23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I have searching for it however the sso called "okra leaf curl" is not the problem you are facing as this disease can be recognized by observing yellowing and curling leaves, can significantly decrease the volume of harvest-able okra.

The leaves are curling yet it doesn't look like its turning yellow.

Thank you all for the input. I think I will have to give it a few weeks to see whether it is anything serious. Thanks everyone. You guys are helpful.

I agree, just cut those suckers in half and you will get many potatoes. No need for roots to grow into the ground. Potatoes put out very few roots.....mostly potatoes. I've got a few 55 gal halfs lying around and I might do it also. I was saving them for my blueberry bushes, but they won't be needed for a year or two.

What about cutting them in half vertically (from top to bottom) instead of horizontally? I've tried the potato tower concept a couple times and found that most potatoes form in the first 6 inches above the seed potato. I concluded that wider is better than taller. You can actually fit more plants in the space with less crowding. More plants = more potatoes.

Thanks digdirt, I believe you are correct. I backed off and they appear to be doing better. I actually had it at 15 hours. 12 hours at 3-4" is working better.

Yeah it is a point we often forget to mention - the big differences between the new T5s and the older type bulbs. Even T8s can be spaced a bit higher than T12s. And of course the number of bulbs in use can make a difference too.

Dave

Mostly sunlight. Even an experienced gardener can accidentally leave her broccoli starts on the deck in full sun too long, forget about them and scorch them. blush

For cold hardy veggies they are ok as infants in the cold but need to get used to sun and wind. For the warm weather veggies they need to get used to sun, wind and temp fluctuations. The hardest part is having them in such small pots/cells and getting them out in sun and wind and having them dry so quickly you can hardly go to work. I had someone buy tomato plants last year which were hardened off but then he left them out in intense sun/dry and they died due to lack of water since they were still in pots.

Thank you all for the great replies. I needed clarification because someone at work told me that they only needed sunlight hardening. So, rather than take advice from a non gardener, I decided to check with you all :) Thank you so much for sharing your information and experience.

I am at work with fingers crossed today. I planted (after proper hardening for nearly 2 weeks) leeks, lettuce and onions over the weekend. We had lovely weather both days, but today it is windier than it has been in several weeks and colder than I am comfortable with, with my babies out there in the cold damp ground.

Check for spider mites.. My plants last year had the same problem and I figured out the damn spiders string a web and pulls the leaf so it lookes "curled".. I just squished the tiny spiders and sprayed with water and it was fine.. Although my plants didn't have discolored leaves, it could be several problems..

Joe

qibu, your tomato leave are showing signs of nutrient deficiency. It looks like zinc deficiency, or iron. Please google tomato leave margin yellowing.

Still, picking will be hard since the cucs will hide behind the tomatoes and you might break things trying to get at them. I would go further on the tomatoes. You get more out of them IMO.

Ahhh. I guess I'll just grow tomatoes this year then as they are already established and it is too late to dig them up and move them further apart. Perhaps I can find another spot in the yard to try cucumbers, minus trellis or remotely decent soil, and see what happens.

I do much more than a Soft blowing fan.. The winds outside could be brutal, you have to get your seedlings ready for that wind. As soon as my seedling sprout they get a fan on high, and bright fluorescent fixtures just touching them.. That combination, there is no way you are having leggy seedlings!

Yes trial and errors are the best teacher . There are other easy ways to learn but to me easy come easy forgotten. I must read 2000 books from first grade to high school to college to the master program beside I learned fast reading and I love reading books but if I say I remember every thing I read I be lying. BUT I remember vividly every thing I screwed up and was corrected even from my childhood. These knowledge acquired from trial and errors is stored in the brain and never leave. I rest my peace.
Abe

Let the garlic grow through it until a couple weeks before harvest then rake off. This is common practice. Garlic cannot handle weeds. Using straw in the garden is terrific! Still, that said, if you don't want to except for garlic (I am weeping about that) you could use it on garlic again if there is no disease present. Garlic has little pests. The upper Midwest had a severe garlic disease last year so it does get diseased!

