23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Verdict, for those of you who remember this post from last week: I think it ended up being transplant shock/sunburn. It's been 4-5 days since then and nothing has worsened. All the new growth on the plants are healthy as are the leaves that survived that first shock. Sooo, I'm chalking this up to my bad for cutting corners and not hardening off like I should. Luckily, I'm in California and our mild weather is pretty forgiving. I think my plants will survive it just fine!

Thanks again for all the assistance!

If it happened that fast it's sunburn. White usually means sun burn. They'll probably be fine.

Yeah transplanting at this stage would be pretty much a lost cause but it would be easy to direct seed squash somewhere else and give everything else here a better chance at survival.

1 squash plant can easily take up a whole bed that size unless you go to some of the 'bush' varieties.

Dave

Ha ha! Yeah a bed that size maybe should only have 3 tomato plants (and they'll need a cage or some kind of support) possibly some herbs like basil companion planted with them. Would make a second bed for your cucumber & peppers to share (provide a trellis or tomato cafe for the cucumbers to climb on. Onions aren't a great companion plant for most things so would give them their own bed- garlic and onion can share a bed. Squash gets huge- I've seen zucchini & other summer squash just 1 plant get maybe 10 feet in diameter? Might not bother with a raised bed for that just plant in a mound of compost and give it room to sprawl (FYI same goes for melons & pumpkins). You can always try transplanting & see how it goes- if they don't survive at least you tried- and if you are gentle they may be fine. Next time pay attention to plant space requirements or do a little research first. At least your plants look healthy! Good luck!

It could be the seed mix. I have sowed a multicolored mixture twice this year, and so far only one yellow seedling. Some of the pinks look red as seedlings, but the yellows and oranges should be obvious. I also have had red seedlings in Fordhook seeds, which is supposed to be white. Go figure.

Some years we've had a nice mix of colors and some years it's been mostly to just about all red/pink. There's no way that i can figure how to tell until it actually comes up. But yes, the baby seedlings show the color they will be when they get big. I've also not really noticed difference in flavor from one color to the other, but then I've not tried to segregate colors when cooking it.

Edie

My local garden center carries a Jolly G mulch product I like, but I haven't tried their potting mix. I suggest starting your pepper seeds in a seed starting mix anyway. They are not fast germinators. Mine often take well over a week to sprout, and seed starting mixes hold moisture well enough to assist with the miracle.

I would look for a heavier potting soil if you plan to grow your peppers in pots. The bark-based mix will dry out too fast. I like Baacto and McEnroe organic, if you can find either of those.

You potting mix find looks OK, to me. But why are you getting into action so late in the season? Peppers ,from seeds, need a good 6 weeks time to develop into what is suited for plant out, either in a pot or in the garden. I notice you are in zone 5 but still it is a bit too late(to me). So if you start them today, they will be ready like 15th of June for plant out. And that is if your indoor growing condition is flawless.
If I were you , I would look into plants. You might not be able to find Reaper but ther are all kind of Habaneros, Jalapenos, ...

I suggest you visit "Hot Peppers" forum. There are quite few experienced and knowledgeable pepper growers.

If you go to the bakery department of grocery stores, you can usually get the large plastic containers that they get their icing in for free. I forget which size they are, but at least big enough to grow a tomato, pepper, eggplant, cucumber, ect. plant in. I picked them up regularly year before last. I even grew Yukon Gold potatoes and Red potatoes in them. Also, you can save the plastic containers that you get salads and lunchmeats in and use them to start seeds in. You'd definitely want to start several seeds in each and they have their own lids to create a mini greenhouse. Like gardenper, I get the different sized foil pans with clear lids from the dollar stores to start seeds in peat pellets or fill with my seed starting mix and plant onion, celery, kale and some other seeds. I plant up in plastics from cottage cheese, sour cream and other little pots like them that I've bought filled with food we eat. Just wash them really good. There are so many things we eat that have containers perfect for gardeners. Oh, almost forgot, save plastic milk cartons to wintersow veggies and flowers. And don't forget plastic pop bottles. Great to grow herbs in and you can hang them on posts as well.

Lowe's often carries the big black plastic pots. I hope to stay in place for a very long time so I just re-use the pots from when I purchase trees. One trick I read about when planting in very large pots is to place some broken branches in the bottom to help take up space, not too much but some in the very bottom would help in very large containers (I am thinking like half barrels, etc.)

There are quick ripening red varieties like King Arthur ( use to be Fat'N Sassy) Ace, Bell Boy, Lady Bell, Merlin, La Bamba, Redknight. Still takes patience tho and temps in the 80's. At cool temps 50's- 60's none of them will ripen.

Like tomatoes there are green when ripe varieties. Not popular tho. some varieties are yellow or orange when ripe.

Bell peppers just don't ripen red as easily as other shapes of peppers, probably because of the thick walls. In Ohio, bell peppers are really lousy at ripening in the summer heat. Now in September with sunny warm days and cool (but not too cold) nights, the peppers ripen the best. Then it turns too cold in October.

Or...

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: firefox add-on

Thanks everyone! It worked and I'm soooo happy!

This thread made me think about perched water table. If I understand it correctly, the perched water table theory will cause the water of the soggy soil under the beds to go up toward the surface of your raised beds. I assume that the height the water will go depend on your soil texture. The finer your soil texture, the higher the water will go nearer to the bed's surface. 12 inches should be enough to stay away from the soggy ground water for most kinds of sandy soil. If your soil is heavier then just build higher beds.

I've had success in a similar situation by planting in 6-8 inches of municipal compost over my somewhat soggy garden soil. I only have to water occasionally in August and the only overwatering problems I've noticed are enthusiastic growth of weeds and unfortunately tomato foliage diseases. I also have not had any success with mulching - too water retentive - other than with Kraft paper.

My corn does wonderfully, although I grow an open-pollinated variety. I've only really tried melons in this situation once and I grew a variety seemingly not noted for being super-sweet (Amish muskmelon). Nice flavor but could have been sweeter, and they had a tendency to split.

So maybe the corn in a shallower bed and the melons in a deeper one?

~emmers

Guess it's like wild raspberries or blueberries or any other native, wild edible... you can certainly eat them, even if you didn't intend on growing them... lots of info on edibility in the link below. Now I kind of wish I had one to try!

Here is a link that might be useful: Eat the Weeds - Radish, Mustard's Wild, Rough Cousin

To me, both the root and leaves look like some kind of radish, probably long day type. If you have ever grown any kind of radish ,should be able to recognize if indeed it is radish, just by looking at it and smelling

I put bird netting over that bed last d ight and it appears nothing was eaten!! Could be a fluke. Guess we will see!!

Crossing fingers!

Thanks for the clarification, Slimy_Okra! Common names can be tricky. What I was told are Cape Gooseberries are commonly called "Giant Ground Cherries".

I'm happy to grow either that I can find, although it sounds like I'd have better luck with Ground Cherries (vs. Cape Gooseberries)

wayne -- how funny, leave to me to go crazy trying to buy a "weed"! :)

They volunteer readily and mature just fine that way.

I could be wrong, but those holes look more like tears than chewing, just some environmental damage from the wind blowing a new transplant.

Thank you for the responses! Couldn't find anything crawling around at night, but I did sprinkle some epsom salt around the plant. That environmental damage may be spot on...we have had some storms here. Appreciate all your help!

Okay-thank you. May not be able to for another week or so though. I hope they will last. :-/

Thank you!

You might place them in some slightly moist peat moss until you can plant them..I picked some asparagus today. I like to eat them raw. Those Purple Passions are quite sweet.