice cream bowl and mixed with another tablespoon of Osmocote for backfilling around the seedling. In about 6 weeks a sprinkle another tablespoon os Osmocote around the base of each plant in my garden.

The strawberry patch gets the same fertilizer lighty sprinkled over it early in the spring and again a few weeks after they stop producing.

 

[mugan]

@Gyro, i keep organic cuz am paranoid as fuck, also adding processed nutes screws with living soil, you loose beneficial bacteria and fungai . and i don't have nuff money to keep adding nutes to this amount of space. it also makes for good ROI when you do a large project mostly cuz of how cheap manure and compost are here, i can get a truck full (dump truck size) for $30 .. no jk

 

[mugan]

btw MCp and Gyro... i gotz both carpet and carton boxes. al do the grow off for ya with tomatoes but its the weeds that are the issue tho

 

[PIPBoy2000]

i can get a truck full (dump truck size) for $30 .. no jk

Damn dude - here it's like 30 dollars for a 45lbs bag.
Although, one year we did take the pickup and fill the bed with humanite for 100 bucks - they made my friend sign all these forms and copied his license and told him he is not allowed to get more for a six month period. Something about being able to make bombs out of it.
[pun]That shit stinks. [/pun]

 

[mcpurple]

I don't deal with compost or manure anymore. I like to keep it as simple as possible. I use a time released fertilizer called Osmocote.

When I transplant seedlings I use a bulb planter to pull out a plug of soil. I put a tablespoon of Osmocote fertilizer in the hole. The dirt from the plug gets put in a ice cream bowl and mixed with another tablespoon of Osmocote for backfilling around the seedling. In about 6 weeks a sprinkle another tablespoon os Osmocote around the base of each plant in my garden.

The strawberry patch gets the same fertilizer lighty sprinkled over it early in the spring and again a few weeks after they stop producing.

i like the simplicity of it all. but i think over time the soil will become so depleted of everything that the crops might suffer from it no matter how much fertilizer you put on it.
if you take care of the soil the soil will take care of the plants.

also i cant believe people charge for manures now days. unless it is composted the proper way then it should be free. theri is always some one who is getting rid of stall cleanings for free just so they will be gone.

 

[Gyroscope]

@Gyro, i keep organic cuz am paranoid as fuck, also adding processed nutes screws with living soil, you loose beneficial bacteria and fungai . and i don't have nuff money to keep adding nutes to this amount of space. it also makes for good ROI when you do a large project mostly cuz of how cheap manure and compost are here, i can get a truck full (dump truck size) for $30 .. no jk

Osmocote is encapsulated and very mild. I have been using the same bottle for a couple of years and expect the rest to last me through this year so actually my 9.00 purchase breaks down to 3.00 a year. Cheaper than the 30.00 of compost. Nature is a wonderous thing. My dirt still looks like dirt and the worms are doing their job so I am not really worried. I used to do all the composting and tilling and adding manure etc, but one day I just got tired of it all and was hurting for time and that's when I started doing it the lazy way. I call it my hoozier garden, but it works for me. I use 6' metal t-posts for my tomatoes and leave them in the ground year round. I wish you luck in however you choose to do it, but for me tilling and weeding is a thing of the past and I love it !!

 

[Gyroscope]

i like the simplicity of it all. but i think over time the soil will become so depleted of everything that the crops might suffer from it no matter how much fertilizer you put on it.
if you take care of the soil the soil will take care of the plants.

also i cant believe people charge for manures now days. unless it is composted the proper way then it should be free. theri is always some one who is getting rid of stall cleanings for free just so they will be gone.

I agree that there may come a day that the soil may get depleted of something or another, but until that day comes I will keep it where it is because I am that lazy. If it ever does happen I will just move it all over and let the current plot go back to lawn. I have 11 acres so I am not really worried about running out of room. If I had a small yard I could always rotate the space. I think my no-till method keeps the soil from eroding too and that's a good thing. I hear the farmers are try to do more no-till, but I have not done any actual research on it. There are so many ways to garden and it all boils down to whatever works for you. Just like growing MJ, lol.

