How to Grow Common Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus)

Instructions.     

Things You'll Need:

•Garden Spades

•Garden Trowels

•Plants

•Seeds

•Watering Cans

•Seeds

•Plants

Step 1Check out nurseries for sunflower seedlings, but these are among the easiest of plants to start from seed.

Step 2Plant seedlings after all danger of frost has passed in your region. Space according to label directions, anywhere from 6 inches to 3 feet.

Step 3Plant seeds 4-6 inches apart after all danger of frost has passed, covering with 1/2 inch soil.

Step 4Water just enough to keep soil moist. Sunflowers don't need much water or fertilizer.

Step 5Trim spent blooms to encourage more flowers.

Step 6Pull out and discard plants in fall, once frost kills them.

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How to Grow Lavender!

By KCout,


Grow Lavender!Lavender is known the world over for its healing properties, glorious color and enchanting perfume, but did you know that it is very to grow? Lavender is grown all over the world and the looser and less nutritious the soil the better! There are literally hundreds of varieties and the color isn't always...well lavender! Lavender is nicknamed the 'first aid in a bottle' oil. Lavender produces an essential oil that has an inherent antibiotic action. It is also an astringent and moisturizer to skin. It alleviates aches, pains, and swelling from arthritis to injury to headache. Lavender also alleviates motion sickness. Learn how to grow this wonderful flowe

Instructions.

Step 1 Picking your plants!

The Lavender plants you pick depend on your climate. English Lavender, (Lavandula angustifolia), is the most hardy plant and grown the most widely. It is easy to mix in a perennial bed. This plant will endure subzero winters, but dislikes humid heat. If you live in a humid climate look for a LavanDIN instead of lavender. "Grosso and Provence" are the best lavandins. You can even chose your hue of lavender, but unless you get shoots from a "mother" plant, you will not have a consistent color or flower.

Step 2 Picking your spot to plant!

The most important factor about Lavender is drainage. Soggy areas should definitely be avoided. Incorporate organic matter if necessary to make a loose soil for easy drainage.

Lavender prefers a sloping bed in a sunny spot. A solution to that would be to heap soil in a pile about 12 to 18 inches high before planting the lavender. If your soil is mostly clay soil, dig out your hole and mix the clay with sand. Lavender plants cannot compete with aggressive weeds, so ensure your chosen spot is weed free. This is most important if you are planting a hedge of lavender, as weeding after they are planted can be a huge hassle. Weeding often becomes such a chore that Lavenders are overrun and eventually dies in a neglected hedge.

Step 3 Planting:

When planting lavender place the plants at least 2 feet apart. Start with 4-inch-pot sized plants. Leave plenty of room between plants for air circulation. If planting in pots, make sure to repot every spring into a larger container with fresh soil to allow the plant to continue to mature. A good, coarse, sterile potting soil with organic fertilizers works best.

Step 4 Watering:

Lavender does not like overhead sprinkler and could rot if they get too much water. Use a drip irrigation and water only when the bed is dry to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. While Lavender is extremely drought resistant once established, it grows larger and produces more blooms with regular watering. It is important to let the plant dry out a bit before soaking it again. In humid areas, this can be difficult and the excess moisture often causes death by rotting. Do not mulch lavender! It holds too m uch moisture.

Step 5 Fertilizer:

Wait about two years to fertilize the plants and then use an organic product such as fish emulsion. Feed the plants in spring when they start growing and again after harvesting in late summer. If you grow plants as annuals, you don't have to feed them at all.

Step 6 Pruning and Harvesting:

It takes about three years for Lavender to reach full size. Plants should be pruned every year immediately after bloom. Pruning should not be confused with harvesting. Pruning is necessary to extend the life of the plant because lavender gets very woody if not pruned. Lavender flower wand stems are a bright green and Lavender leaves are gray. Cut back not only the flower stem, but also about a third of the gray-leaved stems as well. Avoid pruning back so far that only woody stems with no leaves are showing as it may die.

