23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Thanks Dave for your awesome reply. I learnt a few things. Our temperatures are predicted to be around 80 in the day and 60 in the night for the next week. I planted some lettuce today. Will see how it does.

Sam.

My Ag. Ext. office (KSU extension) publishes a gardening schedule for recommended times for planting various crops. I looked a few days ago at my copy of the schedule I printed off of their web-site last spring, and saw that I need to plant some more beets between about August 20 and September 1. (Zone 5A).

You might check your county court-house for an Agricultural extension office that provides localized advice on planting vegetables. I have found some great information there, and they do an annual soil test for me and provide a suggested fertilizer schedule and soil amendment schedule for me for $15-16.

I don't think that you need to cover anything. 50F is not going to do any harm n 3 to 4 hours. Where I am, a lot of times our nightly lows drop to mid 50s.

But any light cover(sheets, plastic, .. )can keep them from cooling off too much. I would cover maybe just peppers. If they are not very big(as you mentioned) you can invert, bucker, trash cans, cardboard boxes, ..etc over them.

You'll be fine ajsmama. Like mentioned earlier, watering might help. The soil already is at a decent temp and moisture in the soil would definitely regulate that temp.

If you haven't already, MULCH! This will definitely extend your season some later on this fall.

Kevin

Nymphs, in their various instar forms, tend to congregate for a time. As they mature into final forms they disperse. Probably because the gang has cleaned out the readily available food source. :-)

Kind of like predator cubs in the wild. Security in the group until Mom quits bringing home the bacon and hunger becomes the ruling instinct.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I love analogies.

Or they can start doing like lacewing larvae do huh? Eat their siblings!

Kevin

Well they are now putting out new flowers so maybe they are getting ready to put out more cantaloupe

You might get lucky if there are some female flowers, your plants stay healthy and the weather holds for you. Aphids, spider mites and white flies have taken a toll on my first planting of melons. I have a later batch with melons starting to size up.

Quality of the fruit may not be as good for cantaloupes ripened in cool weather. Good luck.

Fungicides can retard it. If it's just a few leaves you can take them off, but the spores are all over. Best to spray preemptively for PM

Thank you for all your help

yes they were tasty, just that some who drug out on paranoia around here nicknamed me and pnbrown, no there is not one single evidentary case of anyone getting sick let alone worse, from using a leach field as an annual vege patch, flowers if they want, going to grow pumpkins, melons and tomatos on it as well this coming season.

the doomsayers are probably stirring their cauldron cursing people like me

anyhow all enjoy while we can, got some more kipflers ready to harvest.

len

surprised myself last night i went and ferreted up some more kipflers some red pontiacs as well, appears what i thought were sebagos were pontiacs they had no colour about then and looked to smooth, but anyway no matter any new fresh home grown 'tater will do.

anyhow got a couple or so large kipflers from 2 plants, not bad at all, went down like a treat.

len

Flea beetles LOVE eggplant leaves. However, the damage is only critical at the seedling stage. Thus , after the plant is established, FB cannot harm it seriously.

I have had FB problem for years and have discovered a simple solution: NYLON TULLE. Just throw some fine mesh NT on the plant. FB will not be able to it(make holes in) it. Chemicals/sprays MAY discourage FB butcannot destroy them. THEY HAVE WING, THEY CAN FLY. !!

My mother-in-law used to go down the row with her flour sifter, worked on cole crops and eggplant too Back in that day, there were no pesticides much to work with, they had to find their own ways to deal with pests.

Hi uscjusto

First off, your plant look just fine.

I think, it can use more water(in triple digit), as I said before. I inch of water per week is probably not enough. Then one inch over how big an area ?

I would fertilize it with PHOSPHOROUS rich (poor in Nitrogen) fertilizer, the so-called BLOOM BOOSTER type. After all, you want fruits not foliage.
P.S.
Another reason, your cuke is not producing is because of heat. Do you see some blossom drops? But, if your soil has good drainage, water them more often.

The long, Asian type cukes do seem to produce fewer but larger fruits. That said, the advice here should help you get more production than one at a time.

black plastic mulch, with 1 inch drill holes for the transplants?

I don't think you should rely on mulch to control Bermuda grass. It may prevent above-ground greenery, but runners will penetrate it readily and travel long horizontal distances undetected.

You should maybe solarize a huge area, then put your bed in the middle of the solarized area. That way there is a buffer zone between your bed and the bermuda grass. Then aggressively pull up runners in the buffer area.

You could also put in a concrete slab, then put your raised bed on top of the slab (need some holes in the side near the bottom for drainage). That would be a permanent solution, as long as you don't let runners find their way into the drainage holes. The slab should extend several feet on either side of the raised bed to make this less likely.

Just brainstorming. I haven't had problems with bermuda grass where I live. I don't think it can survive the summer without irrigation.

--McKenzie

IF you need TWO plants it means that one is male and the other female.

No it doesn't. Just like tomato plants the tomatillo plants don't have separate sexes.

Having two increases the number of blooms at the same time and the amount of available pollen 200 fold so adequate pollination for a good crop is also increased. Same holds true for squash plants for example.

if you want to hand pollinate 1 plant or raise your own bees fine. Otherwise multiple plants is the way to go.

Dave

The first time I tried, I just got one plant and very few fruit. Then I gave up for a couple of years!
Last year a volunteer came up, and I had bunches!
This year I planted 2 and am getting so so amounts, but I still have almost 3 months of time before it starts getting cold!
Good luck! Nancy

Your plant is not very healthy and vigorous, that is why.
It can be told from the size of stems and leaves. IMO, either the plants are getting ready to retire OR something is lacking.

What could b lacking?

Loam and manure sound good, providing the manure is well composted, but adding sand to clay is a recipe for cement. I'm getting good results with the Square Foot Garden mix - peat, vermiculite and compost in equal parts, but when I first started my raised bed, I just added Amend to the native soil. Mine was clay, too, but probably not as hard as Phoenix clay. One positive aspect of clay is that it contains lots of minerals.

Here is a link that might be useful: My raised bed garden

I don't know about adding sand to Arizona clay, but I've been adding sand to New Jersey, Oregon and Washington clay for about 40 years now, and it works great. You have to add quite a bit of sand for it to really work. Like 1/4 to 1/3 by volume. Google "soil triangle".

The real problem here is that ddot15 is giving us almost no information. Have you had a soil test done? Do your neighbors grow good vegetables? Is your soil still extremely dense, even with the sand? Do weeds grow in your soil mix?

You are growing in an 18 inch deep container, right? Soil with some sand mixed in is not going to drain well in that situation. That's why they make potting mix. It's very coarse, so it drains even in a container. Your plant roots need oxygen. They can't get it if they are in saturated soil. You can break up your soil mix by adding perlite or pumice or gravel to it. Sand isn't good enough; its particle size is too small for container mix.

Are the sides of your containers shaded from the sun? If the soil gets too hot, the roots will die.