24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
nancyjane_gardener(Zone 8ish North of San Francisco in the "real" wine country)

Well, I'm on the West coast, so I can garden pretty much all year long.
But for fall/winter I like chard and kale. Both are very hardy.
Spinach seems to take so much to get a meal, I stick to the chard. It keeps coming back!
Lettuces, radish, snow peas.... once planted, asparagus is an early spring thing (the start of garden season!)
I don't go for peas, cause you have to plant SO many for just a couple of meals! Brussel sprouts grew great the first year, til I went out in the garden with my glasses ON and found that they were so infested with aphids they were beyond just spraying them down! (I wear my glasses in the garden now! LOL)
You mentioned forgetting about the broc, cauliflower and single harvest veges. IMHO, I usually grow some just to have them, but don't count on them for my winter veges. Just from time to time. If you're together enough (which I am NOT!) to plant a few seeds each week to space out the timing....MAYBE, but ,as you said you only have a small area to plant in!
You might want to just concentrate on things you can can/preserve/freeze with your small area, or think about getting some more space in a community garden to expand. I have over an acre, but my garden consists of 4 4x8s, 2 3x6s, 2 3x3sin ground raised beds, and a couple of new raised up 3x8x1s.
Contact your county extension office (or go online) to find a planting guide! You can also check out the Harvest forum to get some ideas on what to do with your veges!
Personally, I use a FOODSAVER which is a vaccum sealer system!
And I go on! Nancy

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
msmorningsong(SW FL 10A)

Straight from the pages of 'Rodales Garden Answers' book....

Broccoli: Fresh eating: 5 to 10 plants per person
(One plant can produce 2lbs. of main heads & sideshoots)

Brussels Sprouts: For fresh eating, plant 5 to 10 plants per person

Cauliflower: Grow 5 plants per person, twice that for winter preservation.

Collards: Grow 3 to 5 plants per person

Kale: 2 to 5 plants per person.

Mustard Greens: Not listed

Spinach: 10 plants per person per planting.

Turnips: A few feet of row per person per planting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rodales garden Answers Book @ Amazon

This post was edited by MsMorningSong on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 10:31

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
planterjeff(7b Grant Park Atlanta)

wertach, it seems you and I have some things in common!

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
wertach zone 7-B SC

I'm glad that I'm not the only one!

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
gmatx zone 6

You might try shading the row where you plant your beets by laying a 1"x4" board down on it for a few days after you plant. Be sure you check daily and when you begin to see signs of the seeds germinating, remove the board. That should help the soil to be slightly cooler and will help keep it moist to aid germination.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Cobarchie

Thanks for the info and the advice with the beets. I figured I'd just give it a shot and see what happens; it's just nice to know if it would be a complete waste of time before I tried it.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
sandpapertongue(7a VA)

Definitely not chard. Might be pokeweed.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
farmerdill

Poke weed

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
jim_1 Central Illinois(5b)

My experience with Peter Rabbit is that there is a bite, not a nibble. It also appears to be less tender than what my Peter Rabbit would prefer.

Peter has nibbled on my green beans, topped two dill plants, topped one of my okra and, of course the peas and lettuce. Nothing as dense as a cuke.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Kay17jan

I have a fenced yard, and rabbit and squirrels are the only ones I have seen here...

All my tomato plants are eaten that is what bothers me more, and this is the only thing I have to show, since the tomatoes and it's leaves are all gone and vanished!!

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Without seeing the plant can't say for sure but when mine do it I just cut off the cracked part and the rest regrows fine.

Dave

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
lkzz(7b)

If the split isn't due to the Squash Vine Borer (which you could pull out of the stalk with tweezers or inject the stalk with BT) - you can bury the split area with dirt.

Here is a link that might be useful: Squash Vine Borer in Zucchini Stalk

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
SwampGarden

Hey thanks and I read some follow up discussions on this topic, too.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
jim_1 Central Illinois(5b)

Root crops are better than other crops. I have harvested carrots in December and January (nicely mulched after the first freeze).