Harvest the flowers according to end use. For a fresh bouquet pick when the flowers are in full bloom and scent. For dried bundles the stem must be harvested before the florets completely open. If you wait until the flower is open it will fall apart when they are dried. Take a handful of stems and cut them off at the base of the plant and then wrap rubber bands around them. To dry them hang them upside down. Drying takes about two weeks, but keep good circulation around your bundles to avoid them falling part or rotting. Harvesting the lavender for oil must be done at the peak of the day's heat. Essential oil can be extracted by steam distillation from the fresh flowers

How to grow watermelons from seed

Growing watermelons requires lots of space, lots of sun, lots of water and lots of nutrients.


They are greedy, rambling vines, like all plants in the cucurbiteae family (e.g. zucchini, squash, pumpkin, cucumbers...)

Watermelons are not particularly difficult to grow, but because they are so demanding I don't consider watermelons a good plant for beginner gardeners. (You can get lucky if you live in optimum conditions).

I also don't consider them a good plant for anyone with restricted space, water, or average soils.

You need to put a lot into a watermelon, and what you get out in terms of nutrition is not a lot... So from a permaculture point of view watermelons wouldn't be the very first thing to worry about...

But I get too many questions about growing watermelons. They are very popular. So I give in...

How to grow watermelons

Where and when can you grow watermelons?


In the true tropics the dry season (winter) is the best watermelon growing season.

Watermelons do not cope well with extreme heat or the humid, soggy conditions of our wet season/summer. Fungal diseases and bugs will wipe them out in no time.

If you live in a cooler climate, then summer is the time to grow watermelons.

You do need at least three months of reliably hot, sunny weather to grow and ripen a watermelon. During that time your average daily maximum temperature should be at least about 20-25°C or 70-80F. Warmer is even better.

(There are different watermelon varieties, so if you are at the low end of that, look for a faster maturing variety.)

Grow watermelons in full sun. You also need an abundant supply of water and nutrients (good soil).

And you need space. As I said, a rambling vine. They like to go wandering and smother everything around them.

Growing watermelons from seed

Watermelons are grown from seed. You may be tempted to use seed out of a melon you bought, but don't waste your time. It is almost guaranteed to be a hybrid.

Hybrid varieties are very special crosses that don't grow true to type. (You would end up growing what we call pig melons. A melon variety that's only good for feeding to the pigs...)

Buy your seed, and if possible buy an open pollinated heirloom variety. Because then you CAN use your own seed next year. The open pollinated varieties are also hardier.

You will find a lot more interesting varieties amongst the heirlooms then you cn find in the standard collection of you local gardening centre.

Start your watermelon seeds in the ground, right where they are supposed to grow. The soil should be at least 18°C for them to germinate.

Unless you have an extremely short growing season, do NOT start your watermelon seed in a pot or punnet. Do NOT buy watermelon seedlings from a nursery.

Watermelon seed germinates easily and quickly, within a few days. Watermelon plants outgrow the seedling stage very quickly, and they don't like transplanting. You don't save much time and you end up with a weaker plant.

Save yourself this totally needless extra work and stick your seeds in the ground, about two cm or an inch deep.

(If you have a long growing season, you may want to do several plantings, a few weeks apart.)


Watermelons need deep, rich, friable soils. To grow watermelons it helps to raise the soil (make mounds or ridges). Raising the soil has several advantages:

A mound or ridge is free draining (melons don't like wet feet). If you have heavy clay soil, definitely raise the bed.

Mounds are also good if the soil is as poor as mine. I just make a mound of good soil with lots of compost in it to grow watermelons. Sometimes I plant them in what's left over from a compost pile after I used most of the compost.

If you like growing things in neat rows, or if you want to plant a large area, grow watermelons on ridges, like the commercial growers do.

Rows should be about 2 m (6 ft) apart and the plants spaced at 30 cm/a foot apart. (Sow twice as many as you want, and keep the stronger ones.)

I prefer growing watermelons in clumps on a mound, in several different locations in the garden. (Mixing things up helps keeping pests and diseases at bay.) If you want several hills together, keep them about 2 m apart.

The mound should be about one metre square and a foot high. Then I plant about ten seeds in it, in three groups of three to four seeds each. The groups are spaced about a foot apart (30 cm).

After a few weeks I can see which watermelon plants grow the strongest, and I snip off the weaker ones, leaving only one seedling in each group. (Don't pull them up, cut them off. Or you disturb the roots of the others.)

