Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes? Cook it up for dinner and save some seeds! Wash off the pulp and dry them out on a paper towel. It's not too late to start some seedlings, and it's a nice way to pass the time. I've also been experimenting with different dried beans that we stocked up on, and most of them have a pretty high germination rate. Roma beans are super tasty and high in protein, though you need a lot of space to get a good amount of them. Lentils are super easy to sprout too.
Another great tip is that once you have a good sized tomato plant, it's super super easy to clone it. You just have to take a cutting at a node and let the stem soak in water. Rooting hormone helps speed it up, but it's possible to do it without. I've cloned about a dozen plants from a single tomato I accidentally started early. Needless to say I'm running out of window sills to stick them as it's still too cold to transplant them.
Frankly I saw this coming in January and started hundreds of seedlings of different tomatoes, hot peppers, squash, pumpkins, cucumber, zucchini, lettuce, and chard to share with my neighbours.
I'm a bit of a gardening nerd and had a big collection of unused seeds from prior seasons, but you'd be amazed at what you can grow that's already in your pantry or fridge. Potatoes are easy to get started but can be a little finicky with soil conditions.
I'm thinking I'll have quite a bit of time to spend in the garden in the coming months. Hopefully I can make a small difference in my community.
Thank you for both having the foresight to plan(t) as well as the willingness to help those around you.
Otherwise you could end up like my neighbor with a strategic reserve level of toilet paper, proud to hoard yet share with no one even when the stores are empty.
I had the same reaction at first, but after a bit of thinking I reached this:
You can do without it, sure, but if you don't have a bidet then it's inconvenient and annoying.
Toilet paper is cheap, easy to store and it does not degrade (in a meaningful timeframe).
Basically, unless you are really space constrained, there are no downsides to having more than needed, so why not buy extra?
I say this as someone who had to go without a couple days because the stores had been cleared of any toilet paper.
Yeah, it took me a while to understand this behavior. However, it seems you can make a face mask to protect against CV-19 using toilet paper. Please do your research, I found too many links. In the situation you don't have a proper mask, a plastic mask, with holes, to keep toilet paper on your face may safe your life these days.
I don't understand it because between my girlfriend and me we seem to use about a roll per week. I thought it was because I usually take a dump at work, but even after lock down our usage doesn't seem to have changed significantly. And yes if it does run out then the shower is right next to the toilet and I have visited Nepal a few time where water is the way to clean.
(When I was young schools and public toilets always seemed to have horrendous tracing paper like stuff).
That’s what I’ve always said. If you smeared a bit of poop on your face or arm, you wouldn’t be content with just wiping it down with a thin piece of toilet paper. You’d probably shower!
It's different because I don't use my ass to open doors, type on computers, prepare/eat food, or scratch my eye. Your face and arms, however, get involved in those activities sooner or later. I don't care if my poop cannon has a bit of residue around the rim that paper can't quite remove, handling shit is literally what it does every day, and it's otherwise stowed away safely.
Granted, I bet a warm-water bidet feels fantastic and I would probably never go back if I had one.
BTW: You can use something like a small washing towel (I do not know what the proper english word is - in German it is Waschlappen). So you do not have to touch your shit:)
Well take a guess why the left hand in some regions of the world is considered dirty even there is water around to wash? Because toilet paper is seen as improper cleaning.
I've thought the same thing and after spending time in Asia I got really accustomed to using a water hose. This whole thing (among other things) has made me question the practicality of toilet paper even more, strongly considering installing a hose in the bathroom.
Thanks for this! Can you recommend some simple concise instructions on growing tomatoes?
I’ve explored a little in the past, but always seemed to run into fairly impenetrable instructions. A basic list of what to buy (in non-gardeners’ terminology) and some simple instructions would be great.
Growing tomatoes depends a lot on the climate you are living in. Tomatoes grow and ripen ideally above 20°celsius. You can do this also in your flat. Or on a balcony.
