23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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!

Taking a supplement or isolate is not going to truly solve your problem. What you eat, drink, breath, and put on your skin is where your problem(disease) truly resides. Simply put, you live unhealthy, you are going to be unhealthy. You have to change your entire lifestyle in order to truly see change.

Here is a link that might be useful: True Healing

Considering that that healthy lifestyle change tends to involve eating more vegetables, I'm not sure what the point is of attaching that message to these threads is. As I see it, since you can't wave a magic wand and *poof* suddenly a person is living a whole new healthy lifestyle, discussing vegetables that can help a person's individual health concerns is a valid and interesting route towards a healthier lifestyle. And if a person wants to do more gardening as a result, then even more health may ensue. But those comments sound like "don't bother"...?

Re: medications. Medications do not "cure" any of the conditions currently discussed here. Like the herbs and vegetables under discussion they help mitigate the symptoms while doing nothing about the underlying cause. Unlike vegetables and many herbs (I'm speaking of them in their whole, fresh form, not as concentrated supplements), modern medications tend to have certain unpleasant side-effects that can cause a marked decrease in quality (and sometimes quantity) of life. Pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer from your blood sugar-lowering medication, anyone? Or maybe just struggling through every day, unable to get anything done because of overwhelming tiredness despite getting 10, 11, 12 hours of sleep only to find that the cause of your inablity to function is actually a result of the blood-pressure-lowering medication your Dr just prescribed? (That little gem is listed innocuously as "fatigue".)

There is plenty of good, current, scientifically validated litereature out there for anyone who wishes to read more about the subject. The book I mentioned by Mr. Duke in the other thread really is a good starting point. He used to work for the USDA. Dr. Andrew Weil also writes accessibly on the subject.

Keep on mind that for an electric fence to work, you need both a hot wire and a ground. Typically the ground is supplied by the animal (or person) standing on the ground when they touch the hot wire. Plnelson has solved the ground issue by burying the bottom of the fence, though I didn't know that concrete was a good conductor.

I have 5 strands of wire at various heights and have not had a woodchuck (groundhog) intrusion this year. I watched one day as a groundhog enjoyed the clover outside of the garden. He kept moving closer and closer to the lettuce that was growing on the other side of the wires, but he stopped about 3 feet away. I'm thinking that he tested the fence another time and decided to leave my garden alone.

Now, rabbits on the other hand...@#!$%&!!!!

I too am at war with woodchucks, and they are winning. I tried burning them out and nearly burned down my shed. They destroyed my veggie garden, eating all plants to the quick. Their underground network is so great that sometimes walking thru my backyard I fall thru the ground. I have dumped dirt in holes, only to have it disappear. Any thoughts on filling holes with used cat litter (minus the turds)?

Aha! Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you, because given the various constraints I have, a fall-maturing crop would be my easiest solution. Then when I put them up the cellar will be much cooler and they will be younger. Ok, so what I did wrong this year was not greening up the tubers I replanted. I think I'll try canning some to see what I think of them, too. Cheers!

seysonn...I'm interested in your Rosette potato. Is this the Lady Rosetta that you're mentioning?
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HAHA> I misspelled it . You know what I was talking abut. Merry Christmas !

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Dec 24, 13 at 18:36

c6 - I never thought of that type of trellis. I'm going to have to check that out. I actually use concrete reinforcement mesh for my tomatoes and pole beans and cukes. I string it out on fenceposts, and then clip the plants to the trellis. It works great, but I'm always game on new trellis ideas.Plus a trellis would add some structure to that area.

nhbabs - the perennial idea is a good one. I have a couple of blueberry bushes elsewhere I've completely abandoned (keep getting decimated by deer, so they are 5yrs old and 1ft tall!), and I have champaign currents that may be happy being there too. I actually grow horseradish in one of my perennial flower beds - they really anchor the space. And no matter what I do, i'm putting rhubarb back there.

Thanks!

All of the suggestions are good, but I have one more to consider. There is never enough compost to balance what you remove from your garden as harvest. If you have excess land, an excellent use for it is to grow lay crops that can be harvested green and then composted for later application in your production garden. This is a key component of Alan Chadwickôs Biodynamic French Intensive System. For more on that, see the following website:

Alan Chadwick

Click on "Techniques" and then select your subject matter of interest. There is also an excellent discussion on compost making there.

