We save some money and some time on today's episode. Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms tells us about his "Cheapskate Salad Bowl": how you can grow and harvest lettuce quickly (within a month) and cheaply (using nursery planting trays). And, you don't have to worry about it bolting in the summer heat. Watch his video of the process here. Plus, Brad talks about all the unique and wildly popular tomato varieties that he grows for sale.
Another way to save money in the garden: make your own plants from existing ones! College horticulture professor Debbie Flower describes the propagation methods for the popular herb, rosemary.
One of the best books on Plant Propagation is by Alan Toogood and it was recently updated. It's called "Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free". Even better: this thick book just got more portable, as a Kindle edition.
Who has time to wait for pepper seeds to germinate? We have tips for speeding up that process, from three weeks down to a week and a half...or less. One of the keys: be sure to use a potting soil that matches the pH needs of the pepper seeds.
More info on The Farmer Fred Rant blog: "Pepper Seeds Slow to Germinate? Some More Tips"
Soil pH and Plants List
Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.
We save some money and some time on today's episode. Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms tells us about his "Cheapskate Salad Bowl": how you can grow and harvest lettuce quickly (within a month) and cheaply (using nursery planting trays). And, you don't have to worry about it bolting in the summer heat. Watch his video of the process here. Plus, Brad talks about all the unique and wildly popular tomato varieties that he grows for sale.
Another way to save money in the garden: make your own plants from existing ones! College horticulture professor Debbie Flower describes the propagation methods for the popular herb, rosemary.
One of the best books on Plant Propagation is by Alan Toogood and it was recently updated. It's called "Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free". Even better: this thick book just got more portable, as a Kindle edition.
Who has time to wait for pepper seeds to germinate? We have tips for speeding up that process, from three weeks down to a week and a half...or less. One of the keys: be sure to use a potting soil that matches the pH needs of the pepper seeds.
More info on The Farmer Fred Rant blog: "Pepper Seeds Slow to Germinate? Some More Tips"
Soil pH and Plants List
Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.
Welcome to the garden basics with farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information while you've come to the right spot on today's show, episode five of garden basics with farmer Fred or going to save you some money in the garden. Our favorite college horticulture professor Debbie Flower delves into your questions about plant propagation. Yes, you can easily and cheaply multiply the number of plants you have, especially herbs such as Rosemary. By the way, speaking of cheap, Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms tells us about his cheapskate salad bowl, how you can produce big crops of lettuce easily and quickly using some very simple methods. And one nice thing about this method, you could be growing lettuce during the hot summer. And, Brad tells us about the beautiful and tasty unique tomato varieties available from Wild Boar Farms. And there are still some 2020 seeds still available, but they're going quickly. And today's quick tip, because time is money. How to get those pepper seeds to germinate quicker, in about half their normal time of two or three weeks. And we're going to do all of this in less than 30 minutes. Let's go. So I was looking at Instagram the other day and up popped Brad Gates feed from Wild Boar Farms and he was doing an experiment with lettuce and I totally stole the idea. It's called a cheapskate salad bowl. If you want greens in a hurry and you want to be able to grow greens in the summertime before they bolt. This is a cheap, easy way to have a year-round supply of lettuce and other greens. First of all, Brad Gates, thanks for joining us and tell us a little bit about Wild Boar Farms. But let me tell everybody that if you like tomatoes, if you'd like to grow tomatoes, you need to be familiar with Wild Boar Farms.
Brad Gates:Yeah, thanks Fred. Um, yeah, living and breathing tomatoes for the last 25 years. B ut yeah, I like to grow everything and t hat was just something I hadn't done in several years and I thought this would be the perfect time to bring it back and try to share it t oo. Because it's such a quick, easy, satisfying training wheels-almost method of, of growing some food.
Farmer Fred:and it's perfect for kids. It's perfect for adults. it's perfect if all you have is perhaps a part shade patio, you could do this.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Yeah. And one of the keys to success:, I actually just moved them to where they're only getting a few hours of morning sun and then bright sky, but no direct sun now that it's in the middle eighties and more whatever. So that's, they grow actually quite well even without, without too much sun exposure once it gets warm. So it's kind of one of the things that you can move them around to wherever they're going to be most comfortable.
