23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Prairiemoon, I agree with the above posts. This year I have had a lot of spotty germination for some reason, even things like cucs and squash. I have done a lot of digging of seedling plants and moving them into proper spacing and have been very pleasantly surprised with the results. The trick seems to be to wait for the first set of true leaves before moving, then dig, trying not to disturb roots and water instantly.
I was short of broccoli seeds so I pricked out every last one that came up and moved it. Didn't lose a single one. Good luck to you!

Oh, great! Thanks for sharing your experiences, I have a lot that germinated, (emptying the pack lol). Now to find somewhere to put them all. I just commandeered a spot in the perennial border for Brussel Sprouts, so I guess that is an option. I still have tomatoes hanging on in a lot of my beds and peppers in the others, that still have a lot of small ones. I'm hoping it will stay warm long enough for them to mature before I pull the plants.

I always plant my cucs and zucs at the end of june, and they thrive until frost.

If I plant them early in the summer, they succumb to bacterial wilt and vine borers. I really want to plant them earlier, I only just last week am harvesting, but I get more fruit this way.

I know a fellow who farms a bit, he told me to plant cucumbers on June 21.
Never mentioned why, however I'm going to try that next season.
His cucumbers are gorgeous.
By the way, I ordered cuke seeds this year from Twilley's seeds.
They have a cucumber named, thunder, other seed catalogs have it also.
Thunder is noted as being resistant to many maladies, 1 of which is the bacterial wilt.
I havent had cucumbers like this years crop, ever.
Although it could be that I changed over to SFG.

The two fruits growing close together - I don't think it's anything to worry about.

What zone are you in? Sometimes they are slow to fruit, and some varieties just don't produce that much fruit. Not sure about your variety as I've never grown it. I hope you get more!

-Anne

Im on long island the northeast region of us, in ny. Well I have planted this variety before and it usually grows pretty rapidly and provide a reasonably big abundance of fruit. I did plant these kind of late in the season and by me they coukd grow till about tge end of october depending on weather conditions, but never had them grow so close.

This post was edited by krissylovesplants79 on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 14:55

vgkg, How did you deal with the skunk?

Wayne, this was the 3rd skunk that I've caught over the past 10 years. Other critters are easy to transport far out into the countryside and release, but placing a skunk in my vehicle is not an option. So as to not upset the sensitivities of animal lovers here send me an email and I'll give you the details.

I did, both from a hose then with soapy water made from baby shampoo.

Neither worked and the next day the ants appeared.

Cut off all the affected leaves and throw them in the garbage can. Then start the watering to wash off any remaining bugs and maybe add a bit of soluble fertilizer. The plants will grow new leaves. It's worth a try.

Sure they will last till fall planting.
The only thing that I think of is that they will dry up faster. Keep them in like sawdust, shredded news paper.
Also, you wouln't want to plant the tiny ones in the middle. So use them in cooking/personal use and kepp the big cloves for planting.

Next time you miss harvest time, leave the plants in the ground for another winter. The one plant will produce a lot of new bulbs, one from each clove that has split. I did that last year and I will always do that now! What a harvest! I left the six biggest plants in the ground and got 6 big bulbs from each plant the second summer.

My old muscles are now taking half the load in twice the time :)
But it's a good kinda hurt.

Older muscles here too. I pulled my back muscle in the garden this spring and ended up at PT. I didn't realize how de conditioned I was. I have underlying medical issues that keep me inactive for periods of time and that unravels the muscles I manage to build up in the garden.

I'm back in the garden and comfortable again and now I've added more structured exercise and stretching to my routine. I've done that before but I do get off track. I think it is essential at my age to work as hard as I can to build muscle and keep it. Flexibility doesn't hurt either.

One thing the PT person said that sticks with me. I was explaining that I thought my brain/muscle connections were all rusty at first but that I felt them starting to feel a better connection. She said for the first 6 weeks you begin using muscles you haven't used in awhile, your brain is 'recruiting' your muscles and you don't really start seeing any building muscle results that first 6 weeks, then you can see steady progress after that.

