23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Concur with one exception. Calcium has no effect on pH. The base in alkaline soil is the OH radical. Limestone( Calcium carbonate) does neutralize acid because the Carbonate radical reacts with acid. Same type of reaction as Tums in your tummy.Some places will sell calcium hydroxide which is a base and acts fast. Gypsum is Calcium sulphate a neutral salt. I certainly do not recommend it, but the commonly sold Rot Stop is Calcium Chloride also neutral, but I do not want to add chloride ions to my soil.

You might consider the following:

* Beneficial microbes (via manure, compost or whatever); these can sometimes help nutrients to be available

* Organic certified potassium sulfate (this should help your plants to be less finicky about water, and may help prevent BER; it may reduce your PH a little, too); additionally, there are many perks to potassium, if your plants aren't getting enough; potassium sulfate is better to use than potassium chloride, since potassium chloride kills beneficial microbes in the soil.

* Loosening or aerating your soil (you could till the ground, attract worms, add perlite, peat moss, cover crops, organic matter or maybe even sand); compact soil can cause issues with potassium and maybe calcium

* Add plain sulfur to make the soil more acidic. This potentially might make your calcium and potassium more available. However, it may take a long time to work. I hear it's easier to raise PH quickly than to lower it quickly. I don't know a lot about adding sulfur. There may be some drawbacks.

Sorry to bump up a thread this old, but I really want to know the answer to "aclum"s question 4 posts above. I have googled this topic, but still I am confused. Thanks for your help.

If all the plants are short, then row orientation is irrelevant. Taller plants cast a shadow, and the footprint of that shadow - and its movement throughout the day - needs to be taken into account.

I use both N-S and E-W orientation in my gardens. Whenever possible, I place the tallest plants in the North side of a bed, in E-W orientation. This results in a zone of permanent shadow, so E-W orientation in the middle of a bed will result in loss of usable space. Because of that, I often place paths in that location, or a block of corn. (And BTW, those shaded paths are most welcome in the dog days of summer.)

If I use tall trellises in a N-S orientation, then I try to grow plants of medium height adjacent to them, so that shading will be less of an issue. These might be shorter trellises of cucumbers, or caged tomatoes. In areas with hot summers (such as when I gardened in SoCal) some plants can benefit from being planted on the East side of tall crops, so they will be protected from the afternoon heat. Tomatoes really seemed to like that arrangement, it caused a major reduction of sunscald.

If you are planting a lot of tall crops, then the amount of shade increases, and wider row spacing is required to compensate for it. I often plant adjacent 6-foot trellises for various beans & gourds. With E-W orientation, the plants get full sun all day, but only on one side; and rows need to be spaced 3 1/2-4' apart. With N-S orientation, plants get equal sunlight on both sides... but the rows will shade each other both early & late in the day. If spaced too closely in either orientation, then the plants will be top heavy late in the season, with little growth - or yield - in the shaded zone.

Shebear brought up a good reason to use tall crops, which is as wind breaks. I plant tall trellises on both the North side (running E-W) and the West side (running N-S) of my gardens, to protect from cool NW winds. Here in the North, heat-loving crops (such as okra, eggplant, and watermelon) do better in those protected micro-climates. Furthermore, those outside barriers usually sacrifice themselves to protect the interior from the first frost.

I also use tall trellises as baffles, to block or re-direct pollinators for seed saving. In various locations, both N-S and E-W rows serve that purpose.

So really, the question of row orientation is dependent upon your gardening philosophy. If you have limited space, then using only short crops - or a row of tall crops on the N side - is the best utilization of space. Rows can be closer together, so you can grow a greater variety... and orientation won't matter.

But if you have more space, enjoy picking without bending over, or prefer to grow varieties that climb (as I do), then just consider that planting tall crops is planting shade, and plan for the shadows accordingly.

Depending on how you're suspending your light fixture, you may be able to suspend it at an angle so that there's a high end and low end to the fixture. Then you just arrange the plants underneath according to height as best you can - sort of like when the children line up in The Sound of Music.

Thank you everyone! I plan to plant the tomatoes and peppers tomorrow. I'll post a photo so you can see how it all turned out. :)

That's a pretty epic auto correct fail.

I would personally not be worried after a single winter.

oh boy, all this time I have planted where earthworms, mice, slugs, chipmunks, squirrels, roly poly and birds defecate. Garlic and brassica beds outside the fence get fertilized by deer, rabbit, and groundhogs. I am way outside of organic standards.

George, you've sold me. It certainly sounds like the garden huckleberry is worth an experimental season. Unfortunately, I don't have 10 acres to play with, and end up growing some things in 5 gallon buckets. So I have to plan carefully for seed starting, planting space and yield. But from your description, it sounds like the GH may just thrive in a bucket and I'm looking forward to a new garden experiment. Thanks for all the information, and I hope to hear more in the future about your jam.

Petro

Obviously, if you're getting green foam, you have picked the huckleberries too soon. When ripe they are uniformly a deep blue black. In fact, they may be mildly poisonous if still green. When they are ripe, you do not need to use baking soda or even lemon juice, just berries, water and sugar.

