23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Im way behind on both.. its been so cold and rainy here, of course the 3 days of sun we had got into the 90s and back to 50s and rain for this weekend.
Not really complaining, not just opitimal growth pattern. Still its nice to be outside from time to time.
Lettuce likes it =)
If you provide the good growing condition, they will resume normal growth. This happened to me once. There was a gourd plant , out of my garden in a hard clay soil. It was about a foot tall, yellow and had few flowers on it. I dug around it, removed the clay , as much as possible and replaced with good garden soil , watered it and took care of it. The plant dropped the flower and start growing and became a big healthy gourd plant ,with tens of feet healthy vines ,with many gourd on it.
Usually asparagus is fairly cheap. Were these bare roots?
It is going to take 3 years before a good crop happens. I have never staked any asparagus.
If you have critter damage you just need to protect them in some way.
Fed them heavily, make sure the soil is rich and deep and they should eventually reward you.
I guess patience is the key ingredient in growing asparagus.
Kevin... Alas, the bane of my existence strikes again... too short of a season! ;) But yeah, my main heads of broccoli average 1 to 1.5 lbs each. Love that!
QBush... re: right fertilizer at the right time...
I test and then feed the soil in the spring (if needed), use a soluble starter fertilizer when I transplant (I start my own from seed) and then add nothing the rest of the season. My neighbour down the road (we're rural) has very similar soil, but they don't add as much organic matter as we do. She plops greenhouse starts in the dirt, waters when she remembers, doesn't fertilize... and gets lovely heads every year.
Could it be that brassicas *like* to be somewhat starved in order to form nice heads (or sprouts in the case of the Brussels)?
Never heard that one macky. I think they all prefer pretty fertile soil. I think it's all about a timing thing. I've had differently timed successions of broccoli and cauli in the same plot turn out different sized heads. I can plant them from Aug-Feb, but I notice the closer I get to the winter solstice to planting, the smaller the head. Which makes sense because the amount of sunlight. I also notice that my winter harvests(when planted in late/summer/early fall) are a bit better than my early summer summer harvests.
With my Brussels, I get big plants and I get sprouts. They're just always loose leaf sprouts. I read last year that July is supposed to be optimum for them here, so I'll give it one more shot I don't know how that's supposed to work out though -- our summers don't really get going until late july.
Kevin
The house ee live in we are renting but we are looking to buy it. Its a beautiful piece of property. The house sets on a hill and my garden is down by the creek. I have big plans for the yard but i don't wanna do to much till after we close on it. After that let the games begin. We also have a natural pond that i wanna turn into a koi pond. I dream about it at night. In obsessed.
I have ants all over my plants as well--especially the cucumbers. They don't seem to be a problem though. At least, I don't have any of the yellowing leaves like you do, so the leaf problem might not be related.
I'm a beginner as well though, so someone else might have better advice.
The drip system can be the culprit but it has been very hot and dry in NorthernCalifornia. They are bell pepers not hot but that was the only group coming Up when I searched for pepper answer. We have been having colder nights very common here. Have to stop at nursery later
Thanks
Same rules apply for bells than hot peppers when it comes to watering, soil, ferts.
Let them almost wilt before giving a good soak.
Also, folks over in the hot pepper forum are more than willing to help you with SWEET peppers.
Kevin
I pick them on the morning that they open. Bugs is often a problem, especially ants, inside the flowers. Though I am not grossed out eating them, I'd prefer to check and clean the inside first. Another consideration is if you are going to stuff it, since it is easier to stuff the flowers if they are not closed. You can pick them and keep stems in water in a cup in the fridge. They will last til the evening that way.
What does the raised bed soil consist of? Is that mulch on top? How's the drainage? How much rain did you get? Looks like they survived the frost ok, but you are right, they are very small. Are they possibly rootbound? What did you transplant them from, and how long ago?
At the very least that plant needs a good dose of fertilizer. Like Ed said that soil looks awfully wood chippy. If it is like that throughout then much of the nitrogen in the soil is locked up by the decomposing wood chips.
Lots of rain, especially in poorly draining soil, quickly leads to yellowing of leaves and the root rot that develops in overly wet soil can lead to stunted plants.
If it were my bed I'd mix in a good dose of of a dry nitrogen fertilizer throughout the bed and see if things didn't improve quickly.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes forum here
That's a very broad question. What kind of fertilizer? Are there instructions on the package? 5-7 inches sounds about right as far as distance. Not sure if I would put it into 'holes.' Just spread it evenly around and work it into the top of the soil.
If you'll go over to the Growing Tomatoes forum here (linked on this forum's front page) you'll find numerous threads running right now on your question about pruning. They even have a detailed FAQ all about it and the effects it has.
Pruning the ends off of leaves (leaf branches) normally poses no problems as long as you don't get carried away. Make a note for next year to increase the spacing. I know Sq Foot gardening recommends 2 sq foot each but many fine 3 sq' works much better.
Dave
PS: Just in case you didn't know there is also a SQ Foot Gardening forum here that deals with the issues unique to that form of gardening.
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato forum
>>To clarify, IS there a benefit to spraying the leaves with a soap solution if you don't see any bugs on them?
If you know what aphids look like, then probably not. If you don't know what they look like, then maybe :).
Mine were the color of the leaf, and smaller than the head of a pin, and buried deep in the crevices of the undersides of the leaves.
A lot of responses. I have not read all of them but here is my 2 cents worth of suggestion:
If I were you, I would just direct sow and forget those plants. They don't look healthy for whatever the reason. It could possibly be stressed and will not develop into vigorous plants. My cucumbers were cold stressed too, I just pulled them and planted another series.
I've seen multiple ears coming from one node, but never with developed kernels on the multiple cobs...usually they're bare or extremely underdeveloped to the point where they're practically bare of kernels.
Neat.
Physiologically...a corn ear shank is part of the stalk...so it can produce multiple ears, it's just highly uncommon.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 0:54
No, I've never seen that. Nc seems to have an explanation, so good. Pretty cool and unusual.