23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I planted lettuce, spinach and Kale in a cold frame in October. Some did well and some dried out because I could not go out and water often enough. ( too much snow)
Prior years I did much better. I was picking lots of spinach in March ( zone 6b)

Look for varieties that are more tolerant of winter weather. Look for the book -
Niki Jabbour - The Year Round Veggie Gardener
She lives in Nova Scotia --- good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Design Ideas

That's what I told DH - no need for cold frame now, I was afraid the greens would get too cold at night. And I'm not starting peppers and tomatoes in one - still have snow in the areas where I want to plant those even though it's melted off the garden area near the house where I plant things that need more water.

My plan is to just harden off the greens like I do nightshades, bring them out for a few hours, building up to full sun, when temps are in 40's and 50's, but put them back in basement at night until nights are above freezing, then start leaving them in the garage and eventually mid-April or so when ground warms up, transplant them. They are just starting to get true leaves. Cold nights put row cover on them.

Now if he wants to build some cold frames for the fall, I'd like to extend the season. Then I can sow directly in them for next spring.

In fact, I suspect that what he really wants to do that he's calling a "cold frame" is to put up some hoops over the lid to the septic tank and put some flats/pots there since he talked about doing that when it was the only bare spot in the lawn - he said we might as well take advantage of the heat. I think he just doesn't like me having racks of flats/pots in the house for 3 months ;-)

The picture is too blurry for me to name it a mole cricket with certainty though that is the first thing I thought of at first glance. It does appear to be an Orthoptera member.

Have you looked up images of mole crickets to see if there's a good match? Unless you can get a better picture, you are the only one who has seen this insect in person.

Mole crickets are very easily recognized and I've seen a million of them, but your image is simply too blurry, sorry.

If someone already suggested mole cricket then the first thing I would do is look them up and compare my bug with all the pictures of them available. I'd pay special attention to the front legs and see if yours has the digging claws characteristic of mole crickets.

If not then I agree that the Orthopteras are the first thing I thought of but there are tons of things in that order and Google will pull up tons of info on them as well as photos. But again, if there is no plant damage then you don't need to worry about it..

If it doesn't have wings then it could easily still be in nymph stage.

Dave

calbayarea - those look great! That's how it should look.

So you keep them out/under light 24 hours?

ltilton... yeah, today is the first day we've been above freezing in a week (last week we had one 'Spring' day with the rest of the week still holding onto winter). This is not a typical Spring so far and even if it were, I am in the same zone (6a) as wayne and the Farmer's Almanac lists March 21-April 4 as the starting indoors date for lettuce in my area.

Thanks for the advice all, I think I'm going to do the container outside in full sun and then transplant them into their partly shaded bed at transplant time (and then if winter rears its ugly head yet again, it will be easier to move them to shelter).

Think I should plant my broccoli and cauliflower out with the lettuce? Or start them inside with my warm plants like I had planned? Seems like temp fluctuations have a lot to do with poor head formation in brassicas, maybe I don't want to leave that up to mother nature considering how fickle she's been this Spring?

Thank you, everyone. I have one pepper plant and so had to laugh at the pictures posted. I'll put a cage over it.

Yes; when I switched to trellising my tomatoes I had a lot of cages that needed to go somewhere so I started caging my peppers and it works great.

Well, you could probably grow one broccoli plant successfully in a container that holds 5 gallons. (Nursery containers only hold .7 gallons for each gallon listed.) But, those Packman plants can get 2.5-3 feet wide, and they are top heavy. I imagine it might tip over if you put one in a 5-gallon paint bucket like they sell at the hardware store. I found a nice blog about growing broccoli in containers. This guy says he grew three in a 6.5 gallon container. Look at the pictures and note that the heads are smaller than mine. And the broccoli in the picture I posted was not fully grown yet. With container growing, the size of the pot makes a big difference in final yield

Here is a link that might be useful: Broccoli in a container

Last year I grew broccoli in 5, 15 and 25 gal nursery pots. The 15 and 25 had a variation of 511.

The broccoli in the five was very small, The 15 was ok. The broccoli in the 25 was huge.

I had three 25 containers of broccoli. One container had three plants. The other two had one each. From a distance you couldn't see a difference as the leaf mass was about the same with three plants vs one plant. The single plants produced slightly larger first heads. But the three slightly smaller first heads in the tripple container were overall more broccoli. Side shoot harvest was about the same.

The 5 was highly root bound...solid mass of roots throughout the container. I did not check the 15. The 25 was not rootbound.

The gallons in various size nursery pots is not consistant. The 15 gal black nursery pots I use hold about 12 gallons to the brim. The 25 gallon pots from the same manufacturer hold about 25 gallons.

