23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I think some may wonder why you start your peppers so early, and maybe that was part of the reason for that last commentary. You did clearly say you transplanted outside in your post though. If you're not planting out til late May then how large are your seedlings by then? It looks like they are definitely transplant size already and they have a month more to go. I'd imagine it's challenging to keep them happy for 3+ months inside, plus all the space it would take up.
I usually set them out already with peppers on them about 2.5 feet high) Last 2-3 weeks depending on the weather they are in the greenhouse set on my deck, with a heater for cold nights and a fan. If my pots are big enough (I use 2.2 quarts) , that schedule works the best for me. First, I have fruit earlier in the season, and by the middle of October when first frost kills perfectly fine plants I have enough frozen and canned for whole winter long. My yard (including house, two sheds, small orchard and huge compost pile) is just 6000 sq feet. And I grow ALL our summer veggies for 2 people, so I can't plant more peppers, to get more crop. I have to keep them longer, an it generally works. My limit is 30 peppers, 10 eggplants, 18 tomatoes. And I have about 80 pot places - home made growing shelf 2X2X7 feet with two layers, each has 8 2-feet long adjustable height lights and can accommodate 20 pots. Whole construction sits near the deck door(the one that doesn't open) facing south. Another location is spare bedroom, where I have two shelves one layer each(2 regular south facing windows ) with adjustable lights as well. They also can take 20 pots each. Normally, by that time they will be already in the green house, but this year winter was terribly long and my last snow just melted a couple weeks ago!
Doesn't it depend on what weeds these are? Some are easily pulled/hoed, while others can have deep roots & runners that are a nightmare to try to remove by hand(Bermuda grass!). I prefer to pull/hoe when possible. Smothering can work very well w/ very thick mulches - w/ or w/o paper/cardboard underneath. Whatever manages to struggle through thick mulch tends to come up easily when pulled.
You can mulch & wait for several weeks before pulling back the mulch to plant seeds.
Chemical weed killers might be best for those areas where you're not growing things to eat, IMO.
Agree with carolb that it is important to know what weeds these are, specifically if they are spreading by seed or by rhizomes. For example, mulching does nothing to quack grass except make it even happier to be alive. And roundup doesn't even work on it.
Can you post pictures of what weeds you have?
multiple tilling, solarizing, or covering with black plastic for a season are more effective with really difficult weeds than even sprays (if a weed is spreading via roots, and the spray kills the leaves, the roots keep on spreading). These methods can cost you most of a season, but then you save your back from then on. You could work on eliminating the weeds on say, half of the beds, and do what you've always done with the other half. Then next year, switch. With a little luck, in two seasons of 1/2 a garden you'll have eliminated most of your problems.
I like the propane torch idea too. Plus, it's really fun to use, and you can even dress up as a super hero and shout "die!" as you do it. (I had fun with my brother's torch last summer. Very empowering.)
Once Brussel Sprouts flower they are in their final stage of growth. Brussels take a long season. They need to be tranplanted in July for harvest in November, December, January. Because of the summerheat, I have not had much luck getting them started in Georgia.
I have 2 of that type of greenhouse. they do require at least twice daily attention. Mine are wide open even at night if temps will be 38 degrees plus. I have put real small plants in mine when it was still cold out. I put an electric heater with thermostat set at 40 degrees when the temps were in the 20s. That size plant in nighttime temps in the 30s would be fine opened up. 78 degrees with sun on it would be well over a 100 inside. You should have a min/max thermometer to keep track of the daily temps. These greenhouses are not set it up and forget it.
Liam- Sounds like transplant shock. Was it a store-bought plant or did you start it yourself? How big was the plant? Was it hardened off prior to planting? And what are your temperatures like? If the soil is moist, don't water again until it dries out.
Rodney
I'd keep shaking your pea trellis, and blasting with water spray. The aphid lifecycle time can be about a month, so you may not see results for a week or two. Though it's a good bet something nearby has an aphid infestation, and you're just getting the spillover from that infestation on your peas.
