(Part 2) Best gardening & horticulture reference books according to redditors

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We found 268 Reddit comments discussing the best gardening & horticulture reference books. We ranked the 70 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top Reddit comments about Gardening & Horticulture Reference:

u/Whereigohereiam · 6 pointsr/collapse

This book was my main introduction to permaculture. I'm still learning, and slowly bringing our suburban yard back to life after years of soil erosion and neglect by a previous owner.

Another good suburban food growing system is the Square Foot Gardening (SFG) (also as Square Meter Gardening) by Mel Bartholomew. I put in three small beds this year and so far the plants are doing very well.

Here's a tour of Richard Heinberg's suburban permaculture home in California.

Videos from Huw's Nursery have been really helpful

I didn't know just how many edible plants there were honestly. Industrialized agriculture could get hammered, but a vibrant home garden with permaculture principles and diverse crops could be scaled up relatively quickly. I've started some survival crops as well (e.g., hopniss, sunchoke, tigernuts) that thrive without much human intervention. If you start growing things like comfrey (non-invasive "bocking 14" cultivar!) or some other plants in Toby Hemenway's book, you could probably sell cuttings and seedlings on the side. I've heard of several people getting started that way.

It's not too late in the season to start some containers with tomatoes if you aren't growing anything yet. You don't even have to tell people that it's a prep for collapse :) People just love good food. My wife has begrudgingly put up with my new hobby, and she knows I do it because I'm very worried about collapse events. My cousin put in some SFG beds after I explained that I was worried about instabilities in our just-in-time industrial food system. Gardening is already a popular hobby, so your family will probably be supportive. And they get some delicious healthy food out of it.

Personally, the time I spend gardening is like my collapse zen time. It's healthy on multiple levels. With that said, my wife and others would claim I've gone overboard with it, but hopefully it's viewed as a kooky hobby and not a pessimistic doom funk like I was in before I started gardening. If you have any questions I'll do my best to field them (I'm a beginner myself).

One last recommendation, this collapse-aware career book by Charles Hugh Smith is really good

Don't count yourself out. You have a lot to offer the world.

u/medigerati · 5 pointsr/gardening

If you have the time, have a read through the book "Epic Tomatoes". It covers everything you need to know about growing heirloom tomatoes.

u/salikabbasi · 5 pointsr/Automate

i am not an authority, in fact i know very little, but a few things come to mind. this seems more like an agricultural/botany/marine biology degree you'd need with automation on the side than it is primarily automation related. all things considered, at present, it is not more profitable to do stuff like aquaponics/hydroponics/etc for growing food crops, where automation can play a substantial role, unless it's for high end organic markets. but who knows, in a few years maybe there will be more awareness of our impact on oceans and there might be a demand for organic, eco-friendly solutions to people's taste for seafood.

that too is only aquaponics. aquaponics is essentially a hydroponic system with fish/shellfish/etc growing in tandem. the fish waste is broken down by bacteria, and turned into plant food in-system, naturally, with a bit of a guiding hand to make it stable, and the plants in turn filter the water, absorbing/capturing and in a way creating an environment suitable for composting the waste into a substrate, making the water suitable for the fish. leafy things, salads for example, have better ROI, but again, stuff destined for high end, organic markets.

there's some interesting work being done with saltwater systems, seaweed + shellfish and freshwater systems with shrimp. since they grow faster than fish they let you harvest both quicker, but again it's problematic, since it's more efficient with less particulate matter, so the bigger the system the more the cost to filter out said particulate in different ways. i know of a friend who was pursuing an aquaponics venture on the side for essentially desert regions, the middle east especially. but he had to scrap the project. there is little demand for 'locally grown' things there right now, everything's brought in fairly easily owing to their relative independance in terms of energy and there is little awareness to bank on. but they do have money, and despite what people like to think, they're reinvesting heavily and not going anywhere. if at some point in the future there is such a demand, it might be very viable in a place where water is important to conserve.

