23,821 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

They probably mean that there is separate water source for irrigation (non-potable water). While we pay an irrigation tax at our house here in Boise, I need to set up a pump to access the water from the irrigation ditch, which runs through our neighbor's property. At our old house in Nampa, the sprinklers ran off of the irrigation water. The house was within city limits, and the irrigation tax included pressurized irrigation (so we didn't need our own pump). I also had a spigot installed in the garden hooked up from the irrigation water source. It's way better than paying for city water for watering plants.
However, i my comment above, I meant, more generally, that you'll need ample water to keep things going all summer, because it's hot and dry. I've moved mostly to soaker hoses and it's working well. I put straw mulch on top of the soaker hoses to help hold in the moisture.



Yes, I've found that GC plants' lower leaves often end up looking ratty, yellowed or falling off. As long the plant is healthy and making more new leaves than those being lost, I wouldn't worry about it.
But a 3-4 gallon pot is very small for a GC. Those plants would need at least a 10 gallon to grow well.


The sprays you mention don't cure powdery mildew (well I'm not sure about the daconil and immunox). They only help to control it's spread. Which is what you've noticed. If you didn't spray the PM would have most likely taken over your plants and quickly. Once you've got PM there is no turning back the clock.
Rodney

Well, I have read elsewhere that PM rarely kills an entire plant by itself or effects new leaves, and this seems to match my experience. I did not spray every plant I have out there and some others have gotten it on a few leaves but it is spreading slowly, only on the older leaves, the same as the pumpkins. I did not spray the newer leaves either. While I understand that PM can't be cured, I honestly don't feel like I have made any real significant difference, only perhaps slowed it down a tiny bit. Given that all of these plants are now on their way out no matter what I do, I am kind of burnt out from trying to take care of them, and will be happy with the harvest I am getting. At this point 2 zucchini a day, about 10-15 acorns, 4 butternuts, 8-10 pumpkins (assuming they all mature, but I bet I can eat them green all the same, or use them for dog treats), I am already sick of squash now and haven't even harvested all the winter stuff yet.
What would be good for prophylaxis next year?
This post was edited by Peter1142 on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 9:52

As I read through the posts , it becomes obvious that you may have no fruit with ONE or more plants.
My Own Experiment:
I have grown a SINGLE tomatillo plant at times and have gotten fruits just to prove wrong the theory that you need more than one plant.
There is no male or female tomatillo plants. So say you have two of them and both produce fruits. So WHO is pollinating WHOM? It just does not make sense.
Lat year I had ONE plant and started producing lanterns late August by tens if not hundreds. But could not get bigger when the weather got cooler.
This year I am also growing just one plant again. So far ZERO lanterns. But I am waiting and I am sure it will fruit later , just like last year and twice before few years ago.
I suspect that tomatillo is day length sensitive Being the native of Mexico, they like short days, not 16 hours day that we have here. Some how, either the pollens or the ovules are not viable at certain weather condition. It has noting to do with the number of plants.

Hey, Nancyjane, I may be mistaken, but I believe that downy mildew can be pretty much avoided in our climate if you use drip irrigation. The summers are too dry for easy propagation of downy mildew. I've seen people who had what I took to be downy mildew it on plants, but they were generally spray irrigated, or ornamental plants in the winter. I am not an expert, though, so take it for what it is worth. ;-)
McKenzie

1)-The one in the picture shows (probably) Phosphorus deficiency.
2) Some pepper and tomato varieties naturally have light green foliage; like Gypsy, yellow banana. While others have darker green foliage; like Jalapeno.
3)- In general a very dark green leaves is an indication of over supply of Nitrogen. In this case they need a lot more water until the excess Nitrogen is washed down and/or used up.

If the plants are growing well and there is no signs of any disease but no blooms then likely it is available nutrient related.
In the deep south high heat can delay blooming but in zone 5 temps I'd suspect there is excess nitrogen in the soil or insufficient phosphorous. Excess N leads to big bushy, plants with few to no blooms.
So what and how much have you fed them or what have you added to the soil in the way of nutrients? And I assume these are in ground? If they are in containers then that is a whole other set of issues.
Dave



Thanks, Dave! I looked up the squash vine borer and performed surgery on three plants, removing a fat borer from each. I hope each plant has a one-borer limit, because I didn't want to try digging for more.
A fourth plant appears to be affected, but the stem at the base of the plant is so thick and short that I didn't want to cut further after the first cut, which yielded nothing. Instead, I cut off two badly affected leaf stems. Instead of white borers, I found several dark brown (or dark red) millipede-type critters inside the stems. I wonder if they're a side effect of the squash borer, or a separate problem. Any idea?
I covered all the slits with soil and am hoping for the best.

Chris - if you will check out the other 'help me ID..." posts further down the page here and over on page 2 - been a real run of the question lately - you'll find that volunteers and those grown from saved seed can seldom by identified. And even then they are just guesses.
Squash cross-pollinate far too readily (unless it is prevented) for them to breed true. So yours is a hodge-podge. :)
Growing out volunteers can be interesting but seldom worth the work or space.
Dave



Marijuana growers seem to know how to grow things inside tents very well. They could tell you about set ups...
There is a hot pepper forum too where a lot of people over winter their peppers and would have some advice for you
My peppers against my brick/stucco wall in San Jose overwinter outside and actually fruit in the winter (not near as much as summer). Still nice to get a few fresh peppers in January though....
Here is a link that might be useful: pepper forum
It's funny you mention that melikeeatplants, a lot of the links regarding indoor lighting related to marijuana growing but I ignored them figuring they would not be as applicable, and I assume much more complicated. That said I will take a look anyway and also explore the hot pepper forums! Thanks!