Beans can certainly be infested with aphids, but not necessarily the same aphids that like peas.
The good news is my garden is only 4x8. It's probably my spinach. I'm never planting spinach again, I've had nothing but bug problems...it is getting ready to bolt in about a month so I think I'm going to get it out now, it's been nothing but buggy. My squashes are still small and no bugs, my bush brand and leaf lettuce appear fine, and nothing wrong with the tomatoes. The spinach is nearby and so is the lettuce so I will spray the lettuce down too.
Some people are never happy no matter what is offered to them.
We didn't have the option to either edit or delete on the old GW. We had a few minutes to preview - which many didn't use anyway and then it was cast in stone. And why would you need to edit your reply after a week anyway?
Dave
Yes, I think it is a brilliant policy. Well, at least a smart one. Because if you change your mind about a post a week after you wrote it, you probably ought to write a separate post to explain yourself. A post that generates responses, and is then quietly changed to make those subsequent responses inappropriate or irrelevant, really isn't fair to those responders. This is a conversation, and in a spoken conversation, you don't get to go back and unsay what you said. In fact, for that reason, one might wonder why we're given a week to do edits. If you screw up, then just apologize, post a correction, and move on.
And thank you Tamara for being on top of this.
The first one looks like a Kakai pumpkin; there is another variety almost the same. The white one kind of looks like a white pumpkin but kind of looks like a spaghetti squash. Since these are volunteers there is a huge chance they crossed with other c. pepo varieties last year. They cross up to about 1/2 mile. Any variety of the same species. Volunteer squash aren't usually a good idea except for decoration.
You could try planting for a fall crop once the hot weather breaks. On about the same latitude here and it works for me. Not as productive as spring planting but you still get some. What's you earliest frost date in N. Texas?
Dave
Anytime you grow potatoes in anything other than the ground they never get enough water. They need tons of water. they never produce as much as in the ground. Search the mother earth news article on testing different methods.
Two different dilutions of Acetamiprid in the two different products but the trigger spray is the weaker one by far so there should be no issue there. Neither product lists spider mites that I can see but both are supposedly ok to use on squash up to 7 days prior to harvest.
So are you asking is it safe to use or safe to eat? If they survive the spraying and the spider mites don't kill them I can't see any reason why you should have to rip out the plants.
Dave
You'll want to do some reading about "how to harden off plants" so you can learn how it is done and what the plants need to be protected from. It is a very gradual process, short periods of time, over several days and different seedlings require different levels of protection.
Basically, you do not put them in the sun (shade only), and you definitely do not cover them with a dome (that will quickly kill them),you need to protect them from the wind, and you put them out for only an hour or so while watching them closely.
You can find a basic FAQ here on how to do it and many discussions about the how-tos over on the Growing from Seed forum.
Dave
http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions/2766561/easy-hardening-off-method
When I did a search for photos, they (monogerm) look like typical beet seeds (fruit?) just smaller. What I received look like poppy seeds but blacker whereas poppy seeds often look a blue-black color.
Would a company that sells seed internationally go through the trouble of removing the actual seeds from the shell to save on shipping? Maybe they have factories in China where labor rates are probably like $1.20 per day (8-10 work hours) and have crews smashing open beet seedpods and harvesting the actual seeds inside. I know commercial tomato seeds are de-fuzzed for weight reduction, maybe disease reduction too, but beet seeds?? What is your job? "Beetcracker."
The other problem from the same vendor was Stevia seeds that turned out to be basil once they germinated. Maybe I better try germinating some of these in #4 coffee filter paper to see what they look like germinated?
If you're going to pregerminate them, try doing it in a CD case as I have done. This is rainbow chard in the picture below. With beets/chards, each seedling develops root first, then seed leaves before exiting the communal seed case. Wait until then before potting up ... if you really do have beet seeds.
