Hi.

where is everyone?

Hello,

What's everybody growing in Metro NY?

Waiting on the Ground Hog to say when to start seeds. Anybody got ideas or ambitions for 2016?

Happy First Day of Spring!! My fruit trees are flowering, leaves are budding......and its going to start snowing tonight. What else is new?

Okay, this forum is still very quiet. Well I'm hoping to grow jalapeno peppers alongside tomatoes. I might try to grow kale later in the summer/fall. Otherwise I'm concentrating on keeping my indoor lemon, lime and mint plants alive.

What kind of tomatoes? I bought one of those heirloom mixed boxes from store and would love to grow them. I have to look for seeds. I did start some peas and string beans inside around St Pats. Hope they survive transplant with cold and snow coming again, it's throwing me a bit off.

I would love to see your lemon and lime. How hard is it to maintain in Z7?

I haven't decided which tomatoes, probably cherry or plum tomatoes. I may purchase them from a local nursery or green market, though I may try to grow them from seed from store bought tomatoes just to try. I agree this weather is crazy.

These are my lemon plants which I need to transfer into larger containers.

These are my key lime plants. Again I need to transfer into larger containers.

I'm a city dweller (with no outdoor space) so these are indoor citrus plants which are all from seed. I'm fortunate that I have a few south-facing windows. As of now I'm using potting soil from the Lower East Side Ecology Center in clay pots. At some point I may use the 5-1-1 mix (Al's potting mix), but for now I haven't had problems with the soil or drainage issues which I attribute to the clay pots and the fact that I'm lazy in general when it comes to watering. Recently, I added some finely crushed egg shells, used coffee grounds and Epsom salted water to restore some nutrients, though I may have to purchase some fertilizer like Citrus Tone.

If you check out the Citrus forum, you'll see citrus growers from places like Minnesota and Massachusetts. It's rather amazing what these guys have been able to do.

They look so nice and healthy. Did it take long to get that big?

I look at that citrus forum occasionally, but sometimes I think the air here is strange and what should work, doesn't. Its nice to see success so close to home it gives me hope.

Let me know if you find resources for the Al's mix. I tried to look before, but I think its hard here in the city with no bulk landscape or farm stores.

miscel

you dont have messaging turned on. I bought a bag of citrus tone last week thru mail order and the bag is huge.

samsaraedu - Sorry, but you're right that my messaging is turned off.

As for my citrus plants, I think I started my lemons about this time last year and my limes later in June/July (I think). I regret not keeping track of when I started the seeds, but I wasn't sure how or if they would germinate (paper towel/plastic bag method) and survive so it was more of a low key experiment. I agree with you that things are different here versus other places which is mainly why I'm not so attached to my plants given that the environment isn't optimal. I would be disappointed if they perished or failed to thrive despite my best effort, but I accept that the odds are not in my favor. Still it's a wonder to see my plants still alive and doing relatively well.

Thanks for letting me know about the Citrus Tone bag size. I wish more companies would take into account that there are people who only need a fraction of the quantities available and offer smaller sizes. As for Al's mix, I remembered looking last year just to see and encountering the same issues as you. If I do find any places, I'll let you know. I'm trying to hold off on the fertilizer and Al's mix as long as possible, because I want to use more natural methods and also it's a pain in the rear if you don't live in the suburbs or countryside to purchase some of the items.

Btw, did you see the post in the Citrus forum a few months back from a member who grew lemon trees for about 2 (or 3) decades in pots using regular potting soil? After seeing that post and the accompanying photos, I'm thinking I may keep my plants in potting soil and clay pots longer.

That gives me hope too. Have to see if I can pick up a few small clay pots.

I think I first came to garden web after a link about a guy who grafted 80-100 types of citrus to a tree in CA that became famous. People from all over world would come visit, take pix and contribute grafts. The tree was gigantic. He also did "guerilla" grafting and put pears on regular city tree in front of his house. I read so many forums here the first week, finding out there's more to gardening than my part time vegs in the ground and I've been hooked ever since.

Wow. I need to look for that thread about the tree with multiple citrus graft cuttings.

I'm with you about the forums here. Pretty addictive and informative. I'm impressed by the level of dedication and collective knowledge and experience of the members here. Reading the posts gave me hope that I could actually grow plants indoors that I thought were only for those with a yard and good weather.

I forgot to mention depending on how impacted my potting soil gets, I plan to add some perlite to increase aeration. Also, I'll be adding some vermicompost in another month which should add more nutrients to the citrus plants.

If you want free mulch, Greenwood Cemetery maintains a free pile year round. You'll need to bring your own bag (and something to scoop up the mulch). Just go to the security guard at the entrance and he'll direct you to the mulch pile.

I have to look into that mulch some time. The LES place is a great resource too. Thanks

I tried to see if I saved that link for the tree but I think its on an older computer. I remember he put the more cold hardy varieties on the outside of the tree and sensitive ones on interior branches so it protected itself. The street tree had regular and asian pears on it as an experiment and both types fruited. Wish we could do that here.

So far I can only find the Sam Van Arken tree of 40 fruit project which placed stone fruit trees around the country, closest to us are in Short Hills, NJ and Pound Ridge, NY. Wonder if they are in bloom yet with this crazy weather, half of my stuff is and half isnt.

