Benedict T. Palen, Jr - Mistakes To Avoid When Growing Herbs

 Growing herbs can be very satisfying and pleasurable, but a few little things can make it annoying as well. Here are few mistakes new herb gardeners often make and how you can fix them for ultimate garden success!

• While there is something special about starting a plant from seed and watching it developing, there is a lot that can go erroneous when starting seedlings. Seeds necessitate a proper environment for germinating and being kept growing indoors before it is time to plant outside. This enables you to start with a healthy plant and avoiding the displeasure of not having plants to grow in the spring.
• For a first time gardener, basil is an ideal trainer herb. It is a quick grower and it bounces back perfectly well when not watered enough. This flexibility enables you to find things out with a plant that can take a little neglect. The fact basil is so adaptable on recipes and a well-loved herb is yet another added advantage.
• A well-prepped garden with fresh soil can go a long way. Using soil that is exhausted, with no nutrients left, cannot make the cultivation of herbs a success. In your garden, add some compost and manure in the soil to make it perfect for growing herbs. Do not use garden soils in pots instead use a potting soil as it will be lighter and fluffier, perfect for herb growing.
• While house plants and herbs within may flourish with a good watering once a week, that just would not cut it for plants left in the garden. Most herbs will necessitate moderate and regular watering, particularly in the hot summer months. If you are growing in pots, ensure the pot has sufficient drainage; this will stop your herbs from drowning after a long rainy period. The downside with growing in pots is your herbs will require even more water than if they are planted in the ground.
• Few herbs offer complimenting flavors to the food but forget their manners when planted in your garden. Herbs such as mint and oregano are insatiable growers and get downright violent in a garden. To keep the rest of your garden plot protected, think about growing these herbs in pots and burying them in the ground. The extra measure of control a pot puts on the roots of these herbs can keep them from moving in to the rest of your garden and prompting taking over. The surest way to guard your garden from this danger is to grow them in pots grown on ground.
• Unless you are growing edible flowers, you should be cutting back herbs prior to they start growing flowers. Most people often note their sweet basil turns sour in the middle of the summer and this is because those flowers damage the flavor. Keep cutting off flower buds if you find them and it will keep your herb focused on growing leaves.

Benedict T. Palen, Jr., has three decades of knowledge working in management, operations, and agricultural investments. Right now, Benedict T.Palen, Jr., serves as co-proprietor and manager for Great Plains Farms, LLC, administering all from the appraisal of farmland to offering proposal on operator training and irrigation development. 

Benedict T. Palen, Jr - Tips For Growing Citrus Fruits In Pots

 Homegrown, fresh-picked, citrus is not magnificence reserved for gardeners in tropical, sunny zones. You can grow up citrus trees in containers and enjoy their smell and stimulating fruit even in cold northern homes. Even if you are short on garden space or you are in any climatic condition, pot citrus can bring your freshness fix. All it takes is some effortless citrus basics, and you are on your way to growing your very own.

1. Citrus trees require 8 hours of sun and a wind-free, sunny location is best. Citrus trees are also very chill-sensitive and must be moved inside or protected to a covered area in freezing weather. If your winter nighttime temperatures are below 35 degrees F consistently, you will need to shift the citrus indoors for the winter to guard them from frost and offer additional grow lights for the tree. If you only have infrequent cold temperatures, cover the tree with frost cloth or use incandescent lights to warm the air just about the tree.

• The container should be bigger than a nursery pot to offer the roots room to develop. Use a large durable pot. Wine barrel, non-porous ceramic pots work well. If you stay in an area that gets cold in the winter, think about how you will move the pot. The pot should have quite a few drain holes spaced around the perimeter of the pot evenly, not just one in the middle, to make sure good drainage. Drill extra holes if needed. It is best to have the pot off ground on pot feet instead of sitting in a tray.
• Citrus roots like damp but not mushy conditions. The watering requirements of citrus will be diverse when they are in containers as roots will dry out faster. A moisture meter can assist you find out when it is time to water. The top of soil may feel dehydrated, so test it out by putting meter down deeper by roots. Water until water starts to drain out of drain holes. When the temperature is very hot, containers dry out very fast — you might need to water a few times a week. In cooler weather, you will require to water much less. Focus on the foliage. Leaves that are drooped and then perk up after watering are a symbol of roots that have been enabled to dry out too much. Water more frequently. Curled or yellowed leaves that do not develop after watering may indicate they are getting too much water so water less often.
• Lightweight potting blend that drains well with inorganic ingredients such as vermiculite, perlite, coconut coir or peat moss added in is best. A soil that is all organic matter will decay very quickly and become compacted, reducing aeration for roots. Stay away from soils that contain chemical-wetting agents as these retain too much moisture. Native soil is also too compacted and will not offer the roots the air they need.   

Benedict T. Palen, Jr., has three decades of knowledge working in management, operations, and agricultural investments. Right now, Benedict T.Palen, Jr., serves as co-proprietor and manager for Great Plains Farms, LLC, administering all from the appraisal of farmland to offering proposal on operator training and irrigation development. 

