23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Other than the variety differences, growing condition and harvesting can make a difference too. For example, harvest a bit too late they get tougher. Or less water can make them chewy.
I also have three kinds: Purple, yellow and green. Mine are bush type. Probably green ones are more tender.
I had these pests for the first time this year. They seem to be a good candidate for "search and destroy" control. They feed on the top of the leaves and during the day. Much better than coming out at 2:00AM and hiding under the soil during the day. After many S&D missions in the spring, I thought they were gone so I stopped looking for them. But I found they were back in August. Now I just pull off the previous day's blossoms and that's where all the beetles are congregating. What could be easier?
Probably not ripe yet. When did you plant them out? From seed or transplants? IMO one of the most overlooked for watermelon ripeness is the DTM, which if nothing else, is a good starting point. I think the DTM for Crimson Sweet is about 85 days. So if they haven't been growing for 3 months it's probably too early, unless the growing conditions have been ideal.
thanks all, That red thing is half of the case for a broken fish tape reel, you know the kind for fishing walls etc,.. It was broken .Hubby wanted to throw it away, I remembered, I had bought some of those(3) red "trays" several years ago. Supposedly they go around plants esp. tomato plants. supposedly, the color, red ,supposedly to help plants?
At the time the real red "trays" were back at the old house. LOL
Woo - way out of my experience. What's fish tape? What's a fishing wall?
The red idea is supposed to help tomatoes ripen. I have no idea if it works. But rhubarb doesn't ripen. It's just stems so even if it works on tomatoes it will do nothing for rhubarb.
With butternuts I want the green stripes to fade until you can hardly see them, and the color of the rind should change from pinkish beige to a nutty brown. The vines are usually not completely dead. Curing the squash in a warm sunny spot for a couple of weeks will "finish" butternuts that are a shade short of perfect.
Planatus has it just about the way I do it. The squash start out green, then turn light tan, with longitudinal green stripes. Those stripes get thinner and thinner, and finally they disappear, at which point the squash should be completely tan/beige. I often let them sit even as the vines die, and pluck them up when the vines are no more. Don't forget to dip the harvested squash in a dilute bleach solution to sterilize the skin. That will make them last longer. I believe that if the vines are dead and there are still thin green stripes, those stripes will eventually go away by themselves.
Planatus -- Yes, I was wondering if it was all the rain -- we had a lot in WV too.
Rodney -- The weird thing is, this was the first year I soaked the cloves before I planted them (in water with some liquid kelp). Maybe I soaked them in a solution that was not the correct ratio of water to seaweed? Thanks for the tip on the allium forum -- I'll try posting there as well.
Sunnibel -- have looked up onion maggots, and need to still learn more. I did plant the onion bed next to the garlic bed this year -- against my better judgement, but that was the only bed ready for onions when I had limited time to plant them. Aargh! Well, it looks like complete harvesting and leaving no culls controls the maggots pretty well. There's always next year.
Yes, that's what I've read too, but I don't know if it works in my particular location. We have very large amounts of wild allium around us, another place for the maggots to breed? The maggots were here when we moved in, anyhow. So I ended up hitting on the strategy of planting later, to avoid that last mating and egg-laying of the fly. I did that last fall (as well as being very thorough in my harvesting and placing culls in the trash, not compost) and I had good stand from the garlic in spring and many fewer infested heads at harvest time.
Great advice here, check out the square foot gardening section for ways to grow in smaller spaces. You don't have to raise the beds, it is for info on the cardboard system for stopping future weeds. If you want to get the beds a foot or so deep, you can use bricks, concrete blocks, or anything you can think of to make a border.
Fast growing and quick satisfaction, radishes are under a month, and you can eat the green tops as well. We also cook the radishes themselves, take kind of like cauliflower.
Cheri
Given your hot climate, you'll want to start off with heat-loving crops to plant first, followed by cool-season crops when daytime temperatures drop into the 80s. Basically, reverse the order followed by most U.S gardeners. For example, you can plant okra now (or any time during the spring and summer, really). You'll want to research what other veggies are grown around there and take the heat - a lot of plants in the okra family are eaten as food there.
In about a month, you'll be able to direct seed peppers, zucchini and tomatoes, but keep the soil shaded and cool while they germinate.
Look for the eggs and pick them off. The eggs are brown little round things that can be anywhere on the plant, but more often on the stem. Also, look for holes in the stem. The larvae is very small at first. I have pulled some out of my zukes this year that were barely the size of a grain of rice. They eat and grow and destroy their way down the stem!
Well the tops of them have what is called yellow shoulders and uneven ripening. Those conditions are caused by poor growing conditions - primarily overly wet soil, temperature extremes, low potassium, inconsistent soil moisture levels and periods of excessive heat or cold. You can learn much more about it over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here..
The one bottom showing that looks like it might have some soft spots is also caused by uneven ripening. The soft spots have ripened much faster than the rest of the fruit. Just cut the soft spots out and eat the rest.
Again you can eliminate some of this by picking the fruit at color break so that it isn't exposed to the temperature extremes and by stabilizing your soil moisture levels better.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Causes of uneven ripening and yellow shoulders
All to do is to it one. If it taste woody and dry then you picked them too late but if it is normal then it is NORMAL. !
To me they look fine. The tops are still green and alive.
The long skinny varieties that are sold in supermarkets are some of the least flavorful that you can grow. My favorite is the Red Cored Chantenay, but there are many others that are quite good. Let us know how they taste. The photograph that you have posted looks like very healthy and delicious carrots. Contrary to what some people believe, young carrots are not always tastier than more mature ones. The flavor and sugars develop with maturity. See the following website for much more on carrot culture. Click on "Techniques", then on "Carrots".
Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick