23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

We never harvest our parsnips until spring. They need to be dug as soon as you can dig. Once they sprout leaves, they are getting too old. I've never had woody parsnips so I'm following comments so I can learn something. I garden in NH.

Defrost: Do you protect them? Mulch? Tunnel? Or just let them fend?

Charlie- don't know about trimming them, never have, but you can get a jump on them forming a nice white shaft by adding some soil at the base of those.

Wild Haired Maven: Agree with hokiehorticulture. I also did NOT use peat moss starter mix. I used a mix recommended by Johnny's for their soil blockers. (google: johnny's seeds soil block recipe pdf should be at top of list) It was left over from summer starting, but it was NOT under three feet of snow (New England...) So it was not sterile, and I am watching it carefully for damping off, but they are up and under lights as of 3 Mar. This mix takes and holds water much better that peat moss, in fact I have been very careful to water lightly.

Thanks rhizo_1! I read that thread and that was how I found Sakata and they pointed me to several sites that I could get broccolini seeds from. I was just wondering if there's a way to make sure they go to seed, otherwise I'll have keep rebuying seeds.

As Dave notes above, as they are a hybrid, if they go to seed you will likely not get broccolini so if you really love it, you should probably just plan on buying seeds. If you are averse to purchasing seeds, you can try other things in the family to see how they fare for you such as sprouting broccoli, Chinese broccoli, etc.

Thanks! I'm glad I can use it for something.

I should add, on further review, that ammonium nitrate, when combined with water, generally doesn't release nitrogen. It takes heat to make it do that, and then what you get is nitrous oxide (get a laugh out of that!) This is, of course, why ammonium nitrate works fine as a fertilizer, when dumped on moist soil. That is, your fertilizer gets plenty wet when you put it on the ground, and it still works. So to the extent that your fertilizer is ammonium nitrate (urea is very different) the chemistry is pretty much water-proof.

How long before diamonds have fruit and how long til ripe? NJ hot months are only 3-4, maybe 5.

Eggplant fruits thankfully do not take a long time to ripen. You do not eat them fully ripe. You should be fine with any variety that isn't a standard long-DTM variety like Black Beauty. You may have success with Black Beauty, this could be a long hot sunny summer, but another variety like Diamond would be better IMHO. (I am no expert, just basing this on my 1 year's experience growing eggplants in NY.)

I am leaning away from Mg given that the chlorotic (yellowing) symptoms are typically more "blotchy" looking and can be raised or puckered, and more vibrant yellow. Mg Def also begins on lower, mature leaves for what its worth. It looks more like Fe or N Def to me given the "paler" look to the chlorosis (S deficiencies are much less common, but are very similar to N Defs) the differences being that Fe Defs start on the upper, youngest leaves and can progress downwards and N Def start on lowest, mature leaves, sometimes N Defs can also exhibit a reddish cast, but not always. S Defs differs from N in that typically the entire plant will exhibit the symptoms you show on the two leaves and not just one portion or another. Hopefully this clarifies a little bit of the differences between all of these deficiencies.

Could this be zinc deficiency?

There are a lot of such tools out there. See this for example. Of course then you have to come up with your own GDD-to--harvest, which will be different for different crops. You can easily go online and find those numbers for various stages of corn, and I think I saw them for tomatoes.

P.S. In that last link I gave, GDD=GDU. Same thing, different terminology.

Google "compost corpus christi" or here's a link.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas compost suppliers

Any time you purchase compost from a local municipality be sure to ask them what all is in their compost. Frequently I've found that greenery that has been treated with herbicides are added in just as frequently as "clean" greenery. If you are trying to grow sensitive vegetables or tender new growth plants, you may find it dies before it has a chance to grow. I have found that it is better (not necessarily faster) to find a local horse stable and volunteer to take away some of their oldest manure as well as friends and neighbors leaves every fall and spring. Dig down as far as I can, throw the manure and leaves in, then add the dirt back in.... It all breaks down and your soil will reward you for years.

There's no need to add bacteria to your soil - it's teeming with them unless it's a very salty or acidic soil.

There's no need to add bacteria to your soil - it's teeming with them unless it's a very salty or acidic soil.

I would agree IF the OP's beds had soil in them. As he indicated above, they do not. They are filled with a soil-less potting mix.

Dave

I've used them for cherry tomatoes, where I had 2 panels, about a foot apart, and put 6-8 cherry tomatoes down the middle of the pair. It kept the plants under check better because my cherries always get out of control sprawling everywhere. I had more fruit and more of it was up off the ground. All I did was redirect shoots that were headed out, bback in. No tying or anything. Worked well for me.

We use hogwire zig zagged between 2 metal pole sunk just outside the beds. I have found plastic clips at the thrift store and flea marts tat just clip the branches to the wire. Or I'll use the soft green plastic ties. Some use nylond, but I don't wear them, so don't have access to them.

At the end of the season, the panels stay connected and are just folded up and slipped behind a shed for the winter. Works for us! Nancy

At least some squash varieties have edible leaves (such as Cucurbita ficifolia). I had a few Fig-leaf Gourd plants (they're not gourds). I ate the leaves and stems (raw). They taste like a mix of spinach and raw green beans. You can still eat the older leaves, but they're kind of like older broccoli in that regard (they won't chew up all the way). The large leaves taste fine, however. The seed leaves (cotyledon), however, are extremely bitter and probably toxic. Don't eat the seed leaves. If squash are bitter they're probably high in cucurbitacins, which can be toxic.

So, because the seed leaves are bitter, I wouldn't make sprouts out of them.

I'll look into the Ramsey county site. It's not far at all.
I don't have any issues coming up with Compost near me and the 4 cubic yards for $23 a yard isn't going to kill me.
I thought the idea was to get manured compost though. I'm not coming up with much for that yet. I see the opposite (composed manure) everywhere I turn when searching online for my area.

I'm sorry if I'm repeating what others have said but I have a plot in a community garden and have thought about this. My community garden is 30+ years old so I don't know how they prepared the soil way back then but now when a plot is turned over to a new gardener it is up to the new gardener to till and amend the soil. This turns out really very well although sometimes it means dealing with a garden where the soil was amended very little if at all and the weeds grew rampant or if you're lucky the previous plot holder took care of the soil. In your community garden project, if you want to till and amend the soil for your first gardeners you should get as much good quality non-manure compost as you can afford, till that in then let your gardeners add manure or anything else they want later on. I think this will get the soil ready to plant without a lot of cost. If the individual gardeners want to test the soil in their garden plots and add amendments let them do it themselves; this is an important part of being a gardener and very satisfying. Often landscape suppliers will offer discounts to community gardening projects and, at least in my area, the municipal sanitary service makes cheap compost available made from the garden waste they've pick-up from the green bins... Good luck with your garden project...

Has anyone tried seaweed? I get tons if it but never used it.

Gunrock Ma

Yes. Over on the Soil, Compost, & Mulch forum here several shore gardeners have talked about using seaweed and how well it works. The search there in that forum should pull up those discussions.

I recall that they talk about the need to rinse it well first to remove much of the salt. Also that when chopped a bit it makes a great addition to compost piles and that it is rich in nutrients too.

Dave