23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

English peas to describe cultivars of Pisum; cowpea to describe some cultivars of Vigna.

In north florida I have planted pisum in early december and they made quite well in march.

I had planned to plant them in December this year, but it was so hot. I didn't want to ruin them.

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.

Eating chile peppers stimulates release of GLP-1.

Good for you. It is exciting, those very first harvests, as I can remember.

Are you in south FL or CA?

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

The presumption here is that we're trying to produce heat. composted/humified stuff won't produce heat, will it? I think that's what "aged" manure is. So go fresh stuff.

Yes, a cover is needed for night and cold days.

Interesting to see all the mentions of Fortex. It's one of the few new varieties on my 2014 seed order. This year I'm doing more of the tried-and-true.

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.

As I understand it, squash grow tap roots. Tap roots go gown not side way and not upward. Then, even if it did do ok, the fruits can be too heavy, pulling the plant down.
JMO

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

We plant all cole plants, root vegetables, and herbs during our cool seasons.

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?

Thanks !

In generalities most asian eggplants have purple calyx and European types green calyx.There has so much interbreeding that it really makes little difference except for appearance in the newer varieties.

Wow Floral! I'll look into it more closely! Nancy

I'm not too sure about nicotine advice also. One of the cultural practices I read very often about is smokers should wash hands before touching plants to reduce the risk of possible Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

here's my agenda for whiteflies --

Develop a year-round IPM program by planting flowering plants that attract beneficials. mainly lacewings.

Spray plants much in the same way to control aphids -- a couple water treatments a few days apart followed by insecticidal soap and/or neem oil treatments about a week apart for about 3 weeks.

In the meantime, I order lacewing larvae to be released a couple weeks after the last soap or neem treatment so that when they hatch, I am no longer in need of the spraying.

Note: if you have an ant problem, it must be dealt with prior to lacewing larvae release. The ants will eat the larvae.

Kevin

I guess you were reading my first post? I didn't mean that they had eaten the roots, but rather had tunneled through them in a zig-zag pattern that disturbed so many roots that large squash plants wilted and died in the high heat at that time. Then the voles move into those tunnels and keep them open and use them to wreak further mayhem. Thank goodness it is winter now. :)

For anyone who ever has a caterpillar rant, I really suggest Bt! It will save you from having unsightly bald spots from tearing out hair!

Last year I had a potted tomato plant that was huge and healthy. One day I saw it absolutely covered with fat caterpillars. It made me feel sick.
I dragged the whole thing to the dumpster. It made me feel shuddery.
I'll definitely research BT. Thanks !

It is a white yam then.I think it's leaves are just starting to grow into ordinary yam shape. White yam usually grow into big and high shrub if left unchecked. People in my country propagate them using their tubers and nothing else.

Same thing happened to me with an orange sweet potato. After the sprouts got tall enough, I carefully plucked them off and put them in water. Next stop - potted plant!