h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If growing potatoes in a 15" x 17.5" or 16 liter flower pot, since the potatoes don't usually grow much deeper than about 8 inches (20.32 cm), fill the pot only 10 inches(25.4) deep, plant 3 potato sets, wait till the plants are 6 to 8 inches tall and add 2 inches (5 cm) more of soil, repeating as the plants grow, until the soil level is about 2 inches from the top.

The plants will put out tubers at every axil (bud) and you'll get a greater production than otherwise.

An alternative method is to plant the potato inside a used automotive tire, adding more tires and soil to the stack until the season closes.

I don't plan to try potatoes this time around. I'd rather not plug the holes in the bottoms of the pots.If we have a rainy spell, the water won't drain, and the plant roots could get too wet and rot.

Saw this a couple of weeks ago. Well. Maybe not this one, but one similar, and thought it may help you with the brain-lubrication.

http://themicrogardener.com/20-creative-ways-to-upcycle-pallets-in-your-garden/



MMF

That's the thing about Chore Girl copper scouring pads mesh, the material doesn't stop drainage, effectively stops infiltration of the flower pot by garden slugs and many other common garden pests and can be retro-fitted after the pot is filled and planted.

(I've found some fascinating galleries of chambers excavated through the drain holes by quite a variety of creatures, crickets, frogs (don't mind the frogs), beetles (sometimes troublesome), etc., besides the garden slugs.)

I often use shipping pallets when starting batches of plants for subsequent transplanting, in order to prevent the plants from rooting through the drain holes in a soil substrate.

I did all my planting today: pole beans in a long and narrow planter, peas in three round flowerpots, and carrots along a strip in front of my house. I plan to water daily and hope for the best.

None of my beans are doing well.

Probably has to do with the honey bee shortage.

I don't know what part of California you live in, ITIWBS, but there are usually a lot of native species of bees in most areas. Berkeley is said to have 76 species. Even an offshore island can have 80 or 90, depending on how close it is to the mainland. Bumblebees are usually wild, and can fly up to a mile and a half to collect nectar.

There are almost no wild honeybees left in North America, from what I have read. Honeybees were reintroduced in the 17th or 18th centuries by Europeans. They had gone extinct about 10,000 years earlier, but plenty of native flowers and fruit trees survived because of native bees. The mason bee pollinates fruit trees. There's a bee that specializes in squash blossoms. Bumblebees have long tongues, so certain types of deep flowers need them. Honeybees can't reach down far enough.

So far this Spring I've seen a few bumblebees. Most of the bees I've seen have been small native ones.

I'm in the Coachella Valley, about fifty miles east of Palm Springs and ten miles north of Imperial county.

I'm getting most of my fruit sets with the peas and beans immediately after seeing honeybees visiting their flowers.

The native plants depend primarily on the mason bee.

Feral (escaped domestic) honeybees used to be extremely common locally, but their numbers dropped drastically at about the same time as the bats went into a population decline over epidemic fungal respiratory infections. (Globally, earliest significant notes on this I can recall were from Russia, early 1990s).

I've been thinking of setting up a hive of my own, but that rarely works out locally on account of the circa 120F/48C summertime temperatures causing the bees to desert their hive in favor of cooler cavitations in the nearby limestone hills, which they share with the bats.

Most reasonably large and simple flowers, I've no problems about hand pollinating with a camel hair brush.

Peas and beans are difficult to handle that way and it helps to have suitable pollinator organisms.

I've come out 200% ahead on my Fava bean seed stocks, only enough for seed, and have no sets as yet with the scarlet runner bean, which is otherwise thriving, vegetatively.

If I don't see pods set on them soon, I'm going to go the hand pollination route anyway.




On the bright side, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers (Armenian type) are thriving and producing surpluses.

I've read that tomatoes welcome pollinators but can also make do with wind pollination. Don't know how true that is, though. There's a type of bee that specializes in squashes, pumpkins, and cucumbers. You probably have that kind of bee in your area. Mason bees are fairly well distributed across the U.S. but there are regional differences. Some farmers import some from other regions, only to find that they don't settle in all that well.

...of course, the Desert Ironwood, the single most ubiquitous local tree, is currently in bloom, so that's probably where any pea and bean family preferring pollinators are currently congregating, especially if they're hive organisms...




http://practicalbio.blogspot.com/2012/05/desert-ironwood-olneya-tesota.html




The Desert Ironwoods come into bloom immediately after the Palo Verdes, the second most ubiquitous local tree, also in the pea and bean family.




http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2006/04/25/blooming-blue-paloverde/

Locust trees are also in that family. We have a lot of honey locusts here, and they've just started blooming. The blossoms look like popcorn from a distance.

My carrots are coming up like crazy. About a third of my beans have come up. No sign of the peas, though. They're a long way from blossoming anyway . Hope I won't have to plant more.

Sometimes, patience is 9/10s of the answer.

By the way, congrats on your "Quote of the Day" entry.

[ to see about QOTD]

I think I saw one pea poking its head above the soil last night. Last night I planted Jack O'Lantern pumpkins in my father's garden. If I can find seeds for sugar pumpkins and zucchini, I'll plant them as well later in the week]
'

One of my Ginkgos is up.

The Ginkgo, like the avocado, is a dioecius species, bearing flowers of opposite genders on separate trees.

The sprout looks rather like an extra, extra, large pea seedling.

If I want Ginkgo nuts and vinegar, I'll need at least one of each gender, but even with only one I'll at least be able to brew tea.

My peas are starting to cone up. It's supposed to be very warm and sunny this week, so I expect the little darlings to grow quickly.

I meant "come,"not "cone."

Found another gingko tree in the garden today.

Missed it before because it was hidden by a wildflower in the same pot.

Looks as though there may be another one on the way.