23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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 am seeing the same thing on my early potatoes. One plant a day will look poorly, and when I pull it up there is a vein of rot in the main stem in the bottom 10 inches. The potatoes are mature and good to eat, but they will get bigger with more growing time. So far, all the affected plants have been blues.
One thing to bear in mind is that both thrips and aphids are way down on the insect food chain. If you want to keep beneficials around, they have to have something to eat.In addition to ladybeetles and lacewings, there are tiny wars going on too small to see. Syrphid flies are laying eggs near the aphids so their larvae can eat them.
That said, I'd have quickly clipped off that aphid-infested leaf and dumped it in the composter and then sprayed the plants with water a few times.
Nope. It isn't a contact killer. It's a bacteria which, when the caterpillars feed on foliage, kills them. Just spray entire plant(including undersides of leaves).
If infestation is bad, spray on a weekly schedule for a couple weeks and then on a 2 week schedule after that.
Kevin
Another thought I had is to plant things that people recognise and will tend to steal anyway. Raspberries and tomatoes are always stolen when grown next to the sidewalk and that may be desirable for you since it would be a demo garden after all.
The grass edge is actually now marked out at 1 foot all the way around. I had hoped this patch would absorb runoff and filter soil from hitting the streets and sidewalk, and double as a relatively clean place for gardeners to work from.
I can not mound the soil in any way because will promote loss of soil, and all the good amendments! Edging with some sort of protection is not a bad idea, but I think I will leave a lot of the perennial development of the garden to another year. Right now I want to get the garden growing something, and for it to look good.
As for the edging, that sound pretty important. Would rock edging really do that much more than plastic garden trim/edging? Sinking rocks into the edge sounds like a ton of work, and I don't think we're ready for something so permanent.
So far I'm gathering that I don't so much need to replace all the soil, as add some good compost (the cafe just began their 3-bin compost 2 weeks ago) and maybe some coir as required.
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