kristine lewis

Deane, thank you and yes! I have every method of preservation at my disposal (short of a short of a freeze dryer, which I really want but it's out of price range atm). I use Mylar bags, OAs, Food Savers... all of it. I also dehydrate everything that I can to save space. It isn't that I don't have the proper method available to me. It's that I don't know which one to use for these three specific food items.

I did post this same question on another forum. The most thorough answers I received were:

• Nonfat dry milk in Mylar with O2 absorbers
• If it's whole milk (contains fat) should be in Mylar with NO absorbers and stored in freezer
• If it's the super salty and very dry bouillon powder, it will last many years in unopened original packaging  (this wasn't the kind I have. The bouillon I have is more oily -- like the cubes would be if they were broken down to a powder. But I can switch to the more powdery one if I can't find a solution)
• Green coffee beans were recommended to NOT be purchased beyond six months use time. Those who store green coffee beans suggested transferring them to mason jars, vacuum sealing and storing in the fridge. Problem is, that would take a lot of fridge space!

So while I can get on board with the suggestions I received for dry milk, and will be repackaging that food item shortly, I'm still struggling with the other two.

Three items I can’t figure out the best method for storing/repackaging to extend shelf life:

GREEN COFFEE BEANS:
We roast our own. It’s cheaper, the brand I buy is less acidic and it’s so much full of richer flavor. But how to store? It comes in sealed dark-colored bags (I’m not sure if they are Mylar, but they’re pretty thick). I currently have a few bags stored in their original packaging in a dark closet. “Best by” date is one year from now. How can I repackage green coffee beans to extend their shelf life?

DRY POWDERED MILK:
The bird flu virus is affecting dairy cattle now, as such I expect there to be a milk shortage soon. Bagged dry powdered milk has a shelf life of about a year. How can I repackage to extend this?

BOUILLON POWDER:
This one really has me doing mental gymnastics! Somewhere I read that bouillon powder has an infinite shelf life. I say hogwash, bcuz when I attempted to repackage it I realized it contains oils and fats (particularly the beef flavor) which will inevitably turn rancid at some point. I have a couple of those very large tubs of beef bouillon still unopened. To extend shelf life, is it better to leave them in their original plastic tub? Or repackage and seal them in Mylar? And do I add an OA? Or is it moisture I’m trying to reduce? The conundrum I have is this: Mylar will be an oxygen-free environment. But those oils in the powder could be a problem. So while logic tells me I need to keep both oxygen and moisture out, that isn’t possible bcuz one method overrides the other.

Btw, I do realize the “best by” date usually pertains mostly to flavor, and not actual shelf life. I’m only referring to the “best by” date so as to establish a point in time that I’m trying to extend the shelf life beyond. Generally, I store in glass jars whenever possible (I like the convenience of being able to see what I have) but I do have other methods (Mylar, Food Saver, dehydrator)

Thank you and so sorry for the long post

It definitely was not root bound. It arrived with its "feet" tightly wrapped in plastic and moistened sufficiently for transport. When I recieved it, I immediately repotted it into a temporary container with good quality potting mix. The root system appeared healthy at the time, and I didn't add any amendments only because I knew it was going into the ground within a few days.

We do have clay soil, but the area the tree was planted is pretty loose and fine. Definitely not compacted at all. It has the feel of very finished compost, it's a little dusty and smells earthy. It's not nutritious, but it's not terrible. I can easily dig in it and it does drain well. I'll definitely do as suggested, work some compost into the top and mulch over.

Thank you all so much for the excellent advice! xo

I once planted a fig tree in a forgotten corner of my yard. We had a terrible winter frost, lots of things fell over, the tree got buried with some rubble. When I went to clean up the area in the spring, I discovered a very healthy happy little fig tree I'd completely forgotten about, buried beneath piles and mounds of branches and leaves. It turned out to be one of the healthiest trees I'd ever grown. Nature is sometimes more resilient than we give it credit for

I have not mulched yet. Given that I didn't know how to tackle this soil issue, I didn't want to mulch until I had worked that out first.

Thanks, good advice! I'll work some compost in the top and water it in well

I'm rather embarrassed to post this, but the life and health of my baby avocado tree is more important than my face, so here goes...

I purchased a young grafted dwarf avocado tree online (Little Cado variety). It arrived relatively healthy, about 18" tall. I don't know the first thing about avocado trees, but I did purchase some bags of soil amendment specifically for citrus/avocado and asked my gardener to plant it while he was installing a drip irrigation in the same area.

He planted the tree and ran a proper tree drip irrigation to it. The soil where the tree is planted is a very fine, loose and well-draining soil. However it has no nutrient-rich compost in it. It's just more like plain dirt that feels and digs nicely, but doesn't contain anything wonderful. And although I had set aside the bags of soil amendment for him to work into the area before he put the tree in... HE FORGOT! He just plopped the tree in, and ran the drip to it. I didn't realize this until he had already left. By then, I was too nervous to dig it up, replant it, and disturb the already stressed little tree.

