23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Non of our local organic nurseries (We have MANY in Sonoma Co!) have frost sensitive veges out more than a week or so before our last day of frost date (April 15th) and even then they usually have a sign that there is still a possibility of frost and to protect your plants and look at the weather reports for a few weeks.
The big box stores had them out mid March! Buy em, plant em, come back and buy em again when they freeze! Nancy

I concur with the others about not using the big box stores as a timing for when to plant stuff. Lowe's already has tomato and pepper seedlings for sale here. In Michigan. We're still at least 3-4 weeks away from the time tomatoes can be planted (even then we have to look out for an occasional frost/low temp). And it's more like 6-8 weeks for peppers. It's still getting down to the 30's at night and it's only 40*F here as I'm writing this.

As for the original question about the Farmer's almanac, I never used it.

Rodney

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 11:03

Or maybe they are just full. I have not had mice trouble in the garden yet, but I certainly can empathize with your heartbreak, is there enough time for you to get more peppers going?

traps baited with peanut butter work pretty good for mice. for voles, find their tunnel entrance holes. set mouse traps at the entrance but tie them down with wire or drill a hole in them & anchor them with a large nail. with the squirrels I live trap them or get out my air rifle. last year I carefully harvested the buckeyes from my bottle brush buckeyes . every one that I planted the squirrels got. I just dispatched one ten minutes ago digging up bulbs.

What Mindyw3 suggests seems like a good idea to me. I will try that next time I plant beans.

--McKenzie

I just germinated a tray of various beans tonight. I set all if the beans out to soak this morning, so they soaked for about 12 hours. After I put them in the tray I set the tray on a seed heating mat. This is my first time trying this method. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

The trouble with trying to pick them or killing them one-by-one is that for every one big enough to see, there are a hundred juveniles maybe as small as a grain of barley. And they have appetites, too.

Slugs eat the ferric (iron) phosphate (Sluggo, Correys, etc.) and die from within the "stomach." It doesn't kill them by them crawling over it. It has low to no toxicity. It's not a "poison," unlike the other kinds of slug killers.
The following website has answers to all your questions about it. I find these pellets to be the easiest and safest way to deal with slugs.

Here is a link that might be useful: iron phosphate info

I saw a BCS when I bought the Honda, but it was just tiller (I think you could order implements for it.

They were about the same price, but the Honda has 2 forwward speeds (which about doubles the price.) I got it half off, though, since I lived in TN at the time and after 4 years of drought, the dealer has been sitting on it a long time.

I've kept this tiller so long because I don't want to put out the bucks for a new 2 speeder, and I won't have it any other way.

I guess that was a long while ago; my BCS has 3 speeds.

TN? Was it Earthtools?

Thanks for the answers. I do have enough space to try my "mutts" so I may do that, though after reading these answers I reordered some new Orangeglo seeds. One thing about trying my mutts....how awful would it be if I turned out to have some incredible new variety and would never be sure how to recreate it! I had a total of 6 varieties of watermelons all together so there is no telling which one may have pollinated the melon I got these seeds from!
I really do appreciate you all explaining the pollination/offspring thing even though it was probably a very elementary question to most of you. I must say I really enjoy growing several different species of watermelons and cantaloupes so I guess I'll just be buying new seeds each year! Thanks again.

Seeds do last more than one year. (if you had any left over) What I do is I just plant more seeds as the years go by and as germination rates go down.

Then again, in 1/2 acre, maybe you used all your seeds?
So here's a dumb question for you: are you selling watermelons?

I started all my gardens in my last house from tilled lawn. Plant anything you like. Just be sure to take off the clumps of grass in the top 6 inches. Add compost and give it a year of intensive weeding.

Cutworms may be prevalent where there was sod. If you plant toatoes, peppers, or brassica plants you can put a little collar of aluminum foil around the stem about an inch above and below the surface.

Unfortunately, you may may still wake up one morning to find a row of beans mowed down. If this happens, try to find the critter just under the soil at the last plant eaten, and send him to the Elysian Fields.

Here is a link that might be useful: cutworm

Rookie mistake i guess. And our last frost is mid may. But do u think i could still have moderste success with these?

