23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Here's an idea. Clip all affected leaves but make sure you leave the center ones alone. Kale grows back so fast, you'll probably only go a week without. Besides, you look to have enough plants to feed the whole town. Looks like you could use some heavy mulch also.

That hose end sprayer... trash it or save it for dormant oil spraying on a fruit tree or something. Or something else. Foliar feeding is not recommended in my book unless it's something like worm tea or compost tea. And ESPECIALLY not recommended with synthetic ferts.

With kale, feed the soil early with organic matter and MAYBE a side dressing with more later in the season. Or... if you really feel you need some, maybe some fish ferts and or a dash of organic meals. Kale with do well in pretty poor soil.

The pesticide you used sounds like it's broad spectrum. I recommend against them since they kill the good bugs also.

Good luck

Kevin

Thanks Kevin! All your advice has been great since this is my first season growing kale I still have a lot to learn. I started it all from seed and expected a lot of it to die but of course everything lived so I have a ton. I'm starting to freeze the extra and I'm going to use it this winter for kale smoothies. I'll remove the odd leaves as you stated and see what condition the plants are in afterwards. If there's more trouble I'll let you know. Thank you again

Another potato leaf... this plant has curled leaves and has always looked less healthy than the others.

Agree with Dave. Overwatering(tons of rain) will cause the paleness and leaf drop. The tip burn is caused by too much fert in most cases. Burning in the middle of the leaves--- did you foliar feed or splash by any chance?

"I will try to avoid the chemical ferts alltogether in the future."

Good idea. You did what is best for MOST veggies needs... feed the soil early. Past that, veggies like maters and peppers and most others fruiting types just need side dressing of more compost, worm castings, compost tea or ORGANIC ferts, etc. after each "flush" of fruit starts. Why ruin that nice looking soil with chemical ferts?? Save it for container plants.

Not sure about the potato blight thing. I don't know what it looks like. Looks like burn also. But the same as above applies to taters -- feed the soil early and get some bone meal in extra early( long before planting) since it takes so long to break down.

Do the same with BONE MEAL with other veggies also. I'll use it in side dressing but I don't expect THAT application to come into play until I till the soil in the winter for my winter/early spring veggies. It's a consistent sprinkling of it every 6 months so that FUTURE plants can take advantage when it's usable.

Back to the peppers --- it's difficult to control water with RAIN. But maybe you can set up tarps to divert SOME of it in the future if you're expecting deluges. Dave is spot on about watering peppers -- they like to almost get bone dry in between. Water thoroughly, let get bone dry, water thoroughly, let get bone dry, and so on.

Good luck.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 13:24

Sounds like your PH might not be right for carrots..do have your soil tested, then adjust for carrots.

I planted carrots this year in a new 5x10' raised bed of very soft soil. I had large bare spots where no carrots emerged. Germination was excellent in other areas. I replanted where the bare spots were and had some germination but not good. I have concluded that there is some soil organism feasting on carrot seeds or the vulnerable feeder roots. Quite possibly Symphylans as I know them to be present in my garden, but could be some other culprit. I suspect you have a similar issue but even worse. Raised beds with high organic matter content that are moist all year round can breed large populations of leaf-litter-loving bugs. Some of these bugs also love chewing on young, tender roots when available.
Dealing with below-ground pests is much worse than the ones above ground.

Wow! All I can say is inspect the underside of the leaves for any sign of insects.
Is this all of your peppers or just one plant?
If it were a fungal type disease, usually they start at the bottonm leaves and work their way up..hard to tell from your pics, but it looks all over to me?
Have you had cold snaps in the last couple of weeks?..Could be cold damage.
Or...did you fertilize heavily recently?

9 times out of 10 it is caused by herbicide exposure. Even the slightest drift of it on the wind can cause this.

The one time out of 10 that it isn't herbicides it is caused by a severe infestation of aphids on the underside of the leaves.

Dave

I have not grown them myself but I was researching the matter. On Mother Earth News I found an article from a gardener who grows them in Canada:

Grow Sweet Potatoes Even in the North
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/growing-sweet-potatoes-zm0z11zsto.aspx

The author said the trick in the northern regions is to use clear plastic to warm up the soil before planting.

On another link, a blogger from Seattle related his experience in trying to grow them--he was not very successful.

http://www.goodfoodworld.com/2011/01/growing-sweet-potatoes-in-seattle-is-it-possible/

However he did relate in the article that you can ALSO eat the leaves and they are quite nutritious. He said he planted his in black pots but the year he did it for--Seattle had a particularly cold summer. My guess is that it would be worth a try but warm the soil first.

A gardener here on Olympic Peninsula and close to the water grew them. He likes to experiment with things at least once. I took 4-Hers on field trip to his garden in October and he saved his peanuts and sweet potatoes to harvest when they came. The sweet potatoes were only a little smaller than those in store and about 6 to a plant. They were planted on the south side of a stone/ concrete foundation of his greenhouse outdoors.

In the case of the skunk, you remove it to a 55 gallon drum, filled with water. Lower it back side first so it sprays in the water.

Have you dug around where the animal did? If you do, and find seeds or nuts, then it could be a sqiurrel or chipmonk. They just love the fresh dirt in my garden between the rows.

Thanks Zeedman, I ordered a packet of both radishes, their rat tail might be different from the one I'm growing now.

Annette

I have to agree with you zeedman, in amongst the rat tail seed I planted one plant is producing short fat green pods, Madras? Whatever it is it's quite succulent and nicer than the long skinny purple ones, I still like them but not as much as the short fat green pods. In any case I received my Madras seed from Bountiful Gardens today and have already planted a few seeds. Thanks for the heads up on this one.

Annette

They should last a while in the fridge!

Yup, that's the perfect stage to pick them. They are mature but not ripe.

Dark green (immature) ones tend to be a little bitter.

If you let them ripen to yellow, they get mildly sweet but also lose a lot of flavor.

That's probably it. It is used for livestock feed and in bird seed mixes (among other things), so I wouldn't doubt it would be included in hen scratch, too. You can read the package and see if it's listed specifically as an ingredient. This part of your garden will be for the birds!

It will be listed as Milo (Sorghum bicolor). It is a standard ingredient in wild bird feed.

Yeah I planted it in spring time, it has been getting plenty of water since it rains daily here, I'll try and get it more shade, you don't think it's a disease?

Plants that are way out of climate die from diseases. Check the florida forum, all these things have been discussed there.