Hello from Aguascalientes, MEX

[Fedorenko]

Hello everyone,

My name is Federico and I have worked as a design engineer for 12+ years, I want to start slowly growing some foods but I have no clue how to start, there are many guides and books, but my location might be an issue when looking at the land and water.

The prevailing climate in Aguascalientes is known as a local steppe climate. During the year there is little rainfall. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as BSh. The summers are short and hot, the winters are short and cool, and it is dry and partly cloudy year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 4°C to 30°C (39°F to 86°F) and is rarely below 0°C (32°F) or above 34°C (92°F).

If anyone can recommend me anything to get started on reading and studying, as you might expect I have no experience or even the body to do farm work, but I am willing to start getting there.

Thanks a lot, and I hope we can have good and fruitful conversations!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Welcome to the forum @Fedorenko !

Your temperatures are very similar to mine, although mine range more from 5C to 40C. I live in the sub-tropics and it gets very humid here. I'm guessing it's much more dry over there though.

My biggest tip to desert gardening is retain water!
What does this mean? It means that you make sure that your soil retains the water as well as possible to prevent drying out. One of the best way of doing this is by using cover like mulch or straw.
There are also tons of plants that do well in in your kind of climate. Usually these are drought tolerant and don't die the second you don't water them.

What kind of garden are you thinking of starting off with? Potted, raised garden beds or in ground? These can change some factors.
Also! I thought I was horrible and killed every plant I touched - turns out I was using bad soil (my garden was very acidic). Sometimes investing in some good soil and fertiliser will save heartbreak.

If you have questions, please do keep asking them! We can only learn if we get help with what we struggle with.

Happy gardening!

*tip: I recommend watching this short video

 

[Fedorenko]

Thank you for the warm welcome @Mandy Onderwater

I definitely have no short term plans yet, I am currently living on a small flat on a 4th floor in a different city, but next year my plan is to move to my hometown and maybe get a small patch of land, if possible more than half an hectare, but not sure how much is enough to start, maybe I am overthinking/overplanning.

Should I start with small potted crops on the garden? (For agriculture we have: Corn, Nopal cactus, Broccoli, Strawberry, Lettuce, Guava, Grape, Peach, Pecan and Cauliflower)

The weather is a somewhat extreme as you can see on my original post, the sun can really burn and dry things fast.
An extract on the soils:
"The soils of the state are mostly semi-desert type, characteristic of arid and semi-arid climates, shallow and poor, devastated in large areas by erosive phenomena, deficient in nutrients and overused in most cases. According to their characteristics, three perfectly defined zones can be distinguished in the state: the mountainous, the valleys and the plains.

In the western mountainous area, rocky outcrops of volcanic origin predominate, with thin soils and poor in organic matter.

In the area of the Aguascalientes and Calvillo Valleys, the existing soils are of sedimentary origin, thicker than one meter and with good drainage, have good texture and porosity. Their good permeability and organic content make them suitable for cultivation.

In the area of the plains limestone soils predominate, with depths that vary between 40 and 60 centimetres thick, they are not very permeable and their drainage is deficient, moisture is therefore easily lost."

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

If you are completely fresh to gardening I'd recommend you do what seems fun to you! Gardening is meant to be enjoyable and doing it in a way you do not enjoy is often not worth it.

I personally started gardening in pots - that way I can control how much sun and water they get. This has been teaching me how much water my plants need and how much light they want, because you can move them around and see what works. In your case I'd recommend starting in the shade with possibly a little sun during early mornings and late evenings, the sun is usually less harsh during those hours.
With potted gardening you can also control what type of soil you use, I personally invested in some good soil before learning on how to improve "bad" soil before trying that.

Definitely work on mulching; with such a dry climate you don't want your plants to get stressed because they got dry. This also helps against the soil getting too hot and literally burning your plants' roots.

I'd recommend looking at what others have done and look at videos to get inspiration as well. Since we don't know exactly what kind of area you are going to work with yet, but I've found that this lady is in a rather harsh desert climate. She shows you what she's growing in July 2021 and what worked and what didn't along with some tips.

 

[Fedorenko]

Hi!

I've decided to start with one potted Saladette Tomato, first I am going to harvest the seeds, soak them in lukewarm water for half a day and then dry them for 2 weeks.

