Mark McDonald

Hi I've newly setup 2 hives with 2, 4 pound packages. I Installed them on a semi sunny day and 6 days later (today) I checked on them on a mostly cloudy day. I know I'm not supposed to check on bad weather days but there has been no end in sight for the rain and wind and this was the best day to check for the queen release, which she was out. I didn't look for her or disturb the bees much other then to pull the middle frames and inspect for comb.

The first hive I found what appeared to be honey comb. I'm guessing they are storing the syrup I'm feeding them because they haven't left the hive except for one nice day we had. Is this a problem? I really don't want to harvest syrup lol. No brood in the bottom deep just the stored syrup. I didn't check for brood where they were clustered in the top super because I got nervous at how many were on thE frames and didn't want them to get all  pissed off any fly out only to get cold and die later.

The second hive disturbed me more because they were not even doing anything in the bottom deep. No comb nothing. The top super had tons of bees but when I went to pull a frame they seemed to get super aggressive so I let it go considering I had time constraints and again the crap weather. I really didn't want the queen laying in the supers but the master beekeeper down the road from me told me not to use excludes.

So mission successful 6 days the Queens were out not sure of they are there but there was no candy left. Going forward, is there a sign your pissing the bees off when you go into the hive? I noticed a few shaking their asses in the air with stinger showing. The other question is, should I go into the soon to check for brood seeing as I did this confirm it before and in case I need queens?

Any and all advice welcomed as I'm just winging this here.

I grow all my starts indoors before I set them out in the garden. It creates an awesome advantage against pests and weather. Since nothing really germinated in NY in February I get mature seedlings by march.

I will probably just dump the rest of the seeds in my salads raised bed, never had good germination sowing them in flat earth.

They have been in small cells for about 10 days. There aren't any roots coming out of the cells from what I can see. I'm thinking on giving up on spinach of this kind and going for Malabar etc. This just isn't worth it. I dial my homeade mix, watering and organic fertilizers so it's pretty much no work for me. I'm not going to beg spinach to work for me. I'm encouraged you had the same issue with it being bolts. Thanks for the tips all.

This is the third year I've tried to start spinach indoors and it's bolting at 65 degrees under shop lights! The two years before that I figured it was temperature in my grow closet. This year I'm in am open room on a rack with fans. What gives?

Well I was planning on putting some cabbage out in the raised beds that I'm starting indoors, in March. I wouldn't say it's over 80 degrees to the touch. I don't have wood chips to add.

I already used alot of it on my flat earth garden which won't be ready to plant in until April. But yeah I should have been clear I'm only planting starts in the raised beds not seeds.

I bought 10 yards of compost from a contractor to fill my raised beds partially. I had some of my own homeade with leaf matter, vegetable scraps etc. ai mixed it all up and added perlite. My question is, can I grow in straight conpost, or is it advisable to add sand, etc.

The compost was hot when I got it, but nothing in it was recognizable. When you dig to the middle it's warm and smokey.

My natural thought is this stuff would be better served ontop of the soil. That being said I can't afford a load of regular topsoil.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:No worries about the zone (I just did a hyphen after state and added it there).

If you can get more light on the leaves of the meyer lemon that should help it recover.
One of the issues I've always had with moving trees or potted plants indoors is bug eggs hatching out.
I have had friends overwater but that usually shows up as browning along the leaf edges and your tree isn't showing that.

It actually looks like it is overwintering well, except for the bug sign.
When you bring it out in spring don't forget that it will need to be "hardened off" (a few hours per day outdoors until it adjusts to the normal surrounding weather will keep shock from getting it).
I plan on planting some citrus trees but I'll be putting up winter houses over them (I'm in zone 8a and if I put up a temp. double glazed conservatory, they will survive our brief winters).
If you were to decide to give that method a try, you can add a heat source to keep the temperature up enough. I've used smudge pots in the past but I may end up building a true conservatory with a rocket mass heater.

The leaf damage I can see could be; leaf miners or white flies.

I think ill move a lamp to the area for that and my pepper and yuzu citrus that's great advice I hadn't thought about. The spot they are in is poor lighted west facing. Only gets good light from 1pm and on.

I did harden it off as we had warm/cold spells in fall so it went in and out as the weather permitted.

One guy I know down the road has the greenhouses that I bought the yuzu from. He heats it and has everything even producing fruit in winter!

The one thing I want to say is I wish I didn't use vermiculite (first time ever using it) added to the mix I put this tree in. Because of the volume of the pot and small nature of the tree the damn thing takes awhile to dry. I wonder if that's causing nutrient deficiency? Who knows I'll try the light that had a light bulb go off for me.

I'm in NY usda 7a long island

I didn't see anything in profile setting to select usda, maybe I'm not seeing it. Kinda new to the website.

Edit I would add I did see some gnat action awhile back but Ithe died iut.

When I brought my Meyer lemon in for the fall it was doing great. Started to flower, I tried hand pollinating but all the flowers fell off and now the leaves are getting lighter green and spotty.

. Thanks.