23,821 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

What is the opinion as far as more plants tighter together, like 8" apart compared to plants spaced further apart? Would 12" apart still allow proper pollen distribution and have proper ears, and maybe a second ear? Or the tight spacing is shown to work best to get one good ear pollinated for most stalks? I guess I trying to find the right balance for quality, to make sure I get some good ears.

12" apart would be fine. On a very small plot, you should shake the plants to ensure pollination anyway. Though you'd be able to get more plants, and hence more ears, at 8" apart. For me the reason to plant them further apart would be drought resistance, not second ears.

I am correct in my identification, correct? These eggs are behind every chard leaf. and my poor cucumber plants are being eaten before they can grow :( they ate up all the spinach as well. the chard is thriving and growing, but i worry they will eat the plants before the plants can outgrow them. 1st pic is what i think is the leaf miner. 2nd is eggs and 3rd is my cucumber plant. (pics might post in reverse order) The spinach is all eaten up too.



You are right that those might be leafminer eggs but they could also be sawfly eggs and the damage in the first pic is not leafminers but sawfly type damage. Their larve eat the entire surface of the leaf and do not reside within the leaf tissue itself like leaf miners do. Sawfly larvae are much more of a threat than leaf miners.
Sawfly controls include DE diatomaceous earth and Spinosad.
Dave


Are you asking if the Roundup will also kill the asparagus crowns? Yes it can. Thistle is usually easy to control as long as you pull the plants before they go to seed. Wet the soil, put on gloves, and just pull the whole plant out roots and all.
Only other alternative I know of is some folks claim you can paint the top 1/3 of the thistle plants with it using a paint brush while avoiding getting any on the asparagus. Easier to just pull them IMO.
Dave

Onions falling over later in growth is normal and often is even manually done to start the maturation process prior to harvest. But you might want to check that premature plant weakness isn't caused by nematodes, thrips or a disease. Your pictured crop of onions looks good but it wouldn't hurt to pull a few to check the roots and cut vertically through the onion looking for brown core or other issues.

There are a lot of wild plant that are not only good, but good for you.
But some are only good in small amounts, others will kill you if eaten uncooked, other are fine cooked. Poke weed young leave have been eaten as cooked greens for 200 years that we know of, but the whole plant is poisonous & the root is deadly.
So you have to know what you are doing to eat in the wild.
Peterson guide to Poisonous plants is a good guide to what not to eat.
Feasting Free on Wild Edibles; A One-Volume Edition of Free for the Eating and More Free-For-The Eating Wild Foods. Paperback – June, 1972
I have this book & it is good.
There are many good books on what to eat raw & how & what to cook.
Dandelion is very high in C, but if you eat it at every meal for months it could make you sick!
When I taught a poison plant class for BSA group.
I would say if you do not know then it is Poisonous.
But to day I say Google it, research it for yourself, buy a book or take a class.

Check out Green Dean's website. He has some great info on edible weeds.

I didn't know what they were called, but yes, they will develop roots if you pull the soil up around them. Or if you transplant them in deeply, these will grow roots. Transplant deeply only if you'rei in the deep south were the soil temps are warm. If not, do like z7_Arkansas said and plant them with the stem horizontally. I've done this with leggy tomatoe plants I bought late and they turned out just great.


About 200 plant will not grow close to walnut trees, tomatoes, roses.
But many trees & plants will:
vegetables?:
GOOGLE is a wonderful thing!

Thank you guys so much for responding!
LoneJack I knew someone might say something about the squash and watermelon lol. I know that there's a possibility that they might not do too well :/ However, even if I only get a few squash and an itsy bitsy melon, it'll be a small victory for me. This year is just a learning experience (: Also, thanks for the counter clockwise info. I wouldn't have known.
Digdirt2 Yeah, those are the ones I'm talking about haha. I realized quickly after buying them that they're definitely not going to work for my tomatoes. I might just use them for the jalapeños and construct some kind of trellis with bamboo and twine for the cucumbers.
Container gardening sounded like such a great idea at first..... Next year these suckers are going in the ground.

YES, I grow tomatoes in 24" dia, cages, 48" tall & plant 3 -5 cucumbers around the edge of the cage with no harm to any of the plants & I am an organic gardener, so I can not throw a little more 5-10-10 around the cage. the tomatoes & cukes are all supported by the same 24 inch compost & pine straw mulch all season.
I agree that container garden form is a good one, but this is a good link too.



I have a family member who is better at growing plant from seeds, then I am.
I bought seeds for peppers,tomatoes for the whole family.
When the peppers grew & fruited I had two golden bell pepper that were HOT because I planted them next to some Hot cow horn peppers.
I do not eat hot peppers,so I gave them away.
Thankfully the rest of the golden bells in the row were fine & sweet.

Agree with Dave. I usually put a pole of some sort in the bucket/pot and tie the tapered cage to that...otherwise it does tip over.
To daninthedirt's comment... Our local garden center is selling Millionaire as the replacement for Ichiban. I also plant Ping Tung and prefer them a wee bit over the Millionaire... I plant both as I do have friends & family that prefer the Millionaire.

My Brother- in -law planted a egg plant in an plastic apple box with a stake, it grow to 5 feet tall out of the 18 inch apple box, that near 7 feet tall including the box.
This plant had large fruit,mid fruit, small fruit & covered with blooms all at once.
Wish I had taken a photo of it.
Your plants should do fine, but you could put a stake in the bucket before you fill it with compost & have a the stake to tie the cage to.
I do this in the ground & I push the cage down till the first ring touches the soil.
I use 48 inch cattle wire for tomato cages & drive T-poles into the soil at least 18 inches.
These cages will stay in place for 12 months or until I get around to removing them.
I will have to make more this year, I have over 30 tomato plants this year.

I decided to put some seeds that had been residing in my refriderator for the past 3-5 years to the test. Sure enough, they sprouted! I was so proud! I put Marigolds in a raised bed 2 nights ago. I didn't have to water or check yesterday. This morning I went out to stems, no leaves. I checked all through the mulch and plants, nothing! Tonight, I went out with a flashlight, and found 100's of rolly pollies! Nothing else. I have always considered them friends...tonight they died by 7 dust!! Also, we are having the same problem with our pole beans... but we do everything organic there, so will look into alternatives. But YES, they are destroying crops this year! Oh, I'm in South Carolina, by the way.

It may be a regional thing... Most my problems are with seedlings.. In my experience, they like bean sprouts, pea sprouts, sponge gourd seedlings, and bitter gourd seedlings. I learned a work around by not direct seeding those particular plants and also planting strawberries in hanging containers with fresh rolly pollie free soil..


Hello in Greece there is a variety of White Eggplant that matches your description.
This is it.It grows only in Santorini Island and it is the most delicious kind of eggplant you can find in the country.People cook this for centuries.
I'll try to upload some more in order to recognize it and come to a conclusion.
Can I ask where you got the plant and what makes you think that vendor would be selling the ornamental (aka inedible) variety? Can't imagine why any 1/2 way reputable vendor would even be selling them much less selling them labeled as White Beauty. If you contact them surely they could easily assure you that it is the standard edible eggplant variety.
Dave