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
planatus(6)

Yesterday I planted a handful of potatoes I'd had greening up since May, waiting for midsummer space to open up. I use the little reds for this because they are such willing producers under all kinds of conditions. In rainy years late blight will melt down the fall potatoes, which is a substantial risk in my area so I keep the planting small.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
elisa_z5

Thanks for the ideas on late plantings.
I just dug up a row of early red potatoes, only to find that the voles had eaten lots of them. They had also produced leafing green seed potatoes on their stems (maybe in response to the vole damage?) They are 60 day potatoes, so I'm excited about planting a bed of them again now. Good way to (hopefully) get my money's worth from the expensive early seed potatoes!

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

It's normal.

Rodney

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
elisa_z5

Normally, the flower rotting is normal--it serves its purpose to pollinate the fruit and then rots and falls off.
If the fruit is rotting when the squash is still small, then as Peter says, it's because the fruit didn't get pollinated so it is dying.
What you have to do is, in the morning when the flower opens on the female (the fruit) pollinate it with pollen from an open male flower.

If you're getting rot when the squash is bigger, then I don't know what is going on.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

It might be blossom end rot. How big is the squash when it starts molding/rotting?

Rodney

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Cool. It will definitely help. I don't know about where you are, but it's been definitely warmer here this year. I hardly ever lose a mater to sunscald, but this year have had to abort about a half dozen or so thus far.

Kevin

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
planatus(6)

I have more sunscald some years than others, depending on how the season goes. The smaller-fruited varieties seldom have this issue, but the big bells can run into problems. I think your shade cover is perfect. The only reason I use tulle is that it stays put in the wind better than other types of cloth or row cover.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
seysonn(8a WA/HZ 1)

As long as the top is live and growing, it can help the tubers to grow bigger and mature. Potatoes, depending on the variety need 80 to 110 days from sprouting.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
Steve349

After they bloom, you can scratch some out. But wait till the plant turn yellow or die down. Good luck.

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

Mama2Luvu- Was the blossom dried up and shriveled, yellow and open, or was it green and unopened? In any case, you'll know soon if it was pollinated or not. If it was, it will grow. If it wasn't, it will fall off. And a female blossom always has a little fruit behind it from the time the flower starts to grow (before it's pollinated).

Rodney

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
nancyjane_gardener(Zone 8ish North of San Francisco in the "real" wine country)

A few of my early ones looked like that. I origionly thought my daughter's bad watering while we were gone for 2 weeks was the culprit, but it also could have been bad pollination.
Either way, I've got one zuk and one crooknecked yellow that are producing like gangbusters! Nancy

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
mav72(10b)

Somthing has eaten the tops of my late shallots but I was thinking it was one of them little grasshoppers... I saw one jump into some bushes when watering the plants...

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Onions are poisonous to cats? Try telling that to mine!

When I saw the thread title, I was going to reply with "a big white and orange male cat from SoCal!"

Kevin

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

Well first of all, 1.5 foot tall peppers are much too large to be transplanted, in my opinion. Bigger is not always better when it comes to transplants. The bigger the transplant, the more stress it undergoes when it's roots are disturbed. That's why they took a while to start growing and were having issues from the get go.

Second, the reason they continue to have issues is because of your watering. Peppers don't need watered 2-3 times a week, especially when they are mulched. You're probably drowning them. Deep, infrequent watering is best. Once a week should be sufficient. Check down a few inches in the soil and see if it's moist before watering. If it's moist, wait a day or two. If it's dry, water. If you correct your watering practices your peppers should survive.

5-6 hours of sun a day is less than optimum but it should be enough. And they might need some fertilizer.

Rodney

Edited to add link to the OP's tomato thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato plants' leaves curling. How much sunlight needed?

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Thu, Jul 10, 14 at 22:56

    Bookmark    
Thank you for reporting this comment. Undo
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a

Agree with Rodney, but you got some pics?

Kevin

    Bookmark