 

[mrduke]

whats up gardners, i was thinking of using one of my old veg cabinets to grow some stawbs. woould a 96 watt t5 (2foot 4 bulb) be good enought produce some real fruit. also what the best foto period fro them? thanks

 

[GrassCity Sucks]

I have 2 types one creates runners the other creates rhizomes. i have alot of the runners but i hate this variety as it seems to produce much less. my question is how do i tell witch ones will creat runners or new plants through the roots before i buy some?
if this makes sense

Strawberries don't produce fruit in the first year apparently, or not in quantities worth looking at.

The reason you're getting fuck-all Strawberries is probably because you're letting the runners go. You have to prune the runners regularly on plants you want to fruit. It's the same principal as with Tomatoes: Trim all the growing shoots except 1 (Or 2+ for tomatoes). If the plant is pumping it's energy into creating runners, it's not going to have a whole lot of mojo to funnel into fruit production. Same for tomatoes: If you just leave a tomato plant go, you'll end up with a fuckn tumbleweed of a plant, with no decent fruit to speak of. Trimming all the side shoots except 2 or three forces the plant to stay focussed, and thus - you get a few tresses of choice tomatoes.

I don't know if you've trimmed or how long you've had em or what, so you might already know all this. Of you don't, well, you do I guess since you just read it

 

[mcpurple]

thank you for the info, i did know a little bit of the info but it helps me out. so thanks for posting.

 

[smokey de bear]

btw MCp and Gyro... i gotz both carpet and carton boxes. al do the grow off for ya with tomatoes but its the weeds that are the issue tho

You should add a newspaper section would be great if that won because it's the most readily available. even if you don't this grow off will be awesome.

i like the simplicity of it all. but i think over time the soil will become so depleted of everything that the crops might suffer from it no matter how much fertilizer you put on it.
if you take care of the soil the soil will take care of the plants.

also i cant believe people charge for manures now days. unless it is composted the proper way then it should be free. theri is always some one who is getting rid of stall cleanings for free just so they will be gone.

Holy shit, ppl charge for shit. Thats just wrong you shouldn't be paying anything if you bought shit lol or ask for a trade and start shitting in a bucket, my shit for your shit.

Osmocote is encapsulated and very mild. I have been using the same bottle for a couple of years and expect the rest to last me through this year so actually my 9.00 purchase breaks down to 3.00 a year. Cheaper than the 30.00 of compost. Nature is a wonderous thing. My dirt still looks like dirt and the worms are doing their job so I am not really worried. I used to do all the composting and tilling and adding manure etc, but one day I just got tired of it all and was hurting for time and that's when I started doing it the lazy way. I call it my hoozier garden, but it works for me. I use 6' metal t-posts for my tomatoes and leave them in the ground year round. I wish you luck in however you choose to do it, but for me tilling and weeding is a thing of the past and I love it !!

Holy you have like a massive MG Field, all water released lol jk

whats up gardners, i was thinking of using one of my old veg cabinets to grow some stawbs. woould a 96 watt t5 (2foot 4 bulb) be good enought produce some real fruit. also what the best foto period fro them? thanks

Hey man where do you keep your strawberries? in the cupboard dude what?? That would be awesome just open the cupboard and pick strawberries.

 

[mugan]

i like the simplicity of it all. but i think over time the soil will become so depleted of everything that the crops might suffer from it no matter how much fertilizer you put on it.
if you take care of the soil the soil will take care of the plants.

also i cant believe people charge for manures now days. unless it is composted the proper way then it should be free. theri is always some one who is getting rid of stall cleanings for free just so they will be gone.

I don't buy any i make my own compost and i have animals, but if i ever wanted animal manure i always had to buy it in the us , hell guano is like $60 for a container

i buy microbes tho

You should add a newspaper section would be great if that won because it's the most readily available. even if you don't this grow off will be awesome..

ya al do one of those too , al post it here when i start .

 

[smokey de bear]

Sweetness Mugan, hope you manage to kill all them damn weeds.

 

[mugan]

ya but for me to se how they work al need to wait till early march when we get some rain