Backyard soil rejuvenation project

For transplanting, I have some magical powder that came with all of the amendments from my soil test. I’ve been using that. It seems to really work. They keep that formula a bit secret, but it’s all a brix type formula stuff. So far everything in the veggie patch seems nice and fertilized with the liquid fish and cal-mag drenches they have me doing every 2 weeks.

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Here is the current state of my compost. Wht do y’all think?

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Okay, my dumb ass actually pulled out the box of seabird poo and the damn ratio for a tea was on the box. Duh! Also, I found that weed ferment I made like months ago. Forgot all about it. Yuck, it was a moldy mess. I dumped it out on the dirt spot in the lawn where the greenhouse was, so it will only kill grass and bugs if it’s harmful and I really don’t care about my grass. Anyway, started the guano tea, I’ll add some water soluble kelp before I water it in on Thursday.

I suppose I’m gonna need to soak my bucket in bleach if I ever want to use it again as the mold is all inside now. Obviously, I didn’t start the new tea in it. lol I’m such a jackass

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1/2 way there. :slight_smile:

:evergreen_tree:

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Looks a little dry. Can you get fresh green grass clippings, without pesticides, or chemical fertilizers? I love that stuff this time of year. I got a load today. It’s a great nitrogen addition if yours is on the carbon side. I suppose you do food scraps though, huh? That’s rich stuff.

It’s hard to tell looking at it. It looks like dirt, so hey, maybe it’s perfect, lol.

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Spinosad on the entire backyard today. I practically have to use an entire bottle of concentrate to cover it all. Even shot some at the mj plants.

Petunias are starting to form flowers! Hurray! I had a bitch of a time germing those seeds. They took on my third try. Any day now for lilies, One on the tigers looks especially close. Dahlias are getting big. Still holes in leaves, but they are chugging along the new Pink Pom Pom one looks like it’s ready to kick out some flowers. The Echinacea and painted daisies I started from seed look established now and are growing. They creep as far as growth. Won’t get flowers until next year. Started some Shasta daisy seeds yesterday as the few that I direct sowed got swallowed by something. Lobelia and carnations are in the starters. Oh yeah, and finally 1 tiny English Lavender sprouted and I think it’s large enough that it won’t drown now. I’m stumped as to why my snapdragons and vincas stalled out, maybe the guano tea I will give them tmw will help. Johnny Jump-ups have volunteered to jump up under the gladiolas in the cutting garden and are flowering! So crazy as I have weeded that area very recently. I am thrilled they look really happy and pretty under the glad leaves. If stuff is gonna volunteer, I prefer pretty flowers to weeds. lol

The tomatoes are out of control again and quite overwhelming tbh. Looks like they may need a few ties on the back of the trellis and some more hacking! Cantaloupe plant seems to be a slow grower, but the birdhouse gourds are making up for them. The cilantro shaded between the tomatoes is 3 ft tall and I chopped some down yesterday so they don’t flower. The tomatoes are really hard to water now. I think I will just need to lay the hose underneath and flood them. Zinnias are starting to create a whole lot of flowers now even the smaller ones that I direct sowed. Bell Peppers are growing really slow. They really got eaten by bugs, but they are recovering and I saw a flower on one today. I believe they are gonna start really going now.

@GMan I touched the compost, it’s moist but close to needing some water. Previous bug presence in it is gone now, except for the ones I can’t see.

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Should I not only cut back the tomato branches, but leaves on the bottom also? Shave their legs so to speak? I’m sitting here at 9 pm having anxiety over my monster tomato plants.

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Serves you right! :smile: It’s gonna snow in Colorado again. :tm:

They won’t mind a bit; remove bottom stuff(trusses) first & thin them(clusters( for more flavor.

:evergreen_tree:

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Just watched a great YouTube video on pruning them. Let’s hope I’m not too high and remember what to do. I have some major cutting to do! lol

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Okay so I stayed up with anxiety over the tomato plants last night. Watched a great YouTube video on how to prune these bitches. First time growing these, so learning curve. Started with identifying main stems then started hacking. It gets tricky when you let them get this out of control to keep following main stem so I did the best I could for now. More notes to follow pics






