23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Use a hand-held magnifying glass to check the undersides of leaves for spider mites. They make thousands of pin-prick holes.
Predatory mites are usually used as a control in greenhouses. Act quickly, or you could lose your crop.
Here is a link that might be useful: predatory mites
Thanks a lot for the response, i checked and looks like spider mites. I will try to get the predator mites from Koppert, but that is going to take a few days, please let me know if there is anything else which could be effective, searching the web, i found the below, please suggest if this could work to slow the spider mites down until i get the predator mites? If not, please suggest an alternative:
- Mix washing detergent (1 tbsp) and neem oil (30ml) in water (1L) and spray the same on the affected leaves.
thanks,
nivin
Yes, lemon thyme is more cold-hardy but they will both be fine.
My experience with the dead looking thyme branches is:
1) Sometimes they leaf out much later, so it's worthwhile to not cut them now, and
2) Sometimes they are broken at the base from animals lying on them. Thyme plants are a warm, dry, good-smelling nest :/. If they are broken, you can pull them out.
Oh, and:
3) Sometimes it''s not the cold or animals, but shade that kills parts of the thyme plant. If your sun angle is markedly different in winter, for example. Thyme do not like shade.
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The oregano is just doing its normal thing -- it is a true perennial, which means it dies back to ground level in winter and resprouts from the roots. Go ahead and cut off the dead stuff; that part won't green up.
This year you can cut oregano to the ground in the fall and/or when it starts to flower, and dry or freeze it for winter cookery :).
How you doing MJ? Welcome!
Yes, I unfortunately lived in a apartment most my life, as soon is I got some land, you bet I packed it to it's gills with plants! I never liked cutting grass anyways! You are much wiser, slowly weening your way into it, that's probably the best way to go..
Your garden is huge! How are you going to take care of it all? No it's good your starting small.. It's still just as enjoyable..
Don't hesitate to ask questions.. We are more than happy to help.
Joe
Given the controversial nature of its philosophies the best source of info for you here will be the Companion Planting forum. I direct linked it for you below.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Companion Planting
I have planted marigolds, basil, rosemary, lemon balm, chives and red salvia in the hugel with my tomatoes. Can't hurt, can it? The Ask.com site I went to was very informative about companion planting. I bought several petunia plants to plant in with my squash and pumpkin plants. They are supposed to deter squash vine borers. Stink bugs are supposed to be deterred by catnip, radishes, mints, marigolds and garlic. I will try anything natural. I will not use chemicals ever again. I had to spray them every week in a back pack sprayer at one nursery I worked at. I'm sure my COPD has been caused by mostly that.
"Kudzu bugs" are now moving into the South-East US...growing exponentially the past few years.
They look like regular brown "stink bugs" (and smell like them when crushed) with different shell coloring (white/beige with a lot of black dots/lines all over their shell making up a huge part of their coloration) and they are more rounded than pointy on the hind end.
They are absolutely plague-like on soy bean plantings...as well as other plantings. They are huge feeders.
Thanks to "wild" kudzu all over the place, it seems they're not going away any time soon.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Mon, Apr 22, 13 at 17:51
I remember seeing Kudzu vines when we drive on 95 through the Carolinas. We don't have that here. Mostly millions of acres of pine trees. Native and tree farms for harvesting for pine products. I was informed about that bug months ago in master gardening. I will keep my eyes open for it though. Thanks, digdirt for the bug links. I am familiar with assassin bugs, although I might have killed some of their instars thinking they were leaf footed bugs.
RAW: If you re-read my original answer .... "By no means am I stating that your soil ph is out of whack. However, you are going to need to troubleshoot & soil ph & fertility seems to me the logical place to start."
Troubleshooting defined: Troubleshooting is the process of diagnosing the source of a problem. The basic theory of troubleshooting is that you start with the most general (and often most obvious) possible problems, and then narrow it down to more specific issues. A proper ph range will negatively affect plants. It doesn't matter how much fertilizer you throw on them because they can't utilize it. While he's waiting on the soil test results he can tweek his watering.
I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE. Last April I put in a 4'X12' twelve inch high raised bed. I had someone come till up the ground for me. We tilled in a few bags of mushroom compost. Then I started double digging in topsoil & more mushroom compost along with composted manure yards at a time. I must have double dug that sucker 5 times because I was building it up 10 inches, too. Native soil is throughout my garden depth but is more concentrated the deeper you go. (Think French Intensive Gardening). Where I live the native soil is quite acidic. We can grow blueberries by spitting on the ground & dropping a seed. That being said, my soil ph came back from Clemson Extension as 7.4!!! Soil test was extremely positive for everything but ph. So you see, I know of what I speak -- no guessing going on here! Any experienced gardener knows that a soil test is never a waste of time and money.
Good luck & take care -- Deb
Hey Sandra,
First an foremost, i feel for you, I was in your same shoes, just moved in my house a few years ago.. It's tough and very mind tiring, but hang in there, the fruits of your labor is well worth it.. Just teaching the kiddos, and spending time with them is priceless!
You mentioned no till lasanga gardening.. I do no till and It works very very well! Some will tell you it's hogwash, and every situation calls for offstage measures, which is true, but you can almost always do a small garden no till without to many problems.. I think your off to a good start right there my friend!
Don't worry about not planning ahead to much, you still have a few weeks to plan.. You can almost plan to much! Trust me, I'm a perfectionist and I get so carried away in plant spacing for maximum yield,etc, i let the whole growing season go by.. It's better off just putting plants in and learning as it progresses, instead of not growing anything at all..
Your concerned about cross pollination.. I assume your growing heirlooms and trying to save seed.. You really don't have to much to worry about for cross pollination.. Just bag the flowers before they open to ensure isolation of pollen...
I do something very similar tonkasanga gardening, but I don't actually layer it up to compost, I actually unfinished compost, then just some mulch..
Here's what I do,
-cardboard the grass
-pile compost/soil on the cardboard
-mulch
-plant
Don't get to overwhelmed, worst comes timeless just throw some seeds down, any gardens better than none! Please, take it easy, you probably got enough work with the new house.. Don't worry to much... Gardening should be a fun hobby, not a chore.
Joe
don't know what can be done about whatever cross pollination may occur all i can suggest is grow only 1 variety of water melon, rock melon and pumpkin, same with tomatoes never hard of capsicums and chillies X-ing but anything is possible.
to stop X-pollination you might need as much as 4 kilometer barrier, so maybe just buy new seeds each season?
len
Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden
This is exactly what I did last year. IMO, by the time the beans grow up over the trellis and shade the potatoes, the potato vines are starting to decline and have done their job already. I was reluctant to dig the potatoes (Purple Haze) close to the bean roots, so I left them in the ground until I cut the bean vine down...maybe 6 weeks later. The potatoes were perfect. I'm doing the same thing this year. The potatoes are just breaking the surface now and I'll put in the beans in another 2-3 weeks.
I wouldn't do it myself but the only real issue I can see is that they have very different nitrogen level needs. Potatoes love it, beans don't.
Dave