Farming and Homesteading

[Greatshield17]

I grew my cucumbers last year in 5 gallon buckets. That's probably more soil than they really needed.
I'd say you could have all these outside any time now, unless you're at significantly higher altitude than we are here, and have a lot later a last frost date. Our last frost date is around May 17th.

I think you might be creating yourself more work than necessary with things like the potatoes if you're starting them inside. Transplanting takes a lot of time/effort. I planted my seed potatoes outside in the garden practically as soon as the ground was thawed enough to dig. They just sprouted up out of the ground aa couple weeks ago. No transplanting necessary.

A lot of people around here also just plant cucumbers straight outside, albeit later than potatoes. They are a bit more cold sensitive. You could probably just plant cucumber seeds outside now and they'd be growing like crazy in no time.

As for soil, the cucumbers seem to appreciate a good soil with organics that'll hold water well and such. Cucumbers like a lot of water. Also, you might want to pick up some Epsom salts for cucumbers. They like the magnesium on occasion with watering.

Potatoes on the other hand are pretty happy in poor soil, but it needs to be well drained. For mine, I mixed sand with some rather poor top soil that I got from a local landscaping company. The top soil they gave me had quite a bit of fine gravel in it, and then I added sand on top of that. The potatoes do fine in that. I had a problem the first year where I gave them a very rich, dense soil mixture. The soil held too much water, and a number of the potatoes rotted. (I was also probably watering them too much, I am good at loving my plants to death)

Also, I grow my potatoes in old car tires. You stack up the car tires and continue to bury the potato plants as they grow. Just google "Growing potatoes in tires" if you'd like to know more on that.

I don’t have soil for my potatoes so I can’t plant them; I planted some potatoes, as well as a cucumber seed, and some carrot seeds in my garden box out front, but none of them have come out from the soil, the only thing growing there are the green onions that I transplanted from a glass of water; which are shown in the photos above.

 

[Varzar]

I don’t have soil for my potatoes so I can’t plant them; I planted some potatoes, as well as a cucumber seed, and some carrot seeds in my garden box out front, but none of them have come out from the soil, the only thing growing there are the green onions that I transplanted from a glass of water; which are shown in the photos above.

I see, that is a challenge if you've got no soil. I had that problem my first year growing here too. The native soil is very poor and full of rocks.

The potatoes will take some time to sprout in my experience. Like a month or so before they poke out of the ground. Cucumber on the other hand I've always had come up out of the ground within about a week.

One other thing I do to make it easier for the seedlings to come up is I'll make the hole for the seed at the appropriate depth, put the seed in, and fill the hole with fine vermiculite, not soil. It's super light, so it's easier for the seedlings to push up out of the way than soil.

 

[ForestGumpett]

I’ve followed this woman’s website for prepping for a while, she has many great ideas. Her gardening zone will be different, if I’m remembering correctly she’s in mid Tennessee in the States. We are moving north of there to I believe the zone will be 5b so will be watching this thread - gardened in zone 7-9 most of my life, very sandy.

The video is on potato growing in bale’s. She’s grown some beautiful food, was very impressed!

 

[Varzar]

I’ve followed this woman’s website for prepping for a while, she has many great ideas. Her gardening zone will be different, if I’m remembering correctly she’s in mid Tennessee in the States. We are moving north of there to I believe the zone will be 5b so will be watching this thread - gardened in zone 7-9 most of my life, very sandy.

The video is on potato growing in bale’s. She’s grown some beautiful food, was very impressed!

Thanks for the video!
For reference, I'm in zone 5a, so just a bit cooler than where you're moving. I usually try to get stuff that will grow in zone 4 though, cause I live on top of a mountain.

 

[Varzar]

Just watched this video:

Thought y'all might be interested as well. He talks about timing and direct sowing vs transplanting and such too. I'll be giving some of these techniques a try for sure.

He's in New Jersey though, so his dates probably won't map to my growing zone so well. Little bit warmer there I think.

 

[Greatshield17]

@Varzar how does this cucumber plant look? Do you think it’s time to replant it?

 

[Varzar]

@Varzar how does this cucumber plant look? Do you think it’s time to replant it?

View attachment 67819

It looks like it'd probably be happy to be replanted.

Like he was kind of saying in the video, if you let it sit there too long, it'll just get root bound and slow down its growth. Then when you do replant it, it'll take a bit for it to get going again. May as well replant it earlier.
My experiments with watermelons this year corroborated what the guy in the video said. The ones I left in pots longer just ended up a lot smaller than the one I planted in the greenhouse early.

If you're planting it outside, and you think you might still get a frost where you are, just cover it at night with a pot/bucket to keep it warmer.

 

[Greatshield17]

Okay, I replanted it outside, I hope and pray that fares well:

 

[Greatshield17]

Hello, real quick,

How much water do carrots need?

