23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Things look pretty good. As I saw above, squash are quite close. Do I see 16 squash???????? How many people are you feeding????? DH and I have 1 zuk and 1 crookneck and usually end up giving some away! Nancy

Thanks for all the advice.I pinched off the squash flowers. Nancyjane those 16 plants are not squash, but cucumbers (4 different varieties).

Dave, How deep did you plant them in the pots?

Just as you would in the garden - 6" or so. Make a hill of potting mix in center of pot, spread the roots out around it and cover with enough mix so that the top of the crown is just barely covered with soil. Add more soil as needed as it grows. Keep well watered.

Dave

You'll love that convenience this summer.

This cold snap might never end. Saturday I want to plant but lows in the lower 40s I can't wait no longer though

Going to be a common problem for many of this year because of all the delays in planting caused by the weird weather. Next year you can get around it by transplanting them to bigger containers if planting is delayed.

Dave

Thanks folks!

Last year I started my seeds too late and we had a warm spring. This year I started them a month earlier, but we had a cool spring!

Another year, another mistake!!

My seedlings that I grew from seed are already setting flowers as well, and they are also small due to the fact that I planted them deep when I set them out. I am leaving them be and will see what happens.

Flowers do not necessary end up to be fruits. Besides that, the plant will decide if it can grow fruits or not. I have a tomatillo plant that since I purchased it over 2 weeks ago, keeps flowering and then aborting. Because it is not warm enough. Tomatoes are like that too but they are more tolerant of cold.

Some plants become stunted as a result of exposure to cold temps early in life. It "might" recover but it is still early enough in the season to just replace it.

Dave

Thanks, I will throw this one out and plant another just in case. :) At least she'll have the other one until this one catches up.

I'm guessing first-hand Foster's has to do with first growing certain types of grains, no? ;)

Fosters lager. 2nd hand because it has already been used once. Excellent on the compost heap too. (In fact my opinion of Fosters is that it's only sensible use is on the compost heap or garden.)

Picked these today and I there are a few more still coming.

This year I had seeds for the Suyo Long which were left over from last year and I never even got around to starting. So I am trying Suyo Long for my Asian cucumber selection this year. In fact I already seeded it and some seeds are sprouting already.

Yeah, these were bulbs I'd ordered and DH had said that he would fix a bed for them last fall... never happened so in desperation I plopped them into my raised garden just before the snow started falling. My thought was that as the peppers grew the foliage on the tulips would die down and they could live in some kind of peace together but someone mentioned to me that they heard that tulip bulbs were poisonous and that it would affect anything planted with them. That's why I was wondering... thanks for the info - I will go ahead and let the tulips die down a little and then plant the peppers. Probably better to wait and let the soil warm up a bit more anyway... it's supposed to cool down again this coming weekend. Based on what donnabaskets said about spacing, the peppers and tomatoes would be too crowded if I tried to interplant them (tomatoes are already in the ground.)
Thanks again!
Edie

Tulip bulbs are poisonous when eaten, so you'd want to keep them away from pets or small children who might put them in their mouths. But that's very different from poisoning nearby plants.

Now if you wanted to plant those peppers near a Black Walnut tree, you'd have a problem. :)

"I think I've been reading WAY too many books and articles. :) "

I do that too, but I don't act on everything I read. It's more of a pleasant way to spend time in the recliner. In the garden my approach is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

Jim

Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I'm going to back off a bit and just let them be for a while. :) This is my third year at it, but the first time I've tried raised beds rather than containers, which I live so much more! :D Also, I live in a small town and only have a Lowes and a Walmart to choose from for gardening supplies, which definitely limits me, especially in the organic category. I think I'm going to turn my attention more towards my compost bin for my main source of fertilizer. Thanks! :)

I'm not familiar with the particular brand of organic fert. but organic ferts are usually slow-release and your plant may not be getting nutrients fast enough to keep up with growth. I'd give it a shot of soluble fertilizer.

Over watering, IMO, is a problem in pot gardening. The reason being that there is more frequent watering, sometimes twice in a day. Combine this with excess watering. Then practically any time you water, it is like rinsing the root system(with some exageration).

another reason that plant may not get enough nutrient is root bound situation, i.e. too much root chasing too little nutrients.
But over watering can also happen in the garden too, especially when the soil is too sandy . Here too, nutrients are leached.

In both cases, knowing HOW MUCH to water can help. For example where a pot just needs a glass of water, you give it a quart of water and you can see right away that most of it is drained out.

The purpose of water for plants is not like what it is to us. Plants need just right amount and just enough to provide dampness. Or at least mosr of garden veggie are like that.

Agree, wet it well and then tear all of it off.

Dave

Thanks ... I will take them off.

Here is what I take on this issue. When I direct sow seeds in the garden, the soil is more likey balanced. Which means it has all the nutients to some extent. So then presence of some nutrienst in starter soil should be fine. Then the plants will decide when and how much they need to take. The only exception to this, in my mind, is excesive amount of N.

But I could be wrong there . Maybe that is why you can get better results by planting in a controlled medium. As Dave pointed out, more than anything else, you want strong roots first . That is why you feed mostly P & K early on.

I plant eggplants in nutrient-containing potting mix 8 weeks before planting out and I always fertilize with N, P, K and Mg at the 5 week stage, otherwise they begin showing deficiency symptoms especially those of N and Mg.
Before seeding, I also soak the mix with a very dilute micronutrient solution containing B, otherwise my seedlings show B deficiencies by the 2nd week.
Personally, if I was using potting mix with no added fert, I would not wait until the 4th week to fertilize.