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Sweet potatoes are different. They need heat, and you definitely want to harvest before frost. They also need long curing at relatively high temperature and humidity.
"Irish" potatoes can tolerate cooler temperatures, poor soil, and are true tubers. You can dig them after the plant flowers as new potatoes (after 1.5 - 2 months), or wait until the foliage dies either naturally or of frost, and then dig as storage potatoes. They are susceptible to late blight and many of the same diseases as tomatoes since they are also in the nightshade family. Sweet potatoes are related to morning glories and have similar vines and flowers.
BTW, you can eat sweet potatoes leaves but Irish potatoes leaves (and the actual fruit, if you get any, look like little green tomatoes) are toxic.
What an amazingly informative post! Thanks for settling the question of when to dig sweet potatoes! I have dug mine before frost most years but many of the "old timers" around here believe that letting the frost kill the vines and then digging up the potatoes the next day somehow makes them keep better over the winter. Most likely an old wives tale it sounds. Also nice to hear about curing....Last year for first time I laid my sweet potatoes out on a wire bakers rack in an 85- 90 degree attic area with a fan on them for almost 2 weeks....they kept INCREDIBLY well all winter long and I still have viable sweet potatoes I dug last October. So I can vouch for your curing statement! Also fascinating to hear that "Irish" (I thought that was just rural-speak for describing Idaho-type potatoes but is what we call them too) potatoes are closely related to tomatoes. As you probably can tell reading this thread, I have far less experience with "irish" potatoes than with sweet potatoes. I love the latter, not only because I prefer to eat them, but I also enjoy watching the vines grow so vigorously. Now I have to go research your last statement...who knew you could eat sweet potato leaves?:) Sorry if this thread has veered to far off from original question, but the subsequent posts have been so interesting I couldn't resist. thanks all.
Asparagus needs to have good draining soil to perform well. Your enriched soil and compost would have been well served to have had some sand with it. Were the asparagus placed over hard pan non-draining soil there may be a problem with standing water...but at any rate, have patience, I remember it took almost 2 months before my ass-per-grass came thru...
Either but most likely both. As they can be an issue even in gardens without mulch. Bare soil plants in mine that I hadn't mulched yet since it was still so cool are covered with them too. Like ticks and other damp, cool soil lovers it is a record year for them unfortunately.
Dave
After my post I went out and looked at the bale of straw, just covered with the beasts. I'm guessing they were in the cool interior and I opened Pandora's box. The whole thing went in the city yard debris for compost. My pile will never kill them.
Interestingly, last year I grew tomatoes in a straw bale with reasonable success and never had a flea beetle problem. Go figure! Time will determine how bad they get. Now if I could just get my carrots going.
Pat
Wood ends up as a mulch here because it takes an extra year or so to break down after I add it in a layer of compost. Like digdirt said, fungus and wood go together.
I got the fruiting heads after a few weeks of laying out a new bed for flowers, and the thin white stuff came in the same bed after about two more months. There's been fungi in there all this time, growing and spreading and doing other general fungus-y things. Oh, also had a slimy one that glowed an intense yellow when hit with a LED flashlight after dark, but no pic. It's always with the top shredded wood layer. Go figure.
The big box boys need to come up with a Morel inoculant, or Destroying Angel, depending on how one treated their customer service reps on the latest call...
You might check this thread in the Hot Pepper forum. A couple of us are battling Chilli thrips that cause this sort of leaf damage, and more. Your plant looks to be in the beginning stages.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0511302622994.html?23
Clipping off all the damaged leaves and treating the plants with insecticidal soap seems to be working for me.
Kevin -- Was your lime a powder, or like little pebbles? I thought it would be a powder -- I even opened the box wearing goggles and a mask in case it puffed up into the air -- but it was like gravel. I was just reading the solid dolomite limestone won't bubble with vinegar, but powder will. And I think it has to bubble for the vinegar to change form.
I planted over a week ago already--all plants. Tomorrow going to add a cuke, 3 pole bean plants, 3 onions & 1 more green pepper plant. Will be planting radishes from seeds. Our basil looks like it wants to croak & one green pepper died....why I have no idea....errrrrrrrrrrr
You should eventually (as in, before next season) dig to at least a full spade depth, and work the compost and any other organic matter you have around into that depth. If in the fall, dig in leaves, especially if you're in the south and the soil stays more or less warm. Now, if this is the first time the bed is dug, it's going to be hard work, penetrating the compacted dirt. But if you dig in lots of compost and organic material, the digging will be far easier in following seasons.
I'd also suggest doing a test hole after irrigation, and just see what it looks like. Is there a muddy layer below the surface beyond which water has a hard time penetrating? You don't want your roots swimming in that. If so, at least for this year, you're going to have to be very careful not to overwater.
