23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
1/ that's right. 2 seeds in 2" pots. Then gently tease them apart and pot them up.
2/ they do get very big. And like a lot of water. Here it gets into the 100's and is quite dry mid season. I did use a peat based compost, and would water when I stuck my finger in the soil 1" and it was dry. And would water until it was draining from the bottom.
3/ transplant shock can be as little as the plant just seems to slow down growth to wilting disastrously. Don't worry about it too much, just keep them watered and wait, almost always they will pull through. And the younger the plant the better it will transplant.
I'm not trying to discourage on growing cukes in containers. I did get fruit, just not nearly as much as in ground cukes. And it was more effort. If I were to try it again I would try to keep the pot cooler by keeping it shaded, and maybe adding some mulch. Straw or leaf mold.
Good luck!
Never had any tomatillo problem. Actually all my tomatoes got zapped by LB but the tomatillo is there.
I can think of some ROOT problem. Now that the season over, just clean up around the root and check for any irregularity.
Do you have things like gophers around ?
Seysonn: BT for slugs???
I think not. BT controls CATERPILLARS only.
Kevin
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Kevin .... As I said, I have not used it my self. I might have heard it wrong.
But I have my own mixture:
-- used coffee ground
-- pavers sand
-- saw dust ,
-- paRtially ground egg shell
- some broken slugo type bait.
You can sprinkle some sand first then the mixture. This way it will stay dryer better. With this mixture I can be generous. Since it is not costly.
AND IT WORKS JUST AS GOOD AS PLAIN SLUGO... THEY RUN BLEEDING TO DEATH.
Thanks to all for your great advice. At the garden site there's a very wide assortment of ideas being tried. Some don't have any fencing (although there's not too many of those), some use non-fencing (I've seen some with tin plates, some use natural fragrances, others use scarecrows, and still others use fishing line, oh and I even saw one fence made out of playing cards), most do have fencing from wooden to metal to rope with electrical also included. And that's just what comes to my immediate recollection. The site's management says fencing is highly recommened, but not required. The general word seems to be to get around the pests - plant more than you need and be ready to share.
Wolverine summed it up pretty good, I think.
Then, it depend how your plot is situated in the community. If it is somewhere in the middle, you are partly shielded. But if it is on the edge then you have to take rabbits seriously. For deers the bells and vessels, old CDs, etc might work but not for Mr. Vabbit...haha
Nancy- yes it is actually a fountain, it does not spray water but rather works like a see saw and when one side fills up with water it drops down and hits the bamboo under making a somewhat loud thump (depending on the size of course) it scares deer and most likely turkeys with sounds they are not used to hearing in your garden.
Frost finally coming tonight, so those gardening in points East probably don't have long to wait either. No complaints, it's been unseasonably (and pleasantly) warm, a 1-year-in-10 October.
If the killing frost comes when a pepper is just beginning to ripen, I pull the entire plant by the roots & hang it in the garage. The plant responds by pulling moisture from the smallest immature fruits, and attempting to ripen the largest. This is highly effective with hot peppers intended for drying, but also works moderately well with larger sweet peppers. Peppers ripened this way are not as sweet as those ripened naturally, but still better than green... and it beats losing them to the frost.
Curious that you mention serranos. I have an heirloom serrano-type ("Red Chile") that I pulled out today. It has ripened only enough pods for me to save seed, probably due to the partial shade it had received from adjacent pole beans. The ripe peppers, when dehydrated, make a great pepper powder, and there are enough peppers close to maturity that they should turn color quickly now that the plants have been hung.
This is a fascinating thread and I learned a lot. Thank you to all of you for your input. I hopefully have another two or three weeks till first frost, but our temperatures have turned unseasonably cool here for October. Many of my peppers are rotting on the vine before they fully ripen. I will put some Agribon around the plants tomorrow. The plants are still loaded and I was hoping to get one more picking before calling it quits.
In my experience the key is knowing if the butternut had finished growing. Once they are full size and the skin is still green but hardening then they will keep ripening to some degree once picked and even chnage colour, however if the skin was green but still soft as the butternut was still growing it will not continue to ripen and should be eaten quickly as they will dry out. They are still delicious young too! And i often cut them thinly into stir fries at that stage.
Also for storage green picked butternut won't store as long as those that have fully ripened on the vine.
Ralph
My seedlings are inside right now therefore they don't face the hot sun except for the early morning sun. They are cucumber, pepper and tomato.
My real problem is to determine when the soil has dried out. The surface does get very dry (because of the fan that is constantly running near them), - so dry that it becomes very hard over the top. But down under I am guessing it is not dry. Now because there are quite a few seedling in each pot, it is difficult for me to determine the moisture level down under (not enough space to put my finger in to determine the condition under the surface).
Therefore I usually just mist the top with a sprinke of water to ease the hardness off the surface. That is a little bit. Is that ok?
For the overall bottom watering I use the weight as an indicator that it is dry after which I bottom water. Inside that happens around every 4-5 days.
I donâÂÂt generally have a fan on my seedlings. I do water from the bottom. When I notice the top is getting dry, itâÂÂs a good indicator that the water in the bottom of the tray has been all soaked up. I will typically add an 8th to a 4th of an inch to the bottom. The idea is to keep the soil moist but not soggy.
You could try to stick a bamboo skewer or something thin like that in the side of one of your pots then see if the skewer is picking up any moisture. If so you could probably put some grit on-top of the soil to stop it from drying out so much.
Good Luck!!
pnbrown .....Interesting takes.
I also think of "DIGGING" like you described : digging a hole and taking the soil out, or digging and looking for something like potatoes, carrots. And digging a trench. Again removing soil/dirt out of it. None of these is aimed to condition a bed for planting. BUT then we have the term DOUBLE DIGGING (vs single digging) which aims to prepare a bed for planting. I personally call that kind of digging (like you said) "turning over". And that is how I do it to loosen the soil, to mix a layer of amendments(compost, manure) into the soil and LET it air and bake under sun, (if possible). This kind of TURNING OVER has another advantage(IMO) and it bring some of the soil at the depth to surface, which possibly has more nutrients due to leaching effect. THAT IS REALLY WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT: == TO TILL OR NOT TO TILL == I DO THIS MANUALLY or by a power tiller,like DAN does.
So the burning question(!?) here is : IS IT WORTH IT ? Why bother? just dig a hole big enough for your mater and plant it and STOP breaking your back. LOL
I do use a potato fork sometimes to more deeply mix things. I am rather moderate with this. I don't usually just rock it back and forth, but part way tip up some deeper soil. I like a 10 inch depth in what was originally clay loam or silty clay loam. Just southwest and west of me it is more silt loam...all the way to the Rockies I suppose.
I have very nice loose soil in most of the gardens, but that is partly because of heavy amending. Still, I like a loose and deep bed. I think it is partly because of the years disking soil in the fields to get a decent seed bed. Right across the fence it is no-till which is ok for farm crops with their big machinery to plant the seed.
A few years ago harry vetch was all the rage. I don't recall reading about it recently.
Ralph I can't say if it is too late in your part of zone 6 or not but it isn't here in my part. We just planted a mix of turnips and radish in several beds middle of the past week. Normally they will do well into mid to late January and we till them in then weather permitting.
Two of the other garden beds get planted with various deer fodder crops - winter peas, clover, chicory.etc. and all work well for green manures.
Dave