23,821 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I third Dave's advice. Stacking them will allow you space to grow 'deeper rooted' veggies, but I also agree with Nancy Jane and others that using them directly on the native soil will allow anything 'deeper rooted' the space to grow out.

I have nine of these and love them. My oldest is four years old and looks as new as the one added in March. I do amend and dig the native soil underneath before filling them. I have had great success with tomatoes and peppers in my beds along with greens, edamame, cukes, garlic, and many more veggies and herbs. Sometimes the corner pieces could have been sanded better, making it a bit of a challenge to slide the boards in but overall they are easy to put together and sturdy.


Isn't that so true! I myself was really shocked to come to this conclusion! I think this knowledge should remain in healthy circulation in the community. I wish there was a way to de-salinate the diaper-gel. My husband mentioned vinegar which might do the trick, but then it would be very acidic, and I almost wonder if it would liquify the diaper-gel. I honestly got curious yesterday and tore apart an unused diaper, shook out the crystals and now have about 2 cups of gel. I'll add vinegar to it and see if it completely breaks down. If not, then perhaps the acidic properties could be neutralized with calcium carbonate, as other neutralizers are just basically made of more salt, such as baking soda, which would bring us back to square 1.
I'll add some white vinegar to the diaper gel and update you in a bit. Who knows... perhaps we may end up with a safe, salt-free plant gel! Wanna get in on this patent?? Loll
Update: I didn't realize it, but calcium carbonate separates and releases salt when it reacts with an acid. I didn't even think about it's hidden salt properties, since I didn't see Na in the compound structure. ( CaCO3 )
Update: Vinegar turned the diaper gel into soup.


for the bale method to work you need the straw to decompose. On decomposing, ammonia gases will be released. I would use the method myself, a neighbor grows huge cabbages this way, but I have no source for a lot of cheap straw bales.

Hope you like lots of slicing cukes. IME Straight 8 is VERY prolific!
In addition to Rodney's suggestion above, there are also many less expensive sources for all those varieties other than Burpee. Just for future reference. :)
Dave



I used to live in Racine, just south of Milwaukee. I had success planting in beans as early as the end of April to as late as Memorial day. It kind of depended on the beans- some drying beans take longer, some fresh beans are pretty fast.
There are a couple garden centers/nurseries in the area that sell good plants. There was a something and daughters on highway 32 just north of Racine- and a really nice place on highway K? Maybe it was G- just west of 94. I always skipped Milaegers because they were so darn expensive. Steins sometimes had good stuff, sometimes didn't.


No, the aphids are not the pests that are chewing holes in the plants. Carol was simply identifying them for you.
Aphids damage plants by sucking the photosynthates (sap) from the plant. Aphids should be squished or knocked off the plants with a stream of water.
You've been given the possibilities for the chewing damage. It's your challenge to be a detective and find the culprits. Going out at night with a flashlight can be helpful.


Dandelions white and yellow grow here in mild tropics 400m altitude here in the Philippines.i tasted the leaves milder than mustard leaves. I eat raw mustard leaves.climate change caused little bit cooling here in the tropics of Asia.this favor the growth of temperate plants in the tropic at higher altitude.

We are growing Sweet Potato slips little differently.Few sweet potatoes from this year's crop have started sprouting.We picked two of the potatoes with good sprouts and planted just one inch deep from the root end in a pot to see if the sprouts give good slips.
This post was edited by chaman on Tue, Oct 28, 14 at 18:22

Farmerdill said " . If the slips get too big you can cut the slip into 6 inches pieces and plant each piece."
Do the roots grow from the bottom of the cut piece or from a leaf node. do you remove the leaves that are planted under the soil. My sweet potatoes have long vines that I want to cut and plant but I cannot find specifics about taking a long vine, cutting it up, and planting the pieces. Can someone help.

Just go to the person's member page (click on their name or type their name in the search) and if they have listed their email as available just click on it and message box opens. If they haven't approved making their email public you can't.
Dave

Yeah I killed probably 25 of them on 10 plants. They left like a silk web under the leaves, and they were lime green I'd say. I'm kind of color blind so that doesn't help. The only pics of horn worms I found were big caterpillars. Whatever they are they sure showed up hungry.
I transplanted this early because the weather had been fantastic, 70-80 day and 55-60 night. The 20-30 mph winds had been the only deal.

The bugs may have been some of the problem. When moving peppers from indoor lights to outdoor locations you must slowly get them used to "actual sunshine". The stronger rays burn the leaves quickly. Not to worry though new leaves will appear most likely. Next time when you transfer to out side keep them somewhat shaded and relay them out starting at 1 hour then move to 2 hours, then 3 hours, then try 5 hours. Be sure and keep them protected from strong winds unless you had fans on them when in the house. I start using fans in the house at least a month before transplanting to harden them off to the wind. I also put small stakes next to each plant and a twist tie attached to the stake to help protect the plant from breakage. I start my pepper in January and can't plant until June. When I plant they are providing pepper in two to three weeks. It's Great!


Hi Bob - check out the article linked below for all the details.
I have had good results using beneficial nems, specifically H. megidis as I prefer organic controls. But they have some availability issues depending on where you live. Other varieties are more available but testing shows, not quite as effective.
Dave
Wireworm Pest Management in Potatoes