23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
In my (limited) experience, not really. You can do a bit of training, but the vines are brittle and difficult to control. You can kind of direct it in one direction but trying to keep it in one direction only I don't think will work out. If they can sprawl out in 3 directions, then ok that might work.
This is a picture of my Small Sugar pumpkins from last year, at maybe 65% size. This is 2 plants but mostly just one in the picture. As you can see, it is taking over. They had like 10x10 space in the garden but that wasn't even close to enough. They grew out over the Spirea, onto the ground.. it was a mess. That fence is 6' high.
This is in the garden when they were maybe 40-50% size - 2 plants
Just recently I had my own experience with Burpee selling something on an in-store seed rack but having no information online. So now if I come across something on a Burpee rack that sounds interesting and have never heard of before I'll look it up prior to buying.
Rodney
Thank you for all the answers. I am in zone 7a in northeast OK. I haven't had any trouble with birds eating my plants. I have never grown watermelons but have had success with cantaloupe. I may not have enough space for the watermelons but we'll see how it goes.
Hi, it looks to me like it has either been cross polinated with another member of the melon family, or it wasn't sure if it wanted to grow a fruit or a leaf. As in roses, which aren't related. Sometimes they will grow thorns on the flower petals as the petals and thorns are also considered leaves. Just a thought.
Watermelons will only cross with citron and other watermelons. And if the OP's melon is the result of cross pollination, which seems unlikely, then the crossing would had to have happened to the parent plant that produced the seeds this plant was grown from.
Rodney
http://www.veggiegardener.com/preventing-powdery-mildew-on-cucumbers-squash-melons/
Milk, baking soda and a drop of detergent (wetting agent).
It seems your test is only for P, K, Ca, Mg, pH and OM%. While this does reveal some potential issues it is a very incomplete test. What is revealed here of course is that you are quite low on Potassium and several good recommendations have been given for that. Your Ca and Mg and pH are quite adequate so you don't need to bother with limes.Keep in mind Greensand (if you use it) contains alot of Iron and Magnesium, and you're already more than sufficient in Magnesium. You may also be high in Iron for all we know. That's something you need to be aware of, many soil amendments contain additional minerals that may not be good. For example, I won't use chicken manure in my garden because I already have high levels of Phosphorous and Potassium.
I particularly like to know the Sulfur level because it is an important mineral for plant health and I also use a couple of soil additives that contain Sulfur (gypsum and ammonium sulfate), And since my Sulfur levels are reasonably low, I don't worry that I might be getting too high in Sulfur, for the time being anyway.
If it were me I'd want to know the Sulfur content, and all those others honestly. What if your Zinc levels are way low? They're probably not but I'd be curious.
The exchange capacities look pretty good from my limited understanding, excepting K which we understand.
I use a test that covers all the minerals listed in your report, and a few more. It costs $35 which I don't consider cheap but I value the information. It includes amendment recommendations per 1000 square feet. I did this for the last two years but will likely only do it every 2nd or 3rd year going forward.
What type of worm system do you have? Mine is just a tote with holes drilled in, so I rarely get liquid seeping out. Not an expert, but I believe that its very concentrated, so you do have to be careful with spraying or using unless well diluted. It's usually a sign of too wet conditions within (which I also will admit that mine is right now, as I just fed them a bunch of frostbit watermelon discovered hiding in the back of the freezer that didn't get turned into sorbet).
I use my castings by top dressing them on my container plants (mostly herbs). I have also been using them mixed into the mix when potting up my seedlings. Haven't had enough left to make tea from yet, but will probably do that later in summer and sub that for a fish/sea feeding on the herbs, but I'm not personally a fan of spraying.
It is quite a fun list. I'm on my second year with a pair of blueberries myself, but just had to replace one that didn't make it overwinter. What types of containers are you using for all the veg? And, I'll work on getting over jealousy of the tropicals like avocado!
I always remove the mulch and scratch it in the top layer of soil as others have mentioned, and I think it says on the bag. I also do container gardening, but still strive to create an active food web in my mix (and yes, worms do find their way into containers). The reason I remove the mulch is my garden is small so I don't mind and my mulch layer is about 4-6 inches deep so it would take some time for the ferts and things to get down to the roots which is where I want it. I also want to avoid them washing away, because like I mentioned I am container gardening. Secondly, the organic granular fert I use has a bunch of beneficial microbes that I am looking to get into the mix immediately and I really don't want it in my mulch. These microbes break down the fert so it can be accessible to the plants and by doing this it also speeds up composting, basically meaning my mulch will break much faster than I really wanted. I use it for moisture retention. The soil amendment part is just a bi-product for me too. I am sure if I had a large plot on regular dirt I would just broadcast too.
I am in zone 7a and I tried overwintering my globe artichokes in the winter of 2013 by cutting them down, covering with leaves and then covering with a pot. The winter was harsh and it did not work. This year I planted both globe and imperial and am going to try again. My artichokes are in a raised bed and before the first freeze, I am going to cut them to 8 inches high, mound dirt around then with 1 inch on top; cover with shredded leaves and then cover with a plastic sheet. But I am not very concerned if that does not work because I believe I will get artichokes this year as an annual.
I was able to dig around and find one of the potatoes without damaging it. It had a few sprouts out of it about an inch long each. I guess I just buried them too deep. I'll let them go and wait for the sprouts to show through then cover them with straw.
If that is going to be a serious problem for you then there are many other liquid organic alternatives to fish emulsion available. But it needs to be kept at root level for it to be of any benefit to the plants. Assuming you have mulch on the plants you can pull it back water and then replace the mulch.
Dave
Nitsua is correct....it's also called a May Beetle. I've got them in fairly large populations here, but rarely see much damage. The adults prefer to munch on tree foliage while the grubs feed on the roots of certain grains and turf. I, personally, don't worry about them too much.
We'll need to see pictures of the iridescent green beetles for an ID. It seems too early for the dreaded JBs.
I'm not sure that you really need to do anything. Firstly are you certain they have mites and are not just old tatty leaves? Note that they are touching the ground where they get splashes, fungal spores and physical attrition. Personally, I would do nothing and just remove the lower leaves.
Geez, people. Perhaps the OP wants to use the raised bed simply for aesthetic reasons. Nothing wrong with that.
Rodney
I wasn't saying there was anything wrong with it... just that might as well use it elsewhere where it will be more useful (and still look just as good)... assuming there is an elsewhere.