Dandelions and Civilization (short vid)UPDATED pg 11 Dandelion and Spike Proteins

I just mentioned in the discord that I should add to this...but I am experiencing distress in my personal life so...I will carry on as I can, but yes, questions are always welcome.

Lance, no worries, please. We can add to this, or we can wait until you return. Please take care of yourself first and foremost. This thread will be here forever, and your presence, while highly valued and appreciated, is not a requirement when you have issues of your own going on.

C'mon people - jump in here with questions and information.

Yesterday at the grocery store I found a little net package of five large garlic bulbs, and they are heirloom! Only $2.99 for all that!

Did you know you can plant these and grow more, straight from the grocery store!

I prefer elephant garlic, which is larger and sweeter, but only have one small clove of that left - will plant it, of course.

The same can be done with ginger root, AFAIK - Lance, what say you? Because ginger has so many medicinal uses, I regret not buying a package, which was the same price as the garlic, for several very large pieces.

I hope everyone is growing everything they can right now. Get those fall crops planted! You may not realize how fast the famine is coming at us. Look at some of the threads regarding this - look at all the shortages already present!

Thread: Practical Prepping Protocol even if Poor (Page 204)

Thread: I ADVISE YOU TO CLICK THIS! It has begun. FOOD SHORTAGES. (Page 18)

Here we plant garlic of any type in the end of October. You don't want early sprouting. Early sprouting uses up the bulbs energy. But I am in Zone 8B Coastal so my planting time may be different.

Lance, I am only a zone or two below you - so I'd better wait as well, hmm? Thanks for the tip!

What about the ginger? Good to plant? If so, why?

Hope things are progressing slowly but forward for you.

Great video!

5*

Ginger is prolly best done indoors...Ginger is an amazing plat and if you can find the root...plant turmeric tubers as well...both are way above my gardening zone so inside seems best. All handy plants to have on the go. I'm going to split from GuLP until after my BD on the 28th, but when I come back I will not let this thread die. I just have personal issues. Stepping back makes sense. But I will return and answer anything anyone has to query about.

5 * and thank you for vid

Take care of yourself, my friend, and do what is best for you. We will be here, looking forward to your return, but not wishing to rush you. Just do what is right for you and no worries about here.
Hugs

Lance, when you return, I have in mind to plant sweet potatoes in buckets, because they are filling and very calorie- and nutrition-dense.

I purchased a net bag of them some time ago from the grocery store, and just watched a video explaining that if they sprouted, they are good to place in a water for a bit, then plant. Do you agree? They have purple sprouts, not large, but definitely present. Shall I go for it? If so, when, considering our zones? Thanks!

Since it is a question and I don't have to think to much...it is too late in the season really...unless you can overwinter them indoors which is not hard. The same goes with all the peppers and such. Go at the end of the season to a nursery and find anything that is hugely discounted like peppers...and keep them in pots with minimal water indoors and get an early jump on them next year in Spring.

Plants that are perennial (like both mentioned above really) will go into stasis over the winter. But as long as the soil is damp, NOT wet, they can overwinter for sure. Then you just put them out as quickly after your last frost date in buckets or whatever. Just don't let them freeze. AH...shit...anything (different country) over 33F and below 40F should hold them back from doing much other then 'sleeping. Pretty sure I have those numbers right...I think in C.

Thank you greatly, Lance! What great advice - grabbing the greatly-discounted plants now and be ahead in spring. Thank you for this!

Good to know about the sweet potatoes. Better I leave them cold and dry and not planted for the winter? Or better to sprout them now, plant them and overwinter inside in dirt?

My only inside place is the garage. I overwintered fuschias last year, by george, in my garage! The door is that wavy plastic stuff we see on porch roofs sometimes, so there is quite a bit of light coming through it. No windows. I put plastic over the fuschia baskets, and watered from time to time. Could do the same with sweet potatoes, peppers, etc? It gets very, very cold in there, but the plastic might save them as it did the fuschias?

