23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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
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
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
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!
Creek-side,
The advantage of a pumpkin is that you can bury the vine. I suggest next time you grow pumpkin, bury your vines with dirt as much as you can. They will root at many different places along the vine, and those buried sections will not be as susceptible SVBs.
This has probably been covered elsewhere, but I'm wondering about whether Bt stem injections are useful as an SVB damage preventative. Perhaps a stupid question, so bear with me. My understanding of the usual strategy is that you wait until you see the frass, and then squirt Bt into the hole to kill the bugger. But why not just fill the vines with Bt solution? Yes, that's maybe a lot of fluid, but the Bt is cheap. Very diluted. I can make tens of gallons for a few bucks.
Instead of inspecting all the vines carefully every day or two, this way, I figure I'd just pump 'em up say, every week. I've never done Bt injection, as I like row covers, but row covers are hard to do for non-vining cucurbits, like zukes. How many gallons (ounces?) of Bt does it take to fill up a zuke plant? How long does the fluid stay in the stems? Do they leak?
The kitchen knife did the trick. I cut through halfway and then snapped it off gently. I didn't want to go all the way through with the knife and injure the plant.
My wife was thrilled that she got two more today after the first one yesterday. Man they grow fast. Zuchinni, that is :)
I've always wondered about injecting Bt into squash stems. Am I understanding it correctly now, that basically the idea is it is coating the inside of the hollow stem, not getting it into the tissues? Would cutting a small slit and introducing the Bt with an eye dropper also work?
Any way to put the BT on the inside of the vine (where the little @$!@#*#*#$*$%%*%*%*$!!$#&*#$&*'s eat) will work. I think a needle probably will cause less damage than a slit.
As long as it isn't a marinade injector. I mauled my plants trying to use that last year. Too big and awkward of a needle.
I get them by the thousands in winter!
You can't hear yourself speak right after a big rain! Literally! We don't even hear them! LOL People visiting will ask what that NOISE is??????? We don't notice!
I find them all over the garden all year long (and occasionally in the house!) In pots, soil bags on plants behind everything!
We don't use our hot tub anymore cause they are attracted to the boron and jump in and drown! We're working on a solution for that!
Nancy
Well, I'm not sure if I'd appreciate sharing a hot tub with them either, Nancy. I sure thought this little guy was cute, though, nestled between the stones. You would think we'd see more of them here with our climate, but like I said this is the first one I've seen in over 10 years.
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