Best For The Garden

Best way to clean vegetables?

Years ago I bought a Mr. JuiceMan. One of the booklets that came with the juicer had a recipe for cleaning vegetables, hydrochloric acid. At that period of time, there were two commercial cleaners on the market, both toxic.
JuiceMan recipe: In a double sink of water, combine 3tbl. of salt and the juice from one half of a lemon in one side of sinks, fresh water in the other sink. I don’t have a double sink so I use two tubs.
2.5 min. max on leaf veggies then rinse, 5min max with skinned veggies. Waxed veggies, use gloves, it’s hell getting the wax off your hands.
It didn’t take long to figure out keeping lemons around was a pain. I converted the recipe somewhat. I use one half teaspoon of citric acid instead of one half lemon. I can only assume that I’m getting the same results, can anyone tell me different.
Citric Acid removes soap scum. Use it in the shower, it will leave hair and body really soft. Use it to rinse dishes to remove soap; half teaspoon per quart. Any comments?

Rub them gently with your fingers under warm water. If cleaning many at once, use a colander. "Fit," an organic vegetable cleaner made by Proctor and Gamble works very well also.

What is the best time and way to plant cherry seeds in centeral Maine?

I have 5 acres in centeral Maine (Waterville area) and I want to plant cherry seeds. The soil is clay and there is water on site. What soil suppliments should I use, if any, and what month should I plant?
I want these trees to grow for decorative purposes only. The soil is clay and there is water on site, I’m close to Waterville, Maine

Don’t bother, even if you are planting them for the birds . If that’s the case , you would be better off transplanting suckers of Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana ) , Wild Plum (P. americana) or seedlings of Pin Cherry (P. pensylvanica).

If you are growing them for yourself , buy the trees . They are grafted onto dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock. Anything you plant will grow to standard size . Prunus avium (Sweet Cherry) grows 70-80 ft in the wild , and 30-40′ in cultivation . As you will likely have to cover them with netting , to have any hope of a decent harvest , a small tree is more convenient . Yellow cherries seem to be less preferred by the birds ( at least by my bluejays and catbirds) , so consider them .

what is the best way to store tomatoes?

My husband says buy them a little green and they will ripen in the fridge. I say if they are green, set them in window sill to ripen.
I would just rather buy them ripe enough to eat now!
What do you think?

When you buy tomatoes that are under ripe, both options you listed are wrong. You should put tomatoes in a paper bag for them to ripen evenly and have good flavor. When they are ripe, you can keep them on the counter in a bowl, even in the sun if you’d like. Only refrigerate a tomato once it’s been cut and use up within a day.

Do I have to cut down ground cover perennials in the fall?

I’m new to gardening. Someone told me to cut down all my plants in the fall. I cut down all the tall perennials but wondering about the ground cover ones. Cutting them down would be very difficult and time consuming. Do I have to? What will happen if I don’t? thanks.

You don’t have to cut back the tall perennials in the fall let alone the ground cover ones, but it’s just putting off the job until the spring. Perennials need to be tidied up by cutting them back to stop insect infestation, dead foliage harbours not only insects but fungi that may be detremental to their future, saying that, some perennials need protection from the worst of the winter weather, and others will have produced new foliage already to protect their own crowns. Clearing away the current years growth in the fall gives you a chance to see if anything is wrong with the plant before the wrath of winter does anymore damage, it also gives you the opportunity to divide the plant and replant the best bits to give you a better display next year, mulch, and make your own compost.
As with anything you are new to, you are bound to lose some plants through not knowing what to do, tidy gardens are healthy gardens, so do what you can before the weather gets too bad, and do the rest in the new year.

What garden vegitables make the best cash crop?

I wanted to grow something I could sell/trade at the farmers market. What garden crop has the best prices and yield with the lowest amount of effort?

Garlic onions, and even tomatoes are becoming profitable again.Asparugus is outrageous if you can figure out a way for a large yeild

can i get some gardening tips plz?

i love to do gardening…can u give me sum tips which will help my plants frow better???

You can read some tips here:
http://www.indiahometips.com/home-improvement-home.html

What’s the best way to wash fruits and vegetables?

I’m aware there’s lots of pesticides and other stuff on the fruits and veggies, but what’s the best way to wash them? I usually just rinse it under water but it doesn’t seem clean to me. I think at the stores they have some sort of cleaner for the fruits and veggies but I’m not interested in buying that.

I have used Fit for years, and if you check the soak water on things that are soaked (not fragile fruits) I always find lots of stuff in it. I am sure to wash everything, even bananas because you hold them in your hands, and melons becuase you have to cut into them with a knife, which will drag whatever is on the outside right through. If you only want to use water, use plenty of it and use a cloth on the outside of the thicker skinned items to dislodge the gunk. Use a vegetable brush for potatoes, carrots, even melons. The spinach with the ecoli would not have been helped by more washing since the bacteria had been taken up from the soil and was inside the plants. So you can never be completely safe, but we should always try to be as safe as we can. Don’t forget that most apples and some other fruits and vegetables are coated with a light wax coating to keep them from drying out so fast, but this actually hold the pesticides and bacteria in if you only rinse them off.

I know groups that do portable kitchens for large group meals and they final rinse all their dishes and soak most fruits and vegetables in a mild bleach water solution. I don’t know what the ratio is. Government agencies do not seem to recommend this.

Here are a few good resources:
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/datastorefiles/234-418.pdf

http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/hecomm/envhealth/program_areas/food_safety/food_safety_faq.htm

What is the best time to plant apple seeds?

I have several apple seeds than I saved from some apples I picked this weekend. Anyway, I was wondering when and how I should plant these seeds?

If you plant them straight away, they will germinate. However, you will get a better germination rate by popping them in the fridge (not the freezer) for 4-6 weeks before planting. The cool temperatures mimic the winter period and fool the seed into ‘thinking’ spring has arrived when they are planted.

How is the best way to grow nice tomatoes?

Also how long should they stay planted before picking?

With most types of tomatoes, the more sun and heat, the better. If they can be planted in an area that will reflect heat (like a house, shed, barn, fence, etc) that will grow much faster (be sure to give them enough water too). It tends to be in the neighborhood of 60-80 days (depending on climate, water, sun, etc) before you get tomatoes you can eat. You can pick them before they are fully ripe and place them on a window sill. They will continue to ripen, but obviously will not grow any larger. This can helpful if you are growing larger breeds (like big boy or better boy).

Good luck!

What is the difference between annuals, bi annuals, perennials?

I know that the annual means one year and the stuff. I want to know whether annuals go on flowering year after year and don,t need to planted again and again like perennials. For example take the case of geraniums or impatiens.

Annuals bloom and live until the winter frosts, then die forever. If you let the bloom go to seed, the seeds will re sow themselves in the ground, producing new annuals the following year.

Bi-annuals grow for two years, with the largest and most showiest bloom in the second year, and then die. Some bi-annuals (such as lupine) can reseed quite aggressively.

Perennials return year after year, and do not need to be replanted.

However, if you live in an area that doesn’t see winter freeze (such as southern California), certain plants like Geraniums, Jade plants, etc. that normally are considered annuals can live for many years.