And here I was thinking of taking it off so that sun would warm the ground, since I didn't even plant the garlic until February, and I figured it needed to get rolling in order to have a chance to produce a crop this year. Based on the input above, I'll just let it ride for now.

Thanks, everyone.

Will do! At least I don't feel their fate is as dire as I had before haha. Thanks, guys. :)

You have what is called damp-off a fungus disease that attacks seedlings when the soil is kept too wet and there isn't adequate air circulation. Note the dark pinched in stems near the soil line. Then they were further damaged by putting them outside.

Those that are not affected can be saved perhaps by reducing your watering and using a small fan near the seedlings to increase air circulation.

You'll find a FAQ about it over on the Growing from Seed forum here. You'll also find instructions there on how to properly harden off plants prior to putting them outside. These seedlings are in no way ready to go outside much less be left out for hours.

Suggest some Google (or here) research into "damp-off" and "how to harden off seedlings". There are many discussions here about both and if you learn first how to do it the right way then you save your seedlings and lots of wasted work..

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQs - Growing from seed

With the quality of your carpentry, this is a good idea.

Ah, within a couple years I would like to start selling produce to restaurants and at the same time doing consulting and garden support for their own growing. I have read a lot of stuff about chefs and so on trying to grow their own food supplies and not knowing what to do.

Oh, I understand... I thought they were in your garden beds.. Yes then dig them out before they go to seed.. You could throw the top soil/weeds in the compost. Or you could just mow them with the rest of your grass and forget the digging?

No, don't put the soil and plants in the compost!

Unless you are a very hardcore composter and keep your pile VERY hot, the seeds and roots will survive and will invade areas where you spread the finished compost.

Weeds are why FSM created municipal composting. Big, hot piles. Or the landfill.

I hope it's not too late. I planted tomatoes and egg plants today. ;-)

I had planned to start a bit earlier, so as to have larger plants at transplanting time. But I think this is OK. It is surprising how quickly small plants catch up when they get into the ground.

Jim

Thanks all for the feedback. I decided to go ahead and plant some seeds - the thought of not having seedlings around was very depressing!

Agreed-you aren't even past your last frost date.
Plant cool weather tolerant vege now, such as snow peas (will grow in containers as many as 1 seed per inch) or can be direct sewn into prepared soil.
Radishes-the small ones mature in 25 days.
Spinach, lettuces, etc put out starts now and pick outer leaves until it gets too hot.

In late may or June put in tomato and pepper starts-it probably is too late and not worth the effort to start from seeds yourself this year for those plants.
Squash White bush, yellow, zuchs, need warmer weather-direct sew them when you pull the snow peas and radishes.

What trees grow good in NJ?

That's a question for the Trees forum not the Vegetable Gardening forum.

What makes you think you have missed the planting season? Is your garden all ready for planting vegetables? If not then now is the time to get it ready but it is too early to plant much in the way of vegetables yet.

Dave

"I'd wash any tree fruit, especially (apples, peaches, etc)...and potatoes. They tend to see a lot of pesticide/herbicide action. Potatoes are generally harvested after using a chemical defoliant to kill the tops."

If they use a chemical defoliant on the potatoes, how do they get the next crop to grow. They couldn't even get a green manure crop to grow after that. I am just curious. Maybe I don't understand, but it would seem that way.

"If they use a chemical defoliant on the potatoes, how do they get the next crop to grow."

Many/most agriculture chemicals break down into ineffective or inert levels a lot quicker than some believe.

The defoliants are applied to make digging the potatoes easier for machinery.

The most commonly used potato defoliant...Carfentrazone...breaks down rather quickly even in residual/dead leaf litter (which is "tilled" in...kinda...when the potatoes are dug). It's "half life" is less than a week in ideal conditions (warmth and microbial action, mostly).

The only thing the farmers are trying to do is kill the tops...not long-term weed suppression.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 16:09