23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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.
I just planted my garden this morning. 6 seedlings that all came in the same pot are struggling---I am assuming root damage but who knows. Ironically, I have very young seedlings with not much of a root system that seem no worse for the wear. On that note, maybe it is hardening off issue.
I've got a couple critter catchers in my yard. They are pretty good at it too... when they aren't sleeping. They technically aren't my cats but they hang around a lot (their owner lives across the street). Daphne on the left (she likes being upside down for some reason), Simba on the right.
Rodney
There is no short cut here. Hoe or role up your sleeves and pull them. Then MULCH, MULCH, MULCH !
For me weeding is an ongoing ritual. But with good mulching you can cut it down. Around here pepper grass is worse. If you don't pull them on time their seed will be scattered all over. They can grow 3 crops a year.
I mulch like "loribee" with pine nuggets. It looks also nice and decorative.
I'm with loribee, I get on my hands and knees in the spring and pull everything (tedious), plant, layer the newspaper, then mulch. Get a box and collect newspapers from friends, paper shopping bags are great but all the stores in my area went to plastic. Have a local newspaper? I went to mine and bought butt rolls with about 200' of paper on them for four dollars. I also use cardboard, especially between the rows, it's like ringing a dinner bell for worms, they love that stuff!!
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
Thank you everyone for the input :) I do not have a rat prob :)Will be getting a composter for next year though