the barriers to aquaponics are both economic (it is still too cheap to grow on soil, likely will be for a while) and demand/market based (the world over, there's very little demand for organic and ecofriendly outside of developed countries).

plant tissue culture seems to be a viable line of work. a lot of companies spend many years breeding and selecting and modifying plants, and you may have heard of companies like monsanto who have seeds that will only produce one generation of plants. even getting to that though, is obviously expensive, and steps need to be taken to insure a quick and consistent return on their investment. there might be certain varieties that don't bear viable seeds at all, but are still good candidates, in which case, cloning (as with cuttings) are the only way to propagate them.

tissue culture keeps you from wasting valuable plant tissue, and allows you to produce hundreds and even thousands of clones from one donor. it's an important step when you're testing particular strains for their properties, resistance to the elements, etc, because you need enough to gather significant data. the problem is, that this is labor and skill intensive, and essentially requires enough space for people to work in a lab. the lab itself has to be a cleanroom, which means the cost of air filtration and the like, which obviously mounts if the space is larger. there is also an extensive process of figuring out what mediums work best, or even at all. some plants don't take to already formulated mediums, in which case new ones have to be derived and tested fairly rapidly. prime area for automation and smaller footprints.

with tissue culture, the market is already established well, and there's a lot of funding and momentum put towards it, since its pretty much biotech 101 and a very versatile tool. regardless of where the plants end up, now or in the future, the barrier to improvement is technological, not financial, and the demand for cheap, competitive products is deafening, so there are plenty of careers to be found there and plenty of new ground to be broken and adapted to. there is likely a large market for cheaper products catering to smaller companies, and even governments that are keen on further developing their own programs cheaply, along with academic institutions all the way down to dedicated hobbyists. note, all of these people practice this already, I just mean there's room for optimization. tissue culture is pretty much the go to method for preserving and propagating orchids, for example (a niche market sure, but the same applies to a bunch of different plants that have similar appeal). dare i say, if in a few years marijuana becomes legalized, there will be plenty of small enterprising groups looking for cheap ways to store and propagate hundreds of different strains.

i mention both aquaponics and this, because while the latter might be a good candidate to be your bread and butter, the former is a good candidate to keep an eye on for pioneering entrepreneurial projects, and i figure it's likely to play a large part in our future. that said, tissue culture seems a bit harder to pick up, but still very doable. I don't think you could specialize in it and be competitive purely online unfortunately. I'm reading up on it myself off and on, and while it's not too expensive, i suppose it is a bit harder to get your foot in the door than making a small aquaponics setup. tissue culture is practiced by gardeners the world over all the time, as part of a hobby and even for small commercial setups. for aquaponics, you can head over to /r/aquaponics .

for tissue culture, the book i've been reading is supposed to be a bit dated, but is a great, easy to follow introduction, and it's called "Plants from Test Tubes" by Lydiane Kyte. It's been around for a while, so I'm sure you could ask around locally for a copy in a store, if you just want to take a look. the amazon link is here:
http://www.amazon.com/Plants-Test-Tubes-Introduction-Micropropagation/dp/0881923613

anyway, I hope this has been of some help.

u/rez9 · 4 pointsr/gardening

I would suggest a general "How to garden" type book like The Garden Primer and a reference for different plants/methods like Rodale's Organic Gardening Encyclopedia. I got both of these used for like $10 from Alibris.com.

Really there's too much info to do gardening justice in a few blurbs. If you're serious you'll spend a few bucks on a lot of knowledge.

u/INTPLibrarian · 3 pointsr/MorbidReality
u/SoutheastCoyote · 3 pointsr/herbalism

>chat about poultice recipes I would be so grateful.

