Bears on the homestead is a unique problem to have, but a challenging one too. These predators are big, strong, scary, and can be incredibly persistent. If you have bears frequenting your homestead, it’s time to get it on lockdown. Take every step possible to encourage them to move on.

I do hope this article is taken as it was written, I’m an avid adorer of bears and have been since I was a little kid.

I do not condone harming them in any way, shape, or form.

My efforts in writing this article are to give you some tools to bear-proof your homestead for two reasons. One is to save you the financial and emotional pain of bears doing damage to your property. The second is to protect the bears. 

Bears that frequent human areas are more of a danger to themselves than they are to others. These types of bears learn that humans provide easy food and humans aren’t scary. This leads them to come around more and more often and eventually either die from scared homeowners shooting them or eating harmful things.

We want to avoid all of this. Keep you safe, keep your homestead safe, keep the bears safe.

Why are bears drawn to homesteads?

The reasons for bears to be drawn to any particular area are always the same. They’re looking for food, and the easier the meal, the less energy the bear has to invest.

Homesteads are full of easy meals, from livestock and pet food sitting out to beehives full of honey to piles of fresh fruit growing. There are a lot of reasons homesteads are of particular interest to a bear. 

What kind of homesteads are most at risk for bears?

People living in bear country are quite obviously the most at risk for bears on the homestead, but honestly, bears can become a problem practically anywhere. 

Bears have been spotted in the suburbs and more populated rural areas as well from time to time, but they clearly don’t belong there. 

If you live in a more densely populated area that isn’t known for having a bear population, don’t hesitate to call your local cooperative extension to see about a humane capture and release of the bear to a more suitable area. 

This isn’t so much for your benefit as it is for the bears. Bears that hang out in populated areas can die from eating trash or be killed by nervous homeowners. 

If, however, you’re homesteading in bear country, you’ll have to learn to homestead alongside the bears.

It’s not exactly fair to expect the bears to be removed from your area; they have as much of a right to live there as you do. 

Bears are most likely to become a problem on homesteads that border big expanses of forest. 

There are many ways to coexist with black bears. These animals, while intimidating, very rarely attack people, and mostly want to be left alone. Follow the steps below to set up your homesteading activities in a way that will naturally prevent bears from wanting to lunch on your property. 

What to do if bears are frequenting your homestead

If you see the bear on your property, stay at a safe distance and make as much noise as possible to try to scare it away.

It’s a good idea to always carry bear spray while outdoors on your homestead if you live in bear country. You just never know when you might run into a bear, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

Follow the tips below to make your homestead unappealing to bears. If you stop feeding them, they’ll stop visiting. 

How to Prevent Bear Visits

If you have bears coming to your property, it’s likely for one big reason, you’re feeding them, whether you mean to or not. Black bears can smell food from up to 20 miles away, so it’s really no wonder that they frequent homesteads, which are chock full of food.

Biggest bear draws on the homestead:

• Trash or food left outside
• Compost
• Beehives
• Livestock food
• Animals giving birth
• Newborn, injured or dead livestock
• Crops, Berry bushes, fruit trees & nut trees 
• Stocked ponds

Never Leave Trash or Recycling Outside

A fed bear is a dead bear, as the saying goes. Bears are very attracted to garbage, and once they realize you have it on your property, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of them. 

Bears that eat trash die an early death, either from ingesting something non-edible or becoming so habituated to human areas that they’re killed. 

Our neighborhood bear always seems to know when someone is about to head to the dump with their trash. They’ll leave their trash out on the front porch, waiting to get it into the car. And like clockwork, there’s the bear, waiting for a treat. 

The only way we’ve found to combat this is to always keep our trash and recycling locked in our shed until it’s time to go to the dump, and then the trash goes straight into the car. It’s a simple system, but it works. 

Bear-Proof as Much as Possible. 

While black bears are generally not tempted by livestock (unless they’re desperate for a meal), they may be tempted by newborns, chicks, eggs, and especially livestock food. 

Bears are wicked strong and can be very determined, especially in their most desperate seasons to eat. Make the effort to build strong animal structures with bear-resistant doors and windows so you don’t have to deal with break-ins. 

Related Reading: 10 Common Chicken Coop Mistakes I Wish I Knew Earlier

Lock Animals In at Night and During Baby Season

Black bears don’t all follow the exact same activity patterns, and you can certainly see black bears at any time, day or night. However, black bears are most active during dawn and dusk, and that’s when you’re most likely to have them visit your homestead. 

They start foraging in the early hours of the day, before the sun comes up, and forage a lot into the night. It’s important to make sure your animals are locked up tight in a bear-proof enclosure while they’re vulnerable and sleeping.

If your goats or sheep are close to kidding and lambing, or you have a broody hen sitting on a clutch of eggs, it’s important for those extra vulnerable animals to be protected from bears. Keep these animals inside of their pens, coops, or barns while they’re giving birth and raising newborns. 

Use Electric Fencing Around Livestock Living and Beehives

Unfortunately, standard chicken wire and hardware cloth are not strong enough to keep out a hungry bear. 

Installing electric fencing around chicken coops and livestock areas is the best way to prevent bears from trying to get in. 

Electric fencing is the number one way to deter bears from vulnerable areas on your homestead. I know it can be expensive to install, but it’s worthwhile if it protects your animals and your crops from hungry bears. 

Don’t Leave Livestock Feed Out

Most bears aren’t drawn to livestock because they’re interested in eating your chickens and goats. Although they could, most black bears are more interested in the easy meal that is your livestock feed. If you have buckets and bags full of feed sitting around outside, you can bet it’s going to draw bears. 

Keep all livestock feed in a locked and secure shed or inside your garage or home. 

Try your best to only feed the animals as much as they can eat in one sitting. I know this isn’t always possible. If you can’t limit feeding times, at least bring feeders inside and lock them up at night. Make sure your chicken coop and animal pens are as clean as possible and don’t have lots of feed mixed into the bedding. 

Use Livestock Guardian Animals

Livestock guardian dogs can help protect your animals from bears, but beware that this is not a perfect solution and can lead to other problems. 

Bears and dogs don’t tend to get along, and bears may attack a livestock guardian dog who’s barking or lunging at them. 

The plus side is that livestock, even simple ones like chickens, quickly come to understand that when the dog is barking, they’re in danger and need to hide. A barking dog on your homestead may be enough to save your livestock from bear attacks or keep curious bears off your property, but a hungry or desperate bear may do its worst and fight your dogs. 

Related Reading: How To Train Your Chickens to Come When Called in One Week

Know When Bears Are Most Active 

Spring and fall are the two times of year when bears are most active and most grumpy. In the spring, they’re coming out of hibernation, some females may have a cub or two with her, and they’re in dire need of some food. In the fall, they’re racing against the clock to eat as much as possible before denning up for the winter. 

The vast majority of our bear experiences have been in the late spring and early summer, when bears are roaming our mountain in search of berries. 

Simply knowing the bear’s most active times can help you to be on high alert and put in extra effort to protect your homestead. 

Compost Properly

Compost is an easy meal for lots of different wild animals, including bears. Making your compost pile unappealing to wildlife will help reduce the number of visits they make to your property.

How to bear-proof your compost:

• Compost in a tumbler. There are many bear-resistant compost tumblers on the market, using them can drastically cut down on bear interest in your compost system. 
• Don’t add meat scraps or bones to your compost. This is a general compost rule anyway, but following it will help to keep bears away too. 
• You can also make a natural bear deterrent by soaking a rag in ammonia and placing it in a bucket near your compost pile. 

It’s also important to keep your compost pile well managed by adding brown materials regularly and turning it frequently so the pile doesn’t smell of food. 

Be Smart with Pet Food

Pet food is a big draw for wild animals of all sorts. Make efforts to take away this temptation for bears. Don’t feed pets outside, or if you have to, don’t leave their food outside for long periods. Try to only feed dogs and cats as much as they can eat in one sitting. 

Don’t leave bags of pet food outside, even in bear-proof containers, as the smell of it can draw bears to your property.

Don’t Feed Birds During Peak Bear Season

If you’ve had bears coming onto your property in search of food or raiding whatever food they find, it’s important to take every step imaginable to make your property undesirable for future bear visits. 

This includes taking down bird feeders in the spring and fall when bears are most active and most in need of food. 

Protect Berries or Grow Enough to Share

Black bears are berry-crazy. Berries are one of the biggest staples in their diets, and they munch on them all summer long. 

Keep your berries inside electric-fenced areas if possible to keep out the bears. 

If you can’t or don’t want to try to protect the berry crop, you can do what we do, which is to grow enough to share with the local wildlife. Blueberries grow very well in our climate, so we have many bushes that fill with berries every year. 

We have some growing right in our yard, but also have some growing on the margins of our property, near the woodline, and those are the berries that are most targeted by wildlife. We see birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and bears munching on those berries a lot, and they rarely come into our yard to forage from the other bushes. 

The animals prefer to eat close to the woods, where they can run for cover if they need to. 

Bears on the homestead can certainly be a nuisance, but they don’t need to be a consistent problem. If you take steps to remove food temptations and make it clear the bear is not welcome by making noise every time it comes around and setting up electric fencing, it will find somewhere else to go. 

The most important thing is to stop feeding the bears so they’ll find somewhere else to eat.

The post How to Deter Bears from Your Property appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Growing a peck of peppers doesn’t appeal only to guys named Peter. Many gardeners grow these popular nightshades every year.

Whether you prefer the cool, juicy crunch of a sweet bell pepper or the face-melting heat of hot peppers, you’ve likely come across a few specimens with strange woody scars across their surface – pepper corking.

Let’s discuss this gardening phenomenon.

One thing we gardeners know is that vegetables can get a little funky.

Unlike the picture-perfect produce in your local supermarket, growing food at home often means you run into some strange characters. Whether it’s the carrot that decided to split in two and grow entwined around each other, cat-faced heirloom tomatoes or the cucumber that grew sandwiched between the garden fence and my gardening box – veggies can start to look downright weird.

So, it’s no wonder people are taken aback by the woody lines they find on their peppers.