 

[tree]

"Consistent moisture produces the tastiest carrots, so give them about 1" of water per week."
Growing Carrots - How to Grow Carrots - Planting Carrots


7 Tips To Growing Carrots | Everyday Health

 

[Magna]

@Varzar how does this cucumber plant look? Do you think it’s time to replant it?

View attachment 67819

Cool picture. Those "leaves" you see in the picture aren't actually leaves. They're the cotyledons; false leaves. They're energy stores the new plant has to draw from as food until the root system and leaf structures are established. Pretty amazing design.

 

[Varzar]

When to Water Your Vegetable Garden | Watering Chart

This might help for watering amounts for a variety of crops.

 

[Greatshield17]

I’m thinking of using one of my old boxes to grow another cucumber plant, but I’m wondering if there’s enough room depth-wise. (Apologies if anyone has answered this question before and wasn’t aware of it.)

 

[Varzar]

I’m thinking of using one of my old boxes to grow another cucumber plant, but I’m wondering if there’s enough room depth-wise. (Apologies if anyone has answered this question before and wasn’t aware of it.)
View attachment 67960

Hard to tell scale in the picture. Using your hand for scale, I'm thinking it looks about 5-6" deep?
I would think that would be enough for cucumbers. I don't think I'd put more than one in a box that size though.

 

[Amy Stone]

I am going to interject my opinion on homesteading:

I went down this path. Completely. Homesteading/Farming/Sustenance Living is a tough lifestyle. I think it's great raising as much as you can but you have to really love it and be good at it to make it work. Even then I still don't recommend it as your sole career choice. Someone in your household will always need to have an outside source of income. My suggestion is to grow as much as you can and live as cheaply as you can while holding another job, ideally a remote job, or a part-time job and save, save, save. Learn to preserve your food. But don't rush into anything big like livestock. A few chickens are ok if you have the space, but I wouldn't get into anything else for at least 5 years. You will quickly find out if you have a knack for growing things or not within your first 2 years.

Amy

"Opinions are like a**h0les....everyone has one" -Clint Eastwood

 

[Greatshield17]

@Varzar some of my potatoes are finally springing from the ground now, I’ve heard that you cover them again is that true?

 

[Varzar]

Yup, I usually wait until they are 6-8 inches tall and then bury them until just a couple leaves are showing.
I'm doing mine in old car tires, so I do that until I have a 2-tire stack filled with soil. I tried 4 tires the first year, but all the potatoes were in the top and bottom tire, so.. I decided to skip the middle two since.

 

[Greatshield17]

@Varzar @Magna how did you start homesteading? Were you raised in it, or did you decide to get into it? If decided to get into it, how much hands-on learning did you need to have in order to start, as opposed to learning by intuition and instinct, and maybe a few books and videos? I’m asking because, I’m thinking more on looking for other work to improve my finances; as I continue to try and find connections to my local farming community.

 

[Varzar]

I moved from the city to start homesteading. So, I knew virtually nothing going in.
Books, internet, and a super helpful neighbour are all what helped me get started.

But, I agree with what Amy said, "Someone in your household will always need to have an outside source of income.".
For me, that's my wife.
For my neighbours, they actually both work (but they do have 4 teenage kids that help around the farm too).
So, just depends on your situation what works for you.

 

[Magna]

@Varzar @Magna how did you start homesteading? Were you raised in it, or did you decide to get into it? If decided to get into it, how much hands-on learning did you need to have in order to start, as opposed to learning by intuition and instinct, and maybe a few books and videos? I’m asking because, I’m thinking more on looking for other work to improve my finances; as I continue to try and find connections to my local farming community.

Although I didn't grow up on a farm, I come from many generations of farmers and my Dad grew up on a farm. As such, I grew up on five acres of homesteaded land (e.g. large garden, poultry of all types, orchard, beekeeping, food preservation including dehydrating, freezing, water-bath canning and pressure canning)

I'm now in the process of spending every spare hour I have when I'm not working at my "day job" to not only expand our home garden but also develop 20 acres into an organic farm.

Amy Stone puts it very well. Homesteading/Farming is extremely hard work and intensely physical. Even food preservation in the kitchen after harvest time is a full time job of itself in the prep work and processing. As Amy Stone said, you really have to love doing it and you have to enjoy exhausting work.

Yesterday I worked in a field planting around 4,000 organic sweet corn seeds in 90+ degree Fahrenheit heat and full sun. Although I was able to make the rows with a tractor and I was able to use a walk behind seed planter, I had to cover the seeds in each row by hand with a hoe. Each row is around 200 feet long and I planted 15 rows yesterday; that's over 1/2 mile of corn. Next week I plan to plant another 15 rows the same way. The week after that...another 15 rows the same way. This is all in my free time at this point.

How do I learn? I do a lot of research on my own in the evenings including reading, internet sites and watching Youtube tutorials. I learn by doing (trial and error) and I also enrolled in a farm business management program through a community college. That has been very helpful because I have a farm instructor that comes out to our site and teaches me one on one.