23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
ANOTHER CONSIDERATION:
once your plants (like tomatoes) grow big they will shade most of the bed. So the plastic is shaded most of the time also. Its advantages under such conditions are:
---- retain moisture (reduce evaporation)
---- prevent rain water to go down(to some extent)
Disadvantage: In hot days, it can get real hot under black plastic. If some roots are growing under it can be cooked. It also prevents air from getting into the soil. Micro organisms and roots can appreciate some air.
So all in all there are trade offs that one has to weigh and decide what to do. I can leave them on since we have relatively cool summers and I get no more than 6 hours of direct sun.
What seysonn says is right, except that if the bed is shaded, it won't get hot under the plastic. The temp in the shade is the air temp. I agree that soil aeration is important, thought if you have enough perforation in the plastic to allow water to get through, that won't be a big issue.
Flea beetles, maybe? They love my young eggplants, haven't noticed them by onions, though.
Here is a link that might be useful: flea beetles
Oh wow, I way underestimated how big these plants would get! You will laugh when I tell you that I had two other rows of veggies in between the zucchini row behind and the squash/cucumber row! Needless to say, those didn't make it as the zucchini took off and I ripped them out. Well at least we have tons of zucchini, and the cucumber vines are loaded with babies, so no big loss on my yellow squash plant, I suppose. I plan on building more raised beds next year and we will try again.
That looks like some type of inorganic problem. You haven't used any weed killer (glyco, etc) in the area have you? IT can really drift and a very light exposure would causes plants to look this way. Certain other chemicals could do the same, as could salt or certain other things. Any chance you got the dirt from an area that had been exposed to some inorganic substance? Give some thought to these scenarios and any substance that could have affected the plants or soil. Of course, its just one of many possibilities. Good luck.
Sure but you will only get a few berries. How many depends on the variety but the average is 4. So if a 5-6 berry snack is all you want the plants will grow fine.
It takes a lot of plants to grow enough berries to make it worth while growing them.
Dave
at previous house I had them in a tier like 3 tier bigger circle was prob 4 -6 feet in diameter..... grew just fine.. Had lots of babies.... separated by heavy gauge aluminum edging...
my backyard was shallow but grew lots of stuff......
Just chiming in need to get outside a GARDEN......
never mind the adjustable rake found it on line at Lowes.. Corona brand Its red my old one is blue......ordered two to keep one in shed...
now to find a nice umbrella... be nicer to have a large maple tree portable..... or a floating umbrella
LOL
thanks all
I really really hate this thread ;) because I can't come anywhere near this level of production at my new house. I keep getting hit with brown spots on leaves, three years in a row. Even my three week old seedlings are already starting to get it. At my old house I had SO many cukes every single year that they were coming out of my ears.
While I garden at home, I spend way too much time going back forth for things and since there is more than 1 gardener in my household, I am finding it a necessity to develop my own garden bag (akin to a tool bag) that will house my favorite implements. These will include:
Stiff tape measure
Spade with a ruler engraged in it
Pruners (precision and larger)
Ziploc baggies
Plastic bags (for plant trimmings that cannot go into the compost, trash, etc)
Alcohol swabs (sterilizing pruners)
Gloves (more than 1 pair, just in case)
Hand cultivator (one side has tines, one has a hoe, great for breaking up roots)
Weeding sickle
Rasp for sharpening things
Strips of old T-shirts for tying things
Pocket knife/Leatherman
Zip ties
Wide brimmed hat.
If I gardened away from the house I would probably add sun screen, water bottle and a camera to document anything that I feel I would need to research later (bugs, foliage spots, etc), for many people this could be accomplished with their phone, but I would not trust my memory when comparing images online later. Pen and paper is always a good idea too.
Some pics from this afternoon, three weeks after transplanting. You can see how the tomatoes next to my garage are doing great compared those in my garden.
A couple additional items of interest...
-This weekend I covered the raised beds with my first batch of compost of the season to serve as a mulch. I had to screen it first.
-Any powdery residue on foliage is from DE that I applied two weeks ago.
-I am already starting to see some brown spots and holes on my cuke leaves for the third year in a row. Seriously losing hope that I'll ever be able to get cukes to thrive in this garden. My older house just 5 miles away was cucumber heaven.
wow yall,
I have been growing them in 3 ft square wooden bins. for like three or four years now,,,,,,, bottom layer is hardware cloth to keep out the voles etc,,, also there are ground hogs here
Plus adopted outside stray cat, tries to use them as litter boxes, so I had to put fencing over them and sometimes use screens too over the bins when newly planted etc...
I presently supposedly to have now Royal jewel, and something called Tennessee something, probably Beauregard
I grew some of my slips .yesterday planted more of them in my bins
only thing I use on my sweets ,to eat is coconut oil, organic that is. baked in the oven and sliced in big slices.. Peeled of course. I even give some regular sweet potatoes to my chickens...
Lots of flea market pot slips no one knows the names or kind sometimes.
I bake a corning ware full at a time of plain baked ones... and store them in refrigerator and eat them cold...
Candying any of them is blasphemy, LOL
My option choices would be:
(1) add blood meal or other high N nutrient (per label directions) to the bed and till/mix up the whole bed contents so all evenly distributed then plant. Add N as needed throughout the season.
(2) rake off all the leaves and manure into a pile and mix in blood meal or other high N nutrient with them, plant in the raked off bed, then once plants established, use the raked off pile as mulch around the plants.
Either way you will need N supplements until the leaves decompose more.
I'd do #1 as even shredded leaves mixed with composted manure can take 6 months to balance out, 3 months with the blood meal mixed in too.
Dave
Thanks - the manure doesn't have much N left in it, so I as going to add bloodmeal (or maybe coffee chaff - not good as mulch since it packs and becomes hydrophobic, but good compost activator) anyway.
DH says he scraped the leaves off to the sides and put manure in the middle (and some fell on top of leaves), that's why it looks like there is such a thick layer. I was going to use the leaves as mulch, he misunderstood when I said I'd "use them on top". But we have plenty.
Glad to see you recommend #1 - less work (I think) than scraping it all off to mix, then putting it back on.
Almost done with 2nd side (60+ ft) of raised beds in tunnel - got west side all filled yesterday AM after double-digging on Sat PM.
Several things. First, the use of the peat pot (or whatever the material is). You'll find lots of info about them on this and other forums. The consensus on them is that the peat really needs to be stripped away prior to planting. This is just what I've read but they don't seem to let the roots through as they claim. Or if you are going to plant them as is, then the pot rim has to be buried beneath the surface of the soil or else they dry out too quickly.
Second, "We had one cold night and they looked a little shocked. Now this is what I see in my window box. Did I plant them too early?"
How cold did it get and how cold has it been? Cucumbers need warm weather.
Third, how big is this window box and what was it filled with?
Lastly, yes, I would reseed directly into the window box. Assuming that it's big enough to accommodate a cuke in the first place AND assuming that it's warm enough for them to grow. Cucumbers are best direct seeded although in your location I can understand the reason for starting indoors (short season). This one, even if it survives (not likely) won't grow well due to the stresses it's gone through.
Rodney
Hi Rodney,
Thanks for your help. Good to know about the peat pots - I just tried them this time as I had been told that they have quite a delicate rooting system and I thought it would be helpful. These are baby cucumbers and the window box is approximately 1 X 2 ft. As much as I am attached to these little guys, you're right if it does survive it may not be as productive anyway. I hope for a long summer. It did get quite cold, but I had it sheltered under a patio table. Part of me wonders if the soil was dryer that the cold wouldn't have shocked them quite so much. I'm using ProMix for Veggies - I've had such good results with it for my tomatoes and other veggies I have planted this year and I would recommend it to everyone. I will cut my losses, and say goodbye to these babies and plant some new ones not to waste the short season. At the very least I could probably just use the same soil and ensure it's draining. I'm facing south so I think I might have some good results with the warmth and keep them out that way. *sigh*