23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
You can pick for immediate use as soon as the skin is hard enough that you can't puncture it with your fingernail. At this point, most varieties are white-ish with a hint of green or yellow.
To store, they need to fully ripen on the vine, roughly 4 more weeks, in my experience, beyond the stage above, although longer is better on the vine if not in danger from pests, disease, or weather. By then, the basic S.S. is yellow-ish in color, as the yellow deepens as it ripens.
florauk- Good point. The shallots in the previous picture were separated post-harvest. And thanks for the compliment but that picture is from a couple years ago. They didn't get quite as big this year.
Shallots grow in clusters like this:
(this picture is from earlier this year)
Rodney
That's powdery mildew. If you search the forum you'll find lots of posts about powdery mildew and how to control it.
gsweater- I don't know where sneed is located but it's been really wet and rainy for a lot of the country, perfect conditions for PM.
Rodney
Wow - great information about Kohlrabi! I may have to try it in the garden - it seems to have a multitude of uses.
You may be right, Nila. I need to check my frost dates. I was concerned that it would be too hot now for cool weather plants. It's pretty brutal out there!
I'll grow from seed, as per Itilton's advice - not sure I could find starts this time of year anyway.
Thanks everyone!
I would also recommend kale. My favorite is dwarf blue curled scotch. I sow it in August and then have it all through the winter because you can pick individual leaves from several plants without killing them. Since you're in zone 5 you would probably have to provide protection to them in the winter.
And I agree with Rodney - I love kohlrabi too! If you like to peel broccoli stalks and slice them up and eat them, you'll like kohlrabi.
-Anne
I would absolutely remove the mulch. One year I went to a friend's house to harvest some free horse manure. That manure was contaminated with herbicide. Of course, I did not know this before incorporating it into my garden. The 3 families that seem to be most susceptible are legumes, nightshades and the spinach family (I forget what it is called). I second Dave's advice of trying to flush it out and I would also recommend amending with lots of compost too. For next season, to do a quick test to see if it is still active, plant peas. If the plants look deformed, you know not to plant any of the susceptible families there. For some of our plants, once they pushed through the zone of contamination, they began to recover, slightly. It has been 3 years now and I think that next season most of the locations will be ready for nightshades again. Good luck.
If you can keep them well watered and very heavily mulched so the soil stays cooler they will do fine. I pile 6-8" of hay and leaf mulch on mine. Otherwise it's probably best to pick now - assuming they have enough growth to worth harvesting.
Dave
I'm not too sure about tomatoes as I only occasionally grow them but I believe that most tomato varieties have flowers that are self pollinating. I could be wrong though. When I do grow tomatoes, I've never had a problem with pollination. If you're wondering if tomato blossoms have fruit attached to them, then no, they don't.
Rodney
Do tomatoes work that way as well?
-----------------------------------------------
The answer is : NO
Tomato belongs to nightshade family(peppere, potato, ..) and the have the so-called perfect flowers; meaning each flower has both male and female parts an so they are sef-pollinating.
My garden looks wonderful have squash already on the plants but I am noticing yellowing on the outside of the squash cucumber and zuch. I am thinking maybe I am over watering not sure. I am in Oklahoma for the past 2 weeks we have had 90 and over temps. I have been watering everyday. This is my baby and Im scared I am messing this up. Please help me before I lose my baby.
Am having the same problem with yellow leaves but it looks more extreme than a water or nutrient thing. This is a summer (pattypan or sunburst) squash plant. The bright yellow starts at the end of the leaf and moves upward. (Removed some of the most yellow leaves, the picture doesn't show it at its worst.) I have a lot of squash plants and would hate to lose them all. Usually these are so easy to grow.
With all the rain cedar rust is a problem for many this year. It is a fungus so your spray should control it - won't cure it but just control it - until the weather dries out some. Once it dries out and warms up the pepper plants should pick up.
However, I have to agree that it sure sounds like you are awfully heavy on the fertilizers - especially in a manured bed. Too much causes far more problems than too little fertilizer so I'd back off on it if I were you. ;)
Good luck.
Dave
I have, what seems to be, the same problem. I took some leaves to a local knowledgable nursery for identification. She said it appears to be fungal in nature but couldn't identify it for sur. probably rust. She recommended I send samples to the State entomology lab here in Maine for free identification, which I have done. Suggest you do the same in your state before applying haphazardly.
I assume you mean bacterial wilt. If so, then the only way to protect your plants from it is to not let cucumber beetles munch on your plants. You must kill every cucumber beetle you see because the beetles are what carry and transmit the wilt. You might be able to protect your plants if you cover them with either floating row cover or with tulle. However, you'd have to take it off to allow bees in to pollinate which could also let in the beetles or you'd have to hand pollinate yourself. Also, I believe that the County Fair variety of cucumber is resistant to bacterial wilt (haven't grown it though).
Several years ago there used to be a very interesting discussion about homemade cucumber beetle traps on this forum but for some reason it's not on gardenweb anymore. So traps might be something to look into.
In my own experience, I have found that I don't have a beetle problem if I grow cukes on a bi-yearly basis. If I grow cukes for two years or more in a row, I have a major problem.
Rodney
Sounds like my black walnut challenge some years ago.
They sound more like gourd than squash.
If they taste good, the I is worth the challenge. Here is what I would do:
Drill them ( upside, as they stand firm) === heat your oven to 300F === bake as many of them as you can , to make it pay for the electricity. You can also put some water at the bottom of the pan to soften the rind a bit., === after cooking, split, take the meat use it === if too much freez for pie making
AND FINALLY, NEVER , EVER AGAING BE TEMPTED TO PLANT THEM...hahaha
Could the seeds have been switched? I found a reference to "Cannon ball gourds" for crafters - picture attached.
Here is a link that might be useful: Cannon Ball Gourd
Thanks for the tip -- who did you get them from?
http://www.grandtetonorganics.com/products
Nice seed. Good varieties. Price seems high until you realize that it includes the postage.