Get 1 bucket (volume 10 L) per plant if you do it on a balcony. or on patio next to you southern wall.
never water them from above. tomatoes do not like wet leaves.
if you can get a 2m stick as a support for the plant. have the plants at least 50cm from each other.
to get them to grow, get some seeds from ideally some heirloom variety. if not that's fine. just do not use seeds from supermarket tomatoes as they tend to produce wildly different offsprings (read about F1 hybrids if interested).
get small 8 - 10cm grow pots and put in growing soil. put 1 - 3 seeds on he soil and make it slightly wet. keep it damp, but not wet. when it is too big for the growing pot move it to the 10l pot (don't forget to ensure holes in the bottom).
it might help if you use a little bit of tomato fertilizer.
> Can you recommend some simple concise instructions on growing tomatoes?
Simple and concise: Don't start with those. Tomato is not the more easy crop to grow. I would suggest to start with Cucurbitaceae like Cucumber or Zucchini, much more easier as long as they have lots of nitrogen.
If you provide some support to climb, Cucumbers can be raised even next to a window. The other need much more space. You pick them continuously when they are still small and non bitter.
You could even raise lattice and harvest it (one leaf at a time) before the end of the quarantine. Fast growing creature. Their only problem is that they are mostly water.
If you absolutely want to try tomato and your climate is correct the easier are the cherry tomato. They give less food par plant but can still produce lots of tiny tomatoes in a continous harvest. Is much more fungus resistant than the other varieties and very ornamental.
I have had a garden for 4 out of the past six years and tomatoes have always been the easiest plant for me to grow an abundance of. That was in Michigan, Missouri, and Seattle too so it was pretty easy across the entire continent.
The concise method is, start them indoors in a starter kit in the window(right now is the time to do this), move them to a raised bed in the sun after they’ve sprouted and are healthy with roots, and make sure they get a lot of water. That’s it. Always had way too many tomatoes.
This is not a criticism, nobody knows until they are taught, just trying to help you improve your use of English (which is otherwise excellent).
The phrase "much more easier" is incorrect. The word "easier" loosely means "more easy" so "more easier" would loosely mean "more more easy" which sounds wrong :-)
Correct usages are "easy", "much easier", and "even easier".
In your case above you can lose the "more" and just use "much easier". If you were to add another suggestion that you thought was easier than cucumber or zucchini then you would describe that third set of options as "even easier".
(Yes, I am stuck home alone; and yes, I do have too much time on my hands lol)
Simple? Live in the US? Go to Home Depot and buy a tomato plant: cost about $4. While you're there get a 5 gallon bucket and a bag of topsoil.
Go home, transplant the plant into the bucket of soil and water it. Put it in a place with lots of sunlight and water it periodically. You'll have tomatoes in about 3 months.
Yeah, you can start from seed, but without experience that can be tedious and it requires far more care and attention. Also, end of March is about as late as I'd want to be starting tomato seeds.
BTW:
Carrots can be stored for very long. Here is a video how carrots are stored usually in winter time at industry scale. But you can do this at home as well:
I'd be happy to! Tomatoes are super forgiving and are a great place to start.
The easiest thing is to pick up a seed packet at a garden supply store. I buy most of mine online or from Stokes. Drying out seeds is fairly easy, but seed packets are less work.
For starting seedlings you only need a few simple supplies. Ideally you have very light, "airy", soil. This usually sold as "seed starter" mix. You can make do with normal potting soil, or even whatever you can scrounge up from outside, but the seedling has to push its way up to the surface. So if your soil is chunky, or has stuff like woodchips in it, a seedling might struggle to breach the surface. A cheap way to make seed sprouting mix is to pass dry soil through a sifter. You can dry soil in the oven at a low temperature, but it's a bit stinky.
You should plant each seed around a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch deep in the soil. I usually lightly poke the soil with my pinky, drop one seed in the hole, and brush some surrounding soil over top. The important thing here is to leave the soil as loose as possible, so don't compact the soil at all if you can help it. Like I mentioned above, the sprout has to poke its way out all on its own, and it's not very strong. You can plant it deeper, but it'll take longer to reach the surface, or may not at all.