It's great to hear from people in Metro area. I will have to look into the mulch at Greenwood cemetery ( thanks for sharing!). It's very hard to find gardening supplies in NCY except few big box stores.

miscel - How are your plants doing? Let me know if you want some of the citrustone since it seems a lot for me ( gave away 3 more sprouts and 2 more died). PM your address

Hi samsaraedu! My plants are surprisingly alive given that I've been distracted as of late. I still haven't gotten around to purchasing the perlite and repotting the citrus. I've given up on growing peppers and tomatoes this year. No time. I think I accidentally overheated the pepper seeds, because they are not germinating at all.

As for the Citrus Tone, thank you so much for the offer. I think I'm going to still hold off on using Citrus Tone and its ilk. I'm sort of fixed on the idea of using vermicompost and what I have on hand (epsom salt, vinegar, etc.). My plan is to switch over when I moved to a more 511 or gritty mix or it's clear that my plants are not thriving. So far they look okay. Personally, I think you should hoard the Citrus Tone for your plants as they grow. Btw, are you using a gritty mix? And how may citrus plants are you growing?

I attempted something of gritty mix with substitutes but I dont think its good enough.

I may have located the ingredients for the gritty mix. I spoke to a guy last week about it so we'll see on Thursday. I already picked up the extra large bag of perlite since I had a HD coupon and he told me he could get the grit, pine bark fines and turface so "fingers crossed".

I purchased 2, an orange and a lemon and then sprouted 3 more lemons, 3 grapefruit and 2 other types of orange. Hoping to add a lime, I think finger lime looks interesting. Everything is still small.

My stuff isnt really thriving now. My humidifier broke during winter and dry electric heat didnt help even though I hand misted 3x a day. I hope they can hang on til I can move them or fix the mix.

What is the ratio of vinegar and epsom salts to water you put on your stuff? I was using stored rain water until I ran out and switched to filtered tap water. Not sure about my rain barrels this year, but I bought mosquito dunks if I set them up.

Wow. You really went all in with the citrus. Good for you!

I use about 1 Tablespoon of Epsom to 1 gallon of water. Sometimes I'll add 1/4 cup of vinegar or less. I'm not very exact in my measurements. I actually use an empty Tropicana orange 59 fl oz bottle which is a little less than 1/2 gallon. It's a convenient size for me. I use tap water or filtered water. I know I know.... I should really keep to filter or rain water.

As for gritty mix, I'm not sure if you saw the thread a few weeks back in the citrus forum about what mixes people use. One person - limeinqueens - who I'm guessing is in Queens (using my deductive skill here) wrote this:

5-1-1 (five parts bark chips, 1 part perlite, one part citrus soil).

I was considering emulating her mix which seemed more easily attainable than the turface which I am impressed you were able to locate here. That's a feat in itself.

Instead of a humidifier, have you considered a humidity tray setup? Small rocks under the container. Or a small fan for air circulation? I have my plants on a window sill. The window is drafty so it gets air circulation with no intervention on my part. (Lucky me.)

No drafts to keep heating bill down. The purchased ones are larger than any bonsai tray I've seen and I planted the sprouts spread out in larger pots to make dividing them in future easier. I think range from 2-5 Gal or more, I move some on plant dollies.

Everyone......we have success on gritty mix ingredients for NYC area (technically Long Island). Chestnut Valley Feed is an Agway store so they had Turface, 2 sizes of gran-i-grit and pine bark mulch was much better sized than nuggets in bags seen at HD. Going to mix up today and put outside, will let you know how they do.

On another note, picked first strawberries of the season. With all this heat they got ripe real fast.

Sorry its Chestnut Vale Feed

And they will deliver to LI and the 5 boroughs for a fee, the range is listed on their website.

samsaraedu - Thanks for the information! It's great that you were able to find a source for the gritty mix components. I'm impressed.

Besides your citrus plants and strawberries, what else are you growing? I realize I never asked. Actually, let me start a new post asking what people are growing. I'm always amazed by what people are able to grow in their homes and yards. Hopefully, people will chime in.

I have a lot going on, sometimes a little overwhelmed. I have a yard so there's in ground and raised bed/container fruit. Pears, grapes, different berries, along with figs and cherries. The apples, peaches, citrus and bananas are still young so I don't expect anything yet. And then I always manage to squeeze in other veggies and melons where I can each summer.

What did you start this season?

Samsaraedu - please update us on how the plants are doing in the new mix. I just acquired two citrus trees and needed to transplant to bigger pots as they are over 5' fall in nursery pots.

I am currently researching on the type of mix to be used as I need to have a light weight mix in order to move pots indoor/outdoor.

Thanks

Kate

miscel

remember when we were talking about multi grafts? I received an email from stark that said they worked with Luther Burbank for many years and he had a cherry tree with over 200 varieties of cherries grafted on it that produced fruit. unfortunately the black and white photo couldnt really show anything other that it was huge, a table and basket in photo are dwarfed by it.

samsaraedu - Whoa. I was just about to write to you regarding your Citrus Tone. Interesting about the grafts. It makes sense that only cherry varieties were grafted on. Who knew there were over 200 varieties of cherries?