24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

There is a detailed FAQ here on how to do hand pollination. Just click on the blue FAQ button near the top of any forum page.
But which to remove? Really makes no difference as your plant will very likely not be productive anyway. You might get 1 small cuke with good hand pollination.
Your container is far too small for even one plant and so it will be very stressed. Even if planted outside in a container it would need to be a much bigger container.
Bottom line - you are trying a grow this plant indoors under very artificial conditions and it simply isn't an indoor plant. Very few vegetables are. So just enjoy it as a plant for as long as it lives but don't expect to get actual cukes. Sorry.
Dave

To get the true benefit of warming the soil to transplants you need to plant thru the plastic. If you just put a shhet of plastic down and then remove it a few days prior to planting you'll lose the heat in just a few days.
Although there are sweet corn growers who plant under a perforated clear plastic, this is probably nor for you since weeds germinate in abundance as well as the corn.
Larger sheets of black plastic, available as mentioned, will not allow enough water to wick under and so if you do plan to plant thru the plastic you'll need to first lay rows of driptape. The 4' rolls of plastic don't necessarily need the driptape (I don't use it in the field). What I find is that the soil actually stays more wet under the plastic; however with a prolonged drought followed by I don't agree with the suggestions above as for injuring plant roots from the excessive heat in our zones. In fact I have planted broccoli, cabbage,and other cole crops as well as lettuce,peppers,tomatoes, melons, eggplant and onions thru black plastic for many years now with repeated success. The direction specified for growing "PA Simply Sweet (Candy) Onions is to plant thru plastic with drip irrigation.
The normal recommendation given for warming the soil is to lay the plastic a few days prior to transplanting thru it in order to adequately warm the soil prior to planting. Once you have the black plastic installed and see the added benefits of weed control and plant growth you won't want to remove it. Some even try to get 2 or more seasons out of a single sheet.

I've used rolls of black plastic ordered though a commercial agriculture suppy company. Before rolling it out, I drilled small holes (maybe used one quarter inch drill bit...don't remember it was so long ago) into the roll every 4 inches or so....takes awhile but the roll is large and has been used for several years. Some of the plastic has lasted two seasons. You could probably lay it out and punch holes with a pitchfork if your area isn't large and you start with a large sheet instead of a roll of plastic. Large size sheets are available at big box stores such as Menards and Home Depot. They can be overlapped to cover a larger area if you can't find a wide enough sheet. Put some rocks or landscape fabric pins/staples over the seam and cover the outside edges with soil. I use a pitchfork to add holes to any low spots that collect water.
I've only planted warm weather transplants through it such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, and melons. Cut an X where you want the plant, and set the transplant in place. Much of the plastic was covered by foliage by time our days became hot rather than warm....and my idea of hot is over 80-85 F unlike many areas that see 90 and 100 on many summer days. I wouldn't recommend it for those areas unless it is torn out or mulched over before the heat hits. I'm using it over extremely well drained soil with lots of sand. I do not use it on the garden I have in an area with clay/clay loam since I think that soil needs all the exposure to air it can get. However, my daughter has used it on heavy soil and it worked fairly well while she worked to get her weeds under control.
It has been a real help in my far from home garden where it keeps weeds under control and maintains soil moisture when I'm away for a week or more. I usually hand water around each plant which takes time, but during rainy periods the small holes let the water into the soil below and hand watering isn't needed. Automated drip would be wonderful, but that isn't going to happen at that location.
In my area where really warm summer temps can be unusual, the added warmth with the plastic lets me grow the heat lovers and get a much earlier and longer harvest. Perhaps that is what your zone 5 is like, too, and then the plastic might be great for you.

I am growing parsley for the first time too on my youtube channel TheItalian Garden. If you would like to tune in and see how big i can get them i would love to test that question. Because now i am curious lol. love to hear any of your other questions on my channel.
Here is a link that might be useful: TheItalian Garden

Here is what I do to make parsley germinate faster in 7 days or less. Soak the seeds in soapy water. Fill a cup with warm water (not hot) . Add a drop or two of dish soap, and stir the mixture to help it dissolve. Place your parsley seeds into the warm water soap mixture and allow them to soak for one to two hour. The heat of the water and the dish soap will help to break down the tough outer casing of the parsley seeds. This will make them germinate and grow faster than they would without soaking.


I can grow Favas in the summer in my climate you just need some shade cloth to keep some heat off or an area where they get just morning sun and maybe a little bit of the mid day. but NO evening sun its too hot for them yes. I don't like favas very much so i am not growing them again but i have just sown my Bush beans just a few days ago. i will be showing them when they sprout on my youtube channel TheItalian Garden. i will be doing losts of general info videos on there if you would like to tune in would love to answer some question from people who need help.
Here is a link that might be useful: TheItalian Garden


yeah i was going to say bib or all year variety of lettuce. I am growing some on my youtube channel TheItalian Garden. Looks like you will have a nice fresh head of lettuce lol haha =D
Here is a link that might be useful: TheItalian Garden

