23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Mainly into apples now, freezing cored, peeled and sliced ones for apple bread and pies and sweet/potato casseroles; pot of apple sauce going now, probably more sauce and apple butter tomorrow. Summer crops gone. Fall crops just starting, mainly lettuces for eating now, but collards and broccoli are looking good.
There are many online sources. I've bought fingerling potatoes from Potato Garden and Jung Seeds. They are fairly expensive because of the shipping, but you can be confident they are disease free. I've also planted organic fingerlings I got from the grocery store. In spite of the advice not to do that, I had my best harvest with the grocery store potatoes. I got close to 20 pounds of potatoes for each pound of Russian banana potatoes I planted.
There's a farmers market out by I-95 on the north side of Melborne I believe. I got my French fingerlings from Fresh Market...did great. If your hands are full of arthritis, fingerlings are difficult to hold on to while scrubbing and preparing to cook. French fingerlings are a little bit thicker around and easier to grasp. Check with your extentsion agent for best time to plant. In the meantime you can start working the plot where you're going to put them. Potatoes like an acid soil so you need to consider that.
Historically, strains of P. coccineus with white seeds were selected by the Dutch. While the species can outcross with some pole beans, it is also possible that some level of genetic diversity remains in your strain. White seeds are associated with white flower color, too.
Thanks everyone for your comments, I have just been out in the garden to take down the bean row and collect the dried beans that are left on , The bean pods are all about 1 foot long and i have started to remove the beans from the pods, and to my amazement i now find i have pure black seeds in some pods as well as the white ones in other pods.
Maybe you should do a little research into soil before you start planting vegetables in containers. The potting mix is the most important ingredient in getting healthy vegetables. Whether you're talking about soil or compost, spent means most of the nutrients are used up and the structure has broken down.
From the Urban Dictionary:
Spent as an adjective:
1. Used up; consumed
2. Having come to an end; passed
3. Depleted of energy, force, or strength; exhausted
And no, compost that is not finished composting is not a good media to use in a pot. You might get away with it mixed into garden soil, but you also might end up burning roots (especially if it includes manure) and attracting vermin.
Hmmmmm! The friend I made reference to got his plants from an entomoligst friend that has greenhouse grown these plants for the past three years. That said, Rodney may be on to something! I'm clueless about the science of plant reproduction, so I didn't want to attempt to propagate these seeds if they weren't likely to grow true.....
As farmerdill mentioned, there are a great number of facsimiles out there, but my friend has his heart set on growing this one, so I'll start some for him in the spring....
I have had it with the seed companies that show in the big box stores.
Beets, totally different than on the packet. Broccoli that just shot straight up. Have you ever seen 4 feet of stalks and tiny heads. Pole beans, red flowers when they should be white, Cucumbers when I wanted melons, the list seems endless.
I now will only buy from the bigger guys, like Johnnys, even if it costs extra for international shipping.
Jalapenos are notoriously all over the place with their heat. It's kinda a characteristic of their profile.
It's not uncommon to have low/no heat jalapenos along with normal and hot-as-hell on the same plant harvested at the same time...as well as early season low-heat production.
Why this happens...no one can nail it down.
There's a lot we don't know about peppers. We don't even know how they signal themselves to ripen, for instance. It's known it's not ethylene influenced (or enough of an influence to be noted as an influence), but not much is known about what chemical/physiological signals are present when true pepper ripening is taking place. If this can be found out, and it can be influenced by external chemical inputs (such as ripening tomatoes with ethylene post-harvest), then ripe colored bell peppers could be a whole lot less expensive one day.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Tue, Sep 24, 13 at 18:36
Based on your picture, and as Flora pointed out , they are to crowded. At this pint I would keep 3 good ones and pull the rest. And then pour about 1" thick soil on the exposed roots and straighten them up a bit so they are not touching the ground.
Also get rid of the roted,dried ..leaves. They are magnet for disease. .
BTW: some criters are helping themselves there. Do you have slugs or snails ?
pattypan, I've never heard of pinching off the flowers, and I never do. Seed potatoes might be a good idea to try once and see how they do for you. They can be expensive when mail ordered, but nice and cheap if you can find them locally at a feed type store. (I can get them at Southern States.)
No problem with the temps for curing SP here in Fla. but i have been washing mine after harvest and read this damages the skin. Without refrigeration mine would be stored @ temps warm enough to promote sprouts. They lasted about 6 months last year, any suggestions how can Make them keep them longer?
Hi. I'm new to your forum, and just found it by googling 'ants and sunflowers'. I've noticed ants crawling all over my sunflowers as well, and have noticed the stem right under the flower dropping off. It seems to do this after the flower has past it's bloom, so that's good at least. But have been wondering why the ants are attracted to it in the first place - so interesting to see that this is a common problem.
I found a site that discusses it, and thought this info was telling:
Ants and Aphids
Ants are attracted to aphids because of a sticky, sweet substance they produce when feeding, called honeydew. Honeydew isn't the sole food source for ants, but when an aphid colony is in the area, the ants can harvest this nutrient-rich substance continually with less labor than what is required to constantly locate new food sources. Because of this, ants protect aphid colonies ferociously, warding off pests and parasites, as well as helping the immobile aphids multiply by spreading them out on infested sunflowers.
So the ants aren't directly hurting the sunflowers, but because they are getting rid of the other pests that can get rid of the aphids which are harming the plant, the ants are indirectly doing harm!
It goes on to say you need to get rid of both simultaneously in a "two phase process":
Ants can be excluded from sunflowers with the application of a 4-inch wide sticky barrier placed onto a layer of protective masking tape or heavy paper positioned below the first set of leaves. Bait stations loaded with sweet ant bait and placed at the base of the plant give the ants an alternative food source that will slowly eliminate the entire colony. Make sure that the ants can't gain access by climbing a nearby plant or structure by applying sticky barriers to anything that may be touching the affected sunflower.
Eliminate aphids from single plants with blasts of water from a garden hose. Once dislodged, the pests are unable to reattach before they die. Insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils sprayed directly onto the aphids will kill these pests on contact, preventing them from attaching to other sunflowers.
Here's a link to the site: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/ants-raising-aphids-sunflowers-65493.html
I haven't looked at my sunflowers for signs of aphids, but I now suspect I will find them when I do. I think your pic of your sunflowers shows aphids, nfrichardson.
Marj
I am sure there are various kinds of ants. But the ones I have seen in the garden, are tiny black ones that are very active , working almost around the clock. Bu I have yet to see them to cause any damage. There are yellow ants that are very aggressive but not a pest. The mound that we see is actually what is dug up to make their home, not their actual home. I have often seen them to make hills after some heavy rain that has flooded their underground nest.