24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening


No you don't have to use rows. Many folks use Sq Foot gardening guidelines but don't use Mel's Mix in the bed. You can plant just as Sq foot does and work more nutrients into each square or you can reduce the number you put in each square. It is up to you. But either way you will have to add more nutrients to what you have so far.
And if you are direct seeding then all you have to do if it looks overcrowded after they germinate is just thin the plants out. Even as they grow if it gets over crowded remove a couple. Don't over-complicate the process. Nothing says once planted it has to stay there if it is creating problems. Pull it so the others can do well.
Dave

Planting in native ground is very hit and miss. For example, a few years back I started trying to grow vegetables for the first time.I planted Radishes and they were growing and getting leafy. The problem is that they weren't bulbing up ever. A year later, I tried again with another area, and the Radishes did really well! So native soil can be hit and miss.



Environmental damage - sun scald/wind burn. Both common in spring plantings depending on where you are located - which would be nice to include in the space provided for best info.
Poses no long term harm to the plants unless they weren't well hardened off prior to planting.
Dave

The sun damage would be consistent with our weather ��" there have been a few consecutive sunny days lately and until then the plants had been in a sunroom waiting for nighttime temperatures to drop.
I filled in the zone box. Missed it when posting from my phone and didn't even think about the importance. Hopefully it doesn't show much more about me other than being new to the art.
Thank you all! Looking forward to learning a lot more this summer.
Dave

Dave,
Thanks for the reply. I`ll try having a look at the plants after dark to see if it is slugs. I have seen them before eating away at my radishes and turnips in times past. Haven`t seen any beetles yet but that doesn`t mean that they haven`t been visiting me while I was away from the garden. That could be a possibility. The bird suggestion could be viable too. I see some occasionally hopping around in the beans.
Terry,
no signs of MBB and no yellow eggs under the foliage. I know MBB quite well. LOL! Seem to see them show up every year. I hate it when they do that. Those suckers have come to the "party" more than once. They usually show up later in the growing season though with regularity. Maybe it is slugs. A night time outing is going to happen in the near future.
This post was edited by hobbiest on Thu, May 22, 14 at 18:26

John: Finally got around to taking a few pics. I may bot have the space for even a dwarf. Check these out.
I thought maybe here but seems too narrow and it would fight to get good sun all day. :(

This would be the only sunlight after noon

This would be in the way before noon(notice the fence at the bottom of pic

I thought also maybe right here, but I'd have to remove the ornamental in the corner

Probably should just stick with the Sharwil, huh?
Kevin

From the Millennium Seed Bank FAQ: "Not surprisingly, few longevity experiments of any age that mirror seed conservation storage are available for us to study today. However, in 1987, samples of cereal and weed seeds were germinated that had been placed within sealed glass vials in Vienna 110 years earlier (reported by Steiner & Ruckenbauer in 1995). One of the aims of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is to set up a carefully controlled set of longevity experiments that future generations can study.
That's nuthin' compared to the 24,000 year old mung bean, of course.
(Personally, I think seed sellers encourage us to want fresh seeds and 100% germination. When you have older seed, and just want a few plants, 25% germination is fine ....)

This is also good: "An interesting story relates to seeds of the legume Albizzia julibrissin on a pressed herbarium specimen collected from China in 1793 and deposited in the British Museum. This specimen was 'watered' while a fire was being extinguished in 1940 and several seeds (at least 147 years old) germinated.
... we'll see how well stored my old snow pea seeds are. They're about 15 years old, and I plan on trying them this fall.


I have been using my tomato cages for every solanaceae except tomatoes just like you, Dave. The increasing size of the rungs is great for when the plants get larger and hold multiple fruits. The irony...
Botanically speaking, it's a fruit. Culinarily speaking, it's a vegetable. That's what I've determined.

I find that eggplant will be eaten alive by flea beetles if unorotected. Cucumbers usually are bothered by cucumber beetles. Broccoli leaves can be eaten by cabbage worms [eggs laid by moths], and peppers are usually not harmed by insects.
Chose your poison or covering remembering that the blossoms have to be pollinated. The insects bothering eggplant and cucumbers tend to swarm in over-night.


Chard sweetens up in the fall when it gets colder. I am reading Eating on the Wild Side which is about plant history and which veggies have most phytonutrients. There is some information about how temperature and time effect plants because of chemical changes. Asparagus starts to lose its sweetness about 4 hours after picking. I don't recall what the book might have said about lettuce. I tend to have bitter lettuce. Trying to grow varieties at the right time. Some are better in cooler weather others do better in hot. Right now, my spinach tastes sweet to me but it's been growing in a high tunnel and starting to bolt (I'm in NH) so need to eat the rest of it soon.



zackey: if it's still there, I'm sure it's still installed. But, to check --- tools, add-ons, extensions.
I'm thinking malware. Download malwarebytes free version and do a scan. If it doesn't get it, download combofix and run it.
Kevin
Do you mean ABP (AdBlock Plus)?
If it is installed and you're still getting pop-ups, follow Woohooman's advice and install the FREE Malwarebytes, then run a scan.
Get it directly from its home site, and make sure you get the FREE version, not the Trial or paid(Premium) one...
Here is a link that might be useful: Malwarebytes