Farmer Fred:Let's take people step by step as far as exactly what you did. All you need really one of these a 16 inch by 16 inch nursery trays. Uh, maybe some, uh, shopping bags or newspaper and some potting soil.
Brad Gates:Yeah, it really was that easy. And about a pinch of lettuce seed is maybe what it amounted to. Then, you can put about a half dozen layers of newspaper or a double layer of Brown paper bag on the bottom of those trays, fill them with some quality potting mix. Really just took a pinch of lettuce seeds, sprinkled it evenly and then just uh, took about another two handfuls of dirt and lightly covered the seeds, watered them and waited a few weeks. And my wife and I actually ate half of one of those yesterday and it was delicious lettuce. Not only was it satisfying because I grew it on my own, but the quality was superb also. So it was a double bonus.
Farmer Fred:Were you using one variety or did you mix up a bunch of varieties?
Brad Gates:I did two that were just uh, like a romaine style and I did two that were a mixed green, uh, just a, a mix of about a half dozen different types of lettuce.
Farmer Fred:Yeah, letyuce seed can be tricky to plant because it's so small. But I imagine in a 16 by 16 inch tray, if you just sort of scatter them around, that'll be okay. Did you have to thin any out?
Brad Gates:I planned on doing it. What originally I was going to let them grow two weeks and then some of the more crowded areas I was gonna put some here and put some there around my yard or in my beds and stuff and then go from there. But I got busy and missed that window so they can grow well either way. It's a good way. Like I said, you can take and transplant them after about two weeks, take a little spoon and scoop a thing out and transplant them and I actually left them as is and they just kind of rooted together and that worked out really good.
Farmer Fred:How tall did they get after one month of growth?
Brad Gates:I would say that they're between two and four inches tall and growing fast right now also. But I did actually s cissor trimmed it. U m, half of it, we ate that and then I'm assuming it will, that one half will actually grow back. But it would also be very simple to just, u h, start one of these once a week or something like that. Get on a pattern also.
Farmer Fred:Exactly. So to harvest it, all you're doing is cutting off the tops and then serving it with dinner and, and letting what remains to grow again.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Yeah. So you can actually get multiple harvests off of it. It's a cut about two thirds of the tops off. You get all the good part and the plant still has a root and a little bit of leaves and it'll bounce back and you'll get a second harvest.
Farmer Fred:Now here in the middle of California, it gets real warm in the summertime and it's very difficult to grow lettuce here because the heat makes it bolt. But if you're starting it from seed and you're harvesting it when it's one month old, the plant doesn't have time to bolt.
Brad Gates:Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's actually one of the things, cause it's that second month of growth when it's too hot and just pinned in the sun. Sometimes typically your garden area where you planted them is full sun and then by the time summer gets going, that's not the happiest place for lettuce. So yeah, there was no bitterness. I mean the texture, the flavor, everything was superb. it's a good all around technique.
Farmer Fred:I'm trying that experiment too and I can't wait for the results in one month and I think that's going to be a Go-To plan. We should point out too, that, those who don't know what a nursery t ray is, it is, as I said, 16 inches by 16 inches. It's only about one inch deep. And usually if you go to a nursery and buy plants and you're buying a lot of plants, they'll let you take that tray home. And I would suggest that you look for the trays with the smaller holes on the bottom. There are two types of trays. There's one with t hat have sort of a one inch grid holes on the bottom, but there are ones that are not necessarily solid, but perforated with smaller holes. There are holes in it, but that would, I think, allow the soil to remain intact better.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Yeah, it could. I've used them both. But the ones, like you said, the ones that have like a hundred little pencil hole sizes, those work a little bit better for sure. They contain the dirt and even if you have a bit of a blowout, um, with your paper bag or newspapers or whatever, you don't have as much of a chance of soil getting all over the place.
Farmer Fred:Let me ask you about Wild Boar Farms. You're a seed company, you're a plant company. Are nurseries running out of your seeds?
