23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

If i was in your shoes, i would add compost and an organic source of nitrogen(blood,feather,alfalfa meal,etc.. I wouldn't go out of the way throwing sulfer or any synthetic chemicals to lower pH or fertilize.. Most plants do just fine in that pH... Plus the compost will probably help balence the pH..

So i would add a compost(least couple inches, ideally)and mulch(couple inches) with leaves, grass clippings, straw, etc.. Probably add some organic fertilizer, or compost if the plants seem yellow and deficient.. Keep adding compost every season.. That's about it..

Nancy-literally!

Not much to add, except I think chard, beets, and maybe spinach all like a higher pH. So your soil might grow some really good ones.

Well, if we're talking about baking compost, get out the clothespins and put them on your nose! Ick. Don't do that.

I have grown hundreds of pepper, tomato and other vegetables per year for the better part of 50 years, using just soil from my garden with a little perlite and dried moss mixed in. I have never any sort of issue with losing plants, or even with any significant number of weeds to deal with. Call it dumb luck.

Planting garlic right now is fine I think, but you might not get to see any sprouts until spring time when the tulips and daffodils come up. But your skips will make roots. EXCEPT, we get a very warm rest of DEC and JAN.

I live in Iowa, and I planted garlic in February of last year, and I had a decent crop. They weren't big bulbs, but I just used some organic garlic I bought at Trader Joe's.

I am also in N Cal, 45 miles SW of Sacto. I did put out some garlic this weekend, and I've heard folks in cold places do this even after a freeze, but most things have been out for at least 4 weeks. I like to wait until it cools off, and after the first rain for sugar snap peas, chard, collards, and mustard, and try not to go later than Thanksgiving for the garlic shallots and favas. None of it is harvested until the spring, although I often get usable greens over the winter.

This December seems unprecedented though, and I have had to cover EVERYTHING this week. I usually like the fall/winter/spring garden because it takes less effort than gardening when it's 90 plus degrees, and dry.

Thanks for all your help. I have really good planting schedules for my area received from our local extension office. It really comes down to that I need to experiment. Just wanted to get some thoughts. They recommend plant by nov 1st. But then we start our same plants around the end of January. Ill be mostly planting from the Brassica family and some lettuce. Ill try planting some end of Dec and see what happens.

Planted spinach 11/7 and I already have a flower bed. :

You can still harvest and eat them. But it is amazing that this (bolting) happened in zone 8b. You must have had a very warm fall season.

I would plant them closely and as they get bigger I would thin them for use.
Finally I will have them about 6" apart. I do this with swiss chard.
Younger chards, beets can be used just like spinach.

I received beets with lots of greens on top last week in my CSA box.
I cooked them with a little bit of bacon and onion. They are very tasty. (These are organically grown here locally.)
I roasted the beets and they are good, too.

Sprouts turned yellow and died, sounded like chemical burn to me.

I have also had seedling failures with cheap "potting" soils. They are typically very crude mixes of nasty stuff high-N OM, sludges and manures. A large mature plant can handle it and even make use of it, but a seedling cannot, unless it is massively diluted.

Depends, I would think. If the pest is something that normally overwinters, then maybe a little extra predation and other death might happen compared to a mild winter. But if the pest is something that has really blossomed in numbers because of recent mild winters, then a long cold winter should knock them back considerably. I'm thinking of the nematodes in particular. Where I am is a borderline area for them since they don't withstand freezing well. Hopefully this winter will knock them back to the almost unnoticable population of a few years ago, after our last freezing winter. And of course that depends on whether the weather stays cold. Can't rule out another 80ð January/February yet.

I agree with sunnibel7. If you live in a warmer climate and the pests are used to having mild winters, I would think the severe cold would have an affect on the next year's pest population. However, like here in Michigan where it usually gets cold the pests are used to it. So a quick cold snap like this isn't going to due much in terms of pest control. The adult pests have laid their eggs already, the adults are dead, and the immature stages of the bugs are already overwintering.

Rodney

Thanks, Planatus! I have four lots growing in pots, and they are using the grow lights. Last year I did this and they survived until about February, but I think my living room was too cold when I was out all day. I am thinking of putting them on the cat's heating pad (cat deceased!). As back-up I want to try to keep the vines in water going. They look absolutely wonderful right now, but presumably plants cuttings cannot live by water alone for very long, so I was wondering if I should be putting some kind of fertilizer in the water.

My son says I am obsessed!!

Ashita

they will live and grow for quiet a time in water, they are also a shade tolerant plant, growing their lives on the jungle floors with no sun.

they don't need to ramble keep the vines around in circles over itself will be fine.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens growing sweet 'taters and pineapples

So how were your plants this evening, bucketgirl? After really warm fall, it was 24 degrees at my house this morning, everything frozen solid. Thought i would hsve only mush left after work.But, looks like most of it is ok. We had our first salad of four seasons lettuce and tyee spinach. Only the pea tendrils seem set back. To be safe, i draped plastic dropcloth over my container garden and put a warming lamp in. I hope last night was enough to finally kill the cabbage worms eating my kale.

This is the unseasonably cold in the West Coast, in early December. Here in Saeattle, WA area we are hitting 14F tonight. The thing is that it has been in the freezing range(under 32F) for the last 48 hours and it will continue for at least another 48 hours. Probably brassica and alliums will sail through. But I suspect a lot of perennial shrubs and flowers might be wiped out. This is far beyond USDA hardiness zones 7b, 8, 9. Feels more like zone 6.

I imagine that what you buy in the store is leaves. In which case the leaf stalk (petiole) won't grow roots.

You shouldn't have to turn it over if you want Kale. This Kale plant i have is going into its third year next year. It went to seed once already, but it's still growing a bunch of new Kale on different stems! I just abuse this Kale by picking whenever I want, or cutting back, whatever. It is a strong plant. I am growing Lacinato Kale.