23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Mostly Red Russian because it self sows and I find it the sweetest and most tender. It almost tastes as if it already has butter on it. I've also grown Winterbor and Pentland Brig but can't tell much difference between the various curly kales. I sometimes grow Cavolo Nero but nowadays I mainly just let the Red Russian grow itself. I grew Redbor once but it was a pitiful plant compared with the green ones when I tried it.
Hi, just wanted to do a small update:
Both kales are now permanently outside! The redbor has recovered brilliantly and is pushing out little leaves at every crevice and branch. Tasty :) Unfortunately, the winterbor is still yellowing and dropping its older leaves at about the same rate it is growing new baby ones, at the very tippy top. I'm wondering if it's too hot for winterbor already? Haven't felt confident enough to try a taste and see if the leaves are getting bitter since there aren't that much left.
I guess I do not have any secret, just the basics. Good seed variety, good soil, good air movement, full sun, water when needed but do not overwater. I do plant the seeds in compost. And I talk to my plants. ;)
It takes a little bit of effort to keep them trellised properly in the beginning. An every other day task of carefully weaving the vines in and out of the trellis as they grow. When vines get taller than the trellis and start to bend down I simply train them along the top of the trellis. Once plants start producing I spend very little if any time having to train vines, other than helping out an occasional vine while I am picking.
Basil never seemed to do well for me in the garden either. Not bad, just mediocre. I get such better results planting it in containers that I have never taken the time to figure out why I was having problems. Switched to container growing and never looked back.
Re starting this great thread with AWESOME photos, thanks for posting!!!! BTW did you remember the variety that you planted or a good one that will grow well up a Cattle Panel Trellis?? I love seeing Scarlet Runner Beans going up a cattle panel arch! THanks so much.
I agree with all the advice you've been given.
But let me add a couple things.
First off, it ISN'T a caterpillar. Learn to recognize caterpillars, because with them, you DO want to remove them and discard.
Aphids -- strong jet sprays on the undersides of the leaves usually does the trick. I use a spray nozzle with the water turned on just a tad. The trick is to be diligent -- every 3 days or so for a good couple weeks at dusk. If that doesn't do the trick, then you would want to use the least toxic and target specific pesticide for that particular pest, ALWAYS. -- so I.D. is terribly important. For aphids, that would be either neem oil or insecticidal soap.
Another idea is to, as you said, is to not "let nature take it's TOLL." , but to let nature take it's COURSE. In other words, research Integrated Pest Management. Planting certain plants that attract the GOOD bugs to control the BAD ones.
Good luck and btw, great looking cuke plants(except the aphids)!
Kevin
Rhubarb should not be picked the first year it's transplanted - not just new plants but any transplants. They need to use their energy establishing their root system in their new home, and it takes the first year to really get it going. So with plants planted this year, just let them be, keep moist. The leafs will die back end of summer/fall; Leave them be and next spring clean up the dead leafs and you'll be rewarded with new rhubarb growth.
Next year follow the rule of picking no more than 1/3 of the plant, as previously suggested. I typically quit picking at the end of June or 1st half of July. They will need the remainder of summer to store up energy for winter..
Cut off any flower stalks that appear. If left on, the rhubarb will get woody.
Rhubarb typically doesn't like real hot weather. My sister has tried it several times in zone 6/7 with no luck with it coming back or it dies before end of 1st summer. They like cool and moist....
I have a 12ft+ row of red 'Martha Washington' rhubarb that I've had for 28 years at this house and for 8 years at prior house. Just picked some this am for my co-worker. She's bringing in rhubarb crisp tomorrow:)
Sandy
Glad to hear you've got your answer. The link to the previous thread is below.
Rodney
Here is a link that might be useful: What cocoon?
Tent caterpillars that are striped yellow and black? It doesn't sound like tent caterpillars. But presumably you've looked at photos. To answer the other part of your question, no they aren't all related. At least not any more than all birds are the same. Various caterpillars favor different foods and have different degrees of "pest-ness", and plenty turn into wonderful butterflies and moths. Your cottony coccons could maybe be the work of the cabbage moth, especially if the corn is handy to the brassicas. Or it could be one of the untold hundreds of small moths and butterflies that go unidentified by most since they don't get up to anything bad in the garden.
