23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Not poisonous, although I've never heard of people eating zucchini leaves. In Africa, pumpkin leaves are eaten and they are a close relative.

The young leaves with some stem can be quite good. Before they get fuzzy, prickly.
A better edible leaf is on the serpent or also called Cucuzzi. It is actually an edible gourd and has a smooth leaf. I prefer it so don't bother with the regular zuc leaves.

Last year the first frost was so late i had a whole second crop and did cut all the fresh growth for a meal but that is rare...

I also grow a variety that produces an unusual abundance of flower for stuffing...
A local nursery sells this seed provider so i grow a bit of these...
(good pole beans as well)

Here is a link that might be useful: Franchi

sorry, I'm new to posting and didn't know if I could put more than one photo per post. I will get the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis - and repost a photo of my garden in a couple of weeks...hopefully all photos in one post and all plants bug free. It's a large garden and the bugs seem to only bother some plants and not others - for example the squash, cucumbers, corn, sunflowers aren't bothered at all!? I have tried hand picking the bugs but can't keep up with the bugs...

I don't know what else you're growing, but BT should be good for the brassicas and anything in the nightshade family for fornworms(peppers,eggplant,maters, etc)

Here's a tutorial for posting multiple pics.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: tutorial

No, won't hurt birds or fowl. Though, I wouldn't spray it right on the guy, LOL

I think Lowes is where I got mine. Safer is the most common brand, but just look at the ingredients of anything labeled caterpillar killer. If it's Bt and also has that "OMRI" organic certified label on the front, you should be good.

And if you can spend the 15 bucks, help yourself out and get a 1-gallon sprayer!

I checked at Lowe's the other day and they didn't have it -- they used to! Home Depot and maybe even Walmart will have it

Make sure the BT is the "K "variant. The "I" varant is for mosquitos and fungus gnats.

Your rooster -- I'd find a couple of the caterpillars, pick up the rooster, and show them to him. he might clear up your problem in no time. And no, BT only harms caterpillars.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 18:26

I've done it both ways...more work to put it down and take it up, but there are fewer weeds. It isn't necessary here for heat.

I don't get any real production from the vines where they have rooted. I planted them a little closer this year. maybe that will lessen the tendency to lunkers.

I tried it this year but I have a hard time figureing out the watering schedule. The plants without it look much better...

Interesting discussion. I too have not followed any of the previous ones. I agree with Digdirt's comment that the difference is probably whether you are starting with a 'good base' or not.

I just recently resumed vegetable gardening (I used to have a home based nursery so my priorities were flowers for the longest time). In the time I've been away, the no tilling camp seems to have flourished. I have a small community garden plot. We just started it last year, and the 'base' wasn't great. This year we were given a truck load of compost/top soil mix and we could add as much as we wanted. My DH added about 6 wheelbarrows to a 4 X 16 foot box, as he was tilling it in by hand, the lady who's in charge, said "Oh no, you don't have to dig it in, just put it on top". DH ignored her.

Can't say for sure, that it was the tilling in of the compost mix, but this is a photo of my garden (Middle Front) one month after sowing the first batch. Ladies on the left planted exactly same time as me, and with much of the same seed (we get lots of seed donated). Lady on the right had started hers a week or two earlier and had bought some starter plants, (ie not all were from seed).

Big bushy plants at front are Tomatoes I bought. I planted some Kale and Brassica starters provided by the gardens (same as the others). You can sort of see mine compared to Lady on right, we both have them at the far left of our plots. Mine are much further along than hers, and she planted hers the same day or earlier.

Interesting case study, Raehelen!

Cucumbers and watermelons don't really take off until the weather is consistently warm and they have a dozen or more leaves. Once they get going they grow quick. Yours don't look that bad. It's not uncommon for leaves to fold up during the day, especially with yours since the roots aren't very big yet. The plant is just trying to reduce water loss from its leaves. Just make sure to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Once they get bigger that means damp at 2 or 3 inches below ground.. soil can be waterlogged even if it's dry on top. Give them a balanced fertilizer once they get a little bigger and give them some time. Oh and keep the crabgrass away.. it will steal nutrients and crowd out your plants. Then work on the soil this fall when you're done growing.

I prefer the hydrolyzed over the emulsion primarily because it doesn't have much odor at all, and I think the NPK ratio is better.

Jane,

Not all places have native earthworms I was surprised to learn when I was trying to identify my garden worms.

Now that you have the garden started, you can get a compost pile started. By adding your kitchen scraps, slightly buried, and with coffee grounds if your a coffee drinker, if there are worms, they should find you. They love the coffee grounds !

Either way, it makes good sense to compost at home if you have the space, rather than sending it out in the yard debris can and buying the finished compost back. ( not that there's' anything wrong with that ... sometimes that's the best choice for some folks )

Does organic matter include composted materials as well as humus?

Yes, just as Rodney said, the primary form of "organic matter" is compost. In addition all he mentioned, tilled in cover crops, green manures, leaf mold.

But to develop a herd and keep it going you have to feed it regularly. That means several times a year. So if you can't compost enough to keep up with it then you have to look into other sources.

Check out the Soil & Composting forum FAQs too. The list is practically endless.

Dave

with sweet potatoes no need for certified, just do as you did.

see our presentation for ideas

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens growing sweet 'taters and pineapples

Len, thanks I am going to try a sweet potato in my SFG. I think I have until the end of June to get them in the ground (zone9) but I may fudge it a bit.
Mary Ann

Still plenty of time in zone 6a for beans, cukes, summer squashes, turnips, kale, collards, lettuces, beets, carrots, a wide variety of Asian greens, Asian radishes, and probably a number of other things I've forgotten. I just started (in starter cells) savoy cabbages for winter harvest. They'll go into the garden end of July/early August.

Thank you guys!

I found some decent looking cantaloupe starter packs yesterday and a few tomatoes that hadn't started fruiting, so I bought those. Plus a few other random plants that looked ok - an eggplant, a pepper, a few other things. I'll put all those in and start some hills of squash and watermelons. Hopefully I'll get something wtih all that. Of course my fear now is eveything comes in and I am overun with produce :)

IME deer adore pea and bean sprouts above all, so the fact that your beans were not eaten is strange.

I have had deer problems, had fencing 6' high 4years ago deer went over it and tore it down as there food mast was low. I put the fence back up and added a 45% angle on top. this has worked as I was given this advice from a deer farmer. I used 6' t post 4' range fence and 2' pvc pipe on top with a 45 elbow and 2' pvc out wove the top 4' fence over the pvc. also fastened the 2 4' fence together. I did post photos at backyardchicken.com. the pvc was 1 1/2" diamature. hope this helps. old seed 1. look for post at backyard chicken by 1 old hen

A severe case of powdery mildew. With plants this far gone I'd pull them and replant. I highly doubt they are going to recover and spraying fungicides would be useless. Sorry. If you had caught the PM early enough you could have dealt with it.

I agree with loribee2 about the weeds.

Rodney

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 0:42

Well darn it. Thanks for the replies!

I will pull weeds, but I won't be able to replant this year.

I also have an affected cucumber (opposite side if the garden and it just sprouted from seed?!) and a spaghetti squash. The spaghetti squash has large fruit setting so I'd hate to pull it. Will the fruit still ripen?