23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I would go for strawberries or maybe some sort of berry bush - we can grow raspberries, blackberries and other similar types but have to choose varieties that are suited to our zone 9 climate. Not necessarily the ones available at the big box garden centers though - try a smaller local nursery or research/order online. Or asparagus or artichokes. which ever you eat more of. These are all expensive to buy at the grocery store so whichever you choose you would be better off growing it vs not.
I use toilet paper - each square is 4" so I use say 6 squares for a 2 foot row - fold it in half longways put a tiny dot of Elmer's glue on the bottom half, a couple of seeds, and fold it back over so it kind of glues together, spacing the seeds the proper distance apart. It worked great especially for my carrots since their seeds are so tiny. I sowed some seeds without using seed tape and fewer seeds germinated, and I suspect some got washed away when I watered... I just made more seed tape for my carrots the other day.
The toilet paper goes away eventually.
Verdict, for those of you who remember this post from last week: I think it ended up being transplant shock/sunburn. It's been 4-5 days since then and nothing has worsened. All the new growth on the plants are healthy as are the leaves that survived that first shock. Sooo, I'm chalking this up to my bad for cutting corners and not hardening off like I should. Luckily, I'm in California and our mild weather is pretty forgiving. I think my plants will survive it just fine!
Thanks again for all the assistance!
Yeah transplanting at this stage would be pretty much a lost cause but it would be easy to direct seed squash somewhere else and give everything else here a better chance at survival.
1 squash plant can easily take up a whole bed that size unless you go to some of the 'bush' varieties.
Dave
Ha ha! Yeah a bed that size maybe should only have 3 tomato plants (and they'll need a cage or some kind of support) possibly some herbs like basil companion planted with them. Would make a second bed for your cucumber & peppers to share (provide a trellis or tomato cafe for the cucumbers to climb on. Onions aren't a great companion plant for most things so would give them their own bed- garlic and onion can share a bed. Squash gets huge- I've seen zucchini & other summer squash just 1 plant get maybe 10 feet in diameter? Might not bother with a raised bed for that just plant in a mound of compost and give it room to sprawl (FYI same goes for melons & pumpkins). You can always try transplanting & see how it goes- if they don't survive at least you tried- and if you are gentle they may be fine. Next time pay attention to plant space requirements or do a little research first. At least your plants look healthy! Good luck!
It could be the seed mix. I have sowed a multicolored mixture twice this year, and so far only one yellow seedling. Some of the pinks look red as seedlings, but the yellows and oranges should be obvious. I also have had red seedlings in Fordhook seeds, which is supposed to be white. Go figure.
Some years we've had a nice mix of colors and some years it's been mostly to just about all red/pink. There's no way that i can figure how to tell until it actually comes up. But yes, the baby seedlings show the color they will be when they get big. I've also not really noticed difference in flavor from one color to the other, but then I've not tried to segregate colors when cooking it.
Edie
My local garden center carries a Jolly G mulch product I like, but I haven't tried their potting mix. I suggest starting your pepper seeds in a seed starting mix anyway. They are not fast germinators. Mine often take well over a week to sprout, and seed starting mixes hold moisture well enough to assist with the miracle.
I would look for a heavier potting soil if you plan to grow your peppers in pots. The bark-based mix will dry out too fast. I like Baacto and McEnroe organic, if you can find either of those.
You potting mix find looks OK, to me. But why are you getting into action so late in the season? Peppers ,from seeds, need a good 6 weeks time to develop into what is suited for plant out, either in a pot or in the garden. I notice you are in zone 5 but still it is a bit too late(to me). So if you start them today, they will be ready like 15th of June for plant out. And that is if your indoor growing condition is flawless.
If I were you , I would look into plants. You might not be able to find Reaper but ther are all kind of Habaneros, Jalapenos, ...
I suggest you visit "Hot Peppers" forum. There are quite few experienced and knowledgeable pepper growers.
If you go to the bakery department of grocery stores, you can usually get the large plastic containers that they get their icing in for free. I forget which size they are, but at least big enough to grow a tomato, pepper, eggplant, cucumber, ect. plant in. I picked them up regularly year before last. I even grew Yukon Gold potatoes and Red potatoes in them. Also, you can save the plastic containers that you get salads and lunchmeats in and use them to start seeds in. You'd definitely want to start several seeds in each and they have their own lids to create a mini greenhouse. Like gardenper, I get the different sized foil pans with clear lids from the dollar stores to start seeds in peat pellets or fill with my seed starting mix and plant onion, celery, kale and some other seeds. I plant up in plastics from cottage cheese, sour cream and other little pots like them that I've bought filled with food we eat. Just wash them really good. There are so many things we eat that have containers perfect for gardeners. Oh, almost forgot, save plastic milk cartons to wintersow veggies and flowers. And don't forget plastic pop bottles. Great to grow herbs in and you can hang them on posts as well.
Lowe's often carries the big black plastic pots. I hope to stay in place for a very long time so I just re-use the pots from when I purchase trees. One trick I read about when planting in very large pots is to place some broken branches in the bottom to help take up space, not too much but some in the very bottom would help in very large containers (I am thinking like half barrels, etc.)
