24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Normally I said go with new plants but given the weather this year if you have been lucky enough to keep your plants healthy I'd be inclined to give keeping them and trying it. As an alternative, you could do a bit of both, keep the best ones going but put some new ones in as well. That way you are covered.

Dave

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Aphids can by hosed off most plant with just a stream of water. You may have to do it 3 or 4 days in a row to get ahead of them. You can also just run your fingers up and down the stems or on the leaves and squish as you go and rinse with the hose or a spray bottle filled with water and set to spray on Stream.

Make sure you aren't over-using high nitrogen fertilizers as it very attractive to them.

Dave

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urchinia
thank you for your advice! I will take my trusty spray bottle and get to it!
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elisa_z5

I like the Gilfeathers too. I did put some in the fridge and forgot about them for a few weeks and they got a little mushy, but still good. I say add some apples and bacon and they'll taste great no matter when you dig them :)

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daninthedirt(Cent TX; HZ10, Sunset z30, USDA z8a)

Thanks. But again, these are mostly just one sentence jab-and-go instructions. When I look more carefully, I see someone suggesting that, once the larva is found, to stab the vine in 1cm intervals around it in a line, and then go back and do the same thing 90 degrees around the vine. Someone else says to stab once with a toothpick and leave the toothpick in (!?) Someone else says to stab the vine at an angle so it penetrates the larva more or less lengthwise. If you stab the larva once anywhere, does that kill it?

The surgery option, which calls for removal of the larva, really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If you know where it is, why extract it? Just stab it and leave it. Or is the stem compromised by having a dead larva in it? Seems to me that slicing the stem is going to be vastly more damaging to the plant than sticking a pin or a wire through it.

A number of people claim this stabbing method to be unsuccessful. Why might that be? Because you don't really know where it is? If you don't know where it is, what are you going to do with a knife?

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Peter (6b SE NY)

I agree, more info would be great - even for the slice the vine thing. There are often many of them in the vines. I know there were other posters commenting recently on removing many of them, hopefully they can chime in on how they found them, and someone can try stabbing one and seeing what it takes to kill it....

I think part of the reason any of these methods are unsuccessful is because by the time they are tried the plant is already wilting and severely damaged and killing the larva can't undo that. In fact, by the time people slit the stem, they probably wind up doing more damage than the borer.

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Tori

Yes, lemon cucumber! They taste just like a regular cucumber. I harvest mine when they're small and mostly green but starting to turn yellow. I'm sure they're fine when they're bigger and all yellow though. I rub the spikes off with a dish towel and slice them like apples. :)

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tcstoehr(8b Canby, OR)

Concur. Lemon cukes.

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Jim's(6 East end of Long Island)

As I had mentioned, there are some people here with tremendous amounts of knowledge and experience. Farmerdill is one of them. I too appreciate the input on the difference in varieties.

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raymondo17(z9 Sacramento)

Indeed, Farmerdill is a corn guru! Great list! I appreciate listing of days until harvest, as the season is growing short. If I can track down some Silver Duchess or Silver Princess, that sounds like the way to go.

Thanks to everyone for their input. On to my next corn growing question.

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Ariel

Thanks. It looked it had dies already. When I touched it, it fell and didn't move.

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Jutzware
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citytransplant(zone5)

Catherine, you can use anything around the house to stop most, if not all of the water leaking out. A flattened can, heavy plastic (such a little bit won't leach much), duct tape, a piece of wood. I have the opposite problem. Hubby didn't want to destroy the tank, so he made itty bitty holes and now my zucchini is turning black and moldy from too much water sitting at their roots. Who knew this would be the "Year of Water" ?

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

<Of course......you realize that as soon as I plug up some of the holes, there will be a drought, right? ;)>

Yep - It's Murphy's Law of Gardening. :-) Just like the years I make raised mounds for the plants in the garden because of the overly wet previous year we have a drought and the years I leave the beds flat and smooth it pours rain like gang busters.

Just don't wedge them in too tight and then, if needed, maybe you can pull a couple if needed.

Dave

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catherinet(5 IN)

Do you have cucumber beetles? They quickly can inject a bacterial wilt into cucumbers. I have to plant "County Fair" cucumbers, which never attract the beetles. Good luck.

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LoneJack Zn 6a, KC

How old are your plants Mike? IME cuke plants have a fairly short harvest window of 4-6 weeks. I plant seeds in early May, start harvesting in early July, and by early to mid August the plants are toast. If I want cukes until fall I will start a second planting in late June so that they start producing about the time the first planting is done.

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Angela Long

Ignore the pumpkin, my kids love it... Our beds is full of these. They are orange. I've left them alone... Will they hurt the veggies if toxic?

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LoneJack Zn 6a, KC

Angela

They won't hurt the veggies. You can leave them be or treat them as weeds. To me they look like Chanterelle mushrooms in the picture which are common this time of year around my area. They are edible and very good to eat, but don't take my word for it.

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theforgottenone1013(MI zone 5b/6a)

Pick them whenever they are big enough to suit you. The longer you let them stay the bigger the seeds get.

Rodney

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ninecrow(England)

Thank You VERY Much, Have Had 3 of This Plant Now, With Hopefully More to Come....

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rgreen48(7a)

Sounds good K. And I wonder if I can make that fritter thing work without an egg? :-?

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katyajini(z6 NYC)

rgreen48: You know, I was thinking exactly the same thing. The next time I make them, and there will be a next time soon, I want to try them without egg too. With the egg they certainly are delicious and remind me of Korean style scallion pancakes (well just a little bit, not totally). I suppose the proportion of flour would have to be a little higher to be able to bind and I would use water to make a very thick batter and fold and work the flowers and herbs and seasonings in. I will post when I do make them again. I hope you enjoy making them and having them. We do love to eat don't we!

K.

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TheNewLandscape.com(10)

LOL yea I figure the soil bed is probably too shallow. I had an old 3-tier util cart that I upcycled as a vertical planter, but I guess the depth of the shelves just don't really work out too well LOL My next gardening project is a real raised bed garden, 12" or 16" in deep - will try the lettuce and kales again

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

In addition to all the above, both are early spring, cool weather crops. So depending on where you live it may be far too warm - both air and soil - for them now. further, both are taproot plants. Taproots can easily reach 6-8" or more.

Dave

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jerryhammonds01_aol_com

Will 7 dust be ok?

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Laura McCarthy

This looks like what I have! How did you treat it?

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missmopo

Thank you! I was thinking that's what it looked like from what I could find online. I have been using Neem oil. My pickling cukes aren't misshapen at all, just the slicers. I will try watering them more often.

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daniel_nyc(7a)

Morgan wrote: > Some of the older growth has begun to yellow and a couple leaves have died...

Some of the leaves of my cucumbers also died.

Please check my thread Cucumbers support to see what I did to solve the problem.

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