23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening


matty12345 - there is absolutely nothing wrong with your rhubarb imo. Colour variations like that are common. Early in the year the plants get all sorts of insults due to temperature and moisture variation, the buds hitting an obstruction as they come up, passing gastropods etc. In parts of the US where rhubarb is hard to keep happy it might be an issue but here the leaves can be ratty and discoloured with no appreciable effect on the crop. Your rhubarb is ahead of mine but mine always seems a bit slow as it is growing in a frost bottom. I would just leave it be. However, if all the leaves are that size I wouldn't harvest much this year. Make sure it has loads of water if it doesn't rain and give it a good pile of compost or muck in the Autumn.
The RHS website makes no mention of redleaf disease and afaik it is not found here.

This is the third post of this question from you
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: you previous post

It never occurred to me to pour off the excess water... now that you've all mentioned it, it seems like a no-brainer! It might be worth adding that tidbit to the faq's in the growing from seed forum for other idiots like me... Again, thanks for some great information everyone.



I'm glad to hear you elected to transplant them. Millions of seedlings get transplanted annually and it is really quite easy to do. More importantly, the plants actually benefit from the transplanting process in several ways.
Good luck with your plants.
Dave

>NilaJones, thanks for your input for our specific area. Do you really think it's ok to put seedlings outside this early? Last year, I sowed seeds direct into the ground outdoors around Mid-May, and the poor things had to suffer through 2 hail storms and some cold spells. Portland has some weird weather.
You're very welcome :).
Outside, yes. And it's especially important if you don't have adequate artificial light for them indoors.
In the ground is different story. If we get a cold snap, you can bring seedling trays of tropical plants like eggplant and tomatoes indoors for a night.
Other babies like kale, lettuce, peas, etc. are happiest with cool weather anyway, so you can go ahead and plant them in the ground if the snails won't eat them.. They can stay out even when it's below freezing, this time of year. And all winter, most years.
Hail is not a problem unless your seedlings are so tiny that a hailstone hits one and kills it. When we get hail, air and ground temperatures are still pretty warm. You notice the hail melts in 5 minutes :).
I planted out my pole beans a week ago. I worried about them a little last night, with the wind and heavy rain, but they looked so happy this morning! They like this kind of weather :). Their root systems are not big enough for hot sun yet. Cool and moist is just what they want.


best source for slips
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/
Here is a link that might be useful: slips and info


There is a link to organic gardening at the top of the main vegetable gardening forum page. If you're just starting out, I suggest you buy one of the complete organic fertilizers (like the espona products, Dr. Earth, etc.) The main way to do organic gardening is to build up your soil over several years by adding compost, composted manure and the various other things people mentioned like bone meal, kelp, rock dust. Many of these things take a season or more to break down to a form your plants can use.
Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Gardening Forum


Thank you. I managed to find some rather ''wordy" responses to the coir debate but really wanted to know what the actual results were, you know? I will keep all this in mind as I go along. One of those large bricks sure goes a LONG way. It's too bad it isn't definite that it would be helpful. I like it for seed starting but am not sure about in the actual beds. I do make compost but it doesn't ever seem to be enough.


Did you make this video? I always wanted to know how to do time lapse for germination/growth of various plants.
No, it wasn't me, sorry.
I've just been viewing these videos of different seeds germinating and I find them amazing.
I like watching plants grow. I think that rates up there with watching paint dry. It's an illness, I know.