23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Thanks Dave, you're right! I really focused on "tell mommy first if you want to eat a tomato last year"... I still caught her a few times with the fruit of her choice half way gone, but she did ask otherwise. I just didn't want to risk the "one time" if there's poison on the crops. :) I'll go over it with her again and again this year, lord knows it's easy to forget just how much a child grows in both mind and body in just one year! The only difference between last year and this year for me is a few grey hairs and maybe a few extra dollars in the bank hahaha :p Thanks for your valuable advice!
Have no advice about stink bugs, but have one about 4 years old eating fruit without washing. Make it fun to her. Make a faucet available for her to use outside. Teach her how to properly wash her hands and the fruit. I am sure she will be washing it several times before she eats it - just because it is FUN to use the faucet). If you having problem with water running outside, you can use something like this.(see photo). in Russian it called "rukomoinik". Just make sure you change water in it 2 times a day when your daughter is outside and do not leave water in when she is not around. You can also wash it inside with some antibacterial wash before add fresh water in it.
I know, it is almost impossible to buy such thing in US, but you can actually make one from old pot with cover and and some metal stick.
Here is a link that might be useful: Read about
Savoy cabbage seed as noted is available from most vendors. Bonnie plants which dominate in many sections of the USA sells a genetic savoyed cabbage. Kroger usually has them in the produce section at a premium price. It is just a cabbage with crinkly leaves.Available in both green and red versions. Savoy Ace, Deadon, Melissa, Alcosa, Famosa....
To me a real Savoy has very deeply puckered leaves as at the link, deeper than farmerdill's picture. It's a winter vegetable and any you might find now will probably be tasteless. they need frost for flavour.
Here is a link that might be useful: Savoy cabbage
Chomped off down to the stem usually is a sign of hornworms.
Look closely for them at night and dispose of in soapy water and go get some BT K variant for future ones.
Leaf loss is usually a sign of overwatering -- water, deeply, let dry out completely, water deeply and so on is the best way to water peppers. They can also lose them to drought conditions, so if you don't think you're overwatering, then some heavy mulch might help. Overfertilizing can also cause it... what's your feeding schedule and with what?
Kevin
Check out the FAQ here on Blossom Drop and its causes.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop FAQ
suprneko - I got psyllids last year (and did not know it until it was a hopeless battle). When I found eggs again this year I was devastated, but i think i found them in time. First I tried spinosad (since it's "organic" and beneficial bug friendly), but even after 3 or 4 applications, i was still finding new eggs and living, jumping adults. Next I ordered ortho's bug-b-gon max, and that seemed to do the trick after one application. my new leaves are no longer purple veined and the older leaves are not curling anymore. it's been more than a week and still no appearence of eggs/nymphs/adults/sugar poop.
after buying the stuff on amazon, i saw it's half the price at home depot. There is a downside though... bees are super sensitive to the stuff... sorry bees... but i have mostly wasps...
I realize this is a late post to this thread, but the most effective organic control against psyllids is Azadarachtin. It does not harm beneficials and has 3 modes of action. It does not kill them on contact, but rather by upsetting the molting to the next stage in nymphs and eggs, and acting as an anti-feedant in adults. It is available in several trade names, Azatin XL is one, Azatrol is another. If you are organic gardening you really do not want to use Spinosad or some of the other chemicals mentioned here because you will upset the beneficial insect population and cause more problems. I first got psyllids a few years ago here in northern california and with our mild winters they are overwintering. Check the undersides of your leaves early and often. Spraying the undersides of the leaves with azadarachtin a few times if you have them will keep it in check by upsetting the 3 life stages of the psyllids. The UC IPM web site really needs to update their information to include more effective controls such as this. It took me awhile to read some commercial grower studies that noted Aza as quite effective. I use it exclusively in my garden for any pests when I can't completely rely on my beneficials for control.
I overcame my concern and planted the pre-sprouted seeds today. There were so many, I did not have the energy to plant them with a straw (though that was a good idea). They seemed to be hardy enough to bear being picked up from the towel where they were sprouting. I'll let you know how it goes. I will be glad to know if parsnips can be planted this late in my zone!
Agree with Floral_uk, it looks like one of the black nightshades, probably S. douglasii given your location. There are several very similar species, and they grow wild pretty much everywhere. I take great pains to ensure that they never go to seed in my gardens, and they still crop up from dormant seed or from bird droppings.
When I lived in San Diego, the local Hmong community cultivated one of the black nightshades extensively. There is a pretty god write up of the various species & their properties in the link below.
Personally, I would just treat it like the weed that it is & dispose of it.
Really nice jade plant bush behind it, by the way.
Here is a link that might be useful: Black nightshade
It IS the weed, and actually pretty bad one. It spreads a lot, doesn't mind shade, easily growing under large plants. And because it is from the same family as tomatoes, potato, peppers, it spreads the same diseases, they could have. That can mess with your crop "rotation". I kill it as soon as I see one.
I have lightning bugs that spend the daytime on about any kind of plant. Just look closely next time and check out its abdomen (although that does look like one kind of ours just from the top). The abdomen will look like an unlit lightning bug part. Most bugs don't have that ;)
Mine don't ever hurt anything, although they do seem to like being near the pollen. I'd guess they eat it, probably. Or maybe they eat the tiny bugs that eat the pollen? Anyway, they don't seem to do much but sit around waiting for night :)
Sweet Chocolate peppers will NOT taste like chocolate but different varieties of sweet peppers do have other differences in taste. The chocolate pepper has a red interior when ripe. The color contrast makes for a fun addition to a veggie tray or salad.
If your plants are still small seedlings you are unlikely to get mature chocolate peppers before frost in New York, maybe green ones, though. You could try planting 1 in a large pot with container mix, at least 10-12 inches across and 10-12 inches deep or larger Then you could move it inside when the weather gets cold and let the pods ripen there.
My climate is somewhat similar to New York. Here, peppers are usually started inside at least 6 weeks before our last frost date, and planted out when days are warm and nights stay above 55 F (often a week or two after last frost date) They grow slower than tomatoes. You can always consider this year's peppers a learning experience. If you have seeds left they should be fine to plant next spring....try for early April in a warm room with proper plant lighting.
I think it is better to let them cross each other than to cut them off. Be thankful the vines are healthy...melons are so disease suseptible after a year or two of raising them in an area.
Hand pollinate them...you only have two plants.
2 Cantaloupe plants, but also 2 pumpkins, a hill of Acorn, a hill of Butternut, and a hill of Summer Squashes... I saw a carpenter bee out there today but those guys are never out in the morning...
We decided to attempt a trellis, and they got beaten up a bit, but they should be ok... We pruned off the tip of one vine i had broken.
I would not attempt these in an enclosed garden again without a massive trellis in place beforehand.
The ones in the front are the cantaloupes.
If you're positive there are no caterpillars then you should go out at night and check for slugs.
The little bugs flying around sound like fungus gnats caused from having the mix in the pot too wet or from having a dirt/compost component in the potting mix. Their larva can do damage to the roots if they are in high enough concentrations but they don't damage leaves.
What size pot is? What type of mix is it planted in? How much are you watering? And how much sun does the plant get?
Rodney