If you grow jalapenos, it’s highly likely you’ve picked your fair share of corked peppers.

“What on earth happened?”

Well, they grew.

What is Pepper Corking

No, there isn’t a strange garden pest at work. The cork-like striations that show up on peppers are stretch marks. Yup, it’s as simple as that.

When the conditions are right, the inside of the pepper grows much faster than the outer skin. Eventually, the outer skin tears and then heals over in a woody scab known as corking. This happens over and over all over the surface of the pepper.

The same thing happens with tomatoes.

Tomatoes are thin-skinned by comparison, whereas peppers can take this wear and tear and keep right on growing.  

Sometimes, you’ll notice pepper corking in concentric circles around the stem, but most of the time, it presents as tiny vertical lines covering the pepper.  

What Causes Pepper Corking

Corked peppers look a bit rough, almost as if they didn’t get enough water, but it’s the opposite that causes corking. Too much water sends growing peppers into overdrive, and before you know it, that outer skin is stretched tight. Peppers have specific water needs and prefer the soil to dry out between waterings.

Most of the time, pepper corking happens after heavy periods of rain.

If you have a watering setup where you’re watering the entire garden all at once, rather than one section at a time, such as with a soaker hose or drip irrigation, you’ll likely find that corking is more likely to occur.

Corking can even happen once the pepper is picked. Although, this is less common. If picked peppers are stored somewhere warm and humid, they can experience corking.

What Varieties are More Susceptible to Corking

By far, corking is most often seen in jalapenos. There even seems to be a devoted following of corked jalapeno lovers who eagerly search for these woody prizes. (More on that later.)

Related Reading: Quick & Easy Spicy Honey & Honey-Fermented Jalapenos

You’re more likely to see corking on hot peppers. Their smaller size means they’re more likely to experience the growth spurts that lead to corking.

However, given the right conditions, even sweet peppers sometimes experience corking. Usually, this happens when you get a long, dry, hot stretch followed by several days of heavy rain. The resulting growth spurt can cause the outer skin of your sweet peppers to stretch and crack, leaving them with a few lines.

Corking in sweet peppers is usually less pronounced.

Are Corked Peppers Safe to Eat?

The first time you encounter one of those funny-looking peppers in your garden, you may wonder if it’s even safe to eat. The answer is a resounding yes. Not only are corked peppers safe to eat, but it has no effect on the flavor.  

Corked Peppers = Hotter Peppers

If you’re into hot peppers, you’ve probably heard that corking makes chili peppers hotter. It’s for this reason that some people seek out corking on hot peppers. This is another one of those popular myths that fly around the internet but hold no weight scientifically.

It’s a case of correlation, not causation.

As hot peppers mature and grow larger, they create more capsaicin. More mature peppers are more likely to have experienced the kind of growth spurt that leads to corking.

While the corking isn’t the reason a pepper is hotter, it can still be a pretty good indicator of some serious heat if Peter is looking to pick the hottest peck of peppers. Peppers that stay on the plant longer will usually end up with quite a bit of corking.

Related Reading: 10 Hot Peppers You Need to Grow If You Love to Cook Spicy Food

How to Prevent Pepper Corking

If woody peppers aren’t your thing, there are a few things you can do to prevent corking.

Water your plants less frequently. This only works if you’re the one doing the watering. If Mother Nature is pouring it on by the bucketload, there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it.

Actually, there is something you can do.

Pick a peck of peppers.

Pick your peppers often. Picking peppers when they’re young and on the smaller side means they’re not hanging out waiting for one of those crazy growth spurts. Harvesting more often also encourages the plant to put more energy into making more new peppers, which we can all agree is a good thing.

But in the end, corking doesn’t affect the flavor or heat of peppers, only their appearance. So whether or not you try to prevent corking, you’ll still end up with some tasty peppers.

The post Pepper Corking – What You Need to Know About Woody Lines on Peppers appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Raising little critters on your homestead can take a lot out of you. Not only does it take money from your pockets to feed them, but you worry about their health, too. 

Growing fodder is a great way to save money on the feed bill and provide your animals with much-needed nutrients and fresh food, which is especially necessary in the winter.

Fodder is inexpensive and easy to grow, as well as super fast! You can grow fodder from grain to grass in just a week!

Why grow fodder for chickens and rabbits?

There are so many benefits to growing fodder for your livestock. 

Save money feeding your livestock

Who doesn’t want to save some money? 

While many people get into homesteading with the hopes of spending less money at the grocery store, the reality is that it can cost you more to grow and raise your own food. So we cut costs wherever we can.

Growing fodder takes a tiny upfront investment, and then maintenance is very inexpensive. 

While fodder won’t replace your rabbits’ or chickens’ regular feed, it’s an excellent supplement and helps to fill up their bellies on the cheap. 

Fodder turns a small amount of grain into an enormous amount of feed!

One 50-pound bag of grain can yield over 200 pounds of fodder to feed your livestock. This means that with just a little bit of effort, you’re more than quadrupling your animal feed. 

Fodder gives your chickens and rabbits access to year-round fresh green food. 

Winters can be hard for livestock. Day after day of being trapped indoors, using much of their energy to stay warm, and eating the same bland pellets day after day. But not when you can provide them with fodder!

Fodder is chock full of nutrients, and it tastes so good for your critters. It’s a wonderful treat for those cold, frosty days. 

Fodder gives your animals plenty of minerals and vitamins

Not only can growing fodder save you money, but it’s more nutritious for your animals, too! Fodder is high in protein and full of important vitamins and minerals that will provide a much-needed health boost to your livestock.

Provides entertainment for bored critters

Boredom can be a big problem with livestock, especially chickens, who turn to bullying and picking on each other when boredom strikes. This can especially become a big problem in the winter when chickens are cooped up for months on end.

Feeding fodder once or twice per day gives your animals something to do so they’re not turning on each other. 

Things to know about growing fodder

Temperature

It’s best to grow fodder in cooler temperatures, around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Growing fodder in warmer temperatures could cause mold to grow. Temps cooler than 65 could result in the grains not germinating and sitting for so long that, again, mold grows. 

Ventilation and Air Circulation

Having moving air is essential to successfully growing fodder. The easy solution to this is to grow the fodder outdoors, where fresh air is always blowing about. 

If that’s not an option due to your location or the time of year, you can certainly grow fodder indoors; just make sure you either have an open window close by or a fan blowing to keep air circulating. 

Fodder is a supplement, not a complete feed

Unfortunately, you can’t completely replace chicken feed or rabbit feed with fodder. 

It doesn’t have the complete nutrients or roughage that animals need to thrive. Fodder does, however, make an excellent supplement to their food, especially in winter when access to fresh greens is scarce. 

Where to buy grain:

There are several options for buying grain, and really it doesn’t matter which you choose. What does matter is making sure the grains have not been chemically treated and are safe for animal consumption. 

It also pays to ensure the grains you’re buying are fresh and haven’t been sitting around for months because old grains can have mold. 

Farm Stores

Farm stores are the absolute best place to buy grains for fodder. It will cost much less money for you to buy grains here; you can get big 50-pound bags, and they carry high-quality grains that are designed for animal feed. 

Online

If you don’t have a farm store nearby, you can also order grains online. I bought grains from Amazon once and was very surprised at how good they were. The downside was they weren’t packaged very well, and one of them had burst open in the mail, spilling 1/3 of the contents before it got to my door. 

I personally prefer buying grains at a physical store, but if that’s not an option for you, online is perfectly fine, too!

Supplies Needed for Growing Fodder:

There are many ways to grow fodder for your livestock, and it may take a little experimenting to find the exact system that works best for you. 

I suggest starting small and growing your operation as you get the hang of things. You can always buy better and bigger supplies down the road, but it’s good to know that this is something that works for you and your animals before you commit on a large scale.

Here’s what you need to start:

1 bag of grain  

Barley or wheat work best, but you can experiment with all sorts of grains.

You can even mix different types of grains together for more variety for your animals. However, if this is your first time growing fodder, it’s easiest to start with just one type and then expand from there. 

Water

Tap water works just fine for growing fodder. No need to get too fancy; half the point of this is to save money anyway. 

A shallow container with holes in the bottom for growing the fodder

You can use anything that you have lying around for this project, or you can go out and buy some containers. 

For a constant supply of fodder for your chickens or rabbits, it’s best to have several containers. 

You can grow the fodder on a rotating system where one finishes growing, and you start again with it that day. That way, you can start a new batch of fodder every day of the week and always have fresh food to pop into the coop or hutch. 

Shallow containers work best for growing fodder. Reusable food storage containers work great, as do seed-starting trays. Just make sure you cut holes or slits in the bottom of these containers so excess water can drain out.  

If you’re planning to buy something for this project, shallow window sill planters work great because they have drainage and are just the right size. Plus, when you’re not using them to grow fodder, you can grow flowers or even herbs in them.

How to grow fodder, step by step

Step 1: Rinse the grains

Getting the grains super clean is an important first step. Washing the grains will clean them of any mold spores, fungus, and insect eggs that could become a problem down the road.

Simply pour the grains into a colander and rinse under running water for a few minutes. 

Step 2: Soak the grains

Put the grains in a large, clean bowl and cover them with a few inches of clean, cool water. You can use regular tap water; no need to get fancy or expensive with this step.

You may want to cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap to keep out curious cats or bugs. 

Let the grains soak all night. 

Step 3: Prepare the containers

Clean your containers well with hot, soapy water before using them to grow fodder. Once the containers are clean and ready, you can load them up with your grains.

Step 4: Add the grains

Spread the grains out evenly in your grow container; they can be about half an inch deep. 

Step 5: Add clean, cool water to the grains every morning and evening

If your sink faucet has a spray function, using it is the ideal way to water your fodder. Simply spray down all the grains evenly and let the excess water drain out the drainage holes. If your fodder doesn’t seem to be draining completely, you can gently tilt the trays to get all the water out. 

It’s best to water the fodder twice a day, in the morning and evening, but if your schedule doesn’t allow that, you can get away with watering just once a day. 

