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Showing 3241 - 3270 of 13866 comments

Yacon (also Sunroot) 19 Jul, Julie Bourke (Australia - temperate climate): I have just harvested about 5 kgs of yacon tubers and I was wondering how long they will last before cooking/eating and should they be kept in the fridge?? I am just trying to work out whether it is best to give most away or whether they will last until we eat them....5kgs is rather a lot of yacon!!! Can you overdose on it???
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 21 Mar, Jose (Australia - cool/mountain climate): Don't fridge yacon tuber. Only the rhizomes, if you need to fridge any of it. Cool cupboard or hung in a cotton bag in the garage in a dark spot works well. These will last many months. Most yacon people watch for when the outside starts to grow some surface mould and then consume the last ones quickly. The mould just cuts off, hasn't entered the tuber. Yacon will look AWFUL and squishy and gross in a matter of weeks and that's when they are best consumed. So age them for a few weeks at least. I'd say 5 months is a minimum to be able to store them and last year I got mine to 8 months before I saw any issues. I'm in a cool and dry climate. The only overdose you'll achieve on yacon is a lot of insoluble fibre that many westerners are not used to and your belly bugs will love and you and others around you may not appreciate. It has no ill effect though and is healthy. If you eat predominantly a vegan or veggo diet than it may not have this effect for you. (Gardenate : More information here https://www.permaculture.co.uk/How-to-grow-harvest-eat-yacon )
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 20 Jul, Mike L (Australia - sub-tropical climate): They may keep for a few weeks in the fridge. There is a YouTube video
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 18 Jul, Donna (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi, I am just starting out and was wanting peoples opinion on grow bags. Are they any good, worth purchasing etc.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 05 Sep, Simon Milsted (Australia - temperate climate): I have just purchased some fabric type grow bags for my garden for a number of different uses. Some have been set up in wicking beds with dwarf fruit trees and some are for vegetables & flowers for attracting bees & insects. We rent so this means we can take them with us if we have to move.The fabric also allows for air pruning. I never liked pots as they dry out too quickly and the roots get into a mess but these seem to help that and the wicking beds allow for watering when you can't. Will see how they go!
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 19 Jul, Mike L (Australia - sub-tropical climate): As far as I'm concerned a patch of soil in the back yard is the best to grow veges in. You can then use bags pots whatever. These need a lot more attention I believe - dry out quicker. You have to weigh up the costs involved with buying and then the soil etc. It then becomes whether you are doing it for the enjoyment of it or doing it cost effectively. I love growing veges but I also try and do it cost effectively. I want value for the money I spend.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 04 Aug, Donna (Australia - sub-tropical climate): thanks - we have no yard so grow bags are a good alternative to having the luxury of a patch of dirt I guess.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 09 Sep, Angela (Australia - temperate climate): I haven’t had a lot of luck with the grow bags. My most successful containers have been the Greensmart pots. More expensive than grow bags but I have harvested lots of cherry tomatoes, eggplant, silverbeet, basil from them. They need watering less often than conventional pots.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 17 Jul, John. Spencer (Australia - temperate climate): I have a good crop of broad beans growing in big pots. They are approx 10--15 weeks old & flowering , however on beans are forming. I have noticed no bees are around. I am in perth. John
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 19 Jul, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate): Broad beans are usually slow to start setting fruit. If you check every few days, you will probably find some beans appearing. Broad beans have two methods of pollination,. Their primary method is self-pollination, in other words they do not need insects to produce a crop. However, they can also be pollinated by insect activity and will produce the best crop when pollinated using both methods. More here : www.gardenfocused.co.uk/vegetable/broad-beans.php
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 18 Jul, Mike (Australia - temperate climate): i have never grown them. Normal beans when they flower have a little bean under the flower - this grows into the bean. Go on the internet and google growing BB in Perth.
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Artichokes (Globe) 16 Jul, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): On Zone 13b it has no planting date - so probably won't grow. In tropics in Australia it says plant April to July. You could try.
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Garlic 13 Jul, Julie hall (Australia - cool/mountain climate): Where iam at the moment it get verry cold and forsty in the morning I know it.s may be a bit late to plant garlic but will it still be ok to plant it now or preferably when the frost almost over towards modd August i think ingoulburn Unless the cloves are not effected by the frost
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Garlic 16 Jul, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): For cool/mountain it say plant Apr/May so you are too late. If you plant now the crop may fail. You could try - wouldn't plant too many though.
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Garlic 16 Jul, Ray S (Australia - cool/mountain climate): You could certainly try planting now, the sooner the better because garlic needs to go through the cold to get a decent size to it. The plants are totally unaffected by frosts down to at least -12°C which is what we get here in July. Just for your information, I usually plant garlic late March for a November harvest. In Goulburn you could probably wait until April/May. Good luck with it.
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Garlic 17 Jul, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): A saying - plant the shortest day of the year and harvest the longest day. 21st June - 21st Dec.
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 13 Jul, PoMei (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I have plenty of yacon eyes to plant and I will be at the Maleny markets on Sundays ...
