24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening



Yall making me drool LOL Yum Yum delicious melons
First before I forget....
Oh met a nice Menonite guy at store..... He said he used "Dipel" he ran A LARGE garden and produce area.
Hubby was "meloned out"as well as "greenbeaned" out. not ME NOt me.... I love my own ORGANIC fab tasting melons. God blessed me last year with all my produce.....
I am so greatful.... I kept telling Hubby Wish I could put this some of these melons in suspended animation... LOL
But the DANG squash bugs drove me batty. constantly picking them off. I had fence aound whole garden. I think the 6 owls etc I moved around over the Tposts kept the blank blank birds away....
plus maybe Kitty too.....but the fence did not keep Kitty out..... he climbed the cattle panel fence covered with poultry wire etc on the sides.. Hubby installed 4 gates too.
all used Gates.... nor did the fence keep out a creepy skunk....but it did the rabbits.......
I even tried a vacuum cleaner on bugs. no go...
Got the wire to make "domes" etc but it takes so uch work yeah bags can cover and I did some of my melons. but protecting the vines from ..BUGSSSSSS is another thing.......
ah well
Happy gardening

we made 5 domes, stapled or screwed and washered wire into a frame. I use smaller opening wire on some of them. covered with plastic.
Have them for over a year now.
I wish now I could have attached tulle first cause so many problems with those DANG slugs, betles stink bugs etc.. absolutely despise white moths........
Wish I had covers on all 20 plus raised beds...
Even tried "hoops made of water tubing.. pain to take off and on covers...
Oh these is a setup a guy did in "Farm Show Magazine" I believe his cover slid off and on......

Doodlebug
This was my first attempt at sweet potatoes also, and a bust. I grew slips from organic store bought sweet potatoes. I harvested a bunch of them about the size of the petite gourmet potatoes at the grocer. I planted some the raised beds now so we'll see if they fair better. Check out Debra Graf's website, she can grow some nice sweet potatoes.
Craig
Here is a link that might be useful: Mini Garden Abundence sweet potatoes

Did you wait until frost to dig them? That could be why the ones you did get rotted. Were there a lot of weeds? I grow mine in black plastic. Did they get enough water? Root veggies need the most. Did you do a soil test? Your ph may be off; they don't require fertile soil.

Here you go - lots of discussions here on best mulches for the vegetable garden.
My personal preference is old hay and straw.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Best mulches for the vegetable garden discussions

Use whatever you've got on hand or is easy to find. Grass clippings, leaves, straw, hay, pine needles, etc. There are many options. Some people use wood chips but I wouldn't recommend them unless you are doing a no-till garden (others will probably disagree with me).
Rodney


What was the intended use of these plants? Food or to grow further? I've not seen hydroponically grown plants sold anywhere but a food store. Though you mentioned they were small plants, which makes it sound like they are transplants intended to get grown further in another hydroponic setup. I've never seen, that would be interesting.
But back to your original question, if I were in your shoes I would cut off all but the smallest leaves to give them the best chance of growing. Water grown roots tend to not transition to soil well if at all. So I would think of the plant as if it were a cutting with no roots. Lots of leaves and no roots would mean certain death. So remove all but a few leaves and cross your fingers when you plant.

The plants are being sold in produce department for eating. As "baby kale" I suppose. The leave are about 3-4" long and 2 - 21/2" wide. The same seller usually has several types of herbs and garlic that are hydroponically grown in a greenhouse.
So far they seem to be doing just fine, and that surprises me. I've kept them watered and have put superthrive or fish emulsion in the water a couple of times. They'll stay in the pots until I know they have new roots, then will go into the garden, and they'll have to survive a hot, steamy summer. I've never seen this variety of kale before and don't know how large it will get.

Just for conversation, I have some fellow church members who are transplants from the northeast. They grow rhubarb every year from seed. They say it won't survive our heat and won't return the next year, but they get enough for their needs by starting fresh each year.


"Within a week there was an impressive difference."
It is a biological impossibility that 'rock dust' caused any difference in growth over that time frame. The End. Some guy on the internet hypes rock dust, and suddenly it's magic fairy dust for gardening. It's a huge waste of money. Get a soil test that includes micronutrients. If you do find that something is below proper levels, buy some and add it to your soil. Otherwise, add organic matter and see REAL differences in growth.
This person needs organic matter, not inorganic. Peat moss, compost - that's the ticket.


That is a lovely garden. I used the fan shaped concrete blocks that you can stack without using any mortar for my raised beds. They form oval shapes because of the front curve on the blocks. I love them. They will never need replacing.
If you watch Lowe's and Home Depot ads they usually have specials on these kinds of materials in the spring. I actually bought enough for the first row or two of blocks in my beds the first year, and then got the rest the next year. It worked just fine.

Serenade is not copper based - it is bacterial. Serenade Garden Disease Control contains a unique, patented strain (QST 713) of Bacillus subtilis(bacterias) which controls diseases such as Fire Blight, Botrytis, Sour Rot, Rust, Sclerotinia, Powdery Mildew, Bacterial Spot and White Mold. Apply Serenade Garden Disease Control to roses, vegetables, fruits, flowering plants, trees and shrubs at 2-4 oz/gal water.

