23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Thanks

The rain here in non stop. Now storming bad, everything is way over watered and now starting to look beat up , not off to a good start

Rain and excess water due to it although not a good thing , but given the arrangements you have (raised beds), should not cause for too much worry, if the soil has drainage property(compost, sand, organic matter). ALSO, I notice from the pictures that some of your beds have frame around them, which you can cover them with plastic , to protect them from excess rain.

But I think, we should always prepare the soil such that in heavy rains drains well. We cannot control the climate nut can only comply with it.

I'd add that problem weeds are mostly native to the local region, and are therefore much better-adapted to the climate, soil, etc, than most vegetables, which are "imported" (so to speak) and made to grow only under special conditions (amended soil, fertilizer, specific time-frames, etc). Of course, you can cultivate similar qualities in veggies for which you save the seeds of the most successful plants, but it would take a long time to see similar results, probably much longer than one lifetime. It's no wonder weeds grow so prolifically in comparison.

In general, to the original poster, I think it's great to ask questions about the habitual assumptions and practices of any practice. It makes us think about why we're doing what we're doing as well as share ideas about how to do it better. Conventional wisdom is often right, but it's often wrong too.

I agree with saysonn, it has all to do with the size of the crop plant, as well as size of the crop seed and type of weed. Big-seeded crops like corn and beans, for example, can compete with weeds somewhat better than small-seeded ones like lettuce, carrots.

One of these days I'm going to get with it and try stale-bedding for certain crops, especially carrots.

Alright I thought the same thing. I put them into containers so I will see in a few days whats happening.

Thanks for the reply!

I had a similar problem with my peppers. I think the trouble was they just didn't like the unusually cool weather we have had. Now that it has warmed up, they are taking off. (They are in nice big pots, and were when they were dropping leaves.) They are now replacing the leaves, putting on size, and blooming. I gave them some Osmocote when I put them in their summer pots.

I agree with flora.. colored stalks is very common on peppers and it's awfully early for powdery mildew on cucurbits. Pic of the zucchini would help. However, regarding powdery mildew -- if and when you do finally see it, it's too late. You actually want to be preemptive with the treatment. So, when you think it's about that time of the year for it to show up, that's when you want to start treating it. At least that's what the experts on GW told me. I plan on including that regimen this summer.

Kevin

Thank you, what a relief that the peppers are normal!
I sprayed the zucchini for a few days with the baking soda and soap mixture, it seemed to do more harm than good, I think it actually burned the leaves a bit.

I'm attaching a photo of the zucchini leaves, do you think they look normal? I'm noticing now that the smaller leaves that are appearing have turned brown as well.

Concur: That heavy flower stalk extends into the center. The onion will not keep at all as that stalk deteriorates. Outer rings, if they form and on short day onions they usually do, will be good for use if you cut them away from that central stalk.

Thanks all. That is what I thought. They are already yanked. and is dinner tonight.I had one flower in the whole scad of onion sets so not bad. The onions are fairly small since I never give them the room they deserve because my garden is only 20' x 16' and between trees..

I don't see any photos either. Bad tastes in lettuce usually come from too much heat or too much dry or too old. The outer leaves are the oldest and most highly flavored. Butter head is a heading lettuce and as such it is best used by harvesting the whole head. Pick off the outer leaves and try the inner ones. It may taste much much better. I don't always eat the outer leaves on my romaine for the same reason.

I heard that if you soak the lettuce in cold water for about an hour after harvesting it will not be as bitter, also the longer it's refrigerated the more it will lose it's bitter taste.

Interesting... So it looks like they are either Green Arrow shelling peas, or sugar snap pole peas...?

The dry pods were sort of difficult to open... I had to cut them, pretty much. However - I thought Green Arrow pods usually have peas more in the 8-11 range...? All of these pods had 5-6 peas, max.

And the fewest I counted in all the pods I got was 2.