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 28 Sep, Carolyna (Australia - arid climate): Hi PoMei. How much are you selling the yacon rhyzomes for? Have they been stored in coir or cool soil since harvesting? Have they started to sprout? How many are available? (Note from Gardenate - we don't promote selling; exchange or gift is our preferred option)
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Artichokes (Globe) 13 Jul, timothy Bryan hawaii (USA - Zone 13b climate): Anyone grown Artichokes in Hawaii? I'm on the North Shore so its pretty rainy periodically, but temps are in the 70s-80s. Basically its the windward side of the island on Maui. My wife loves them so i'd like to try I already bought two plants any suggestions would be great!! thanks!
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Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold) 13 Jul, Barbara Conje (Australia - tropical climate): Will silverbeet grow in the tropics (Darwin)? If so, what time of year? Thank you.
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Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold) 16 Jul, (Australia - tropical climate): Plant April to June - in future select your climate zone and then the vegetable and then read up about it.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 12 Jul, Jane (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Mike, when I transplanted some climbing beans and peas along a fenceline, I forgot to take the tray of seedlings (with mostly different types of climbing tomatoes in) back to the bush/greenhouse. Next day I went to town and didn't water so didn't see the tray still sitting on the ground in a vege garden. Next day I saw it! Could have cried! It was if someone had snipped the tops (little leaves) of my tomato seedlings off (climbing Italian flat tomato/druzba/blue ridge and I forget what else). I don't know what :( .I returned the tray to the greenhouse and it looks like they may grow back? Tonight I found a possum in the garden but believe possums don't eat green (or pumpkin)? Could it have been grasshoppers? I was told I have planted tomatoes out of season (I am also trying to see what grows here and what is not so successful).. (started thinning out seedlings today. I put too many seeds in together., transplanting each one into separate pots:buttercrunch lettuce, rhubarb-don't kniw if will grow here- Egyptian spinach etc etc etc). Looks like the Marrow (Melbourne cream) seedlings are settling in after being transplanted in the garden). What do I feed tomato plants, please? I bought some Epsom salts but don't kniw what to do with it. Thankyou again. Jane
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 09 Oct, Dale (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi Jane, I had a problem with seedlings getting eaten. It was annoying me ,as I didn't know what was doing it. Then I decided to put a trap in among the seedlings and found that a family of bush rats were feasting on all my baby seedlings. As it has been so dry , all the wild life are coming out from the bush. Hope you had some luck.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 16 Jul, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I grow veges from March into winter and from Aug into summer near Bundaberg. Beans grow best here in spring - bean fly get mine in Autumn.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 05 Sep, Jane (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Mike - I was just rereading your post and it really is a great rule of thumb that I am going garden by.Appreciated.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 16 Jul, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Web page - queensland gardening.com - go to calendar and it gives a guide to planting each month. If they eat the tops of the tomatoes then you will probably only have side shoots grow. I'm going to plant tomato seeds early August and plant out early Sept. I have some tomatoes growing now - doing fairly well. Put a couple of teaspoons of Epsom salts in 9 L of water and sprinkle on the soil where the tomatoes go in. I use commercial fertiliser from Produce Suppliers (where farmers buy their fertiliser). 25Kg bag for $25-35. Use most on the lawn. About 10-14N,4-6P and 10-15K. I use about 2-3 teaspoons in 9 L of water when the plants are well established. I plant seeds into small plastic trays (get your meat etc in from supermarkets) then when seedlings germinate I plant out into 6-8 cell trays. When they start growing I place them where they receive about 3 hrs sunlight a day.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 05 Sep, Jane (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Mike - have you planted out your tomatoes? Once established, do you use 2-3 tspns to 9L water per plant when watering/daily? Re: fertiliser, do you use that regularly around tomatoes/other plants and/or plant feed and/or soil conditioner or just fertiliser? Everyone should take up gardening.
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Sweet Potato (also Kumara) 10 Jul, Cathy (Australia - temperate climate): When my tomato bed finished i refilled the bed with conpost and the sweet potatos started growing. I got quite a few potatoes and pulled them out in September to replant tomatoes. I couldnt get tomatoes to grow that summer so i gave up and let the je sweet potatoes come back naturally. Should i try for tomatoes again in that same bed? If so do i need to help the soil in any way? Thanks!!
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Sweet Potato (also Kumara) 13 Jul, Mike L (Australia - temperate climate): I have been told sweet potatoes are a big consumer of nutrients from the soil - other words not much nutrient left in the soil after the crop Tomatoes would also take a lot from the soil. Did you add compost or totally refilled the bed with compost again. If the compost is not totally broken down then it will take N from the soil - therefore very little N for the intended crop. Look to the guide here for planting - although it has no planting time for sweet potatoes in temperate climates. After each crop you need to do one of two things - add completed compost, manures etc and make sure this is all broken down into the soil. Or you hit it up with some all round fertiliser. Also give your soil a rest for a few months and add compost and turn it in.
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Brussels sprouts 09 Jul, Raymond Ward (Australia - temperate climate): What soil do Brussels Sprouts grow best in
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