23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
This seems pretty straight forward to me.
She used soil designed for raised beds (which have the huge wicking power of the earth built in, so the soil tends to be designed to retain a lot of water) in containers, which need exceptionally well draining soil.
The soil probably held way too much moisture, and she had lots of root rot.
The definition of hybrid has nothing to do with manual selective intervention. It has to do with species crosses.
In what context? You might want to look up the definition of "hybrid".
And as farmerdill already covered, cucumbers do not cross with melons.anymore than an eagle will cross with a buzzard to make a bugle.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Cross pollination between vine crops
Joppa is way off. Maybe if we are talking about hybrid animals like mules and ligers then a hybrid is a cross of two species but not so with plants. Hybrids are a cross of two cultivars of the same species. Melons and cucs can't cross and melons and watermelons can't cross.
The type of cultivar you are growing, whether it is hybrid or open pollinated, is all about what happened last year, not what is happening this year (except for corn). Hybrid cultivars have two different cultivars as parents and OP cultivars have one cultivar as the parent. To keep an OP pure/uncrossed to save seed is another ball game and each crop is different. All OP cultivars can cross with others of the species - up to 1/2 mile for cucurbits or very little crossing chance with legumes. To save pure seed you have to read about each veggie you are trying to save and you may have to look at what your neighbors are growing for some distance. Remember hybrids are not sterile generally and so they will get their genetic material mixed in there too if precautions for cross pollination are not taken.
If OP cultivars could not cross, as the friend of the OP believes, we would have no new varieties! Letting or purposely causing two OP varieties to cross is how we get new tomatoes, peas, beans, melons etc!
The thing to remember with most companion planting do's and dont's is that very few, if any, have actually been scientifically tested. The evidence is purely anecdotal and is at worst based on old wives tales at best, peoples experience in their own garden. Not to say that people are wrong, or that they didn't experience what they did, but keep in mind that what works for them may not always work for you and vice versa.
That is not to say companion planting is all hogwash and should be tossed, I still follow it as a general guideline when planning my garden. What they used to tell me in the Army though was "a guideline is not a regulation" and so I look at it that way with my garden.
The only real problem I could foresee with planting beans cucumbers and tomatoes is that beans and cucumbers are viney climbers and may decide to use your tomato as a trellis and possibly choking it out. I have grown cucumbers and tomatoes together before and neither suffered any bad effects from it. The cukes did sort of start climbing on the tomatoes but not enough to really effect the tomato in any way. The only problem I have had with it is the tomato being so big I couldn't see all the cucumbers hiding in there!
I say, all things being equal, go ahead and try it. If it doesn't work then you have learned that, if it does, then you'll be glad you shucked Wikipedia's advice and tried something new.
sunnibel7,
An update that is good, I got the results back from my diabetes study Friday. I don't have diabetes and no longer considered borderline!
My Dr. (which was a replacement for my now retired Dr.) Left the practice right after my last visit.
He didn't seem to care much about his patients, you could hear him on the phone talking to people about non medical things for 20 or 30 minutes before he would come in and spend 2 minutes with me! He was the one that said I was borderline!
They assigned me to a new Dr. and she looked over my files and called me out of the blue. Even though I have never been to see her!
She asked me if I was willing to try something that she has had success with. She prescribed Micardis for me, so far my BP is good!
She also listened to me when I told her about lower BP when elevating my arm. She said that a lot of Dr's. ignore that and that she wanted to do some extra tests on my circulation problems.
I have an appointment for Thursday morning.
Nice link LKZZ. Definitely helps out the people who grow en masse.
For the everyday gardener, seeds are definitely the least expensive part of gardening though, in my opinion. Especially if one gets in on the seed swaps here on GW. The most expensive seeds in my experience are the rare(or superhot) pepper seeds. Over 5 bucks for 10 seeds at many sites -- and if you don't know what you're doing, you can find yourself with zero plants out of those 10 seeds.
Kevin
Congrats!
It only gets more addicting from here on out.
Leaf lettuces are probably the easiest of all veggies---at least for me. Nothing really attacks them and the only thing I ever have to worry about is them bolting early. I'm in the same boat as ceth_k.--- My cukes start off pretty good, but succumb to powdery mildew early in the fall. Hopefully this coming year, I've learned enough on how to combat it.
I'm guessing FL, or maybe Galveston TX area, pnbrown. Though my maters lasted till mid jan in 2013, we've had a couple cold spells down here in Socal. Maybe the desert?