Check out the discord, link is in the sidebar. :)

I need to check some literature before I can recommend specific poultice recipes to you; will update in a little bit. For joint pain and arthritis, I usually suggest that the individual should consume rich, freshly made/homemade bone broth. (Chicken feet or Cow Bones; the main goal is to increase collagen consumption) but gout is an entirely different beast; no alcohol, no processed meats, limit red meat, decrease sugar intake, drink more water, light exercise, etc. etc.

It's unfortunately difficult to find recipes for herbal formulas just floating around the internet;
the most you'll usually find is rough guides or old herbal texts, but they can be helpful if you're studying herbalism. SWSBM I know has several old herbals on their homepage, but the problem with many of the old herbals and formularies and pharmacopeias is their lack of organization; often times organized alphabetically instead of by treatment, which can make it difficult to locate a specific remedy (and sometimes they have some pretty wild ingredients that are most definitely not safe to add)


>books of “plants that are Poisonous, edible etc”

Answering this question depends on what kinda info you're looking for. Do you want guidebooks to the poisonous and edible plants of your area? Herbals or entheogen texts on how to prepare poisonous plants to use for medicines or other drugs? What's the etc?

If you're in North America, I can suggest this general guidebook to Poisonous Plants, as well as this guide to common edible wild plants of North America.

However, I must say it'd be better to get area-specific guides if you're looking to identify plants around you!


I hope you find this post helpful, and good luck with your poultice recipes! :)

u/jleastin · 3 pointsr/microgrowery

My go to

http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Garden-Saver-Handbook-Healthy/dp/0932551912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398106626&sr=8-1&keywords=marijuana+garden+saver


edited to add, I have the Mj grower's bible and several other growing "manuals", but this is my favorite for diagnosing problems b/c it's very thorough. A must have for every MJ grower IMO.

u/DrippyTheBloodPuppet · 3 pointsr/homestead
u/DabsMcDuck · 3 pointsr/microgrowery

I've read a majority of the grow books out there, these 2 books are by far the best IMO and stand out above all the rest.

http://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Cultivation-Complete-Growers-Guide/dp/193116083X

http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Garden-Saver-Handbook-Healthy/dp/0932551912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452548460&sr=1-1&keywords=garden+saver

Marijuana Cultivation - Mel Thomas

The Marijuana Garden Saver - JC stitch and ed rosenthal.

u/VROF · 3 pointsr/Vermiculture

If you are doing this as a project I would start with Google. Lots of great websites. I just finished reading The Worm Book. I checked the ebook out from the library and it was very helpful. There are also lots of YouTube videos for all levels of vermicomposting.

u/Drumlin · 3 pointsr/gardening

Better Homes and Garden's New Complete Guide to Gardening. It's what you are looking for, easy to understand, and an illustration for every plant it describes.

u/kingrottenboy · 2 pointsr/nova

I also like this book, you might find it at a library
http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Atlantic-Top-Garden-Guide-Trees/dp/B003E7EVNI

u/kgaske · 2 pointsr/gardening

Worm towers are awesome! For something simpler and for next to no money you can just make worm bins out of rubbermaid containers. You'll have to drill holes and cover them with mesh for air flow, but they are simple and you can put them anywhere (under the bed, in the spare room, mine is in the pantry).

On a side note, if you don't already have worms to start a new bin, you can usually find a master gardener in your area (or try your extension office) who will give you a handful of worms to start! They multiply pretty fast as long as you keep them happy.

Also, here's a great all-inclusive resource for getting started with vermicomposting: http://www.amazon.com/Worms-Eat-My-Garbage-Composting/dp/0997261404/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458304920&sr=8-2&keywords=worms+eat+my+garbage In case that incredibly long link doesn't work, it's called "Worms Eat my Garbage" - only about 100 pages, lots of descriptions and references, and a solid starter resource.

Happy composting!

u/cratermoon · 2 pointsr/Portland

It's a green plastic storage bin with holes drilled in it on the sides for air circulation. It will handle far more kitchen scraps than I generate, probably enough for 2-3 people. I don't smell it unless I take the lid off, and that lid keeps the cat out. I think if there were anything really interesting to smell my cat would be on it, but he's not.