Really great to have you answering, Lance. Appreciate your willingness - just take care of you.

Picked up cabbage plants today, six of them for .75 total, Late Dutch Flat. Thought I'd stick them into a couple buckets that didn't germinate the seeds planted, and see what happens with them.

Also picked up a stalk of celery to see if I can regrow it - have to find the directions again.

Grow anything you can, people. You will be so glad you did!

It's NOT looking good out there...plant and pantry.

So right, Lance. We are getting more and more reports from people shopping at all kinds of stores and not finding what they went for. We are at the end of availability, I think.

Store and plant, people. Research what you can grow at this time of year in your zone - there are fall crops you can be planting - do it!

Hugs for you, Lance

Last Edited by Pooka on 07/24/2019 04:13 PM

Because I can only plant in containers, I have to purchase my soils and additives. In spring often I want to plant before soils are available in local stores like Walmart and Home Depot or I miss by a week or two and they are sold out waiting for replenishment of stock. I determined I really wished to purchase soil late summer/early fall before the stocks are retired to storage or sent back to original plant.

Today I went to Home Depot and was very, very fortunate. Two bags of two cubic feet each great organic soil for vegetables - definitely not that miserable chemicalized soil. Price was decent - less than $7 per bag.

Amazingly, they still had heirloom seeds and, in fact, had a greater selection than when I went earlier in the year, so I was able to purchase ten more vegetables of different types, most of which I could not find earlier in the year.

I recommend this as a good time for soils and amendments, if you require them, and for adding to your heirloom seed stocks for 2020. This is also about the time for buying pool shock on sale, just before people put their pools away for the season.

Hard to say what will be available next spring - if nothing else, do go find yourself more heirloom seeds TODAY to be prepared for growing your own favorites next season.

Best wishes!

Last Edited by Pooka on 07/24/2019 10:33 PM

IMO...buy or build a decent cedarwood box and store your seeds in a cool and dry place. Screw the fridge and what-not. fridges are great for storage for a year...but they are damp. Ammo boxes work just as well...I like them. And you can bury them to keep them cool. They do stay dry. It is kind of their point.

Mine go into tightly-closing jars or coffee cans [Folger's].

I want to hang out with this lady and sip elderberry wine...

Yes, stone soup...I'm looking out the back door of where I moving to and I see food everywhere...

Lance, when garlic is planted in November as you suggested, when will harvest for it be?

Did you also say to plant the sweet potatoes in November? If so, when will they be harvested?

So great to have you answering questions here!

Garlic gets harvested (cut the flowering heads off) late July or early August depending upon your season. In Northern climates you plant the sweet potatoes and harbour them indoors, about the same time as you would plant garlic and nurse them until your first frost free day in the Spring. Rember, you are keeping your sweet potatoes in a form of stasis over the winter. But that gives a jump on next years crop. Just like peppers you perennialize.

The flowering heads of garlic are darn tasty so don't just chuck them into a compost or something. You can use them fresh in salads, or pickle them etc. But allowing the flowers to develop to maturity takes energy away from bulb production. So unless you are breeding a new form of garlic you cut them down (the flowers that is) just before the actual petals appear. Cheerio!

Thank you for these answers, which two of us await. I will see the other person on Thursday and pass on the good words!

So the garlic also is planted indoors in November?

Okay, next question, how to start a celery plant from a stalk of celery from the grocery store, and outside or in at this time of year?

Here's how to grow celery from a store-purchased stock. Indoor plant in colder zones, outside in temperate. Never have to buy a big stalk of celery to use a small amount in a recipe, again!

[link to www.17apart.com (secure)]

If you are using it in a stew or something...do not blanch it. The flavour is way stronger (like lovage) in simply grown celery and since it wasn't deprived of the sun by covering by whichever method it is far more nutrient dense. So the small stalk you use is worth 10 store bought stalks for flavour and savour.