23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I mulch my garden almost exclusively with fresh grass clippings, straight from the bagger to the garden, several inches thick.

It works awesome at weed suppression and really improves the soil. I have been doing this for years.

It works so well I even went out and bought a stupidly expensive bagger for my riding mower so I could get more clippings than what the push mower was giving me.

When you first put them down, give the stems of plants an inch or so of breathing room, the clippings can heat up a bit as they decompose.

Grass clippings are fine for mulch, but as JWW mentioned, they should be composted some. Not only because of weed seeds, but FRESH grass is high in Nitrogen and a 3" thick mat of it will heat up like a compost pile. Don't want to "cook" your veggies.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Sun, Jun 16, 13 at 15:35

Chard has been fairly trouble-free for me insect wise; some years spotted cucumber beetles chew on it, but they seldom cause more than minor damage. Other years the grasshopper damage becomes noticeable.

But the worst damage I ever had with chard was due to... goldfinches??? A flock of them learned to peck on the leaves, and within several weeks, had eaten a stand 12" tall down to the ground. The next year I used floating row cover over the chard, which effectively stopped the bird damage, as well as the beetles. I highly recommend the use of row cover for the best-quality leaves.

Thanks for the advise!

To be honest I'm not to sure low levels of N is going to affect uptake of nutrients in the soil as the plant itself will be trying to uptake what it needs I do know that some of your micro nutrients do aid in the metabolism of the plant and its up take of macro nutrients I believe zinc is one of the important ones the only way to really tell is time if there is a deficiency the plant will show it then u have to identify and amend the soil don't worry as you can apply micro nutrients as a foliar spray for a instant boost as well as amending the soil if you can find them in liquid form

It probably depends on the OM%. My empirical experience is that with 21% OM, clay soil, the fertilizer is not leached by two inches. I also expect that leaching will be an exponential function of precipitation, that is, if x inches leach 50%, 2x inches will leach 75%.

Thanks for coming back to update. My main garden beds were in full sun 10 years ago when we bought our house, but since that time, the neighbor's trees have grown much bigger and the new owners no longer do any trimming. Result - my main garden is becoming part-sun.

I've compensated by building a new raised bed closer to the house, but although it's in full sun all summer, the house shades it from Oct-March, which means no spring or fall gardening to extend the season. Needless to say, I'm doing a lot of thinking ahead to figure out what I can plant where (and there may be yet another raised bed built to catch fall/winter/spring sun). So although I'm located further north than you are, I'm very interested to see your results. :)

I grow exclusively in containers because of black walnuts and other trees surrounding my small yard. The containers are smart pots scattered around my back yard to get the most sun. A friend said they looked like a bunch of top hats. The tomatoes have the primo spot where they get about 6 hours of sun broken up into three periods. When I grew hybrids, I got decent yields. Since I fell in love with big heirloom types a few years ago, I've had to settle for lower yields. But I'm gradually learning what will do best in my situation. I have had good luck with mortgage lifters, goose creeks and kosovos. I say, work with what you've got. Even an early girl from the garden is head and shoulders above a grocery store tomato.

I want to add that I've been growing scarlet runner beans in a small plot on the north side of my house where they only get early morning sun. They climb up to the roof where they get a lot more sun fairly quickly and attract hummingbirds. They are a lot of fun to grow. I do need a ladder to harvest them, though.

Spraying sugar water on any plant seems a REALLY bad idea. If you spray apple juice on the ground, it'll be covered in ants before long. Why would you want your tomatoes that way? They look pretty healthy, and they should take care of pollination all by themselves. Tomatoes don't need insects to pollinate.

If I read your post correctly, it's a last-year problem that you're trying to cure this year. But you've taken more trouble this year with your planting medium, and you say these are just the first flowers coming out. Patience!

Now, if it's getting very hot, tomatoes will shut down fruiting. Blooms will appear and just fall off. But I would think that Philadelphia shouldn't be that hot.

Thanks for all your comments,

I just took more photos this evening and saw some loose blosoms and took some photos. The first photo was just haning from a leaf and looked frayed so I opned it up and was currious and saw a little mator that didn't make it.

The seconed one was from the same plant and looked real healthy. It dropped when I tried to shake the plant a little bit.

you can see why I have concern (and jsut looking to see if there is a helpful solution to help deter this while it is still early) but I am aware of the maturity issue and the stress they did go through to get to this stage with the weather and such and patience is probably the best thing to have this early.