Brad Gates:Um, well I sell plants to the nurseries, so they're definitely, they seem to be selling them as fast as they can. They can get them. Um, they're, they're definitely been a hot seller. The seeds have been a good sell too. I've just been fortunate to be in the right business right now. But one of the problems with plants is it's a two month journey and no one saw this coming. It was so surprising. So there was little room to compensate ahead of time or anything. So, um, the nurseries only had what they had, you know, what they were expecting to sell, what on the average they would sell. And then all of a sudden when they're increasing their sales by quite a bit, um, it leaves a hole in the market and then trying to get a little bit of a panic buy thing going on too. So it's a great time to learn how to grow. Everybody wants to., My wife and I took a little bike ride this morning and there was six different houses we saw in the neighborhood that had brand new raised beds in the front yard. I'm not even sure how many people were building them in the backyard, but we couldn't believe how many people are turning a section of their yard into a food plot. And that's a great thing.
Farmer Fred:Exactly. And you bring up a very good point about front yard gardens, in many suburban lot areas. The trees are so tall, the only sunny spot might be in the front yard. But check with your local County zoning ordinances to make sure it's okay. And if it's not okay, pester them to change the rule. So you're allowed to have a vegetable garden in the front yard. Tell us about the hot varieties at wild boar farms. I probably would think this year, it's every variety.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Made it easy. There's Brad's atomic grape, precocious, crazy cherry blue beauty. Lucid Jim. I have a new one. Kryptonite. It's been really popular. I try to think of the ones that I offer are, can't go wrong selection just because I've grown so many to get to where I'm at. I've tried thousands of varieties, so I always try to say that every variety that I do have, somebody told me if their favorite. So, so they all have potential.
Farmer Fred:Do you still have seed available for sale?
Brad Gates:Yeah, I'm just, uh, this has been my busiest April ever. Usually in the seed sales kind of die about this time of year. But, um, I'm sitting here at the feed packing table right now and so I still have seeds available. I have run out. I have about 60 varieties, about 20 of them. I'm actually out of stock. It's been kinda crazy, but, uh, the good thing, people, people are growing.
Farmer Fred:and you're updating that information on your website, I would think.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Yeah. There's getting to be fewer selections, but I still have a great selection and they're still technically time. A lot of people here you're looking at, if you start seeding it now, you'd be like first or second week of June. Um, it could be hit or miss in this area. Some people, a lot of areas and you can do just fine planting in June.
Farmer Fred:Exactly. Yeah. I mean there's nothing wrong with starting from seed now in order to get it to transplant size. Like you say, in six weeks, maybe even four or five weeks, depending upon how vigorous they grow here in California, you're harvesting all the way through Thanksgiving. In other parts of the country, major planting doesn't usually begin in backyard gardens, in colder section,s until probably after Mother's day or the first few weeks of June.
Brad Gates:Yeah. Yeah. And spreading out your planting is always good anyways. Uh, you said if you want to have that really nice late harvest, that's usually the plants that you did plant late when I commercial plant always planted, you know, a bunch of in April, a bunch of may and a bunch of June and that was like the best insurance I could have for having a full long harvest season.
Farmer Fred:Well I'd advise people that if you're now curious about wild boar farms tomato seeds and you want to order some, you better do it quickly. Uh, the website is wild boar farms.com and grab the seeds while they're still available. Brad Gates of wild boar farms. Thanks so much for telling us about the cheapskate salad garden and I'm looking forward to that.
Brad Gates:Thanks Fred and thanks for sharing.
Farmer Fred:here on the garden basics podcast. We want to answer your garden questions a couple of ways you can do that. Give us a call,(916) 292-8964 that number(916) 292-8964. You can either leave a message or you can text that number as well. Be patient. There are a lot of rings before we pick up. Another way is email. Send your garden questions to fred@farmerfred.com that's fred@farmerfred.com. One benefit of email is you can attach a photo of a bug or a plant that you're trying to identify. We're looking forward to hearing and seeing your questions and thanks for listening to the garden basics with farmer Fred podcast. I appreciate all your support and all your comments.