This post was edited by BigN_187 on Tue, May 28, 13 at 1:51

Green Arrow was just an example of a wrinkle seeded pea That I had handy. All of them both shelling and snap will have a similar appearance. If they were difficult to open then I would lean toward a snap pea. They have fleshy pods which when dried don't open as easily as the tougher stringy pods of a shelling pea. There are over 300 named varieties of English pea and over 40 varieties of snap pea. However the number that will get 4 ft tall is pretty limited. You can probably make a decent guess after you grow them out.

seysonn... Not looking for a green house at this time, my raised beds are long ago constructed (2011), and include four 14' tall hops beds... the raised bed complex is 4' wide, 32' long, and 16' high... Harbor freight is not going to help.. LOL

Not only that, but I would not trust their contraption under 4' of snow....

I need to build individual cold frames over each raised bed five of them 2'x4' and one long raised bed 2' x 28'...

Hopefully I can start building a dedicated green house this fall, but more likely next spring or fall... It will be concrete block around the base, and then an arched tunnel of solex on top..

pn brown.. did he use clear for the roof, or was that translucent?...

My cold frame was very simple this year - 10 55 gallon water barrels and 6 bales of hay arranged in a square with the hay at the front and the barrels as the sides and back. This was then covered with a thick plastic sheet. When the temps were in the low 30s my cold frame was never below 55 all night. The 55 gallon barrels cost $10 a piece, the hay was $6 - and I subsequently used it for mulch. It was a low cost, high performance cold frame that has seen 500 plants go through successfully this year. I didn't even have to worry as much about overheating if I was late in venting the frame - all that water mass buffered the heat.

Wally, I sure disagree with you, there are experts IME. In gardening as well as anything else.

Maybe the point is that within any given climate/soil paradigm still there are many successful ways to produce food crops. So that someone might be expert in a particular way of achieving that doesn't mean there aren't other ways.

This also means that an expert who moves from one climate to another often reverts back to neophyte status. For example, the florida forum gets constant threads from people who are expert gardeners in the mid-latitudes but find they are lost in the florida climate and soil. This makes me wonder about the possibility of a mid-latitude expert being an advisor to multigenerational tropical gardeners. My guess is that the expert in that case is learning a lot more than teaching.

I agree with others, that this is not anything new. Theme and variations on composting.....

In regards to teaching other cultures, aren't we really saying - "hey that load of chemicals we sold you on in the 40's and 50's (60's.....70's)......we were wrong - bad idea - back to composting, back to natural methods"

if you think about anyone growing food for themselves, without the aid of garbage collection! - they are going to compost somehow.....

annew21 said "I've seen see packets that say 6 inches is adequate, but that's garbage. "

He couldn't be more true. Okra is such gigantic plant it is a monstrosity in my garden! Even when it is blown down by strong wind it never die! I planted them for their pretty flower and now I don't know what to do with their high productivity of pods!
Here is one with its main branch literally lying on the ground:

Here's another one with a somehow more straight branch:

I would vote for 10 plants to give the amount of okra you indicate. They should be 18 to 24 inches apart in a row with 2 plants per hill. To get that number of healthy seedlings, put 5 seed in each hill, then thin to two seedlings per hill.

If I had a choice, I would grow a different variety. Clemson Spineless has to be picked daily to get tender pods.

DarJones

stitchem, I'd be interested in hearing about your progress with this. Two years ago, we tried it with peaches and cream corn, blue lake beans and I don't recall what kind of summer squash. The squash died. The beans climbed the corn like crazy but never produced anything. The corn, however, was beautiful and tasty. We only did 3 sisters that one time though. Seemed like a great idea though. Good luck!

stitchem, I'd be interested in hearing about your progress with this. Two years ago, we tried it with peaches and cream corn, blue lake beans and I don't recall what kind of summer squash. The squash died. The beans climbed the corn like crazy but never produced anything. The corn, however, was beautiful and tasty. We only did 3 sisters that one time though. Seemed like a great idea though. Good luck!

Yep, start the tomatoes April 1 and start maybe 50% more than I want to plant instead of 200%. I do have friends and family who want my extras, but market just starts too late here to sell any (mid June). Except maybe this year - I put an ad on Craigslist, we'll see if there are any takers.

I'm not sure I could wait until April 1st, but February 21st is definitely out, haha. And to add to your "only 50%" idea...when thinning out, don't save the unlucky ones.