23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
A foot deep for squash, probably not quite enough but then it depend on the other dimensions of the box.(length, width). In addition to tap root, they also grow lateral roots.
Also, when you provide the nutrients, it can compensate for shallow depth.
WE often hear that plants shut down after a good run, especially if you get real hot weather. In zone 9 , how are your temperatures?
The spaghetti squash is in a 3x3x1 box with the zucchini I mentioned, as well as one each cantaloupe and watermelon. Their effective space is probably 2-3 sq ft, 1 ft deep.
It's been relatively mild this week, highs in the 90s.
Had been over 100 for six weeks or more, including a 10-day or so stretch where every day was at least 105, some as high as 114.
During those hottest days, the leaves would wilt at midday, then be fine. Plants seemed healthy otherwise and produced nicely during and after that hottest stretch.
As gin gin noted above, I think one of your biggest problems is the mix you used to fill them. Lots of good recommendations in the container forum for that, but at the very least it should be a potting mix, not potting soil... And definetly not top soil.
Also, did you get dolomite lime and use it per the instructions?
I grow mostly in raised beds and buckets, but I purchased one city picker this year and I'm giving it a try with some okra. I used raybo's mix in mine.
I just wanted to post an update. I followed the directions that came with the box to the letter, except for how many plants they said you could put in it.
Believe it or not the instructions said you could put 8 pepper plants in it! I knew that would be too many, so I put 4 peppers and 1 columnar basil. The plants are quite crowded, so next year I will plant only 3 peppers. Despite being overcrowded the plants look amazing. They are way happier than my other peppers that are in regular pots. And before anyone says too much nitrogen, there are dozens of peppers growing and dozens more flowers, you just can't see them without pushing back the foliage.
So to the OP if you see this, I would say try again next year, but follow the instructions! :D
To add to what macky said, there is a distinct west-east gradient in summer temperatures along the Canada-U.S border east of the Rockies. The hottest summers are in southern Manitoba and North Dakota. Further west, elevation increases and summers get progressively cooler, then warmer again once you're on the west side of the Rockies. Further east, the cooling effect of Lake Superior becomes an issue, with subtle effects in the entire region. Even though the lake is supposed to moderate night temperatures as well, it doesn't - at least not in the summer. The lake doesn't even begin to warm up until August, and even then only into the upper 40s or low 50s. July and August frosts are not uncommon in northern MN and even northern MI, but quite rare in Fargo or Winnipeg. This is despite all these regions being at generally the same latitude. As you proceed into fall and winter, the gradient disappears and then reverses.
This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Thu, Aug 1, 13 at 21:41
Yeah ! I didn't notice that OP is gardening in zone 4, way up north and the county extension agent warns him of sun scald. It is like this person is dying of hunger and somebody is warning him of high cholesterol .
Those guys should go and find a job that they can handle IMO.
Not to speak for Ed but i think the point being made is all the ingredients in it are also available in many other fertilizer products and often at much less cost.
Simplistically put, fertilizer is fertilizer is fertilizer and any fertilizer will work only when and if there is a need for it. When sufficient nutrients are already available to the plant from the soil it is growing in then adding more of anything is just a waste of money.
This particular brand has no special magic built into it's contents despite all its marketing hype.
Dave
^root cellars. The temperature in a deep root cellar approximates the average annual temperature of the region. For me, that is around 40 to 45 degrees F.
OP, if the soil is that dry, I echo grandad's advice - you will have to keep the young carrot seedlings moist and pampered until they manage to root deep enough to suck up moisture.
I know the timbers are not 2x4 :) closer to 6x6 I believe
there are 2 beds that are 2' high x 4' wide x 16' long.
Ed
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Ed, nice beds. Did you make them yourself ?
I am asking because :
It cannot be 2' tall (!!). Even if 3 nominal 8" x8" lumbers are stacked up, will not be 2 ft tall , Three 6" x6".stacked will be no more than 17" tall.
But whatever it is, looks very nice but it must have cost a fortune.
My costs on square foot basis of area(12" height ) is $1.20/sqr-ft. In other words, I spent about $130 . to make a total of 110 square foot of garden. from 5/8" thick cedar boards. And I spend about the same on top soil, compost, manure, peat moss. I approached the simple natural lood with the most economical option. With the lumber, hardware, filler, TOTAL COST less than 300 bucks for 112 square foot area. Of course, I did not pay myself anything to do this..hehe
hi seysonn,
I did make them and they are about 2' tall... its four courses not 3... i'll attach another picture that might be more clear.
you definitely got me beat on the cost/ft2... these took 40 timbers at 20 a piece... the rest of it was pretty cheap. 10" timberloks tie it together. the overhead parts are just emt and some deer netting and I borrowed a bobcat from a buddy to fill them with this 'vege blend' soil I had trucked in.
