23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Here in the Boston area, our soil is naturally acidic - due to bedrock, rainfall, etc - so I know I can put dolomite lime on the garden and lawn every year and do good things. I just put it down on my cleaned beds for next year, as it needs time to bread down and become bioactive. It's also a good source of calcium, so I kill two birds with one stone.
I always leave the lime out of the bed I'll be using for potatoes next year. If not for the certainty I have about my soil, I would definitely get my soil tested.
Yes, it pays to know what kind of bedrock is under you. In areas with limestone bedrock, alkaline soils are pretty much the rule. There are several natural ways to acidify soil, but pyrites, which are common in many different kinds of metamorphic bedrocks, degrade into sulfates, which acidify soil.
Our soil (over limestone) is mildly alkaline, and it is largely a losing battle to try to acidify it. That's because the groundwater is similarly alkaline, so irrigation (which we have to do a LOT of) just kills the acidification you're trying to achieve. Yeah, collecting rainwater would be best, but we just don't get enough.
While searching this topic, i found the following article. Sounds like my method in bags would be similar to the "white tunnel in the farm"
Anaerobic Composting
By Compost King 13 Comments
Bokashi_Anaerobic CompostingAnaerobic composting or composting without the presence of oxygen has been practiced for centuries. Records indicate that the Chinese are the oldest known civilization to practice this form of composting to fertilize their rice paddies.
In more technical terms, anaerobic composting is composting organic materials, using living anaerobic organisms such as bacteria in an environment that has no oxygen present. This is the same process you will find occurring in nature as peat bogs and marshes.
Unless you happen to have access to a large field of water you are going to have to find another way to create your anaerobic compost pile. While most composting experts will talk about not letting your compost piles get too wet or they will rot, anaerobic composting requires approximately 70% moisture levels in order for it to work properly.
The Standard Compost Pile
You can turn your current compost pile into an anaerobic one quite simply and effectively by adding plenty of water. Yes I know we have spent hours telling you how important it is to maintain moderate to low moisture levels, but with this type of composting you need to remove the oxygen from your compost pile. The water will drive out the oxygen and keep it out if you keep the water level high enough. By covering the pile to help keep in the moisture, you will end up with a slimy mess, which indicates that it is working properly. You should however, be prepared for a very odoriferous compost pile. This is really more suitable to households with larger tracts of land where the aforementioned odoriferous pile can be placed away from the house or the neighbors.
The Submerged Pile
This method of creating anaerobic compost is very similar to that which is has been in use by the Chinese for centuries and involves keeping your compost under water. For this you will need a large tank, plastic pool or tank that is big enough to hold your compost and then be filled with water. As your compost pile decomposes the odors are trapped in the water. While slightly more involved than a standard anaerobic compost pile, your neighbors will certainly appreciate it.
anaerobic composting in a fieldThe Big Bag Theory
You have probably seen this method in use in the local farmers’ fields, this would be the long white bags that lay in the fields over the winter. This version is a little simpler and a lot smaller. You can use a large heavy duty plastic garbage bag. You first layer the bottom of the bag with soil or cured compost, then add your compost and add enough water to make everything moist. Seal the bag so that no air can get in and roll it to get things started and then leave it alone for 6-8 weeks.
No Hole in My Bucket
Off all the different forms of anaerobic composting, the bucket method is perhaps the easiest and least offensive. This is a long term project and will take up to a year to create the compost you are looking for. You simple cut the bottom from a five gallon bucket and plant it a few inches into the ground. You then fill it with your scraps and organic waste, place the lid on it and forget it for a year. Do not open until the year has passed or you will let in more oxygen and ruin the process. As you can see a fair amount of patience is required for this method. At the end of the year you will have perfectly usable humus. All of these forms of anaerobic composting work well, some will produce more compost than others, while at the same time creating a rather smelly situation.
I think it is about your own level of comfort if this is for personal use. I am sure some people would never do that whereas I would say as long as you clean them to the best of your ability it shouldn't be an issue. I would expect it to be more of a surface contaminant issue, if anything. Meaning that if you think they are contaminated maybe don't grow root crops near them.
Are you growing it for seed? Then cover the red all the way with soil. The plant probably needs less water, more sun. I do that with all root vegs to get seed the same season. Cut about an inch below the top, eat the bottom part, replant the top. It will seed the same season.
If you are trying to grow the root part again to get another carrot out of it, I don't think that works. All you will get is hairy rootlets growing from the edge of the carrot.
Yeah, that's very common. If the aphids are on the sprouts themselves, you'll have to wash them before eating. I find that soaking the sprouts for an hour or so helps.
As the weather gets colder the aphids will die off but unfortunately they leave behind quite a mess.
-Mark
Ps. Hey tcstoehr, i'm next door to you in Oregon City. Small world!
Those temperatures don't sound cold enough to make the yardlongs stop blooming. Mine will continue to bloom until night temps get into the 50's (usually the low 50's) at which time they will stop blooming. Yours are probably just in "pause" at the moment, and will resume blooming when the weather warms.
That makes sense zeedman. I never entertained the issue that they might be self-pollinating, as I have a colony of bees, and they are on my bean plants like paper on a wall. They also visit my corn, even though it's wind pollinated. I might add to others who have mentioned trimming bush beans for a second crop that it is not necessary. All you really need to do it to keep picking the pods as they mature to keep them coming on. Mine are always good for at least two good flushes before they start to get spent. I still sow them in succession so that I can enjoy them and can them from early in the season until the first killing frost. I just picked from my youngest (and last one of the season) batch two days ago and will be good to go for an equally heavy harvest before the cold sets in.
Bees can pollinate beans - and occasionally cross pollinate them. However, the flowers are mostly self-fertilized before the flower even opens.
Persimmons, your beans have a good pod set, which is the reason new pods stopped forming. Looks like they are close to maturity.
When beans are let go for seed, the leaves too tend to yellow & fall off as the pods get close to maturity. I've noticed though that if the pods are picked in the shelly stage (before they dry) that the plants will sometimes begin putting out new leaves & flowers. This seldom happens if the pods dry on the plant.
Let's be careful here. I used to live in 8a (Western Oregon), and I now live in 8b (Central Texas). TOTALLY different. In Texas we have high 90s in the summer, dipping to high 70s at night. In Oregon, we had 90s in the daytime (well, not that often, but sometimes) with temps in the 50s and 60s at night. That will make a world of difference for peas. Peas don't mind heat, as long as it isn't sustained heat.
Super sugar snap seems to do best for me. It seems that if the peas are not producing during very hot weather, the plants, if keep watered well, do fine. I try to time the pea production to when the cooler weather starts.
And yes, it's likely the temperature difference can be substantial enough to succeed in some areas and fail in others. I sure hope that sharing my experience doesn't encourage anyone to try something for themselves......
Photo showing scale. Again, if desired, click image to see larger.
These look like small versions of "neck" pumpkins, which have an even smaller bulb at the bottom. They are butternuts (C. moschata) which gives them natural resistance to squash vine borers. Most neck pumpkins like Dickinson Field Neck are very large, though. A straight neck is a desirable characteristic, too, for easier processing.
I have had moschatas like this keep for over a year in the basement.