23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

They looked prefectly healthy. Stocky, no flower buds, nice stems. I have never had so much trouble with transplants before.

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

Cut it all off now and hope for side sprouts.

WILL DO!

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

If seedlings are leggy/floppy, the first thing that comes to mind is:

-insufficient light, you need bright light, as close to the plants as possible

Insufficient strength, you need a fan on seedlings, it will mimic the natural envornment and strengthen them.. Think of it this way, would you grow that tall if you knew one gust of wind will knock you out? Or would you want to train for the wind, an get stalky and strong for preparation for the big fight with the outside..

Bright light, and a fan should beam on the seedlings as soon as they sprout.. If not, in a few days they are already leggy!

Joe

Just wanted to let everyone know that I successfully hardened off and transplanted my cilantro into the garden yesterday. It is standing up nicely and seems to have handled the transplanting well!

Aili.... yep, your fine. They'll break through eventually.

Thank you everyone for the information and reassurance!

I'm still a little confused about what I do when it comes time to plant I heard I have to lay a type of plastic down what is it called and how do I do it?"

You don't have to do anything, you could just dig a whole and plant your plant, that simple.. You are going to get 100 different answers from 100 different people, you are just going to get more confused.. Just remember it's not rocket science, don get overwhelmed keep it simple..

Lay down plastic for what, to kill grass, for mulch, why are you thinking about laying plastic? Did you already till your soil? Is there grass growing on your soon to be garden area? Do you have your garden ready to plant?

Below is an article for planning a vegetable garden in Maine from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Planning a home vegetable garden

Their site has the most relevant information to you since you are in Maine and have a comparatively shorter growing season than most of us.

They are probably Carola aka German Butterball. Whatever they are, put a few in a sunny window to green up and plant them. My favorite potatoes last year came from the supermarket. The little blue potatoes in a microwave-ready bag grew out to the loveliest blues I've ever grown.

German Butterballs are not smooth. They have a skin almost like a russet, but yellower, and yellow flesh. I grow them -- I love them!

Woohooman has a great point about the different watering preferences.Two years ago in the heat and drought, my cucs all died in the raised bed while the peppers thrived. I replanted cucs in totes and they did very well. Putting in totes is a lot easier to do than turning soil where I live.

I put these totes in four years ago after a hip replacement limited what I could do in the garden. They are planted in sugar snap peas at the moment, but will have cucs again for the summer. It would be an easy option to have cucs for you without taking up your garden space,
Carol

Just wanted to give you a close up of the mote under the totes. There is a frame of treated 1 by 6 with plastic holding water. I water the tote, fill the mote, and when the mote is empty (and all mosquite larva therefore gone), I repeat the process.

This supplies the constant source of moisture that woohooman was referring to that cucs need.

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I never considered the possibility that I don't need a fence at all. It's hard for me to imagine that the rodents wouldn't find their way up into the containers without any sort of barrier. Hmm.

By the way, the patio is at ground level, so any animal could wander onto it freely. I don't think the deer would mind coming close to the house, it certainly never stopped them from cleaning out the flowers we have planted in the front.

Here's one thing:

"Also you may consider placing small wire on the area' ground, they will sense wire and not go near it."

What kind of wire? Plugged into something, with current running through it? Just a wire laying on the ground? Not sure what you're actually suggesting here.

Chicken wire, grid wire, fence wire, etc.
Their feet will detect the wire, consider a dangerous feeling and stay out.
Also, if you can place any upright stakes of any sort, deer will detect them also, they only need to be of a height that would make them feel uncomfortable..
My veggie fence entrances are only 3 feet high, however due to all the interference inside the area, I have never had a deer enter, they could jump in very easily.
Me..I wouldn't mess with any electrical items to deter animals.

Elisa, I also have a troy built pony, one of the oldies, and those were the best built. I have a furrow maker that I use for making raised beds, and it works very well. I have not planted potatoes, but that is on my list. I got the furrow maker on eBay, and for the $60 I paid for it, it is an enormous time saver.

This year I used the rotary plow to make the potato-trenches. Comes out deeper than using the tiller w/furrower behind, but the soil is all on one side.