23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I live in Orland park, and I got it from the horse stable on 130th and lagrange ave

My mother (who has horses and a garden in ground) and I (who uses her horse manure in my containers and raised bed) have both found that composted manure cannot really stand alone as an additive to native soil. It is great to include in the mix but you need real compost in there too. I don't know the science behind it all all but we have had similar experiences. The first year everything looks good and the second year when the soil gets depleted and only manure is added, everything is stunted and yellowish. I think there is some nutrients missing.

I enjoyed reading that article - or was it an advertisement? In any case, it was informative and funny.

I like the fact that the scarecrow works on other critters as well, and that it is not harmful to the animals.

I've had deer predation in my garden this year. A neighbor used to keep a couple hound dogs kenneled next door. A year after the neighbor left, the deer arrived.

So, one solution to deer is obviously a big dog or two. I couldn't do that in this location, so I read everything I could find about deterring them. Smell is their weakness.

Deer respect male urine as a boundary. Apparently there's a hormone in it which they can smell.

Also, all the spray deterrents with good ratings seem to have albumin as the main ingredient. That's egg white. So I mixed up some egg with water and a little dish soap to make it stick. I put it in the sun for a couple days to get good and stinky.

In the end, both urine and rotten egg spray were effective. (Urine is much easier) I found tracks for a while with no eating, and now, no tracks either.

Have to reapply after rain though.

I like the venison solution too, but they never come around during hunting season!

Jeff.

I killed 3 of them 2 were but to but mating i assume. I was not able to find any eggs. Ill keep my eyes out. Thanks.

There are two stink bugs making love...hahaha

They should keep growing fine if you set them back upright, and then really stake the cages well. This happens to me almost every year, it is very windy where I garden. I use large cages but it takes me a long time to go around and stake them all.

Those 3-ring cages, IMO, are "good for nothin".
At this stage there isn't much you can do. Jus try to support them as much as you can. I would also consider some pruning to lighten them up a bit.

I wait until the silk turns brown and emits dust when flipped with a finger.
At that point, I will fold back the shuck a bit and see how the ear is progressing. When I can get an ear to emit a milky white liquid when pierced with a fingernail, I pick.

Trial and error is the surest method. After a while you can tell by the way the ear feels in your hand.

What is the likely hood of over watering some things before getting it figured out?

What is the likely hood of over watering some things before getting it figured out?

It's possible of course but with careful monitoring for the first week or so you should be able to ID any problems and fix them. And it will take some experimenting to get the time on and frequency set (most run them too often and for too short a time).

But an emitter can always be replaced with a slower one or traded with another faster one somewhere else. Drip tape can always be moved, spliced or Super glued shut and re-cut later if needed.

Don't misunderstand me - no system is ever perfect. Tears and holes happen, emitters get plugged, hard water is hard on the system. And no system can be just "set and forget" no matter how small it may be. But when compared to other methods it benefits both the plants and the gardener.

Dave

Dave,
You said "Personally I think there are many other organic fertilizers available that have a much better documented track record than these two."
Can you list a few of these other ones?

Lots of discussions here - and on the Organic Gardening forum - that the search will pull up.

Just a few brand names:

Neptune's Harvest
Maxicrop
Earth Juice
Worm's Way
Espoma
Bioform
Alaska Fish
EB Stone
Foxfarm
etc.

They all make several different products.

Then if you need individual nutrients or micronutrients there is always Bat guano, Alfalfa Meal, Bloodmeal, Cottonseed Meal, Crab Meal, Greensand, etc.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Gardening forum

But for future reference "proactive [preventative] bug control", regardless of the spray used, is never recommended. Not only because it doesn't work - the control has to be sprayed on the bugs - but because it almost always kills more beneficial bugs and harms more plants than the bad bug would have done in the first place.

Proactive fungicide use does have a place in the garden since they are primarily preventatives, not cures. But even then only under certain conditions and only when the spray used is actually a fungicide.

But YouTube, as a source of information, should always be viewed with a skeptic's eye until that info can be verified by other sources.

Still you learned a valuable lesson for the future. :-)

Dave

Thank you. I really did learn a lot from my post so I'm glad I asked the question. Now, I have two quart jars of really smelly "Linda's bug juice" I need to throw outside somewhere. Phew! Thanks again for your help, I did learn from the post.

I'll just go with the lowest dosage then. Wasn't sure if it should be even lower but don't want to spray. I don't know what's on my stems either but since I've seen the moths and haven't removed any eggs (just SB eggs) I figured I'd better inject.

DD thinks it's funny that I'm going to give my plants shots.

I used one teaspoon in a 16 oz. cup of water. I got 18 gauge blunt tipped syringes from amazon. They are not medical grade and are sold for craft applications (precision glue and paint jobs, for example) but they are still sharp enough to pierce a squash stem. They can become clogged with plant tissue, however, so I made the entry hole with one needle and then used the other for the injection. Once the needle enters the inside of the stem you will realize how hollow even a healthy stem is because there is no resistance to the injected solution. Protect your eyes and any bystanders if you decide to do this. I had a needle splat off the syringe and found it in the garage. On the plus side, I dissected my squash stems because they finally petered out and I had to pull them; I found some evidence that a borer may have entered at one time but no borer itself, the stem and leaves were still healthy and the rest of the stem was not affected. I used a three pronged approach to the SVB this year: spotting the eggs with insecticidal soap to smother them whenever I found them; soaking the stems with a Bt solution sprayed until runoff every three days; and injections once a week. I think the injections were probably the most effective measure. I had squash for as long as the weather permitted but when it heated up past 100 degrees, they were done (and so was I).

You are right that the pot is probably too small but oh well, next year i will do better.

I just read somewhere that eggplants that feel hard and very firm are UNripe! If they are too matured, their flesh would sink in when you pressed them. Now im confused... so is it TOO ripe or UNripe?? In any case, it wasn't ripe.. :p

That's right, and only unripe eggplants are edible. Ripe eggplants are seedy, bitter and generally not fit for consumption. The harder and firmer they are, the better! Picking eggplants is a bit of an art too - you have to compromise on how hard and firm and shiny they are versus how big they are. Basically, it's the exact opposite of a tomato! The more mature, the worse the taste. In addition, the riper they are, the tougher the flesh is after cooking. It's all rather counterintuitive but eggplants are tricky that way.

Your eggplant was probably just about to ripen, which combined with the water stress contributed to bitterness.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 18:47

I will keep them in ground as long as top is green. If soil temps remain under 75F(or so), tubers will grow. On the other hand potatoes need 3 to 4 month (from sprouting to harvest), depending on the variety. Yours are right in there.

they don't need to flower before harvest, i wouldn't worry too much about those spots, let them die off then harvest.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens instant potato patch

Well I was trying to pollinate with them even though I couldnt see any pollen. And my squash were dieing... they stopped dieing after I started pollinating with the zucchini blooms... just strange.

Really strange because I was wondering the exact same thing yesterday! There was a female flower open and the male flower was almost open so i pealed it open and to be surprise, there didnt seem to be any pollen!? Just the yellow clump in the middle. I went ahead to hand pollinate anyway but I dont think I succeeded because the fruit behind the female flower doesnt look any bigger today... this isnt my first time hand pollinating but ive never come across a male with no pollen! Hoping things will get better next round!