Then I will use a 7 gal (20 liter) fabric pot and the best quality soil I can gather from the nearest nursery,

Hopefully this will be enough to get started.

Thanks for the tips

 

[Fedorenko]

@Mandy Onderwater
I forgot, I will also be mulching with pecan and cherry wood chips, do you think its good enough?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

@Mandy Onderwater
I forgot, I will also be mulching with pecan and cherry wood chips, do you think its good enough?

It's not a perfect science, so time will usually tell. If you check in on your plants from time to time and notice that the soil doesn't stay moist for at the very least the entire day, you need more mulch and/or more shade.

Once you get to setting up you are also more than welcome to share pictures and ask for opinions, that way we can visualise what we are helping with.

 

[Fedorenko]

Hello!,

I planted my seeds on April 28th and I believe they are going ok, from the 15 there are 8 that look fine to me.

Im preparing some stuff for when I need to to select the ONE that Im transplanting to a 30 Liter non-woven fiber bag.

10 kg of supposed good Soil (the one pictured on the seedlings)
10 kg of Vermicompost
5 kg of Perlite
5 kg of Vermiculite
30 g of homemade crushed roasted babana peels (for Potassium)
300 g of Bone Meal
150 g on DiatomiD

And maybe I transplant the other seedlings to some 14 Liter bags to gift away.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I will recommend you keep more than 1! You never know what will happen and having a backup plant or well, 3, can often save a lot of heartbreak. I've had plants die simply because I accidentally snapped the stem and couldn't salvage it. I was very happy I kept some backups to replace it so all of the hard work wasn't lost.

It sounds good in theory to me! I personally use some good quality soil and then often add 'blood & bone' to it to improve it. Others (like Mark) like adding some manure to it as well, to really give it that boost. Don't forget to fertilise as they grow as well, fruiting especially costs a lot of energy. The plants often tell you when it's needed, though you can always try to keep track of when it had it's last feed and then look if it needs some more. Over fertilising is a thing, but you'll get the hang of it once you start growing I'm sure.

We all make mistakes and we all learn! Hence why I recommend growing more than 1, that way you can experiment and see how they do with different treatment on each of them. It will also help you in seeing what your specific plants and climate require off you.

Happy gardening!

 

[Fedorenko]

I just had some really bad weekend, this Saturday the wind and my carelessness almost costed me the seedlings. I left them on the roof in a 20cm by 1 meter space at 1+ meter height and after some hours I came back home to find 4 of the 5 plastic cups laying on the ground, seedlings and roots all over the place... as you said it was heartbreaking but I acted as quick as I could, gathered all the seedlings and some soil, added some vermicompost to give a boost and replanted hoping for the best... now the remaining ones seem to be doing fine, but I will have to keep a good eye on them.

Hopefully next week the real leafs start coming and I can transplant when the second set of leafs are good sized.

Weather here has been a bit rough too:

Thanks for the advise, I will keep as much plants as I can allow.

FG

 

[cloxchulanthevegginator]

Hey there, welcome to the forum!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's inevitably happen at least once (a year perhaps) to all of us! Most plants recover well if simply put back into a pot and given a little water to settle the soil (if fluffy).
Usually I try not to fertilise my plants after a stressful event (getting damaged, repotted, etc). What a lot of people don't know is that fertiliser can sometimes be a stressfull event, especially as it has the possibility of burning new roots. So adding a stressful event on top of another can actually kill a plant. In saying that... chances are your plants are fine regardless, but letting you know for the future

Very similar to our weather! Though our max temperature is slightly lower as we're having rain. Supposedly tomorrow we're going to get flooded out... not looking forward to that. People have been panic buying as we're expecting such harsh weather.
Seeing as it's quite warm and possibly quite dry; I water at night during hot dry days. This is because water tends to evaporate slower during the cooler temperatures of the night. In saying this, that might mean I water twice (or more) daily, if the soil feels dry and my plants look stressed. A good test with potted plants is to stick a finger in the soil. The top of the soil might look dry, but if you can still feel water halfway down your finger the plant is fine! Watering it when the soil is still wet underneath might actually drown your plant. Plant roots actually need 'air' too!