23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I use the kind with the probe that goes into the meat, or the soil. No wire. It goes down to the freezing point.

I check the soil temp in the spring for first planting and again in the fall.

btw, I understand that 4 inches down is the right depth.

There are simple kitchen thermometers that has a range of 0F to 220F. There are both with digital and analog displays. I have the latter. It has a probe of about 6" long.
You can find one in the household/kitchen ware section in most supermarkets.

There have been several discussions on these forums over the years about tomatillos and the consensus seems to be that you need more than one plant because they need to be cross pollinated to set fruit reliably.

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@ Rodney

Not true. Several years ago (Then I had a different user name. I lost my password and registered under current name) I challenged that consensus and proved it WRONG. By planting just one tomatillo plant and got bumper crop. And as far as I could tell there was not even a veggies garden in a half mile radius. I was then in Atlanta GA area.

Mine is not fruiting b/c it is a Mexican strain and I am in heat zone one, not heat zone 10 like in Mexico or down South. .

I'm in the south and have seen tons and tons of flowers and yet not one fruit. I have never gotten fruit from tomatillos. Ever.

You can buy it from whole foods market or from the Organic section of your grocery store. But selections is limited. Same goes for garlics. I will never buy them my mail order. Supposedly(they claim) it is certified. Probably 95 % of the potatoes grown in Idaho can pass certification test anyway.

I tried to grow some Klondike Rose from Green Giant. They must have been gassed to kingdom come because they never even thought about sprouting. I did get most of the Klondike Gold Dust growing though.

Picked those two Classic Eggplants tonight.

Made grilled eggplant slices topped with tomato on the grill. Just ate them all up now!

Wayne, larva don't hatch out of beetles. The beetles lay eggs and larvae hatch out of eggs . Dead beetles can't lay eggs.

What you may be seeing are larva of flies. Flies lay eggs on dead matter (beetles). The larva hatch from the eggs and eat the dead stuff and then turn into flies. Quite a cycle.

This post was edited by susanzone5 on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 11:28

The only nice feature of JB's is that their defense mechanism is to fall when they sense danger. You can place a hand, creating a shadow above a bunch of them and they will fall or roll off of a leaf right into your pot of water. JB's are drawn to each other and will usually be found in groups. I doubt there is a relationship between heat of the day and grouping. However, if the heat of the day is actually hot, they will no longer fall, but instead fly away; and they are almost impossible to catch in the heat of the day.

#SharonP68
I wonder where you got seed for the Stavros?

I too would love to pickle a lot of pepperoncini.

On this website http://www.paleotechnics.com/Articles/Pepperoncini.html she recommended Stavros or Sigaretta di Bergamo as the best for pepperoncini.

My usual seed sources don't seem to carry it.

Thanks,

Nancy

Nancy,

I bought my seeds from Ohio Heirloom Seeds:

http://www.shop.ohioheirloomseeds.com/main.sc

It took almost 2 1/2 weeks for them to germinate, but every seed germinated. So far, I have harvested 4 pounds of peppers from 8 plants!

Best of luck!
Sharon

Yes, make sure you inspect the vine for additional eggs, and then once clear, bury as much of the vine as possible. It will develop more roots. I've gotten pumpkins from vines damaged from SVB, in part because they don't always completely sever the vine, and also because of the extra rooting that occurs along the vine.

This post was edited by ccabal on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 12:33

Also regarding surgery... a less invasive method is to try and find the entry point, or the hole where the frass is coming out from. Then wash it out, and get a spray bottle, set to stream mode. And spray into the hole some soapy water. Spray it pretty good. Often the grub will come out of the hole to try and escape the water, and you can kill it, or the soapy water might kill it. I also will poke a wire into the hole to stab it or fish it out. Either way this might be less damaging to the plant than having to split it open.

Can't really tell without decent light. My damping off problem I had in the the past with seedlings is that they will absolutely keel over and the stem at the soil level looks shriveled and rotten, kinda damp looking. If they are slowly dying or turning yellow or any other slow process, it's probably NOT damping off. Mine were sudden and fatal.

edweather: I guess "slowly" can be subjective. A couple days is slow to me. edweather's right though -- at the very base of the stem, you would see them shriveling to a flimsy stalk -- almost like something was choking it.

Kevin

Yea ! where are the cukes and BEANs ??

The black things are caterpillar poop. I am investigating the best way to get rid of them right now as I have the same problem. Turn the leaves over and you will see little green caterpillars that are the same color as the leaf. I did not see them until the 3rd time I was looking and they are all over...I have to do something fast, and I'm not sure I can be organic on this which really will bum me out. If I find something more out about this, I'll post up.

Here is a picture of the lettuce after a good watering. They look to have responded well. Thank you @seysonn and @florauk for the tips.

@woohooman Good to hear you're a fellow San Diegan. I live in National City, about 3 miles from the bay. The weather here is fairly cool and thankfully it doesn't fluctuate quickly or in extremes. Thank you for the tips about those santa ana winds. I will also check out that informative pdf.

All the tips and advice are really helpful. I'm really enjoying gardening. It's my first season.

That's better! Although they still look a little dry to me. Keep them watered and shaded and they should be fine.