23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY TO REPORT THAT I THINK I HAVE SOLVED MY JAPANESE BEATLE PROBLEM ON THE ROSE BUSHES, WITHOUT KILLING ANY BEE'S!!!!!!!!
AFTER MUCH RESEARCH OF READING ALL YOUR MOST KNOWLEDGEBLE AND INSIGHTFUL POSTS, THIS IS WHAT I DID;
4 tbsps. MURPHY OIL SOAP
2 tbsp. OIL OF WINTERGREEN
TO 1 GALLON OF WATER IN A GALLON SPRAYER.
I SPRAYED THE HECK OUT OF THE ROSE BUSHES YESTERDAY AROUND 4 PM.[ 7 KNOCK OUT ROSES VARIETY WHICH ARE JUST PLANTED LAST FALL; THEY ARE ABOUT 3' IN SIZE] SOAKED THEM.
NO SIGN...........NO SIGN OF ANY BEATLES ON ANY OF THEM TODAY. I CHECKED THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON AND NARRY A SINGLE BEATLE!!!!
I COULD NOT BE MORE PLEASED!!!
THE BUTTERFLIES AND HUMMINGBIRDS CAME AND FED AND LINGERED AS USUAL AND DIDN'T SEEM ALARMED OR DISTURBED AT ALL!!!
I FOUND SOME OIL OF NEEM TODAY AT LOWE'S AND MAY TRY THAT TOO, IF NEEDED. I STILL HAVE THE ROSES OUT FRONT TO DO, STILL, AND I AM OUT OF THE OIL OF WINTERGREEN NOW. IT IS HARD TO FIND; I ENDED UP ORDERING IT FROM WALGREEN'S TODAY.
FYI, MY LOCAL FARM CO-OP STORE IS USELESS, THEY CARRY TONS OF STUFF, BUT , IT IS ALL TOXIC TO BEE'S. I HAD TO RETURN 3 BOTTLES OF THE ^^%$ STUFF!!! AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING SAFE FOR BEE'S. THIS IS WHY OUR BEE POPULATION IS NEAR DEAD!!!! DAMN FARMERS ARE POISONING OUR ENVIRON.!!!! I JUST DON'T GET IT!!! THEY SHOULD!!! WOULDN'T YOU THINK!
I TRUELY HOPE THIS HELPS ANYONE ELSE WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT THIS PROBLEM!
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE POSTED! YOU ARE GREAT FOLKS!
BLESSINGS!
Another thing:
Look for the reason why bugs are attacking your plant. They often go for plants that are already weakened by something else.
Does your plants need more food? More sun? More shade? More water? Less water? To be grown at a different time of year?
Aphids, for example, will *cover* brassicas in spring and fall where I live, but leave them alone in winter and full-on summer. So I primarily grow them in winter :).
For pretty much everything except brassicas, in my garden, aphids mean the plant either wants more sun or more water. Powdery mildew, same thing. I give the plants what they need and the aphids go away. If there is a huge population, I squish and soap-spray the ones I can reach, to speed things up :).
I also save seed from the plants that do well in my garden. I now have strains of brassicas that are aphid-resistant, basil that is slug-resistant, and pole beans that are leafminer-resistant, for example.
Gardening takes years of practice and experimentation and study. There is a lot of stuff on the web now telling people that it will be effortless -- which inspires many new people to try growing some food, but also tends to lead to absurdly high expectations for beginners.
Once their skin gets bumpy and tough, the seeds inside get too tough to enjoy. At the size of the one on the left in the picture, I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, grate them and add some grated potatoes and onions, an egg, a little flour, salt and pepper and make patties to fry. Excellent eating but a little more work than the young and tender ones.
Sandy
"Have you ever seen (or bought) crooked necks in the stores?"
No. I have never seen yellow crooknecks in the store, only smooth ones with straight necks. At a farmer's market occasionally but not in stores. Yellow crookneck is one of my favorite vegetables and is superior tasting to other yellow squash, IMO.
I like to pick crooknecks soon after they start getting bumpy. Then slice and saute in butter.
Jim
Ya, mine kind of looks like yours, Super, just shorter at the moment. Your plant looks so happy! I wish it would stop raining every other day so my peppers would get a good dose of sun a few days in a row. They aren't "sad", per say, they just seem...slow to grow (height, circumference, etc). They definitely aren't getting their 6+hours of daily sun...
So, just wanted to update you all but I must have 100 tabasco peppers on my plant with more still budding! My plant really took off in July. I only have 3 peppers turning red right now but all the others will turn red soon, I think. Home made tabasco sauce is in my future!
We have had a strange summer in the D.C. Area too. Much of August has seemed more like autumn than summer. This could also be part of my smallish peppers this year too. My habaneros are doing well at setting fruit and it seems normal sized, but I am worried that the cool weather may cause them not to be very hot this year.
Just for discussion's sake, I am growing bells this year in pots (same variety) after growing them in the ground the previous two years. I have seen very little difference in size of the fruit, but the plants seem a bit smaller. We too have had a cooler than average summer, but temps have still been in the high eighties since mid June. I have two Big Bertha plants and have frozen two gallons of chopped peppers just from them. They are loading up for another picking later. (I let them all mature to red unless I just need to pick a green one here and there.)
The F2 seeds will produce various crosses that you will have to select from, grow out those F3 seeds, select from them, grow those F4 seeds, select, etc.
