23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable 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".

Some people say bees are getting more an more scarce, We need them to pollinate.

Yep, I have to pick everything right at color break and ripen it inside if I want any for me instead of all for the rodents.

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.

My Pumpkin plant is suddenly dying too! I also have a drip irrigation system, so I just don't think it could be root rot. I also have squash bugs, but I keep their population under control. I dug around in the stem, carefully, and couldn't find any sort of root worm. I did find one wire worm, I've had problems with those in the past in my potatoes.
The plant suddenly wilted yesterday, I gave it an extra round of watering, and it perked up to normal last night. It got watered again this morning, and now in the heat of the day it's looking worse and worse. Could it be some kind of wilt?

Hi jbaldwin! I was told my issue was the squash bugs. It is also normal for squash plants to wilt during the heat of the day and perk back up when the evening cools off, could this be what is happening?

No. Deer never touch my Kabocha, japanese pumpkins. I saw footprints near the plants, but nothing was touched. Even the watermelon was not touched.

Basil and chives are left alone. I assume the case with most herbs.

I did say "almost".... I have kept them out of my garden in a heavy deer area with fencing, but in the winter they get crazed and I have little doubt would jump my fence without blinking, right now they have plenty else to eat... I'm sure someone else will have some suggestions.

The leaves will sweeten after frost, no need to remove them.

Ok, thanks Sunnibel!

Great--I'll add to my garden chewing gum collection:
Juicy Fruit for the voles and Watermelon for the ground hogs!!

If the burrow is on your property, run a pipe/hose from your car/truck/bike exhaust pipe and gas 'em. No muss, no fuss.

Temperatures have been high, in the 90s. I hadn't seen the blossom drop one, just blossom end rot. I just now read it, thank you.

The flower on the bottom HAD opened, for sure, the one above it did not though and there is one over the other side, which also opened. All of them started to shrivel at the same time.

I have at least 3 more female flowers coming up right now, so fingers crossed they do okay. They haven't opened yet, but should within the next couple of days I think. Got plenty of males floating around right now (3 open today, fortunately there are like 5 more currently growing with about 3 at around the right stage for when the females open up!) so I guess we'll see what happens. Would you recommend hand pollinating these new females?

I hand pollinate early morning - before the sun comes out fully, it a nice window.

Thanks for the advice! That sounds a lot easier to fix than BSE.

Yup, lack of pollination. Fortunately its easy to do it correctly. See the video guide.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollinating zucchini

Unless you have absolutely no alternative, growing any herbs indoors is not the best option. There is insufficient light unless you have artificial lighting. Watering becomes an issue and there is also the question of an appropriate potting medium. Pests are worse since there is no rain and wind to dislodge things like aphids. So, if you have any outside space at all, even a windowsill, I would grow my Cilantro there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cilantro threads on Herbs Forum

You can grow them indoors next to a kitchen window sill. Try using a self watering container (they sell them here at Walmart).

Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow Cilantro

Thanks Wayne.

So it was the heavy, rain-soaked hay that did the spuds in? I can compost the leaves and rotted taters, or no?

Just hoping someone can tell me if I can compost the vines and rotted spuds/ I wouldn't want to introduce anything nasty into the pile. I really don't know whether to toss them or compost them. Thanks!

At a farmer's market once I watched a guy who was selling his homemade pesto. He was picking leaves off his (harvested) basil plants. They were all waaaay bolted with long flower stalks. I figure it must not adversely affect the flavor if he, as a professional basil grower, let his basil do that.

I just keep mine cut back, as everyone says above. Didn't know about rooting the cuttings -- great idea!

I have thai basil actually that's also bolting, so I went and cut off all the flowers. I also munched on some, they didn't really taste any different, in fact the flowers were a little bland but maybe I waited too long. :) I cut off the basil flowers as you see in the pic and put them in water. Maybe they'll die, maybe they'll bloom but I'm excited to see what happens!

nugrdnnut - We were still eating Super Star the middle of May but they were deteriorating fast - we selected the best after the middle of May and ran out by June. We stored them at 40 degrees in 10# onion bags. The photo shows the new 2014 onion transplants arriving and a few of the 2013 onions in storage. We are looking forward to this years crop to compare Super Star with - Highlander, Candy, Red Candy Apple & Ailsa Craig.

Do you have photos of your onions - what variety is working for you?

My onions are at the point of getting scraggly and ready to pull, they are not ready for their close-up! :) My storage onions are Copra this year and they look to be shaping up nicely. My biggest success has been in correcting the problem with onion maggots (who seemed to have a preference for my garlics and leeks over the onions) by using beneficial nematodes. All my alliums are coming out looking neat and pristine. Well, there was the vole in the sweet onions that ate about 75% of the white onions but I finally got it in a trap. Our cold spring made it so my short day onions didn't put on enough growth before bulbing was triggered, but since those are for fresh eating and I way overplanted it is OK. Oh, and I did not overlook the early feeding of nitrogen this year like I did last, and my onions are a nice size again. Cheers!