23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Last year I was late getting my carrot seed in the ground. It was in October when I sowed. My carrots grew, but oh so slowly. It was December before I started harvesting them. This year, I sowed carrots the first week of September. It has made a huge difference. I am very close to harvest size now. Perhaps timing was your problem? (I was late getting the beets sown this year due to space availability. Guess what? They are growing very very slowly. I may just get beet greens this winter, which is actually okay. but, as you can see, timing can be everything this time of year.)
Brassicas (broccoli, etc.) are heavy feeders. Perhaps they could use a nitrogen boost? Also, take a look at the sunlight levels they are getting. The sun moves in the sky in the winter and plants that are in full sun in summer are sometimes getting more shade in the fall and winter. Broccoli likes full sun.
This may be a little off topic, but I have used peat moss as bedding for my horses. There have been studies done that demonstrate that peat moss is 90% more absorbent when it is wet or damp than when it is dry. It is very effective as bedding because it can absorb so much urine and is also odorless (there is no urine smell), so the wet peat moss doesn't have to be removed when cleaning the stalls.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that when properly wetted, peat moss can absorb rainfall and serve as a sort of reservoir during the dry spells. That is how and why I use it in my raised beds.
peat moss can absorb rainfall and serve as a sort of reservoir during the dry spells. That is how and why I use it in my raised beds.
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that is yet another drawback of peat moss, that keeps the soil soggy. You need good drainage. To cure that the commercial grower add a lot of perlite , compost and pine barks.
Nancy
The map was just a snapshot in the early morning hour. The date an time is on the map.
My point was is that winter is inevitable, by a wide spread of BLUE from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Exceptions are : parts of CA, FL, Southwest.
4' x 8' x 1 ft deep: Is that a container ? It sounds like a large raised bed to me.
This post was edited by seysonn on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 4:07
It is a box raised up off of the ground to save my aching back.
Whatever the neighbors put in it (they said really good soil) started my spring plants, then either burned them up or something was missing cause they all yellowed up and stopped producing! I kept them watered and gave them slow release fert like the container people said, but they insisted I had the wrong type of soil.
I couldn't afford all new soil for all 3 beds, so I mostly emptied one and filled it with the 1/2 truckload I had and all is well in that container now.
Anyway, yes, winter is on it's way. Supposed to get our first rain Tuesday. Nancy
It shouldn't need any protection in your zone, except maybe from hungry deer (I've heard they're all over the D.C. suburbs). One easy thing to do is clip branches from one of the Christmas trees that get put out for recycling, and lay them over the spinach for a bit of protection as we go deeper into winter.
Coleman does recommend a shallower box -- (I think it's 8 inches in the front, 12
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elisa .... mine is about 15" front and 30" the back.Probably I will burry it 2 to 3 inches.
I will have two shelves inside. The back shelf will be about 20"H and one in the middle about 10"H(sort of like wooden steps). Under the shelves will be used to store things like empty pots/trays and also put trays to germinate seeds. I like deeper box better. It has more air volume and the temperatures don't fluctuate as fast. Plus it can accommodate some taller seedlings as well.
Sounds like how our fall started over here in Maryland. Especially the part about wanting to calm the allergies and green things up. It did finally turn into quite a nice fall here, with some warm days, some cold days, some sunny days and some rainy days. The good thing about the weather is it is variable. It always changes eventually!
Seyson, you're rain and drizzle all the time, aren't you?
I'm just north of SF in the wine country (Sonoma, NOT Napa!). Very Mediteranian.
But this year is even dryer and warmer than I've ever remembered!
I hope we aren't in for another drought! Nancy
Zackey .... those are called bulbil. You can the escapes after certain stage and keep them in water for a while. The bulbils will mature(like wild onion bulbils). Then you plant those and you'll get small single clove garlic. If you plant them again, then you will get normal garlic.
