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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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19945397 No.19945397 [Reply] [Original]

Is it worth it to grow my own veggies? Will it help them taste less shit?

>> No.19945406

>>19945397
They will taste better. It will be a bit expensive to get set up at first. It is going to be more work than you think to get a decent yield.

>> No.19945425

>>19945406
This. I would honestly recommend growing herbs like basil, mint, thyme, etc. over veggie gardening (at least, at first). You get a solid ROI for relatively little effort and they don’t take up much space. Mint in particular is pretty impossible to kill once it takes root.

>> No.19945426

start with microgreens and herbs
big veggies take forever

>> No.19945440

squash gives huge ROI, alot of space tho
How are you going to be growing OP?

>> No.19945443

To be clear it is also very gratifying and you are inspiring me to get off my ass and build the greenhouse I bought so I can start my sprouts over winter for this year’s spring planting. I need to get my yard and garage together I shit you not I low key hate myself right now for it’s state.

>> No.19945445

if you've never grown your own vegetables you might kill yourself when you taste one you grew because your entire life has been a lie

>> No.19945471

>>19945397
Home grown potatoes aren't much better than those bought at the market so don't bother

>> No.19945482

>>19945471
Liar. You need to get delicious varietals, and they definitely are. Also new potatoes.

>> No.19945521

>>19945397
Yep, ripe tomatoes right from the vine are sweet and delicious.

>> No.19945541

If you live in a big American city of millions and have an actual ground yard or outdoor city space to grow vegetables in, how contaminated will stuff you grow be?

>> No.19945590

Had some basil cuttings in water for over a week and they developed no roots...

>> No.19945606

>>19945397
definitely. buy some cherry tomato plants next year and plant them in the ground. you'll have so many because they grow like a huge bush. make sure its in a shady area with dark soil. keep it well irrigated.
another easy crop to grow is potatoes. you can take any potato you buy from the store and let it sit for a while. it will eventually develop eyes. cut the potato into chunks with one eye in every chunk. bury them in soil, its basically a seed.
you can start them, or any seed, on damp paper towels, its an excellent way to germinate plants.
It can be kind of fun to have an indoor grow-op, but its actually vegetables. Full hydroponic setup with a tilapia aquarium and im not even growing weed, its just peppers and tomatoes. my neighbors totally think i grow weed. i might as well get the license to do it.

>> No.19945650

In my opinion I think it's definitely worth growing kale, beans, peas, lettuce, peppers and herbs
As for the rest I'm not sure
I've had my garden for 3 years and there's a lot of ups and downs
I tried growing cabbage and it seems like a complete waste of time and space
I've grown tomatoes for 3 years now and they're always kind of disappointing except cherry tomatoes always seem to be miraculously good
Growing squashes for the first time and damn, the plant just suddenly exploded in size and it is flowering like crazy

>> No.19945655

>>19945650
Btw one thing that you don't expect is how much of a pain it is washing your produce especially leafy greens

>> No.19945696

>>19945397
>Is it worth it to grow my own veggies?
extremely, much cheaper
>Will it help them taste less shit?
yes
most store-bought veg tastes like ass compared to proper homegrown

>> No.19945729
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19945729

>>19945397
For salad green and herbs extremely valuable once you learn how.
For other crops it depends on how you do it in each case but it's going to be harder

>> No.19945750

>>19945696
>>19945425
Insane to me that folks talk about growing your own veggies like it isn't taking up your time and space for an insanely small increase in taste or some such. No fucking personal garden ever makes back the amount of time and effort put into it with all that considered it is for sure more expensive than buying from the store

Only ever do it if you honestly love gardening or are some faggot scared of gmos and federal veggies

>> No.19945752

>>19945750
Why do you think I said to grow herbs instead? I don't think I saved much money growing my own okra or cucumber but I definitely saved a shit ton growing my own basil and mint.

>> No.19945875

A single tomato plant grown in a huge pile of semi-loose soil can make hundreds of fruits
I had it happen this year

>> No.19945889

>>19945397
Not necessarily. But most of the time.

>> No.19945987

>>19945729
I’m jealous of that setup, do you have any fruit or nut trees?

>> No.19946243
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19946243

>>19945987
Just blueberries, grapes, elderberries, honey berrie, a plum tree, peach. I'm filling all my remaining spaces with trees and bushes and greenhouses and a few more grapes this coming spring

>> No.19946251

>>19945397
Yes. If you live in the appropriate biome (Hardiness Zone) your vegetables will always be better. Consumer produce often has to travel for a week or more to get from the farm to the table, and that's not including time used for storage, processing or other steps of the process.

Various techniques are used, modernly, to treat and condition produce to last longer, both fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes, for example, are picked very early, compared to a tomato you might grow at your home. The only reason supermarket tomatoes are actually red is because they're exposed to massive levels of CO2 before shipment.

Enjoy this until global warming ruins it.

>> No.19946252

>>19945750
>He thinks growing vegetables is a massive time consumption.

Is watering your bed once (maybe twice) a day too much work for you, lil' guy? Do you brush your teeth once a day? Or is that too much time and effort for you, too?

>> No.19946477

>>19945650
>I tried growing cabbage and it seems like a complete waste of time and space
How so? I've been making sauerkraut for a few weeks and it seems like it would be pretty nifty to both grow and ferment your own.

>> No.19946709

>>19945541
I'm also curious
I have a hunch most city soil is fucked by engine oil and gasoline, exhaust from cars, heavy metals and rust, piss and shit, or plastics

>> No.19946975

>>19945750
>time
the fuck are you doing?
95% of the time its "pour some water on it while you sip some coffee
>space
even in an apartment you can grow shit on a windowsill

>> No.19947030

It's only really cheaper if you collect rainwater or live in a place where it rains a lot

>> No.19947130

>>19945397
Expect it to be better than most supermarket produce but not necessarily as good as farmers market stuff grown by people who know what they're doing and choose good varieties. Start with what you already like to eat but start small, it's easy to dump thousands into a bed and decide it's not worth the time after a year or two. My advice, start with a half dozen pepper and tomato plants, some kale, lettuce, and herbs. You could even just do 1-2 gallon pots and skip doing a bed, and attempt to overwinter the peppers/tomatoes/kale. If you decide you like gardening you should invest in canning supplies and a dehydrator.
Godspeed anon, try going to /out/

>> No.19947140
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19947140

>>19945397
a fellow hunter, I see

>> No.19947146

>>19945750
It probably depends where you live, but for me, I find homegrown tomatoes are a truly vast improvement in quality over what can be purchased in stores, even when you buy them in-season from the farmer’s market. Homegrown fruit in general is pretty great; apples, cherries, berries, and such. <-again, probably region dependent

>> No.19947150

>>19945750
>time

maybe once every two weeks if I'm using epsoma, once every 5 months if it's osmocote. Autowater does the rest.

>> No.19947156

>>19946243
nice lady you got there on the right. What's the varietal?

>> No.19947246

>>19946252
>>19946975
>>19947150
>wait months before anything is ready to harvest
>half the crop is inedible or eaten by wildlife because I don't grow gmo bullshit and don't dust my crops with toxic shit
>what I manage to harvest is ~1/2 the size of store bought, and somehow also has a noticeably shorter shelf life.
Growing your own veg sucks ass. None of these guys have actually done it, you can tell because they pretend that all you have to do is water the garden every week. The reality is that you to have to deal with molds, diseases, and vermin that eat your shit before you do. If you aren't willing check every inch of every plant for disease then don't start a garden. You'll lose 90% of a harvest to some bullshit if you don't.
Just keep some herbs you like growing fresh in your house. That's actually worth your time and effort.

>> No.19947295

>>19947246
>half the crop is inedible or eaten by wildlife

bruh do you even fences? That plus bird netting is all I've needed. But maybe I'm lucky, I have chicken wire under the raised beds for varmints and we don't see many vole holes anyways since the neighbors have gone cat crazy. It's not like I'm growing potatoes for survival, I just enjoy fresh peppers and blueberries. Maybe if I could find habanadas as sweet as mine in store I'd consider just buying them but I can't and that's boring anyhow. Plus I need to grow something that isn't just weed so

>> No.19947312

>>19946975
Hahaha yeah bro have fun wasting your time for 2 carrots and a cabbage.

>> No.19947315

>>19946477
1. they grow huge and take up a lot of space, you will wince when you think about the stuff you could grow instead
2. at a certain point you will be at a perpetual war with slugs, snails and moths, I've never found a plant that is more vulnerable and gets munched on more

>> No.19947355

>>19945541
if you're a distance away from the big highways or roads with lots of traffic then you're going to be fine and with how spread out US cities are even if you're in a metro area suburb of LA or NY it can be a fairly secluded place.

