24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Right Steve - now I know you are in Yorkshire everything looks different. I sowed my first row of peas last week under cloches and I am probably at least 200 miles South of you. I think maybe you have been sowing too early. You need to adjust recommended sowing times since you are further North. I moved down from York and found Spring a good 2 - 3 weeks earlier where I am now. And if you are up on the Moors or somewhere it may be even cooler. I do not expect this first lot to do brilliantly but I get itchy fingers on sunny days in March. My best peas will come from an early April sowing. Try Douce de Provence - those were my best last year. BTW I would not soak peas in your climate. The danger of the weather turning cold and your pre germinated seed sitting for days in cold wet soil is too great. I would also never water them except at sowing time unless we have at least 2 weeks without rain (ha ha). We have long slow cool Springs compared with most posters on this Forum. Even those who are currently still under snow will get much higher temperatures than we ever have pretty soon.

Thanks Floral - We are down in Leeds and have a well-sheltered spot - but I think you are right. I know ouur "last expected frost" date for the area is mid-may (though just here I think maybe May 1st is safe) - while a friend in Bristol says his is late March!
This last batch were in seed compost in short lengths of gutter in the cold frame - sowed late February - but they showed no sign of life until I brought them into the greenhouse and put them on a heated propagator for a few days. By then, I reckon the damage was done. I'm going to wait for this current spell of bad weather to blow over before I try again - maybe next week - and under cloches.

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.


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.


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.

And if you are planting long rows of seed...
I am sure there are plenty of inexpensive helps out there.
Please share yours!


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.

The condition is called "Blossom Drop" (lots of info available on it if you search that term) and can affect any fruiting vegetable. Can be caused by excess nitrogen fertilizers, over-watering (in peppers), high winds, but the most common cause is temperature and humidity extremes. Fruiting plants will only set fruit within a certain range of temps. Outside that range the pollen is inactive, the bloom can pollinate itself, and the bloom dies and falls off.
Would need a great deal more info about your growing conditions to be more specific, but the damage on the leaf in the pic sure looks like excess nitrogen burn to me. Pepper plants are not tolerant of high nitrogen levels.
Dave

Agree with Dave that N excess appears to be the problem but if your garden is near a road that received salt this winter the signs may look the same. You could perform a Total Soluble Salts test to check soil salt level. You might even do the same on your water supply.

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


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.

Whether it is a vine or not all depends on the variety. There are easily 50 varieties of zucchini.
From the photo I would suspect it is just a break from the branch weight and that is a fairly common problem when even the bush types are grown in a container, especially when the container is to small to "contain" the plant. As the plant outgrows the sides of the container the weight of the branches causes bends and breaks.
However SVB (squash vine borers) are also a real threat. That yellow in the pic could be the dross of an SVB and I see all sorts of little black specks on the stems that are possibly eggs. But they don't normally cause a full break like that. No idea what your zone or location is but if you have a plant that big already then I assume you are in deep south and SVBs would already be active there so researching them would be beneficial. Tons of info available here about them in past discussions.
Dave

Sorry for the delayed response here. (Busy work week) Thank you both for your comments.
@balloonflower, I don't know enough about the variety to know if it's specifically intended for containers, but this isn't really growing in a "pot". It's a 4 ft x 8 ft planter intended to be used as a square foot garden. The Zucchini is planted in one corner so that it's leaves will be outside of the container on 2 of 4 sides.
@digdirt2, I'll look into SVB a little more. From what I've read after reading your post, I don't think that's the case in this instance. I havent seen any of the adult moths around and the "specks" in the photo are just soil debris from rain. That said I'll look into placing some yellow traps out to keep an eye out for them. I'm hoping it's just a weight issue. I've tried gently "lifting" the branch to see if I could just support it a bit, but it seems reluctant to bend upward. I suppose possibly it could have already begun to heal in it's new position. None of the scars / wounds are outside of the container though, the main stem hasn't yet reached over the edge.
I'll keep monitoring it. I'm in Zone 9 so it's already quite large and flowering. Hopefully nothing causes it to fail completely on me. Because of the space needed I only planted one.
Thanks again for the comments!


They sure are healthy. What do you fertilize with?
Lovely plants but only time will tell ;)
How about some true scientific exploration, though. Document the habit, especially the flowering and suckering of the plant. Maybe you'll discover more dissimilarities that could help tell the two apart?