23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I'd contact them and ask why. The only reason I can think of is compost can have adequate water retention issues to get the crowns established or that you don't feed just transplanted crowns until they show signs of growth and that would only explain it if they are assuming the compost is nutrient rich - which it isn't.
But given all the time (no it isn't soil, compost becomes humus not soil) since you made the bed, personally I wouldn't worry about planting them in it. I also would not count on only compost to provide enough nutrients for them once they do show growth.
Dave
I emailed Nourse and they said 2 things:
- If not fully composted, there could be some viable seeds that could sprout and compete with the asparagus. So keep it well weeded.
- Unfinished compost could burn the roots. I could try planting pansies to test this if I wanted.
After we dumped the soil + compost last summer, we had a large crop of volunteer canteloupe, from the seeds in the compost. This is definitely more of a cold compost than a hot compost, and there was a lot of older "soil" (don't know the exact composition of the raised beds that we transplanted and mixed with the compost). And it looks and feels pretty done: no remnants of the origins except a few nut hulls and the odd eggshell.
Given the above, plus the fact that I've got the crowns and need to get them in the ground, I went ahead and planted them. When I dug the trenches, I mixed in some of the native clay soil with the topping, so hopefully that will help. I'll be vigilant with the weeds and hopefully will start to see some ferns in a few weeks.
Oh, I see you can get still buy both of those evergreen bell pepper varieties, if they're not secretly out of stock.
And now for something completely different...the crunch dance.
Water and ammonia is fine for hosta but other plants might burn (brunnera comes to mind) so be careful. When I do hand pick them into soapy water they end up in the compost heap as do Japanese Beetles.
tj
Ammonia never bothered any of the vegetable plants I sprayed. Don't forget ammonia is diluted with water or added to water until the slugs fall off the plant is what I recommend. I start with 1 part ammonia to 4 parts water.
Ammonia dissipates pretty quickly so there is no plant damage.
The very best thing about using ammonia in a spray bottle is "you don't have to touch the slimy things".
The 2nd best thing is you often get slugs you didn't even see. They are noticeable cuz they squirm as soon as the ammonia hits them.
The hardest part is you have to do this at night but you get to see other things that affect (live-in) your garden this way.
Keep in mind that 5-1-1 is an outdoor container mix primarily. And most of the advice on fertilizing is also for outdoor plants as Container Gardening, by its nature, is an outdoor gardening method, not indoor. For example, container grown tomato plants growing outside are often fed a 1/4 to 1/2 strength well diluted fertilizer every 10 days to 2 weeks but we are usually talking about containers bigger than 5 gallons too.
Make a note to yourself next year to not start your plants quite so early, 6-8 weeks tops before plant out date. :)
Dave
I basically have a lot of sugar snap peas over a period of about three weeks, beginning to end. Again, the endergy f th eplant is all going in to making peas, not making vines. It would be interesting to know if the temperature causes fruiting to "turn on" in sugar snap peas. Certainly if I had planted, say, in February, I'd have much smaller plants possibly starting to bear right now.
Well the only thing lost is a few zucchini seeds. Go for it if you want IMHO, if it doesn't work out plant some more. I found zucchini to be very cold tolerant for tender frost sensitive veggies. The more sensitive nightshade transplants are another story.
Thanks for the great advice everyone. Just as an update for anyone who might come across this, here's what happened so far:
A couple days after the frost incident I stuck a couple squash seeds in the ground next to the poor frost damaged one. The new seeds sprouted, but before true leaves emerged the original plant had put on a bunch of new growth and I decided to pull out the seedlings. Next to the transplanted squash was another squash seedling that also took damage, it now has true leaves so I think we are on the way with that one. The four tomatoes all ended up with a small amount of damage, but appear to have recovered, and are now flowering. The bush beans are another story...about half of them came back, but the other half are still struggling. I planted another batch of bush beans (succession planting every two weeks) and those are doing well, but a good deal of the frost bit ones have no leaves and are just sad stems. I don't think they are going to make it and I am debating pulling them out or some spinach to make room for the next set of beans this weekend.
Either way, I've learned a lot from this experience, and I'm definitely going to try to be patient next year with my frost date?
Very few suppliers apparently and most are in Europe and UK. Unless you can find them available in a grocery store and plant those you'll most likely have to order them online from overseas and pay the high shipping costs. Ronnigers Potato Garden has several other blue/purple varieties but this late many of them are already sold out.
http://www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PG&Category_Code=NSP
Your ideas sound great. With such a big yard like yours, I could never limit myself just to that area you have, so kudos to you for not turning the entire place into a garden.
I would wonder if during this renovation, you might add in some kind of watering system? I currently don't see any thing about an automated system so I thought maybe you are doing it manually.
While I do like the layout can you just border the perimeter with a 2ft bed all around? I think that will save some building materials.
I don't think you need to make the bed 3ft wide for the zucchini. The plant can bush outside the bed but be planted within a 2ft bed, me thinks.
I prefer to compost on the ground right next to my plants as the roots will extend outside of the beds in search of nutrients. But I just compost in one pile
Is that gravel you are using as mulch? The beds don't look that old in these pics.
The optimal size for a sprout is ½ to ¾ inch long...preferably green sprouted. If the spouts are put where they get moderate light when they are small, they develop sturdy green sprouts. This is not absolutely necessary, but is highly desirable.
You can plant brussels sprouts in the spring and fall in cool climates. As mentioned the fall planted ones are better. Here are the recommended planting dates for MD: MD Planting Dates
Peter - why does failure to germinate mean the mix has to be contaminated? They will germinate in garden dirt - not recommended of course but still possible - which is far more contaminated than any potting mix. Of course whether they would remain healthy is another matter.
Dave
Most people keep their potting mix very moist prior to germination (some put greenhouses over the seeds to keep the soil wet even and the whole area humid) and the seeds germinate fine. For not a single seed to germinate out of all those different plantings, IMHO there has to be fungus already in the mix. While you could grow seeds in garden soil riddled with various damping off fungus by keeping the soil very dry, no reason to use soil riddled with damping off fungus, when sterile potting mix is easy to come by.... sure, if you keep your mix too wet, fungus is going to find its way in there.... eventually.
Of course, JMO. All the same though, you don't think it is good advice to get a fresh bag of potting mix, to increase his chances of success?
What size is this insect? It could be anything from a tiny leaf hopper to a katydid, going by that image.
The first rule is to ID an unknown critter. Much of the time, with the worst of the plant pests, the damage simply isn't obvious until too late. Scale insects, aphids, and leaf hoppers, for example, aren't plant chewers but instead suck plant juices in large amounts.
You'd be surprised at the people who don't think aphids are a problem because they don't see any holes or chewing damage.
To glean good information from us, you need to give us good information: your location, behavior of the insect, size, etc.
I wouldn't. Even in my zone I don't plant peppers out until mid-May as they prefer much warmer soil temps than tomatoes. It is far too easy to end up with stunted growth, lower yields, and BER - a common results often discussed on the Peppers forum.
Even then I always check the actual soil temps before transplanting them and make sure it is at least 65 degrees. Sometimes that means waiting and transplanting them into larger containers indoors to tide them over.
Dave
If you're going to try now, I would use black plastic to make sure the soil temp stays up, and consider water walls to make mini greenhouses for them. If not, I would just put in larger pots. I don't plant my peppers until May, even with water walls.