Good lay crops are: Fava beans, vetch, bell beans, buckwheat, and many others. The more compost you can make yourself, the less manure and other fertilizers you have to bring in from outside, and your own is much, much better than anything you can buy.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick

Thank you both for responding. Ceth_k, I admit to having read quite a lot about container gardening, and never come across "perched water." Mostly I was interested in the 5-gallon self-watering buckets, though, and it appears those are tall enough so as possibly not having the problem. This is something I'll have to test for. I have incorporated naturegirl's suggestions. Thanks again,
Dona

This may sound silly, but my container lettuce "wilts" when it needs watered. My lettuce likes lots of water, but will rot easily at the same time. So I added a bunch of perilite to the potting mix and then I just water away if the lettuce starts to droop. No rotting (or damping off of the baby sprouts). Plus my lettuce likes it kinda cool. When the sun comes out and warms up the greenhouse too much, the leaves wilt, but spring back up during the night. My lettuce is in 4.5" pots and it doesn't seem too shallow at all.

You can also try swiss chard, bok choi, and beets (for the greens) and celery (plant a bundle in a pot right from the store to make leaves and new stalks as you harvest). I've been able to make several salads so far this winter with this combo.

Two possibilities come to mind. Black Rot or Souring. You can Google both for pics and info. I'd bet on Souring.

The way to decide between the two is the condition of the plants themselves. Black Rot also shows pronounced effects on the plants while Souring doesn't.

Personally, cooking/eating of the affected areas is NOT recommended and it should be removed before cooking so it doesn't affect the flavor of the rest of the potato.

Dave

Lol, Dave! I do my best to cut out the spots, but they sometimes seem to be forming under the surface where I can't see them, sometimes not until I've taken a bite. Or I miss a bit when cutting and don't notice. I'll search for those two when I have abit more time, thanks!

I don't have a lot of space for a garden so I want to use the space that I have efficiently. I get composted leaves from our transfer center in Fairfax, VA. It is beautiful compost, dark and loamy. I spread about a four inch layer over my garden in the late winter/very early spring. I then broadcast some granular ferts. ussually 10-10-10 or whatever I have on hand, over the compost. I then till the soil mixing it all up. After the next rain I till the soil again and prepare the beds for planting. We plant swiss chards, mustard greens, bush beans, yard-long beans, zucchini, egg plant, hot and sweet peppers, tomatoes and lettuce. I have also prepared a raised bed where I hope to have artichokes, if they survive the winter. Here is a picture of the chokes.

Your garden looks nice Charlie and I hope you are successful with whatever crops you are growing in there. The bricks border is nice.

CentralCADad - just so you know the Growing from Seed forum here has all sorts of FAQs and info/tips/discussions on your questions.

You might be especially interested in all the discussions about the many problems with using peat pellets.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing from Seed forum

That is very impressive my next house I'll have to strive for something like that WOW.Thanks I normal use sun light and flos but behind our home a farmer that just changed over to apricot orchard gave me the light for free and next yr will be our biggest plant using transplants. We have an area that gets a little shade during the day and my hope is that maturing the plants more for that section and another area w/more shape types of flowers for shaded areas. We normally start seed directly into dirt but have used Pete pellets before we use our home garden to help w/Girl Scout troop (our 2 girls) and the others to learn many of life's lessons. We grow a lot of tomatoes and wild colored items like purple cauliflower,purple beans it keeps keep them interested in the long process of food production. I don't have the space so it's in the cold garage for them. With a heating pad and the hid light I thought would help keep the area a little warmer. The farmer said to keep the light close to the plants but watch for heat melting plastic domes feel the heats range w hand and adjust a little higher. You seem to have flos higher off the plants did I get bogus info? Were only growing around 60-70 plants and giving any extra startlings to the neighbors we have Paul Robeson tomatoes this yr.. Thanks for all the help I'll start late feb plant seeds every week there after under 12/12 light cycle and by march last frost long gone transplant them after hardening them off. And thank u I looked up Pete next next yr will change again. I tested soil yesterday and after adding organic matter some naturals frets and minerals I tested @7ph that should be good for multiple veggie varieties? Sorry so many questions we learned to flood the rows not allow the girls to directly spray the plants which they enjoy we had afew varieties wilt and some didn't recover.. Anyway thanks

I'll be interested to see what it looks like inside and how it tastes when you harvest it. I'm a sucker for keeping volunteers. Thanks.

Did this nice fruit bring seed?