If you have a very small garden but absolutely have to have watermelons, you can try growing them on a trellis. Really.

You need a very strong trellis, you need to train them up the trellis as they aren't climbers, and you need to support the developing fruit so the trellis holds the weight, not the plant.

It is a lot of work but it can be done...

Growing watermelon plants

Slugs and other seedling chomping critters like mulch and they like watermelons. Wait until the watermelons have outgrown the most vulnerable stage (where a slug can demolish them within minutes). Then mulch the area well.

Watermelons have very shallow roots and they need lots of moisture. The soil should never dry out, and mulch helps with that.

Mulch also keeps weeds down. Weeding could disturb the shallow roots, so it's better to not let them grow to start with.

Watermelons are VERY hungry plants. If your mulch is something like compost or aged animal manures, all the better. (Like all cucurbits, watermelons can handle fairly raw compost and manures.)

Otherwise, feed your watermelons regularly with something like pelleted chook manure or another organic fertiliser. (Ideally you should use a high nitrogen fertiliser in the early stages, but cut back on nitrogen and give them lots of potassium once they flower and fruit.)

When the vines are about two metres long, pinch out the tips. It encourages branching.

As your watermelon vines grow bigger they will start trying to take over more space. If they start to smother other things you can remind them about sticking to their area by gently moving the tips of the vines, so they grow into the right direction.

Watermelon flowering and fruiting

Watermelons grow male and female flowers on the same vine.

The smaller male flowers appear first. The female flowers are much larger (see the photo) and you can't miss them.

If you don't see any it could have several reasons: too hot, too cold, not enough water, not enough nutrients... In any way, it means the watermelon plant isn't happy.

If the plant does produce female flowers but the little fruit at the base of it shrivels up and dies, then the flowers are not getting pollinated.

Watermelon flowers are insect pollinated. If you suspect the insects aren't doing their job, you can do it yourself, just to be sure.

Hand pollination is best done early in the morning. Pull off a few male flowers and remove the flower petals. Then brush the pollen laden stamen against the stigma in the centre of the female flower, so the pollen sticks to it. Easy.

The first few female flowers on each branch will give you the best fruit.

To grow them as large as possible you can pinch out the tip of the branch after a couple of fruits have set (are starting to swell up).

But this isn't an essential step. You can also just let them go...



Harvesting watermelons

Telling when a watermelon is ripe is an art. You will get better at it with practice.

The first sign to look for is the curly tendril at the stem. Once it is dry, as in, totally dry not just starting to dry off, once it is totally dry, it may be ready...

Another sign is the light coloured patch on the bottom of the fruit. It is initially greenish, but as the melon ripens the green tinge diappears and it becomes yellowish. The skin overall becomes duller and tougher.

But the most popular way to tell if they are ripe is the sound. Knock them with your knuckles and listen for a dull, hollow sound. The unripe melons have a higher pitched sound. Keep thumping lots of them and comparing until you can tell the difference. Eventually you'll have to take a chance on one...

The only way to get good at this is to grow and harvest lots of watermelons!


Problems when growing watermelons

The biggest watermelon pest are the leaf eating beetles (they damage the flowers, too) like spotted and striped cucumber beetles, pumpkin beetles with or without dots, whatever you want to call them.

Those orange things...

They all look similar and all do the same: chomp away on your watermelon plants...

However, if they become a real problem it is mainly a sign that your watermelons are stressed.

A healthy watermelon in a balanced environment and in good soil should not attract too many beetles. Also, a watermelon should grow fast enough to cope with a few beetles.

The other main problem with growing watermelons is mildew, a fungus that makes the leaves look as if they were coated with white powder. The fungus thrives in damp, humid conditions.

The best you can do is to avoid getting the leaves wet. If you can't avoid overhead watering, do it first thing in the morning so they dry quickly. Never wet the leaves in the afternoon or evening.

In the tropics you probably won't be able to control the beetles or the mildew, once the build up for the wet season starts. And it isn't worth it anyway... The oppressive heat and the humidity just aren't good conditions for growing watermelons. Grow something that likes humditiy and wait for the next dry season to grow watermelons again.

How to Grow Avocado

Instructions.
Things You'll Need:


•avocado seed

•glass

•toothpicks

•water

•sunlight

Step 1Remove an avocado seed from an avocado and wash off the remaining avocado fruit using room temperature water.