Thanks again all for your help.
- Mr Beno

I guess that I'll never know what the worms were. They were nowhere near as big as any corn borer that I have ever seen. They were about the size of 1/4" to 3/8" long pieces of spaghetti and they were white. I guess that it could have been the larvae of some moth.

None of the other vines seem to be affected, so maybe I should just count my blessings. I'm just wondering, though, if there's some type of prophalactic treatment that could be given to the rest. What do you do for vine boring pests?

Spinosad has worked for me with various borers (including squash vine borer), in conjunction with digging as many as possible out of the vine with a bent pin.

Spray spinosad in early morning or late evening, as it can do harm to day-flying beneficials as well as the baddies.

Liquid fertilizer probably isn't needed. Why not sprinkle on a granular organic designed for vegetables? There are several to choose from and they also contain micronutrients. Feed the soil, and it will feed the plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: My raised bed garden

I use a sprinkler system a fanout spray type one. Here in N.Y. we got alot of rain the past few weeks so the soil is moist. The 2 main issues I have is the basil looks like somethings eating it and its not growing as nice as it usually does. the peppers are staring to flower, fruit, and a few tomato plants are starting. I planted string beans last week and nothing sprouted through the ground yet but I guess more time is needed. I just want to stay on top of my garden to make sure it keeps flourishing, One other thing I noticed is compared to my father in laws (a few blocks away) garden his lettuce grew fast while mine grew nice but seems stunted which is what makes me think I need fertilizer.

The mantids are good. So funny to look at. They turn their heads and look at you. I haven't seen any this year. Hope they are around.

I saw some a couple days ago and they must have just hatched as they were only a half inch long.

Rodney

I never try to outsmart a plant when it comes to producing fruit. I don't know more about it than the plant does.

If I don't like what it does, I have veto power. (I can pull it up and kill it!)

Doesn't sound like you have a problem. Jalapenos aren't necessarily that big, and it won't be straining an 18-inch plant to be working on some. I have six TAM Jalapeno plants that large going right now, and I have a couple of fruit on each at a time. They haven't stopped growing while fruiting, and I'm harvesting regularly.

Remember that peppers are perennials. They just keep going, and going, and going.

Not sure where you are, but if you're in the south, and it's getting hot, those peppers are going to start growing like crazy.

like above depends on where you are located like for here in CA right now the only thing i think you could plant where i am is corn or more tomatoes or squash or pumpkins or water melons mostly anything summer related due to the fact that we will probably see 4 more months of warm dry sunny weather here in the central valley. right now I'm struggling to get my broccoli to finish to harvest since i planted late but there are doing okay and the heads are starting to develop even though we been having some above average temps lately.

In my zone: starting Savoy cabbage next week for winter harvest, mid July: fall carrots, beets, late beans and summer squash, early August: turnips, escaroles, Asian radishes, early Sept, fall/winter lettuces. Still lots of time here for lots of stuff.

"Florida Weave" is what I do to tie up my tomatoes.
Below is the link on a youtube video.

Here is a link that might be useful: youtube video of florida weave

Wayne:

"You must live in a dry area!"

I live in the garden spot of the world (NW KS). Average annual precip. about 15". Last two years, 60+ days/yr over 100F. Every year since I have been gardening here (started 2004) I have had at least one 70MPH or higher wind. Can't keep corn upright unless it is rooted deep.

With enough irrigation, local farmers do grow lots of corn, but water is getting scarce. They are now dry-land farming where I used to fish.

I think our new economy is going to be based on wind generated electricity, if the government subsidies continue to waste our tax dollars to build otherwise uneconomical systems.

Our average 20-25MPH wind will spin those generators well. I'm afraid our 70-80MPH winds will blow them down.

This post was edited by tdscpa on Sat, Jun 15, 13 at 3:05

For facts about BER, rather than popular wisdom, see the Tomato Forum FAQ at http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/tomato/

Here is a link that might be useful: BER is 2nd item in FAQ

BER is usually (not always) caused by the gardener, not the soil with Irregular watering being the culprit. The soil should not dry out or be too soggy. The problem is more common in sandy soils. It's not always that calcium is lacking in the soil, but that it isn't reaching the cells in the fruit. It is more common in larger tomatoes. You don't see cherry tomatoes with BER.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom end rot