23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
In my experience, the worst thing cucumber beetles do is spread disease, which is what kills the plants. That's why I think you need to be aggressive in getting rid of them. I grow a variety that is supposed to be unattractive to them (Diva) and also spray with spinosad, an organic insecticide, as soon as I see them. The best control is probably row covers so they never touch your plants. I haven't figured out how to do that in a container.
Ohiofem, Actually, if they kill the seedlings, they don't even get going good. I would call the sudden appearance yesterday the first emergence which was so much later than usual that it caught me a bit off guard...just trying to warn the folks about them on seedlings.
My broccoli and cabbage got true leaves fairly quickly, but my brussels sprouts did seem to stay small a lot longer. I germinated the BS inside, then kept the containers outside on a sheltered porch until they were ready to transplant. Here I thought maybe not growing them inside under lights was keeping them small, but it sounds like they just grow a lot more slowly than other brassicas.
When I transplanted them outside ~3 weeks after sowing, they were pretty tiny, with only 1 set of true leaves. Now a month later, they are closing in on a foot tall and looking great. Our cooler-than-usual summer must be agreeing with them.
Kathy
Eh, don't rub it in. (But well put.) You go where the jobs are. Yes, I really miss that locale. I grew up there. Now, I can grow heaps of okra, eggplant, and hot peppers here with ease, my cherry tomatoes are 8-feet tall, and I've got TWO growing seasons. But I really miss the berries (I would kill to grow blueberries ...) and the lack of SVBs. While the winters here are wonderful, deep summer is an, er, challenge.
Going back in a few weeks on my yearly visit! Now, when I go back there in summer, the sky is always clear and beautiful. Why do I remember it otherwise? Oh yeah, there are the other nine months of the year!
Well said. Zone classification is just indicative poor correlation. It is more like the length of growing season in months. It does not reveal any relevance to temperature pattern.
EXAMPLE: I am where it is 7b to 8. Last night low was 48F, tonight and tomorrow nights will be the same. Our last frost date was around mid April I think. That was two months ago. Somewhere down south at zones 7b and 8 they are harvesting okra but I am worried about my squash seedlings..hehe
Is there a way I can still save my plants? I got some garden soil and have miracle grow. Can I Either water the plants with miracle grow or dig in garden soil. I lost some of the cucumbers and all the watermelons today. I did take 4 of the cucumbers and repotted them in huge containers a couple of days ago and watered them with the miracle grow and they seem to be looking better today. They are lemon cucumbers (I love them so much). We live on such a limited budget (less than $800 a month between the two of us due to disabilities for both of us) that adding expensive compost is not cost effective for us. I sure would like to see at least a few of them make it. Now I did put my potatoes directly in the ground and they seemed to be doing great. I also put the following directly in the ground as well: Several varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, crook neck, raspberries and a couple of cauliflower as well. Before I did that I mixed about 40% of miracle grow garden soil with it. I sure wished I didn't look stupid doing this. But I want to thank all that has tried to help me
I have a suggestion: For cucumbers, melons ... dig a circle around each (about 16" in diameter, 2 to 3 inches deep, and about 3" wide ). be careful not to hit any roots. Then get manure compost and fill that doughnut shape hole. You can sprinkle and mix a little bit of all purpose time release fertilizer too. Cover it wit 1/2" soil, water it. Depending on the strength of manure, that should take care of that plant for 3 to 4 weeks.
REMEMBER: Soil is just a medium. It can be anything as long as it provides: balanced moisture retention and drainage. Then you add nutrients to that medium . That is all plants care about. Obviously inorganic soil (debris from the rocks, stones ... ) are plentiful. Then you have to adjust its pH and add nutrients to it. Topsoil is mostly inorganic soil with some organic matter accumulated over time. So , adding compost to any soil can make it garden soil.
Thanks for the quick answer!
Here are some new pictures.
http://mygardenyote.blogspot.com/2013/06/zucchini-plants-2.html
Well, as a fellow Iowan, I can tell you I haven't even direct seeded my cucs yet.
I probably will either this coming weekend or the next, but I don't ever plant them until mid June at the very earliest. (Zucchini as well by the way)
I have tried and tried to get them out in May or early June, and they always do terrible. But, I have found if you wait until it is HOT, and just direct seed them, they do so much better. They just rocket out of the ground and make up for "lost" time, and also seem to miss out on most of the beetle blight.
It's been cold here on my side of Iowa, we had nights in the 40's not to long ago. Cucs like it hot. Try putting them in much later. Another Iowa gardener suggested it to me years ago when I was frustrated, and I tried it once and never went back.
Too much water and improper time to apply fertilizer (after a heavy rain).
The best way to take care of the fertilizer issue is to flush it out of the root zone...but given how saturated the soil is, that would not work so well. It would also exasperate the saturated soil issue, which is effecting the soil/root/oxygen (which is quite important).
About the only thing you can do is wait for the water saturation issue to sort itself. The root/oxygen issue is currently more important of an issue to resolve than the fertilizer application issue.
The plants may still recover even with some leaf "burn" taking down some (or parts) or the leaves.
thanks carol,
i don't know why it grows like crazy. I actually planted it in milk carton sitting on top of the small green container. The reason is becuase last year, gophers ate my pumpkins that were on the ground. Let's see if the gopher can chew thru it container. I think the roots are penetrating into the dirt. I planted it the same time as this one that's in a planting pot sharing with a manderine tree, someone it is three times bigger. I don't know why. they both get about the same amount of sun. I also apply lots of steer manual to both plants. they love them.
You could have blackberry plantlets from the root pieces (along with seeds from fallen fruit left in the soil sprouting more blackberries).
If you're willing to keep an eye on this soil, vigilantly removing any sprouts, it can be used.
Screening the soil might help if there's a lot of root...getting some of the stronger roots out of the soil. Some chicken wire on a frame (or something similar) screening it into a barrel/wheel barrel/tarp/etc.
If the berries grew extremely well in this patch the soil itself might be a bit low in pH, too...so that might be a concern adding it to a garden in large amounts unless it could help the pH of the soil you're applying it to.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 17:45
I seem to have plenty of bees around here. Plenty of bumble bees, and I think someone nearby is keeping bees because I see a lot of honeybees too. I still hand pollinate my first few squash early on, until the bees find them. Later on there's so much bee activity it's not necessary for me.
I have gazillions of honey bees, Plus other bees. I think they are wild. I don't know how to tell the difference between wild and domestic honey bees.
I am pretty sure there are no beekeepers within miles of me.
There isn't a lot of commercial farming near me. The closest one that would use pesticides is about 1/2 mile away, usually corn for silage or some other type stuff for silage, it is a dairy farmers field.
I have a wheat field that joins my property but I haven't saw them spray anything and normally wheat doesn't have bug problems in my area.
I have a lot of things that attract them though, fruit trees, crimson and white clover. They love my figs, they get more than half of them.