Survival garden in a hurry

nocar · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 05, 2004 Posts: 666

Julianj, How many plants do you have? What kind? I often get aphids on bell peppers indoors. I think I would try scraping the aphids off with my fingers and fingernails once a day (you want a green thumb, don't you?). Or make a stronger soapy solution and put it on with small brush, for a change.

nocar

julianj · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:35 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the advice nocar and Ludi.

I am growing lettuce, swiss chard, minature tomatoes, and one chilli pepper plant indoors.

I have no mercy on the aphids and will kill them with my bare hands if necessary. Please don't tell the Peak Oil Gun Club I'm getting - not pleasure - but satisfaction, out of killing, or they'll start sending me rifle catalogues. Smile

Forgot the other two methods:

Yellow sticky flypaper - it's cruel, and quite frankly, with the short lifespan of aphids, Darwinian forces rapidly will trend towards aphids which are less attracted to yellow. I've tried it and its not effective enough.

Electric bug zappers. Mains operated. No objection to these other than the Powerdown one - I'm trying to diminish my use of lecky. I have not found any battery powered ones -

Solar battery recharger>rechargeable batteries> sustainable bug zapper.

I will try brushing on stronger soap solution, and report back.

Thanks again for the suggestions

Pops · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

I was looking for a link but couldn’t find it – the idea is that aphids want to go under the leaves and so don’t like light; so, use a reflective mulch.

Straw in the field and…maybe foil shiny side up on potted plants?

Soapy water (the plainest, unscented, non-antibacterial you can get) is bad for aphids and good for soil too.
_________________
Make a plan and work it:

Laurie · Coal Joined: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 9

I am new to preparing for peak oil, but I do have a garden in. (So I feel like I am off to a good start.) My tomatoes are looking so wonderful that even the UPS man says he is jealous. But as someone already pointed out - tomatoes don't make a lot of food and I have four children and a spouse to think about.

Years ago I read an article about someone who planted sweet potatoes and "regular" potatoes in dirt in garbage cans. He drilled holes at intervals around the cans and the potatoes grew out the holes. After they were grown, he dumped the cans and got a lot of produce. The article said the cans were just about full of potatoes. (I don't know where all the soil went if that is true - into the potatoes?) Has anyone out there ever done this? It is too late to plant potatoes in my area (according to the experienced gardeners - this is my first year) and I don't have a lot of space anyway. But I do have two spare garbage cans I can devote to potato plantings if I can figure out how to do it. I could start them in the cool basement and then haul them outside when they'd come up a little? Any sugestions?

heyhoser · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:01 pm Post subject:

Laurie,
First of all, welcome to PO.com.

I've never heard of anyone growing potatoes in garbage cans, but to me, it makes perfect sense. I prefer growing potatoes in old, rich compost piles that have been 'fenced' in and re-used, so I think the premise is very similar if you mix the soil with some rich manure (not too much!!), a little bit of potting mix, water it really well, and plant the potatoes from the holes you make in the garbage can.

I am a HUGE potatoe fan. In my earlier days in eastern europe, I lived off of nothing BUT potatoes for up to two months at a time (with some 'flavors' from the veggie garden). I personally believe that this is a great idea and my mind is wandering towards the empty trash can I have inside the garage. Good luck. I'm going to try it, too.

(edit)- So how does your spouse react to 'getting ready?'

erl · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 21, 2005 Posts: 791

RE: Potatos in pots (garbage cans)

Yes, I have heard of this. Actually, you can still buy "potato pots" made specially for this purpose.

The method I have read about, but never actually used myself, is to place several inches of soil in the bottom of the barrel (pot, garbage can, etc.) and simply plant the potatos eye side up. When the potatos sprout a few inches, cover the plants with more soil and again wait for the sprouts to show.

Keep covering the sprouts, always letting some remain above the soil. Do this until the pot is full. Then let them grow. At harvest time, you'll have a barrel full of potatos. I have read some reports of people taking upwards of one hundred pounds of potatos out of one barrel.

This year, I am going to try this myself, instead of planting the potatos in my garden.

Carmiac · Tar Sands Joined: Jul 20, 2004 Posts: 73

If you are working on setting up a garden I recommend Square Foot Gardening as the easiest and fastest was to get one going. In a post-apocalyptical scenario I would combine sq. ft and Lasgana methods, as sourcing some of the soil ingrediants for standard sq. ft. could be a bit more difficult.

julianj · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:14 am Post subject:

Erl - interesting idea.

Does this mean that the potatoes just need good soil and the minimum of sun? I'm thinking of my shady balcony here...

BTW I can also recommend Square Foot Gardening, from my novice point of view, anyway.

OldSprocket · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:34 am Post subject: Re: Potatoes in a garbage can?

heyhoser · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:53 am Post subject:

I loooooooove potatoes!

Wednesday · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 11:47 am Post subject:

my grandfather was an irish peasant, a big potato can feed a man lol

i have a whole basket full of mesclun this morning!
im going to make onion soup and have french peasant food tonight
i cheated and bought the bread

yum

oowolf · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:40 pm Post subject:

Potatoes can also be grown in spoiled hay. Just place the spuds on the ground and cover with 1 to 2 feet of hay, straw, or whatever you can get. Makes harvesting easy-just fork over the covering.

Laurie · Coal Joined: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 9

Thanks for all the potato info! I am going to try a combination of methods with my old garbage cans and see what produces the most. I'm really excited about it!

It'll be a first for me. I've never grown potatoes before, but my mother grew up on a dairy farm. She was one of 17 children, and Grandma O'Connor used to feed them almost exclusively on potatoes. Her potatoes were a perpetual cycle. Grandpa plowed a trench outside the kitchen and Grandma would throw the peels in the trench all winter. (I think she covered it as she went along.) Anyway in the spring they'd have new potatoes, later they'd harvest and store, then Grandpa would plow the trench again and the whole process would start over. My mom swears potatoes are the best, most healthful food around. And Grandma O'Connor is in her 90's so there might be something to it. (BTW- you could see through my Grandmother's potato peels as well as you could see through a window - she didn't waste anything! - And potatoes still grew from the peels. That's hard for me to believe, but true. I'll go ahead and waste whole potatoes while I plant Twisted Evil

)

Now I'm on my way to look up square foot gardening. (So glad I found you guys)

Also - My husband just came home with "Backwoods Home" and "Home Power" - He's getting into this too. He works with power backup systems (UPSs and generators) So we are planning to use some of the old batteries he has to dispose of "properly" that are no longer in good enough condition for a hospital or internet server facility to rely on to set up our own off-grid system. This is gonna be a lotta work . . .

erl · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 21, 2005 Posts: 791

julianj · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:46 am Post subject:

Interesting ideas!

Erl - my balcony faces East but has a brick wall, so it only gets a limited amount of sunshine in the morning until the sun moves round and is cut off by the bulk of the building. I shall take a couple of pix but I haven't time today.

I live in London. I didn't notice before, but the balcony gets wind channelled into it.

Currently I am using a mix of shop-bought compost and vermiculite (from Sq Ft Gardening). Plus various fertilizers.

I do have a small compost making bin and some powder called Garota which is supposed to accelerate the composting process.

I am a novice - year before last I grew herbs, tried a few veges last year. So this is the first real year of my attempts.

As I said before, the indoor plants are going great guns, but the same plant on the balcony is a sad, weakly thing. I'm wondering in my geeky way if I could fix up some sort of polished aluminium mirror to direct more sun onto the plants. Exclamation