23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
I have a real problem with pill bugs in my compost-rich garden boxes. They like freshly killed plants, so rather than eat a live plant little by little, they gather around the stem and eat right through until it's severed. Even with relatively large plants. I've seen them try it with full-grown squash plants, but they are unsuccessful at killing larger, sturdier plants. Then once the plant has fallen, the village comes to feast.
Sluggo Plus is an organic pellet that you scatter around susceptible plants, and it really does work. You have to keep at it, though, since water reduces its effectiveness over time.
Dennis, today was perfect for planting. I got out of bed at 7 am, planted for 3 hours (9 beds), and finished in my parka as rain started falling. This was mostly lettuce and collards, but also broccoli and komatsuna. It has now drizzled for 8 hours, with steady 50-55 temperatures, this is perfect planting weather, specially ahead of the coming mid-70 week.
I hate early Sunday rises as much as anyone, but I hate more fussing over transplants during and after planting. In the case of lettuce, I just scratched trenches, laid semi-bare root plants in, and covered with some of my (semi-dry) planting soil, knowing that rain would finish the job for me. I can not do as good a job as nature did for me, to ensure no shock to the plants.
I have very little in the ground. The weather gets lovely for a bit and then a couple of days later, BAM! a terrible freeze. Last Tuesday was forecasted to be a low of 30 and it got to 17 instead. Then, back up to nice again, high 30s. I have to say, I hate spring. These wide swings are not good for the plants and not good for me either!
I had a bunch of potatoes too small to use in a bucket in the basement. They sprouted and were 3 - 8" long by the time I figured I'd just stick them in and see what happened. They seem happy - most have sprouted and the leaves look as vigorous as our prolonged dry cold spring permits. the sprouts are leafy, so point them up.
Most of the vegetables you mention are summer (tomato, watermelon, cucumber, okra, eggplant, pepper) while the others are better suited for springtime. I don't know what your particular seasonal situation is, but not all those veggies should be going in at the same time.
Fertilization might be the most useful way to organize your veggies. All of the summer veggies you mention (I think--not sure about okra?) are going to want the same basic fertilization, heavy on the P in NPK (phosphorous), but a P-heavy fertilizer might cause greens (spinach, broccoli, maybe the chard even though it's a biennial) to flower early, which you probably don't want. Clustering together veggies that have the same basic needs might simplify your operations. In addition, the amount of watering matters. For example, watermelons and cucumbers want a lot of consistent watering, while peppers should dry out sometimes (especially if you're aiming for spicy peppers--too much water is supposed to make them blander).
Thanks for the info! I've started my basil indoors, but I'm thinking I have way too many seedlings for my couple of 12" pots that I have set aside for basil. I also have parsley, oregano, mint and stevia seedlings, and will direct sow my cilantro. Does the same advice (1 per 12" pot) apply?
Lori -- yes, 1 per 12" should be fine. Once it gets going, the mint likely will quickly fill the pot and spill over the sides but may be cut back frequently. Bear in mind that mint stems will root whenever they touch the ground, and oregano (also a mint family plant) will do the same, if not quite as quickly.
Cilantro also will self-sow easily when you allow a plant to go to seed--which I always do since I use the seeds (now coriander) in salads and cooking as well. And in the fall, late-seeding cilantro will hang out hugging the ground all winter and resume groing in the spring for an early crop. I was surprised when I learned how hardy this plant is!
Well, onions never go in the same spot twice here, but it's not a half-mile rotation (as recommended by one of the sites I visited) by any stretch. I find them most in my garlic, which is fall planted. The original clove seems to break down over the winter as the inner shoot grows and I wonder if that is attracting them. There aren't so many dying garlics this year as last, and this is a much more normal spring so perhaps the problem is resloving itself.
About the wild onions, I don't know if they are a host, but one must exist somewhere in the wild because the adults can only fly about a mile. No one else near me is growing onions- corn, soy, wheat, rye yes, and lots of pasture and woods. Thanks for your input, it reaffirms what I am reading elsewhere. Cheers!
I don't know your conditions or zone, but if you're new to gardening, I'm going to guess you're over watering. I live in SE Texas and I only water twice a week. I could get away with even less if I wanted to. Every other day definitely seems excessive. Over watering is just as bad as under watering, if not worse, and it can cause the wilting.
This post was edited by IAmSupernova on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 11:28
I'll second the diagnosis of overwatering. There should be no problem growing in that medium. But you have a mixture that will hold water tightly. It's supposed to save you the effort of frequent watering! A more sandy mixture with regular soil would drain more readily. That being the case, when you water often, you'll end up with a medium that is continuously soggy. Push your finger and inch or so into the soil. Don't water until that inch or so is dry. It certainly shouldn't be kept moist on the surface, at least after your plants get more than an inch or so tall.
Watering as infrequently as possible is a strategy to encourage your roots to grow deep. Keeping the top layer moist doesn't do that.
Wertach,
Thank you so much for posting, I was not going to grow corn but this corn is so beautiful I just had to get a packet.
Edymnion, I'm sorry they treated you that way. I hope you say something to them so that they can track down why you were not notified.
I think you could plant without hardening off if you cover them.
Use fabric not plastic. First put in stakes that are a bit taller than the plants. Make sure the weight of the fabric is on the stakes, not the plants.
Cover the plants completely. Your goal, in part, is to protect them from light. After 2 days, uncover for 2 hours, early or late in the day (not midday). The next day, 4 hours, the next day 6, etc. Nighttime covering at your discretion, depending on temperatures :).
In Chicago, you won't want to plant your tomatoes and peppers until Memorial Day, maybe even June 1 for the peppers given the long, slow spring we've been having. You need to wait until the nighttime LOWS are in the 50's (mid-50's for the peppers), not the highs.
The lettuce and spinach can take much lower temperatures, so they could go out now ... but only after they are hardened off. Enjoy your vacation and plan to start hardening them off properly when you return. :)
As for the carrots and beets, I've only ever direct seeded them. But since this is the time to plant them, I would start hardening them off with your lettuce and spinach when you return.
Good luck!
The strawberry bed doesn't want to be covered deeply in straw, but some straw covering the ground helps keep fungus off the berries.
Many people like to leave the mulch on the asparagus bed to keep down weeds. The spears will work their way through. But the mulch will keep the soil temps low and retard the sprouting. It's up to you.
A couple of summers ago as I was poking among the heavily-straw-mulched potato bed looking to nick a few new taters, I discovered a nest of baby bunnies in the middle of the bed. (My beds are about 18" high, no obstacle to a rabbit!)
Hm. I pondered.
The result of my pondering was to lift the nest, babies & all, and relocate it to the edge of the cornfield (well, it was soybeans that year). So, I knew it was unlikely that mom bunny found her offspring; most likely a night-prowling critter did (we have raccoons, skunks, coyotes, possums, the occasional fox, etc.) but, hey -- "cycle of life" and all that.
Previous occupants here (we moved in 5 years ago) had a chocolate lab and a couple of cats. No problems the first few years in the garden; apparently it took the varmint population several years to react to the absence, but for the last couple of years now, they're baaaaack...
We do have a couple of hawks that visit periodically. I cheer them on. Neighbor behind us has a pond and I did not tell him when I saw one of the redtails fly off with a big ol' bullfrog dangling from his claws! I like the frogs, too, but hate the rodents more!
Ahhh.... nature and the fun we have with it!