23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
<it there any point in trying to give it a boost and get some spears this season>
Sure. Do you normally not feed it in the spring before emergence? I strongly recommend it. A good 2-3" layer of manured compost well-watered in works great. But I wouldn't use Triple Phosphate. Way too heavy Phos IMO unless you know for a fact that your soil is extremely low in P, which would be unusual.
If you don't want to or can't use the manured compost then go with something more balanced and with some N. The N is far more likely to be low in early spring's cool soil than P is. I'd use a heavy feeding of fish emulsion, worm tea, or some strong compost tea rather than the Super Phos.
Do you have any indications of the organic matter content of the soil or of how good the soil micro-herd is?
Dave
I have a soil test, but it is a few years old and had no glaring deficiencies. I did a side dressing of the Garden Tone as well as compost manure (fall and spring on the compost), but I was concerned that maybe it was not enough and there must be some deficiency to still be getting thin spears this many years in.
I've got fish emulsion as well, so I will just start pampering the bed and see if that helps, thanks!
Hard to say, but I can offer some tips. (My answer would be to certainly build some of the beds now to spread out the labor and have an earlier start.)
I use a sunlight calculator (mine was made by Luster Leaf)--it really helps to grapple with areas that get shade from tree/house shadows, etc.
Many people will swear that smothering them is enough, but with really vigorous weeds, I dig them and put down cardboard before filling raised beds. It's just too risky to me to do all that work and have weeds in a raised bed!
good luck, and congrats--it's so great to be able to garden your own land!
Not in my opinion. It is about to flower so if you post again then we can help further. Or you could repost on the Name That Plant Forum where someone might recognise it. (Not saying that people on here won't but NTP is dedicated to identification.) Name That Plant
Im in zone 7b central Arkansas.
I only want to grow them for fun.
I definitely will not be digging a big hole in my backyard for it.
I already planted them yesterday, so we will see how they do.
Also, many plants dont really have a problem growing in clay soil
"The plant itself looks ok but every week the plant had 2 or 3 leafs that turn yellow and then brown."
I'd like to have such stable cukes. As long as they're growing much more than dying, there should be no reason to fret.
I let my Kale grow all summer long, and grow it does. By the time October rolls around, my kale stalks are usually 3 feet tall from clipping the bottom leaves all season. I grow, blue curled scotch, redbor and lacinto varieties. They taste great all summer long. I'm in zone 6b in se Pa, so we don't have much difference in weather. As for the spinach, it is still fine. Lows are still in the 50's at night. My spinach is usually spent and out of the garden around June 1st, about the same time the first pea harvest comes in.
No need to scrap them. Just plant your beans and things around them - plenty of bare space there - and let them keep growing. Interplanting is the most efficient use of space. Still plenty of harvest time available for them before the beans get big enough to start producing. My lettuces and spinach are still going strong and will for another 3 weeks or so and my soil is still too cool for planting beans.
Dave
Yea I did as well as I could with my schedule. They had been outside in small pots for about two weeks in a screened in porch so the sun was probably brighter outside of it. But yea they aren't getting worse for sure and I'm spraying fungicide every two weeks this year. Cause last year I didn't and all five of my tomatoes got infected but luckily I cut all the affected areas and sprayed fungicide on the rest and everything was fine so I'm trying to prevent any illness early in the season mainly because my second round of tomatoes are already putting out their first true sets of leaves so I'm trying to keep that spot disease free :)
Yeah, you don't "earth up" sweet potatoes. You just stick them in the ground like would root some ivy or other type of vine. I use 6 inch slips and root the bottom half. It's funny because this is the third sweet potato question on here within the last week or so. Tis the season. You should be able to get around 1 lb of harvest per gallon. So basically a 25 gallon container will give you around 25 lbs of sweet potato goodness. I am sure there is a maximum depth you can achieve in growth. A garbage can may be too deep. You could be better off using a half barrel.
Deer seem to sample everything. They have eaten not only green tomatoes but the leaves to the point I had no tomatoes for a couple years. This was after 10yrs of growing tomatoes in the same garden and not having the deer eat the tomatoes.
Deer even eat the tips of the wild black berries growing here. They didn't bother the Jerusalem Artichoke plants but the woodchucks would eat the lower leaves.
Deer also eat the day lilies, which are abundant, but only a taste in early spring.
fwiw - I plant broccoli to see if I have any woodchucks nearby. They seem to go right after broccoli.
I wish something would eat the dandelions and other weeds I have here.
Interesting planter! I have a couple of stack-a-pots, but the compost tube is intriguing. In the future, I would highly recommend using coir for the worms instead of peat. Much less acidic.
Have fun! And please keep us updated.
It states you can grow those in the unit and I did pick out some varieties that were better fits for containers. The sun gold was just seed I had and thought I'd see how it goes.
Also my co-worker had one last year, she grew squash, tomatoes, peppers, and beans with no issues. I even have the pictures from hers last year. If it doesn't work out, well I have my actual garden and I'll not repeat next year. I'm testing it to see what it can do.
You don't need a pole next to each. Just enough poles to support the weight as they climb the strings. Say a pole about every 2.5 to 3' along the row. Then run your strings horizontally from pole to pole.
Peas have tendrils rather than twining stems and they prefer something small diameter to get hold of. I use twiggy prunings I for peas. At the end of the season the prunings and the pea plants can go on the compost heap. No untangling and no plastic waste to dispose of. Here's an example of what I mean.
I just hand pick and drop in bucket of soapy water. You can just wipe the eggs off the plants with your fingers. If its a really bad infestation I spray with Neem but it can kill beneficials too so its a last defense and rarely used. I never use Pyrethrin but I'd suspect that yes, you'd have to do a follow up spraying since it is a contact-only pesticide.
Dave
Thanks Dave
I did start to handpick and squash but when I picked one off several of the others on the same fern would bail off into the mulch. I guess now that I knocked out the adults I might be able to manage flicking them into soapy water if there are not so many.
Well, it's just a matter of farming grass for animals to eat, instead of tomatoes and asparagus for humans to eat. Why, grass grows year round, so it's a nutritionally intensive policy that never allows for (gasp!) bare ground. Of course, the law should require that such grass gardens be well stocked with cattle, sheep, and goats, as well.
From a dedicated front yard vegetable gardener.
I'd say it looks like a watering issue, but with 20 years experience idk.... It's either got to be the water or the soil.
in my prior post I should have said that they died before they reached the size in your photo. They didn't get any bigger than they are in my photo before slowly dying. A local greenhouse owner thinks it is damping off (based on my description of problem) but appears to be a leaf problem rather than stem problem to me. Has anyone seen damping off look like this?