>> No.19947362

>>19947246
mold and insects are ime the biggest problems most gardeners will have to deal with but unless it's some kind of root rot they're usually manageable. Most problems can be dealt with a 1 gallon garden sprayer and stuff around your house, like dish soap, mineral oil, and baking soda.

If mold is a big deal for you and you want to get fancy, get a cheap fogger or electrostatic sprayer like ryobi's and a hypochlorous acid generator - it's just an electrolysis chamber, you could DIY it if you know how. Now you have an unlimited supply of a plant and human safe version of bleach that comes in a neutral pH, just add water salt and vinegar to your chamber and voila.

>> No.19947369

>>19947312
>wasting time
every moment spent sipping on coffee while I watch them grow from my chair is well spent to me, city slicker.

>> No.19947458

>>19945425
This. Mint and Oregano grow like weeds. Rosemary is great to have around and grows into a bush. Right now, I basically have all the herbs I'd ever need year round. You can scale up from there. I'm trying to zone push a starfruit tree in a 20 gallon container. Building a mini greenhouse for it and my lychee tree.

>> No.19947530
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19947530

>>19947156
Can't remember they all have goofy names. But judging from it's size and effects it's sativa heavy.

>> No.19947720

anyone else growing stuff indoors with artificial lights?
it is winter so I can't do anything else. but it is so comfy growing inside a cube

but my boomer got 2 400 W lights for big plants. I think microgreens only need 12 W per tray. so I'm wasting lots of electricity

>> No.19947733

>>19947720
Your boomer? You mean your parent or guardian?

Christ.

>> No.19947778

>>19947733
yeah...

>> No.19947780

>>19947246
Let me guess - you tried growing Chinese seeds from packets you bought in a Home Depot garden centre without knowing which varieties they were or anything about your hardiness zone, and tried planting your crops out of season.

The last time I gardened I did like 20 minutes of internet research about my local climate and soil properties, bought pedigreed seeds from a nearby seed bank suited for the climate (ironically cheaper than your Walmart chinese shit) and did literally nothing besides tilling the soil once and throwing down some liquid fertilizer after sowing, and watering it maybe 3 weeks in the year when it didn't rain enough. Ended up having more veg than I knew what to do with, especially some insanely productive pea plants that I had to give away to friends by the bucket.

Gardening is only counterintuitive if you're trying to be food self-sufficient. Part time Gardening isn't enough to grow staple crops which are even more labour intensive to process but you can supplement your pantry easily and at low cost and effort if you know what you're doing.

>> No.19947832

>>19947458
I regret putting my mint and basil out on the little dirt bed by my apartment instead of just keeping them inside, because the summer heat absolutely scorched them both. I had to be gone for work for a month though and nobody wanted to take care of them for me, so that's life!

>> No.19947879

my sage plant suddenly died bros. why does this happen? it looked normal a few days ago...

>> No.19948781
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19948781

I just grew some tobasco peppers and really enjoyed the addition to my garden and cooking. What are some other hot peppers that you like to cook with (im not doing ghost peppers or pepper x, nothing insane)

>> No.19948808

>>19945750
For most people gardening is what might be called “meditative work”. It allows the mind to calm and focus on existing in the moment rather than reacting to the moment and panicking about the future. We don’t garden for the food, we garden to garden. That being said, having a seasonal kitchen garden or herb garden is a much different prospect than having a liberty garden or homesteaders garden.

>> No.19948948

>>19945397
If you actually bother to understand the nutrient cycle so that you can actually get high yeilds then yes. Look into permaculture.

>> No.19949971

>>19945521
Home grown tomatos are 100x better than any bought. Potatos too

>> No.19949989 [DELETED] 

>>19947530
Nice ducks.
Do you have sex with them?

>> No.19950005

>>19947530
oh thats very comfy looking anon. I like the pathway and arch also. you also have some animals on the right also. your neighbor has a nice classic. yup looks like a nice comfy area to grow and enjoy life.

>> No.19950154

>>19945425
If you're growing mind or anything related to it, such as lemon balm, it's best to grow it in a pot rather than putting it in the ground. It spreads like mad and will take over any other plants you may have nearby. Basically, it grows to the size of the area in which you plant it.

