23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Agree - sounds like lack of pollination with the shriveled fruit. You can self-pollinate - see the link below.
Here's a list of yellow leaf possibilities:
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/squash/why-squash-leaves-turn-yellow.htm
Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollination of Squash
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!
I plant a modest fall crop of potatoes about Labor Day for an early December harvest here in Gainesville, Florida. I then plant my main crop of potatoes (using freshly bought seed potatoes) in mid January for a late May harvest. Anything harvested from my main crop that is starting to sprout by Labor Day gets planted for the fall crop since fresh seed potatoes are not available locally at that time of year.
The first frost of the autumn generally occurs here between Thanksgiving and the first week in December, which allows about 90 days for my fall potatoes to mature. You would need to adjust your summer planting date accordingly -- I would guess around mid to late July for the Atlanta area. Just don't count on a huge crop of fall potatoes. I use them as a supplement to my main crop, which is planted in January. If you want to grow lots of potatoes, then plan for that to be the spring crop.
If finding seed potatoes in mid summer is problematic for you, you can always try grocery store potatoes that have sprouted or stash some spring bought seed potatoes in the refrigerator until you are ready to plant them in July.
This post was edited by courtneych on Thu, Jun 26, 14 at 5:50
And onions shouldn't be dried all that long in the direct sun either.
If your onions weren't finished (matured), were harvested early - which in PA I would think it is too early to be harvesting them - then they will go soft no matter what you do.
Onions are left in the dry ground until the tops fall over and the necks turn dry and brown. Then harvested and dried out briefly in partial sun or even shade as it is the air circulation not heat you are after.
Now what to do to try to save them. Soak the carrots and beets in ice water for several hours - a cooler full of heavily iced water will help firm them back up some. Then either can or freeze them as they won't store for long as is.
The onions can be chopped and then either dehydrated and stored in jars or frozen in pre-measured amounts in freezer bags and used for cooking.
Dave
If you post where you read that it might be more clear...
Lots of thing can be pulled early but needs to be in the fridge and used quickly. Onions and garlic can be pulled and used before fully formed, but should not be dried/cured as what you may have read until the tops brown and dry while still in soil as Dave pointed out.
Carrots and beets need cool storage asap...i've used the ice water bath method after forgetting a harvest but it was in shade.
I don't pull much of that until much cooler september weather...carrots lasted through the holidays in cool storage...anything i pull early in summer heat goes right in the fridge...
Maybe you were reading about a completely different growing zone....but the carrots and beets does not compute for anywhere.
I know this is an old post but I have something to add regarding overwintering chard for seed. Last year I planted Erbette chard seed apparently too late as it did not come up. I assumed my seed was bad as I had had it several years already. To my surprise it came up this spring. I guess it was too hot when I planted it last year.
Anyway, those chard are now bolting and going to seed. so it is my guess that if you winter sow it and it can come up on it's own, which is really early, then you won't have to try to protect it during the winter. (unless of course Erbette is not biennial)
in the span of 30 seconds and no research. Yay me.
==>> i am with you .. wing it.. lol... live and learn. and experiment ...
dont know where you are... but the weather has not been conducive to seed starting here in MI .... in the last few weeks ... incredible heat.. drought... and damp soggy nights...
there are reasons.. success is greater in spring.. with warm days.. and cool nights ...
you said: It wasn't too late to start
who said that??? .... and thats part of your winging it problem ...
whether mature plants are prospering.. really has nothing to do with germination... or making recently germ'd plants thrive ...
and i think that MAY BE.. where the lack of research failed you ...
be sure to understand.. pre WWW .. i learned NOTHING.. except thru experimenting ... you will.. for sure.. never forget this lesson .... whatever it may be ...
ken
ps: there might also be an issue with what vermin might be eating your seeds now.. that werent around and didnt eat them in spring ...
I think the bean seeds were sitting in excessive moisture. Unlike many other seeds, beans are easily injured by oxygen deprivation during germination. If you soak bean seeds in water it will kill at least half of them, but if you let them soften in lightly dampened paper towels they will do just fine. The diff is oxygen availability. Peat pellets are cute but not a good choice for a big, fast-growing seedling like a bean. Once the soil is warm, direct-seeding is the way to go.
I know!! I thought the caterpillar I saw was a result of an egg hatching!
I pluck off all of the eggs from the kind that eat the basil and parsley (the butterflies are black/blue and beautiful and make a pretty darned cool looking caterpillar). Those hatch and turn into little suckers quickly! I just thought this was some unknown version!
It's funny you say that tulle tears easily. For me, it's exactly the opposite. Tulle and similar materials let the wind through, whereas row covers (especially AG-15) can rip very easily if they are too taut. Too saggy and they don't let rain in properly. However, small aphids can penetrate tulle but not row cover.
It does work. I used some over dino kale last year that was interplanted with eggplant and both plants did remarkably well. It was nice not rinsing aphids out of all the crevices. When things do get aphids, when I harvest, I often soak in a bowl of water first and that helps to loosen many.
Here is the big caution though, if you over time end up with aphids under the cover, take the cover off, even if there are lady bugs in there too. The aphids will proliferate and the lady bugs cannot keep up.
they are not over mature, they are only 2-3 inches long at moment and just starting out. i usually cut em off when they get about 8-9 inches. they were fine in the morning, just must have missed the plant watering when i left for work. just dont know if the lack of water affected the fruit and if it will return to normal. i guess i will see next few hours
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.