Note: Never re-use the water that drained from the container as it could cause mold. 

Step 6: Place the containers in a spot with bright light

You can place the containers near a bright window or put them outside in an area where they’ll get good light. If a window isn’t an option indoors, you can also use grow lights to grow fodder. 

If you do put them outside, try to put them in a protected area. Wild animals will be very interested in your little fodder operation, especially if you’re growing in early spring or winter when fresh greens are hard to come by!

Keep an eye on the progress of your grains day by day; first, you’ll see the roots start to form, then you’ll see the greens, which will get taller and taller as the week goes on. 

Step 7: Feeding your animals

Your fodder should be fully grown and ready for harvest around day 7, and then you can feed it to your animals. Most people take the whole mat of fodder out of the trays and cut it into pieces to feed it to the animals. 

Keep in mind it’s best to feed chickens fodder in small amounts multiple times per day so they don’t eat too much at once. 

Rabbits mostly enjoy eating the greens, but chickens will eat the whole thing: grains and roots! 

Note: You may be tempted to toss the container full of fodder in with your animals, but don’t! There are tons of bacteria, spores, and insects in coops and hutches, and you don’t want to contaminate your containers with anything; always remove the fodder from the container before feeding.

Developing a rotating system

You can easily develop a rotating system for growing fodder so that you always have fresh fodder available for your animals.

To do this, when you’ve fed all the contents of one container to your animals, you can reuse it again. First, make sure to clean and sanitize the container. Then, simply follow the steps in this process again to grow more fodder.

Other tips:

Make sure to store your grains somewhere safe. You need to keep them dry so they don’t develop mold. It’s a good idea to store the grains in a galvanized steel can with a tight-fitting lid; this will keep the grains dry as well as safe from animals like mice, rats, and wild birds.

If you notice any mold or fungus growing in your fodder, throw it in the compost and start fresh. Make sure your containers are washed thoroughly, and the fodder is draining completely after each watering to avoid this happening again.

Growing fodder is so satisfying and enjoyable because it’s so quick and takes almost no effort. It’s a wonderful way to supplement your livestock feed and will make your animals so happy, especially in the gloomy winter.

Be sure to experiment and adjust to make this work for you. There’s no one perfect way to grow fodder. You can play around with different grains and setups until you find what works best for you. This is a very simple project with lots of flexibility. As long as everything is clean and your grains are from reputable sources, you’re good to go!

The post How to Grow Fodder for Chickens and Rabbits appeared first on Rural Sprout.

So, you finally discovered the secret to getting your Christmas (or other holiday cactus) to bloom. Do you want to know another secret? You can get it to bloom again a few months later. In fact, you can get it to bloom anytime you want to. Curious? Keep reading.

For many folks, getting their holiday cactus to bloom is a struggle. But once you read Christmas Cactus – How to ID & Care for Everyone’s Favorite Holiday Plant, suddenly you have the keys to a beautiful, blooming Schlumbergera every year.

It’s all about understanding the needs of a photoperiod blooming plant, in this case, a short-day photoperiod bloomer.

As days shorten and nights grow long and cool, holiday cacti enter a period of dormancy for a few weeks before putting out buds. Naturally, this process happens at opposite times of year in the Southern Hemisphere.

Regardless, Christmas cactus and all other holiday cactus need to experience this dormant period, or you won’t get blossoms, no matter how pampered your specimen.

So, when you finally get it figured out, there’s nothing quite so rewarding as a spectacular cascade of blossoms, except when you do it again in the same year.

I have several Schlumbergera, one for each holiday: Christmas, Thanksgiving & Easter. I’m used to them blooming, right on cue, around said holidays. So, it was a surprise one summer to walk into my living room and see a plump, pink bud on the end of my Schlumbergera truncata (Thanksgiving cactus).

“Huh, okay.”

I went over to inspect it, and sure enough, there were several other smaller buds on the plant. Within a week, my Thanksgiving cactus was blossoming…in July.

It wasn’t the same show-stopping number of blooms that show up during its normal blooming period, but it was still nice.

It was only when the blooms began to fade that I realized we had been having an especially rainy season (darker days), but it was still good and muggy (air conditioning was always on).

My holiday cactus had gone through a mini-dormant period and set blooms because the weather was so gloomy, and my plant was only feet away from the air conditioner.

Force a False Dormancy

Since then, I’ve forced my plants to bloom several times just for the heck of it. And it’s the same process your plants naturally go through, only you’re the one controlling the long, cool nights.  

Obviously, in the summertime, this can be a bit tricky.

It’s easy enough to ensure your plant experiences shorter days and longer nights; simply move it further away from a window and cover it with a black sheet in the afternoons. Or move it to an interior room that gets less daylight.

The harder part is the temperature.

Schlumbergera needs to experience nighttime temps of around 55 degrees to enter dormancy and set buds – not the easiest thing to do in the summer. You can do what I did and set it near a window-unit air conditioner; just be sure it’s not directly in the cold air path. Relocating your plant to a cool basement is another option.

You’ll need to mimic these conditions for roughly 3-4 weeks. You should start to notice new buds at some point. You likely won’t get the same number of blooms that you normally would during the plant’s natural blooming cycle, but it’s still a nice display, regardless.

If you’re going to force a dormant period, it’s important to ensure your plant has enough energy.

Wait at least a month or two after all the blooms have faded before you try to get it to bloom again. You’ll also need to feed your plant with a fertilizer that has a higher phosphorous content.

I always give my Schlumbergera Schulz African Violet Plus starting in late summer and into the fall. It seems to be the perfect fertilizer for bloom development. Use this starting a month before you force dormancy. While the plant is actively blooming, use a balanced houseplant fertilizer, such as Dr. Earth’s Pure Gold Pump & Grow All Purpose Plant Food.

Related Reading: 7 Secrets to Keep Your African Violet Blooming All Year Long

How Often Can I Get My Plant to Bloom?

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how often you could trick your plant into forced dormancy. I’ve managed to get my Thanksgiving cactus to bloom three times in one year. My Christmas cactus has bloomed twice in one year. But after a certain point, my efforts produced diminishing returns.

It took a lot more work, moving plants and remembering to cover them than simply letting them take their natural course and setting them up for a natural dormant period in the fall. But it was still a fun experiment.

Of course, it also meant my plants grew very little in size that year, and I fed them more frequently to replenish nutrients lost to multiple sets of buds.

Give It a Rest

Now that you know how to force your Christmas cactus to rebloom, the inevitable question is, should you? If you’re providing adequate nutrients for the plant to replenish its stores and want to invest the extra work involved in mimicking shorter days and long, cool nights, go for it. You could easily get new blooms every three or four months.

However, if you have to keep moving your plant and remembering to cover and uncover it, suddenly, the whole process becomes work.

Eventually, though, it’s a good idea to let your plant return to its natural cycle. By forcing it to bloom, you’re cutting short its natural rest and growth period. You may enjoy more blooms, but your plant probably won’t grow much.

Related Reading: How & When to Prune Your Christmas Cactus (& Why You Need To)

Opt for the best of both worlds: let your plant bloom naturally one year, then force blooms more frequently the next year—cycle between these two years. Or rest in the knowledge that you know how to get your plant to bloom during its expected bloom time and be happy with that.

Read Next:

10 Things Every Christmas Cactus Owner Needs To Know About Their Plant

The post How to Get Your Christmas Cactus to Bloom More Than Once Each Year appeared first on Rural Sprout.

I’ll bet I know why you’re here. Some well-meaning friend or family member told you your plant wasn’t a Christmas cactus. Or maybe you’ve had a Christmas cactus for ages, but you’re struggling to get the silly thing to bloom. Or you’ve got a massive Christmas cactus on your hands, now you’re wondering whether or not it’s time to pot up.

Whatever reason you find yourself here, this is your one-stop post for all your Christmas cactus care questions.

Grab a hot beverage and get comfy. By the time you finish reading, I’ll bet you end up learning something new about everyone’s favorite holiday plant.

(Unless, of course, this is your favorite holiday plant.)

Just Misunderstood

Christmas cactuses are easily one of the most misunderstood houseplants. The poor things have a reputation for never blooming or blooming when they aren’t supposed to.

It seems as though everyone knows someone who has one that’s been in their family for decades. Cuttings from grandma’s treasured specimen are passed among family and friends, and for some reason, Grandma and your cousin who lives in another state are the only ones who can get theirs to bloom.

Related Reading: Why Is My Christmas Cactus Not Flowering? & 12 More Common Problems

To make matters worse, there’s a ton of confusion around the name “Christmas cactus.”

Many of us are finding out, much to our dismay, that the Christmas cactus we’ve been tending and growing for years isn’t even a Christmas cactus.

(The most popular listing for “Christmas cactus” on Amazon appears to be a Thanksgiving cactus which helps to add to the confusion!)

But like most things in life, once you learn the trick to mimicking their natural habits, these humble plants will explode each year with colorful blossoms. From there, it’s only a matter of time before you become the family member passing out cuttings from your treasured holiday cactus.

No need to be a grandmother, although, who knows, it might help.

Let’s Start with the Most Common Complaint

Much to the frustration of Christmas cactus owners everywhere, their plant never blooms at Christmas, or worse, it doesn’t bloom at all. I can assure you there’s nothing inherently wrong with your plant; it just needs different care from the rest of your plants. They march to the beat of their own drum, and that drum is daylight.

Christmas cactuses are short-day photoperiod blooming plants. Basically, photoperiod means the amount of time a plant is exposed to the sun to trigger blooming.

Christmas cactus set buds and blossom as the days grow shorter. Another popular Christmas short-day photoperiod bloomer is the poinsettia. Violets and chrysanthemums are short-day bloomers as well.

This explains why they bloom around Christmas here in the Northern Hemisphere. But it may surprise you to know that in their native region, Brazil, they are known as the Flor de Maio – the May Flower.

To understand how to take care of them and finally get them to bloom, it helps to take a look at how they grow in the wild.  

