23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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.
It's hard to tell with the up-side down picture, but it SOUNDS like gophers!
Do you see any gopher mounds around your garden? Voles just have little 1 inch holes, moles leave trails of mounded dirt and gophers have big ole mounds!
They can squeeze through incredibly small spaces and will find any hole in your wire, no problem!
I've watched as a gopher took a plant down it's hole and it surely "just disappeared"!
We have been using some of those stakes you put into the ground that either put out a squealing type sound or a chattering sound every 30 seconds or so, for the last 3 years or so and the only gopher action we have seen in the garden proper has been when the batteries went dead. We still have tons of gophers all over the rest of the property!
Those chattering things are helpful, but in my book, raised beds lined with very strong hardware cloth, or containers are the way to go if you determine there are gophers in the area! They WILL find your garden if they are anywhere close!!! Nancy
Thanks Dave! i sort of figured that since I've never heard of anyone doing it, but they look so full of life that I was hoping for a different answer.
And your sweet potato reference was right on! I didn't think about until you said it, but I knew they reminded me of something I couldn't place.
Thanks again.
If you like "black eye peas"/southern/crowder pea type flavors then yard longs are good.
They're not the same as the "meaty/thick" green/snap beans in texture or flavor.
That said, much like okra, they don't care how hot it gets...they're going to produce.
In very hot summer climates they're a wonderful vegetable that produces when every thing else suffers or slows.
i'd suggest let the onions grow and when you pick them top up the whole bed but at that end use some timber or other to place along that area down into the base soil, then pack new dirt in behind it, me if i had some say 50mm sized stones around i'd just put them there and fill soil over the top.
len
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
Get some 3" nails and drill a hole through your wooden mouse traps and anchor them to the earth. That makes all the energy of the snap go into the bar, rather than flipping the trap around. Then, if you want to be extra diligent, make some tunnel covers out of rain gutter. That way you can set a trap on opposite sides of the hole and force them to step on it if they want to go anywhere. Works a charm around the potatoes.
Your best source of info would be the Asian Gardening forum here. I'd just call them Asian collard greens since that is what they are.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Asian Gardening forum
Soaking the paper in a sugar solution will cut down on the blow away. They do the same thing with "EZ straw" and sell it as "tackifier" when its really just a sugar.
It makes a fine mulch if you add some worms, they keep it broken up and penetrable for water.
That's a clever idea, "tackifying" the paper with some kind of sugar. I have to assume, though, that it gets less tacky after some rain. The guar tack that is used in EZ-Straw is probably a less soluble kind of sugar than kitchen sugar.
Red Russian is a great self sower for me. I always leave a few plants to flower. Last year I cut the stems with green seed pods and used them to cover a row of freshly sown peas. I find that covering peas with something twiggy puts off the wood pigeons which are a menace here. My thinking was that the kale would then drop its seeds in the pea row and by the time the peas were done I'd have a row of kale babies. It worked perfectly and I have a row of kale where I had peas . I will definitely do it again this year.
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.