You're best bet is to get a copy of Worms Eat My Garbage and follow those ideas. A couple of the gardening stores around town like Portland Nursery can help you out and sell worms, too.

u/NadsatBrat · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

>We recently formed an Urban Homesteaders Meetup group in my area and were hugely surprised when 200 people signed up in three weeks and we hadn't even had a meetup yet. But we have, after about 4 months, 50-ish people helping each other learn how to raise chickens and keep bees in their backyards, raise their own produce, build greenhouses, preserve and store what they've grown, share seeds and young plants, and we've even have a botanist from the university who's led a couple of foraging hikes. It's been awesome and with the movement growing, there may very well be one in your area.

Sounds awesome. I just looked it up and it looks like there's one locally with about 20 people that was just founded a month ago.

>The Rodale's books on gardening. Even as long as I've been doing this, I refer to them constantly.

That's good. My university garden group uses this constantly too.

u/Nativescapes · 2 pointsr/landscaping

Any book by Michael Dirr. He is fantastic. It was a much used and recommended book throughout my university.

Edit : https://www.amazon.com/Dirrs-Encyclopedia-Trees-Shrubs-Michael/dp/0881929018

u/hardman52 · 2 pointsr/homestead

I have found this book to be extremely useful to avoid playing catch-up, as I am prone to do.

u/_oh_my_goodness_ · 2 pointsr/gardening

For timing of things, my husband got me a great book called Week by Week: Vegetable Gardeners Handbook. It’s been a great resource for when to plant things based on the number of weeks before/after your last frost as well as general maintenance. Just started some lettuce seeds today! The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook: Make the Most of Your Growing Season https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603426949/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_dQIxCbQ9VZ6ZC

u/BarunTuk · 2 pointsr/reddit.com

I just sent this photo to my botany professor (author of this.) I should get a reply soon.

u/xecosine · 2 pointsr/gardening

http://www.phytotechlab.com/ has all of the raw materials and http://www.hometissueculture.org/ has the kits.

I know the second link is open to the public and the first might just ship to businesses but I don't know. To my knowledge there aren't any dangerous chemicals involved so there shouldn't be a problem.

I've only read this book. It's not too bad. It doesn't go too deep but it's also not a dummies book. They give information on how to go about doing it for a business along with some instruction.

u/AstridThorn · 2 pointsr/witchcraft

I'd honestly start with a non-magical book first. A regular old guidebook to the local weeds in your area. This is the one I have used for years, specific to my locale. You're just starting out, you might as well start out with things in abundance you can collect ritually, yourself, since it will be imbued with more intention, and most of this stuff is a good half (or more) based in intention (just don't ingest anything you're not sure of, I've been working with wild plants for 30+ years and even I am not always sure).


Practically every single place is going to have their own local plants with magical and/or healing properties that are equivalent to what you will find in a formal book aimed at practitioners of witchcraft. Pair it with something like the Master Book of Herbs, and just kind of ignore the stuff that is not local to you or easily obtained for now. You can always grow your library later. You can always grow your knowledge of "all appropriate herbs, even ones hard to come by" later. Methodology first.

u/jmunsters · 2 pointsr/gardening

The Rusted Vegetable Garden, both the blog and the YouTube channel is good for vegetables.

Bookwise, the Vegetable Gardener's Bible comes up a lot. Gaia's Garden is a really great resource for a full home landscape/permaculture too.

u/Appletreedude · 2 pointsr/BackyardOrchard
u/toopc · 1 pointr/Cooking

Epic Tomatoes is a pretty good book about that.

Edit to add:

This Is The Perfect Tomato, But Supermarkets Refuse To Sell It.