Step 2Fill a water glass with room temperature water until the water comes to within an inch of the rim of the glass.

Step 3Hold the avocado with the pointy side up and poke four toothpicks into the middle of the avocado. Space the toothpicks out evenly around the center of the avocado seed. Insert each toothpick approximately ¼ to ½ inch into the avocado seed. When you look down at the avocado seed, it should resemble a plus sign, with a toothpicks sticking out in four directions.

Step 4Place the avocado seed wide side down, and pointy side up, into the water glass. The toothpicks should rest on the rim of the glass, so just the bottom of the avocado seed is submerged in water.

Step 5Place the avocado seed on a window sill in direct light indoors. Change the water every couple weeks and do not let it become murky or stagnant.

Step 6Watch your avocado seed grow into a tree. The roots should sprout within two to five weeks. Don't be alarmed when the avocado seed splits, as that this is normal.

Step 7Transplant your avocado tree into soil when it is several inches tall and has leaves. Avocado trees take over a decade before they grow avocados, and indoor plants may never grow flower or grow ripe fruit. However, it is fun to watch avocado trees grow from seed and they make a nice indoors plant.

How to grow orchids

By eHow Contributing Writer

 An orchid requires more attention than some houseplants, but you can grow these beautiful flowers if you can set up the proper environment to keep them healthy. Be prepared to invest time to care for this exotic addition to your home.

.Difficulty: ModerateInstructions.

Things You'll Need:

•Orchid plant

•Fertilizer for flowering tropical plants

•Potting mix with mulch

Step 1Place your orchid in a location that receives natural sunlight. The location shouldn't be too hot. If you put the plant in a window and the direct sunlight is too hot, particularly during the summer, move the orchid to a nearby table or counter where it can receive indirect light.

Step 2Purchase a plant light. If your environment does not offer enough natural lighting to grow an orchid, ask your local plant retailer to suggest an artifical light source.

Step 3Keep the orchid watered. An orchid is a tropical plant and its natural environment would be a moist area with humidity. Don't overwater the orchid or you'll damage it. Water the orchid sparingly every few days to keep it moist without drowning the roots. If you cannot provide humidity for your orchid, use a plant mister every day.

Step 4Pot your orchid in a small container. The delicate roots need the support of a smaller pot to thrive and grow. Some orchids need repotting annually, while others thrive for years in the same pot. Keep your orchid potted in a potting mix of mulch for tropical plants. If your orchid is thriving, leave it alone.

Step 5Fertilize your orchid with a plant food made specifically for orchids or tropical flowering plants. Ask your plant nursery specialist for suggestions based on where you live.

How to Grow Mushroom.

Some Mushroom Growing Basics for Beginners

If you are completely new to mushroom growing, I recommend that you skim through a copy of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets. Many libraries have the 2nd Edition, or you can order the expanded 3rd Edition through my link to Amazon.com (click on the title). Paul's book will give you a good overview of growing mushrooms of all kinds. It has plenty of pictures, and there are descriptions of most of the mushroom species that can be reliably cultivated. It is also a valuable reference volume, and I use it regularly. (Paul's earlier book with J.S. Chilton, The Mushroom Cultivator, is also a good overview, focusing more on Agaricus and other compost-grown species.) Don't be put off by all the talk about contamination and sterile procedure, though--that's where the peroxide method comes in!


As Paul's books explain, the process of growing mushrooms can be divided roughly into four steps:

1) Acquiring and maintaining a culture of mushroom tissue (called mycelium) of the mushroom strain you want. (A tissue culture is somewhat like a cutting of a plant. Starting with a tissue culture assures that you have a mushroom strain genetically identical to the one you want. Some growers start with spores, which are more like seeds. Spores may or may not give you a mushroom strain with the fruiting properties of the parent. Since spores cannot be grown in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, I always work with a tissue culture of mycelium. Tissue cultures--also called agar cultures or test tube cultures--of various species of mushroom can be purchased from commercial suppliers or they can be started from fresh mushrooms).

2) Using a bit of the tissue culture to begin some spawn (a kind of mushroom starter), which is usually grown on a small quantity of sterilized grain or sawdust.

