Planting January 2021 Planting and Chat thread

[packyderms_wife]

Planting Calendar - Gardening by the moon

This planting calendar helps you pick the best days for gardening tasks based a 200-year-old formula. Our readers swear by it! Learn more.

www.farmersalmanac.com

• 1st – 4th
  A barren time. Best for killing weeds, briars, poison ivy, and other plant pests. Clear wood lots and fencerows.
• 5th – 6th
  A favorable time for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. Plant flowers. Favorable days for planting root crops.
• 7th – 8th
  Start seedbeds. Good days for transplanting. Plant carrots, turnips, onions, beets, Irish potatoes, other root crops in the South. Also good for leafy vegetables.
• 9th – 10th
  Do no planting.
• 11th – 12th
  Good planting days for root crops where climate permits.
• 13th – 14th
  A good time to kill plant pests or do plowing. Poor for planting.
• 15th – 17th
  Extra good for peppers, tomatoes, peas and other vine crops. Fine for planting any aboveground crop where the climate permits.
• 18th – 19th
  Barren days, do no planting.
• 20th – 22nd
  Fine for planting beans, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and other aboveground crops where climate is suitable.
• 23rd – 24th
  Poor days for planting, seeds tend to rot in ground.
• 25th – 26th
  Plant seedbeds and flower gardens. Best planting days for aboveground crops, especially peas, beans, cucumbers, and squash where climate is suitable.
• 27th – 31st
  A barren time. Best for killing weeds, briars, poison ivy, and other plant pests. Clear wood lots and fencerows.

 

[Murt]

started my pepper plants today ---indoors for now
my onions have been in the ground for about a month

it seems that it takes my peppers forever to get going so I am starting them earlier than I normally do to see if it helps
I had my best (huge) bell peppers in October

 

[packyderms_wife]

 

[Sherrynboo]

The onions I ordered arrived yesterday so I am hoping to get at least some of them in the ground this afternoon and plant the rest on the 11th and 12th along with some carrots and beets. Going to go all out with the garden this year!

 

[Sherrynboo]

started my pepper plants today ---indoors for now
my onions have been in the ground for about a month

it seems that it takes my peppers forever to get going so I am starting them earlier than I normally do to see if it helps
I had my best (huge) bell peppers in October

I need to get peppers started soon too as it takes them forever to germinate. I have found that a heating mat makes a lot of difference.

 

[packyderms_wife]

 

[packyderms_wife]

You can go to their website and check out the drought/flooding conditions for your state.

 

[Freeholder]

I found, and printed off, a booklet from Kentucky's Extension service called Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky. Then I used their charts to put seed-starting and planting dates on my wall calendar, which acts as my planner. My wall calendar this year has larger spaces for writing than normal, which is very helpful.

I've been gardening all my life, but not in this climate, so the booklet will be very helpful, too.

I already had our seeds for this year (because I buy a year ahead for most things), but ordered some for next year from Morgan County Seeds in MO, and I'm very pleased with what I got. Well packaged, lots of useful information on the packets plus spaces for making notes on some of the packets (I've never seen that before and like it!), and more seeds per very reasonably priced packet than most other places I've ordered from. Also, the larger quantities (beans, peas, etc.) are sealed in plastic. These are all going in the freezer (or most of them -- I may take two or three seeds out of a few of the packets just to try this year).

Kathleen

 

[Faroe]

Planted some lettuce indoors yesterday. Set up for some kale planting today. Passive hydro in individual containers. I'll be purchasing more lights tomorrow. What I can't buy is more indoor space!

The weather here is fine for cold crops, but the squirrels destroy everything, and my outbuildings need more chicken wire to keep them out. I had excellent hydro crops two years ago, until they got in and blasted through it. VERY discouraging. Didn't plant a single thing last year. Also going to clean out some old aquariums. They won't heat up too much with their hardware cloth tops, and the vermin can't get in.