The ideal place to plant seedlings is in a covered seed tray, though any type of pot will do. If you have a bigger pot, you can plant a bunch of seeds in the same pot. You'd be surprised how big a plant can get in a tiny pot (maybe 2 cubic inches) before running out of space to spread its roots. If you have a good liquid fertilizer (I have a big jug from a hydroponic supply store that I've been going through for two years now) you can basically grow it anything. Some people use clay pellets or rockwool. A plant needs something to hold onto as it grows. Soil is convenient in that it provides both structure and nutrients, and it's what you already have outside.
Keep your seedlings in a warm place and never let them dry out. I like using a spray bottle to avoid disturbing the soil when things are just getting started. A covered seed tray keeps the moisture and heat in. Plastic wrap, or some other clear cover works fine in a pinch.
Once the plants start getting their "true leaves", i.e. the second set of leaves that look different from the initial seedling leaves, you can remove the cover to give it space to reach up.
Most tomatoes need staking (one wooden stake is ideal, bamboo is great, metal cages are common but I find them annoying) to keep them upright once they start getting flowers. Loosely tie the plant to the stake with yarn or twine.
If you intend on keep your tomatoes in a pot instead of the ground or some sort of raised bed, make sure the pot is fairly large and either has a drainage hole or some rocks at the bottom of it for water to pool. You never want the soil to be soupy.
----
Edit: not super concise, sorry about that :) Feel free to ask any questions you might have. Also, don't be afraid to experiment. I was lucky enough to have a mother who grew up on a farm teach me most of what I know, but it really just boils down to:
These are great tips. This year I also started some seedlings early — I used some left over egg cartons as containers, and put them on top of my clothes dryer which is next a window and often warm.
My sugar snap peas shot up the fastest so those are already in the ground. Thinking of putting the rest of my seedlings in the ground this weekend and starting some more sprouts in egg cartons.
Thanks for the kind words! I do, jcdl.net. Only one post on there ranting about ThinkPads though. I never thought to use egg cartons, what a good idea.
To add, if like me you don’t have a “green thumb”, know that it’s not a terminal condition. I found the book by Kevin Espiritu to be pretty good at giving a crash course and practical advice on how to grow edibles. And it doesn’t take much: 5 gallon buckets, perlite, compost, loam, and you’re in business.
Start with greens, many only take 4-8 weeks before their ready. Some radishes are ready in 30 days. The rest you mention outside of Chard take 90 days or so.
Yes, I'll also be directly sowing radishes, beets, and climbing green beans. I hoping for multiple crops of greens throughout the year. I will say though that my peppers and tomatoes were probably started a little early for my zone. Some are already bearing fruit in my brighter areas.
I like your initiative, the attention and how you've acted to the what I think has proven to be a DIRE logistical and production problem since at least 2008.
But, I noticed this part:
> Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes?
Both of those are out of season, the Butternut squash has decent shelf life, so could have been harvested and stored back in the Fall. However, most of the store stuff you get as a perennial, especially those tomatoes, are going to be hybrids that have sterile seeds.
I really do hope that this Outbreak is what makes Backyard and Community Gardens come back in a way not seen outside of Europe since WWII.
I agree that making clones is an awesome way to increase yield and maintain good genetic lines, this is actually how most MJ/Hemp people got their early genetic lessons--grandmothers and mothers who had spent time with them in the Garden telling them how to preserve desirable genetics.
And it paid off really well for those who could provide a steady and stable genetic line, I met a few of them.
I agree that potatoes are the best intro to gardening as its by far the easiest and if planned correctly can yield quite a lot of harvest for the limited space (think vertical planters).
Maybe its because I had to do this at large scale that my brain has shifted to outsourcing anything not deemed super valuable (fruit tree clones or High CBD experiments) to have in a Nursery, but I really am a fan of these guys:
I was hoping to get the Catalog this year to share with others as the Gardening Season is coming up, so if anyone is interested in doing that I can buy/send you the money via BTC if you have the hardware to do that as its total Gardening-pr0n!