I agree with Wayne_5's method. With a last frost day in mid-May, you could put yours out around June 1. I suggest you start over by planting new seeds 3-4 to a cup around May 1. As he said, it's best if they are no more than three or four weeks old when you plant them outside. Before putting them outside, use scissors to cut all but one of the seedlings out of each cup leaving the healthiest one. Can you give them more light? They need to be very close to a sunny window, and they need sun all day. If you have fluorescent lights, you can grow them one or two inches under the lights and give them 16 hours of light a day.

We all make rookie mistakes. That's how we learn. Don't get discouraged. In my many years of growing plants I've probably killed many more than I was able to brag about.

karolena - I agree with howel above - all containers require regular supplemental feedings - weekly is common. Plus your plant is very likely in far too small a container. Very, very few tomato plants can do well in only 3 gallons. They are quickly root bound in such a small pot and that means water and nutrients run right through the pot.

You might also want to do some reading here on the problems with using dry/granular organic fertilizers in containers, especially small containers. There is no soil food web or bacteria in there to convert the organics to a useable form.

Dave

Thanks Dave and Howel.
My father-in-law follows The Garden Master system http://thegardenmaster.com/. I got some hand me down 5 gallon bags from him but they were not holding up well so I bought what I thought were 5 gallon nursery pots on Craig's list. They turned out to be 3 gallon. He feeds his once a month but it is a special concoction he got from the system. I guess his stuff is extra potent and that 2 gallon difference is significant. I will up the foliar feeds to weekly and see if that helps. I was not aware of problems with using granular fertilizer in containers I will definitely look into that.
I was leery of using a synthetic fertilizer precisely because I wanted to establish some good bacteria and was afraid synthetics would be a detriment to doing that. The rest of my veg looks good but maybe I will run into similar problems as they mature.
Thanks again for the help!

I thought there would be a website somewhere with a table listing record lengths of vines. I cannot find any.

dianega,

can you post a pic or two of the terraces where you plan to grow the melons? Do they get full sun? I don't think you necessarily need to limit yourself to the compact varieties. It may require more intensive methods, but the vining types might work just fine in your situation.

I'm a little north of you but our zone is 6b, I planted late March. Normally we plant mid March. You've gotta do what you gotta do. I'd say in the future cheat. You could easily fashion a small greenhouse over a bed to get the soil ready earlier. Little clear plastic, pvc hoops and you can get a jump on the season before the weather gets hot. My people are only just forming their first leaves. I think in the future I'll be cheating too. Or should I say cheating some more.

I planted Sutton's Harbinger peas April 5, and they just popped up today. Soil temperature is around 49 degrees by me now. I'd say get them in. A link to soil temperatures: http://www.isws.illinois.edu/warm/soiltemp/displaymap.asp?data=bst#toptitlebar

Going to rain a few days this week here, check your forecast again before you plant. I think I'm going to hold off until the weekend - also supposed to be another couple of around-freezing nights. Haven't checked soil temp yet here, but we have been below freezing almost every night last week even though days are warm so holding off with beans too.

Just trying to get my lettuce and kale starts hardened off to plant later this week after the freeze.

As queer as it sounds I'm to the north of you but i'm in a warmer zone. I heard showers for tomorrow perhaps but I'm not seeing terribly cold weather in the forecast. I've watched poatoes growing mulched with leaves in February before. One bed I'm confident in and the other two i'm iffy because one is lower in a valley if you will and the other doesn't have as good soil. I mulched with straw so there will be some insulation.

The soil and white outer layer also look dry. Maybe they aren't in a moist or watered enough environment and that's why they look dry or wilted?

As you said, you only watered when the pods were hydrated. The dome should normally keep the moisture and humidity, but since it looks like something didn't keep that level of humidity (including their location near the sill and radiator), then you can water a little more also.

I gave up on the peat pods last year. Never had anything that survived. I am sure there was a large amount of user error on my part so I am not going to bash them.

My best results have come from using coir. (The Jiffy brick.) The one that is a hard brick like thing in the store. You take it home. Take it out of the plastic, put into a container. Add warm water it will swell up. Note it will just nearly fill up an 8 quart wash pail when it expands.

I fill the hydrated coir into starting pots, Poke a hole to the needed depth with the sharp end of a pencil. Place the seeds in the hole. Use my finger tip to knock the sides of the hole in loosely. Then into a mini greenhouse in the closet. I then keep an eye on them by checking twice a day till I see something sprout. As soon as I see even one coming up I move it to the area with light. Any that did not sprout will do so as long as you do not let the coir dry out.