23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Zucchini is difficult to store long, but I grate it into muffin tins and freeze, then remove the "muffins" and put into plastic bags for freezing. I use it in soups and homemade dog food, might even work for zucchini bread.

You've got a wonderful garden going.

Just about anything that would not require ripe fruits. That is you wouldn't want to grow melons, w/melons, eggplants.. winter squash.

This Clemson pub suggests they might be melon aphids. Do you live in cotton country?

Here is a link that might be useful: Clemson cucurbit pests

To the OP - Did you look up thrips as I suggested above? Look at the picture of them in a cuke bloom that I linked below - scroll down to the big pic in the middle of the page.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Thrips in cuke blooms

Look at the picture on this blog (of bean plants):
http://wickhamfarmscsa.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html

Looks like the damage you have. Theirs is from deer. I can't imagine a rabbit getting up that high. If it is a rabbit you will need fencing with smaller spacing (see link below).

Bury it at a 90 degree angle because rabbits will dig under a fence. If it's deer you need a higher fence - though I would think the netting would work. Quite a conundrum.

Here is a link that might be useful: 48-in x 50-ft Green Plastic/Polyresin Perimeter Fence

I vote deer as well. You said that you never see deer, but in my experience they dine at night. You may never see them. If the ground is dry you won't see hoof prints, but if it's wet you may.

I would recommend that you attach the mesh to the fence posts (if you haven't already - I can't tell from the picture) and make sure it is tight. They are highly motivated and will find a way in if they can so you have to make it as difficult as possible. Good luck!

Have a fair number of radishes that have large area's (such as you show) chewed out of them and then the ants seem to be coming later. I don't think they are the ones who have done the first chomp. To compensate, I just sprinkle radish seed everywhere. That way, I still have some for me and the spoils are of no consequence. The great thing about radishes, growing between rows of all crops is, they serve to distract the pests from dinning on my more valued veg. They grow fast and like weeds, so there is always enough for me and the bugs all season.

Ants can definitely eat and ruin your veg. I am currently fighting ants that are eating the stems of my cauliflowers and before that, my choy sum. They seem to enjoy brassicas and have left the other veg alone.

Ive tried using DE but it didnt really help. Since i dont want to spray chemicals, im trying some ant bait now. I also poured boiling water along their paths - that worked well for a while.

What is the suggested fertilizer to get them going? I remember reading that Bone Meal is helpful for peppers to get a good start... ?

Assuming your soil is well amended prior to planting then any balanced, low N fertilizer works fine but only after the plants are established and you have first fruit set.

Bonemeal, while a good source of P, is very slow acting (like 6 months) so it needs to be applied well before planting. You wont\'t see any immediate benefits from it.

Dave

Hi, Sorry I'm in hockey heaven right now and forgot to check back in here.

Thanks for the updates on starting from seed sounds like next year I better give that a try.

Good to know about the fertilizer, I knew there was something about not over fertilizing them and just getting too much leaf growth.

Now I just hope for better weather than last year, it was so dry the animals kept beating me to the harvest.

"Do chickens eat slugs?"

Yes, they also eat earwigs, cabbage, lettuce, squash (cut opened), grasshoppers, caterpillars, lizards, any unwanted vegetables, vegetable greens, including tomato leaves, and whole lot more.

With the rainy year most everywhere in the US, after a severely dry year, things are getting back to normal. Here, the rabbits are exploding. Coyotes will explode next year.

I have never thought of shade cloth for peppers. We had probably our hottest spring and summer last year and my peppers were productive - bells, jalapenos. The lettuce bolted pretty quickly and I had them thickly mulched and kept them moist. So far, this year has been cool and wet- peppers and tomatoes not growing much, lettuce is doing great.

Dave

I shaded the peppers through the highest heat- they can get extra spicy otherwise. It seemed to work, the previous year without shade yielded some peppers that were too much for us! Lettuce is a spring and fall thing here, pretty good this spring down here, too.

Interesting so the 'salted hay' they sell is a type of hay from the NJ Marshlands... Hence its salty smell i think. They said it hardly has any seeds hence why they recommend that.

You are in for a treat with the Petites Gris de Rennes. I grew those a couple of years ago and they were like candy. Unfortunately the squirrels thought so too. :)

That is some sweet stone-free dirt.

I helped out with some wheat-harvesting one time in Kansas and the incredible deep stone-free soil is hard to believe even when looking at it, for an east-coaster.

we grow through winter, so ours take longer generally around 4 months, our trick si to get good plant growth before winter comes, we have that and have mulched them up higher.

by the looks of the plants we should get a good crop, found more spuds with sprouts in the fridge to replace those seedies that didn't grow. from the 1st planting, they will grow slower now that winter is here.

but a good haul you got in such a short time.

len

I prefer not to use the powerful insecticides recommended in that article. Would neem or spinosad be effective? As a spray and soil drench? Since I started growing Diva cucumbers, I haven't had significant problems with cucumber beetles. They are supposed to be less attractive to cucumber beetles than many other varieties. But I have seen them in my yard.

Well, yes, Dave, but if you do target the larvae at the right stage, seems to me it could work. They are ingesting something down there in the soil. otoh, if it's not effective on beetle larvae, it wouldn't work but something else might.

Sugar Snaps were way late to take off this year in SW MO, but there are now plenty of flowers and a couple of little peas. I will be feasting on right off the vine on those in another day or two.

My first few peas harvested June 7; still quite small but at their sweetest.

The picture is of peas planted together late February, pre-sprouted. The bright green ones are Alaska, approaching 5 ft tall. The lower, darker green plants are Maestro which only grow to about 2 ft and look to be much more productive.

The photo (sorry it's sideways but I don't know how to change it on the forum) is from June 6th, a full 104 days from sowing. Later plantings made around March 25 are at almost the same stage; maybe 2-3 days behind after just 73 days, so the early start was almost no advantage. My catalogs claim normally 60-62 days to maturity.

I also have some very low-growing Novella in a double row and I'm going to see how well they hold themselves up with no staking. So far it looks as if they'll be fine. They have amazing numbers of aggressive-looking tendrils for hanging on to each other.