23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Well, those of you who get early frosts, you can pick them and if they even have a hint of blush, they will ripen on your counter top just fine!
I have a counter (in my newish kitchen) that just holds pickings, either ripening or getting ready to process! Nancy
That is looking quite consistent with an acorn squash. Stop worrying! It looks like a summer squash cuz a summer squash is simply an immature squash. Most summer squash when left on the vine will eventually get large, seedy and develop a hard shell. The one pictured would probably be a reasonably tasty morsel if harvested now. But wait and your patience will be rewarded.
Pretty smooth cuts. We live in a fairly urban area and our yard is fenced between neighbors on all sides. We have seen deer in a nearby ravine but can't imagine that they are trekking thru the neighborhoods. I've sprayed pepper spray on everything, but the damage continues. I may have to start picking the tomatoes half-ripe and letting them finish on the windowsill. :(
If you don't have a fence, it is unfortunately likely to be c) all of the above.
I know if I didn't have my fence rabbits would be eating my beans, groundhogs would be eating my squash and brassicas and deer would be eating everything. With the fence, I only have to contend with squirrels eating my tomatoes and voles eating my root vegetables and peas.
So from my experience, I would suggest you have squirrels eating tomatoes and groundhogs eating your zucchini and Brussels sprouts.
In your zone I think you would do better to plant new plants for fall. In the cooler zones they can sometimes get a decent second crop out of it but that never works for me in my zone.
Like planatus I ripped all mine out a month oe so back as it was well past done done and will put in new fall plants.
Dave
I always prefer any of the various romaine types but you might want to ask over on the Hydroponics forum for recommendation on what varieties work best for them when hydroponically grown.
I don't know but I suspect that with hydroponics you'd want to go with stronger flavored leafy greens like arugula, escarole, mesculun, chicory, etc.
Dave
au contraire. I picked a big chicory salad three nights ago, just before the weekly watering, and it was quite bitter. Last night I watered well again a day before, it was much sweeter. Them bitter greens get mild when their feet are in water all the time. My favorite lettuce is light green oakleaf lettuce. Since various types are designated as oakleaf, I am adding a link below to the specific type (I also grow the one at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Oak_Leaf_lettuce_J1.jpg
much more tender, and also well liked in my family)
I like it for productivity, holding up in the heat and generally long cropping, and crunch.
Here is a link that might be useful: oakleaf lettuce images
I have used buckwheat as a nurse crop for fall carrots, but planted it ahead of the carrots, so that the carrots were sown in openings made in the buckwheat planting. This worked quite well, since buckwheat is so easy to pull out and compost.
It looks trashy, but I cover my summer-sown carrot bed with a wire fencing arch topped with an old sheet, attached with clothespins. It's fully ventilated but provides enough shade to get the seeds up and growing. After mid-August, the carrots want full sun.
I have hoops taken off the strawberries, have old sheets (have to see if long enough) just thought wet burlap would be better on the hot days instead of hoops and white sheets.
Left the burlap off yesterday AM - hope they haven't burned up today but it's not that hot, did get sunny (but they're in east bed with tall tomatoes to west).
Since this is in tunnel I was looking for cash crop not cover crop.
Black Plastic is used early in the season to keep the soil RELATIVELY warm. It does not heat up the soil to such an extent and depth to kill micro organism. White plastic possibly can do that because it works on GREENHOUSE EFFECT. black plastic ONLY absorbs solar heat and get warm and then warms up the soil that it is touching. But its major advantage is that, being black, it will not radiate heat into the space at night also prevent cooling the soil by air movement over it. Also, in the spring time rain water can also cool down the soil. So BP can fend off that too.
I had covered my beds with Black Plastic weeks before planting but I took them off in June.
The bottom line is that keeping black plastic or black fabric can contribute to warming up the soil, which is not desirable during the summer months.
Fbabrams1959 - i use black plastic for melons in our south Louisiana zone 9a area. It works great for me. However, most everything else gets leaf mulch as black plastic tends to heat the soil beyond their tolerance levels.