23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Does anyone know if tinfoil or aluminum foil works to repel slugs and snails? I am trying out this method (details in the link) where you use pieces of tp rolls and wrap them in tinfoil then place it around the base of your plants. (not my idea or blog, someone else's)
Here is a link that might be useful: Slug collars
I got everything planted except for squash. I'll get that in a few days. It's been mostly sprinkles and good old fashioned pitter patter rain so far. The good side is that it seems to be warmer. The over cast skies made for stress free transplanting too.
As far as strawbales go....i wouldn't mind growing potatoes in them; but i'm a dirty girl. I want to dig and feel the dirt between my toes!
Ya'll have a great soggy day!
Thanks again for all the feedback!
It depends on where you live. You don't list your zone on your profile, and we'd need to know that before we can tell you.
It also depends on how well the seedlings are doing, and whether you've hardened them off. Do a search for "hardening off" on this forum or on google to learn how to do that.
Never grown it so I wouldn't know. But, one thing I found interesting about fennel while researching companion planting for veggies -- almost nothing is good as a companion.
Kevin
Here is a link that might be useful: according to wikipedia
I grow bulb fennel twice a year, in spring and fall. It's a reasonably heavy feeder, but the plants take a while to gain size -- longer than the seed packets say. Any good garden soil of average fertility is fine. I mix a standard application of organic fertilizer into the soil before planting, and drench with a high N liquid when the plants start to bulb. The spring crop matures in late June, the fall crop (started indoors in July) is ready in October.
Jonfrum:
I disagree 100%, carrot do sweeten in the winter. We have been growing winter carrots for the last 4 years and I look forward to them every year. More so than the first tomato!
We like Napoli. We have grown Nelson, Mokum and Yaya during the winter too. They just aren't quite as hardy as Napoli We plant them at the end of July to the First week of August. We Harvest them from mid October- March. We still have some growing now and while they aren't as good as the earlier ones, they taste better than the ones in the store. Our spring carrots will be ready in a few weeks. They were planted in January.
We grow ours in movable high tunnels. We plant the crop outside, then after the frost takes the tomatoes, mid November, we move the high tunnel over the carrots and it stays there until spring. We grow over 1000 square feet of carrots for winter sales. I will probably up this by 250-300 more square feet as we almost ran out this year. Each building has 5, 30 inch beds in it. Each bed has 4 rows planted in it. It is a whole lot of carrots.
Don't just take my word for it, google Eliot Coleman and Candy Carrots.
Jay
I pull all of my carrots in late fall because voles and other critters will damage them if left in the soil. I often miss a few and have noticed that the red-skinned carrots seem to survive winter in style. A few weeks ago I dug out some Dragons that were still edible.
Parsnips that sit through winter are really good.
I don't water daily after I put in ground. I create a pretty large whole with my hands, mix in some compost or bagged garden soil along with a couple handfuls of balanced organic ferts(cottonseed, bone, and alfalfa meals), plant seedlings, and give a good soak. I usually don't water again for another week or so. This is in conjunction to my tilling of copious amounts of compost a month or 2 beforehand and a broadcast of bonemeal(since bonemeal takes so long to break down).
Kevin
Well, I googled damping off of peppers, and it doesn't sound good.
Trying to decide whether to segregate those with wilts from those that don't, throw the ones with wilted leaves away, or try to dry them all out in the bathroom with the space heater and hope for the best.
It was a lot of work getting them to this point...I'm pretty bummed out...
I can't figure out where it came from. I used new cell packs, brand new seed starter mix, etc. All was fine until they got wet and the weather turned cool. :(
You want to keep the surface soil moist to make it easy for seedlings to break the surface; so keep misting at least twice a day.
Carrot, beets and radish need to develop tap roots long enough to find moisture for themselves several inches below growing surface. That means keep misting until they develop at least 1 set of true leaves. Peas also need continual moisture until true leaves. After that you can back off the misting and consider adding much--unless you're growing intensive spacing.
Yesterday I planted a 10 ft. line of NP seeds. It's rather early for our zone, but ground temps are good. The weather has been fantastic and is supposed to stay warm and sunny for another two weeks. It that happens, we should be in the clear regarding frost or near frost temps. If it doesn't, all I've lost is a line of seeds.
I prefer to direct sow cucumbers and I'll trellis this line.
I kept reading that they needed to be "certified seed potatoes" or something like that.
The difference is that certified seed potatoes are specifically grown in sterile soil to ensure they are as close to 100% disease free as possible.
I generally find that its a waste of money for anyone but major planters (actual farmers doing acres of plants) to bother with them. Potatoes you buy in the grocery store will be very unlikely to be diseased (and most of the diseases that matter you could see just by looking at the malformed tuber), and they will grow just fine.
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That said, yeah, plant now. A potato will only die if the tuber freezes pretty much solid. Assuming you're planting the normal 6-8 inches deep, it will basically never freeze that hard anywhere south of the arctic circle. While it may grow up and then have the top die back due to freezing, the tubers will be safe and will just sit there happily waiting on warmer weather.
The method of weed control you use will vary with the type of weed. Annual weeds that germinate from seed can be smothered by all sorts of mulches. Perennial weeds that keep coming from the root no matter how many times you sever or kill the tops are an entirely different story.
For the best results, identify your weeds first.
Couple of different possibilities. Start with the easiest - look at the underside of the leaves. Do the spots go all the way through? Look for aphids, squash bugs, spider mites.
If no pests than it's the most likely, especially given your weather - Downey Mildew. The spores can come from all sorts of sources - the mulch, pests, the soil, even the air. Treatment is fungicides sprays.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Common Cucurbit Problems
Sometimes I get stuff like that as I get towards planting time, when I get overwhelmed with all the gardening projects and I water them too much, too little, or fertilize too much, or to little. I am not really sure what is what, I just know it is typical for me to have a flat or two of my tomatoes/peppers with weirdness on the leaves.
It always fixes itself once they are hardened off and planted int he warm ground.
Thanks for the photo assist, Dave.
They are planted in promix, and I have not fertilized. But I just realized I used the promix vegetable and herb blend! That could explain why my eggplant seedlings looked bad as well (which I thought was a light issue)!
Yes, they are cowpots, which I thought was a huge mistake, but the small pots held up so well I used the larger ones when I potted up. I plan on removing them when I plant in my garden.
thanks for the input, everyone! So it does not look like disease to you? I had such an abysmal year for tomatoes last year (pin worms, fun) that I am a bit paranoid now. Realizing my dumb potting mix could be the issue--we'll see soon. It is finally warming up here so I can plant outside.