23,823 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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buenaventura43

I suggest to put a diagonal bracing all around so that strong wind and weight of the tom can handle it.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 4:30PM
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treehugger2012

I hate tomatoes cages. I used them in the past they limit the tomatoes trees from spreading its branches and producing more tomatoes. Beside it is a pain the A getting to the plant for care like fighting insects, fungus or fruit rotting. I am back to the good old tomatoes sticks and I can control it in any manner.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 4:34PM
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NilaJones(7b)

They are beneficial now, and would technically be even more so if composted. But too much trouble for too little result, to pick them up :).

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 3:49PM
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treehugger2012

I don't think they have no value now at all but once composed in the soil they produce lots of organic value. Your next crop will benefit.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 4:27PM
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edweather(Zone 5a/b Central NY)

Radishes are funny critters. They will germinate awesome, but how they grow is a coin flip. I was never able to grow decent radishes......too leggy. But the soil at my wife's home was perfect. She just throws seeds in the ground and gets perfect radishes. A friend of mine used to grow them big as beets.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 10:51AM
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JWW_1(8B / 9A Foley, AL)

Thanks all. The taller plants are to the north and west of the radishes. The strawberries are east and south; they are starting to sprawl but they are not over-shadowing the radishes. I have observed the bed at different hours of the day and see no real shade over their location.

May be the peat moss is it. The other bed where the radish did ok is just a mix of various materials. I think the bed contains bagged compost, bagged "garden soil", some wood ash from fireplace, potting soils from abandoned containers, and possible others.

I know the peppermint is going to be an issue, but so is my 7 year-old daughter when I take it out. I am going to make do until I get her a small bed put together for just her choices.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 1:22PM
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weedlady(Central OH 6)

A couple of summers ago as I was poking among the heavily-straw-mulched potato bed looking to nick a few new taters, I discovered a nest of baby bunnies in the middle of the bed. (My beds are about 18" high, no obstacle to a rabbit!)
Hm. I pondered.
The result of my pondering was to lift the nest, babies & all, and relocate it to the edge of the cornfield (well, it was soybeans that year). So, I knew it was unlikely that mom bunny found her offspring; most likely a night-prowling critter did (we have raccoons, skunks, coyotes, possums, the occasional fox, etc.) but, hey -- "cycle of life" and all that.
Previous occupants here (we moved in 5 years ago) had a chocolate lab and a couple of cats. No problems the first few years in the garden; apparently it took the varmint population several years to react to the absence, but for the last couple of years now, they're baaaaack...

We do have a couple of hawks that visit periodically. I cheer them on. Neighbor behind us has a pond and I did not tell him when I saw one of the redtails fly off with a big ol' bullfrog dangling from his claws! I like the frogs, too, but hate the rodents more!

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 8:33AM
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dolivo

Ahhh.... nature and the fun we have with it!

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 12:30PM
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ltilton

We got 7 inches. Seeds were fine. Now up.

You could poke in the dirt to check - those are all large enough seeds to spot.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 9:12AM
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weirdtrev

I've never experienced those kind of seeds washing away, but I could see it happening if your garden is particularly hilly. It always rains a lot in the spring and seldom do seeds get washed away.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 9:22AM
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Masbustelo

I would suggest cold soil temperatures and premature planting.

    Bookmark     April 29, 2013 at 8:02AM
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glorygrown(PA/6)

My soil is full of compost and mulched with shredded leaves, and pillbugs still damage some crops - lettuce, beans, etc. Gardens Alive has an organic Escar-go product that is also bait for pillbugs. It seems to help some.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 5:16PM
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lelia(Northern Cal)

I have a real problem with pill bugs in my compost-rich garden boxes. They like freshly killed plants, so rather than eat a live plant little by little, they gather around the stem and eat right through until it's severed. Even with relatively large plants. I've seen them try it with full-grown squash plants, but they are unsuccessful at killing larger, sturdier plants. Then once the plant has fallen, the village comes to feast.

Sluggo Plus is an organic pellet that you scatter around susceptible plants, and it really does work. You have to keep at it, though, since water reduces its effectiveness over time.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 10:06PM
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glib(5.5)

Dennis, today was perfect for planting. I got out of bed at 7 am, planted for 3 hours (9 beds), and finished in my parka as rain started falling. This was mostly lettuce and collards, but also broccoli and komatsuna. It has now drizzled for 8 hours, with steady 50-55 temperatures, this is perfect planting weather, specially ahead of the coming mid-70 week.

I hate early Sunday rises as much as anyone, but I hate more fussing over transplants during and after planting. In the case of lettuce, I just scratched trenches, laid semi-bare root plants in, and covered with some of my (semi-dry) planting soil, knowing that rain would finish the job for me. I can not do as good a job as nature did for me, to ensure no shock to the plants.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 6:25PM
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tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM

I have very little in the ground. The weather gets lovely for a bit and then a couple of days later, BAM! a terrible freeze. Last Tuesday was forecasted to be a low of 30 and it got to 17 instead. Then, back up to nice again, high 30s. I have to say, I hate spring. These wide swings are not good for the plants and not good for me either!

