23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
you can actually stop them from making their tunnels longer (if you have reasonable number of plants. Feel the leave along the tunnel, near both ends. You may fill a bump. I you do, just squeeze the bump between to fingers(but do not rub, it will damage the leaf). If you fill pop - one bug less in your garden)
May be in south this pest is not a big problem, but I lost whole my crop of beets two years in a row because of them, and now i just grow it under cover.
Or you can just google soil temperature map and find your current local temps, The one I use in Illinois is updated daily.
Here is a link that might be useful: Illinois state water survey - soil information
This sounds like a very good idea to me.
My SIL grows a lot of sweet corn for her store, but her main problem is birds. So I probably couldn't get any good tips from her. (She uses the boom-boom machines, and has some interesting stories.)
The Critters, though, may be able to smell the ripe corn and keep looking until they find it. Pick it fast!
The most likely cause of what shows in your photo is overly wet soil either from over-watering, heavy rains, or poorly draining soil mix. Peppers don't like continuously wet roots and leaf margins curl and brown and it sheds leaves directly at the stem junction when kept overly wet.
Plus if it has been especially cool weather lately that makes the problem worse as the soil is still too cool. Usually letting the soil dry substantially and warm up will stop the problem.
Weather this year is creating many unusual problems that only delaying planting beyond the norm will resolve.
Dave
So.... it's not too hard/stressful for the plants to get pelted with rain and totally soaked in their first day out? I don't care about getting wet when I'm out there planting, it's not like it will be continuous rain and I shouldn't need to step into the soil in the garden to do my planting (I have stepping stones/boards throughout the garden beds). I was just under the impression that the plants wouldn't transition well if they got inundated right at transplant time.
Thanks for the quick feedback... I'll plan to get those cool crops in this afternoon and the tomatoes this weekend as planned!
As long as you don't have standing, stagnant water sitting around after the rain ends, they should be fine. It's much less hard on the plants than being exposed to wind and sun. And as floral_uk pointed out, a nice rain drives out all the air pockets between the rootball and the soil so they establish quickly.
i just started using Dr. Earth Homegrown Tomato and vegetable liquid fert, and have been happy with its results. I used it on my corn one week ago and it has grown a full foot since then. My egg plant has also really stepped up its growth. The nice part about this fertilizer is that it has a lot of microbial food in it. This is very important because the main difference between organic and synthetics is that the organic ferts need to be broken down by microbes prior to the plant being able to use it. Synthetics are already broken down and can be taken in instantly. The Dr. Earth seems to really be fast acting, which is nice when it comes to organic fertilizers. I do raised beds, so i also use a side dressing of compost mixed with a granular fert like Jobes. This way I have a constant slow release of nutrients from this and then the liquid fert is used during the times I need a boost. It seems to be working great in a container set up. I think organic container gardening can be done. It just takes some time to get your microbe level up. I also have a layer of shredded leaves over my side dressing. As time goes by the leaves will break down and form an organic layer of nutrients there too. This also helps in microbial action.
This post was edited by PlanterJeff on Tue, Apr 29, 14 at 12:19
I have the same philosopy on "organic" as Howelbama.
I am not an organic gardener but have concerns over chemicals used in the form of pesticide and herbicide. When it come to fertilizer, it has no known negative effect on health and nutrition and plants do not care where the N, P, K, Ca ... comes from. However, synthetic fertilizers might not be as environmentally friendly as organic ones due to fast leaching. It can be partly corrected by amending garden soil with organic mater (compost). Don't forget, organic fertilizer like cow manure can also leach and pollute the underground waters. This has been tested in places where cattle graze for a long time. Not everything that is organic is automatically good. Petroleum products are organic too. !!!
I certainly agree that that's the way things should be taken. It's just i've seen many times when questionable advice is given and the OP runs out in the backyard and does something rash. One example is when a new gardener was given the advice to snap off the top of their onions to promote a larger bulb. They went out and did this to all their onions and damaged the entire crop before someone pointed out the error.
My suggestion was definitely not to rub anyone wrong, just to be careful to remember that there are many different ways to do things, besides those we think are right.
-Mark
I do not agree with with you, Mark. No offense as well) What we post here - is opinion, that's correct. And everybody has it's own way to do things based on their experience and knowledge. But, when we describe "our way" to do it - every step is important, so IF you wanna go the way I go, then there are "needs to be". Because technique depends on your climate, living situation, and every step is important and tested. Unfortunately, many people give just one or two steps from a whole program they follow and other people are surprised, why it works for authors, and not for them. Usually it is just because important steps are missing in description. So I never tell people - do as I do. But I always give as much details as possible based on my experience for easier following and mark important steps as "needs to be". and I ONLY tell about things I did for many years and have satisfying and (what is more important) improving results.
Also, I have to apologize, if my language is not all that shiny and soft toned) I came from a cold climate with different language and summer there is just 2 and half month long and growing peppers there was ... hm.. challenging) (normally I would swear here )LOL)
Are these going to be grown in containers like your broccoli is? If so then please ignore the organic recommendation because as we have discussed before, gardening organically in containers is a whole different ballgame than gardening organically in the ground. And yes, of course you can still eat them.
Off the cuff, broad observations like that are easy to make when the poster has little to no info on what you are doing or how you are gardening and just promoting their personal cause.
DynaGro makes many different products. Some of them are OMRI approved, others are not. The choice of fertilizers to use is yours be they organic approved or not.
Just as with your broccoli plant problems post, a diluted dose of your DynaGro will help. And as we have said before it isn't as if you have to water them thoroughly with it. One tablespoon of the mixed liquid is all they need.
In the future do keep in mind that different plants need different water amounts just as they do different nutrients. They don't respond to "scheduled" waterings. The older the plant the more flexible the schedulae needs to be.
These are no longer seedlings. They have multiple sets of true leaves so they are plants and plants in small containers need feeding if they can't be planted out yet.
Dave
I would go for strawberries or maybe some sort of berry bush - we can grow raspberries, blackberries and other similar types but have to choose varieties that are suited to our zone 9 climate. Not necessarily the ones available at the big box garden centers though - try a smaller local nursery or research/order online. Or asparagus or artichokes. which ever you eat more of. These are all expensive to buy at the grocery store so whichever you choose you would be better off growing it vs not.
I use toilet paper - each square is 4" so I use say 6 squares for a 2 foot row - fold it in half longways put a tiny dot of Elmer's glue on the bottom half, a couple of seeds, and fold it back over so it kind of glues together, spacing the seeds the proper distance apart. It worked great especially for my carrots since their seeds are so tiny. I sowed some seeds without using seed tape and fewer seeds germinated, and I suspect some got washed away when I watered... I just made more seed tape for my carrots the other day.
The toilet paper goes away eventually.
bmoser and grandad...those sound like sophisticated systems you have in place. But I like the idea of tracking information in spread sheets. I will have to think about a format that would work well for beginners. Thanks!
digdirt...Yes, the remembering to make entries part is the challenge. :) Most of my friends are busy moms and they need something that is convenient and provides all the info they need in one place. I will have to think about the blog idea some more. You might be on to something there. Thanks!
planatus...thanks for the link to garden calendar. That's a great idea!
gardenper...I also use evernote for works and personal stuff. Though, I always end up with so much information in there and something it takes a while to find what I need. I guess my biggest problem is figuring out how to organize all the information.
Is it more useful to have the information organized by month (e.g. in March you do xyz, in April it's...)? Or do you organize it by vegetable/topic (e.g. tomatoes, soil, starting seeds indoors,etc.)? Hhhmm...I'm thinking both would be very handy for new gardeners.
Well, thank you all for your input!