23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Agree with sunnibel7 and find that the main causes of problems with hardening off is either (a) plants that were started far too early and so are less tolerant of hardening and transplanting, and (b) starting the hardening off process far too early. It isn't the size or age of the plants that should determine when to harden-off, it is when is the planting time?
Planting dates are determined before seeds are even started and other than weather at that time which we can't control, you start hardening off a few days to a week before planting time. If you can't plant until May 15th (for example) why would you start hardening off May 1 ? Rather wait till May 12th when the weather will likely allow the plants to go in the shade and just stay there until planting time. Bringing them in and out and in and out only stresses the plants and defeats the point of hardening.
Check out the FAQ here that describes how to use various containers like a laundry basket under a shade tree to harden off. Even a cardboard box works. The goal isn't direct sun exposure, it is air temp, UV, and wind acclimation.
Dave
Here's what I do and it generally works pretty good.
I don't babysit the plants. I simply refuse to do it. When it's time to start moving them outdoors, they go outdoors all day starting day number 1. I put them in a real shady spot for the first couple days then a spot that gets dappled shade, then partial sun, etc etc. I don't play the "hours" game I don't have time for that lol. All day, everyday (unless the weather turns sour).
As I said in my previous comment, I do have other beds elsewhere that I haven't shown. :) And while I do enjoy drawing up the plans and try to stick to them as best I can, there is almost always a some kind of problem.
Rodney
I must admit I did most of it just to get through winter. The biggest thing it did was let me know how many different plants I should get. Before I made the diagram, I had about 5 more different pepper seeds, and about 3 more tomato seeds. After making the diagram, I knew I had to eliminate some choices, which wasn't easy :).
your answer can be found on following thread.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2833511/sincere-question-why-participate
In order to identify the female plants I think you'd have to grow them to seed bearing age (3 years?) - and you might want to make sure they don't get a chance to drop potentially-female seed before weeding them out. Some writers suggest you don't want any seed to drop anyway, to avoid overcrowding the bed with new volunteer plants.
As for shipping across borders, many US companies do ship seed to Canada but I haven''t found any willing to ship asparagus root. Whether that's because they're prohibited, and whether it also applies to other plants, I don't know.
Johnny's was the only one who followed through on sending the catalog, so they got my business. I was planning on buying from them anyway. So far I am very happy. We'll see how the seeds do!
I bought a couple seed packets from Harris I couldn't find elsewhere and they were sent prompt and without issue as well.
Does everyone know about egardnersplace it is the parent website of Jung, McClure and Zimmerman, Totally Tomatoes, Roots & Rhizomes, Edmunds Roses, R.H. Shumway and Vermont Bean Company. The combination of all those different catalogs makes it a great site in my opinion. You can get everything you want with one shipping cost. Obviously a huge selection. I only discovered it because I noticed those seed catalogs had the same address so I called the company. They never mention it on the individual websites for those companies. It can be confusing when you search because multiple catalogs can offer the exact same product but at different prices. However when there are multiple hits on a search they are grouped together and you can pick the cheapest one easily. I order from them annually and I have not had any issues with their seeds. I couldn't speak to the plants they offer as I haven't ever been happy with mail order plants from any company so I don't order them.
I also really like Baker's Creek for their selection of uncommon varieties. Territorial Seed also has a huge selection though I never seem to see anything I want.
The front of my house faces east, and none of the plants that require full sun do very well in the front. Those that can stand partial shade do better.
My guess is that you would get some harvest, and that might make you happy, but if you have other options, might be better to invest the money for the raised bed somewhere that gets more sun.
One other point to note - the front beds take much longer to dry out after a rain - again, this might be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on what you plant, and your drainage.
The location of the sun sounds good to me. My garden sits in a similar position. I just wanted to add that raised beds need more water because the soil dries out faster in hot temperatures. Also, if the yard slopes away from the house, your water will presumably run off as well (I assume the landscaping is designed for this). So be sure to water with some frequency.
We love Clemson Spineless - out here in IL, we plant straight from seed, after last frost. The spacing seems right, we plant ~20 plants in two rows of 10. Last year we were trying to harvest weekly at our community garden plot, and we were having to toss quite a few as they were too small one weekend and overdone the next. Harvesting about once every 2-3 days would probably be best as donnabaskets suggests.
We put in an elevated raised bed for a salad garden last summer -- it's 2x8 and 30" tall, with a false floor 10" down from the top (cedar slats & landscape fabric on steel brackets). (The two boxes at the ends are 2x2 and 15" tall, no false bottom.) It looks good and it's easy for people with bad knees (i.e., me!).
I guess the only thing that I can realistically do is nothing. I already grow them on trellises and I've tried rotating them amongst my raised beds. Last year I even try grown some from seed mid-season in a fabric container with 5-1-1 mix. It started out great then went the same route as the cukes I had started earlier in the season.
Realistically you can plant an ALS resistant variety. Not foolproof , but usually gives you sufficient edge to harvest cukes. For slicers varieties include Speedway, Dasher II,Thunder, Talledega etc. Ther are sevral pickler varieties Arabian, Calypso, Carolina etc. Don't kow of any burpless types with ALS resistance but they are probably out there. Belay that, Sweet Slice has ALS resistance.
nancyjane, I got an e-mail recently. I did not click the button [if it had one] to confirm my GW account. Maybe I thought it could be spam like I have gotten...just wanting you to click their link. I finally made it here, but am still trying to figure out where everybody and everything is.
I don't care to get retinue e-mails either. Still, I liked the Dave's Garden D mail which were person to person mail that stayed with the site.
If you post in a discussion, you will be automatically "following" a post, such that notification of comments will be e-mailed to you, as per the frequency directives that Humsi was talking about. Those directives are for ALL e-mails, from ALL discussions. But at the bottom of the discussion that you have posted in, there is, in little green letters, a clickable link "Click to switch off notification about new comments >". If you simply want to turn off notifications for that discussion. Click that. This seems to work fine. As noted above, I just wish that the default was that you DON'T follow a discussion you contributed to, and select if you wanted to. That's the way it was in the old GW.