They generally show up in the crooks of trees and on jagged rocks. They use their roots to cling to the rough surface. Christmas cacti are aroids, usually epiphytic (growing on a tree) or epilithic (growing on a rock). They live symbiotically with the plants they grow on. In the wild, these plants get much scragglier and woody than the pampered, cultivated plants we have in the living room.

All Christmas cacti fall into the Schlumbergera family.

What do you mean by “all” Christmas cacti?

Without blooms, and with a quick glance, all appear to be the same plant. However, on closer inspection, you can easily distinguish three different species. And here in the northern hemisphere, each species blooms around Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter, thus giving them their common names.

(It’s becoming increasingly common for them to simply be called Holiday cacti to lessen the confusion.)

• Thanksgiving cactus – Schlumbergera truncata
• Christmas cactus – Schlumbergera buckleyi
• Easter cactus – Schlumbergera gaertneri

By far, the most common Schlumbergera is the Thanksgiving cactus.

They’re so common here in the US because they’re the easiest variety for growers to have ready to ship, arriving in stores with buds ready to bloom at the start of the holidays. These cacti are what you see flooding every garden center or home improvement store around November.

How do you tell them apart? Keep reading; we’ll get to that. But for now, let’s figure out how to make this plant happy so it will bloom.

While there are three different holiday cactus, they all prefer the same care.

Despite being a cactus, their care preferences are more of what you would expect from a tropical plant like a pothos or a Monstera.

Light and temperature

Holiday cactuses need lots of bright indirect light. An eastern-facing window is a perfect location for your plant. They love the same kind of warmth we’re comfortable in, preferring temps between 60-75 degrees.

You can even grow them outdoors if you live where the nighttime temps don’t fall below 50 F. However, they will not tolerate direct sun, and you need to plant them where they will be protected. They do best on a porch or under a tree, where they will be shaded from the sun during the hottest part of the day.

Or you can put your plant outside during the summer and bring it in when the weather starts to cool down in the fall.

Just remember that they do not tolerate cold and are not frost-hardy. Be sure to bring your plant in before daytime temps drop much below 50 degrees.

Watering

As I said earlier, the holiday cactus is more like a tropical plant than a desert-dwelling cactus. Give them a good soaking when you water the plant and let them dry out between waterings.

These guys don’t like wet feet at all and easily develop root rot if you overwater. Be sure you use a pot with drainage hold and tip standing water out of their saucer so the roots aren’t sitting in water.

Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter cacti prefer a humid environment. If you don’t live in this kind of climate, you can provide your cactus with the humidity it needs by placing the pot on a flat dish or saucer filled with pebbles and water. The water will evaporate and keep your plant happy. Just be sure water is below the stones, and the pot isn’t sitting in water.

If your home is on the dry side, you can provide humidity for your plant with a pebble tray or a humidifier.

Soil

In their native habitat, these plants don’t grow in soil per se; rather, they grow in spots where dirt and debris would collect. Think about all the natural litter that accumulates in the crook of a tree or a shallow indent in a rock. They prefer similar soil when potted. Choose a good aroid potting mix such as this blend from Gardenera.

If you’d rather make your own, my African violet mix works well, too.

The holiday cacti prefer to be a little root bound, so let them get good and snug in their pot. You only need to repot them every few years. When you do replant them, choose a new container only slightly bigger than the old one.

Fertilizer

Feed them with a balanced fertilizer during their active growth period – after the blooms have faded and new leaf segments begin to appear on the plant.

I’ve had great results with Dr. Earth Pure Gold Pump & Grow All Purpose Fertilizer. I use it at ¼ strength with every watering and add it directly to my water rather than following the directions on the bottle. Using a balanced NPK fertilizer will support new growth and give you plenty of new leaf segments.

About a month before the days start getting noticeably longer, I fertilize my Christmas cactus with Schultz African Violet Plus. Yup, I know, but don’t let the name fool you. The high phosphorus content supports bud development.

While the plant is actively blooming, feed it a balanced fertilizer once a month.

Blooming

These cactuses have beautiful blooms with delicate petals of pink, fuchsia, orange, white, or even purple. But how do you get these silly things to bloom anyway?

Remember, they are short-day bloomers.

As days begin to shorten, holiday cactus will go dormant for around four weeks before setting blooms. You can help this process along by giving it what it needs to bloom – longer, cooler nights.

Keep your plant in the dark for about twelve to fourteen hours a day. If you don’t have a place to put your plant where it will be in the dark, you can cover it gently with a black sheet.

The plant will also need cooler temperatures between 50-55 degrees to set buds. Move it to a cool room in your home.

Growing up, my mom would always put her Christmas cactus in the little pantry off the kitchen that led down to the basement. There was a door to the outside with a window, and the cool air from the basement came up the steps. It was the perfect place to create a false dormant period.

Once your cactus begins to set buds at the very tip of its segments, you can move the plant back to its usual location. Be careful, and don’t jostle the plant; they will drop buds if you disturb them too much.

Holiday cactus can be temperamental and drop their buds if disturbed too much. While the plant is budding, be sure to water it regularly, keep it out of drafts and away from heat sources, and try not to move it around a lot.  

As long as your plant goes through this dormant phase, your cactus should provide you with beautiful blooms every year.

Propagating

Once your plant has finished blooming, let it rest for a month or two, then trim the plant back if it’s too leggy or you don’t like its shape. Trim it back to the desired length by clipping it at the base of a leaf segment with a pair of sterilized scissors.

Save these segments to propagate and share with friends and family. Let the leaf segments callous over for a few days after cutting. Then tuck each section 1” deep into a pot of fresh soil.

Water them sparingly while they are putting down roots. The plant should be well established within a couple of weeks, at which point you can water it normally.

Take a look at our complete step-by-guide to propagating Christmas cactus – or any other holiday cacti here: How to Propagate Christmas Cactus + 2 Secrets To Big, Blooming Plants

Don’t forget to share with family and friends, especially if you have a true Christmas cactus. They are tough to find!

Pets, pests, and problems

Holiday cactus are not poisonous to cats and dogs.

These cacti are generally pest-free.

Over-watering can lead to root rot. If your plant starts to look sickly and begins to drop entire segments, stop watering it. You may wish to dig out some of the dirt and expose the roots so they can dry out. Consider using terra cotta or other breathable clay pots for holiday cactus rather than plastic containers.

If your cactus leaves turn reddish-brown, they may be getting too much sun or not enough water. Move your plant to a location with less direct light and water it a little more.

How to tell holiday cactus apart

So how do you know which holiday cactus you have? Take a look at their segments.

The Thanksgiving variety has pointed teeth at the top of each segment and the same on their sides. The segment is elongated and slightly boxy.

The Christmas cactus has a similar boxy shape but with notched sides rather than teeth.

Finally, the Easter cactus has very rounded leaf segments with shallow indents on its side.

When they bloom, both the Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus have tube-shaped blooms, whereas the Easter cactus has a more daisy-shaped flower.

Check out your plant; you may be surprised to find you don’t have a Christmas cactus at all.

With proper care, you will be enjoying the beautiful blooms of your holiday cactus for years to come, maybe even decades. They are incredibly long-lived plants, just made for sharing.

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Read Next:

15 Rare & Unusual Houseplants To Grow

The post Christmas Cactus – How to ID & Care for Everyone’s Favorite Holiday Plant appeared first on Rural Sprout.

We’ve had a very warm October this year, so I’ve postponed the task of planting spring bulbs from one Saturday to another until November rolled around. 

On the one hand, my fingers were itching to start digging and get bulbs in the ground. But on the other hand, I knew that biding my time now would make a difference in the quality of my spring blooms. Like a lot of gardening tasks, what we do (or don’t do) when we plant bulbs will influence the result come springtime. For better or for worse. 

Putting bulbs in soil that was still warm would have been a mistake. One that I’ve made before and I’m committed not to repeat. 

Here are a few other mistakes we should avoid when we’re planting spring bulbs. And yes, most of them I’ve made – and learned from – myself.

1. Waiting too long to order your bulbs.

Friends, I’ve been there and done that so many times. I’m not saying you should pounce on that first bag of bulbs the minute it lands on the shelf at your local gardening center. But don’t procrastinate on getting your bulb order in either. 

I’ve been ordering organic bulbs from the same online vendor every year. They’re not the grower, but they work with the growers to only get quality bulbs for their online store. 

Due to the organic growing method, not all the bulbs can be super-standardized. The vendor tries, as much as possible, to add only high-quality bulbs to every order they receive. But it’s unavoidable that at the end of the selling season (often late November or early December), they are mostly left with the runts. In the interest of avoiding waste, they sell the seconds at a discount. But then it’s up to you to take chances with what you’re planting. 

Another reason to get your bulb order placed early is because less common bulbs will sell out early. Sure, I could order tulip bulbs all season long. But when it comes to more niche ones (such as camassia, fritillaria or chionodoxa, for example), vendors only get in a limited amount. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. 

2. Planting your bulbs too early in the fall. 

Ok, you got your gardening tasks super organized, set a reminder, and bought your spring bulbs early. Straight in the ground they go, right? Hold your spade! 

You can plant spring bulbs from September until December. BUT (and it’s a big BUT!), the soil needs to have cooled enough when you do it. For optimum blooms next year, your bulbs need to be planted at a temperature that constantly stays below 60F (about 16C). Lower than that is ok too, but higher might become problematic. 

First of all, the warm soil might trick some spring bulbs into starting to sprout prematurely. Then the cold, freeze and snow will damage that young growth and rob you of a flower next spring. Some bulbs might flower again the following spring, but will do so on secondary growth that won’t be too robust. 

Another reason why planting in warm soil isn’t a good idea is because of a disease called tulip fire (Botrytis tulipae). It is a fungal disease that causes the tulip leaves to grow twisted and distorted. It also affects the flowers. An infected bloom will either not open at all or open already rotted. Damp and warm soil encourages the proliferation of this fungus; so the more patient you are for the weather to turn cold, the better. 

3. Thinking it’s too late to plant bulbs and putting it off until next year. 

Listen, I can’t predict the winning lottery numbers. But for what it’s worth, I can accurately predict one thing. In December, there will be at least five posts in my local gardening Facebook group with one theme in common: I found this bag of bulbs in a corner of my garage/attic/shed/basement. Is it too late to plant them?

To which the replies will start pouring in. Yes, get them in the ground! Don’t throw them out! Don’t wait until next year! All is not lost! What can I say, we’re not a high drama group, but we hate seeing good bulbs go to waste. 

In my opinion, one bulb in the ground is worth two in the bag. And if your ground hasn’t frozen over – meaning if you can still dig – go ahead and plant those bulbs. Who cares if it’s Christmas Eve?! Sneak out while you’re waiting for Santa and plant them bulbs. Most spring bulbs will need eight to ten weeks of cold temperatures for an optimum bloom. But even less time in the ground is better than no time in the ground.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s better to err on the side of planting late in the year than planting too early (see previous mistake). If you’re planting late, give the bulbs a good mulch to keep the temperature and humidity even. This will encourage the plants to grow feeder roots that will start sustaining the bulbs until spring. 

4. Planting them where you want them, not where they’ll thrive. 

Location, location, location may make you think of a real estate broker, but it’s also a good rule of thumb to follow when we’re talking about planting. And the old saying “right plant in the right place” very much applies to bulbs. 

Not all bulbs have the same needs, so planting the right bulb in the right place can help us maximize the flower display while at the same time shaving off hours of maintenance work. 

Here’s what this philosophy applies to spring bulbs.

Woodland bulbs will thrive and perennialize if you plant them in a location that resembles that in which they grow in the wild. That means half-shade or full shade. Plant them under a tree or hedge canopy or along a wall or fence that protects them from full sun. 

A few examples of woodland bulbs include crocuses, snowdrops, bluebells, chionodoxa, wood anemone, camassia and botanical tulips.  

On the other hand, bulbs that put on a very showy display of flowers will always need more sun and more heat. That’s why you should always aim for as sunny a location as possible for bulbs such as tulips and hyacinths. 

5. Not planting the bulbs deep enough.

I think that there’s often a bit of confusion between these two pieces of information:

• Plant the bulb deep enough to protect it from cold vs.
• Bulbs need at least eight to ten weeks of cold in order to flower properly in spring. 

So let me try to clear that up. We’re planting the bulbs deep enough not necessarily to protect them from cold. But to protect them from variations in temperature. That also includes shielding them from temperature spikes that would trigger premature sprouting in winter. 

Another reason why it’s better to err on the side of planting them too deeply rather than too shallowly has to do with soil moisture. Again, we’re aiming to prevent them yoyo-ing between too dry and too wet all winter long. This would certainly affect the quality of the flowers come spring. 

So what’s the right depth for planting bulbs? 

About three times the height of the bulb. So if you have a two-inch bulb (about five centimeters, root to tip), plant it about six inches deep (that’s around 15 centimeters). Naturally, by this yardstick, you don’t need to dig that deep for smaller bulbs. 

And speaking of yardsticks, since I’m not really good at approximating depths, I bought myself a tool that makes the job easier. It’s a bulb planter that’s etched with inches (and centimeters) so I don’t have to guestimate every time I bury a bulb. It’s really easy to use. Just press it down at the desired depth, twist to collect the dirt and pull it back up. All you need to do is drop the bulb in the hole left behind and cover it up using the soil in the bulb planter. 

If you don’t want a separate tool for planting bulbs, you can also find etched trowels that will do the job. Have a look at this guide I wrote on a few other bulb planting tools that will make this job a breeze.  

6. Not paying (enough) attention to aesthetics. 

With most of this article covering practical tips, I thought I should at least group together some tips on bulb garden design.

One mistake I made in the past was planting the bulbs a bit too far apart. As a newbie, I was just following the spacing instructions on the bag. But when the flowers came up in spring, the whole display looked a bit ridiculous. It was so spaced out; it was taking up so much yard space with so few bulbs. 

I now plant my bulbs closer together, especially the smaller ones that don’t have thick foliage. It looks like a cohesive and intentional patch rather than flowers scattered about by the wind. 

And speaking of avoiding unimpressive displays, I’ve now become a big fan of planting a mix of spring bulbs rather than just one variety. Remember those “niche bulbs” I mentioned you should buy early? Planting more of them into your bulb patch will produce that “display garden” effect we crave when we visit bulb farms in spring. (No? Just me?)

So in addition to the classic tulips, hyacinths and daffodils, you can also add some fritillary, glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) or wood aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) to your spring garden. 

The post 6 Bulb Planting Mistakes That Will Spoil Your Spring Blooms appeared first on Rural Sprout.

I have been growing (and killing) houseplants for decades, and after years of experience, pothos has become my go-to houseplant. They’re beautiful, lush, easy to get your hands on, even easier to make more of, and nearly indestructible. Whether I need a nice last-minute gift for someone or there’s a corner that could use (even more) greening up, most of the time, I’m looking for a pothos.

What I’m about to say will make me sound like the biggest hipster:  I was growing houseplants long before the current houseplant craze. Granted, back in the day, it was only a not-so-Christmas cactus started from a cutting from my grandmother, a spider plant and a few African violets.

Over the years, I’ve gone through my share of plant-crazed purchases.

I’ve grown them all: maranta, ZZ plant, Monstera deliciosa, Monstera adansonii, fiddle-leaf fig, and dumbcane. Some of them I still have, and many of them were given away to friends. And yes, a few died along the way; I’m looking at you, prayer plants.

No Pansies Allowed

Over the years, I’ve developed a No-Pansies Allowed Policy. If plants are too fussy or hard to care for, off they go to be fussy in someone else’s home. (No offense to pansies.) And do you know what I never give away?

Pothos.

Okay, I might take cuttings, propagate them, and give them away, but I still have the first pothos I received years ago. These days, it has numerous roommates, too. There’s a lot to love about this lush, tropical epiphyte.

17 Pothos Varieties

Do you know how many varieties of pothos there are? Seventeen – it’s a good number. There are enough to collect them all. But not so many that you’re overwhelmed by choice or looking for a variety that is hard to obtain.

Green, gold, white and neon – stripes, splashes, blotchy dots – there’s a pothos for everyone. If you want a great statement piece for your living room, place three different pothos together in the same style pot.

• Golden pothos – Epipremnum aureum
• Marble Queen pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Marble Queen’
• Neon Pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Neon’
• Variegated neon pothos
• Jassenia pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Jessenia’
• Manjula pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘hansoti14’
• Pearls and Jade pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘UFM12’
• Pothos N’Joy
• Cebu Blue pothos – Epipremnum pinnatum ‘Cebu Blue’
• Jade Pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Jade’
• Snow Queen pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Snow Queen’
• Harlequin Pothos
• Global Green pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Asaoka Second’
• Glacier pothos – Epipremnum aureum ‘Glacier’
• Silver or Satin Pothos Scindapsus pictus
• Epipremnum pinnatum (Dragon’s Tail Pothos)
• Epipremnum pinnatum ‘Baltic Blue’    

The Indestructible Pothos (Well, mostly.)

As part of my No Pansies allowed rule, plants have to bounce back if I forget to water them occasionally. And pothos certainly oblige. I would even go so far as to say they thrive with a little neglect.

It takes quite some time for their foliage to noticeably wilt if you forget to water them. And potting up? Meh, they like to be a little rootbound. Fertilizer? I mean, sure, if you insist. Most varieties of pothos are incredibly hard-wearing.

They truly are a great, easy-care plant for the novice or experienced plant owner looking for something that isn’t a time-sink.

Pothos, the Pest-Free Plant

Did I mention that you rarely have to be concerned about pests with pothos? These guys are virtually pest-free. I have cleaned scale off of my hoya several times a year. I’ve had to pitch a poor parlor palm because I could not get rid of the spider mites that had taken up residence. Even when my other plants had fungus gnats, my pothos were gnat-free.

They just don’t seem to attract pests the way other houseplants do.

While they aren’t completely immune, your pothos will rarely have pest issues. Pests that can bug your pothos are spider mites, mealybugs, scale, fungus gnats or thrips.

And would it surprise you to know that pothos are generally disease-free? Really, the one thing you need to be mindful of is not to overwater them, as they are epiphytic plants. They don’t like wet feet, and sitting in soggy, damp soil will lead to root rot.

I’m trying hard to think of a downside to growing pothos, and I’m having a tough time. Oh! Sometimes, they can get leggy and lose their nice, bushy shape.

What to Do With a Leggy Pothos

If your plant doesn’t start with a lot of stems or you don’t get the lighting right, pothos can become a bit leggy. What usually starts out as a small pot full of beautiful leaves turns into long trailing creepers inching toward the nearest light source. Interesting, but not really the look we’re going for.

You’ll notice much more stem growth between leaves and leaf nodes on these tendrils. In fact, a good way of telling whether your pothos is receiving enough light is if there are lots of leaves spaced within a few inches of each other along the stem. If leaves are more than four inches apart, your plant probably needs more light.

Like most houseplants with tropical origins, pothos loves bright, indirect sunlight.

If this term has you stumped, you’re not alone. Simply put, you want the most light possible without the plant being in full sun. Stand in the room you want to put your plant in and find the brightest spot where you can’t see the sun from nearby windows.

Of course, if it’s a north or western-facing window, you can usually get away with placing your pothos directly in a window. My N’Joy hangs in a western-facing window and loves it there.

Two Months

I advocate for letting your plant hang out in the same spot for two months. That’s long enough to see whether it’s happy in that spot. If it’s still putting out leggy growth, you need more light. Well before the two months are up, you’ll know if your plant is getting too much light, the leaves will either fade in color or show brown, crispy edges. At the first sign of either, move your plant away from the light source.

You’re Full of It, Pothos

Another cause of leggy pothos is when there aren’t enough stems in the pot. You won’t have a full plant if you’ve only got 4-6 stems growing out of the soil. It seems counter-intuitive, but you want there to be enough stems in your pot to cause it to be a little cramped.

The easiest way to fix this is to cut the plant back hard.

