23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Check out the FAQ here on Blossom Drop and its causes.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop FAQ

Thanks garden4lyfe and Dave. I'll try hand pollinating and see if it helps. The FAQ page was helpful. I love this site, so many helpful people here.

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...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100355795/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=ortho+bug&storeId=10051#BVRRWidgetID

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 pre-sprout parsnip seeds, too. Handling them is a challenge, but they survive when dumped into a pie plate and sprinkled into the furrows. I like the straw idea, though.

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.

The best way to ID it is to take to your local Agricultural center. I know master gardeners get a bad rap on here alot, but most of them know their stuff or can ask someone on the staff what your bug is.

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 :)

The Fedco seed catalog definitely talks about "real corn flavor" meaning old fashioned and not super sweet. Two I've tried from them have been Kandy Korn (I know it sounds super sweet, but it isn't!) and Silver Queen.

Both Kandy Korn and Silver Queen are sweeter than most Su varieties. A giant step up from field corn competitive with everything but SH2 types..

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.

If you put them in containers, you can perhaps extend the season by bringing them indoors overnight when it gets close to frost and bringing them back outdoors only in the heat of the day.

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.

Nick, how was the flavor? Sure great for the first planting.

It tasted great, much better then the grocery bought ones. I did nothing special, just fertilizer some compost and watering once a week.

Rose Gold potatoes can handle a mucky area.

Celery as mentioned, cranberries, watercress, taro, water chestnuts, some melon varieties. But the ideal solution would be to fix the bed instead so it could have a more practical use.

Dave

Temps did not dip below 50F, they were in the 40's at night for a many days in a row. (Then there was also the week it rained non-stop the entire week and was in the mid 60's for highs...) Spring here is volatile and hard to predict, we'll have beautiful weather for a week then it'll be back to late winter again.

The peppers I planted later are doing completely differently. There is little doubt to me they were damaged by the cold. I do not think it is disputed by many that peppers and okra can develop problems in temps in the 40's that, at best, take a while to recover from.

The eggplants have started growing thankfully. Even a couple of my okra plants which looked done for have come back to life, and a few of the eggplant I transplanted from indoors that looked totally shot have come back, if they all make it through production I will have way too many eggplant. If all my squash make it through production and get pollinated I will have way too many of those too. But that's ok!! I will freeze or give away.

My peppers still look like crap though. I tried giving them a little (just a little!) chemical fertilizer and have apparently burned them now. I already have a few small peppers, but the plants themselves are tiny with pale thin upward curled leaves that now have burns on them. I don't think they have done well with the heavy rains and cold start to the season. Don't know what else I can do but go buy another large fresh transplant and hope for another outcome, maybe leave it in a container. I really was hoping for a bountiful pepper harvest most of anything. I did put a couple tiny transplants from indoors in containers that look like they might get big enough to produce in time, they are the only ones I got that look nice and healthy.

My onions made tiny bulbs I would not waste my money on sets again unless I only wanted some quick scallions. The red onions I bought did make very nice pungent scallions though.

Not the question, but worth mentioning - growing in pure manure would be dangerous if it wasn't fully composted - risk of ecoli.

"Not the question, but worth mentioning - growing in pure manure would be dangerous if it wasn't fully composted - risk of ecoli.

On corn, not so likely.

I prune all suckers bellow first flower bunch. Then occasionally prune very thin, leggy ones that do not have enough sun in the middle of the bush, to make the bush reasonably dense, not overcrowded.

I see no reason to prune the cherry tomatoes.