Garlic bulbils don't always produce rounds in the first year. I used to think this too because of everything I had read. Last fall I planted some bulbils and most of them that I planted made whole bulbs this summer but they were small. Below is a link showing the small bulbs.
sweetlydark- How big are the bulbs in the picture and do they have individual cloves or not? Where were they planted (inside or outside)? Were they in pots and if so, how big were the pots? How much light were they getting? I know it's a lot of questions but the more info you provide the better.
Rodney
Here is a link that might be useful: My Bulbil Experiment
on the root ball. The more you can loosen the roots, the better. But ,of course, you should take care to not break anymore roots than you have to. Put them in really good soil and water in well. If you live in Zone 5, you probably ought to provide some protection from cold too, like floating row cover, cloches or a cold frame. I suspect the plants were marked down drastically because it's very late for them to go into the ground and make much to eat this year. As the weather gets colder, the plants almost stop growing, if they don't freeze to death. But I live in Zone 8, so I could certainly be wrong! Good luck. You have very little to lose, so it's cheap experience.
Thank you, donnabaskets!
I'm actually on the outer banks of North Carolina right now, helping a friend with a very small garden. It is SO fun to plant things in this zone (I think it's 8) that I know won't freeze, and may not even vernalize. Back home it's snowing!
It almost looks like a Lemon cucumber crossed with the plants that the supplier was saving for seed. Lemon cukes have a shape similar (not quite the same) as the round one in your pic but obviously the color is way off for a Lemon cuke.
And there's only one way to find out if it's edible: taste it. There's no point in waiting around as cucumbers are edible at nearly any stage.
Rodney
Before I initially I posted this thread, I had done a google search for "camel manure fertilizer". I had read that it is very popular in Australia. But I just now did a google search for "camel manure fertilizer UAE" and got this info from a veterinary site here in UAE:
"Dogs that are walked on the central grassy reservations pick up lots of ticks. We believe this is because the lawns in Abu Dhabi are fertilized with camel manure that includes loads of ticks..."
So I am giving up on that plan! d
Hmm. Not too surprising about ticks. But of course if you're going to dig the manure in, not sure what difference it would make. For the lawns, I'm pretty sure it isn't dug in. I think ticks require blood feeding at each several-month stage of their life-cycle to survive. So I would think if you got some older, dried up patties, you might be good to go.
"nc, I do not understand what you mean by topping out. Do you mean that once the plants get to their ultimate height they stop producing?"
When okra "tops out" it's the point where production slows severely...there's less vertical growth, less flower set, etc...it goes slow as if it's reached a maximum height. It technically is still growing and the plant is healthy, but it's production and continued vertical growth greatly slows down.
A lot of this is because of the properties of the variety type. Under ideal conditions a lot of heirloom types will get to 6-10ft before they top out...some newer varieties tend to top out around 5-6ft...some dwarf types will top out around 3-4ft. These are generalized heights, btw...while variety plays a huge part in when they top out, a plant that tops out at 6ft one season can easily be a plant that tops out at 8ft the following season. It gets kinda weird that respect.
I mostly plant Clemson Spineless...and while these plants can get to 7-8ft high for some people, I find that in my area they tend to "top out" around 5-6ft.
"And, do you think I waited too long to cut my plants back? They were probably five feet tall when I cut them back by half. Should I have cut them earlier so as to remove less plant material?"
It really doesn't matter when you cut them back...what really matters is that there is enough favorable weather left to grow and produce pods in the weeks it takes for the plant to recover and start producing again after cutting.
As far as how much to cut...they're surprisingly durable plants. On commercial farms in the late summer (preparing for fall harvest) they'll go over fields with brush mowers cutting them down to 8-12" stubs off the ground to rejuvenate the plants. Even a lot of plants that don't have leaves left on them after mowing will generally spout new branches and start growing.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 23:21
"Could sun be the big limiting factor?"
Not directly. Temperature is the most limiting factor for okra. I've seen okra at 80 degrees barely growing but sprouting half a dozen pods a week at 90 degrees. This is not to say sun exposure is unimportant, just that temperature is more likely to be the limiting factor. So long as okra has 6 or 7 hours of full sun each day, production will be reasonably good.