But save those cut ends. Cut them into pieces that are roughly 3-4” long. Place one end in the soil with a node touching the soil. Poke as many in the soil as you can get. Water them consistently until they put out new growth. Between the soil-propagated cuttings and the pruned stems, within a few weeks, you’ll start to see new growth everywhere. You’re well on your way to a full pothos plant.

Speaking of Propagation

Pothos are super simple to propagate. (They even made our list of plants that are easy to propagate. You simply snip off a portion of the stem that includes a leaf node. You can start them either in soil or water. As long as you keep the soil moist (not damp), within a few weeks, the cutting will have rooted.

Don’t forget to make sure you put enough cuttings together in one pot to ensure a bushy plant.

Related Reading:

How To Propagate Pothos In Soil Or Water

Propagate and Stay There

Pothos are easy to root in water as well, and the best part is once they start growing, you don’t have to repot them. Yep, pothos will grow in water, which opens up a world of beautiful display possibilities. You can learn all about growing them in water here.

Related Reading: 7 Houseplants You Can Grow In Water – No Soil Required

Watch Out, Monstera, Pothos is Coming For You

One of the coolest things about pothos is something the average houseplant owner is unlikely to see. Did you know that pothos are climbers? Yup, if you give them a sturdy, rough surface, they will climb up it. But that’s not the cool part most people will never see.

In the wild, pothos can get huge. Usually, they’re climbing up a tree. And their leaves can grow to between three and four feet long, with, wait for it, fenestrations. Oh yes, Monstera, you’re not the only one with fancy windowed leaves.

However, indoor plants simply don’t receive the light and nutrients needed for these stunning displays. You’ll have to travel to places like South America to see giant, tree-climbing pothos.

But regardless, they’re pretty amazing and beautiful plants. You should pick up a couple or maybe even seventeen.  

The post Why I Grow Pothos More Than Any Other Houseplant appeared first on Rural Sprout.

Snake plants are popular houseplants for many reasons. Lovely to look at, easy to keep alive, and slow growing enough to maintain their shape long-term, there’s much to like about this plucky plant.

If you’re new to snake plants, you likely have some questions. How much water do they need? Do certain varieties make for better houseplants than others? And where should you place one in your house?

This article will answer all these questions and more to ensure you learn everything you need to know about snake plants.

1. They are members of the Lily family (Kind of).

Actually, this simple statement is up for debate. Some recognize snake plants as members of the Sansevieria family, to which lilies belong. But recently, that family has been folded into the Dracaena family, which contains asparagus. Today, you’ll still find both classifications in use, and both are accepted.

2. It’s possible to make them flower.

While snake plants are known for their lush green foliage, they will bloom under the right conditions. These delicate, tubular flowers are creamy-white and resemble lilies. In nature, the plants bloom yearly in the spring.

Indoor environments mess with this cycle, but it’s still possible to coax yours into flowering.

The key, as we’ve highlighted in this article, is to cause the plant to experience stress. Giving your snake plant a sense that its cushy life might be in jeopardy will make it put more effort towards reproduction to ensure another generation lives on—meaning flower production.

You accomplish this by switching up the plant’s environment. Boost the amount of light it receives daily (grow lights are a great option) and limit how often you water. Refrain from repotting, as cramped roots can also trigger bloom production.

With the right environmental stressors, your snake plant will push out a flower shoot. Observe for signs of flowering—snake plants tend to bloom at night, and the flowers never last long. Once it’s finished blooming, you can return to a standard care routine.

Related Reading:

How To Get Your Snake Plant To Flower

3. They are slow growers.

Part of a snake plant’s appeal is that they don’t change quickly. Put one in a pot, and you can expect it to look reasonably identical over the next few months. These slow growers can go through growth spurts during changes in seasons, but in an indoor environment, these changes are small.  

Size at maturity will vary based on variety but ranges from dwarf plants that peak at under six inches tall to towering giants that grow over seven feet. The plants usually live for five to ten years, though 25-plus isn’t unheard of.

4. Snake plants are a popular “air purifying” houseplant – although their impact may have been overstated

Snake plants saw a surge in popularity thanks to NASA, of all things. The space organization funded a landmark study about indoor air purification that found that plants do an excellent job of removing toxins like formaldehyde, xylene, toluene, and nitrogen oxides from the air.

Note: some websites report that the study found snake plants make it possible for humans to survive in an airtight room. This is NOT true.

Snake plants stand out from other varieties because they can perform Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM). Essentially, they can convert CO2 (carbon dioxide) into O2 (oxygen) at night, while most plants only do so during daylight hours.

This makes them popular in bedrooms, especially in homes with minimal airflow. It’s a common trait among succulents and other plants that evolved in arid conditions.

If you’re interested in learning more about the NASA air purifying houseplants study and why it might actually have been the soil and not the plants that removed the contaminants, take a look at Rural Sprout editor, Tracey’s, article here:

No, Houseplants Don’t Purify The Air In Your Home

5. They are hard to kill and easy to maintain.

Snake plants deserve to be a contender for the “easiest houseplant on the planet” award. Once you have one, you can largely ignore it.

Really. The plants almost do better in a state of moderate neglect.

Start your snake plant out well by placing it near a north or east-facing window. This ensures it gets bright but indirect light. But no sweat if that’s impossible—this hardy variety is known for tolerating both low light and direct sun.

Depending on your climate, you can start yours outdoors in the spring and move it inside once the weather turns in the fall.

A standard houseplant soil blend works perfectly—they thrive with a nutrient-rich potting mix with good drainage to prevent root rot (more on that later). If the plant seems piqued, apply a fertilizer watered down to half strength. Monthly infusions should be enough to restore its perkiness. 

Snake plants thrive in arid climates. As such, they don’t need much water. In fact, too much moisture is one of the quickest ways to kill them. The plants have shallow root systems and will develop yellowing leaves if they sit in water too long.

Plan to water a few times a month during the growing season while ensuring the soil has time to dry out. In the winter, you can limit watering to once a month or less.

6. Repotting usually isn’t necessary.

Since snake plants are such slow growers, they can stay in the same pot for years without issue. You must only consider replanting if you see roots pushing against the edges or out the bottom.

When repotting, remove the plant and gently massage its roots to loosen them. Fill the new pot with fresh soil and bury the roots in it. Ensure you give the plant a good soaking to settle it into the soil.

7. Over 70 snake plant varieties exist. 

There are more snake plant varieties than meets the eye. Most potted plants sold in nurseries are the trifasciata species (nicknamed mother-in-law’s tongue), known for their variegated and thick, sword-shaped leaves that come in various colors and patterns.  

However, snake plants are more diverse than this single family. A few popular varieties include:

Bird’s nest snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata hahnii): At just six inches tall, the bird’s nest grows leaves in clusters that form a shallow cup, similar to a bird’s nest. They pair well with succulents for indoor displays.

Cylinder snake plant (Dracaena angolensis): known for its dark green, tubular leaves that can reach up to seven feet tall.

Moonshine (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Moonshine’): Short and silvery green, moonshine snake plants produce thin, broad leaves.

White snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Bantel’s Sensation’): also known as “Bantel’s Sensation,” this pale-green plant grows to approximately three feet tall and has pale white and yellow vertical stripes. 

Twisted sister (sansevieria trifasciata ‘twisted sister’): a dwarf cultivar of snake plant that maxes out at 15 inches and whose yellow-green leaves grow in whorls.

Golden Hahnii (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Golden Hahnii’): These squat succulents produce short leaves with bright yellow borders.

Rhino grass (Sansevieria pearsonii): A fan-like growth habit and thick, tubular leaves make rhino grass a show stopper. It tops out at twelve inches tall.  

8. It’s easy to grow snake plants from cuttings

Already own one snake plant? It’s an easy process to multiply it through cuttings. You can take leaf cuttings from a mature plant or divide up plant roots for a more efficient split. The roots produce rhizomes that you can remove with a sharp knife and pot separately to grow into new plants.

Tracey walks us through four different ways of propagating snake plants and how to do it in this article.

Leaf cuttings can rot quickly, so it’s vital to water their pots infrequently and ensure they are in well-drained soil as they get established.

To take a leaf cutting, use a sterile cutting tool to remove a large leaf at its base. Submerge the cut end in a jar of water and place it in a partly sunny location. Change the water out every two weeks until roots start forming, at which point you can plant it. Alternatively, you can leave the cut end exposed for 24 hours so that it forms a callous. Then, pot it cut-end down into fresh potting soil.  

Note: Never divide a plant before the leaves are at least four inches tall.

9. The primary health concern is root rot.

Snake plants are stress-free. They rarely develop pest and disease problems, although infestations of mealybugs, aphids, or spider mites are possible. If you see signs of insect damage, a few treatments with an insecticidal soap should be enough to get them under control.

A far more pressing problem will be root rot, which occurs when these arid-loving plants receive too much water. Prevention is your best strategy. Only water snake plants when the soil feels dry a full finger-length down, and repot plants in fresh soil if you see wilting or yellowing leaves.

Remove as much of the old soil as you can from around the roots to reduce the risk of spreading fungal spores into fresh soil.

10. Pruning is sometimes necessary.

Thanks to their slow growth and vertical structure, snake plants rarely get unwieldy. Even so, you may someday find yourself with more plant than desired or unsightly damaged leaves that need removing. Thankfully, pruning is an easy process.

Isolate the tallest leaves and cut them at the soil line with a sterile cutting tool. While pruning is possible at any time, plants experience the least amount of stress in winter.

Read Next:

10 Things Every Christmas Cactus Owner Needs To Know

The post 10 Things Every Snake Plant Owner Needs To Know appeared first on Rural Sprout.

When we think of gardening, leafy greens with vibrant flowers and delectable fruit are usually what come to mind. Most herbaceous plants have the typical care requirements of lots of sunshine, fertile soil, and good drainage to take root and give us that show.

Mushrooms are unlike traditional plants, an oddball distant cousin that doesn’t play by the same rules. They are not bound by photosynthesis for energy; instead, they feast on decay. Rather than rich soil, they prefer fresh and unrotted materials as their growing medium. And while most mushrooms like a bit of sunshine, they will positively thrive in damp shade.