3) Using the spawn to introduce mushroom mycelium into an organic material (substrate) chosen to support the formation of mushrooms.

4) Getting the actual mushrooms to form and grow once the substrate has been completely colonized by mushroom mycelium.

Starting with a kit

If you buy a mushroom kit, you are generally starting at step four. The commercial mushroom grower has already completed the earlier steps for you, and provided you with the mushroom culture ready to form mushrooms. You provide a proper environment, usually cool and moist. Getting mushrooms to form can be easy or hard, depending on the mushroom strain you are growing. Oyster-style mushrooms of the Pleurotus and Hypsizygus families are among the easiest to fruit. Lions Mane (Hericium erinaceus) is also quite easy. Maitake (Grifola frondosa) and Morels (Morachella species) are among the most difficult to get to form mushrooms. Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) falls somewhere in the middle. Button mushrooms are easy if you can keep the temperature steady around 65 degrees F.

Starting with purchased spawn

It is also possible to start at step three, by purchasing the "starter" (spawn) from a supplier and using that to introduce the growing fungus into an organic material that you have prepared yourself. There are a variety of possible substrates: straw, compost, logs, wood chips, and sawdust are common ones, but people have also used things like newspaper, cardboard, sterilized grain, coffee grounds, etc. depending on the mushroom species they want to grow.

Kinds of mushrooms and the substrates they prefer

In general, there are two broad classes of cultivated mushrooms: those that prefer to grow on compost, and those that prefer to grow on woody material. The common button mushroom and other Agaricus species fall into the first class, growing readily on compost, but they will also grow on straw. Oyster mushrooms, shiitake, reishi, maitake, and Lions Mane, all prefer woody materials such as sawdust, wood chips, or sometimes straw.

Compost

Each organic material requires a different procedure to render it free of competing organisms. Compost is the most time-consuming material to prepare, requiring a couple of weeks to mature. It needs to be allowed to heat to a temperature that neutralizes harmful species, without letting it get so hot that it kills beneficial microbes. The compost is not allowed to go completely through its natural cycle. Instead it is harvested somewhat early, when it is full of white actinomycetes bacteria that provide the nutrients that mushrooms love. The grower cools the compost, adds some gypsum (calcium sulfate) and mixes in the mushroom spawn.

Woody materials

Woody materials and straw can be prepared much more quickly than compost. Traditionally, these materials required a heat treatment, such as pressure sterilization, steam pasteurization, or hot water steeping, to eliminate competing organisms. The peroxide method has now added ways to prepare some substrates without heating. It can also prevent later contamination by airborne molds and bacteria, so using a material that is compatible with hydrogen peroxide addition can save a lot of trouble. For wood-decomposing mushrooms, wood pellet fuel, which disintegrates into sawdust when treated with boiling water, works very well in this regard, and so does wheat straw.

Getting Mushrooms to Form

The compost-loving species require a different procedure from the wood-loving mushrooms when it comes time to get the mushrooms to form. The compost-lovers usually need to have a soil-like layer called "casing," applied to the top of the culture, once the mushroom tissue has fully colonized the compost. The soil-like layer provides a reservoir of moisture, and it creates a low-nutrient zone (compared to the compost), signaling the mushroom tissue to start forming the fruiting bodies. The tiny mushroom buttons then begin to form in the casing layer. The grower keeps the casing moist by lightly watering it as the mushrooms enlarge.

With wood-loving species, the procedure for getting mushrooms to form varies a bit from one species to another, but it usually involves a shift in environmental conditions such as a drop in temperature, an increase in air circulation, and/or an increase in light levels.

The whole nine yards?

Once you have tried growing mushrooms from a kit and from spawn you've purchased, you will have a better idea whether you want to get involved in keeping agar cultures and growing your own spawn. These procedures require somewhat more commitment and attention to detail. Before the invention of the peroxide technique, it was generally only possible to keep agar cultures and grow spawn if you constructed a sterile work space, such as a glove box at the very least. With peroxide, it becomes possible to perform these steps in an ordinary kitchen, and grow the cultures just about anywhere that an appropriate temperature and light level can be provided. You still need to learn some basic "sterile technique"--simple procedures for handling cultures to keep them pure. But you won't need a sterile facility or a spotless house.