Benedict T. Palen, Jr - Advantages Of Hydroponic Farming

 Standard field farming practices have seen a lot of pessimistic press, from fears about soil erosion to huge water consumption to food-borne disease breakouts. The hydroponic farming industry resolves many of these concerns. Hydroponic systems are water-based, soil-less, farming procedures. Instead of using soil for plant nutrition, crops are fed with nutrient-rich water, negating a lot of the things that comes with soil-based methods.

• Field farming uses so much water as so much of it is lost. Water rolls away, evaporates, and puddles, making much of it unfeasible. That is a lot of misuse! Hydroponic systems use about ten times less water as it is delivered in a controlled way. Plus, some systems re-circulate water, lessening consumption extra!
• Plants developed in soil need to spread their roots to find water and all the nutrients they need to live on. This means they should be planted a certain distance aside from each other. In hydroponic systems, roots do not need to spread as water and nutrients are delivered correctly to them. Due to this, hydroponic systems can develop more plants in the same amount of space as soil-based systems.
• While hydroponic systems do not eliminate pest problems, it does reduce the prospective of this happening, resulting in less need for herbicides and pesticides. Hydroponic systems are extremely controlled so there is no risk of weeds taking over your garden. Due to this, there is no necessity for herbicides. Also, as hydroponic systems are frequently indoors, pests cannot infiltrate them, so pesticides are not necessary.
• Hydroponic systems nourish plants using nutrient solution blended with water, offering the farmer improved control over what nutrients their crops absorb. Plants developed in soil may need the assistance of fertilizers to stay alive. But in hydroponics, the plants are already receiving all the assistance they need and the right amount of it.
• Another advantage of hydroponic farming is that it is simple to do indoors. Cultivating indoors comes with its own advantages such as the ability to cultivate year-round, climate and temperature control, and fewer pests. Hydroponic systems are implemented indoors usually due to the environmental control it provides. With near ideal developing conditions, plants grow faster and stronger.
• As more plants can be grown in small spaces with hydroponic farming, hydroponic systems usually yield more per square foot. Also, plants are healthier and grow quick, generating more produce quickly. Indoor conditions also enable for year-round growing, irrespective of climatic condition or season, so plants’ that continue to produce after the first harvest can be harvested more times.

PH levels are occasionally overlooked by cultivators, but it is a crucially important aspect of cultivation which guarantees that your plants can access suitable quantities of the nutrients they need for healthy growth. In hydroponic cultivation, the pH of the solution can be adjusted simply and measured correctly to make sure that an optimal pH is maintained always.

Benedict T. Palen, Jr., has three decades of knowledge working in management, operations, and agricultural investments. Right now, Benedict T.Palen, Jr., serves as co-proprietor and manager for Great Plains Farms, LLC, administering all from the appraisal of farmland to offering proposal on operator training and irrigation development. 

Benedict T. Palen, Jr - Ways To Keep Your Plants Disease-Free And Fit

One of the most puzzling things that can occur in your garden is when a plant gets a disease. The most important thing to know about disease prevention is something known as the disease triangle. Disease can only come about when three things match: you have a plant that can get ill, a pathogen that can attack the plant, and environmental conditions that promote the disease. If any one of these things is not there, the disease will not take place, so prevention includes knocking out at least one side of the triangle. Instead of waiting for a problem to pop up in your garden, think about the best defense against disease to be an excellent offense. Here are the ways you can get rid of at least one side of the disease triangle and keep your plants fit.

• Not all components in a compost pile decay at the same rate. Some materials might have degraded adequately to be put in the garden, while others have not. Methodical composting generates high temperatures for comprehensive lengths of time, which in fact kill any pathogens in the substance. Infected plant debris that has not gone through this process will reintroduce prospective diseases into your garden. If you are not sure of the situation of your compost pile, you should avoid using yard waste as mulch under responsive plants and avoid including possibly contaminated debris in your pile.
• The simplest way to limit disease in your garden is to stay away from introducing it in the first place. Getting a malady with a new plant is not the kind of plus that any of us wants. One of the difficult things to learn is what a healthy plant should look like, making it hard to know if the one you want is ailing. It is a good idea to gather a few books, catalogs, and magazines that show what a healthy sample looks like. Do not take home a plant with rotted stems, dead spots, or insects. These issues can spread to your healthy plants easily and are at times hard to get rid of once recognized. Apart from checking the tops of plants, always examine the root quality. One does not frequently see customers doing this in a garden center, but it should be a general sight. Put your hand on the soil surface with the plant stem between your fingers. Invert the pot gently and shake the plant loose. You might have to strike the edge of the pot against a solid surface to release the roots from the pot. Roots should be solid, usually white, and spaced all over the root-ball. Mushy or dark roots are not a good sign. Even when the tops appear healthy, it is just a matter of time before a rotted root system damages a plant.
• It is always better to clean out the garden in the fall, even if you reside in a moderate climate. This is not only an efficient prevention to disease but also a good way to control diseases already in your garden. Diseases can overwinter on debris and dead leaves and attack the new leaves as they grow in spring.

Benedict T. Palen, Jr., has three decades of knowledge working in management, operations, and agricultural investments. Right now, Benedict T.Palen, Jr., serves as co-proprietor and manager for Great Plains Farms, LLC, administering all from the appraisal of farmland to offering proposal on operator training and irrigation development.