23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Megret, have you tried tomatoes again this year? Found this site because my newly transplaned seedlings are wilting however I know I disrupted the root system by breaking two seedlings apart to plant in bigger pots.

I just planted my garden this morning. 6 seedlings that all came in the same pot are struggling---I am assuming root damage but who knows. Ironically, I have very young seedlings with not much of a root system that seem no worse for the wear. On that note, maybe it is hardening off issue.

I've got a couple critter catchers in my yard. They are pretty good at it too... when they aren't sleeping. They technically aren't my cats but they hang around a lot (their owner lives across the street). Daphne on the left (she likes being upside down for some reason), Simba on the right.

Rodney

Perhaps guard kitty is just closing eyes to better concentrate and hear the critters....

Or has a union and a contract that allows breaks. :-)

I also did a hammock out of old tights or nylons.

Do you buy oranges, onions or potatoes in bulk? Those little mesh bags they come in work good for cantaloupe. DO NOT try watermelon with them, I'm speaking from experience.

There is no short cut here. Hoe or role up your sleeves and pull them. Then MULCH, MULCH, MULCH !

For me weeding is an ongoing ritual. But with good mulching you can cut it down. Around here pepper grass is worse. If you don't pull them on time their seed will be scattered all over. They can grow 3 crops a year.
I mulch like "loribee" with pine nuggets. It looks also nice and decorative.

I'm with loribee, I get on my hands and knees in the spring and pull everything (tedious), plant, layer the newspaper, then mulch. Get a box and collect newspapers from friends, paper shopping bags are great but all the stores in my area went to plastic. Have a local newspaper? I went to mine and bought butt rolls with about 200' of paper on them for four dollars. I also use cardboard, especially between the rows, it's like ringing a dinner bell for worms, they love that stuff!!

I have hit an area in my plant bed 5 times now in the last month, 3 with roundup and 2 with nut sedge killer, it's still there. The leaves get burned and die back, but then it comes back from the root. I feel like getting my money back on those products, this is ridiculous. I've also attempted to go way down and pull it up by the nut but most times it breaks off before I get it out.

I've dealt with it before which is why I asked about the green manure. i'll try a heavy planting of clover, buckwheat, & alfalfa this fall & see what happens. I won't use chemicals in the vegetable patch & have had little luck with chemicals for nut sedge in my flower beds. of course there's hardly any in my grass. I have a lot of clover in my lawn which I leave alone as it is the mainstay of the honey bees. when asked about nut sedge on another forum the responder told the person to move...........

Without a photo it is just guesses you'll get.

Agree that slugs is a real possibility but so are several other things. You'll need to do some night time investigations to rule out slugs.

Dave

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Unfortunately, I can't get helpful photo evidence right now, since the seedlings which were damaged pretty much all died. (I'm hoping that when I put out the replacement seedlings, they don't go the same way, but if they start to decline, I'll make sure to document it right away.) But checking at night for slug activity sounds like a good plan. I saw no evidence of slug trails, I don't think, but I have lost seedlings to slugs in the past.

Never assume it is just one pest either. From your description it could esily be a combo group. But a photo of the damage would be a big help narrowing it down

dave

OK, a beast is found! I can tell you, they are not a lazy creatures! I would expect to find it near the plant that just been eaten this night! But no, it moved to the next one to loose no time next night. I am pretty sure there may be more, but I only found one. And yes, it is cutworm.
Dave, picture in this case will not help much. it is kind of looks same as a normal tiny plant until it wilts... But if you touch it you can see, there are only two penny size(or even less) leaves laying there like a bouquet not attached to the stem. and stem is just gone...

Earlier I started some lettuce in a flat.
I had so much that I didn't know where to transplant them. Now that tomatoes are small , I planted some just next to them. Radish is very easy by direct sowing. But with too much rain too much shade I gave up on them.

Here is a picture of some of my lettuce in tomato bed.

Even at a good nursery they sell brands that are ridiculous now. $2.99 for one container, one cell. One brand I see is Chef Jeff. Another is Homegrown Gourmet which is not as expensive. Bonnie Plants is at least not quite as exploitive.

They sell things that are absolutely absurd. Plants being sold in the last week of May that have no chance of doing well, like Bok Choi, one plant for $2.99. One plant of a Green Bean plant for $2.99. Beans... one bush plant that are lousy at transplanting for $2.99. One Pea plant for $2.99. One Brassica plant for $2.99, too late in season for many. One Corn plant for $2.99. 3 or 4 carrots growing in one little pot together or $2.99.This is just exploitation of ignorance, and you won't really get much of anything for your efforts, so it is discouraging.

I do waste money by many of your standards. I buy single Pepper plants to get the varieties I want, I want many different weirder varieties. I buy 3 or 4 packs of Lettuce, I hope to get them earlier before the heat of summer, and I don't want a whole row full of the same type, I don't eat that much. I've had success buying 4 packs of Sugar Snap Peas, 2 plants per cell. Easier than dealing with the inconsistencies of early spring planting of seeds.

One other thing that annoys me is the separate selling of Green Bell Peppers and Red Bell Peppers... now the ignorant are reinforced in their belief that Green and Red Bells are completely different types of Peppers, Bonnie Plants wouldn't sell them like that otherwise. It would be funny if the Green and Red Peppers being sold are actually the same cultivar.

This post was edited by noki on Mon, May 26, 14 at 1:41

Thanks everyone. Looks good seysonn!

Keep eating! Mine doesn't bolt even through 80 degree weeks - takes awhile in the 90s before it considers it. Cilantro on the other hand (and onion) forget it.

Sigh... root maggots. I cannot grow a decent radish because of these things. I planted 7 cauliflowers this year and only two will make it to fruition. The others I noticed wilting on cool days when the sun came out. Tugging on these plants would pull them right out of the ground revealing brown, stubby roots. I may try the tulle approach.
Oddly enough, my collards and kale do not seem effected. and the brussels sprouts only mildly.
Another approach is to place plastic disks around the plant stem to prevent the fly/larvae from getting to the roots. Never tried it so I don't know if it works.

I had moderate success last year with a thorough soil drench of Neem. Didn't kill every maggot, but it knocked the population down enough so that most of my crops survived, and I had every single one in the bed infected before the drench.

When I was in a hotter climate I used Cow Peas as a summer cover crop. They shade the soil, smother weeds and the pods are excellent. Seed is also much cheaper than Okra.

-Mark

Hairy indigo and velvet bean are good hot weather smothering crops for 9b, both do well for me in fla.

Those 2 websites look great. The local nursery here
Has Mary Washington variety but have been told
Not as good as a jersey knight variety. Thanks for
The input again.

I've bought from Daisy twice before and was very happy with their crowns. What they, and all asparagus crown sellers fail to mention is that the "all male" varieties are no longer that. I got about 50% female plants with my first order which was Jersey giant and jersey supreme (I think). The second time I ordered a new variety from them called "Vilmoreland" (sp?) or something like that. The percentage of male plants is much higher.
Hope this helps.
-Mark

What bothers me about ants in the garden is having ants crawling up my legs as I'm weeding. That's enough reason for me to want to get rid of them when they are in certain areas. If the nests are out of the way I'm fine with them being there.

Question though: if the ants are herding the aphids, are they preventing the beneficials (ladybird beetles, etc) from eating the aphids as well? Do they attack the beneficials to protect the aphids?

Great little conversation to help me diagnose my problem. The ants are nesting right in the roots of the kale, which then wilts and dies. Must be too much air around the roots as suggested above. I did fertilize with high nitrogen recently as my gardens tend to be naturally low. Also used compost from the bin, maybe introducing the ants. I'll go check for aphids now and decide which delightful anticidal approach to follow.

Bonnie Plants sells started Sweet Potato 'Beauregard' plants, they have them at Lowe's in Ohio, for example. Maybe not the best source, but an easy and cheap source.

Oriental stores