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Farmer Fred:we like to answer your garden questions here on the garden basics with farmer Fred podcast. I've brought in some help. It's Debbie Flower. She's a retired college horticulture teacher, taught at several colleges here in the Sacramento area but has lived and worked in horticulture throughout the country including in New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Arizona, Puerto Rico, and of course here in California. She knows her stuff and Debbie, here's a question from another Debbie who writes in, who says, I am attempting to propagate Rosemary. I clipped the sprigs, strip the lower leaves and put the stems in potting soil. Covered it with a white plastic garbage bag. I spray them with water every other day. I'm about four weeks in and now a few Sprigs have mold. I've removed the moldy ones. I have the sprigs in a warm bedroom near a window that gets a little morning sun, but the opaque window covering is down. She says, I think I have two problems. Number one, it's too much water. And too the Sprigs were not new growth. Do you have any thoughts on that? I did start several new growth sprigs today and used starter hormone. I have my fingers crossed now. You like to propagate plants, Debbie?
Debbie Flower:Yes I do.
Farmer Fred:And Rosemary, Rosemary is a fairly easy one to propagate, isn't it?
Debbie Flower:Apparently that is actually one I have not propagated from cuttings. I have started it from seed but I had not propagated it from cuttings. So I did a little research and what she's doing is generally right, taking cuttings from the tip of the branch. That's called the terminal bud. Meaning, that's the thing at the very tip of the branch, you want to, uh, cutting that is three to five inches long and includes that terminal bud that the bud actually helps in propagation and strip off the lower leaves and stick them in. Preferably a very light propagation mix. Maybe just a mix of one part, perlite to one part vermiculite or it could be a seed starting mix. Water Well, and keep it moist. She said that she thinks she has too much water and that's probably true. She trapped a lot of water under that plastic ba g s he put over the plant and that let the pl ants s tay wet a lo ng time and probably ca used t he mold problem she was seeing. And she also said that the sprigs were not new growth and that's maybe the trickiest part about, uh, getting a, uh, a Rosemary plant to grow is to look for the right, age,, age of the stem. The very, very, very newest growth will be very thin and floppy and that will just dry out too quickly and doesn't have enough thickness to the stem to root out. But if you get it when it's just a hair older, still a g reen stem, no Brown on the stem, still agreeing stem three to five inches long, u h, and that will should root quite readily.
Farmer Fred:Is there a better time of year than another to take a cutting from a Rosemary? Is it when it's actively growing?
Debbie Flower:Well, you do want that, that the younger green stem, so you do need to have recent active growth. Uh, the other thing about the cutting is it should not have flowers on it. Flowers are keeping the plant busy doing other things. You could use a stem, a non flowering stem on a flowering plant. Um, so yes, when it's actively growing, but that's new growth has had, uh, a little bit of time to stiffen up. So when you make the cutting and hold it in your hand, it stands straight up.
Farmer Fred:Propagation is a lot of fun of gardeners. Love to create and share these plants that they make. And a good book that I have in my library that answers a lot of questions about propagation is called Plant Propagation. And it's from the American Horticultural Society.
Debbie Flower:When you do some research, if you do some research on the internet about propagating Rosemary, many people suggest sticking the cuttings in water and you'll find pictures of cuttings in water in a clear glass and roots coming out the bottom. And it's very true that that will work. But the quality of root that is produced in water is very different from the quality of root that is produced in a media. A media being a soil or soil-lesst mix. And the reason for that is the difference in the amount of oxygen in the two materials. Water has oxygen when it first comes out of the tap, but as it sits there, the oxygen leaves and so it becomes very low in oxygen and you get a low oxygen root. But if you stick the cutting in the mix, I suggested half perlite, half vermiculite or in a seed starting mix, there is much more oxygen in that media and you will get a different root. And if your plan is to ultimately grow the plant, the Rosemary in a pot of soil, then you want to start your cutting in soil, not in water.
Farmer Fred:And of course, as the Debbie who was attempting to propagate the Rosemary found out that if you use a heavy potting soil that just has too much water retention capability and that's why you'd use that seed starting mix or your mix of perlite and vermiculite. So in this book I have about plant propagation, which is a very good book called the American Horticultural Society's Plant Propagation book. it says about Rosemary that you should take semi-ripe cuttings in late summer and semi-ripe cuttings, I think, is what you were talking about.
