Seriously, I am tired of the stereotypes of leftists in the west looking like they all grow soy beans, as the fash call it ie weak as fuck. And almost to a large degree, it’s true.
I see chuds everywhere when I go to the community garden, and their plants are fucking huge ngl. They take care of their tomatoes. I don’t care if you’re growing potatoes, cucumbers, squash, artichokes, you have to have those fruits and leaves fucking huge and shooting to the sky and looking good. You want to help the cause? Help yourself. Do it for vanity, do it for others, do it for the greater good, I don’t care. Fucking weed and fertilize the best you can and get those veggies the biggest they can be.
It’s hard, but so is literally everything. Just know this is going to take 3-4 years of consistency. If you’re starting out, don’t worry about a garden layout, and just plant good shit. Your biggest goal at this point is consistency, watering 5 days a week. Do that over 3-4 years, and progressive growth every single day whether that be lettuce or whatever.
I want you fuckers to be fucking vain jesus fuck. Fuck your organics, use Miracle Grow for all I care, but have a green thumb while doing it. Slowly start doing more functional things such as eggplant or mushrooms w/e to truly maximise your gardening potential.
Hell yeah comrade, I still struggle with producing good peppers tbh, especially larger varieties, not sure if I should fertilize them regularly.
I have had fertilizer troubles often in the past, this year I picked up a sack of 13-13-13 and that stuff is like pepper crack cocaine, as soon as I see the green starting to get a little pale I sprinkle in a small bit and water it in and the plant gets dark green again within a week or two
OH! and I got a super cheap soil test kit so when I plant something I test the soil in the pot and then amend as needed
this is entirely dumb guy gardening, I enjoy doing it but I hate reading about it so i mostly fumble around in the dark until I hit on something that works and the 13-13-13 is like fertilizing on casual mode
I’ve been fertilizing most of my plants regularly this year but was kind of neglecting the peppers because I figured they’d be fine. Tomatoes are getting massive though and I’ve never had a cucumber plant get so large, it’s covering an 8x8 area and is starting to overrun some of the other plants.
I’ve never had luck with tomatoes or tomatillos, bugs and birds get them before I can every single time. Eggplants are real fun though, I didn’t plant any this year because last year I kept getting too many and didn’t eat them all or made too much ajvar that never got eaten. They’re really pretty plants on top of being super easy to grow, at least in my region (east texas). Wish I planted cucumbers this year.
Might be worth hitting the plants with something like Neem oil to keep the bugs off of them, not sure about the birds though. I’ve had people say I should put up netting or some kind of cover but I’d never forgive myself if I found a dead bird caught in it. First time I tried growing strawberries every time I went to pick a ripe one I’d find a beak sized chunk taken out of the side. I haven’t gotten eggplants completely dialed in but I really enjoy the Japanese ones for being just overall easier to cook.
Yeah I’m not too worried about the birds, the bugs annoy me though. With peppers it’s just easier to spend a few minutes every few days examining them and just remove and relocate the offending critters. The japanese eggplants are fantastic
Fresh amended soil (ie: composted/whatever) generally doesn’t last longer than a month and a half before needing more juice. Youll know for sure with stuff like peppers/other nightshades bc the fruits will look smaller/stunted and you’ll get leaf yellowing.
Fish emulsion with kelp is usually an easy liquid organic amendment (but obviously not vegan). Right now I’m just using Masterblend which is a synthetic water soluble fert intended for hydroponics but can be easily used in soil. Very cost effective. 50lbs will last a regular person an insane amount of time.
If you garden straight into your dirt and not containers I would say to take the time to learn how to continuously feed your earth. It takes more knowledge but honestly it’s kinda more hands off than having to juice up stuff synthetically.
I used fish emulsion one season but it’s kind of expensive. I’ll definitely keep the hydroponic mix in mind though, doesn’t look like that brand is available where I am but I’ll probably give something similar a go next year, been getting good results from hitting most of the plants with water soluble fertilizer once a week.
Is insect frass considered vegan? Asking for a friend.
I think it’s just insect byproduct, so yeah I think it counts as vegan. Granted maybe there’s a vegan out there who would count the was frass is made as abusive to the insects? Someone else can chime in, I’m definitely not the right person to have the last word on this one lol