23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Yep, nights are far, far too cold for okra. Okra sulks if the soil is not warm because it is easily attacked by soil pathogens. Personally, I would yank the plant out, grow something else for now and reseed okra at the appropriate time, which is when nights warm into the high 60s at least.
Don't transplant okra - it really dislikes it. It's only recommended for growers with short summers.

Agree. If your night time temps are that low then there is no way your soil temps are warm enough for okra. Soil temps rather than air temps are vital to planting things at the right time.

Since your production from the one plant will be minimal anyway - if it survives - I'd pull it and plant something more appropriate to your current weather

Dave

Thanks everyone! It is a shame because I had ~20 heathy chard plants I grew from seed. They are all infested now.
I am growing everything in containers (mostly fabric pots).
Anyone have suggestions for how to put row covers over round pots?
What other plants are vulnerable to these pests? My lettuce and mustard have been left alone; however, I have some spinach and bok choy that just sprouted... They are too tiny for the pests to infest yet. I am also growing radishes and lots of other things from seeds that I recently planted.

I haven't had a garden for 8 years, and this is my first west coast garden (and my largest with the most variety). I am sure will encounter a lot of new pests and problems! So thanks so much for your help, I am sure I will need more :)
I am just so happy to be gardening again.

Thanks,
Robin

They attack all sorts of veggies, but usually the only damage is cosmetic.. the little "mines" that you'll see on leaves. Only thing I really ever noticeably see them attack in my garden is mainly cukes.

Like i said, just get another rather large pot, plant some alyssum, marigolds, maybe some cilantro, dill, parsley. Zinnias, even. And you'll be able to keep quite a few pests in check.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: beneficial attractors

Just to follow up on this, it's working really well already.

Thanks again.

That's good.

My sugar snap peas are coming up. I had them under clear plastic.

As Dave said, you need to get a soil test. And the PH meters aren't accurate. I have an expensive one and it will give me a reading of 7 but my soil tests at the lab give me a 6.

Another thought on the urea, I have saw bags of it at big box stores and it said "urea fertilizer derived from limestone". I'm not sure, but wouldn't that raise the PH? I was looking at them since my soil test said that I only need N, P is High, and K is a little high.

Not sure if anyone mentioned but its very important to not feed high Nitrogen to most (non-leafy) vegetables. Its OK to provide higher N in the first 2-3 weeks but switch to low N when flowering starts

Here is a link that might be useful: Why you need Low Nitrogen

Thanks! Will do!

You could have started them like in January -Feb as spring crop.

You might try radishes because they have a short life cycle.

cheapheap,

The reason wet heat is better at killing spores than dry heat is probably due to the fact that the specific heat of water is greater than that of air. For example, if you put your hand in an oven that is at 250 degrees, it would not burn you right away, but if you stuck your hand in boiling water that is 250 degrees, it would burn you instantly. The boiling point of water is 212deg F.

Beeone made a good point about eating eggs for breakfast to be ok but how come composting it becomes harmful ? we are not eating the compost :) hehe

About the pressure -tempeature, wet and/or dry relationship.

What kills the bacteria is the temperature not pressure. Inside your car's tire there is twice as much pressure as in pressure cooker/canner but bacteria will/can live in it fine and produce spores too.

By pressurizing on heat we raise the boiling temperature of water ( aqueous medium). It does not matter wet or dry, solids or liquid parts. Given enough time temperature will be stabilized inside the vessel.

That is not irritating to me. It is in the mid to upper 70's here for day time highs. Lows in the .ow 50's. Though within the next 60 days lows will be in the 80's with highs in the low triple digits. Top that off with high humidity.

I have lettuce outside that I transplanted a week ago that refuses to grow any bigger because despite our lovely mid 50's daytime temps, we have lows in the 20's. Same with the mustard. It all sprouted nice, but now it doesn't want to grow any bigger until it gets warmer overnight temps. The only thing that seems to not have gone on strike right now is about half of the onions. It's going to be May before any of my cool season crops decide to grow and then it's straight to seed cuz day temps will be too high. There's just no pleasing some people (err, plants?).

I don't envy the 90's still too early for that crap, but steady 70's would be awful nice. Instead we get 3 days of 70F and then snow in forecast for this weekend, yippy!

This is what I do in this case: Let's say I have a bed 5'X10''.
I plant my rows in parallel with 5' side. When I need to reach the middle of the bed, I take a 2''X2''X6' wood stud and lay it between rows on top of my 10' boards(like a bridge from one long side to anther). It is not enough to walk on it, but it is enough to put one foot there and get some support when leaning to the center of the bed. But it is only working with with short crop - like cabbages, carrots, beets and so on. With peppers and tomatoes I always make narrow beds to be able to reach the middle from pathway.

Thanks for sharing what works for you. That's another good idea. Lots of good ideas from everyone. Very resourceful.

Drilling holes in a pipe does not mean it is a *drip* system.
Thus, 30-minute run time may be more than enough water rather than too little.

Good point Jean but the cuts in most drip tapes are much larger than the ones the OP described so from his description I figured the odds were more likely drip than spray.

At least with drip tape you can calculate gph. With this set-up, who knows.

Dave

Hi All,

Thanks so much for the valuable input.
Finally i decided to scrap the idea. I am going to pull out the pipes this weekend. ( i will use the pipes to for the mini green house i am planning to build this winter :) )
I think for 2 beds of 4X15 - it is easier to hand water them, also i have some cinder blocks along one edge with garlic - and blueberry bushes there ... so even if i automate just the beds i still have to hand water the rest. I thought long and hard about automating those as well - but i think the complications and the maintenance of the automated system just is not fit for the size of the garden i have.

I learnt a lot - and again thanks for all the help.

Regards
Gmanar.