23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Agree they will benefit from some sort of support. Those 3-4 ring things they sell as tomato cages (but which don't work for tomatoes at all) work well for eggplants. So can a stake if the stem is loosely tied to the stake.
Dave
I have been using my tomato cages for every solanaceae except tomatoes just like you, Dave. The increasing size of the rungs is great for when the plants get larger and hold multiple fruits. The irony...
Botanically speaking, it's a fruit. Culinarily speaking, it's a vegetable. That's what I've determined.
I find that eggplant will be eaten alive by flea beetles if unorotected. Cucumbers usually are bothered by cucumber beetles. Broccoli leaves can be eaten by cabbage worms [eggs laid by moths], and peppers are usually not harmed by insects.
Chose your poison or covering remembering that the blossoms have to be pollinated. The insects bothering eggplant and cucumbers tend to swarm in over-night.
Chard sweetens up in the fall when it gets colder. I am reading Eating on the Wild Side which is about plant history and which veggies have most phytonutrients. There is some information about how temperature and time effect plants because of chemical changes. Asparagus starts to lose its sweetness about 4 hours after picking. I don't recall what the book might have said about lettuce. I tend to have bitter lettuce. Trying to grow varieties at the right time. Some are better in cooler weather others do better in hot. Right now, my spinach tastes sweet to me but it's been growing in a high tunnel and starting to bolt (I'm in NH) so need to eat the rest of it soon.
Relaaaaax! I leave my garden for a month in April/May, for several weeks in June, and for all of August. I still manage to grow all the veggies we eat all year (and some of the fruit). I just don't worry much about weeds, I mulch so watering isn't an issue (though in your location, it obviously is a necessity.) And I have a neighbor kid pick and freeze my tomatoes during August. Two weeks away, with your daughter keeping watch, should be no problem.
Anyway, the point is, taking a trip to Hawaii is much more important than staying with the veggies who will be doing their own thing anyway. Have a great time!
Breathe-2-3-4.
I always get so wound up before a vac...trip, that I NEED a trip to calm down! I think just leftover from when we were young parents who couldn't afford to buy things while traveling!
Now I have to tell myself "It's OK if you forget something! You can afford to buy a new one!"
Anyway, I did a walk through with my daughter last night and wrote everything down in detail. Nothing's really producing right now, so I don't have to worry about that.
Off we go! Nancy
I'm with Dave. I've always planted that close, and every year, I've got more zucchini than I know what to do with. I would not mess with what you've got going. Experimenting in another area was a very good alternative suggestion.
I also agree with the person who suggested successive plantings. Zucchini gets "tired" after a while and in my area, at least, aphids and fungus take hold while there's still plenty of growing season left. It's nice to have fresh new plants that I started a couple months after, so I can just pull the old ones instead of trying to battle the elements.
3 squash and 3 zucchini? If I were you, I'd be HOPING they never reach their full potential lol. The year I grew that many we had squash coming out of our ears. We were sick of squash, the neighbors were sick of squash, friends and relatives were sick of squash even the dam chickens were sick of squash! I still have bags of it shredded in the freezer.
When you are comfortable that the seedlings are doing well, then feel free to cut one that you don't want, or just pull it out carefully. Throw the remnants into compost bin.
You can also eat it when it is still smallish, so you could pull and eat, leaving behind some to get larger.
I actually plant mine much thicker than that. I divide my mesclun bed in half or thirds using a scrap timber/stick of wood as a visual divider, loosen the soil a bit using my fingers as a rake. Densely sprinkle seeds on top, pat down, then add a dusting of peat. Water well, then add some sticks resting on the bed edges to give it a bit of light shade to get going/germinating. Start the second half of the bed two weeks later. (i keep the un-planted half covered and weed free)
Planting thick keeps it nice and clean suppressing weed growth.
I would suggest sprinkling 'more' seed, if you have it, on the left half of your bed and top with a bit of dry soil if you don't have peat. Water well, and use this as an experiment.
My mesclun bed is a bit different...2.5 x 6ft. but raised as yours is. Divided. Last weekend put in a variety that does not mind the cold. Another will go in that does not mind the heat, (late june)...I get salad all summer as one needs pulling as one is harvested.
Growing thick and cutting with scissors the first harvest, you will get a second growth harvest from your first planting. And no weeds.
...Then back to the cool season mix the end of august for a good fall crop.
I buy three mixes in bulk so i have plenty seed and a better price in bulk.
Any leftover seed i grow indoors in those clam-shell grocery containers for micro greens all winter.
I end up with so much in an area just a bit bigger than yours that i drop off bags to the senior center a few times every summer. (with all that extra zucchini, : )
-not bulk as in enormous...just 1/4 lb amounts.
for example, the braising mix does well early in cool soil...the all-star is great in summer...then braising in the fall...the spicy micro mix i put in weeks ago and it survived a late snow fall without any cover.
-i do grow a variety of head forming lettuce in another bed, but mesclun is always ready to add to a salad of other bigger leaf varieties.
Here is a link that might be useful: salad mix
I only start pruning when it starts getting powdery leaf mildew. It always hits the lower leaves first, I try to never prune above the lowest fruit. I figure a cut leaf stem is better for the plant than holding onto a spore-producing diseased leaf. Then I treat the upper leaves. I battle PLM on my zucchini every year, but my plants last through the whole growing season because I'm able to get rid of the diseased leaves fairly easily. As long as the PLM stays under control, the plants will keep producing zucchini. I don't know that you'd need to prune if you have an overall healthy plant, nothing wrong with keeping the lower leaves as the plant grows up unless the leaves are diseased.
From the Millennium Seed Bank FAQ: "Not surprisingly, few longevity experiments of any age that mirror seed conservation storage are available for us to study today. However, in 1987, samples of cereal and weed seeds were germinated that had been placed within sealed glass vials in Vienna 110 years earlier (reported by Steiner & Ruckenbauer in 1995). One of the aims of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is to set up a carefully controlled set of longevity experiments that future generations can study.
That's nuthin' compared to the 24,000 year old mung bean, of course.
(Personally, I think seed sellers encourage us to want fresh seeds and 100% germination. When you have older seed, and just want a few plants, 25% germination is fine ....)
This is also good: "An interesting story relates to seeds of the legume Albizzia julibrissin on a pressed herbarium specimen collected from China in 1793 and deposited in the British Museum. This specimen was 'watered' while a fire was being extinguished in 1940 and several seeds (at least 147 years old) germinated.
... we'll see how well stored my old snow pea seeds are. They're about 15 years old, and I plan on trying them this fall.