23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Planatus -- Yes, I was wondering if it was all the rain -- we had a lot in WV too.
Rodney -- The weird thing is, this was the first year I soaked the cloves before I planted them (in water with some liquid kelp). Maybe I soaked them in a solution that was not the correct ratio of water to seaweed? Thanks for the tip on the allium forum -- I'll try posting there as well.
Sunnibel -- have looked up onion maggots, and need to still learn more. I did plant the onion bed next to the garlic bed this year -- against my better judgement, but that was the only bed ready for onions when I had limited time to plant them. Aargh! Well, it looks like complete harvesting and leaving no culls controls the maggots pretty well. There's always next year.
Yes, that's what I've read too, but I don't know if it works in my particular location. We have very large amounts of wild allium around us, another place for the maggots to breed? The maggots were here when we moved in, anyhow. So I ended up hitting on the strategy of planting later, to avoid that last mating and egg-laying of the fly. I did that last fall (as well as being very thorough in my harvesting and placing culls in the trash, not compost) and I had good stand from the garlic in spring and many fewer infested heads at harvest time.
Great advice here, check out the square foot gardening section for ways to grow in smaller spaces. You don't have to raise the beds, it is for info on the cardboard system for stopping future weeds. If you want to get the beds a foot or so deep, you can use bricks, concrete blocks, or anything you can think of to make a border.
Fast growing and quick satisfaction, radishes are under a month, and you can eat the green tops as well. We also cook the radishes themselves, take kind of like cauliflower.
Cheri
Given your hot climate, you'll want to start off with heat-loving crops to plant first, followed by cool-season crops when daytime temperatures drop into the 80s. Basically, reverse the order followed by most U.S gardeners. For example, you can plant okra now (or any time during the spring and summer, really). You'll want to research what other veggies are grown around there and take the heat - a lot of plants in the okra family are eaten as food there.
In about a month, you'll be able to direct seed peppers, zucchini and tomatoes, but keep the soil shaded and cool while they germinate.
Look for the eggs and pick them off. The eggs are brown little round things that can be anywhere on the plant, but more often on the stem. Also, look for holes in the stem. The larvae is very small at first. I have pulled some out of my zukes this year that were barely the size of a grain of rice. They eat and grow and destroy their way down the stem!
Well the tops of them have what is called yellow shoulders and uneven ripening. Those conditions are caused by poor growing conditions - primarily overly wet soil, temperature extremes, low potassium, inconsistent soil moisture levels and periods of excessive heat or cold. You can learn much more about it over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here..
The one bottom showing that looks like it might have some soft spots is also caused by uneven ripening. The soft spots have ripened much faster than the rest of the fruit. Just cut the soft spots out and eat the rest.
Again you can eliminate some of this by picking the fruit at color break so that it isn't exposed to the temperature extremes and by stabilizing your soil moisture levels better.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Causes of uneven ripening and yellow shoulders
This plant is actually one that my mother planted in her garden last year and is one of two that survived the heatwave last summer. It mostly has been left to it's own devices. I am just getting into gardening now and I am planning to fertilise and use a homemade pesticide for the bugs that have chewed some of the leaves.
What I didn't know is if the capsicums themselves were going to be okay, and if there was something I could do to help. I've just read that either over-watering them or under-watering could cause green capsicums to turn black too, so maybe that is the problem?
Never heard of over or under watering would cause blackening. I'm still going with sunburn. Although, the aperture of the sun right now in the southern hemi is low, all it takes is real bright days for them to burn. With a lot of varieties of peppers, the foliage protects the fruit, but bells stick out there exposed. if you're seeing the black only on the side of the fruit that the sun hits, it's sunburn.
Regarding watering --- Peppers like water just like any vegetable, but they hate WET feet. So, your watering schedule should be drench, dry out, drench, dry out, and so on.
Do the finger test. Stick your finger in the soil about 2 inches If it's dry, water. If moist, don't. Or you can let the plants wilt in between waterings. You'll get the hang of when they need it.
Kevin
The rain, rain, rain led to a bodacious outbreak of late blight here in the Southern Appalachians this year, and most tomatoes were dead by Aug. 1. Not Mountain Magic, a blight-resistant cherry tomato developed at NC State. It's still pumping out golf ball-size tomatoes like crazy, with not hint of late blight on a single leaf or fruit, and no cracked fruits either. I am impressed!
Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain magic tomato
Burpee Hybrid II cucumber has been very prolific. 3 plants planted 3 inches apart. The vines branch and have grown over 12 feet. No bitter taste. The were planted late May and are still flowering August 30th. Picked over 40 cucumbers. There is now some yellowing of the leaves but 70% of the leaves are still very healthy. The have not been sprayed with any insecticide. Squash 6 feet away had powdery mildew 3 weeks ago but there is none on the cucumber plants.
This is my first year for bells too and I have lost count on how many I have harvested, I was impressed! Just so you know if you let the fruit turn red the plant will slow down production because it will think it has done it's job by producing mature seed. I pick mine about the size yours are now, As we near frost I will let the larger ones go red.
Good luck!!
That is the problem with most bell pappers; They set 2- 3 fruits and sit on them for ever. Unless you pick them, Them you get them back to work but even then it will take a while. I have just one of those. I picked 3 and then so far nothing.
That is why I never liked growing bells. Instead grow cubanelle, gypsy, yellow wax, poblano , Holy moley, Carmen...
This post was edited by seysonn on Fri, Aug 30, 13 at 5:54
Thanks everyone. I guess I will just cure them on the upper floor of my home (basement is around 55 degrees).
Glib, I'm in Saskatchewan :). Our absolute lows in winter are not much warmer than in the Yukon, but we have warmer summers and a somewhat longer growing season. Actually, we're going through an unusual late summer heatwave with highs in the mid- 80s for at least 10 days now. I haven't checked all the SPs yet but one of the plants I checked has a tuber the size of a smallish grocery store carrot. So, pretty small but there's still a month left before I dig them. I'll even be happy if they're all carrot-sized.
I think your idea for the fridge will work fine. I've done it in a small closet with a heater and some moist towels and cured 3-4 hundred pounds like that. If I remember right, I left them in there for a week and the flavor was radically different after curing. The sugar levels jumped and the skins became much less likely to scuff. They held all winter long with very little rot.
If you're worried about lack of air flow, just open the door briefly a few times a day.
-Mark
Thanks all. I planted Silver Queen and Golden Jubilee in mid-April, staggered dates. Likely not enough nitrogen, but water ample. My planting configuration was the best I could do, I have read square is better than rectangular. I also attempted to grow the three sisters. That too didn't turn out so well. Back to the old drawing board for next year! BTW avocado 1 where are you in zone 9? I'm in Walnut Creek.
With butternuts I want the green stripes to fade until you can hardly see them, and the color of the rind should change from pinkish beige to a nutty brown. The vines are usually not completely dead. Curing the squash in a warm sunny spot for a couple of weeks will "finish" butternuts that are a shade short of perfect.
Planatus has it just about the way I do it. The squash start out green, then turn light tan, with longitudinal green stripes. Those stripes get thinner and thinner, and finally they disappear, at which point the squash should be completely tan/beige. I often let them sit even as the vines die, and pluck them up when the vines are no more. Don't forget to dip the harvested squash in a dilute bleach solution to sterilize the skin. That will make them last longer. I believe that if the vines are dead and there are still thin green stripes, those stripes will eventually go away by themselves.