23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Check the growing calendar for your Hardiness Zone here
http://veggieharvest.com/calendars/zone-8.html
Hope it helps
This post was edited by JCTsai on Sat, Jul 20, 13 at 12:17
I live in PNW, and summers are pretty much the only time of year it doesn't rain. I don't mess around with beer bait or going after them at night. They are major here and will take out your whole garden. I use sluggo and as long as I stay on top of it, it is the only thing that works for me.
Cats can be effective. My cat will even capture moles from my neighbors' gardens & bring them home. Unfortunately, I've seen her "playing" with her imported mole & then losing it in my yard.
She will sit patiently next to the mole hills waiting for any sign of action & then start digging as soon as she does. She gets quite a few. Other than the kitty, I don't take much action, even though they do quite a bit of damage to my yard/garden. When they start doing major damage, my husband will go out at dawn & play whack-a-mole with a shovel.
Cats and dogs, too, are pretty essential in bringing voles and moles under control. In my experience here in the southern appalachians, both are worse after a snowy winter.
With one good hunting cat and two young dogs, this is the first year we've gotten a full crop of potatoes in three years because of voles. The big snows of 2010 led to a vole, mole and mouse population explosion around here.
I don't know how long the 90f days will be around , BUT for most of the fall crop it will take at lest a month to germinate and grow to small seedlings and by then hopefully, it will cool off
Most fall gardeners start those fall crops in cells, in shade during germination time, then move them to partial sun as they grow. And transplant, when it has cooled off a bit. I am doing this right now with bunching onions. The poit is that there is a window of time that this should be done. I done TOO LATE, obviously it will be just that TOO LATE.
I have not seen any white "butterfly" around the garden but that doesn't mean that it hasn't been visiting. I will keep an eye out for it. Are the holes damaging to the plant's health or future production? I will use some organic spray on the garden in the morning. Maybe that will help....
If it's cabbage worms, the standard defense is to use Bt. I only grow a dozen or so brassica plants at a time (broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts) so I've been able to just handpick any caterpillars I find and not bother spraying. I also cover young plants with a wire cage covered in tulle to protect them when they are small. If you make your cage big enough, you could keep them covered all the time; that would also keep out the cabbage worms.
If it's slug damage, try putting out low bowls of beer in the evenings and see how many you catch. You could also go out at midnight (not sunset) with a flashlight and see if there are any on the plant. I finally resorted to slug killer (Sluggo, etc.) and was able to take care of them with a single application. (Though I keep an eye out for new damage and can always apply more.)
ONE: The dark spots are called BER(Blossom End Rot). It is not a disease but a physiological disorder, relating to the uptake of calcium. Practically there is nothing anybody can do about it other than trying to be consistent in watering and maintaining soil moisture. The good news, perhaps, is that this situation will not last all season long and should end soon.
TWO: when to pick ? Easiest answer is that when they have nice ripened color. But Then there is danger of birds eating them, cracking etc. So I have read (here on GW) that you can pick tomatoes any time after color break and let them sit on the counter top in your kitchen(NO direct sun) until they become nice n red/yellow ,...