 

[Weft and Warp]

I've been gardening all my life, but this Winter I decided to take it as step further and experiment with some indoor growing/lighting.

My first experiment was to overwinter my pepper plants so I won't have to start them by seed next spring. That experiment seems to be going well (at least they seem to be thriving so far). We'll see how they do this coming summer.

I started some lettuce growing under lights at least a month ago and they will be about the right size for harvesting in another week or two. They are my "test" cases for my new LED plant lights.

I've always grown sprouts for our salads in my kitchen, and thought that --- now that I have plant lights-- I can start growing microgreens under those lights and they might require less maintenance. So, last week I started four small self-watering containers of microgreens (daikon radishes and broccoli). They are sprouting nicely and will be ready in about 2 or 3 weeks.

Another experiment I am trying out is propagating basil. I bought one basil plant in the vegetable section of Walmart and took cuttings from this plant. So far, I have nine beautiful basil plants started. My goal is to have enough basil propagated so I can have enough to make and can pesto sauce.

I planted some Chinese Wolfberries/goji berry seeds just a few days ago, hoping that by the time they're strong enough to be transplanted, I will have a spot ready outside for them. They do grow tall and need lots of sun--- we'll see what I can come up with.....

And the last thing I'm doing right now is planning to start seeds for my garden this spring. I always enjoy this!

 

[SouthernBreeze]

My daffodils are already up and blooming. That means that it's time to plant our early spring garden. Usually it's all in the ground by the second week of February.

 

[packyderms_wife]

I've always grown sprouts for our salads in my kitchen, and thought that --- now that I have plant lights-- I can start growing microgreens under those lights and they might require less maintenance. So, last week I started four small self-watering containers of microgreens (daikon radishes and broccoli). They are sprouting nicely and will be ready in about 2 or 3 weeks.

Where did you get the self eatering containers? Where did you get your seeds for the broccoli and radishes, I love micro greens.

 

[Weft and Warp]

Where did you get the self eatering containers? Where did you get your seeds for the broccoli and radishes, I love micro greens.

I watched a few youtube videos on growing microgreens to find out how it was done. Most recommend growing them in soil (and they give their reasons) but some also suggest growing them hydroponically ( in water, basically).

I chose to grow them in water since it was a cleaner method for indoors. I made my own self-watering trays the same way this father/son did here in this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSAJLZIq-oo
It was cheap, easy and something I already had on hand, so I decided to try it out! The trays are small, but just what we need.

The seeds I already had on hand, for sprouting. I buy them in bulk. Some of them I bought at a health food store, and some I bought on Amazon.

Just search for (organic) sprouting seeds-- there are a lot to chose from--- but I prefer daikon radishes and broccoli sprouts over the others I've tried. I can't stand alfalfa seed sprouts-- too much like eating grass!

I also occasionally enjoy spouting mung beans for stir fries. ( I love Korean food and I like to watch Maangchi's cooking videos. She has one on sprouting mung beans here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m74YYPVbWU
).

 

[packyderms_wife]

I watched a few youtube videos on growing microgreens to find out how it was done. Most recommend growing them in soil (and they give their reasons) but some also suggest growing them hydroponically ( in water, basically).

I chose to grow them in water since it was a cleaner method for indoors. I made my own self-watering trays the same way this father/son did here in this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSAJLZIq-oo
It was cheap, easy and something I already had on hand, so I decided to try it out! The trays are small, but just what we need.

The seeds I already had on hand, for sprouting. I buy them in bulk. Some of them I bought at a health food store, and some I bought on Amazon.

Just search for (organic) sprouting seeds-- there are a lot to chose from--- but I prefer daikon radishes and broccoli sprouts over the others I've tried. I can't stand alfalfa seed sprouts-- too much like eating grass!

I also occasionally enjoy spouting mung beans for stir fries. ( I love Korean food and I like to watch Maangchi's cooking videos. She has one on sprouting mung beans here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m74YYPVbWU
).

Thank you for the video links.