23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Its a bag worm. Ussually found on pine trees and if there is a lot of them they can strip a tree of all its needles really fast. Check out your spruce and yews they like the short needles best. I've seen them strip a 6ft blue spruce in a couple of days and crawl dragging their bag to the next tree. They are bad news if not dealt with.
Watermelons only flower on new growth. If you don't keep them growing with at least moderate vigor they stop any meaningful flowering. I need to fertilize every 2-4 weeks because my soil is very permeable. That means nitrogen leaches away quickly.
Properly done I can harvest fruit off the same plant late June until October. But two plantings make it easier. About 2 months fruit off each.
Another culprit could be slugs/snails. But normally they are more active earlier in the season when the plants are small seedlings or just sprouting. The thing about s &s is that they are out during the night. To find out you have to inspect at night with a flash light.
The orange-copper nocturnal beetles are asiatic garden beetles, and to me a good reason for you to check for them is that you have the same damage to basil and peppers. This is exactly their feeding pattern at my house. Also mint and sweet potatoes and chard tend to get targeted.
I have over a dozen cucumber-melon varieties that I grow. They come in all shapes and sizes. The picture I attached is of a round variety I grew called Carosello Tondo Massafra.
The benefits of growing cucumber-melons are that they are burpless (don't cause indigestion), they are bitter-free, and they grow quickly in the heat. They also tend to be rather disease resistant. I often grow these varieties and post pictures of them on my blog, listed below.
Note: Though I am sharing the following picture, I do not give permission for it to be used without prior consent.
Here is a link that might be useful: Scientific Gardener Blog
mandolls, I dug back through my garden notes and found this:
"May 28. Cukes are surviving but took transplant hard. Diva looks best, all three seedlings alive. Early Spring has died back to 2 of 4. Both vars. beginning first leaves after seedling leaves."
It seems that we had high wind around then that may have beat them up a little. The Early Spring cukes completely fizzled.
Will recall this thread and file a future report if and when the Divas get to work.
hortster
I loved the Yards long beans so much that I am growing them again this year.
I sowed Red Seeded Asparagus Beans in place and they have popped up already what with the hot weather we have been having lately. I planted them in the middle of a 7 foot square raised veggie bed where I put up green metal fence posts and trellis netting for them. Then the white seeded Asparagus Beans I had started in one of those veggie seedling packs and those I just transplanted out today.
We are zone 8 here, but heat zone 2 I think? Things grow like crazy here (Portland OR) but we battle slugs/clay soil/rainy springs. There is very little that wont grow here at all except for citrus/tropics. Not all of it grows well though :) we are having a good summer this year, sunny and 80 degree days since May.
This is my first time planning and planting for a fall/winter crop. I direct sowed broccoli, cabbage and lettuce and have had very good germination rates. It has been at or near 100 degrees for a week and I sowed those seed 5 days ago. I water morning and evening to keep my raised bed from getting dry.
I will see how it goes for the next few weeks and hope for the best.
Tom
kawaiineko: Maybe... All depends on when the hard freezes come, because brassicas can handle FROST with no problem. I wouldn't know about hard freezes... we just don't get them here.. Tishtosh is right regarding DTM -- I've NEVER had a cauli head after 65 days like the package says. It's more along the same lines as broccoli -- 90-100.
Nugednut: I can't stress enough how much easier it is to start brassicas and lettuces under shoplights for fall plantings -- it's just too damn hot in most parts of the U.S. for germination. And even if they do sprout, the seedlings would need shade. Even for spring plantings, I start them under shoplights--- this way, they have a 6-8 week start before the heat of late spring and summer comes along.
Kevin
This looks like it might explain the problem:
I have all of my tomatoes in the garden this year. The reason these are in pots is becuase they are the superhot varieties that need to be in containers. I'll scout around for a better location I guess. Tough to find room for 16 buckets, and this is the only completley shadeless spot. Thanks for the heads up the last thing I'd want is scorched/rotten peppers after all of this.
I do not understand what your concern is: Lack of fruit or problem with the leaves ???
Cucumber leaves are very sensitive to environmental and handling causes. They get bruised easily.. and the rest.
About fertilizing: I will use a balanced fertilizer(N,P,K). Some MG all purpose ferts have too much Nitrogen, that can result in nice foliage but not necessarily good fruiting. IMO.
My Blue Lake bean plants usually go full tilt until about now. They are slowing down as of late. The Mexican bean beetles set in about now as I noticed a few leaves today that had larvae under them. Grabbing all that I can before the carnage begins.
I yank them all up and put them in a trash bag and then start the 2nd crop before Fall.
My beans have yet to get vigor.
Not quite sure about that. Planted seeds June 1st. Vines are over 10' & look healthy, but are just (barely) starting to flower.
Ash, maybe next year try some pole beans along with your bush beans. That's what I do, & usually it works...just not for me this year.