23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Hard to tell without a picture, but if hard and black (don't know about holes) it sounds like scurf or scab, which is fine, just peel them.
Keep the pH of the soil low, around 5.0 - 5.2, and don't use a lot of OM. Rotation helps, so does watering but mostly what you can do to control scab is to plant resistant varieties.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_Scab.htm
Scurf is a little harder to deal with, I see store-bought potatoes with scurf all the time. Crop rotation helps, as does early harvesting (which you're already doing), but the best thing is to try to get certified disease-free seed potatoes, don't use store-bought potatoes or ones you save from this year. Fungicides don't seem to work.
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_SilverScurf.htm
I don't really get the square foot garden mixture. I don't think peat moss and vermiculite offer much in the way of nutrients, and in high concentrations are going to dry out fast. I've been filling my beds with what a local quarry calls "veggie mix", which I think is a mix of top soil and compost and maybe something else. But a reputable quarry in your area is going to provide the best soil mixture for growing, IMO. I top my beds off with it every couple years. Alternate years, I throw in composted steer manure, and I continually turn it into the clay soil underneath to get the mixture deeper and deeper every year. Rarely do I fertilize during the growing season, I only water every few days, even when temps get up in the 90's, and I get good results.
When it comes time to top off your beds with new soil, I would really consider trying something different. You might find you don't have to water so much and will get better results.
I would suggest, plant a few more seeds out there.
I had worse problem this year. The cucs did not grow at all despite good temps. I planted some more seeds later. Those are now several feet while the original seedlings are still sitting at few inches. Same soil, same food, same water, same seed.
I saw more Little Leaf coming up today - about the size of seysonn's.
I'd say if yours are growing now they'll really take off once the weather warms up. You could start more seed in case of cucumber beetles, powdery mildew, etc. though.
I think I'm going to throw more cantaloupe seed out this weekend since I only had 1 pop up.
As mentioned by forgotten, the potatoes will regrow, which means that they will produce again. You can harvest the new crop in a couple months -- so you'll be eating new potatoes, not the old ones that overwintered.
The onions will go to seed, and the old bulb will rot. Are they usable now? Then I'd say eat them. Leave a few in to let them go to seed and self seed, and you'll get lots of volunteers.
Sorry, I should have explained better.
These are plants that overwintered this past year--I didn't know they'd be there but they are up and growing well. Glad to hear I can just harvest the potatoes like usual. The onions I don't think have much of a bulb so I will just let them re-seed.
Thank you!!!
Hey, Slimy! Yes, the sunflowers float on top of the water for a long time unless they are disturbed by a squirrel falling in. Even then, enough still float that I've gotten a second one before I take the first one out.
I've been able to use them for up to a couple days, if I remove the bodies, but if you catch some, the water gets very stinky from them releasing their bowels and so on, and I have to dump it.
I bury them in a garden area that's open, and dump the sunflowers and water in my compost. Sometimes, though, the seeds can be hosed off and put back into a clean bucket of water and they still float. You'll have to experiment to see how it goes for you.
This post was edited by dowbright on Thu, Jun 12, 14 at 17:29
We Use it on squash for SVB protection, in Earth Boxes as fertilizer bags and will try this year on parthenocarpic cucumbers against cucumber beetles.
The only complain - aphids. They have no natural predators under tulle and multiply freely. Experiments trapping lady bugs were unsuccessful, they spent all their time and energy trying to get out and didnt care about aphids.
I will be using tulle this year to cover some of my isolation cages for seed saving. Tulle has better air flow, so it can be used over vegetables which are sensitive to damp, stale air (such as beans & tomatoes). Agribon - even the lightest grade - traps too much humidity for those vegetables, they tend to get foliar diseases (been there, done that).
As already mentioned, tulle is not UV stable, so it degrades quickly in sunlight. Mosquito netting has similar qualities & weaves, and there are UV-resistant versions available... but it is pricier than tulle, and a little harder to find.
We have had a serious case of asparagus beetles this spring, as have the local organic growers. At first there were too many to squish, so I cut off the infested fronds and composted them. Then I let the chickens in the patch twice, and I think they did a good cleanup job. I've started to let some fronds grow again, and I'm not seeing asparagus beetle larvae.
I think spinosad would work better than neem. It's what I was going to use if the chickens didn't set things right.
Hand picking and bucket of soapy water but no, do not cuts the ferns down now as the crowns need that energy to survive.
If you simply cannot bring yourself to touch them then a sharp pair of scissors snips them in half with little damage to the ferns.
But neem has little to no effect on them.
Dave.
Yes, the female flowers will have baby gourds behind them. Here is a video on hand polinating bottle gourds ( the Cucuzzi is a bottle gourd)
Here is a link that might be useful: Hand pollination - gourd
NO NO! NO tan! I'm a former redhead and HIDE from the sun! LOL
It was actually too HOT for me this time! High 80-mid 90s! YUK!
The last 2 times we went were in March/April low to mid 80s..perfect!
Anyway, I planted the new peppers and eggplants and realized that some had survived! I might be in BIG trouble in August! LOL Nancy
I rake up the fallen pine needles in my back yard and compost them and also use them to mulch with.
The only thing you need to watch for is ticks, they seem to love them as well. They are something you should be on the look out for while gardening anyway though.
It's not the first fruits, they've been doing this for over a month.
I use a soft artist's paint brush to pollinate, same as I have for the last 4-5 years. Previous years yielded lots of zucchini.
I'll look into calcium deficiency. But the plants themselves are so healthy!
I use water from our tilapia tank, so it has no added chemicals except the lovely fish-added fertilizer.
Is there a lot of salt in the air their? It looks like how trees grow on the coast.
It could be the salt in the air. I am keeping a journal and complete list of my garden so I will not replant what has issues and doesn't do well. I did find an infestation of whitefly (but not on the German queen) and used un-adultered Ivory soap and water. Thankfully it rained later in the night so it saved me from washing the soap off in the morning so the hot sun wouldnt burn the leaves. I have found that even a weak solution of baking soda can cause burn with the hot sun. Will have to spray all shrubs this weekend with soap to help knock them out. Waiting on my blooming dill plants to fill up with ladybug larvae to help fight them.