24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

"This animal is a crazy violent lunatic that just destroys".. sounds all too human. But most likely, it was just a deranged squirrel.
It's very sad what happened to your garden. Looking on the bright side, this is also an opportunity to learn a great lesson about gardening in your area, which you can build on and use for many years to come as you go on your gardening path. Just don't give in to this sinister wood imp, that would be totally depressing.

bardamu_gw thank you for your kind message. I was getting emotional and it was an exhaustive experience because every morning I would go out and there would be mindless damage. It is a deranged animal but not a squirrel. The claw and tooth marks are way too big and the damage shows a much heavier animal. And it always happens well into the night. The squirrels are at it all day long but not at night. Thank you, I am learning! K.

"This is not from eBay. It does not even matter where the seeds come from."
It matters a whole lot where the seeds came from. In your other post you did say they were from ebay. Ebay seed sellers have no standards other than those they give themselves. Not exactly a good place to buy high quality seeds. The seeds you got could have been cross pollinated as I suggested in your other post and/or the seeds could have been saved from a hybrid plant, in which case what you've got will always remain unknown. And even if what you have is a pure variety, there's no way to know what it is.
Rodney

I already said the seed is not from eBay. It comes from an old seed collection I received from a friend. I do not like to repeat it again....
I planted several packets of old seeds and most of them did not sprout. It was a flat tray, I thought I could ID them after I plant the one coming up....
Again, if you do not have any to add and help, pls stay away. I do not want to argue with anyone.
And I do not like someone telling me what to do....

You can grow any varieties that appeal to you. The timing is the secret. I harvest kale most of the winter after a late summer or fall planting.
I very much like Tronchuda (Portuguese) kale, which is reported to be fairly heat tolerant. I usually plant some in the late winter to harvest as long as it tastes decent.


Could be a flea beetle. In most places, brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc) require protection of some sort from flea beetles and cabbage butterflies. I use row covers, but you must put them on before the butterfly lays the eggs that will hatch into the caterpillars that eat the plant and make such a disgusting mess.


The soil doesn't get as hot as you'd think a few inches down. The water at the bottom of my pool is downright cold because of the soil temperature that deep. It's just the surface that gets hot. I've got kale seedlings already that I direct-seeded and they're fine. I'm in PHX. So, sow away and just keep it moist and it should be fine.

Thank you both for the input. I have some other plants that have been ravished, and by the compete devastation, I'm guessing it's hungry caterpillars there as well. I've searched the foliage carefully but haven't spotted the culprits. So I think I'll give the BT a try and see how it goes.

also consider Neem oil as an alternative. IMO it is probably a better option because it STOPS critters from eating the plant from the getgo. BT only kills AFTER they ate the plant. the real question is how long does it take BT to kill after they took a single bite?
Neem oil works against ALL leaf eating bugs, while BT only works specifically against caterpillars. from what i gather about Neem oil is that its suppose to be safe for the good bugs (lady bugs, bees, etc). not sure about BT, but Neem oil is also organic.


At this point probably not. The seed beans themselves are already infected/
Dave

'Dwarf Blue Curled Vates' is a very well-rounded variety that I have been growing for a couple years. It easily dealt with heat up to 92° F, although it's hard to say how well it will handle zone 8 heat. It survives through the winter as well, even with several snows, freezing rain and below 0° F temps. I really like the look of the leaves as well. They're almost pre-historic looking, like something dinosaurs would eat. The seeds are sold at most Dollar Tree stores I've been to.

You can plant them far more than an inch or two deeper. As digdirt2 said above you can bury them right up to the first set of true leaves, even covering the cotyledons (if they are still present). If your plants blew over I would suggest you try putting them deeper next time. They have the ability to root from the stem. My purple sprouting, for example, has to stand from July until the following May in a wet and windy climate. It needs all the support it can get.

I've had spinach winter over and start growing again in the early spring without any covering. See if there are any local growers around who might have seedlings available. The backyard grower I get tomato plants from in spring is now offering seedlings for fall. Also, check with any gardening neighbors if you live in a hilly area. I'm in the colder part of zone 5 but because we're at a low elevation with hills on three sides, my garden gets a light frost around Sept 18. If I cover with something like Remay (I have a portable tunnel covered with Agribon) I can keep bush beans going for another couple of weeks. After a couple of cool nights, it usually gets warm again. Bush beans are about 6" high right now so I'm not sure I got them in early enough this year.

Unless there is a non-organic border that it can't cross, something like plastic or wood edging set a couple of inches into the ground, grass is going to encroach on anything. Some types and even crawl over the non-organic borders. So consider putting in edging to frame the area, cover it with landscape barrier and decorative mulch and then use an arrangement of various large pots/containers set on top of it to frame in the garden. That way you can grow anything you want to in the pots, keep them under control, rotate their contents annually or even more often, move them around as needed, etc.
Just something to consider.
Dave
Something like this to give you an idea of what I mean.



Agree with carriehelene, late blight is bad news. I can manage septoria and EB, but once LB takes hold there's just no point in trying to keep the plant going. At least that's how it's been in my experience.
Well, maybe I'm blind with optimism, but it appears the damage has been put on pause. I prunes off as much of the dead branches as I could yesterday and today there is maybe 5% of what I clipped from three days of damage and that seems to be most of the foliage that had spots yesterday but still seemed dark green and pretty healthy. The thick branches I pruned showed no color variation in the core and the one long black 'mark' appears to have faded somewhat. No spots on fruit, softness, or apparent rotting.
I did cut open a tomato earlier that had been picked a week ago or so and it did have some rotted looking internal area. The tomato has been in a cooler for about ten days. No external marking but definitely something was wrong internally.
The black krims took a beating, but the yellow pears and currants were demolished, basically no leaf left on a couple of them. The white tomato still growing, flowering and fruiting appears stronger and bigger. Mr. Stripey, big pink, green envy, super tasty, and northern exposure all seem to have had very very little damage at all.