23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

The world record holder for tomatoes, Charles Wilber, used rusty old cages... All he did was torch them to disinfect them at the end of the season.. I would not worry about the rust.. He didnt have a problem, he grew 30 foot tomatos, yielding hundreds, if not thousands of pounds! If his heavy plants could handle it, so could yours.. If you really want houngan probably sand and buff all the sharp chips,etc.. But all that's really neccesariy is disinfecting them IF that.. No worries, have fun my friend!

Grow on,
Joe

Joe

Are these some kind of extra-great cages, or are they the kind you get for 79 cents? By which I mean.... less than the cost of a can of spray paint ;).

The blowtorch for sterilising sounds fun :).

Seems like you are doing just fine my friend.. I still would throw a fan on, beef up them suckers!

haha Joe, I am going to start hardening off the last of my starts next week when this yucky weather moves out. I hope to have them completely hardened off in the next few weeks and anxiously watching the weather until transplant time!

I haven't had any other problems with damping off--the area is well-ventilated. I think there was a problem because I was bottom-watering and thus the salts couldn't drain out. It's not a strong fertilizer by any means.

If you were bottom watering, how would there be a salt accumulation ontop the soil? How would there be a salt buildup in the first plant place, if you use a weak fertilizer as you mentioned? Even very strong fertilizers at the proper concentrate doesn't burn plants, nor have salt buildup after a few feeding,let alone scrapping salt off the top of the soil! Something doesn't add up..

Again- What kind of fertilizer? What concentrate? What potting mix? What water? Do you care for your other plants the same? Are they doing ok?

This post was edited by Raw_Nature on Fri, Apr 19, 13 at 23:57

Do NOT get the Harbor Freight GH! It takes a million years (and several web sites) to set it up, and about 3 years for it to blow away or get brittle and fall apart! Nancy

If you are concerned about wind,Look for something shaped like a dome.. It's much more aerodynamic.. You could make something similar to a hoophouse.. There's plenty of ways to resolve wind problems.. But, as far as I know, not to many people have wind problems with normal rectangular greenhouses..

Joe

I wouldnt go to the big box stores for my plants. They dont know what they are doing. The Home Depot near me had tomato starts for sale in late March, when the safe planting time is typically Memorial Day

My friend used to work at HD, and they stuck him in the garden center. When he told them he didnt know cr*p about plants, they told him "just fake it"

Ya, no kidding.. I walked in home depot nursery and asked the lady if they have blueberries in stock yet, she said no.. I walked a few steps, and right behind her was dozens of blueberries.. She then walked down the isles and took note of what they have, at least she's smart enough to learn...that's a good start.. That being said, big nurseries, people who know what they are doing ship plants to big box stores, they just waters them,etc... I would buy at my big box stores if I had to, they had very strong bushy plants.. I bought blueberries at home depot for $4, they would be 20-30 at my nurseries.. They are in great shape.. Keep an eye out for farmers markets/flea markets, they sell very cheap.. Just call around, you'll find something..

Joe

That's how I've started starting my seeds although I use coffee filter. I usually see peppers sprout in 6 days-ish. I don't use a heat mat or anything, I just put it on top of my fridge.

I also use the baggie/coffee filter method. Different varieties of peppers can take longer to germinate that others. I don't give up on them until the seeds mold or rot(sometimes after a few weeks). I take out any that have sprouted and pot them up, leaving the rest in the baggies to give them a chance.

Suggestion for growing melons on clay soils:

We didn't have room for melons in our garden until the guy who rents the farm ground around us started leaving a small field fallow. The ground was a pretty well spent corn field with heavy clay soil. Butâ¦

I found that I could grow good melons on the ground by giving just the soil for the "hill" some special preparation. I dig out a hole a bit over a foot in diameter and a foot deep, dumping the soil in a garden cart. Then I use my shovel or garden fork to work fertilizer, lime, and peat moss as deeply as possible into the bottom of the hole. I also mix a bit of fertilizer, lime, and a good bit of peat moss (about as much peat as the soil I dug) into the soil in the cart. I water the hole thoroughly, return the soil mix from the cart to the hole and transplantâ¦adding a bit more water with a bit of dilute starter fertilizer mixed in.

I mulch our melons with grass clippings, mostly from the part of the field we don't garden (and keep mowed as part of the deal with the farm renter).

We live in an area where much of the land south and west of us is clay soil where farmers grow lots of great, commercial melons. They're amazed we can grow good melons on our land. But doing each hole as I do is lots of extra workâ¦and the peat moss is expensive. But it just has paid off handsomely for us.

Here is a link that might be useful: Senior Gardening - Transplanting Melons

I agree that adding peat moss [and sand] to watermelon soil that is clayey, helps. I would spare the lime and give that to the cantaloupes.

Cucumber beetles can be a disease carrier for cantaloupes.

I find that diseases are a real problem if melons are planted into the same soil 3 years in a row. Orangeglo is a very healthy grower. Most of my favorite melons are hybrids.

Yeah, in my experience constant hilling accomplishes nothing. They don't seem to actually produce anything along the stems, just from the actual root cluster a little above. Hill them once just to help keep them stable, then let them grow how they want. When in doubt, have more dirt under them than over them.

If you want large potatoes, give them room, nutrients, depth, and good loose soil. If you want small potatoes, crowd them up, leave all the eyes on, and plant them in hard worn out soil.

I follow this, because one time when I was putting onions starts in, I stuck them all over the garden, and I noticed that my snap peas in areas that had green onions growing in them only grew 50% or so of the size of the ones growing away from onions.

Now, this was just one season, so there could be another explanation, one trial is not conclusive, but, I find it pretty easy to keep my peas away from onions since then, and they all do equally good.

Maybe I will do this experiment again this year.

I have been growing walking onions for many years, and they grow all over. Because they are a perennial, they overwinter and start growing vigorously in early spring, right around pea-planting time. Whenever I have planted peas near, within their root-zone, the depressing effect on the pea growth is very significant. I speculate that the well-established onions have had time to saturate the soil with root exudate.

Spring-planted onions from sets or tiny plants would generally not have time to have that effect. Perhaps later in the season they could depress new-planted beans, but that is not a situation I have observed.

Found out most of the tank is chemical treated.
So I think I'll stay away from those.

One of my tank which hold random fish does not have chemical substance in it.
It is quite murky and you can see feces all over the bottom.
One of them, less murky and is used to grow tons of aquatic plants.

I assume those 2 would be safe to grow vegetable in?

I'm very new to this myself. Just can't get over the facts dirty water contain so much good foods for the plants!

Oh yes, fish water, especially dirty, poopy, fish water is great for gardens. I have had gardens since childhood, and also aquariums, and always put the water change water on plants. I use this to water my vegetable seedling starts exclusively until they go outside.

I would put it on my vegetable garden outside, but it is too far to carry buckets, so my hostas get it once I put my seedlings in the garden,

I can't think of any aquarium chemicals for FRESHWATER aquariums that would be an issue, with the exception of treatments for disease or parasites. I would avoid that tank water for a while.

my neighbor gave me a starter off her artichoke plant when she handed it to me the leaves were already wilted over the side of the pot, i water it and its still wilted, and the leaves at the edges are drying and starting to get a little brownish
how do i bring it back to life???

I'm not too familiar with artichoke...

In general when taking cuttings, it can be very helpful to remove most of the leaves (all but the tiniest new leaves) to prevent water loss.

Keep in full shade, keep the soil moist, but not soaked. Misting it a few times a day may also help.