Just Google 'Topan Eggplant' for all sorts of info and pictures of it. it's listed as an heirloom variety.
One listing for the seeds says:
Anatolian Topan Eggplant
- Open-pollinated eggplant variety.
- Adapts all kinds of soil.
- Medium height, strong branches and medium-early maturing.
- Fruits are blackish purple in bright colors with 10-12 cmin diameter, round (ball) .
- Good for open field and green houses.- High yield and more attractive fruits.
- Seeds should be sown in seedbed before the plants are tobe set in the fields.
÷ Planting depth: 0.5 - 1 cm.
÷ Distance between plants: 40 to 60 cm.
÷ Distance between rows: 60 to 100 cm.
÷ Estimated germination: 15-20 days.
- Average ripening is 70-90 daysand long period of harvest seasons.
-NON HYBRID-
Dave

Looks like a lettuce to me too. But maybe a cabbage also.
That's a good idea elisa. Especially for the rotation thing. After a couple years of gardening, I pretty much knew what each plant looked like. Peppers, because I grow many varieties, are a different story if I grow multiple varieties where the pods look similar to another. Screwed up last year with my superhot varieties. Regarding the rotation, I usually just try to recollect when I had such or such where. Probably won't work so well when I get old-timer's disease.
;)
Kevin
This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 16:14

Even if the tag was missing, one should know what she/he planted there. Secondly, most garden vegetables are easy to identify close by and by tasting. Unless it is some kind of volunteer .
Having said that, often it is not possible to ID varieties of things like tomato b/c there so many varieties. So it makes sense to tag them if you want to save seeds from those.

I don't put the roots in water. I wait for them to sprout "dry" in a fairly warm place (for me, it's in the fruit bowl in the kitchen). Then when the sprouts get big enough (about 3-4 inches long), I put the sprouts in water and they root very quickly. I've tried putting the whole root in water and it just never worked for me. Good luck!
-Anne


Chitting or Greening:
When potatoes sprout in the dark, they are white and long: NO GOOD FOR PLANTING. twist them off.
Best way is to single layer them, like on the kitchen counter. The skin starts getting green (Thus the term greening), Then they start sprouting healthy greenish sprouts. Now that is worth planting. BUT the sprouts should be no longer than 1". Then you have to handle them carefully , not to break them.
I prefer shorter sprouts with just some suggestion that they are growing.
.

I did consider automotive fluids, but it is a very well maintained company vehicle and definitely doesn't have any leaks. Also, he always backs in to the spot, so his front end is out toward the road... its only where the back end sits that I'd be planting (and he's only been parking there for about a month - long enough to rip up the yard, but not really long enough to impact the soil toxicity).
Thanks so much everyone for all of your help working through this. I feel like I have a much better plan for these crops now!

2cents from one who has done the 3 sister garden "successfully". The garden was 40x50, I did 4foot diameter mounds with about 3feet between. Put Silver Queen corn all over the mound with red yardlong beans around the perimeter of each. Threw in some butternut squash, Cinderella pumpkins, cantaloupe seeds and walked away. Weeded once mid season, picked a few bushels of corn, picked the yard longs as long as they were coming in, got a few anemic cantaloupe but several squash and pumpkins that were good. Even got some volunteer ground cherries and tomatillos from the soil seed bank. For not giving much effort, zero watering and maintenance, I thought it did fairly well. This method worked for a garden of neglect, I wouldn't bother with it again unless I had a large garden space that I didn't have a better idea for. This was my old garden that I didn't want to invest in because our house was on the market and I didn't want to sell after spending a lot of early season effort. New garden is much better cared for.

It looks like spinach to me.
There are different types of spinach, having different types and sizes of leaves. The one in your picture appears to have crinkled leaves, like savoy cabbage. Other varieties have smooth leaves.
I can't tell you which variety is best. It's a matter opinion I think. Try to find one which is slow to bolt and grow it in cool weather.
Jim

I just picked a dozen yesterday and toally nuked them in the oven! The risoto took 20 minutes longer that I expected and I totally forgot to take them out of the oven! DOH! They still tasted great, though! LOL
I'll have plenty more next week! YUM! Nancy


If you are growing for the beetroot then yes, single plants. Othersie you don't get roots just tops. That's one reason why beets are normally direct seeded. That plus the fact that they don't transplant well when that root is disturbed.
If you are growing them for the leaves, the tops only, then it makes no difference.
Dave

Otcay, that looks like what the Filipinos call Kamote, a sweet potato grown mainly for its leaves. I grew that for many years in SoCal, and even tried it once here. If that is the same one I grew, the tubers wander quite far from the plant, and are difficult to find (except by digging up the whole area). Those tubers were white & very twisted like the ones in your photo, and had a very dry texture when cooked. Dryness aside, they weren't bad tasting.



Last year the wood chuck ate 28 of my broc. plants one day. Crowns were about half size on about a third of the 80 or so plants I had growing. Oddly, he preferred the leaves to the crowns. The 2nd day he ate about 12 more. The third day he must have been getting full he only ate about half of the leaves on another four plants. The next day his luck at avoiding my traps ran out. I was able to harvest several meals in spite of his best efforts to defeat me.(It was close!) I was also able to freeze up a few meals for winter. I share with 3 other households so there was certainly no surplus.
Seysonn asked about Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes. I've grown them a couple of times and I love them. I've grown them in a 10-gallon Smart Pot and in the ground, and they did well both ways. I was surprised at how big the tomatoes were with such a little plant. The tomatoes are very tasty and the plants themselves are really beautiful, with their unusual leaves.
-Anne