>> No.19950161

>>19945397
They taste better since you can pick varieties for taste and not optimized for supply chain.

Start small, one raised bed for your first season. It's easy to plant more than you can manage.

>> No.19950171

GARDEN FERTILIZER
NPK: Nitrogen helps with leaf growth and stem growth.
Phosphorus helps with root growth and flowering.
Potassium helps the plant fight disease.
Leaf discoloration and stunted growth are signs of a nutrient deficiency. The color of the leaves will give it away.
Yellow means it needs more nitrogen.
Green or purple for phosphorus.
Brown edges for potassium.

I copied this from my notes; too lazy to put in nice format.
Any suggestions on squirrel/opposum management? The keep eating my leafy greens. I’ve trapped and killed many, but the fuckers keep coming.

>> No.19950932

>>19945397
This kid is 100% stealing those

>> No.19951002

Use the power of aged piss for garden bounty.

>> No.19951021 [DELETED] 

>>19950932
Give it back, tyrone

>> No.19951025 [DELETED] 

>>19947530
Do you use the ducks for meat or have sex with?

>> No.19951057

>>19945397
My parents do this

>> No.19951080

>>19945397
Not if you grow courgettes/zucchini. They are just shit however they're grown.

>> No.19951082

>>19947720
I grow citrus trees indoors myself with some migro lights.

>> No.19951090

>>19950932
100% the cucumber is big as a BBC

>> No.19951174

>>19947246
>>wait months before anything is ready to harvest
lettuce, bok choy, spring onion, herbs all grow in a couple of weeks.
i have 3 lettuces going and 3 things of bok choy and between 3 of us we cant eat them fast enough, giving half to our neighbors.

>> No.19951187

from a monetary perspective, no
from a culinary perspective, yes

>> No.19951281
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19951281

>>19951082

>> No.19951301
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19951301

>>19951025
There's a reason I was only grow the jumbos. But it short the answer is yes

>> No.19951378

>>19947530
Bro, at least get a metal corrugated roof for the coop. This is pretty white trash

>> No.19951393 [DELETED] 

>>19951301
It's so over

>> No.19951436

>>19945590

a pack of 100 basil seeds is cheap, man, just plant a new couple of seeds every week

>> No.19951460
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19951460

>>19951378
I'm redoing the whole front yard this coming spring. Never planned to be here this long so it's filled one one practice project after another.

>> No.19951569

>>19945406
Wut.. I've grown carrots, radishes, gourds, squash, zuchinni, and corn living in bumfuck Southern Arizona desert, with ease and like.. no resources besides a hose, lol. How is it hard? If anything the shit grows out of control and I didn't know what to do with any of it. Esp fucking stupid gourds and pumpkins. Those turned into a wild patch that harbored a bazillion gross beetles and bugs and fun critters hiding under the leaf canopy. I just stabbed holes and thre seeds and watered every day.

>> No.19951576

>>19951569
Also have had a giant ass potted rosemary for a decade. That grew out of control as well. I love that lil fucker. It's a mean little shit and the second you touch it, it smells yummy and angry.

>> No.19951581

>>19951301
I did this with a turkey. Was not fun. The meat was tough af. Made me a lil sad seeing all the fun colors on the head and wattle change colors and become muted. He was a mean guy who was surprisingly strong and would routinely kick and bruise the shit out of my thighs. Still ain't got shit on roosters, but, still a pain.

>> No.19951582

>>19945406
>It will be a bit expensive to get set up at first.
Correct. It will be way more expensive than just buying the damn things.
>It is going to be more work than you think to get a decent yield.
Also correct, nasty plants don't require any work to keep alive and healthy, and tasty plants are a fucking bitch to keep alive and die with the slightest change in weather.

>>19945425
ROI for growing your own shit is ALWAYS negative. Fuck the farmers always need subsidies and shit, your dumb ass isn't going to do any better. Growing your own shit is for people who can't do anything else.

>>19945541
Industrial area = super fucked
In city limits = fucked
Outside city limits = maybe fucked
Countryside = probably not fucked

>> No.19951727

>>19951582
Where do you people live?! People have been growing shit with nothing forever. It isn't hard..

>> No.19951745

>>19945397
>Is it worth it to grow my own veggies? Will it help them taste less shit?
For tomatoes, yes.