23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
They will shrivel up and die...they are food for the eggs that were implanted inside them by the wasp, hatched and then came to the surface as pupa. By the time you see the pupa (the white rice-like things) the worm has been a host for a while.
It could have fallen off...sometimes they stay on the plant - brown and dried up.
Is that what that is? My word I would have never guessed a horseradish plant! I've never grown one before and I was way off on what family it belonged to lol. I did find about 5 bugs. 2 on each side of my plot and one towards the end ( I have one big plot at a community garden). I have a lot of lady bugs and I have seen webs so I have spiders plus I have seen a beetle that eats bugs and two Daddy Long Leg spiders so maybe they will balance them out?! If not, I can hand pick them off into a soapy water. I just didn't want to kill them in case they were beneficial. Thanks so much for your help :)!
What causes it to happen is a stress of some sort for the plant. Those possible sources of stress are many but sufficient but not too much water, good environmental conditions, and plenty of available nutrients are the two most common causes.
And since sufficient water is easy to supply that leaves over-watering (which most do), poor environmental conditions (cooler and wetter than normal as it is for many this year), and lack of nutrient issues.
So what has your weather been like? How much sun exposure? What and how often have you fed them? What soil mix are you using in your containers? How big are the containers? How much and how often are you watering? Same as in previous location may not be needed and habits are hard to break.
Dave
The boxes are 4x10x1 ft. I used a mushroom compost mixed with coarse vermiculite and peat moss. I neglected fertilizer this year since the compost was new. It was very wet in May and these boxes are getting less direct sun than my previous gardens. So, I am guessing all of these factors could have been my problem?
All of my veggies seem to be doing a little less well at this new location than I've previously grow (lower yields and disease problems earlier than I've seen before). Unfortunately, this new house has limited areas with really good sun exposure (I planted a pepper and a tomato in the front of the house yesterday where there is great sun... waiting to see if the neighbors complain).
I am wondering if I try again with zucchini in the same location next year or save the space for other veggies?
Thanks!
Potatoes can be a bit fragile as the season wears on. They might be done, but you should have potatoes after almost 3 months. They don't always flower. You might try removing the bad foliage and try some fungicide and a dose of fertilizer to extend their season a little.
Hudson, thank you!! You got my question that for some reason was never really grasped by anyone else, and gave me an answer! And with a photo to boot! I am noticing my tomatoes from bottom to top are now turning "white"... that colour change before they go red... however even the tiny tiny ones (pea size) are turning white, so I dunno what to expect. We'll see, but either way I'm excited!
Sorry that things didn't go as planned. I have always had room, but my sil came to our town in North Carolina and decided to mostly grow in containers. Much of her 'farm' did well. She grew a decent crop of tomatoes and the smaller hot peppers. She also did well with herbs. She probably had more sun exposure.
Since you mentioned expense, I want to point out that while many may disagree with me, I have found that potting soil can be used over and over. I do add some fertilizer. I have used old potting soil for starts and larger landscape plants and pond plants; basically anything that needs to be in a pot. Many seeds will last for several years as well, although you should probably save them in a zip lock bag inside away from the high humidity.
Nice blog. Some things you can learn from forums and some things you learn from experience. Everything you did (successes and failures) are valuable. It's harder doing things in containers too. Anything that can go in the ground (or a raised bed open to the ground) is much easier.
Here are my new this year raised beds in front yard:
Here is a link that might be useful: Summer Vegetables
What is the ratio of the mixture you are using? That makes all the difference as heavy application can do more damage than good.
Standard recipe is 1T each of soap and oil to 1 gallon of water lightly misted. But the effectiveness on whiteflies is debatable.
Dave
Dave: I thought the ratio was a 1-2 percent solution. Which is about 2.5-5 TB soap to gallon water.
Veeta: Like Dave said, too strong of a solution can cause more damage than good. Here's what I would do in your case... I'd either use just soap or just neem oil(anti-feeding properties). And with the soap, I'd hit the plants about ever 4 days at dusk for a couple weeks, rinsing them off with water the following morning to prevent any damage from the hot, summer sun. Or...
spend a few extra bucks and order some lacewing eggs/larvae.
JMO.
Kevin
I lost all my zukes to SVB last year (knock on wood haven't seen them this year) and squash bugs were bad too. Bagged all the dead plants, even the yellow squash (SVB didn't like that as much) at end of season and I still had lots of SB this year. Read that they'd hide in mulch so was afraid to put hay down but then I did a few weeks ago and WOW lots fewer eggs now - but we've been having a lot of rain too maybe they don't like it wet.
Now anybody got any controls for cucumber beetles? I read Surround but don't know about spraying everything with clay if it's hard to get off. Could do sticky traps I guess, too late for trap crop.
'Now anybody got any controls for cucumber beetles?'
Sure, but most seem intimidated to try this. Cucumber Beetles emerge here in mid May. These are the live over the winter adults. They will immediatley seek out young cucurbits [squash, cukes, cantaloupes, gourds, and watermelon] seedlings. They eat the cotedons and bury in the soil to lay eggs. IF you kill all of them at that time, you will have few to none for the second generation. [Some spotted ones may be driven in on the wind from the south]
At this time, [June-July] if you will carefully spray some Sevin on top of a few of the leaves in the evening, you will decimate the population.....See, you don't have to drown everything with poison!!! A stitch in time saves 899. The beetles love the blossoms, but I believe they also like some bits of green leaves too....that where you get them.
I've got zukes in the garden, zone 3, and have harvested about 7 this year but production is picking up now. The plants are wimpy? How wimpy? Are they stunted? Pics with scale? I've no idea if it's the weather, your soil or what that's causing the situation, but if they're as big as they should be and just not fruiting, then yeah a soil test and correction with the appropriate nutrients, probably non-organic unless you can get ahold of a liquid compost tea would be your best bet to kick start them into fruiting. Make sure the females aren't shrivelling up under your nose from lack of pollination. However, if the plants are stunted or just not growing then perhaps the prognosis is less optimistic for the rest of the season, depending on where you live and the length of your growing season, how hot it gets where you are, etc. Hot weather (high 80's-90's) consistently can harm production. If the soil was tilled well enough, loosened up so it's not packed so hard that the roots don't have room to grow, then you should be able to fix your problem if the plants are growing, just not fruiting... but your yield will obviously be hindered as some of us have already harvested a few fruits by now.
I've heard that in most new construction, the soil is highly compacted (and sometimes filled with crappy soil)
I would start fresh with a couple loads of compost, even some topsoil for regular landscaping.
Get a tiller and load up the compost from the dump (or a landscaping place)
You might want to terrace and/or do raised beds in the hilly area.
But for your current situation, can you find someone who has compost tea? (something you might consider starting, a compost pile!) I just found a place that gives it away (2 gal, able to dilute it up to 10 gal!) To buy the stuff is quite expensive, but if you can find a source......Nancy Good luck and happy gardening!
I would try only vegetables that require less nitrogen. carrots, parsnips (too late), bush beans.
Should work fine for beans tomatoes etc. It would be a similar apprach to one of the latest fads. Hugelkultur.
Here is a link that might be useful: Hugelkultur