Debbie Flower:Yes. Not the brand new growth and nothing with the beginnings of Brown bark or gray bark on it. It's right in between.
Farmer Fred:It also says, and they're saying that this might be an easier method, is to take heel cuttings in spring. Heel, like the back of your foot. What is a heel cutting?
Debbie Flower:A heel cutting is the new growth with a slight piece of bark from the previous year. So instead of just a straight cutting, you have a cutting with a little piece of, of wood that will have bark that will be gray, Brown or gray bark, from the branch that it was attached to. You're not taking a chunk of the older stem you're just sort of ripping the, u h, the new growth off of the branch from which it grew. And you'll get a spatular shape maybe, or,, I don't know what other tool I can think of that it would be, would look like you're getting a very thin piece of wood. What it is, is the outer bark and then the live, plumbing portion of that branch underneath it.
Farmer Fred:Another method that they suggest for propagating Rosemary that they say is easy is taking a simple or mound layer. In the summertime. I am not sure what a simple or a mound layer would be. What is that?
Debbie Flower:Layering is where you're getting the branch to grow roots while that branch is still attached to the, parent plants. So it tends to be very successful because it's still attached to the parent plant. It's still getting nutrition and water through the roots and through the stems of the plants, it often results in kind of a dorky looking p lants because you take a br anch a nd lay it down, so you take a branch and it's going to have to be a branch that's maybe three or four feet long and right in the middle of that branch or maybe a foot in from the tip of that branch. You take off all the leaves as if you were preparing the bottom of the cu tting. And you're going to do that for several inches. Sometimes you wound the bottom of that stem. That would just be taking a sharp, m a ybe a razor blade or something shar p and jus t, just putting a little cut in the bottom side of that branch. And then you lay it down in the soil, dig a little trench. It's not going to be very deep, maybe a few inches deep. Dig a little trench, put the media back on the soil. You're working in your field. Now you're working outdoors. And so you're just put the field soil back on top of it. Uh, sometimes I'll use a, a brick or something to hold it down. And I also like to take a stake and tie, so the tip of the branch is sticking out of the ground part that you stripped the needles off of there. They're not really needles, they're leaves, but they appear to be needles. The leaves of the Rosemary off of is buried. That part that you've cleaned off. And I would use the stake to hold up the tip of that branch. And that helps make the plant, more upright when it roots. And then you leave it alone. And it roots naturally in the darkness of the environment as well as the moisture. And then normal temperatures will encourage that portion of the stem that you buried to form roots. So that's simple layering: one branch, burying one part of that stem after you've prepared it by cleaning it off, possibly wounding it, u h, and letting the tip, which still has leaves on it, stick out of the ground. Mound layering is when you mound the soil up around the base of the plant. When you mound layer, it takes more work, more preparation. You typically want to cut the plant to the ground in spring. So if you want to do a mound layer, you would do it now on a section of the plant cut, cut it down to the close to the ground, just a few inches o f, of the stem still sticking out. And then you let new growth form and then you cover that new growth with the soil, with your field soil and roots will form on that new growth.
Farmer Fred:What if I have a Rosemary plant indoors? Is there a way to propagate that by doing this method?
Debbie Flower:You can do a layering of an indoor or potted plant, even if i t's potted up outside, by preparing a second container that has media in it, media that is the same whatever you're growing y our Rosemary in, i n the pot, currently. Use that same media in a second pot. Make it moist, wet it, let it drain and prepare this, the stem of the existing R osemary as we discussed before. And then lay it down in the second pot, cover it, cover the bare section, b ut the tip of the branch sticks out and anchor the part that you covered. And so you have a layer in a second pot.
Farmer Fred:Don't forget you can get your garden questions in to the garden basics with farmer Fred podcast through a myriad of ways, including a, leaving it via telephone. Nine one six two nine two eight, nine six four.
Debbie Flower:You can also text your question there. Nine one six, two nine, two eight, nine, six, four. Email it in to fred@farmerfred.com and you can leave it on a number of social media outlets including the get growing with farmer Fred Facebook page or on Twitter at farmer Fred and Instagram farmer Fred Hoffman. Debbie flower. We learned a lot. Thanks for your time. My pleasure.
