23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I think , your plants will reflect the state of soil in most cases. But when in doubt, a light dose of all purpose fertilizer , from time to time, cannot hurt but can help. I use liquid (14-14-14) and mixed it haf strength in watering can and feed most of my plants. For laeft veggies I just use Ammonium sulfate (21-0-0 ). Because I I want is foliage , no flowers, no fruits. My strategy is using about 1/3 strength but ever so often. Then from the state of my plants(growth rate, color, bloom...) I can pretty much tell what is going on.

If you are using Biotone, or some other organic fert, then you dont need to worry so much about over fertilizing (just the expense). Its the man-made chemical fert that can burn your plants if you use to much.

Biotone is a good suggestion for a new raised bed, since it will add to and promote the growth of good soil bacteria, which hasnt had time to establish itself.

Or just plant seeds in the ground now and forget the transplanting.

Starting squash, cukes, melon inside does not have a big advantage. Because , they develop tap roots fast and are NOT transplant friendly. also the germinate fast and easy. Try this,: transplant your seedling and next hill to it plant seeds. In a month from now, probably there will be no difference in size between them.

Good for you for starting to garden! I'm not experienced compared to most here but I agree that you are a bit late getting your plants out. Get them hardened off and baby the peppers and tomatoes when you plant them. Fertilize them soon; they're hungry. I did the same thing last year (my first) and the peppers struggled along during summer but did better in fall. Get the basil in sun soon too and you may be pleasantly surprised at its growth in two weeks.

Read this forum a lot; there is so much valuable information from truly knowledgeable gardeners. I love seeing what's being planted in my state.

You have to be patient, me thinks. Thing that you described , are not problems .. like not growing fast, ... bottom leaves are falling /yellowing

However, curling leaves in GA, this time of year can be due to heat an lack of water.

I'm near Folsom. Are you ready for the 108 degree weather this weekend?
Or should I say, is your garden ready?

I'm in Sonoma Co......Only the high 90s! LOL Going to the river for the weekend!

cb garden. female flowers will be on baby cucumbers. Male flowers on a straight stem.

I had another male flower finally open. Again, not getting ANY pollen from it. I used different types of soft paintbrushes, but nothing. I also make the males kiss the females in a last ditch attempt!

Sadly, my fanfare cucumbers aren't growing as fast as my sweeter yet, so I don't have any other options when it comes to pollinating the sweeter yet cukes.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I feel your pain, Aili. I was getting nightly frosts up until Memorial Day, and just when my poor plants have started to actually grow, we're slated for highs around 100 starting today. Guess that was my week of spring :)

I feel your pain. While we almost never break 60 at night, we will be getting into the mid-90s by Sunday. We have a chance of rain tonight and I sure hope that it materializes as some significant rain. It would help the fires that are burning and the plants are getting desperate (as are the bunnies). The only upside this year for me has been that weeding has been minimal.

"Heck, even the Irish can grow potatoes". I am Irish clorpt.

"Heck, even the Irish can grow potatoes". I am Irish clorpt.

Thanks, everyone for excellent advice. I go forth now with some confidence. I had never tried seeding anything here in July or August, and was wondering if it was a totally crazy thing to do. I resign myself to the fact that I'll be doing especially frequent watering.

I will take seriously the advice about Fortex as a good alternative to KW. Planting Fortex indoors and transplanting outside probably won't work here though, as hitting seedlings with 100F+ temps when they've been growing lazily indoors with a/c is probably not good.

One advantage with beans for hot weather sowing is that they get planted deep, so the soil they're growing in doesn't have to dry out.

If your soil is at all heavy, Dan, consider making holes in the soil with a dibble and filling the holes part way with potting soil, into which you will plant your beans, then cover with potting soil. Helps them pop out of the ground without messing up their first true leaves. Makes it convenient to inoculate them, too.

