23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I originally planted my seeds in peat pellets and then just stuck the pellets in the peat pots with jiffy.

This is new info and yes, it only compounds the water problems. Did you remove the netting from the pellets before putting them in the pots? Definitely need to do that.

Dave

My experience with peat pellets was that the roots of many plants weren't able to penetrate into the pellet. Even properly soaked they were too dense.

I was appalled at how horrible the roots were for most of those seedlings.

I agree the twigs work great for peas. The Nearings always used brush prunings for peas. Once year Scott Nearing presented the Vermont legislature with a large bouquet of pea flowers.

I too use pea twigs. I have lots of pruning stuff and it's so easy.

Whose trees are those? Would they allow you to lop the top off, just enough to get you more sun?

Sun from morning to 2 pm isn't TOO bad. You could plant a lot of veggies there except the hardcore sun lovers.

If you know the height of the tree, x
and the distance from a point in the veggie garden to the tree, y
Divide x/y and you'll get a fraction, z.

Go to google and type in "arctan z in degrees" and you'll get a number. This is the sun angle at which that point will start to get shade.

Then go to the link provided below and plug in your latitude, longitude, date, year and time of day. Look at the angle for different times in the afternoon. At the time the sun angle approaches and decreases below the number arrived at above is the time of day you will start to get shade.

The fact that you still get shade after 2-3 pm suggests that a near-full day of sun may be available only in the months of June and July and a maybe a bit of May and August. The current solar angle is approximately the same as it would be in early September.

Here is a link that might be useful: Solar angle

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Wed, Apr 9, 14 at 23:30

I had some similar issues when planning out where to put my raised beds. There's a fairly high tree line surrounding the entire yard making it hard to judge hours of direct sun. I downloaded a free android app called sun surveyor lite that acts as a 3D compass for the sun. You can choose any date of the year and estimate hours of light a location will receive. Might be something worth looking into.

Tony

Yep, nights are far, far too cold for okra. Okra sulks if the soil is not warm because it is easily attacked by soil pathogens. Personally, I would yank the plant out, grow something else for now and reseed okra at the appropriate time, which is when nights warm into the high 60s at least.
Don't transplant okra - it really dislikes it. It's only recommended for growers with short summers.

Agree. If your night time temps are that low then there is no way your soil temps are warm enough for okra. Soil temps rather than air temps are vital to planting things at the right time.

Since your production from the one plant will be minimal anyway - if it survives - I'd pull it and plant something more appropriate to your current weather

Dave

Thanks everyone! It is a shame because I had ~20 heathy chard plants I grew from seed. They are all infested now.
I am growing everything in containers (mostly fabric pots).
Anyone have suggestions for how to put row covers over round pots?
What other plants are vulnerable to these pests? My lettuce and mustard have been left alone; however, I have some spinach and bok choy that just sprouted... They are too tiny for the pests to infest yet. I am also growing radishes and lots of other things from seeds that I recently planted.

I haven't had a garden for 8 years, and this is my first west coast garden (and my largest with the most variety). I am sure will encounter a lot of new pests and problems! So thanks so much for your help, I am sure I will need more :)
I am just so happy to be gardening again.

Thanks,
Robin

They attack all sorts of veggies, but usually the only damage is cosmetic.. the little "mines" that you'll see on leaves. Only thing I really ever noticeably see them attack in my garden is mainly cukes.

Like i said, just get another rather large pot, plant some alyssum, marigolds, maybe some cilantro, dill, parsley. Zinnias, even. And you'll be able to keep quite a few pests in check.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: beneficial attractors

Just to follow up on this, it's working really well already.

Thanks again.

That's good.

My sugar snap peas are coming up. I had them under clear plastic.

As Dave said, you need to get a soil test. And the PH meters aren't accurate. I have an expensive one and it will give me a reading of 7 but my soil tests at the lab give me a 6.

Another thought on the urea, I have saw bags of it at big box stores and it said "urea fertilizer derived from limestone". I'm not sure, but wouldn't that raise the PH? I was looking at them since my soil test said that I only need N, P is High, and K is a little high.

Not sure if anyone mentioned but its very important to not feed high Nitrogen to most (non-leafy) vegetables. Its OK to provide higher N in the first 2-3 weeks but switch to low N when flowering starts

Here is a link that might be useful: Why you need Low Nitrogen

Thanks! Will do!

You could have started them like in January -Feb as spring crop.

You might try radishes because they have a short life cycle.