What Payne said. Also, Charlie what fertilizer are you using? The one thing about potted veg plants that I grow is they need more fertilizer more often and more water than my raised bed plants. The reason is every time you water nutrients are leaking out of the bucket and they roots have nowhere to go out and search for what they need. And the buckets dry out faster needing more water. I fertilize my raised bed plants every two weeks or so. I fertilize my potted plants every week. Lets just say the fertilizer label says to add 1 tablespoon of fert to a gallon of water and water thoroughly every 2 weeks. Divide that by 4. So you would apply 1/4 table spoon every week. Over all both plants are getting the same monthly required nutrition but you are "spoon feeding" the potted plants as their nutrition is getting washed out with additional waterings.

And the reason I ask what fertilizer do you use is I wanted to see what the N/P/K value is. I've seen people using a singular fertilizer like Alaska fish and they get very nice beautiful growth but they have don't get a lot of fruit set yield. We'll Alaska is a 5-1-1 fert. Meaning it's 5 parts nitrogen to one part each of Phosphorus and Potassium. Great starter fert as you want to push growth, but once it starts putting on flowers you would want to make some adjustments so it will use it's energy to set fruit.

Great info Derek.

Derek likes to squirt the fert

Anyone that can make a snow angel like that in shorts, in TX, must know what they're doing. :-)

I really don't remember what fertilizer I used, it was something I picked up at Callaway when I bought the plants on a whim. I am going to make a raised bed this time instead of the buckets using some of Burpee's 12" brackets. Thanks for the fert. advice, I'll use that 5-1-1 to get things started. I'll be back when I transfer everything to the bed for advice.

I'm planning to start with these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SNLPJHM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 for my seed germination.

The frost chart for Denton county calls for last frost mid-March, so I'm going to go ahead and start rounding things up now to get started.

What are my chances of actually growing a stalk or two of corn in a 5 gallon bucket?

So no Sevin dust... I thought that was the answer for any/all bugs? I did notice last year I never saw a single bee around the plants. Given my dad was a hobbyist beekeeper and I was the forced labor, I actually thought about buying one of those hobby hives to put out, but here in the city I figure it would cause me grief somewhere.

Thank you gents!
Charlie

You can get the same brackets at HD or Lowes for cheaper.

That seed starter will work okay, you can diy for cheaper and better

You'll need at least two stalks for them to produce, they bring in a lot of bugs

Sevin is great at killing all bugs, the problem with that is they kill the pollinators

I didn't mean for you to runout and buy the 5-1-1 fish. I was giving a ratio example. Nothing wrong with that fert at all. Grab it and go with it you want. Personally and to keep it as simple as possible I would rather start out with a little more balanced fert like Jobes All Purpose 5-2-3. Then move to a more balanced fert like their Bursting Blooms 3-3-3. There are a millions different fertilizers. Millions of ratios to you can go with. Just keep a simple rule of thumb to start out with the first number being higher then move to where all 3 numbers are equal or the middle and last number are higher than the first once you get to a good bloom stage. But we can get into that deeper as you go along.

https://jobescompany.com/product/jobes-organics-water-soluble-purpose-fertilizer/
https://jobescompany.com/product/jobes-organics-water-soluble-bursting-blooms/

100% agree with Payne on Sevin. I really like Mason Bee houses. I've put up 3 cheap ones the last 2 years and native solitary bees have almost completely filled them up. They are awesome pollinators.

That’s an idea! I have a big tall bird house that needs replacing. How can I make sure the bees use it and not those dang gangster wasps?

I'm only running all the way to Amazon. What about this?

https://www.amazon.com/Burpee-99974...1610406560&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-11

For Bees,
What about something like this at the head of the bed, mounted to a T-Post?

https://www.amazon.com/Mason-Bee-Ho...1610406637&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-17

Charlie

GD..................yalls tomatoes cost 18 dollars a pound after figuring everything............maybe more



I got 6 nice romas today for 98 cent and 6 avocadoes for 2 bucks.


raising chickens is kinda the same thing. Ive been down yalls road. ITs fun but leave for a week and youre crop will die ................and probably your chickens too........ROFLMAO


I like protein so fishing is good and free...........and Jack in the Box 2 for a dollar.


That fertilizer is garbage.

Yes I know about the box wine Piggie Smalls.................so save it.

I do mine right. They save me money. They never hurt my pocketbook.

Look here . . . . everything costs $ when you don’t have anything. Since being down this road, you see the difference in your own produce vs the absolute garbage you get on a $2 burger.

Respectfully, not really. Maybe a little

Can’t believe I’m bowing up in a gardening thread. Dam dems got me on edge!

don't bring politics in here

Found my stash of fertilizer from last year. I’ll keep the bone/blood meal but this I’ll cut someone a smokin’ deal on the best smell in the world

I left something un-said. Gardening is also great for my health. Not because of the vegetables but because it gets me from behind to keyboard and onto the handle of a garden hoe.

That will work as a good starter fert. I like the ingredient list.
http://nv.certifyag.com/FertPublic/Products.aspx?CompNum=F1332

That is the bee house I'm talking about. There are bigger ones on amazon for cheaper than you linked.

I googled mason bees. I had no idea that’s what they were called. I always just called them honey bees. And did you know you can buy them? I guess they’re in larvae state and they just end up hatching and flying out. Not a bad idea to get 50 and set them up in or next to a little bee house.

https://masonbeesforsale.com/collections/bees

I'm definitely a bigger hammer guy, but I'm hoping to only attract a few. I really would like to do a small hive, but a hive + a queen + bees to start is pretty spendy. In the early '90's I remember a queen was about $15, now they're almost $50 it looks like.

I hope the one I posted doesn't become a wasp house instead.



Your link no worky. You don't get larvae, you get a box of buzzing bees. To keep the bees where you put them, you have to add a queen as well or they get bored, directionless and go look for another hive. Kind of like men with no wife/girlfriend to tell them what to do. Mason's are just a variety of honeybee, there are quite a few.

Charlie

Agreed. It’ll be bonding time for me and the boys too. Gonna put their lil hineys to work!

Fixed it

I've ordered them before from them. It's cool to watch them hatch out. It was a waste of $20 but the kids liked it. There are gillions of different types of solitary bees. They will naturally find the houses and setup shop. It's cool to see all the different kinds that take up residency in them.

If you really want something cool for your kids. Order some Praying Mantis eggs come spring.
https://www.amazon.com/Praying-Mant...antis+eggs&qid=1610465117&sr=8-2

I've never seen bees as your showing as larvae, this is all I've ever known.



Without a queen, I wonder what keeps them from leaving?

Charlie

There is a queen in a small box in the middle of that package. To the bees in that package that is a new queen to them. By the time that package gets to the end user the bees will accept her as the new queen and will not leave her.