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 6:41PM
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edweather(Zone 5a/b Central NY)

I'd definitely bury them below ground a few inches.

    Bookmark     April 25, 2013 at 8:32PM
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glorygrown(PA/6)

I had a bunch of potatoes too small to use in a bucket in the basement. They sprouted and were 3 - 8" long by the time I figured I'd just stick them in and see what happened. They seem happy - most have sprouted and the leaves look as vigorous as our prolonged dry cold spring permits. the sprouts are leafy, so point them up.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 5:22PM
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ill_gardener(5B)

thanks for the reply gmom. that was very helpful.

    Bookmark     April 27, 2013 at 5:33PM
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brittanyw(8a)

Most of the vegetables you mention are summer (tomato, watermelon, cucumber, okra, eggplant, pepper) while the others are better suited for springtime. I don't know what your particular seasonal situation is, but not all those veggies should be going in at the same time.

Fertilization might be the most useful way to organize your veggies. All of the summer veggies you mention (I think--not sure about okra?) are going to want the same basic fertilization, heavy on the P in NPK (phosphorous), but a P-heavy fertilizer might cause greens (spinach, broccoli, maybe the chard even though it's a biennial) to flower early, which you probably don't want. Clustering together veggies that have the same basic needs might simplify your operations. In addition, the amount of watering matters. For example, watermelons and cucumbers want a lot of consistent watering, while peppers should dry out sometimes (especially if you're aiming for spicy peppers--too much water is supposed to make them blander).

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 5:17PM
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veggiecanner(Id 5/6)

The first few always do that. Could be they come a little earlier than the polinators.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 4:56PM
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nc_crn

With only 2 plants you're going to have some aborted/non-pollinated fruits until the flowers are going crazy with a good pollinator population visiting them.

Dill's hand pollination suggestion should get you through this.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 4:56PM
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loriash

Thanks for the info! I've started my basil indoors, but I'm thinking I have way too many seedlings for my couple of 12" pots that I have set aside for basil. I also have parsley, oregano, mint and stevia seedlings, and will direct sow my cilantro. Does the same advice (1 per 12" pot) apply?

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 11:59AM
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weedlady(Central OH 6)

Lori -- yes, 1 per 12" should be fine. Once it gets going, the mint likely will quickly fill the pot and spill over the sides but may be cut back frequently. Bear in mind that mint stems will root whenever they touch the ground, and oregano (also a mint family plant) will do the same, if not quite as quickly.

Cilantro also will self-sow easily when you allow a plant to go to seed--which I always do since I use the seeds (now coriander) in salads and cooking as well. And in the fall, late-seeding cilantro will hang out hugging the ground all winter and resume groing in the spring for an early crop. I was surprised when I learned how hardy this plant is!

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 12:10PM
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jonfrum(6)

The rule is to always rotate onions each year. Diazanon used to do the trick, but it's not even available any more.

    Bookmark     April 27, 2013 at 6:32PM
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sunnibel7 Md 7(7)

Well, onions never go in the same spot twice here, but it's not a half-mile rotation (as recommended by one of the sites I visited) by any stretch. I find them most in my garlic, which is fall planted. The original clove seems to break down over the winter as the inner shoot grows and I wonder if that is attracting them. There aren't so many dying garlics this year as last, and this is a much more normal spring so perhaps the problem is resloving itself.

About the wild onions, I don't know if they are a host, but one must exist somewhere in the wild because the adults can only fly about a mile. No one else near me is growing onions- corn, soy, wheat, rye yes, and lots of pasture and woods. Thanks for your input, it reaffirms what I am reading elsewhere. Cheers!

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 11:51AM
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IAmSupernova(SE Texas 9A)

I don't know your conditions or zone, but if you're new to gardening, I'm going to guess you're over watering. I live in SE Texas and I only water twice a week. I could get away with even less if I wanted to. Every other day definitely seems excessive. Over watering is just as bad as under watering, if not worse, and it can cause the wilting.

This post was edited by IAmSupernova on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 11:28

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 11:24AM
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daninthedirt(Cent TX; HZ10, Sunset z30, USDA z8a)

I'll second the diagnosis of overwatering. There should be no problem growing in that medium. But you have a mixture that will hold water tightly. It's supposed to save you the effort of frequent watering! A more sandy mixture with regular soil would drain more readily. That being the case, when you water often, you'll end up with a medium that is continuously soggy. Push your finger and inch or so into the soil. Don't water until that inch or so is dry. It certainly shouldn't be kept moist on the surface, at least after your plants get more than an inch or so tall.

Watering as infrequently as possible is a strategy to encourage your roots to grow deep. Keeping the top layer moist doesn't do that.

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 11:37AM
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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Compost them. Sounds like they have stunted so aren't worth the garden space.

Dave

    Bookmark     April 28, 2013 at 10:07AM
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