Definitely never going to have the muscles I had in my 20s or 30s again though. :-)

Wow, this late in the season? Were they huge? My zukes aren't looking too good - not PM, I don't know maybe the SB just damaged them too much (they've been chewing on the fruit and stems and petioles). Only 1 has new flowers. I do have 2 coming up from my 3rd planting (2nd was old seed and none germinated). Don't know if I have enough time before frost to get anything out of them though. Yellow Prolific Straightneck still going strong - and I planted 3 more looks like we won't need!

They were pretty big, but not any bigger than some that I killed a month ago.

Edie,

I'd think Alabama would be gardening heaven. Long growing season and plenty of rain I imagine.

Suggest that your son make acquaintance with local gardeners and ask them for advice. I've cultivated a few friendships and learned a great deal just by stopping by someone's garden while out in the car. Common hobbies, as you know, are a great conversation starter. And it doesn't hurt when you offer to help with the weeding while chatting.

There might be a "gardening in Alabama, or southeast" board here, check it out! Nancy

Number one, not everything in the garden should have the same fertilizing schedule.

Number two: Not everything in the garden should be fed with the same fertilizer.

For example, onions, cabbages, .. leafy greens need mostly Nitrogen, some potassium very little or no Phosphorous .

Another point: Since you have a short and cooler growing season, fertilizing tomatoes at this stage is not going to do any good, as far as ripening the fruits are concerned and instead it will cause more foliage growth, more news flowers, etc.

You may want to consider an organic approach to fertilization. It has several advantages, which I will summarize: 1.) It is milder than chemical applications and so is far less likely to burn your plants or cause other damage. 2.) You can incorporate sufficient fertilizers into the soil before you plant, and not need to fertilize again until you harvest and replant again. This is because the majority of organic materials are relatively slow release. 3.) The addition of organic materials into your soil builds up humus, which super important for over all plant health.It keeps the soil loose and aeriated, retains moisture, promotes worm growth, provides trace minerals, and provides many other benefits.

A good source of information about organic gardening techniques can be found at http://www.alan-chadwick.org

Click on the tab labled techniques to learn about the culture of various plants, build highly effecient raised beds, make compost, and much more.

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick

Those sure look like gnaw marks from rodent teeth, not peck marks from a beak. The delicata look a little more like a bit of slug or insect damage.

Here's it's the squirrels who do that.

@ zone 5B, Mil, WI , Mid August, no fruit set ...?

Probably your first frost is in October ?
A simple math is not in your favor. It take tomatoes just about 60 days from flower to ripe fruit. I would imagine it would take watermelons much longer than that. 100 days maybe ?

Rather than math not being in my favor, I'd say time isn't...I have a very complicated relationship w/ time.. :-/

As for the watermelons, it'd simply take forever and a half. My problem has always been startin those things indoors rather than direct sowing, which I prefer & love to do.

Anyway, I cut down all but three watermelon vines, 2 Crimson Sweet & 1 Sugar Baby. I knocked down the rows that once stood around em (bases of the vines), cultivated the soil in that entire area/patch, added a bag of Miracle-Gro Garden Soil, chopped & mixed that in, laid the watermelon & pumpkin vines freely on that spot, then watered like crazy.
This morning, I'll go pop open the 2nd bag on top of the base of the pumpkin mound.

Think I could/should mix a little Jobe's Vegetable & Tomato Organic Fert. into there? It's 2-5-3 (I kno I need Phosphorus like a mofo at this point too), but it's granular too.

I agree that those squash are short of optimum maturity.

I sometimes have a problem with some [not all] of my nearly mature butternuts. A worm or something can enter the squash where it rests on the ground. I put a narrow piece of board underneath them....crossways.

I think they are pretty close, and would just cure them in a warm place for a couple of weeks. In the garden, I look for a change of hue in the rind. As the faint green stripes fade, a brown color becomes more pronounced. I've only brought in a few so far, most need more time.