Good luck with the tomatoes lesley. Mulch works wonders when frost may be coming
Kevin
This post was edited by woohooman on Wed, Jan 1, 14 at 1:24
When I posted above, I forgot the alliums. Ailsa Craig grew great for me. It's a long season, mild white onion. It was the first time I grew onions from seed, and I got great production. I also had great luck with the Evergreen bunching scallion. I had a great harvest, and found out late in the season that they divide and give 3-4 after the original stalk was cut just above the roots. They are apparently very cold-hardy, and will take winters down to below zero, so I'll be planting seed in the fall next year for an early harvest.
Even if it would work in that container it still wouldn't prevent the moth from laying her eggs on the plant or the larvae from hatching.
Plus it would have to be a @#%@# big topsy turvey container for a squash plant. :)
Dave
Hey CarmelCalifornia, you are in an area with micro-climates. Are you right in Carmel proper, in the fog zone? If so some of the real heat-loving crops could be a challenge during the foggy summer, so if that is the case, you might not be able to easily grow eggplant and full-size tomatoes and such.
If you are inland a bit, and out of the fog zone, you can grow anything.
Right now, leafy and maybe root vegetables are probably your best bet. I think any of CarloMartin's list of root, leaf, and brassica choices could be planted now, since the daytime temps are projected to be in the 60s and 70s for a week or so.
I suspect you could plant garlic now, too, although it is considered very late, I bet it would come out OK anyway.
You can transplant tomatoes in mid-april. Or plant them from seed at about the same time. If you are in the fog zone, try to find a warm spot for the tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes will be more likely to do well than full-sized. If you are in carmel valley or something, then you can grow any tomatoes you want, as well as eggplant, watermelon, etc.
The two biggest threats to your garden are probably pocket gophers and deer. Make sure you take steps to protect against them.
--McKenzie
Hi lonmower, Congrats on your Fava bean.
Glad to see you back and reporting on your fall cover crops.
As you know, I have been of the opinion that as of MID OCTOBER, it was too late to start any cover crop from seeds.But I could be proven wrong. I mixed some fall leaves in my beds and covered them with plastic, to keep the rain our and hopefully to keep it warmer for the micro organisms to stay active. I won't remove the cover untilll April 014.
Anyway, we have had one of the coldest Decembers on record around PNW. However, October and November were normal. Our weather is good for cold crop, BUT I think you have to start them early so they can get them established by early October. Otherwise they will just hang in there. I am looking forward for spring cool crop. And for that I have built a cold frame where I can germinate seeds early. This is going to be a new experiment for me here. It is quite a challenge to germinate seeds in cold soil. But once the cool crops germinate(indoor , cold frame ..), they will grow in cool spring weather.
lonmower - do you like eating favas? A November sown crop should give you beans in late spring. They are our earliest vegetable other than overwintered brassicas and other greens. It always seems a pity to me to miss out on a delicious vegetable by digging in the bean plants before you get a harvest. On the left favas (broad beans) in May from 3rd Spring sowing.
This is my first post in this forum. We purchased 1.5 acres of land and we finally have room to grow veggies and all kinds of edible things.
I read this thread because my doc says my cholesterol is too high. He has me on meds, but I was interested in knowing how to eat foods that could assist in lowering it.
I always plant cloves of garlic that have started sprouting. They grow fine in Southern California. The problem is drying them once they form bulbs. I've had workers steal them when I twisted them in the Bougainvillaeas to dry! That won't happen at the new place! The only folks working are hubby and me.
I'm having fun reading this forum and am learning from all the comments. I just ordered $21.00 worth of seeds, and hope to start planting soon.
Suzi
so, this is a list off the internet, where cranberries and crabapples can not be distinguished, and no reference to papers. even if there were references, they would be tests on people eating a Standard American Diet (SAD), who may or may not have anything to do with the subset of people having large gardens.
Here is a compendium of cholesterol blog posts by a Univ. Washington nutrition researcher
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.it/search/label/cholesterol
(note in particular the first. you can find similar studies by the WHO on the web)
And one about an island where people smoke and have high cholesterol, resulting in the total absence of heart attacks
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.it/2008/08/cardiovascular-risk-factors-on-kitava_14.html
how can you not complain about these inane posts?
Good luck!
Be sure to post pictures when you're done.
Charlie -- I would like to hear your success rates for germination. The same sites that discussed shade said that planting the seed directly into the garden helps it establish better than a transplant can because of that tap root.
Do you think your trees were established enough in the sunlight after just one year or did it take a few years.