Maybe the soil nutrient isn't such a big deal at such a young age? I haven't fertilized it, I thought I would wait until Spring. We're in Southern California, and with very basic care, avocados grow here pretty easily. However I'm wondering if there is something I can do to amend the soil NOW, post-planting, without disturbing the tree too much which is just barely waking up to its new surroundings.

Btw, I do have it shaded (it's still quite warm here). And it is protected from wind. My only concern is the soil conditions it is trying to establish roots in.

Understood, and thank you so very much! Appreciate the thorough explanation and valuable resources.

I probably should have clarified in my original post... I'm familiar with cross-pollination just enough to know the trouble I can run into if I grow more than one variety at a time. This is the reason I first want to build my seed vault, only then can I afford to experiment and throw more caution to the wind. And if by some drastic luck something produces itself to be a truly disgusting hot mess, well then I always have my original seeds to fall back on and start from scratch (btw, all my seeds are getting meticulously labeled, catalogued and stored in a freezer). But to even get to that point, I need to start with seeds which are certain to reproduce true to the mother. And the labels some seed companies and sellers use (Heirloom, Organic, Non-GMO and OP) has me doing mental gymnastics.

Looks like I'm safe so long as the label specifically indicates "OP" and/or "Heirloom." So I think my question has been answered. Thank you everyone! That said, I still don't understand why some seeds are labeled "organic" or "non-gmo" (maybe this is a health or nutrition issue for some?). Personally, I'm not as concerned about that. The way I see it, if there are no seeds, there is no food. If we don't eat, we die. And if we're dead, health becomes kind of a non-issue 🙃

Understood, yes! Thanks. I've been staying away from hybrids because my very deliberate intention is to breed the exact, same specific variety, year after year, of certain crops. So when seeds are labeled "hybrid," they get an automatic hard pass from me (side note: why does everyone refer to this as a hard pass? shouldn't it be an easy pass?)

Mostly it's the "survival" crops are the ones I'm being so particular about --  corn, potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkin, cabbage. If they are labeled "organic" or "non-GMO," but not OP or heirloom, does that mean I'll necessarily get the same exact specimen the following year? And now you see my confusion 🤦‍♀️

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Hybrids(F1 normally) will not breed true.  The words you are looking for are Open Pollinated or OP.  Those will produce plants like themselves.  Recently there has been an increase in OP varieties available to the home gardener. While not heirlooms they can work better in some areas so please don't get locked in on the word heirlooms.

Ah! Ok. This is most helpful. I did know that hybrid is not what I wanted. However I didn't realize OP is what I should be looking for. Thank you so much.

I need someone to please explain this to me like I'm five...

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I've embarked on the interesting but often daunting journey of creating a seed vault. Yay! Fun. What I did NOT realize was that not all seeds breed "true" (I'm not a beginning gardener, but I am new to the whole saving seeds thing).

As I understand it, if I want to be certain future plantings will always breed true to the mother plant, I know I will be safe if the label reads "heirloom."

But what if the specific descriptor "heirloom" is not on the label? What if the seeds are just labeled "organic?" Or "non-GMO?" Will the seeds I gather from the mother plant still breed true?

The definitions on this are all over the map, so I'm sure you can appreciate my confusion. Non-GMO is not necessarily organic. And while heirloom may be organic, organic aren't necessarily heirloom.

Some others here mentioned space and weight, and those are certainly considerations. However I'd like to share something I've been doing that might also help you get more "real estate" out of a small space garden, and it may work well for your balcony.

I call it "stackable gardening." I start with a very large container (such a 45 gallon storage bin). This one goes on the bottom, and will hold my heaviest feeding plants, like squash or tomato. Then I place a second smaller container on top of the first one (grow bags or 5-gallon buckets work well) and reserve that one for something like carrots, onions, potatoes or peppers (take into account time of year). Finally, on top of the second container I will place one more, usually a small bucket or plant pot and reserve that one for plants that will remain compact, like strawberries, radishes, lettuce, or even petite ornamental flowers like violas (again, time of year is a factor in what I plant).

So in a nutshell, think of a pyramid. When you water the top plant, the nutrients in the soil (presuming you're using compost or fertilizing) will "leach" down through the second and into the bottom one. Each plant on top feeds the one below it. Discovering this was a breakthrough for me, teaching me to take advantage of vertical space since my horizontal space was severely limited when I lived in an apt. And I had the best veggies!

There are vertical stacking containers available online, some that even swivel (usually you see these demonstrated with lettuce or strawberries) but I found them to be expensive, wonky in heavy winds, and each compartment is the same size -- very small. Personally, I'm looking to grow food that is sustainable. And as much as I love strawberries, they won't keep us fed.

You may also need to consider water collection and use drip trays if your balcony is wood. In any case, I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!