How I grow sweet potatoes
Here's what I do: Buy a sweet potato at the grocery store, dig a shallow hole somewhere in the yard, and bury the tuber. Then I forget about it. I don't even remember exactly where I buried it. It doesn't matter. In the spring it will send up a bunch of little vines...
Adding soil and compost to seed-starting mixes
Did a little experiment with mixes for starting seeds. The "Stone" medium on the left is an E.B. Stone "Seed Starter" Mix that I purchased. The bag says it contains primarily peat moss and perlite. The "Alder" medium on the right is a mixture that I made up using two...
Harvesting tomatoes and broccoli at the same time?
What's wrong with this picture, besides the fact that it's not well composed? If we lived in Oregon, nothing. If we lived in Missouri, nothing. But in Southern California, you don't usually pick both tomatoes and broccoli from the garden at the same time, especially...
Persimmon vs. tomato
I have a challenge for you: Can you tell them apart? Which one is tomato and which is persimmon? And how do you know -- color, sheen, blossom end marking, shape? The answer is found in the comments.
Sow carrots now!
Holy smokes, my carrot seeds just emerged faster than they ever have: nine days! Most sources say that carrots take between one and three weeks to germinate, and I've often found my carrot seeds emerging from the dirt more on the three-weeks end. Why so fast this...
How long to run drip irrigation on vegetables
My short answer is: Start with 45 minutes, observe, and adjust. But there are a lot of variables, which is why observing and adjusting is necessary. Of the many factors that affect how long you should run a drip irrigation system on vegetables, one is the...
Growing coffee plants in Southern California
Just attended a fascinating presentation by Ramiro Lobo, farm advisor in San Diego County with the University of California Cooperative Extension, about growing coffee in Southern California. The short of it is that there are a bunch of reasons to try it -- even if...
Best resource for growing avocados
While there isn't a great single resource for growing avocados at home, the best of what's available is a handbook written for commercial farmers that is edited by Gary Bender, former farm advisor in San Diego County. He taught my Master Gardener class on avocados,...
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