23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Agreed. A yam is an exotic tropical that will only grow in a frost free zone.

Thanks.

Very nice -- garden success, AND you've got a tan :)

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.

we should all be so lucky, all I get are millions of (MILLIONS) Tree of Heaven seedlings.

hand pollination is almost 100% efficient. I can stir a small paint brush inside a male flower, pull it back, and see the pollen all over it.

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.

I am in NJ as well, and my eggplants (in containers) are doing well. I don't think it has to do with the temps...

IMO it has to do with the moisture levels, could also be the pH of your mix.

Earthtainers should have some type of mulch cover over them to prevent top watering. Not having a mulch cover could be one of your issues.

Are you doing anything to prevent them from getting excess water during rain?

Excess moisture levels and pH levels that are outside of a normal range can cause all sorts of nutrients problems.

Yes Dave, I am experimenting with organic soil mix that is based on plant base and natural mineral base.
If I have to increase Ca or Zn what can I add to soil?

As we all know, when experimenting with unproven methods or methods that have proven troublesome problems will arise. They are expected, even anticipated, and when they arise 9 times out of 10 it is due to the experiment itself and no outside influence.

But the main problem is that it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for others to provide helpful information when asked without making the situation worse.

So while I could say add lime for calcium and a zinc chelate for zinc. But the real problem is likely the skewed pH of your mixture and in that case you can add all you want and it won't make any difference as they will be bound up and not available to the plant because of the pH..

So given the symptoms you need to first determine the pH of you mixture and adjust it as needed and adjust the perk of the mixture so that you can better stabilize the moisture levels.

How you can do that I can't say without a detailed recipe of the mix you made. Best guess is it is too acidic and draining poorly so too wet but that is just a guess.

Dave

Do you know if it's okay to bury trees that have poison ivy vines growing on them?

Sorry, I really don't know if the poison ivy would hurt or not.

Maybe someone will come along with more knowledge!

I slightly disagree with Dave here. You certainly CAN let the pepper plant go ahead and do its thing. But the total harvest will likely be greater if you continue pinching off buds from a very small plant until it reaches a larger, more mature size. That is because the plant will then devote more energy to getting bigger and the bigger plant can bear more fruit.

So you can do exactly what Dave says. But whether you should depends on what you are trying to achieve. For earlier fruit, do it. For greater harvest, keep pinching a little longer.

Angie

Angie - Is there any research that supports the claim of "greater harvest"? How long do you recommend pinching after planting?

Since the plant grows in approximately 2 week cycles of foliage growth and then blooming, if all blooms are removed prior to transplanting then new blooms shouldn't appear for another 10-14 days.

Pinching those blooms it ends up being almost a month after planting (assuming proper planting time and proper transplant size). That would seem to greatly reduce production since it would put many growers into the high heat periods where blossom-drop and dormancy become the main issue.

Dave

A few years back I left a large uncarved Halloween pumpkin outside where it fell on the ground near our front porch. In the spring long before the last frost, I saw that dozens of seeds had sprouted. Many survived the freezes and even snow, so when the weather warmed up, I culled all but the two largest seedlings and mulched them with several inches of compost. It was in dappled shade with only a few hours of morning sun. I tried to train it to climb up a tomato cage, but after climbing to the top and back down again it began wandering into the lawn, chasing the sun. The vine grew another 15 feet and it began blooming profusely. The flowers were the size of dinner plates and quite beautiful. Toward the end of summer, it produced a couple pumpkins. They were the size of basketballs and still green when we had our first hard freeze. It was a great conversation piece. Since then I've tried purposefully growing pumpkins in whiskey barrels with good sun and fertilization, but never was able to produce another fruit.

Thanks for the responses. I had to pull it out as it was going to kill the nasturtium underneath.

Virginia's own 7 Spring Farm Supply will sell you whatever row cover you want by the foot. I use tulle a lot in summer, but keep two weights of row cover on hand for use at other times of year. Wouldn't be without it.

Here is a link that might be useful: 7 springs farm supply row cover

Thanks all!

Dave - yep, insect protection on eggplants and peppers.

And they know exactly when it's ready! :(

Some dogs will chase racoons away, if they are allowed to be out at night. And if it is safe for the dogs to be out. (Where I live, it is not really safe to leave a single dog out at night).

McKenzie

No "suitable for container" does not mean it can't do well in the ground. It will likely do better in ground. Yes, there is a greater yield from the green than the red IME. As farmerdill said above, the red is a low-yield variety primarily grown for its appearance.

Dave

In my experience, red burgundy is high yielding (lots of side branches on the plant if you give it enough room) but I live in the South and maybe all okra does really well here. The nice thing about red burgundy is that the pods remain tender even when you pick them when they are quite long. I'm a big fan of this variety.

- Anne