23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Those green marble sized seed pods generally just fall off my potatoes, so I don't bother with them. I planted in mid-late March and am starting to harvest blue potatoes. They look good, but it's definitely been their kind of weather so far this summer as long as they have adequate drainage.
This is the first year I removed them. The russets flowered big time and set a bunch of the pods. So I just figured why invest the plants energy in the growing of pods (I've had some up to 1" in diameter)....I'd rather focus the plants energy on the pods growing under the soil :)
Rather than a lack of something (phosphorus) it more often indicates and excess of something - nitrogen. When there is excess N in the soil root crops often produce lovely big bushy healthy green tops - but no roots.
The same is often the case with green beans - legumes don't tolerate high soil levels of N. Lots of bean plant with few beans.
Normally I wouldn't consider 10-10-10 to be high in N unless it was excessively applied. And while humus is nutrient rich it normally isn't high in N either.
Dave
Yes - they're inside. I keep them near a big bay window that gets a lot of morning light. I imagine it's been getting up into the 80s in my apartment when I'm at work since I don't leave the A/C on all day, but when I'm home it's usually in the mid 70s.
I harvested a volunteer head of elephant garlic last week. This is the time that you would generally harvest garlic in my zone. In the heat of July when 3 to 4 sets of leaves have dried out.
Each dead leaf set is one layer of "paper" around the garlic. You could pick them early if you plan to eat them soon but if you want to store them you need to let this develop as it preserves the garlic.
Well, I am a little south of you in Central Indiana. I sowed in pots on the picnic table. I sowed cauliflower and a dab of broccoli on June 17th for a mid July plant out. I also sowed the later broccoli about 4 days ago in pots. for late July plant out. My varieties are full season ones...not 50 day wonders [after plant out].
Next I plan to plant butterhead lettuce and spinach in pots about the 26 of July. Also snap peas in the ground then. I also will plant lettuce and spinach in the ground in early August.
Minami, Since you are in zone 10, the shishito may end up being perennial, in which case looking to the long term, rather than short term may be wise. Also, with many pepper plants, judicious pruning early on will help establish a nice thick central stalk that will be able to support fruit later on. I currently have a manzano rocoto pepper plant that I wish I had pruned more aggressively early this spring.
They are reliably hardy for me in Michigan as long as I throw a good mulch layer over them. They bloom well, but I don't ever get ripe fruit in my shorter season with cool late summer nights. Too bad, I hear they make a great addition to things- even the semi-mature fruits have the characteristic passion fruit aroma when cut open.
http://www.grandtetonorganics.com/products
Nice seed. Good varieties. Price seems high until you realize that it includes the postage.
You can pick for immediate use as soon as the skin is hard enough that you can't puncture it with your fingernail. At this point, most varieties are white-ish with a hint of green or yellow.
To store, they need to fully ripen on the vine, roughly 4 more weeks, in my experience, beyond the stage above, although longer is better on the vine if not in danger from pests, disease, or weather. By then, the basic S.S. is yellow-ish in color, as the yellow deepens as it ripens.
Aha -- so there is something wrong with your soil: it has dogs on it! :)
zucchini is pretty forgiving, so hopefully you'll get a good harvest this year despite the challenges.
Yeah. Haha. I tried everything last year to keep my dogs out. Rabbit fencing, pepper flakes, ect. Ect.
I felt like this was my only option. And it's nice not having to bend down to look through the garden. Everything is eye level, which I love.
And so far this season, I've eaten a dozen nice sized zucchinis. So I can't complain to much!
I'm excited for next year to get here so I can implement everything I've learned this year.