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So in the video the guy started when the plants were young which makes it much easier to identify the main stem. Once the suckers get as big as mine were they start acting like a main stem like the last pic above where the main has branched off into 2 parts. I could not identify which was which, so that branch is gonna have dual mains. Hoping I didn’t kill the plants as I literally filled half of my outside green can with branches. I still need to identify the suckers and prune on the opposite side of the trellis which is much more difficult as it’s hard to see the main branches through it with all the bushiness still. Could anyone tell me how many days I should wait before hacking up the rest of the plants? 3 days? A week? 2 weeks? Once I finish pruning the other side, I can trim off more leaves and open up the plant to even more light. This major pruning has opened them up quite a bit and as you can see I found the main fruit, although I cut off tons of tomatoes when removing giant suckers, it is early and if the plants survive the hack I will still get lots and lots. Just tackling this much has eased my anxiety ten fold as I really didn’t know what to do before. I’m still part winging it and part certain if that makes sense. I would be entirely certain if I had started pruning when the plants were small. Now I know for next year. Another bonus is I can get to these suckers to water them now too. It was getting tricky

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Just had another thought. Maybe I should foliar the tomatoes tonight or tmw with some Enthuse for plant stress since I hacked the hell outta them.

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Idk, I remove suckers every 2 wks starting when they are ~a month old then at 3 months old (or hardening off from the cabinet to the windowsill) start removing all branches that cross each other and cut off the growth tips on indeterminates when they reach at my desired height (3 1/5 - 4’)…my girl is right at that point now though holding off a bit as she is taking the transition from the windowsill to outside a bit hard though gotta do something here soon as she is taller than the window and getting on the unruly side with ~ 1/12 - 2 wks before its warm enough to permanently keep her outside

While it sounds like a good idea, I wouldn’t as they really don’t like their foliage to get wet…least mine don’t :wink:

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Dual post but I need for reference later…

First seabird guano tea, added kelp and Mammoth P… Watered it until runoff into all of my flowering container plants… Really curious to see how they like it. This was my very first experiment with organic stuff and I’m pretty stoked with myself. lol Threw the remainder into the cutting garden near my roses.

Did a foliar also on my vegging plants like the cilantro, lemon balm and even the wisteria (we’ll see how pissy she gets lol)

When I did the last flowering plant foliar on the front yard, my neighbor was out front bitching about her new rose bush and how it wasn’t happy. I secretly foliared the hell out of it with the Brix Blaster that my roses go crazy for and today her new crop of roses are the size of my hand and the bush is perky and happy. :wink:

Ah shit, I forgot to guano tea my fuschia in the front. Bummer! That plant needs some love.

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Don’t worry about the bugs in your compost. They’re all good. They’ll stay there and not go out of it. And, most help in the decomposition in addition to the microbes.

I always like to prune the bottoms up a good bit…at least a foot above the dirt. That’ll promote airflow and help prevent the fungi and blight diseases. Once you figure out which limbs are the suckers, it’s easy. They are almost the bulk of the plant. You can remove them from the bottom to the top, and you’ll end up with something that resembles a vine more than a plant. But, they love that air space and extra sunshine.

By doing that, you’ll get larger clusters and they will continue growing all season. They look very nice and healthy.

peace

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Damn skippy they were! Holy crap! I pruned off so many huge ones, but man when I found the mains it was like finding gold. Tomato clusters starting to move upwards en masse. At this height though the suckers can be really tricky as they get as thick as the main branch and some v off. I’m finding that I have to leave some as I can’t figure out which is which. I’ll have this down next time when I prune from the get go. They seem almost naked to me now even though I still have another major hack session I need to do. Just don’t know how long to wait in between. They grow a foot every few days. lol Maybe I’ll wait 1 week until I bonsai them again.

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Looks great… love the colours…:+1:

Damn tomatoes are competing with the sunflowers in the height department aren’t they?

Jezz looks quite comfy too… at least I think that is her (my failing eyes lol)

Peace
DaFozz

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That is my little shit. I noticed later that she dug a hole there to lay in. Ugh! Tomatoes are kinda pissy today after their major chop yesterday. Definitely in shock. But yeah, they are growing like weeds. My cantaloupe has formed it’s first tendril, I’m expecting it to start climbing any day now. None of my plants seemed to like the foliar yesterday. I think it was still a tad too early in the day, burn spots throughout. The guano tea I gave all the flowers was very successful though. They are responding quite well. Noticed quite a perk today. The sunflowers are forming flowers now, I better get some pvc to stake them soon. They have tiny 3 foot stakes right now, but that’s not gonna hold them for much longer. lol

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Yay! Received comfrey cuttings and roots this evening from @Sebring! That was fast! Super stoked! Gonna dig in to it tomorrow and find a planting spot. Don’t find this beneficial in los angeles even at the nurseries.

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