23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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 everyone for your responses. We saw this on a youtube video, it sounded interesting but the high heat and humidity we are getting I think is making it like a sauna. The stocks are thin and fragile but very favourable. Thank you floral_uk, I couldn't have explained it better. We haven't found a source locally for the terra cotta forcers, we are using terra cotta chimney flumes, and my husband make wooden lids that fit on top. Thanks again everyone.
I don't know your climate, sweetspud, but here the forcing season is well over. So maybe you're trying to do it too late? Maybe it won't even work that well for you if you go from very cold to very hot in a short space. Our long cool springs mean that even now it is only 57 outside today and it was around high 40s in February. Forcing it started in late winter.
But thin, pale and fragile sounds right for forced rhubarb stalks.
My best guess is that the roots rotted from being planted in clayey garden soil which was likely overwatered as well. In a container, you should only use a soilless potting mix such as peat moss mixed with perlite and supplemented with fertilizer. .
Does it get much sun? They need sun. Hard to tell but it looks like the pot may stay too soggy also. It is very soggy right now, and it would stay more soggy in the shade.
Green chiles ripen to red chiles (unless they ripen to yellow). You can pick them when they are green if you like.
This post was edited by noki on Mon, May 26, 14 at 23:40
Summer squash are super easy to grow under cover since they plants are smaller. Once your female flowers open, you can either hand pollinate and re-cover, or just let nature take its course, but by that time youd have a good harvest already. It probably is at least 3 weeks from the time the eggs are laid until you would notice any damage at all.
Mine all made it to the end of the season last year, aside from the one I snapped in half (doh :()
I injected BT when i first saw signs of borer holes. All of them had some injury, but most had their stems still intact. This one, I must of missed a borer.
But this plant, while weakened and dealing with powdery mildew, still was producing to the end of the season. Even with that much damage on the stem. Kind of amazing.
The dust is not a problem, unless the wood itself is. Carpenter bees are among the best pollinators for cucubits. One of the more valuable bees to have but like everything else they can be a pest where not wanted.
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.