Introducing us to a world beneath our feet, where unseen networks and communications bring the forest to life, mushrooms are a wonderfully weird addition to any permaculture setup.

If you’re looking to dip your toe in fungiculture, wine cap mushrooms are an excellent beginner-friendly mushroom to grow.

Stropharia rugosoannulata is a distinctive agaric mushroom that’s easy to recognize for its white stalks with a wrinkled ring and reddish-purple to burgundy caps.

So large and prolific are wine caps that they also go by the names garden giant, king stropharia, and – fittingly – Godzilla mushroom.

Wine cap mushrooms naturally grow in the forest understory, an edible ground cover that loves the shade. As such, wine caps are a delicacy you won’t see at your grocery store. Although you might chance upon them at farmers’ markets and specialty shops, the most reliable way to have wine caps is to grow them yourself.

5 Reasons to Grow Wine Cap Mushrooms in Your Garden

1. Wine cap mushrooms are delicious and nutritious

It’s well worth your while to grow wine caps and experience their pleasant and earthy taste, hinting of nuttiness with subtle notes of wine. Texture-wise, immature wine caps are delicate and tender, and mature ones are firm and a little meaty.

A versatile culinary mushroom, the flavor wine caps contribute is complex but not overly imposing. Wine caps take on the flavors of the foods they are cooked in while imparting their own savory richness to the dish. Toss them in stir-fries, sautés, soups, and any recipe that includes mushrooms on the ingredient list.

Wine caps are tasty, and they’re good for you, too. A rich source of fiber, protein, and amino acids, wine cap mushrooms are also chock-full of calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus, and magnesium. They are a great source of B vitamins – specifically B2, B5, B6, B9, and B12.

2. Wine caps are easy to grow and very hardy

Wine cap mushrooms are native to the temperate regions of the world, most commonly in North America and Europe. They prefer habitats filled with a mix of softwood and hardwood trees, both coniferous and deciduous. As saprophytic fungi, wine caps live on fallen branches, leaf litter, and other organic debris – all things that are easy enough to source around the ol’ homestead.

When winter comes, the mushroom-fruiting bodies die back. But the mycelium – the mass of branching, thread-like filaments – lives on underground. A perennial forever food of a different sort, wine caps will return year after year in hardiness zones 4 through 8.

All wine caps need to flourish is a bit of shade, plenty of moisture, and lots of carbon-rich food.

3. Wine cap is an exceptional performer

There’s good reason wine caps are dubbed Godzilla mushrooms – and it’s meant in the best possible way!

Wine cap mushrooms can grow to gigantic proportions, reaching up to 8 inches tall with caps 12 inches across. One large wine cap mushroom may weigh as much as 3 pounds.

Once the mycelium is established, wine caps will provide a lot of food from summer to fall, even in small beds.

As wanderers, wine caps tend to pop up in other shaded and woodsy parts of the garden to give you a surprise harvest here and there.

4. Wine cap mushrooms enrich the soil

Like all saprotrophs, wine caps are decomposers that feed on dead and decaying organic matter. As they work their way through woody debris, the nutrients bound within are released and returned to the earth.

Along with improved soil fertility, wine caps benefit soil structure as well. Below the surface, the mycelium, with its myriad hair-like structures, pushes through the soil to create channels for air and water. Better porosity means improved moisture retention, drainage, and oxygen flow – and that makes plants happy.

Mushroom mycelium is full of mystery, but we are starting to grasp the vital role it plays in healthy soil ecosystems. The massive underground web of fungal filaments crosses vast distances and is interwoven into the roots of plants. In this way, the mycelium connects individual plants together, allowing them to communicate and transmit water, carbon, nitrogen, and minerals across the entire network.

An example of the complex interconnectedness is “mother trees”, so tall that they receive sunlight above the forest canopy. Flowing with sugary energy, these old-growth trees use the mycorrhizal network to send sugars down to small saplings struggling to grow in deep shade. By sharing its resources, big trees keep the little ones alive.   

So we, too, can harness the ancient wisdom of the forest through homegrown mycelium cultivation. And growing wine cap mushrooms can bring us a little closer to the ideal of a self-sustaining and interconnected permaculture garden.

5. Wine cap mushrooms are an earthly delight

In a garden filled with herbaceous plants and woody shrubs and trees, a mound of adorable toadstools will add another layer of dimension to your outdoor space.

The unique burgundy-topped mushrooms are an attractive ground cover, especially eye-catching among the greenery. The rounded purplish-red caps are slightly rough and scaly, with smooth white stalks.

As intriguing fungal sculptures, wine caps break up the usual scheme of color, texture, and form. Hulking but low-growing, they are visually striking and bring a welcome change to the surrounding scene.

Beyond its curious looks, watching wine caps grow is a fascinating thing to see. There’s no better proof that your soil is good and healthy as when wine cap mushrooms arise from the substrate. They offer a splendid visual reminder of the positive effect the mycelium below the surface is having on your garden.

Where to Buy Wine Cap Mushroom Spawn

The first step toward growing your own wine cap mushroom patch is to purchase sawdust spawn.

Typically sold in 2.5 or 5.5-pound weights, these kits contain pasteurized sawdust inoculated with wine cap mycelium. When crumbled over a garden bed, a 5.5-pound kit will cover up to 50 square feet of space.

You can find wine cap mushroom spawn for sale at these online retailers:

• Better Fungi @ Amazon
• Field & Forest
• North Spore
• Silver Tree Forest
• Gardener’s Supply

Because wine caps return year after year, you’ll only need to purchase the spawn once. When the mycelium has fully colonized the substrate after a growing season or two, you can take a few scoops to transplant it around to other parts of your garden if you wish. Wine caps are vigorous and grow so readily that dropping the butts of the mushroom stem on mulch is often enough to seed a whole new colony.

Once you’ve received your spawn, it’s best to start the grow as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep the mushroom kit in the fridge until it’s time to “plant”.

When to Plant Wine Cap Mushrooms

Wine cap sawdust spawn can be spread anytime during the warm months, from spring to fall.

For fall plantings, wine cap spawn is sown from mid-autumn and up to 3 weeks after the first frost – as long as the ground isn’t yet frozen. Fall-planted wine caps will come to life the following spring, with mushrooms emerging from summer to fall.

Wine caps started in spring are scattered after the last frost date for a same-year harvest. These will usually start fruiting in summer and are ready to be harvested by fall.

Topping up the bed with fresh wood chips after every harvest will keep the wine cap mushroom bed going and going until wintertime.   

Where to Plant Wine Cap Mushrooms

Wine cap mushrooms can be tucked into all sorts of nooks and crannies of the garden. The best spots to pick are places where they will receive rain and a little sunlight. Morning sun with afternoon shade is an ideal location.

Plant them between vegetable rows to take advantage of their soil-enhancing benefits. They grow happily in apple orchards, beneath fruit trees and grape arbors, and under the fluffy umbrage of asparagus.

As an ornamental, wine caps are shade-friendly ground covers that will brighten up the darker parts of the garden. These mushrooms are darling planted along pathways, shady borders, and forest edges.

Growing wine caps in raised beds and containers is possible as well, as long as the mushroom spawn isn’t planted too deeply. Crumble the spawn no more than 2 inches below the substrate so it doesn’t become smothered by the mulch.

Prepping the Wine Cap Bed

Once you’ve picked the perfect spot, your mushroom bed will need to be sod and weed-free. Wine cap spawn can be applied to bare soil or a mulched surface in newly-created beds or established plots.

For added weed suppression – or to grow wine caps on the lawn – set down a few layers of cardboard first. Cardboard will smother grass and weedy growth and supply more carbon to fuel the wine caps.

When the cardboard is laid, soak it thoroughly with a hose, making sure all layers are completely wet and fully saturated.

Straw or Wood Chips?

Wood chips are the classic substrate for growing wine cap mushrooms. It’s a full-bodied fungal food that’s rich in carbon and slow to degrade. It can feed your colony for up to 3 years.

A mixture of softwood and hardwood chips is best – box elder, willow, maple, cottonwood, and oak are great feedstock for wine caps. The wood can be fresh or aged, in chip sizes large and small.

When using wood chips as your wine cap spawn substrate, you’ll need to mulch to an overall depth of 4 inches.

Clean straw (oat or wheat) is another solid choice. It produces mushrooms quicker, but dries out and breaks down just as fast. To help keep moisture in, pre-soak the straw for 2 to 3 days.

Wine cap spawns in straw is mulched to a total depth of 5 to 8 inches, replenishing straw as needed to maintain this depth.

Or, have faster growth along with better moisture retention by using both wood chips and straw in your wine cap beds.

Sandwich Wine Cap Spawn Between Layers of Mulch

On the wetted cardboard or soil floor, start by doling out a 2-inch layer of wood chips or 4 to 5 inches of straw. Use a rake to distribute it evenly over the bed.

The sawdust spawn comes as a compressed block. It’s quite moist, so it crumbles easily. You’ll see the white mycelium threaded through the sawdust, but don’t worry – breaking it up won’t harm the fungi.

By hand, scatter the crumbled wine cap spawn evenly across the bed.

The final layer in our mushroom bed sandwich is 2 inches of wood chips. If you use straw in your mushroom bed, topdressing with wood chips will help keep things moist.

Once you’ve achieved the correct depth, tamp the bed down with your feet to firm it up.

Give the site a deep and thorough watering, and the wine cap bed is complete.

Maintain Moisture

After planting, check in on your wine caps regularly at first. Stick your hand into in the bed; the mulch should be damp but not sopping wet. If it’s on the dry side, spray the bed down with a hose on a gentle setting so as not to disturb the spawn.

Like most crops, wine caps need about an inch of water per week during the warm season. Water them at the same time you would irrigate your vegetable plot, with extra moisture supplied in heat waves.

The trick to growing any type of mushroom is consistent moisture. Wine caps planted in full sun will need more upkeep than those in part shade. Choose your growing site wisely, and your wine cap bed will require only minimal maintenance.