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Farmer Fred:one of the most viewed pages I have at the farmer Fred rant blog page tackles the subject of getting pepper seeds to germinate. Typically it takes pepper seeds a long time to germinate when planted in a seed starting mix or some other soilless mix. It could be two or three weeks before you see that first set of leaves, which by the way are referred to as the cotyledons. They're not the true leaves, but they are the first set of leaves that pop up. Well, here's a way to germinate your pepper seeds in half that time. Place the pepper seeds in between two moist coffee filters in a room that is between 70 and 80 degrees. For many, that room might be the kitchen or a bathroom to ensure a warm environment. Here's something you could do in just about any indoor room. Place those moist coffee filters containing the pepper seeds inside a glass baking dish. Place that on top of a germination or propagation mat and those can be found at any nursery that has a lot of indoor garden supplies. Cover the baking dish loosely with plastic wrap to keep it warmer, you may need to spritz those coffee filters every other day or so to keep it moist and then wait for the tails to appear. That would be the emerging roots and when you do it by this method, those tails will appear after about eight or nine days. Then you can gently transplant those into a moist seed starting mix, preferably one that uses the more neutral pH coir, which is coconut fibers, instead of the lower pH peat Moss. Now, we explained pH back in episode one and basically every plant has its own preferences for optimum growing conditions when it comes to the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. That's the soil pH. Check out the show notes for this episode, Episode five to find links including one that lists the preferential pH for many commonly grown plants. Although peppers prefer a slightly acidic soil, peat Moss is way too acidic to get peppers off to a fast start. Now, if you want to save some money, instead of buying a commercial seed starting mix, my preferred home mix consists of equal parts coir, perlite and fine compost. Now you might be asking, why use coffee filters? Why not just use paper towels? Well, when you use paper towels, there's a good chance that that emerging root gets tangled up inside the fibers of the paper towels and pulling out germinated seeds from those towels may then be rather hazardous to their health. So go with the coffee filters instead. And that's how you can get pepper seeds to germinate in a lot less than two or three weeks. One of the big reasons I started the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast was to address the interesting times we live in, the coronavirus pandemic, and those pesky shelter in place rules. Well, by now we're all getting a little antsy or maybe a lot antsy to resume a normal life, but we're in a marathon, not a sprint. A return to the way things were may be far off or that what's normal just might be changing. It won't necessarily be a bad change. Just different. We can adapt to enjoy it. After all, you're a tree, you can bend in the wind. I think that for many families and single folks, this pause in normal life and all the uncertainty surrounding what will be normal in the future has given people the time and opportunity to stop and think about what is really important. For many, it's spending time in the garden. In our area, people are flocking to the nurseries. Yes. Here in California, the nurseries are still open, they are an essential service. These customers are buying all the fruit plants, vegetables and seeds that are available. Well, why the rush? What's going on here? I think one of the realizations is that for you and your family to maintain your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing in these changing times, you need to eat healthier, and that's a good reason for starting a backyard or a front yard garden because the healthiest food you can eat is the food you grow yourself. You know exactly who handled it and what, if any, pesticides were involved in the growing of that food. And if you listen to this program, often enough, you know it doesn't take very many pesticides, if any, to grow healthy food. Growing your own food is a great family activity. It's an activity that can stay with you and your children for an entire life. So during this pandemic, it's great to see so many parents spending quality time with their children, teaching them life lessons as well as fun things to do, like riding a bike and, of course, gardening. That backyard garden, it's like natural Valium. It's soothing and uplifts the spirit. You're soaking up the fresh air and sunshine that's healthy for you and you're getting some exercise. Plus when you talk to the plants, they don't sass you back, unlike perhaps some members of your family. By the way, a little weed pulling or plant pruning can snip off some of that internal snippiness. And it just might put a smile on your face at the end of the day when you look out at all that you accomplished. Good job.
MUSIC:[inaudible].
Farmer Fred:Thank you for listening the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred. I appreciate you listening, would you please subscribe? You can find the podcast at Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, podcast addict,, and Hey, Alexa, play the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. Thank you.