23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Ok, great, you're having almost exactly the same weather I have. To get brussels sprouts in the fall I have to buy transplants in august, then feed them a fair bit to get them to size up quickly. Then they will make sprouts in very late fall and through the winter. I also buy broccoli and cabbage transplants, but they will give me a harvest in the actual autumn months. I would start my own seeds, but I always lose track of them in the hurry to do everything else and they inevitably end up crisped. Cheers and good luck!
If you don't mind hand picking - the little buggers will tend to come up to the top if you go along with a hose and water with one of those nice drenching shower head type of wands. You can spray down into the crown of the plant and under the leaves some. Apparently they breathe thru their skin and so are coming up for air. I have been picking them off the prize-choi which they seem to truly love and have the upper hand on them for now. As you have the water wand in your hand you can also rinse their yellow guts off your fingers after dispatching them.
I put my winter squash, Taybelle acorn and Hi Jinx pumpkin in on June 11th. My garlic harvest was about a month early for all varieties and I have already harvested the pumpkin and am waiting for the acorns as they took longer to put out female flowers and set fruit. I did find, however, that both the acorn and the pumpkin dropped polinated and un-developed female flowers when they had set as many fruit as they could carry. For the pumpkins that was three per vine, one of the acorns has three good sized ones and the others have 4 or 5 each which I expect won't be overly large. Some are very dark green with hard skin and others are still a lighter green and soft. I did break off two of the acorns accidentally and am glad that I can go ahead and eat them. One of the summer squashes I planted, Heirloom Yellow straight neck, did not taste good if harvested too early.
Thanks for all the good information.
I am anxious to get the squash harvested so I can begin to prepare the soil for the main event, garlic.
The ones I harvested tasted great... not really sweet, but I don't think bush acorn squash is supposed to be sweet. Very flavorful and not stringy. And they did make more.. but all my plants had SVB so they are small and not fully matured :(
I have only 1 neighbor with squash type plants. I don't destroy the surrounding barriers as I live in the country and need barriers against field spraying. Actually, if faithfully done, killing any adults in the fall works pretty good.
I've tried just about all these methods with the exception of planting later, and if I can make myself wait maybe that would help. Our daughter planted a big pumpkin patch in an area that didn't have anything planted before, and there are lots of squash bugs and too many plants to rely on picking the bugs off, unless that's your full-time job. We pick off eggs and squish the bugs or spray them with soap water which works great but only kills the bugs you hit with it. As the plants started dying off I got frustrated to the point of using chemicals a couple times, using a long sprayer arm to target just the vines those bugs love to eat while trying to avoid getting any on the flowers to avoid harming bees but I doubt that's completely possible.
My tomatillos don't seem to be making it to maturity. They are still dropping at a steady rate. The few that have matured are currupted by a worm. :( I have dusted with Bt with the hope that will help, but I haven't ID'd the worm yet so who knows.
Any other thoughts why the fruits aren't making it to maturity?
I have an insane number of plants.... planted a full seed packet thinking germination might be a problem. Obviously it wasn't. Could overcrowding be an issue? Lack of sunlight in the interior of the tomatillo jungle?
some are weeds, probably crab grass, and some are lettuce. for example, mapping the picture onto (0,1) in x and (0,1) in y, the group at (0.7,0.3) is mostly lettuce. the group at (0.2,0.8) is mostly crabgrass. you have crab grass in the spinach picture too, with very little spinach (not uncommon, spinach are slow germinators, specially in warm soil).
Agree with the others. Harvest the ones you've planted. You could replant yours but it would probably be a couple years or so before the bulbs sized back up. So unless the garlic you are growing are either hard to find or expensive to buy, it would be best to start with fresh stock planted in the fall. And as has been mentioned, hardneck garlic are usually hardier and will probably do better for you than softnecks.
Rodney
I needed one of those hand held bug zappers just to walk near my tree line... the deer flies were horrible this year. Bought another to carry with me in the garden; now that everything has grown, the mosquitoes are horrible. Had wasps in the play set, bumped their nest & zapped them as they came out. A couple of swipes wipes out anything flying in the vicinity. IMO, one of the better recent inventions for gardeners & those who spend a lot of time outdoors.
I guess the really weird question is how I put up with the bugs for so many years without one. Sure beats putting a butterfly net over my head. ;-)
The people to ask this question is the company that made the product you sprayed. There should be a phone number or website address on the container. Call/email them and tell them exactly how you used it. They will tell you if/when it's safe to eat the produce that was exposed to the spray.
Always read and follow the label directions on any pesticide you use, most especially near your vegetables.
Sandy
I had a bad phone call with Berry Hill last year and sulked and didn't order from them. This year I did. Their stuff is superior and prices are good. I think the tape can last 2-3 years if rodents don't chew on it. I had bad gopher problems before and had to toss all the t tape every year. Now I have killed the gophers and the tapes are looking good. I am not going to throw them out. Berry Hill's accessories are much better than Drip Work's too.
As far as the safety of galvanized stuff, you might google that question, in regards to galvanized metal stocktanks. I decided to go with the food grade poly tanks, because some of the literature said that zinc levels might get a bit high in the soil, from the zinc in the galvanization process.
I'm a little further south, but have tried Lamkin. I didn't do all that well with it. Some of my problem has been soil borne fungus that cause mature vine decline and wilt.
I gave up on Lamkin and for something a little different, I have Burpee Early Hybrid Crenshaw which can do so well. I had a 22 pounder a couple years ago and they are doing well this year.
I grew one this year near Youngstown, OH. I got several melon varieties going from seed early and transplanted them near Memorial Day. The Lambkin didn't take, so I planted another seed directly in the ground. I planted the melons in a mound surrounded by black weed paper. I only got one Lambkin melon and I picked it two days ago (Aug 20). I was very happy with the flavor, but I probably should have left it in for another few days. I will definitely plant more next year, (hopefully by transplant to give me an earlier start). I also was real happy with my blacktail mountain watermelons this year. I also planted yellow doll and new queen watermelons. I have picked one so far and it was very good, but I'm not sure which of the two it was. I also tried minnesota midget cantaloupes but the flavor was not very good. In summary, I was thrilled that a directly sown lambkin melon turned out so well for me despite less than ideal weather, I just wish I would have gotten a few more.
This post was edited by Ztom on Fri, Aug 22, 14 at 8:24
Gotta be lemon cukes based off of the description you've given me regarding the taste and the shape of the leaves. I've never grown them but I've grown cucumber many times so I know their leaves.
Nice thriving plant you've got.