23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Yolos, thank you for sharing how you made your trellis. Great Idea. So do you use netting of some sort?
That system will last for years. Do you pull up the rebar for winter? Love it.
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Steve349 - This was my first year using this trellis. I used nylon netting for the trellis. It will only last a year or two so when it starts to disintegrate I will try to get some cattle panels. I do not take down my trellis but leave them up all year. The 3/4 EMT should last a long time. The rebar is driven into the ground 1-1/2 to 2 feet into red clay. It is almost impossible to get the rebar out of that clay so I just leave the whole thing assembled. Next year I will plant something else there that needs a trellis - maybe watermelon and/or cantaloupe or cucumbers.
I've got parthenocarpic cukes, and glad of it,they're fruiting nicely. Wish I had parthenocarpic melons. Males and females both abundant and plentiful, but the bees are over in the echinacea and won't visit. Little fuzzies all turn yellow and die off from lack of sex.
As for zukes, I've got the all-female problem. Although mine tend to turn yellow and die before flowering.
I knew he said plastic, I only have paper plates on hand and was thinking "out loud" why those would not be a good substitution. ;) Is it hard to balance a big squash on a brick? I may be able to salvage some from next door. I rediscovered the lids to my buckets in the tunnel, so that will take care of 10 fruit.
Blossom end rot (BER). Most often seen on tomatoes early in the season, just as the first ones are ripening. The Virginia Tech publication linked below gives details. Google to find pictures of BER on peppers.
Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom end rot of tomato
I'm not convinced it's BER.
Thanks for the better pic. That was the reason why I asked for a closeup.
It COULD be BER, but the beige portion leads me more towards what everybody else thinks.. sunscald. Happens more to large fruited annuums, like bells. Best way to deal with it is acceptance.. You're almost always going to get a fruit or 3 that get it. Another way is shade cloth -- Peppers love sun, but some shade cloth during midday will help.
If it's BER, you'll see see rotting at the tips on many, if not all, the fruit. Hard to deal with BER once it's there since most forms of Calcium take so long to break down and be usable. Bone meal(or lime, but lime raises ph) added months in advance of planting is recommended to gardeners with Ca deficiency.
Kevin
Do you plan to grow these outside?
If so, wrap those pots up with duct tape and get them outside and start hardening off, then transplant to a muck bigger container. The yellow spots could be from overwatering, but could also be a Magnesium deficiency. Are there MICROnutrients in that fertilizer?
Plants look great otherwise. They just need to get outside. Google hardening off if you don't know how.
Stop watering everyday from here on out. Peppers like to dry out between waterings. A good way to tell if they need water is to stick a wooden skewer a few inches deep into the soil. If soil comes out on the skewer, don't water. If no soil, water thoroughly. Let dry out completely before watering again.
Kevin
Depends on your definition of "heirloom" It is an open pollinated commercial variety released in 1956. To save seeds, just remove seeds from a ripe melon, wash them, and let them dry. store under cool dry conditions. Devloped in California, it is not well suited to the southeast.
Thanks. That's what I needed to know. Yes, I was using the word "heirloom" to describe something open-pollinatable. If it's not well suited to Texas, I guess my plants never got told that.
The seed-saving potential of many vegetable species is not something advertised by the seed companies. No big surprise, I guess.
When you have just a few melons, you watch each one...I know I do. The first clue to ripeness is that the given melon has stopped growing. Also the CLOSEST tendril to the melon has turned yellow and then brown...about a 4 day process. Then check the melon [carefully turning it] on the bottom. It should be creamy/ yellow where it lay when ripe...better to wait a couple days extra than to pick early...if in doubt.
With baby type melons the bottoms may or may not turn colors so conclusively.
Yep, normal leaf mottling. However I just read that the blossom end rot on the fruit was caused by a calcium deficiency. Here is the article:
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/squash/squash-blossom-end-rot-causes-and-treatment.htm
Here is a link that might be useful: Squash rotting on end
Old topic but subject always new.
Silvery mottling are common and normal. But it wont hurt to systematically spray cucurbita to prevent mildew, especially Powdery Mildew. There are both home made and brands sold at the stores. From home made I like 50/50 milk/water. From store brands I prefer Neem Oil spray. I, do a first round on my squash and cukes just tomorrow. I'd be sorry all the way to the bank if I did not do it and got PM.