The tomatos and peppers probably, because they like a deep bed but have fairly weak roots.
Okra has a humongous root system, but it's capable of going as deep as it needs because the roots are very vigorous. So it can use the shallow bed.
Summer squash have fairly shallow root systems - give them the shallow bed.
Plant herbs too - basil would love the area, as would oregano, sage and thyme.
Wow, thanks so much for the good advice!. I would not have guessed that the squash have relatively shallow root systems. Tomatoes and peppers shall get the royal treatment then. Ha - I will be able to bury those stems vertically!!!
Since the bed is deep with plenty of root space, I may try to cheat on the sfg spacing rules and sneak in an extra tomato, and encouraging it to trail over the side..
I'll definitely sneak a dill in somewhere! I have parsley, thymes, sages, rosemary and sweet bay growing elsewhere. I've 3 earthboxes to replant next, thanks for reminding me that one should be filled with basil!
If okra is such a vigorous root-space-hog, it may need to just fend for itself! Perhaps I should try amending the native soil downslope from the planter boxes and it can suck up any moisture that moves its way. We just had a deep rain (thank goodness) so the clay is very easy to work today. Hmmm....
The 2 cu yards of planters mix more than filled all 64 cu ft of planting bed space, though I know it will settle a bunch. They are full to the absolute brim, and the settling will be made up with mulch.
But, there's still enough to fill two 1x7 planter boxes. I'm going to put them right between the fence posts, there is no fence up now but I'll be putting up 2x4 welded wire, 5 ft tall. So eventually about 50 ft of back fence will really be a trellis.
There are quick ripening red varieties like King Arthur ( use to be Fat'N Sassy) Ace, Bell Boy, Lady Bell, Merlin, La Bamba, Redknight. Still takes patience tho and temps in the 80's. At cool temps 50's- 60's none of them will ripen.
Like tomatoes there are green when ripe varieties. Not popular tho. some varieties are yellow or orange when ripe.
Bell peppers just don't ripen red as easily as other shapes of peppers, probably because of the thick walls. In Ohio, bell peppers are really lousy at ripening in the summer heat. Now in September with sunny warm days and cool (but not too cold) nights, the peppers ripen the best. Then it turns too cold in October.
This thread made me think about perched water table. If I understand it correctly, the perched water table theory will cause the water of the soggy soil under the beds to go up toward the surface of your raised beds. I assume that the height the water will go depend on your soil texture. The finer your soil texture, the higher the water will go nearer to the bed's surface. 12 inches should be enough to stay away from the soggy ground water for most kinds of sandy soil. If your soil is heavier then just build higher beds.
I've had success in a similar situation by planting in 6-8 inches of municipal compost over my somewhat soggy garden soil. I only have to water occasionally in August and the only overwatering problems I've noticed are enthusiastic growth of weeds and unfortunately tomato foliage diseases. I also have not had any success with mulching - too water retentive - other than with Kraft paper.
My corn does wonderfully, although I grow an open-pollinated variety. I've only really tried melons in this situation once and I grew a variety seemingly not noted for being super-sweet (Amish muskmelon). Nice flavor but could have been sweeter, and they had a tendency to split.
So maybe the corn in a shallower bed and the melons in a deeper one?
~emmers
Guess it's like wild raspberries or blueberries or any other native, wild edible... you can certainly eat them, even if you didn't intend on growing them... lots of info on edibility in the link below. Now I kind of wish I had one to try!
Here is a link that might be useful: Eat the Weeds - Radish, Mustard's Wild, Rough Cousin
Preemergents will not affect the germination of beans or peas or other legumes, onion sets, or members of the parsley family (carrots, dill, parsnip).
Also not effeced are wild relatives of these plants, like Queen Ann's lace, clover, crown vetch.
Even thou the package my say it is safe, do not put it around young melon plants (I never tried cucumbers or squash, I never got over the "meloncholy."
-Terry
I just assumed DynaGro was organic when it was recommended to me last fall in another thread.
Are these going to be grown in containers like your broccoli is? If so then please ignore the organic recommendation because as we have discussed before, gardening organically in containers is a whole different ballgame than gardening organically in the ground. And yes, of course you can still eat them.
Off the cuff, broad observations like that are easy to make when the poster has little to no info on what you are doing or how you are gardening and just promoting their personal cause.
DynaGro makes many different products. Some of them are OMRI approved, others are not. The choice of fertilizers to use is yours be they organic approved or not.
Just as with your broccoli plant problems post, a diluted dose of your DynaGro will help. And as we have said before it isn't as if you have to water them thoroughly with it. One tablespoon of the mixed liquid is all they need.
In the future do keep in mind that different plants need different water amounts just as they do different nutrients. They don't respond to "scheduled" waterings. The older the plant the more flexible the schedulae needs to be.
These are no longer seedlings. They have multiple sets of true leaves so they are plants and plants in small containers need feeding if they can't be planted out yet.
Dave