23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I've been happy with Espoma products. And Neptune for a foliar feed.
I agree you should not need much right away and be a bit patient for your soil to 'mature' over the next few years as Dave pointed out.
Concentrate on the individual plantings needs from now on, rather than big broad strokes like miracle grow.
Side dressing, foliar feeding.
If you have pets, dogs, ...side dress a bit under the soil and under mulch to keep them out of it...some just love it and very toxic to their system. Even organic, even if it says safe around pets. Watch them and use your 'leave it' command. Small amounts ingested will not be harmful per say, but don't leave a bag opened on the ground or garage.
Over the weekend I mixed a delicious grapefruit, lime and tequila cocktail and spent 4 happy hours in the garden...I didn't even realize how long I had been out there! My husband came looking for me when he got hungry, meanwhile I was having a garden party! Solo! Is that sad? Lol.
Green, you mean you made a grapefruit margarita? lol. Im more partial to Jim Beam and coke-a-cola myself, but I too have solo parties from time to time, I don't think it's sad, I have a great time!
If were still venting garden frustrations: Between Tuesday and Sunday we had several inches of quarter sized hail every day, drowning rain and even tornadoes (which for Denver is NOT common). My in-ground tomatoes are now suffering from waterlogged feet, a lot of the onions have been cut back to nubs, and the lettuce looks like it was sent through the paper shredder. Everything is looking like they are a bunch of prize fighters fresh out of the ring. This comes two weeks after we had almost a foot of snow on the ground. Now were pushing right through the 80's and into the 90's. I will be lucky if I get anything out of this garden besides the scallions (courtesy of the hail) and radishes I already picked. As a nice little bonus yesterday I found cutworm damage in the corn.
But wait! There's more!
If you call within the next 10 minutes, your National Guard Unit will schedule a 2 week Annual Training from June 7-21 and all you can do is HOPE that the people you leave in charge of taking care of the garden do a good job so you don't come home to death and destruction.
Did I mention I was fond of Jim Beam?
Usually, people pick for a particular length of time, like month or no more than 6 weeks, then let the rest go. Another key that it's time to stop harvesting is when the spears start to get spindly and thin. IF this is an old patch, once planted and since neglected, the crowns are probably mature enough to support a nice harvest.
I'm assuming that, with all that growth around them, you'd be missing some of the young spears and letting them go to fern, which is good for the patch. The more you let go, the more you're likely to have next year.
Hi there
I have grown broccoli for the first time this year.I have them in a raised. I know now that I should plant them in early Feb. What I'm wondering is the temps here in knox tn. Are getting in the high 80's. I'm still getting some some heads but should I go ahead and pull the plants.
Thank you.
I agree that the dust is not a problem, but the bees also put out a sticky something I wouldn't want on my lettuce. It sticks to the window like glue -- we have a carpenter bee hole in the top of one of our window frames, and when they work the hole the window gets splattered with their yellow goo that's hard to clean off.
To close up isolated holes, you can stuff them with steel wool and cover with duct tape.
I do mean the larva of the white butterflies, we always called those loopers. :) So maybe wasps? Or the hard winter? It was a hard winter for here, but probably about like a typical upstate NY winter. What made me think of it was when I realized I was hand picking tons of Colorado Potato Beetle larva but hadn't had to touch the broccoli all spring. Which is highly unusual for me, spring or fall.
By all means let's drag up another old thread, rehash it all again, and send the OP more emails he/she was likely tired of getting 2 years ago.
WeakStream - since you did that what sort of supportive documentation do you have for all these claims you make please?
For example, in 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency completed a reassessment of this question and published those results. Testing determined that
1. plant-based creosote has increasingly been used for this purpose since the early 1980's.
2. that its primary source of potential health risk is to the workers in the wood-treatment plants working with fresh mix but that even that risk is minimized by safe handling,
3. that creosote can be harmful to plants if it comes into direct contact with them. The substance will also produce vapors in warm weather, and exposure to these vapors may damage plant leaves. Creosote that seeps into the soil may damage roots directly, but plants will not absorb the substance into their root tissue.
4. that keeping plants at least several inches away from treated timbers usually prevents damage from direct contact and vapors, and creosote will generally not migrate far enough through the soil to reach plants that are a short distance away
5. short-term exposure to creosote can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation; longer-term exposure may cause organ damage or cancer. In the garden, you're unlikely to have more than short-term direct contact with creosote, and because plants don't absorb creosote through their roots, you won't be exposed to it by eating vegetables grown near treated timbers.
I am not claiming this is the definitive position, just that there is supporting evidence that would seem to undermine many of your claims.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: US EPA - Resources on Creosote
I've been container gardening for decades. Before I knew better, I used some of the things you used, which are mostly bad in containers. Soil of any kind will compact and get mucky, attracting things like fungus gnats. It will interfere with drainage and cause root death. Lucky for you, smart pots can handle heavier potting mixes than other containers. But a soilless potting mix would be much better.
And all that other stuff is nothing but garbage in a pot, attracting other bad guys, including flies and rats. Lucky for you the lizards are probably eating a lot of the bad insects, but they can't eat rats. Food waste belongs in a compost pile, not a container. It can take a year to break down into a form that feeds your plants. Balanced chemical fertilizers work much better. If you're serious about container gardening, checkout the container gardening forum. Heres a long running discussion from that forum.
Here is a link that might be useful: Container soils - Water movement and retention
Since you are doing an open bottom, I'd think any "garden soil" would be fine. MiracleGro makes that (was 4 bags for $10 at Home Depot a couple days ago), but probably anything is fine.
Potting soil would probably work too, but would be a less perfect match, in my humble opinion.
I wouldn't unless you need the room for something else. They are attractive, draw pollinators, and if you keep them well watered until the weather breaks you'll get beans then. You are bound to get a few days now and then where pollination is possible or you can always try the early AM hand pollination tricks that work on other veges.
But its your choice.
Dave
I was frustrated with scarlet runners in Z 7, they didn't like the muggy summer weather at all, but in the mountains with cool nights (6b) they are very happy indeed. Mine bloom all summer and set a few pods, from which I harvest the dry beans in late summer. With light trimming and deep watering, the plants make a strong comeback in the fall and the immature beans that set in cool fall weather are extraordinarily sweet and tender, great to eat raw.
If you don't think your plants will make it through summer, you might start some new seedlings in late summer for a fall crop.
Thank you!
Where can I purchase alfafa meal or another "meal" product just so I can compare? Does anyone know of a good place to find more information about these things such as application rates and such?
Thanks!
I did some poking around, the good deals on the "meals" seem to come from feed or farm supply stores. As always, "best local deal" varies.