Politically Incorrect

Growing our own food doesn't make sense. For one hour of our combined labor, we can buy roughly a ton of potatoes. Farmers are expert at farming, and we're expert at other things.

The world wasn't very productive when people grew their own food and wove their own clothes and were their own doctors.

Maybe grow it indoors ...

Don't be so sure--I grew two bell peppers last season in less than 9 months. Not shabby.

Cheers, James Arthur

Our next-door neighbor grew two, roughly 1" diameter, tomatoes last year, in pots on his deck, under plastic wrap. Figures they cost about $40 each.

Made in USA.

?? Only two bell peppers (pretty shabby), or is that two plants with dozens of peppers?

I'm afraid that's the yield from a dozen plants!

They're supposed to produce in 60-odd days. I started them indoors in February(!) to get a head start, but after 60 days they still hadn't even sprouted! (My house was too cold for them. They like their soil warm.)

It didn't get much better from there...

As a consolation, three plants really took off and were covered with flowers that would yield peppers, right before the first hard frost annihilated the poor pepper plants.

(I covered one plant up with an insulating blanket, to no avail.)

The sole survivor is indoors in a pot. Today, after two sunless weeks, it started dropping its leaves.

I don't usually have this much trouble. Usually I grow lots, delighting many bugs and deer.

Cheers, James Arthur

Unfortunately, I can beat that by more than an order of magnitude.

Things that live outside tend to 'harvest' gardened stuff apparently, so it takes more than a cool raised bed, cover, good soil and excellent seeds.

--sp

• Did you pass the bar?----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No, we went in!

The sliders are fantastic.

I'm surprised to hear you have that problem in an urban area. Did you move outside the city or something? As for Larkin's tomatoes,those things need t o around 8 hours direct sunlight and warm temps, the 1" diameter stuff tell s me there wasn't enough sun. And good soil is not necessarily good. The st rongest tasting vegetables are grown in poor soil with just enough nutrient s to keep the plant alive, too much nutrients makes for a nice looking gree n and leafy plot, but the produce is tasteless. Hydroponic is tasteless gar bage for that reason.

Sounds like you killed them with overfertilization : too much bullshit :-)

e outside the city or something? As for Larkin's tomatoes,those things need to around 8 hours direct sunlight and warm temps, the 1" diameter stuff te lls me there wasn't enough sun. And good soil is not necessarily good. The strongest tasting vegetables are grown in poor soil with just enough nutrie nts to keep the plant alive, too much nutrients makes for a nice looking gr een and leafy plot, but the produce is tasteless. Hydroponic is tasteless g arbage for that reason.

there are tons of different types of tomatoes, for some of them 1" is the n ormal size and they are usually the ones that have the most flavor

-Lasse

On Mon, 28 Dec 2015 06:51:56 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com Gave us:

As stated in my first response post to this... a little mini-greenhouse works. Need more sun? add one of those lamps the reefer growers use and turn it on for a couple hours after your daily sunlight has faded (unlike their 18hr a day costly method).

On Mon, 28 Dec 2015 07:02:20 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com Gave us:

The deer? :-)

There is a certain holly variety that deer just love to eat every stitch of.

e.

Makes no sense for you to grow on a backyard deck but it looks to be lucrat ive for someone with some land, actually looks like maybe $20K per acre or more. The more difficult and technical the cultivation, the more lucrative the enterprise. Again, yours bolted from insufficient sunlight. Sounds like maybe you should stick with mushrooms.

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I wonder which one? I have lots of holly (ilex verticillatas and opaca hybr ids mostly, some aquifolium) and deer all over my place with no problem. Th e deer do destroy crabapple trees though, they like to chew the bark and su ck sap out of the tree trunk, which kills the tree.

True, but if you have to go that route it's more convenient to just buy from the store.