Good morning - we are expecting one heck of a storm beginning tonight into Wednesday with accumulation of 8 to 12 inches for most of MA.

Bad news all over. That should hit most of us in the northeast.

That's a lot of snow!

5 inches of snow on the ground and a lot more to come

RickCorey said:Maybe a chest freezer would be easier to dig to the bottom of, if you set it up like our foot lockers at Boy Scout camp. The footlockers had a shallow tray that sat on top of the main volume of the footlocker. That lifted out easily and revealed the bottom 3/4 of the contents.Maybe keeping the top few layers of things in a chest freezer in boxes or heavy bags would let you lift out and replace things faster than digging and rummaging would.I suspect they would collect frost while outside the freezer, but individual items would collect even more frost.

Always thinkin, Rick, always thinkin !

Oberon46 said:Holy cow Linda. Maybe I am in the wrong climate. Staying in because it is too cold can't be too much worse than staying in cuz it's too hot. Except I can dress for cold; there are laws to prevent "dressing" for hot hot!!

Hey - I've been using that theory for decades!!

And as of summer 2012, I have become vulnerable to heat stroke....
SO it's worse now.

RickCorey said:Cornell is working with researchers in those countries to make a more insect-resistant eggplant (I assume it would be a GE / GMO eggplant).

Boooooooooo.

abhege said:I planted my eggplant seeds today. I don't even like eggplant!

DavidofDeLand said:It seems that once a plant that does well for a season or two in any locale, produce better fruits the next year in that locale in the future wheather from cuttings or seeds, and acclimate to the area.

Yup!
I don't think tomato cuttings would survive inside for our long winters here tough.
And I think that would mess up the whole "better fruits the next year" thing too.

Newyorkrita said:Oh stick about any end of a tomato branch into moist potting soil and it will root. Instant new plant.

Tomatoes do root from the stem. Some very experienced gardeners like to plant them on their sides and cover the stems with Soil. I do a more space efficient thing where I dig a hole and plant the plant in the bottom and add soil to fill the hole as the plant gets taller.

OK, I've caught up with the thread now....

As soon as the snow melts, I'll be seeding directly out in the soil, using plastic jugs, bottles, and other containers as cloches.

I'm so excited!

I have been saving 2 liter clear pop bottles with lids all winter figuring they had to be good for something: a watering device, Winter Sowing, etc. Any other ideas out there.

Also:

keep the cap.
remove the bottom.
poke a hole in the cap and several around the upper part of the container.
put them upside down in your garden beds.
fill with the hose.

faster, easier, deeper watering.

They also work well as a sugar ant trap. Drill tiny holes in the cap and use a blend of sugar and apple cider vinegar as bait. The ants crawl in and drown. Of course not everyone has problems with Argentine ants.

Here is a problem i need help with.

I will start all my seeds indoors which will be no problem. I have everything i need including lights and heat mats. The first week of may i will be going to Texas and will be away for almost a week. I have been experimenting and i came up with something i think might work.

Remember those "As Seen On TV" infomercials where the guy is selling those things that absorb water 10 times better than sponges.? I have a few of them and the other day i soaked it with water and put it in a long aluminum tray and it stayed ultra wet for more than a week. I thought if soaked the thing with water and then fill the water tray with water and then place the plants in the water tray it would do the job.

The plants will be in those biodegradable type of containers so i figure they would absorb and hold water better than a plastic container.

Anyone have other ideas??

Rick Cory has a great idea to make it yourself capillary mats using flannel or cotton you but out and fit in the bottom of the trays. Can't remember if he is on this thread. Sounds like a great idea. One I do intend to try.

I like the 2 liter idea. Would work great to give my tomatoes a great start. Thanks

Oberon46 said: you but out

Typo of the day!!

If you already HAVE the "better than water" mats and have tested and proven them, I'd go with that.

I wonder if @rickcorey knows of those mats??

Shamwow?

>> "better than water" mats
>> "As Seen On TV" infomercials ... absorb water 10 times better than sponges.?

?? I don't know of them, but I have seen "official" capillary mats that were built for the purpose of watering a whole shelf of pots. I'm still hoping to find a cheaper DIY version.

Is the TV super-sponge like the water holding crystals / gel that some people add to soil to hold more water? Without knowing anything about it, I wonder what advantage it has over plain old water sitting in the tray?

If it can provide water without changing the water level as the plants drink it, that would be an advantage. As long as the water DOES drain back out of the super-sponge as plants drink it!

It think the commercially-made kits for unattended cap-mat-watering handle the water level changing by propping the plants up above the water level and dangle the cap mat down into a big tray that holds enough water to last through a whole vacation.

I have a cat-watering-gadget that is basically a bottle inverted so that its only opening is under water in a shallow tray that the cat can drink from. When the water level drops below the opening, it goes "glug" like a water cooler and the tray fills back up until the opening is under water again. That might work, too, if you can prop a water bottle over each tray and they don't tip over!

I always thought it would be cool to set a gallon jug or 3-gallon jug on a shelf above the trays, and lead cotton wicks down from the jug into each tray. The wicks would have to be very carefully sized to transport enough water up and over the lip of the jug, then down to each tray so that plants didn't dry out ... and trays didn't overflow and flood my bedroom. In other words, "cool but stupid". Or at least impractical.

It's probably much better to imitate the commercial "self-watering trays" and leave a quart or two of shallow reservoir UNDER the pots, and let a big wick pull water UP on demand from the plants. If you're like me, you would rather invent something better or at least DIFFERENT, but I think the existing design would be hard to beat.

If I could think of a cheap and reliable sensor for detecting water level down to a fraction of a millimeter, I could imagine an automated system with computer controlled solenoid valves and a small water pump and lots of tubing and wires. Except for the software and testing and maintenance and electrocution protection, it MIGHT be made as cheap as a few hundred dollars, but probably not as reliable as the existing much cheaper commercial systems. Sigh.