It can take several generations to produce a stable cross. Many of those on the Hybridizing forum here are working on 7th and 8th generation of various types of crosses.
Dave
Len, thank you for posting your instant potato patch! Why do you use the dolomite and gypsum? Do potatoes need a lot of sun and water?
A couple times I have buried the old potatoes with the eyes growing out of them in the garden compost pile (just garden and yard debris, mostly browns) and they've grown and produced small potatoes, but I bet if I actually put some effort into I would get better potatoes.
we get volunteers from where we grew them because we miss some little ones, but also have had them appear from peelings.
dolomite not regularly used just here as it was X pine plantation so we get spots of high acid soil, so where we eat like 'tater's i do it to be sure they taste nicer.
no along with adding organic matter(heaps of mulch) gypsum breaks up the clay allows for better moisture absorbancy and holding, also releases entrapped nutrients.
we use heaps of gypsum and get great growth from all plants, picked 6 of those 'taters yesterday(to create planting spots for tomatoes and pumpkin(volunteers). got a bucket of spuds, around 4.5 kilo's, from about 1/2 what we bought, we bought 1 kilo seedies and planted in late feb' @ $2.50 AUD a kilo
the shop still has them so will buy more and chit them for next feb'.
we give them full sun through winter, and yes we maybe would get best of show if we had more water, they like water. but we are happy get more than enough for little input to share with our kids.
as these are new spuds we eat them unpeeled.
len
sounds like too much work ! i'll stick with planting organic potato pieces...no lack of sprouting there. thanks for all the info !
btw, i got 2 1/2# of red potatoes from 1 plant about 2 weeks ago. i have no idea what a good yield is...can anyone give me a range ?
To accelerate rooting in the spring in a cold house, I place the SPs (in their jars of water) on a large heat mat and drape a piece of row cover, folded multiple times, over the arrangement. I can usually keep it around 85 F underneath, which seems to be the optimum temp. for encouraging rooting and budding.
>If it were me, I'd try multiple methods to see what worked best.
That's a good idea :).
>To accelerate rooting in the spring in a cold house, I place the SPs (in their jars of water) on a large heat mat and drape a piece of row cover, folded multiple times, over the arrangement. I can usually keep it around 85 F underneath, which seems to be the optimum temp. for encouraging rooting and budding.
I did that, with no success. I didn't stick a thermometer under the fabric though -- I will try that this year. I had the tubers cut and laying on soil surface, and didn't want to bake them, but I will try in water this year.
They finally sprouted outdoors in mid-july, but have stayed the same size since then. The uncut ones on the kitchen counter are bigger!
>If everything fails, I'll send you slips in springtime.
Oh, my, thank you!
when the chipmunks came the voles and moles left ( or maybe it was the other way around). maybe the voles left because i was pouring my urine down their holes. after the chipmunks dined on my tomatoes i finally shot one and tossed pieces of it around the garden perimeter. didn't see any for the rest of the season. i'll have to research the plaster of paris bait. i'm not into causing pain, but a quick death will do.
so far this year, no chipmunk damage to tomatoes. but i think a few got a zuke....
A couple of years ago my SP leaves were vanishing too and I caught a groundhog in the act. After surrounding the SPs with wire fencing the GH still dug his way in and stayed as he also dug a burrow well hidden under the leaves. GHs are lazy and don't travel far for food so he just made himself at home. The only reason why I found him was that the leaves were continuing to disappear even though I had a secure perimeter so I got in there and hunted him down. He thought he was in GH heaven, I made sure that was his destination.
It smells like a cucumber, the inside LOOKS like a cucumber, heck, if I taste it...u get the point.
So I was a tad disappointed that it wasn't really anything more than a strange variety of cucumber that fell in the packet. I'll probably throw this one in a salad or something. Same day I sliced it, the guy who has "The Scientific Gardener" blog said this:
"Hi there Andrew,
Thank you so much for the question. Those are some pretty cool looking cucumbers you have there. Unfortunately they are not cucumber-melons. The leaves, flowers, and fruit are all very much Cucumis sativus (cucumbers) and not Cucumis melo (melons and melon-cucumbers). Many of the American cucumber varieties of the C. sativus are bred for distinct spines - which your picture so beautifully portrays. My experience with many seed companies is that often the pictures on the package don't exactly match what the fruit looks like. If your cucumber variety turns out to be good for you - I would definitely keep growing it. "
Woulda been cool to have a cucumber-melon, lol *shrugs*
I'm totally blessed to have fruit nonetheless! :)
KEFCO:
Yes. Totally safe and organic. Probably one of the safest. And will not harm any other beneficial insects. Insecticidal soap will do nothing for caterpillars. If you see larger ones, pick them off--- Bt isn't nearly as effective on "older" caterpillars.
Available at ANY garden center. Just ask for BT, caterpillar killer or thuricide.
Kevin
The spines are mostly part of the genetics of certain variety.
They serve, maybe, a purpose for the plant, like fending off certain animals or using them to breath, cool off, or absorb moisture from air(like cacti)
So the spine has nothing to do with ripeness. On the other hand, cukes should be picke UNripe and tender. So when you slice them the seed are soft and have not hardened. Also , over growned cukes may have brow/yellow streaks, tough and ticker skin.
Thanks jean and seysonn.