Found out that the unidentified cocoon in my previous post is from the gypsy moth. Got my Purdue Extension newsletter today which had a picture of it as well as the history of the gypsy moth. Seems that our state has been hit with infestations of them this year.
Madonna
Yea, that's them... They usually leave older plants alone but they're a pain when direct seeding, growing soft fruit near the ground, or growing plants with tender leaves...
Good to hear that your plants are healthy.... Your plants are probably just good habitat for them bugs...
I planted some bulbs Jan 2013, didn't see anything so dug them up, at least I thought I did. This spring 2014 they were the first thing to pop up. The greens are tall, the base is thick and everything looks healthy above the soil. A friend just told me to wait for a little bulb to form at the top of the stem and then I'd know if they were good/ready? I was surprised to see them and can't wait to see if they are edible. Plant and experiment!
Oh, I get it. Cover as in frost blanket. Okra goes from bloom to maturity in about 3 days here. That's why I have to pick okra every. single. day. Ideally, you'd leave the pod to dry on the plant but I've never really paid attention to that timetable. You really just need the pod to be there long enough to get really big and woody. That's about a week, maybe two. You can cut the stem and dry the pod off the plant if you have to. I wouldn't leave it on the plant if it was about to freeze, even covered.
It shouldn't be a problem though. Just bag the first bloom and save that one. 4 months is plenty of time.
Leslie
As far as you critter damage goes, I wouldn't sweat. I had one that was rendered to a stick with only one or two little leaves after a hail storm last month, it has grown back to (almost) it's original size in just a week or two. As long as you have one good node left, it should recoup just fine!
I've grown basil both in containers and in the ground, and have never had the issue you describe. It makes me curious if you've got something else growing on the deck. Do the two plants look the same? Photos would definitely help. Good luck with the transplanting. I think it will grow back just fine, despite those lousy critters!
I plant corn in early July in zone 5, for fall harvest. I would think that you'd do even better in your zone. I've also planted beans late like that for a fall crop. I would think that since you've got the number of days to harvest putting you well before frost, you'll be fine. Things will grow slower with the shorter days of late summer, though, so add some days to harvest time for your second crops.
You've made a good choice between beans and corn, with a nitrogen fixer preceeding a heavy feeder, and vice versa. But you probably knew that already :)
I'm in North Carolina too (Triangle area) and I've had good luck with late plantings of beans. I have never had luck with corn because the cute little tree rates (also known as squirrels) always destroy them, so I can't give you any advice there.
The 65 days for the beans refers to when they start producing. They will continue to produce for some time. So I'm not sure you're going to be able to follow the beans with corn because it'll probably be too late in the season. Unless you rip the bean plants while they still have more to give.
-Anne
Did it actually go into the garden, into the area where the plants are growing? If so then, per their website FAQs, depending on the amount it will kill any broad leaf plants growing in the garden. Pulling and transplanting them won't save them. So all you can do is wait and see what dies and then replace it.
If it wasn't distributed into the garden itself, just around it then it shouldn't pose any problems that I know of. Had it been a liquid rather than a granular it would be a very different story.
Dave
I can make you feel better. I mistakenly grabbed a bag of weed and feed fertilized at HD, thinking it was regular fertilizer. Then I used it to side dress everything in my vegetable garden. Luckily, most of the established plants weren't too affected, but I'm still seeing some impact to the peppers and onions. Just yesterday, I was looking at the types of herbicides in weed and feed and learned that residual effects are fairly short term for these herbicide types. I also re-learned that weed and feed fertilizers are a really poor product for many reasons and that Canada has banned them completely.
Ha! Don't know who Giorgio Tsoukalos is, but I'm leaning heavily now to skunks. Or maybe aliens.
He's the guy with crazy hair on the tv show ancient aliens.