23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
After several years fighting them, I placed my cucumbers in vertical trellis inside a screen house we made. Squashes and melons under row cover until they start to flower. Beetles still come, but they do not kill squashes and melons, and their wave is usually passing very fast, when they can't get to the cucumbers. I am planting Little Leaf and Adam cucumbers - they do not require pollinators. There are many more varieties that do not require pollination.
I grow all my peppers inside because it is just not hot enough for them to really thrive outside. They are really easy. I just use windowboxes and container mix. They are in a glazed porch rather than on a window sill and you'd need to try to find the sunniest place you have in the house.
Hungarian Wax.
Favas and limas have to be cooked (though I understand newer varieties of limas aren't as toxic). UMN says kidney beans are, I think all beans grown for dried beans might be, soybeans have to be cooked too.
Snap beans/string beans are OK raw even when you let the seeds get big. I eat raw snap beans all the time, though maybe only half a dozen at a time. So does my dad.
I didn't know hyacinth beans are toxic when raw, apparently after they turn from green to red. We were in the community garden at the church tonight and they were picking what I thought were scarlet runner beans but could have been hyacinth beans, I had part of 1 raw DD gave to me after taking a bite, the mother and son picking them were nibbling them too. I have to check into that more - I'm sure a couple bites are OK, but the boy was younger (maybe 5) and I don't know how many he ate.
Update: not hyacinth, they were long thin beans, possibly yard-long beans though they weren't that big yet, they were picking them about 6 inches long. Round cross section, not flat like hyacinth. The flowers were not typical bean flowers though - I didn't see any open, but they were furled, almost looked like morning glory but purple. Any idea what they were? Vining type planted on the arched gate.
Here is a link that might be useful: UMN Beans
This post was edited by ajsmama on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 21:09
I grew Moon and Stars last year and thought the same thing then at about 60 days or so it started to set fruit I had a great crop most reaching 25- 30 lbs. I'm in zone 5 remember water melons like it hot and not much water if they get to much they won't have much flavor.
If they are good cucumbers, invite your neighbors to help themselves to harvest some, (I gave 4 neighbors permission), or offer them some when you have a surplus.
I live alone, have a 2,000 sq. ft. garden, and provide much of my neighborhood surplus tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, onions, beans, beets, and asparagus.
This thread is so perfect for me because I currently have a pile of cukes I need to use up before I leave on vacation.
Right now I'm making these refrigerator pickles:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/06/bread-and-butter-pickles/
Last night I made a variation on the cucumber/yogurt food processor soup:
2 medium cucumbers- roughly chopped
1.5 cups lowfat plain yogurt
1 finely diced scallion
2 crushed garlic cloves
swirl of olive oil
chopped flat leaf parsley
chopped tarragon
chopped chives
chopped dill
half a small jalepeno, finely diced (if you like a kick of spice)
salt and pepper
Puree it all in the food processor or blender.
Chill for at least an hour
I served it with some diced cucumber added to give it some crunch and floated thinly sliced avocados on top. Yum!
That's a good point. I don't have a lot of expertise with that, but my fully beige butternuts last about a year at room temperature.
One good hint for winter squash storage I've learned is, before putting them away, wash well and then dip in water with some bleach added to it. That kills the surface bacteria.
@ltilton- thank you!! that must be the reason I am reading to keep them on the vine as long as possible. it must be the storage issue. I will go ahead and pick that large one once ready and a few more as we plan to eat them and keep the ones I plan to store on the vine as long as possible.
I experimented with Midnight Moon. When one of its tall vines flopped over on the ground, the suckers (what would be suckers on a tomato plant) started growing straight up. I threw dirt on the prone vine where the suckers joined. Yesterday I harvested a fully-developed large potato from one of the suckers. Hooray!
Looks like a classic case of verticillium wilt. There's not much you can do about it except letting the plant produce as long as it can before it dies. I deal with it in my garden as well. Some plants continue to hang on and produce, while some plants die quickly. It depends on how much fungal inoculum entered the plant, how aggressive the particular strain is, the weather, and many other factors.
It will get worse every subsequent year if you continue growing eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes or peppers in this bed. Since I have limited space, my plan is to inoculate all my Solanaceous transplants next year with the antagonistic fungus Trichoderma harzianum, as well as inoculate the soil with corn meal mixed with Trichoderma. I have read anecdotal evidence that this can help limit verticillium and fusarium infections in subsequent years although there will always be some incidence of infection.
Management options that may suppress the severity of Verticillium infections in subsequent years include keeping relatively high levels of ammonium nitrogen in the soil (such as by using slow release ammonium fertilizer), mulching soil with plastic to keep it warm/hot and maintaining an acidic soil pH. The stones (or bark mulch? I can't make out in the picture) probably keep the soil cool, which encourages this fungus.
Verticillium is extremely long-lived in the soil. My garden used to be a grassy hay field for at least a decade. The good thing is that strains of verticillium adapted to other families tend to not kill Solanums (and vice-versa) but still cause symptoms such as those you're seeing.
I should also add that you are overwatering. Although too late to correct it this year, limit how often you water established plants next year in order to limit the growth of fungal pathogens. Eggplants are fairly deep-rooted and especially with that bark mulch, once every two days is FAR too much water. I water mine every two weeks once they've become established - in your hotter climate, once a week should be adequate.
This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 22:53
It's Fall garden time Bean, Beets Swiss Chard plant now mid Aug til 1st week Sept. radishes, turnips , spinach , snap peas & lettuce things that like the cool in spring will thrive in the fall as well. I start my own plants so I've set out some tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli . My second crop of sweet corn is over knee high planted it on 7/20
catherinet, there is much simpler way to have skinless tomatoes out of the fridge! Freeze them in their skins - it also will prevent them from drying out. Then when you ready to use them, take them out of the freezer, place in hot water for few seconds(I usually just wash them under hot running water) - and skin just slips out of tomato.