23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Dave,
Thanks for the reply. I`ll try having a look at the plants after dark to see if it is slugs. I have seen them before eating away at my radishes and turnips in times past. Haven`t seen any beetles yet but that doesn`t mean that they haven`t been visiting me while I was away from the garden. That could be a possibility. The bird suggestion could be viable too. I see some occasionally hopping around in the beans.
Terry,
no signs of MBB and no yellow eggs under the foliage. I know MBB quite well. LOL! Seem to see them show up every year. I hate it when they do that. Those suckers have come to the "party" more than once. They usually show up later in the growing season though with regularity. Maybe it is slugs. A night time outing is going to happen in the near future.
This post was edited by hobbiest on Thu, May 22, 14 at 18:26
John: Finally got around to taking a few pics. I may bot have the space for even a dwarf. Check these out.
I thought maybe here but seems too narrow and it would fight to get good sun all day. :(
This would be the only sunlight after noon
This would be in the way before noon(notice the fence at the bottom of pic
I thought also maybe right here, but I'd have to remove the ornamental in the corner
Probably should just stick with the Sharwil, huh?
Kevin
From the Millennium Seed Bank FAQ: "Not surprisingly, few longevity experiments of any age that mirror seed conservation storage are available for us to study today. However, in 1987, samples of cereal and weed seeds were germinated that had been placed within sealed glass vials in Vienna 110 years earlier (reported by Steiner & Ruckenbauer in 1995). One of the aims of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is to set up a carefully controlled set of longevity experiments that future generations can study.
That's nuthin' compared to the 24,000 year old mung bean, of course.
(Personally, I think seed sellers encourage us to want fresh seeds and 100% germination. When you have older seed, and just want a few plants, 25% germination is fine ....)
This is also good: "An interesting story relates to seeds of the legume Albizzia julibrissin on a pressed herbarium specimen collected from China in 1793 and deposited in the British Museum. This specimen was 'watered' while a fire was being extinguished in 1940 and several seeds (at least 147 years old) germinated.
... we'll see how well stored my old snow pea seeds are. They're about 15 years old, and I plan on trying them this fall.
Agree they will benefit from some sort of support. Those 3-4 ring things they sell as tomato cages (but which don't work for tomatoes at all) work well for eggplants. So can a stake if the stem is loosely tied to the stake.
Dave
I have been using my tomato cages for every solanaceae except tomatoes just like you, Dave. The increasing size of the rungs is great for when the plants get larger and hold multiple fruits. The irony...
Botanically speaking, it's a fruit. Culinarily speaking, it's a vegetable. That's what I've determined.
I find that eggplant will be eaten alive by flea beetles if unorotected. Cucumbers usually are bothered by cucumber beetles. Broccoli leaves can be eaten by cabbage worms [eggs laid by moths], and peppers are usually not harmed by insects.
Chose your poison or covering remembering that the blossoms have to be pollinated. The insects bothering eggplant and cucumbers tend to swarm in over-night.
Chard sweetens up in the fall when it gets colder. I am reading Eating on the Wild Side which is about plant history and which veggies have most phytonutrients. There is some information about how temperature and time effect plants because of chemical changes. Asparagus starts to lose its sweetness about 4 hours after picking. I don't recall what the book might have said about lettuce. I tend to have bitter lettuce. Trying to grow varieties at the right time. Some are better in cooler weather others do better in hot. Right now, my spinach tastes sweet to me but it's been growing in a high tunnel and starting to bolt (I'm in NH) so need to eat the rest of it soon.
Relaaaaax! I leave my garden for a month in April/May, for several weeks in June, and for all of August. I still manage to grow all the veggies we eat all year (and some of the fruit). I just don't worry much about weeds, I mulch so watering isn't an issue (though in your location, it obviously is a necessity.) And I have a neighbor kid pick and freeze my tomatoes during August. Two weeks away, with your daughter keeping watch, should be no problem.
Anyway, the point is, taking a trip to Hawaii is much more important than staying with the veggies who will be doing their own thing anyway. Have a great time!
Breathe-2-3-4.
I always get so wound up before a vac...trip, that I NEED a trip to calm down! I think just leftover from when we were young parents who couldn't afford to buy things while traveling!
Now I have to tell myself "It's OK if you forget something! You can afford to buy a new one!"
Anyway, I did a walk through with my daughter last night and wrote everything down in detail. Nothing's really producing right now, so I don't have to worry about that.
Off we go! Nancy
I'm with Dave. I've always planted that close, and every year, I've got more zucchini than I know what to do with. I would not mess with what you've got going. Experimenting in another area was a very good alternative suggestion.
I also agree with the person who suggested successive plantings. Zucchini gets "tired" after a while and in my area, at least, aphids and fungus take hold while there's still plenty of growing season left. It's nice to have fresh new plants that I started a couple months after, so I can just pull the old ones instead of trying to battle the elements.
3 squash and 3 zucchini? If I were you, I'd be HOPING they never reach their full potential lol. The year I grew that many we had squash coming out of our ears. We were sick of squash, the neighbors were sick of squash, friends and relatives were sick of squash even the dam chickens were sick of squash! I still have bags of it shredded in the freezer.
Environmental damage - sun scald/wind burn. Both common in spring plantings depending on where you are located - which would be nice to include in the space provided for best info.
Poses no long term harm to the plants unless they weren't well hardened off prior to planting.
Dave
The sun damage would be consistent with our weather ��" there have been a few consecutive sunny days lately and until then the plants had been in a sunroom waiting for nighttime temperatures to drop.
I filled in the zone box. Missed it when posting from my phone and didn't even think about the importance. Hopefully it doesn't show much more about me other than being new to the art.
Thank you all! Looking forward to learning a lot more this summer.
Dave