23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Re: compost it depends. I always prefer to do as much composting in place as possible, first mulch, but I get such healthy vegetables by burying kitchen scraps and/or dead plants at the end of season that I do that as well whenever possible (to avoid spreading diseases, I bury all dead plants in a single bed, then plant something that does not get diseases). The fine compost you are referring to, I use it only for direct seeding, most often by simply mixing, say, one tbsp of seeds in one bucket of compost, then I spread it.

Mulch has a lot of advantages. If wood chips, it is free, lasting, and conditions the soil. it encourages slugs and mice, though. slugs are dealt with sluggo, but at my previous garden I would occasionally get mice colonies.

So, lots of way to skin this cat. given soil and local fauna.

Start with the soil tests. The first year you might have to buy compost (make sure it's been tested for herbicide residue) to amend as early in the spring as you can to plant your summer annual garden, and any perennials you want to start the first year. You can start the compost going the first year too, with a large extended family (I have one too) maybe you can get lots of kitchen scraps, leaves, grass (no weed and feed!) etc. to add to it. I assume your family doesn't garden themselves - mine does, so I rarely get anything to compost since they compost their own (I forgot to ask my uncle and cousin for chicken litter this spring when they cleaned out the coops - have to see if they have any in the fall, I'm not sure when they clean). Also look around the area for dairy, beef or horse farms with free manure (esp. with the horses, ask where they got their hay and straw to make sure it's herbicide-free). The goats will be a great source of manure for you. I personally won't use pig manure.

Sounds like you're starting a small farm! Hope the extended family will put in some labor too. Good luck!

I bet its borers. I live in Texas, and 95 is a nice and cool day for us!! When it gets over 100, my plants will wilt a little bit, but as soon as shade hits them in the evening they perk back up right away. (even when its in the upper 90s in the evening).
One way I can tell borers is not only the frass, but look at the vines. If they look green and healthy they they are OK. But if they look swollen and yellow, its time to inject with BT or stab them with a needle.

I agree. CHECK FOR BORER !

Depends on how you are watering. They need normal amounts of deep but not frequent watering, not shallow frequent watering.

I continue to water mine normally until time to harvest them.

Dave

I've found that if you keep watering them after they fall you risk splitting, which is when the onion swells quickly and splits a few layers of skin. While this isn't the end of the world, it does mean the onion won't keep as well.
If there is some ground moisture that should be fine to keep them growing larger till they are done, which should be in just over a week. If it's bone dry, by all means give them a little water.

I see no reason to leave them in the ground till the tops are brown, by that point sunburn becomes an issue. I lift mine while mostly green but dry, brown skin has formed. Then I cure them with tops on in a well ventilated, dry, shady place.

But this is just the advice from someone that grows thousands of pounds of onions every year :)
-Mark

You can but it will be sour, I think.
At the end of season I make pickle from green tomatoes. They make a much tastier and crunchier pickle than cukes. Add a few stalks of celery, some tomatillo ...carrots.

Thanks, Seeing how closely they are related to ground cherries and that unripe GCs are poisonous, I was worried about eating very immature tomatillos.

>Main thing it make sure it is sturdy as it turns into a wall of beans and a good wind can lay it all over.

Yes. Beans have tiny root systems, nothing to hold them in the ground!

I like pole beans. I grow some on colored string wrapped around my porch posts, some on a trellis screwed to a south wall, some on a tripod of 1x2s with each stick stuck inside a concrete cinder block, some on a tepee/wall structure tied to a hedge....

I am describing all these so the OP or other readers can get ideas of how to make bean supports tip-proof :).

Scarlet runner beans are very purty, but some varieties are sterile and don't make beans! I was disappointed to get a packet like that last year. I normally save my own seed but I had not saved enough.

I have some bush beans. The first batch is getting loaded,
The second batch ,which also includes some yellow and purple, are couple of weeks behind and doing well. We have perfect weather here at the PNW for beans and peas. Our highs rarely climb over 85F. Anyway, I have come to like bush types. They are not labor intensive and require no investment in trellis.

You can find lots of info about radial cracking - what you have - of fruit over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here. Both the causes and prevention tips are discussed in detail there.

Dave

Aili: some varieties are more resistant to cracking, but basically what lgteacher said. Not sure about the whole fertilizing thing, but mine stopped cracking when I started mulching heavily. My watering ritual is about ONE deep long soak per week -- not the every other day soaks I did in the past WITHOUT mulch; and still had cracking. My mulch starts out about 4" thick.

Kevin

The neat thing about leaf lettuce is that you can pull off a few leaves at a time, as needed. With head lettuce, you have to harvest the entire head. But as Jean says, it's a pain growing head lettuce anyway.

You guys! Growing head lettuce isn't all that hard, it just takes more time.

I grow a variety called Summertime. It holds up quite well to the heat if properly grown. I consider it a challenge to get iceberg heads as large as possible.

Never needed a 2nd crop of zucchini before. Usually had it coming out of our ears with 2-3 plants. This year had a dozen, but got SVB (and SB) for 1st time.

That really is a shame that your squash got hit. I would still try and start replacement plants. You have nothing to loose.

This is my first year growing Summer Squash and right away SVB.

Hey Kevin, where did you get the lacewing eggs?

I did a ladybug release earlier and they did a great job on the aphids...until they flew off to greener pastures. It was fun having them.

I used to live in La Mesa and I am having a hard time with the coastal marine layer. I've been here 5 years now and it just throws me for a loop. I have one little rose bush in my front yard and I can't get the mildew under control. Yesterday I noticed the biggest mushrooms I've ever seen growing under the roses. I don't have any mulch down so I have no clue where they came from.
My cukes and zucchini are not faring so well either. I figure I'll just chalk it up for experience and next year will be better.

Will your cantaloupes fruit?

Jude:

You're going to have challenges with warm weather crops if you're on the coast. Not that you can't, just compared to East County, production will be limited. You might want to call the master gardener's extension and ask them what varieties do well there or call Walter Andersens's in Point Loma.

regarding the lacewings, I'm going to order online from rincon-vitova. I called City Farmer's Nursery(usually very helpful) and great organic product. And they said that they could order lacewings for me but then left me on hold so I just decided I'll get them online.

Also, I had problems with ladybugs taking off also until this year-- they came to me! I attribute this to creating an environment for the adults to propagate by planting beneficial attracting flowering plants that flower at different times of the year. Research IPM(Integrated Pest Management) and you'll learn loads. I'll attach a link of some general plants you may want to plant.

The cantaloupes -- a far amount is fruiting right now and have already picked about a half dozen. I just don't know if the plants are going to be able to hold out from the damage I exposed them to.

Good luck.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: benefical list

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 18:08

Yikes! I know how that feels! I was victim to a bad hailstorm in early June that pretty much shredded my plants. Golf ball sized too... I was devastated and thought it was the end of my gardening season. Thanks to the good folks here, I kept faith and plodded on.

Happy to report today that 85% of my toms survived and are now thriving and fruiting, my Zuke is pumping out fruit, and I've already harvested my cauliflowers.
Some plants are just stronger than we give them credit for.
And if they don't pick up, there's always time for the fall crop!

Good luck! :)

Sending you good gardening vibes! I know how hard your zone can be to garden in. I can have similar weather although probably not as extreme. Every year is interesting to see what will happen and what the weather will be. I am always hoping the weather and pests will leave my garden be. It has been a roller coaster as a newbie. Keeping my fingers crossed your garden recovers fully!

Nothing to be concerned about. Just some minor environmental damage.

It could be a little downy mildew. But if that's all there is and the plant is established, it'll grow out of it.