Watch for Signs of Fungal Life

When temperatures reach 50°F to 70°F (10°C to 21°C) for some weeks, you’ll begin to see white, stringy strands of the wine cap mycelium take hold of the substrate.

The mycelium will continue to grow, colonizing the mulch and feeding on the decaying organic matter. With enough energy, the fruiting body will arise from the substrate – the wine cap mushroom, proper.

Wine caps tend to begin fruiting after rain or temperature fluctuations. Once they’re up, the mushrooms grow rapidly. They start out as buttons with tightly closed caps and develop into fully mature garden giants in 10 to 20 days. In the realm of edible gardening, that’s some really fast food!

Wine Cap Mushroom Identification Checklist

Wine caps are a unique-looking and distinctive mushroom with no deadly lookalikes. Still, it’s smart to do a visual check before you go ahead and eat them up.

• Cap color – Wine cap mushrooms have reddish brown to deep wine red caps, fading to a tan hue as the mushroom matures.
• Stem – The stalk is at least a half-inch thick and white when fresh. Wine caps have a distinct wrinkled ring located at the upper portion of the stem, a remnant of the veil breaking when the cap fully opens. This “skirt” is rough to the touch with a shape similar to cogwheels.
• Gills – On the underside of the cap, the gills are initially pale gray or purplish gray and mature to dark purple or nearly black.
• Spore print – When in doubt, remove the mushroom stem and place the cap, and gills down on a white sheet of paper. Cover with a bowl and leave it overnight. The spore dust from wine caps will be a deep purple-black color.

Harvesting and Storing Wine Cap Mushrooms

Wine cap mushrooms can be harvested and enjoyed as immature buttons to humongous burgundy-topped toadstools. Young wine caps have a milder flavor and tender texture, while mature ones are far more robust and meaty.

Older wine caps, past their prime, will dull to a tan color and become too tough and fibrous to eat. Leave these ones back in the bed. They will decompose eventually and replenish the soil with nutrients, so all is not lost.

To harvest, pull the mushrooms from the soil with your hands or use a sharp knife to slice the stems off at ground level.  

Place your wine cap haul in a paper bag in the fridge, and they will keep for about a week. They can be preserved over the longer term by freezing, dehydrating, or canning them.

Wine Cap Mushroom Recipes

Wine caps are delectable simply sautéed in olive oil and butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The mushroom pairs well with wine, lemon juice, fennel, nutmeg, and ramps. It goes great in pasta, polenta, quinoa, and rice. Use wine caps as an alternative to portobellos or really any recipe that calls for mushrooms. It’s also an excellent substitute for meat.

For recipes specifically tailored to the flavor profile of wine cap mushrooms, here are some good ones to try:

• Spiced Wine Caps
• Pickled Wine Cap Mushrooms
• Wine Cap Mushroom Soup
• Wine Caps Stuffed with White Bean & Sun-Dried Tomato
• Corn Fettuccine with Wine Cap, Lemon Verbena & Bucheron
• Braised Wine Cap and Asparagus
• Wine Cap Mushroom Risotto
• Grilled Wine Cap Mushrooms in Herb Sauce
• Wine Cap and Ginger Hash Brown Cakes

The post How to Plant a Wine Cap Mushroom Bed appeared first on Rural Sprout.

I winced a bit as I watched my partner lower the spinning tines into the soil in our garden. Dark, brown earth immediately turned up behind him as he walked next to the lumbering rototiller. “That’s years of hard work down the drain,” I thought. Or is it?

This fall, we made the tough choice to till our no-dig garden.

Why Go No-Dig or No-Till?

There’s a lot to be said in favor of no-dig gardening, and here at Rural Sprout, we’re big fans. Improved soil, better water retention, higher yields, fewer weeds and, of course, the big one – no back-breaking digging!

Here are some of our most popular articles on the no dig method of gardening:

6 Reasons To Start A No Dig Garden + How To Get Started

12 Common Mistakes That No-Dig Gardeners Make

How to Go No-Dig In Raised Beds & Improve Your Soil

20 Vegetables We Grow In Our No Dig Garden

One of the main benefits of no-dig gardening is improving the microbiome beneath your feet. Just below the soil is a living universe filled with beneficial bacteria, microbes and fungi. All of these work symbiotically with the plants growing in the soil, specifically the fungi.

You’ve probably heard a lot about the benefits of using mycorrhizae in your garden these past few years.

When you opt for a no-dig garden, you’re allowing those naturally occurring mycorrhizae to grow and create a massive underground network that significantly enhances the size and efficiency of your garden plants. Trust me; it’s well worth the effort.  

Our Journey with No-Dig Gardening

So, several years ago, we decided to give no-dig gardening a try. Our soil has never been great. It’s very heavy and poor draining. We decided to bring in several loads of mushroom compost to put directly on top of our existing soil, trusting everything would break down and improve over the years. 

Within the first season, we noticed healthier, larger plants.

We had fantastic yields, and the weeds were minimal because we put down a layer of mulch.

The first year was great, and I was thinking – this is it – we’ve found the gardening holy grail.

But the next year, we started to have problems. The soil was still looking good, and the plants were large and healthy, but somehow, word had gotten around to the local pest population that we had gone no-dig and had the choicest plants in the neighborhood to nibble on.

No biggie. We knew beneficial insects would help control pest populations. But we also needed to break out the neem oil and the Bacillus thuringiensis about midsummer to keep pests from overwhelming the garden. It was a lot of work, but worth it in the end.

Then Came This Year

I’m still a little traumatized by this year.

From the word go, we were battling pests. No sooner had my radishes sprouted leaves when something was nibbling on them. When I put my eggplant seedlings out, the leaves were riddled with lacey holes from flea beetles. And the cabbageworms were insane. At one point, I think there was more caterpillar poop than kale accumulating in my garden.

I kept remarking to my sweetheart that these same pests weren’t nearly this bad last year.

What was going on?

This past season, my gardening day usually started with a walk around each row with my garden sprayer filled with B.t.

I anxiously watched my poor eggplant seedlings, knowing that flea beetles usually don’t cause enough damage to kill off a healthy plant.

But they kept at it. All season long. Nibble, nibble, nibble.

I couldn’t explain why the pests were so bad this year; they were much worse than last year.

And that’s when it dawned on me.

Duh. We didn’t till last year. So, most of my pest population wintered over in the soil and returned stronger this year. Hmm, that’s a problem I didn’t foresee with no-dig gardening.

Good Bugs vs. Bad Bugs – a Delicate Balance

If you’re like most organic gardeners, you know all about the diminishing insect populations – the good and the bad. Insects, on the whole, are in decline, and that’s especially bad news for pollinators.

Over the past decade, there’s been a major shift in pest control methods, especially in the organic gardening community.

We’re much more careful about what we do to mitigate pest damage. We may plant trap crops to entice pests away from the crop we want to eat. Or we may introduce a predatory insect species to help keep a particular garden pest in check, such as using lacewings to keep aphids in check. Or, for the truly adventurous, whipping out your UV flashlight and heading out to the garden at night to hunt tomato hornworms.

For many, our relationship with insects is changing. Myself included. I was willing to share my garden.

In Which I Scare the Chickens

And share we did.

I mean, sure, I can handle sharing my kale. It’s kale, after all. So be it if I don’t get to eat any myself this summer because it’s riddled with holes from imported cabbageworms. I can wait to eat kale in late fall and early winter when the cold has forced all the bugs underground. It tastes better after a frost anyway.

And I guess it’s okay if the squash vine borers decimate my zucchini…then my pattypan squash…then my Kubota pumpkins…then our carving pumpkins, and finally the cucumbers.

But it was when my eggplant finally recovered from all the flea beetle damage and started bouncing back that things got ugly. It was early October before it put out blooms, ready to fruit

…and then we had our first frost.

I looked down at my ruined eggplant and yelled to no one in particular, “This is so freaking stupid!”

The chickens went squawking to hide under the lilac bush.

Standing next to the poor wilted eggplant, I thought, what on earth are we doing all this work for?

Am I feeding the bugs or our family?

For the past several years, I’ve been so worried about the insect population in my garden that I completely lost sight of what all this hard work is for – feeding us.

Meanwhile, I’ve been so concerned with my impact on the environment that I was okay with smaller and smaller returns on my effort in the garden. At this point, it was clear we were putting a lot of work into hosting an all-you-can-eat buffet for the local garden pests while our pantry shelves were lacking in canned veggies.

I remembered that, hey, my family and I are a part of the environment, too.

So, rather than reaching for a large bottle of some nasty chemical, we decided to till up the garden after the first hard frost. We’ll till a couple more times before the snow flies, and then again in the spring.

This will unearth and destroy all the bugs – good and bad – hanging out in our soil. It’s a way of keeping the garden pest population in check that I’m comfortable with. Because at the end of the day, I’m trying to grow an all-you-can-eat buffet of veggies for our family, not the bugs.

Moving Forward – Giving up No-Dig for Good?

We have no plans to give up no-dig gardening.

We’ve noticed the benefits in the size and general health of our plants. We have fewer weeds because we mulch and let that mulch break down in the soil. Our crumby soil is now beautiful, dark, loamy earth. The drainage has improved greatly. And with each passing year, my body is grateful for the lack of digging and wrestling with that rototiller.

Of course, my sweetie, who is a natural-born tinkerer, looks mournfully at the rototiller each spring and fall before reminding me that he did a complete carburetor rebuild on it just for me. (Gosh, just what I always wanted, thanks, sweetie!)

I think, like with most gardening methods, we’re just going to adjust it to work for us. We’re hoping to lessen the pest load in our soil this year. If it rebuilds again in subsequent years, we’ll probably end up tilling again as needed. But for now, the plan is to continue our no-dig garden as though we hadn’t tilled. Yes, we’ll probably have to inoculate with mycorrhizae, but that’s okay.

It’s important to remember if it isn’t working for you, reevaluate and find something that does. There are no gardening police out there waiting to descend on you and issue a ticket. This is supposed to be an activity that’s good for you, not one that makes you pull your hair out and scare the chickens.

The post Enough! We’re Tilling Our No-Dig Garden This Fall appeared first on Rural Sprout.