Please do not recommend fertilizing plants for human consumption with human manure!!
It is a practice that has been abandoned for good reasons. The reasons are the propagation of pathogens right into your food chain. You can compost the manure and use that compost for fertilization of fruit trees in early spring. But please do not use it on vegetable plants, leafy greens and such.
> That might make things worse, you can have too much fertility. Depending... Potatoes like sand soil. Beyond that I'm not a potato growing expert.
Potatoes are super forgiving, I've grown nice sized potatoes and carrots in very heavily compacted clay soil before (it was the farm's 2nd season amending the soil with sand but it was pretty bad) however, potatoes can be grown in many other growing mediums, straw or hay can be prepared if you don't want to go with a soil based system:
The best part is its a closed loop growing system, as after harvest you can use it to add to the compost or even as mulch. I personally prefer soil gardening, and believe it determines taste enough to not want to do it, but if I would do it if I was first starting out.
There is very little written on the use of vegan poop. One argument against human poop is that it can transfer disease. If it is your own that doesn't seem all that harmful. It might even help convince other humans not to eat your crops.
There are a lot of bacteria in the colon, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to have them everywhere, even if they are your own.
It would be necessary to store poop dry, separate from urine, and to compost it to make it somewhat safe. Usually, a dry toilet is used for this. However, it might be difficult to install and operate the whole process if you're not living in the countryside.
Is there any simple way to speed up / increase chances of germination (of tomatoes, beans, peas, lentils, pumpkins)? E.g. by covering the soil (where the seeds are) with paper / plastic / cloth (as a makeshift greenhouse, to increase temperature and/or humidity), or something similar?
Heat and consistent moisture. I keep some of my seedlings under grow lights in my furnace room beside my servers. Plastic seed trays with clear tops are excellent to reduce evaporation.
Electric heat mats are awesome to stick under seed trays in the sprouting stage.
In my experience, heat is the most significant accelerator for germination. You also want very loose and light soil to help the seeds poke out as easily as possible. "Seed starter" mix is ideal, see my other comment in this subthread for more on that.
Try the paper towel trick: wrap the seeds in a moist paper towel (not too wet, or it will encourage fungus growth). Then, keep them inside a ziplock bag in a warm place for a couple of days, checking on them every day. I keep them on top of the refridgerator where it's nice and warm.
Beans sprout super fast! For very dry seeds (lentils, beans, peas, edamamme) you could soak them in water overnight and just use the seeds that settle down after they've absorbed some moisture.
Oh yes. You'll destroy the roots if you try to separate it. What I meant is that you will typically only sprout seeds that way. Then you put them in a small starter pot or similar with soil to get them to continue growing inside. Then transplanting them into the ground once ready. This is opposed to just sprouting in the starter pot.
The 'preppers' have amassed quite a bit of info on preparing for just such an outcome; I'd definitely recommend hearing them out. The govt. IMO really can't be trusted at a time like this. Reporting from here in India, the overreaction of the state has thrown a wrench into the workings of an, admittedly broken, food supply system.
Another great tip is that once you have a good sized tomato plant, it's super super easy to clone it. You just have to take a cutting at a node and let the stem soak in water. Rooting hormone helps speed it up, but it's possible to do it without. I've cloned about a dozen plants from a single tomato I accidentally started early. Needless to say I'm running out of window sills to stick them as it's still too cold to transplant them.
Frankly I saw this coming in January and started hundreds of seedlings of different tomatoes, hot peppers, squash, pumpkins, cucumber, zucchini, lettuce, and chard to share with my neighbours.
I'm a bit of a gardening nerd and had a big collection of unused seeds from prior seasons, but you'd be amazed at what you can grow that's already in your pantry or fridge. Potatoes are easy to get started but can be a little finicky with soil conditions.
I'm thinking I'll have quite a bit of time to spend in the garden in the coming months. Hopefully I can make a small difference in my community.