Dorthy, If you are not using a raised bed approach then suggest you use instead a rowed garden approach. (It was not clear in your post if your garden was mostly level/flat.) Because of our excessive rainfalls, rowing is the most common gardening method in southern states. (...we collected 5 inches of rain in the rain gauge last Wednesday.) The concept is for the top of the rows to be above ground level and for the valleys to be below ground level. Row width varies depending on the vegetable being planted... usually 3 to 4 ft wide. Raising the garden bed by adding mulch, soil, sand, etc. will over the years helps to improve drainage by elevating the valleys to near or above ground level.
This post was edited by grandad on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 13:01
Thanks Dave! Yeah I lie awake at night thinking of new schemes to foil the cute little bunnies that ate 30+ Broccoli plants this spring...... When I finally drift off, I have nightmares of my beans being ate off at the ground....... Oh, wait...... that wasn't just a nightmare, that was also the fate of last fall's crop.......
That's very interesting defrost49. I'm going to look into it.
Thanks for posting about it.
One thing I wanted to ask about, is that I grew purple pole beans and purple peppers once, and when you cooked them they turned green. (which was disappointing). Would those still be higher in the nutrients?
I have a lot to learn and remember so I looked it up:
Royal Burgundy fades the longer cooked. Add raw beans to salad for maximum color and maximum anthocyanin value.
Also good Royalty Purple.
Colored fresh peas and beans that are red, blue or purple have more phytonutrients than traditional green varieties.
Odd, peppers aren't in the book.
Phytonutrients are produced by plants. These include antioxidants, certain compounds that reduce the risk of infection, lower blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, etc.
I was disappointed to learn my favorite apple varieties do not contains as many phytonutrients as others and the original wild varieties of apples contain a huge amount.
When plants were bred for higher sugar content such as super sweet varieties of corn, they usually lost nutritional value.
If you want to know if there are earwigs, just try removing the mulch from around the basil plant. If there we any will be hiding in the moist under it.
But Earwigs don't eat that much, as compared to slugs. Rats and rabbits are also suspect. So nylon tulle (from any fabric/craft store) can deter many and all.
Today I will be xplanting cucumbers. I will cover them with tulle. Tulle is a versatile thing to have handy and its is very inexpensive cover material. Will let air, light, rain in. It is wind proof, light weight.
"Zeedman, how do you get rid of your ant hills?"
Unless they are causing problems, I leave them alone. Black ants, while annoying, seldom cause problems. The except is when they spread disease from plant to plant, by carrying aphids... then it's necessary to kill the ants so I can deal quickly with the aphids (I use insecticidal soap to kill the aphids). Destructive ants, like the carpenter ants, are another matter; I do not tolerate their presence in the garden.
Ants are the only exception I make from strictly organic practices. I use the liquid ant baits designed for household use, placing them under empty pulp plant trays to both keep them dry & prevent animals from finding them. The hills are usually just outside my garden, and I bait them there. A single bait usually kills the nest, although it may take awhile to see results. Larger nests, or complexes of several hills, may require several baits. If I can't find the nest, I place a bait or two under the plants they are infesting, and let the ants find the nest for me.
If you don't want to use poison, and are able to locate the nest, dump a big kettle of boiling water on it. Do this at night, when most of the foraging ants should be in the nest. Open the heart of the nest, then pour the boiling water in. This may need to be repeated several times.
There is another way which might work, one I use to kill wasp nests in the ground. Get a tin or can, and put some charcoal lighter in it. Find a large, sturdy metal container (such as a very large steel bowl or metal tub) that will fit over both the nest & the tin of fluid. Just before sunset, water the ground around the nest to make it soft. Working at night so as not to get stung, place the fluid next to the nest, light it, and quickly cover it with the tub, forcing the edges into the ground. The burning fluid will exhaust all of the oxygen inside, and leave poisonous fumes behind. Leave the tub in place for at least a day; any insects that were too deep to be killed by the fumes will be killed as they emerge. This has been 100% effective for me when dealing with ground-dwelling wasps; it might be worth trying for fire ants. Keep in mind, ants often form satellite nests, you'd have to get them all at close to the same time, or neighboring nests would just re-inhabit the empty ones.
My asparagus bean plants are aphid magnets. I knock them off in the morning and they're back in the afternoon. They destroy the blossoms and new beans so that few are left for harvest. Will those of you who say that you have no trouble with aphids please post which varieties you're growing? I'm hoping there's a resistant one.
Sherm- I don't think I got your email.
Dave - I am familiar with the exchanges as I've done them over the years. Unfortunately those forums don't get much traffic anymore.
This post was edited by maureeninmd on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 16:48
I just tried emailing again.