I start late beans and other seeds indoors in deep "root trainers" and move them into the 100 degree heat (with a little afternoon shade) as soon as they germinate. Have to keep them watered thereafter.

The Louisiana Purple Pod pole sounds good. Most of the time I plant bush beans, even though the harvest (especially on the most heat-tolerant varieties) is concentrated. I have lots of space for succession planting, though, and pole beans give out in our summer heat (pretty much no common bean I know of sets edible beans when temps are above about 104 for a few days). For fall, Espada is another white-seeded bush bean with some heat tolerance (probably not as much as Brio or Festina) which bears over a longer season. Some of the specialty bush beans also bear over a longer season.

The effect of plastics(similar to trash bags) is not so much for absorption of solar heat but slowing down the soil underneath from cooling due to convection(air movement). In effect, it keeps more of ground's own heat coming up. Average ground temperature is about 65F. which is almost perfect for most plants. So in the winter it cools down(even freezes) down to several feet and in the summer(depending on location) warms up to several feet.

I think, therefore, technically, plastics, black or any color, when tightly sitting on the ground, also traps the moisture. So as the surface temperature rises, the warm moisture penetrate deeper into the ground. That is the mechanism of heat transfer due to plastics.

I am not for plastics, because they suffocate the ground. I think the soil should get both sunshine and air. That is why the old tradition of hoeing makes sense. It might be hard work but it has benefits.

In other words, plastic row covering for the purpose of weed prevention and moisture maintenance, in hot summer days just not in harmony with the nature of the plants and the earth underneath. JMO, that's all.

Let me share my experience with row covers and plastic mulch. BTW, these are both new to me this year.

I have 4 raised bed, each 4'x 10'. For my cold crops, which I planted in early march (well before the last frost) I used hoop covers during times when the temperature dipped into the mid-twenties or less. I took it off during the day. I haven't used a row cover for them for about 5-6 weeks now and they have done great.

In another bed I have a combination of cold and warm weather crops. I planted mid-late April and even though I used a row cover, one cold windy nite zapped all of my peppers and tomatoes in this raised bed. I replanted and now all plants are doing well, including cabbage which is a new vegetable for me.

My other 2 raised beds are strictly warm weather crops (tomatoes, squash, melons, etc). They have IRT plastic mulch and row covers. These 2 strategies kept the crops in a warm environment even with cool daytime highs and they are doing great. I plan on covering the plastic mulch with organic mulch sometime in the next 2 weeks... depending on the weather.

Tom

I think the difference would be that you can choose not to use a sprinkler.

~emmers

Overhead sprinkling most definitely does *not* preclude deep watering. Once our plants are established, we usually only water once a week (if it hasn't rained) and it *does* go deep. I've dug holes myself to see for sure. You have to choose a good sprinkler that puts the water down nicely for your soil.

Healthy plants, at least those I've observed, do not sag under the weight of water from an overhead sprinkler. If they are, they're either already stressed or the sprinkler is applying the water too fast and/or the droplet is too large.

Watering with a good-quality overhead sprinkler is *not* aimless. If it is, you're not positioning it properly or you're trying to water in the wind. Get a better sprinkler if you're having problems getting the water where you want it.

Yes, some plants shouldn't be touched when they're wet. In my garden, it's beans. The solution is simple - handle them before you water them, just like you would handle them (weed, pick, etc.) before a predicted rain.

My beds are rectangular (11 by 15 feet on the west side and 11 by 18 feet on the east side) and Gardenia makes an adjustable (I have some other slimmer beds as well) oscillating sprinkler that's just perfect for their size and shape and the water pressure we're putting out with our pump. That's not to say it's the perfect sprinkler for someone else, though.

We're all entitled to our own method, experience and opinion. That's true. Those of us who overhead water - and have done so successfully for many years - are just sharing our equally valid points of view as well.

Annew21, in my climate and conditions, there is no difference between rain and sprinkling. I can't comment for anyone else's climate and conditions, though.