That article is about the Garden Gem, but the same people have one called Garden Treasure which is a Brandywine hybrid. This is my first year growing it - tried last year, but growing tomatoes from seeds is a little harder than I thought. I think they really like consistency in temperature and I wasn't giving them that last year. The Gem is kind of a small plant, but the Treasure is a monster. Hopefully we have enough sunshine for it to ripen, summer got off to a slow start here.

http://old-hos.ifas.ufl.edu/kleeweb/newcultivars.html

u/scififan444 · 1 pointr/gardening

Depends on the tomato! If you get a variety with nice tender skin you won't even notice the skin. It's one of the benefits of gardening that you can pick nice tender varieties rather than the thick skinned ones that are grown to survive transport that they sell at the grocery store.

I really enjoyed the book Epic Tomatoes that talked about different varieties and their pros and cons. Mother Earth News also has a cool article about tomato varieties.

A third fun way is to get some from the farmers market and see what you like. Then you can ask what type they are.

u/dinozaurz · 1 pointr/landscaping

The plantsman's bible is Dirr's Manual. It has a very horticultural slant, but is invaluable for someone truly dedicated to plants. It is 1300 pages of comprehensive plant knowledge and will tell you exactly how to germinate seeds of Trochodendron aralioides. The problem for most is that it has no pictures - only line drawings of leaf shapes. This is probably not the book you need, but is a tremendous resource for someone with a thirst for knowledge.

http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Woody-Landscape-Plants-Characteristics/dp/1588748685/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1408405815&sr=8-4&keywords=dirr%27s+encyclopedia+of+trees+and+shrubs

My favorite plant book for casual reading is Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs. It has color photos of seemingly every tree and shrub in existence, as well as discussions of their landscape value.

http://www.amazon.com/Dirrs-Encyclopedia-Trees-Shrubs-Michael/dp/0881929018/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408405815&sr=8-1&keywords=dirr%27s+encyclopedia+of+trees+and+shrubs

When I was a budding plantsman, my father gave me a very useful book which I still refer to today. This National Arboretum publication gives a broad overview of all different types of plants(vines, annuals, perennials, evergreens, aquatic plants, shade trees, etc) and is a great way to come up with ideas of what to plant.

http://www.amazon.com/National-Arboretum-Outstanding-Garden-Plants/dp/0671669575

If you are more interested in just selecting plants online, Monrovia has an excellent website that lets you narrow down plants by requirements.

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/

u/tetrispig · 1 pointr/mycology

The first book you have linked, The Kingdom of Fungi, is more of a coffee table book than it is substantial reading. Maybe you mean this The Kingdom Fungi?

u/xerampelino · 1 pointr/mycology

This is a nice primer into the more scientific aspects of fungus.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kingdom-Fungi-Biology-Mushrooms/dp/0881928917/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

u/stiller609 · 1 pointr/composting
u/Turd_of_Paradise · 1 pointr/homeowners

As others have said, that’s definitely not knotweed. I bought this book as a new homeowner and it has been an invaluable resource: Weeds of the Northeast https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801483344/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1FEiDbCDH6Q2Q

u/chrisbluemonkey · 1 pointr/gardening

Will the book you recommended cover that? Also thanks for the hardiness tip. I had no idea. I did container vegetables last year and almost considered them hardier since I could move them inside. Actually, we are having a one day cold snap and these trees are currently in my dining room. When they're planted out I'll remember they are tender.

u/nervous_lobster · 1 pointr/femalefashionadvice

oh god haha, so many. A lot of permaculture is about growing food, but the same ideas could probably be applied to decorative plants if that's your thing.

This book is really cool! Pinterest is always good too. Google "balcony garden"!

So many ridiculously creative things!

u/zensational · 1 pointr/gardening

I bought my dad this about ten years ago, and he has absolutely loved it. It covers all aspects of gardening--trees and shrubs, landscaping, flowers, food plants and herbs, soil--in great detail. My dad is a very avid gardener, but I don't think he's bought another gardening book since he got that one.