Zeuspaul

Melon in container ? It could be challenging, I think.
Besides a good volume of soil, it has to be deep as well.
Then there is the question of vines. How do you manage it in a limited space ? Trellis, stake? cage?. UNLESS it is bush type.

I guess I should specify that I am growing vertically in a limited space. So, I was planning to prune the laterals off of the cucumbers all the way up and then let laterals grow across and train it to go back down.

It is your choice of course but while I don't think it is dumb to ask and I don't know the source of the information you have been given, I should point out and most gardeners grow their cukes vertically on some sort of trellis - myself included - rather than just let them run across the ground and develop rot.

But pruning the lateral vines sure isn't a common practice. They are naturally great climbers if left alone. It would weaken the primary vines, encourage vine breakage, stresses the plant, eliminate much of the pollination required by eliminating so much of the productive bloom area, reduce photosynthesis for the plant's energy, and reduces production.

Good luck with all your efforts.

Dave

Thanks seysonn... good to know... I am so excited I may pat it lightly anyway (I really thought the plant was a goner). 2 fruits already how cool!

Yeah, 2 fruits already, prachi.
I sowed the seeds on 12/15/13, over 3 months ago. I fished the seeds from an store bought eggplant and wanted to see if they are viable. Luckily it is a dwarf plant.

I start brassicas inside with the plan of settng them out the first of April, then turning the space over to the warm-season crops.

In theory, I'd do the same with lettuce, but the results are not as good.

I've seen people with lettuce flourishing in indoor setups, but it's not as easy as brassicas, in my own experience.

I never had success with lettuce and broccoli until I bought a light. I think a four foot one at lowe's is maybe ten bucks. It was worth it. And set it right over the seedlings. Having said that, I have gotten to where I don't find it that useful for lettuce, starting outside under plastic works pretty well. Broccoli is worthwhile for me because I have trouble with it getting too hot before I can get a decent crop. I start it right after Christmas so it's pretty good sized by the time it goes in the garden.

Most so called "cool crops" are tolerant of shade :
--ONIONS, CHIVES, LEEKS, PARSLEY, CILANTRO, CHARDS, LETTUCE ..., SAGE, OREGANO, TARRAGON

I would add spinach, mint and mustard greens to the list of good shade crops, especially if you have hot summers. If you can have dappled sun, especially if it's only lightly dappled, then you might find more options would work well.

Galinas,

You are in zone 10, i dont want to hear it! Haha! 15 f outside is our high on some days! Try -10 out!

Hm) thank you for pointing me on the zone issue - I am actually in zone 5B)

Haask since you seem to be well read on the subject, what is your opinion about the allopathic qualities of other types of oak trees?

I live on an acre with about 25 red and white oak trees (and many other species). In my situation, I have very little choice as to where I place the garden. The closest point of the garden is around 20 feet south of the Red Oak. The Oak is so tall, that the garden is in full sun all day long.

My opinion on the Red Oak is that it is seems much less potent than a black walnut. The garden can be managed, by simply keeping the roots away from the vegetable plants.

That's basically my experience. I have no other experience with any other types of oaks. From my research, I'm not sure if I even remember any other oak being an issue.

Yes, I figured I was being generous with 2-3 feet spacing. Of course, that corresponds to a root ball diameter of 1-1.5 feet. I've heard that, at least grown from seed, tomatoes have a pretty stout tap-root, which is what I think I'm seeing in your picture.

Seysonn, just curious, do you plant yours deeply? It looks like the original rootball on the bottom and the new roots that filled in from the stem after planting towards the top.

If that's the case, your photo is also a great example of why you should plant them deep to get all those roots. :)

NoNoNo! #1 gophers will chew right through CW if not squeeze through! #2Voles will just saunter through like it was a hallway to the vege palace! #3 They will rot out in a couple of years. Do you want to dig out ALL of that dirt just to do it all again?
Do it right the first time and use hardware (or gopher) cloth! It is worth the extra $! Our origional 4 beds have not failed in13 and 10 years. We had a shovel go through accidentally in one bed, but were able to dig down and repair the tear in the wire.
All those tiny rhodents can squeeze themselves down to about the size of a fat thumb.Sorry I was so adament! LOL I hate gophers! LOL Nancy

NoNoNo! #1 gophers will chew right through CW if not squeeze through! #2Voles will just saunter through like it was a hallway to the vege palace! #3 They will rot out in a couple of years. Do you want to dig out ALL of that dirt just to do it all again?
Do it right the first time and use hardware (or gopher) cloth! It is worth the extra $! Our origional 4 beds have not failed in13 and 10 years. We had a shovel go through accidentally in one bed, but were able to dig down and repair the tear in the wire.
All those tiny rhodents can squeeze themselves down to about the size of a fat thumb.Sorry I was so adament! LOL I hate gophers! LOL Nancy