I should have been much more specific on a past post regarding transplanting artichokes. My terminology was not the best. The plants I was discussing in my last post were within the same group as the plant in my original post, just not yet planted in the ground. I have kept them under my car port and giving them a bit of sun over the past week. By no means would I consider the process proper hardening off or wise. I really did not have a ton of hope for these plants, however, the seemed to be pulling through. I decided it could not hurt anything to plant these and see what happens. Not a wise move, by any means, with today's night time temperature. This entire process was probably not even note worthy.

On the other hand, I have another group of artichokes that are still inside, that I plan to be patient with. They are producing more leaves and seem to be growing strong. I really do not plan on attempting any type of vernalization, hardening off, or transplanting until we are into April. Seems temperatures will mellow out a bit more and give the plants more time to grow. With these I have taken everyones input, applied it, and I am getting some positive results. Thank you all for your help. I am new to artichokes this year, wanted to give them another try after past failures. I have zero experience with vernalization and it is easier for me to protect the plants outside. Indoor space is limited at the moment, but I am making the best of it. I appreciate all the advice and tips.

On Sunday I transplanted 6 artichoke plants into my raised garden in Northern VA (zone 7a). Last night I covered each of them with a pot. Temprature was down to 40 degrees last night; and this morning they looked alright. What I hope will happen is that the pots will protect them from frost but the 38-50 degree temps will vernalize them and allow blooming. I kept 6 plants under lights in case these get killed by a late freeze. Fingers are crossed and the dogs have been warned!

One more night survived with temperature of 36 degrees. So far, so good!

Cutworms do their total damage very quickly on baby plants and as Nitsua above mentioned DE works slowly via death of 1,000 cuts. By the time a cutworm dies from DE the damage has already been done. DE is best for killing insects that destroy adult plants more slowly such as sucking insects.

Yes, by that measure, DE might well be helpful in general control of cutworms. But it is uneffective for protection of specific seedlings. The lore is that it is good for the latter. It is said that a ring of DE is a barrier that cutworms won't cross. I think that is simply untrue. They'll cross it once, but maybe not twice. So the best way to apply it for general control is not as a barrier, but spread uniformly over the bed, ideally well before the seedlings are there.

I've got extremely bright grow light inches away, which is on 16 hours a day. I didn't want them to get burned!

Don't get over concerned about the looks of the plant. Just keep the plant alive and set your goal to produce a healthy root to transplant. You'll have your work cut out in preparing a bed and caring for the first year plants but if you keep focused on root issues all else will fall into place.

Just had a look, the Skirret seed I also planted on the 17th is starting to pop up. The seed packet said germination 30 days, so it looks like using a heat pad for these two has really helped things along. I'll post a couple of pictures when there's actually something to see.

I sowed 3 seakale seeds, just removed the outer shell (no soaking or anything) on 3/23. And by 3/27, 2 have sprouted.

I will definitely look into someone who can prep the beds in advance of our arrival. That would be a lovely thing to pull into after a 1500 mile drive. I'll definitely take balloonflowers advice and come armed with my cuttings.
Galinas, you have outdone yourself. Thank you so much! I'll try to identify some good places for seedlings, but you may just end up with an email from me :)
You have all put my mind much more at ease. Now I feel like at least I know which way is up. I can't thank you enough. And I'll let you know how it goes!

I would start everything from starts for this year, anyway.

Get to know your new community. Where are the organic nurseries/places to find organic compost/soil etc. You might want to get in touch with your local freecycle.com to get manure/compost/soil. Freecycle is like Craigslist, but a little more local. Also check out the farmers markets, both for plants and veges you might not have time to get going in your area right away. In the NE, you seem to have a limited growing time (I'm in No C, so I have a 6-8 month growing time.)

I would look up your extension office to look up optimal planting times and transplanting times. I'm guessing that you have a fast intense growing period, where we have a long , slow growing time.

We are lucky to have a very organic area. Our dump compost is certified organic, there is a farm inside the city limits (100 YO) that sell their homegrown organic starts for 1/2 of what hoity toity organic nurseries charge. We also have several garden sales( ALL happening right NOW!) of organic starts. We also have a Baker Creek store just a town away! Nancy

I also have had no luck overwintering the purple sprouting broccoli, so this year I started some seeds early and hope the plants are mature enough to accept spring chilling. They are hardening off now, will go out under cloches in a few days.

Nope - didn't have a hoop house. Guess that was kinda dumb! Oh well, now I know.

I was lulled into a false sense of security by the broccoli that survived on my deck last year with no cover, but I guess the deck has it's own microclimate. We had a lot of snow cover this year (same as last), so I thought maybe that was the trick. Next year, I'll cover 'em.

If you want to read through lots of "what's your favorite tomato" discussions check out the Growing Tomatoes forum here. There are several discussions running there now.

Are you more interested in cherries or beefsteaks, reds or some of the different colors, determinate plants or indeterminate plants? Don't really care much for cherry types except maybe Sungold and a few of my personal favorite large-fruit varieties out of the thousands of varieties available are Mortgage Lifter (any strain), Cherokee Purple, Giant Belgium, Richardson, Todd Country, Big Rainbow, Tidwell German, Sainte Lucie, Black Krim, and Neves Azorean Red just to name a few.

Dave

Here is a good discussion with some 90 responses with long lists of favorites for 2015.