23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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.
You guys have helped me enormously. Right now, I think I'm going to wait until June, but I'm keeping them outside until they get a bit sturdier. Right now it's really windy and thank goodness they're on the porch and not in the bed. As for crowns--if this experiment fails, I may try crowns. Right now, though, they seem to be pretty content.
I actually keep my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants together on purpose, because I want to rotate them and not plant these things (all in the same family) in the same place for at least the following two years. I've somewhat divided my garden, all around my house, into three garden zones. Then I rotate, keeping these three together in a zone. I also keep my squash and cucumbers in a zone, with watermelons, cantaloupes, etc. In the other zone I grow peas and beans, maybe corn, sometimes some potatoes, and any other random vegetables I want to grow. I think if I had more space, I'd go to 4 or 5 zones, but my zone size is based on approximately how many tomatoes and peppers I want to grow in a year.
I found an old (2011) discussion I started on the Container Gardening forum about my experiment with potato towers. It includes photos from one garden web regular who did have an impressive yield. You might find it interesting:
Tale of two potato bins, with photos
The photos I posted in that thread have disappeared, but here is the one of 20 pounds of potatoes harvested from just over one pound of seed potatoes in an 18-gallon tote:
Ohiofem, thanks for sharing. It was very informative to read, especially the fact that only some cultivars would make potatoes up the stem. I guess the earthing up of potatoes my farther was used was just to prevent them from going green and not to increase yield.
Wow - 30 peppers in a 4x12 bed! And here I thought that I was crowding peppers by putting 14 in a 4x10 bed. I agree with Dave that harvest might be tough on the middle row but you should not get much if any sunscald on the that row. This year my 4x10 pepper bed has a row of leeks on each long edge about 4-5 inches in from the edge and I will plant 14 peppers in 2 rows about 1' from the edge.
Thank you all) Yes, we do like bell peppers) I freeze them for winter and I basically add them in all dishes I make with exception of porridge) But our growing season is not that long, so more plants - bigger crop for the year. I was thinking the same - how to get to the middle row and would it get diseased due to a poor air flow and will it kill whole bed of peppers. But I guess I have to try, otherwise I will have this question for the rest of my gardening life). I plant 30 peppers anyway, and if I can make them grow in one bed, it will free some space for few extra eggplants and I wouldn't have to mix eggplants and peppers on the same bed and worry that eggplants will beat peppers over in space competition.
Maybe the compost was contaminated with persistent herbicides? http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/killer-compost-it-happened-to-us/
Here (in WA) the slugs eat all sorts of stuff. I don't think I've had much trouble with the beans, but they like to decimate my squash seedlings. In Colorado, I never saw signs of any slugs (it was really dry) but I did see the pill bugs eating my beans, just like this. The ones in my current garden don't seem to bother anything enough to notice.
I had no problems last year with cucurbit seedlings in the 40's on a few nights... but I don't think they were hit with 30's. I have found cucurbits to be much cold hardier than peppers or eggplants or other heat loving plants. I planted seeds 2 weeks after LFD and had no problems with my plants, they were my best crop, meanwhile the peppers planted too early got stunted. I would leave them, personally.
Thank you all!
I watch my cuces carefully - looks like they continue to develop fine, will see in a couple days. I will still have time to replant if I see them to slow down. Answering temperature question - I have 4 thermometers set on different levels, not on top of the pots, but on the wire shelves where pots are set. They all were around 39F, but soil probably was a bit warmer. Nights now are much warmer, days even hot, so I hope I wouldn't have that problem again).
When there is nothing else to eat, deer will eat anything, even garlic... not daffodils though.
They have eaten my squash leaves. They have eaten my tomato plants.
I have read they won't eat artichokes (the plant that is, they will eat the buds.)
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.