23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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!
First: When you see a tiny cuke shrivels and dies, that means that it was not pollinated. That could be due to lack of bees and/or male flowers.
Second, If you do not pick the cukes young, the plant will spend a lot of energy on it to develop seed. That is the plant's ultimate mission. So if your cucumber is called "straight Eight " (just example) pick it when it is about 7".
Thanks all.
conchita.......I hadn't thought of that! I think I'll try that.
Actually......I had a female cardinal hit my window (on purpose) from 6a.m.-9p.m. every day. It drove me nuts. I got my fake owl (which was in my shed with my golf cart, hoping to scare away the mice that chewed the wires)........and put it on a stick and positioned it in front of the window. Worked like a charm! I think she was more scared of it than the mice get though. Oh, yes..I was saying.........I was thinking of putting it by my cherry tomatoes, to see if that would work.
But I have the feeling I'll be picking the tomatoes early.
Agree with Jean. Normal bonemeal is just phos with little to no nitrogen so this must be some special mixture. Plus bonemeal is very slow acting - like 6 months from now it might affect the P level in the soil Meanwhile the damage is done.
Many times we try too hard and by trying to fix what we think might be a problem we end up doing more harm and making the problem worse. Patience costs us nothing and does no harm either.
Dave
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.
I'm thinking, since you didn't do that "hill" thing ... it could be over-watering for that particular variety?