24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening




You mean heat selectively suppresses female flowers? Interesting. I had never heard that. Probably sensible in the sense that female flowers are more pricey for the plant to produce and so, under stress, those are sacrificed. When I look hard, I can find just a few, that I am taking some pains to hand-pollinate. I guess that also means that the plant is investing it's limited vigor and energy into a smaller number of fruit. For those few female flowers that are produced, you still need male pollen, so you can churn out loads of male flowers.
Plants are pretty smart, really.



Could you clarify? Your title says stem split but your post talks about upper portion of the fruit itself has split. Different situations with different results.
A stem split usually poses no problems and will scab over and heal itself. It is usually caused by inconsistent soil moisture levels that cause it to swell and shrink, swell and split.
But if the fruit itself is split and damaged there really isn't much you can do - leave it for the bugs and bacteria to invade or harvest it and if ripe, cut out the damaged area and eat it. But you can't really store a damaged fruit without molds and bacteria developing and further spreading. If it isn't ripe then you might as well just compost it.
Dave

I stumbled upon this thread, and in case anyone still follows it, I'm resurrecting it. Here's what I just posted regarding my efforts with squash in containers. In my case, it's a 30 gallon trash can, about 3/4 full. Imho, 1-- thirty gallon container for 5 plants is far better than 6 fivers.
http://www.houzz.com/discussions/3286405#15531435
Rick in CT

People often try to grow large, vining squashes in restricted root zone areas. I have done it myself by cultivating, watering, and fertilizing a 3x3 patch of soil and letting the vines spread out over the surrounding weedy hardpan. It doesn't work. Wilting is one problem. In the end I got nice looking squashes with miserable quality. I can't imagine pots being much better. The roots need just as much space as the vines do. If they don't get it, your squash plants simply can't produce fully ripened, high quality fruits. Maybe zucchinis, but not winter squashes.

I tried to post a picture, but it appears I don't have the know-how to accomplish that task.
A few answers: I think it's a clear substance...shiny. It's just in areas of the patch now. Yes, the vines are blooming and setting fruit. At least a couple melin have the sticky stuff on them. From the 2 plants, I have identified 18 different melons. I have lost a couple that split open, a couple that have wrinkled up and withered after they'd started to grow. I do believe it is a case of aphids. I was in the patch checking and picking a melon this morning and when I came out, I realized that I had many very small crawly things on my arms. I'd say infestation, it is!
I tackled the situation with horticultural oil spray, doing the best I could to hit the underside of the leaves with the spray. Do you suppose that will be enough to knock back the population?
Can aphids destroy the vine? I already lost my cantaloupe this year before I was able to harvest any because of bacterial wilt. I'm hoping that the watermelon will make it.

I just eat them raw. I'll grab a bundle of them, roll them up, and just take bites outta them. This is what I did with a huge squash plant. I think the taste is pretty decent, the hairs don't bother me at all - although I was kinda hesitant the first time I was about to eat them - but before I consumed them I did a lot of reading and a lot articles/blogs mentioned boiling them in water. Personally I enjoy raw foods so I just ended up eating them all raw. But if I was to preserve them over winter, which is what I wanna do with some pumpkin leaves, I would let the sun dry them out, and then in a few months I would soak them, and perhaps even boil them in water so they regain there natural texture back. Of course I haven't tried this yet, but people dry out kale leaves and other greens to preserve them so the idea is the same.


You can plant strawberries bare root runners till end of august - latest would be September 10th in your area. But you may need to cover them for winter with straw. Blueberries and raspberries can be planted in October , or even November if they are BARE ROOT. If you buy them in pots - you can plant them any time, just make sure water well if you plant in summer.

There is also a California Wonder variety that ripen to orange too. I am growing Carmen this year for the first time that is a large bulls horn shape and very sweet pepper when ripe. They are prolific but only started ripening to red in the last week or so which was a couple weeks later than the listed DTM I think due to the cool and wet spring.

I have peppers in pots and peppers in the garden. I have a mix of sweet varieties, but I have some of each variety in each location. The garden pepper plants are bigger as are the peppers on the plants. I'm not much of a container gardener, and it's more of a location test on the side of the house but my point is smaller plants do appear to produce smaller peppers.


This may be a be the time to prepare for more tomatoes ...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2229127/can-we-pick-our-tomatoes-while-still-green
A link worth reading ...
How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table

The most common cause of mealy tomatoes is lack of or inconsistent soil moisture available. Excess day heat followed by overly cool night temps during the early stages of development can also cause it. So can micronutrient issues - specifically insufficient zinc and/or copper.
And reduced size and production is almost always insufficient nutrient issues.
TSWV fruit have a very distinctive external appearance - as in the pic above - but it isn't normally related to fruit size or texture and they do not taste good.
Dave

I'm pretty consistent with my watering. I do a deep watering about 1x per week. I did plant a month early this year cause the drought gave us the temps to do so. We do have cool evenings and warm days here in Sonoma Co, CA.
I didn't go out and search for the bugs .
I guess I'm going to finally get a soil test done, but I have 7 4x8 raised beds and 3 3x8 raised up off the ground beds and can't afford to test them all!
I use my own compost in a few beds per year and have been using the landfill compost (certified organic) for quite awhile. I also get free compost tea.
Unfortunately, our landfill compost is going to be moved due to a lawsuit and we have to use the place that costs twice as much to top our beds!
How would I add zink or copper? Nancy







I think your timing is pretty good. Another suggestion would be to start sowing radishes now and sow more weekly until about 30 days before your expected first frost. Daikon (Asian) radishes should also be planted now with a 40-45 DTM. Can't think of too much else that would be ready by early October for you.
Here in colder NH, my late planting of bush beans has to make it through a light frost that always seems to occur around Sept 18. We are in a low area compared to our neighbors in this hilly town. The garden is in wide open whereas at my other house we were surrounded by trees and on a small hill. My mother-in-law only 2 miles away would get a frost before I would. My suggestion is to have some frost protection ready. I like Agribon garden fabric. I have a portable low tunnel that should be covered in Agribon to keep the plants warm. Once that night or couple of nights have passed, we usually get a couple more weeks of warm weather.
You can plant hard neck garlic before the ground freezes. Mine produces garlic scapes by the end of June and bulbs are harvested a few weeks later. I planted late bush beans and broccoli seedlings in the same space after adding soil amendments.