I read that there's nothing you can do to reduce copper levels in the soil once you use copper fungicide, and I'm worried about too-high levels. I'll admit, it's more my ignorance keeping me from using it, since I don't know how much copper fungicide would need to be used to actually show a noticeable difference of copper levels in the soil. I'm part of a community garden, so I don't want to do anything to the plot that will prevent future gardeners from growing things.
If it would take an astronomical amount of copper to make enough of a difference that it would start harming the soil, then I certainly don't mind using it (like you said Dave, anything I can do to prevent disease). However, I just don't know what that amount would be.

I just wanted to update how my season has been going. Since we got our growing season off to a late start, whatever plans I would have liked to put in place had to be adjusted. So now getting a fall crop in, became problematic because we ended up buying organic soil for three large beds and that soil has not done well. All the beds that had this soil in it have not done well.
Peppers were a big fail in comparison to previous seasons when they've been our best crop. Watermelon and Butternut Squash never grew and were pulled out after a month. The tomato plants have done just okay. There will be a small crop but they didn't put on as much growth as I thought they should. So we already started sowing cover crop in two of the beds, two weeks ago. Waiting for the tomatoes to be finished and hope I will have time to do the same in that bed. Hopefully, next season should be better.
On the other hand the two long beds that had our old vegetable garden soil added, have done really well. I am particularly happy that I restrained myself from pulling plants out that were slow to develop. The transplants I had for broccoli, kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts and cabbage, despite getting such a late start have all done well. And are still growing well. Just harvested Broccoli yesterday.
So, for anyone that might have been following along and wondered how all those late planted spring crops did, they did great! Maybe it was just a different season, but it all worked out. It's actually been great growing weather this year. Hope everyone else is having a great growing season too and thanks for all the help. :-)
Arcadia Broccoli from seed that was supposed to do pretty well in the heat and I guess it did. Could have been larger, but happy to get a crop.

It’s that time again. I’m starting to figure out what I’m planting this spring and I was glad to have this thread to go back to. I also thought I would update on what happened with my planting plans last year in case someone else is considering planting late, etc.
Dave, you were concerned about how late I was planting some of what should have been spring crops and especially if it was too late for peas. I did not end up planting peas at all last year. I went right into cucumbers and string beans and they did very well. Had the best year ever with cucumbers.
I did plant lettuces, all my herbs, cabbage, broccoli, bok choy. I think I got lucky with the weather. We harvested Romaine lettuce for a long time before they bolted. I grew ‘Jerricho’ which was known to tolerate heat and it sure did. We harvested Bok Choy for a long time and Kale all season.
I tried a new cabbage last year, ‘Gonzales’ which produces individual cabbages and they were a big hit. Each cabbage made a large bowl of cole slaw with no leftover cabbage. Very convenient and they took up about 10 inches of growing space each.
The broccoli, did have a difficult time forming a head. It wasn’t until we had a cool spell at some point during the later part of the summer before they did. I had left them in place all season and finally harvested some in August and minimum side shoots into the fall. So, I’m trying to decide whether to grow broccoli this year. To get one head of broccoli from each large plant, doesn’t make sense in my small space if I have to leave them in place all season.
I didn’t plant spinach until the fall and then it did nothing. They germinated and grew a few leaves and then just sat there, so I covered them and left them to overwinter and I’m hoping they may regrow this spring. I’m pretty sure the different angle of the sun in the fall is a problem for me and I’m thinking that a Fall crop is not going to work for me at all. It was okay though because I had tomatoes still ripening up to frost and cukes still coming in, squashes still ripening. I've decided that spring crops followed by successions of summer crops are my best bet. Which allows me to cover crop for the spring if I want and do a good job of putting the garden to bed.
After thinking and thinking about the Asparagus, we decided we didn’t even want to grow it. lol So, we gave them to our neighbor to grow and that solved that problem.
I sometimes have a lot of enthusiasm for trying to grow something over the winter, but this winter has convinced me, that is just not the best fit for me. Especially with the ton of snow we are having this year. And I enjoy the break from the garden in the winter.
So, you were correct that plans change from year to year and my plans made last spring are definitely being adjusted.
Rodney, I also took your advice and took the chives out of my vegetable beds due to the fact they are perennial. I moved them into a perennial border that skirts the vegetable garden and very happy with that arrangement so far. I also managed to divide them and had a number of them to add to the border.
We did manage to plant some garlic last fall too.
Since we had so much trouble with the soil in the new beds, which I believe was due to being sifted before delivery, we did a lot of work on the beds in the fall. Compost ingredients worked into the beds. The tomato bed had a cover crop turned in and a heavy layer of mulch. I’m hoping this season will be an improvement.
Ajsmama, Our Cilantro did some reseeding but sprouted in the fall, so not so sure that will overwinter. I really enjoyed the Cilantro last year and it was so pretty in the garden. We did manage to do one succession planting of Cilantro and that really worked out and extended our harvest. I was able to leave the first planting in the ground until fall and harvested a good amount of seed.
So, that’s the update and I’ll probably be posting this year’s plan with more questions soon.
Thank you all again for all the great help!





Not sure if this is a house roof or apartment building or something else since I assume it has a flat top. If it is a house roof, the first thing I'd do, if it hasn't been done already, is have someone come out to make sure the roof is structurally sound and can handle the added weight of the pots and plants. Chances are it can but it's one of those things I'd be paranoid about.
Rodney
This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 14:30
Something else she could try is to rig up some shade- as in floating row cover kind of shade like they do with tobacco plants. It's not enough to cut off needed sun, but could be enough to take some of the scorch off the plants.