Ed
The row cover would likely cause more problems due to lack of air circulation.
Garlic doesn't seem to mind lots of rain throughout the winter/spring. I'm in Western Oregon where it comes down similar to in BC and we can get heavy rains all the way into late June some years.
It's right around harvest time (beginning of July) that the rain causes the most problems for me. If I dig the garlic when it's wet, there's often surface discoloring and some of the neck rot issues you're talking about.
As I can't control the weather, the best i've been able to minimize the problem is hang the garlic in small bunches and keep a fan on them right after harvest to get them drying fast.
-Mark
I pulled mine after nursing them along for several weeks in extreme heat with no results. The problem with keeping them in was that temps are not expected to moderate here until the end of September and that's a long time to try to support the plants without any yield. Now I have time to plan for my fall planting and the garden has time to rest. I live on the Gulf Coast and I think of our down time as being July and August, whereas in cooler climes, it would be December to March. Also, my experience with fall plantings of the veggies that are usually Spring planted has been inconsistent because of the nature of the seasons' turning here. We will have extended spells of mild temps followed by abrupt temp drops when the cold fronts blow in, followed by yet more mild temps. It plays havoc with the spring type vegetables. I will be planting things that can tolerate these kinds of fluctuations. Getting them to germinate in the still hot days of late summer and early fall will be a challenge, but I have some ideas and am slowly amassing what I need to implement them.
I'm with ya there about the difference in gardening philosophy in the south compared to the north. Exactly right about July and August. I agree about fall plantings, in that the seasonal temperature profile in the fall is different than in the spring. It gets cooler in the fall faster than it gets hotter in the spring. Fall plantings are therefore somewhat more of a challenge than spring plantings.
Most years, I am unable to keep crops going through July and August, but this year seems better, perhaps because of occasional rain and slightly moderated temperatures.
I'm putting in bush beans in the next few days, (for the first time in mid-summer) and I think the challenge will be getting the seedlings to survive. But if they do, I'll be sitting pretty in October.
In an attempt to "rotate" my crops, I just don't plant the exact veggies in the exact spots as the year before. Although it probably does not benefit anything, it seems like a good idea to me to alternate crops so that they remove and replenish different nutrients during different years.
It helps by reducing the amount of "specific" fertilizing that I have to do (e.g. amending the soil with extra of certain chemicals because the veggies grown there consume it all). Heavy feeders like potatoes are moved every year in my garden. This year I grow zukes and squashed in the same spot as last year the it seems that the borer bugs remembered where to find food, sadly ;)
If you have a small space for actual garden bed, but have the potential for buckets and containers, that's another possibility for literally rotating the crops...
No.. Same reasons, even when I had a much larger veggie garden plot, I never really did that.. I made a 40 foot long trellis fence system for beans, its not like I could tear that down and move it around easily.
Comparisons to decades ago is pretty moot, as both invasive bugs and fungal desease has spread tremendously since then. But they at least had it right, mix in the manure and good things happen next year.
But I mostly agree with everyone, each fall my compost pile goes from my summer collected spot to my veggie beds, then augmented with more compost or manures.. this has to be done yearly. I took a year off 3 years ago and my garden the next year was pretty pathetic.
Absolutely jealous of your pumpkin plant, I planted mine far too late this year (mid-late june, crossing my fingers for the indian summer of my lifetime). I'm going to have to log in later tonight and brag with some shots of my own. ;)
I said "may". The OP didn't say exactly where he/she was, and since (s)he's a novice may have planted fall crops too early - or the basil and beans too late. Need more info, but original ? was about thinning so I guessed at location and gave best answer I could about which to thin now. I guess you can eat bean sprouts if it turns out it's too late in the season to get beans (app. 60 DTM)!
Thanks for the help. I planted everything 18 days ago and all but the lettuce sprouted but now dont seem to be growing much. The sprouts are still only no more than 3 inches tall on most. Some are getting more leaves. Also some are kind of falling over and they are only a couple inches tall but look like they are very healthy and growing.