24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening


daninthedirt said: it is a drought tolerant succulent and loves sun
My garden is certainly proving this point: I've got a 12' by 25' section being solarized, which has had clear plastic over it for nearly two months. No water has gotten under there and everything else is dead, including (sound of angels singing) the quack grass. HOWEVER, the purslane is growing happily and big. Guess I better get under the plastic and pull it up before it goes to seed under there.
defrost, for a future "living mulch" or underseeding idea, I find that lettuce works great. It is shallow rooted, and in the warmer months it enjoys the shade of the bigger plants. I like it best among the broccoli and collards and between the tomatoes -- don't think I'd like to try to harvest lettuce from under those prickly squash leaves!
Update: pulled up the purslane from under the plastic, got it ready to take down the hill for neighbor's chickens. Tried some as a salad. Tried some sauteed with zucchini and garlic. Wow! Thanks for this post -- I've discovered new food :)
Purslane: it's what's for dinner.


this can be computed. Say I produce a head of cabbage (3lbs) per square foot, at 0.5% ash (whole foods catalog number), and the (mineral) soil is typically 150 lbs per cubic foot. It will take about 1000 crops to lower the soil by one inch. Soil subsistence seldom creates sinkholes. Much more often it will create shallow depressions, as is this case. A possible other hypothesis is soil compaction through human traffic, or more abundant watering having leached the mother rock a bit. But they seem like small effects.

3 cabbages per year from a square foot of garden is certainly a pretty optimistic number. So the calculation is an interesting one, and I suspect it proves the theory isn't relevant. The idea of mineral leaching is a good one. The difference between a garden bed and the soil next to it is deep cultivation, and that deep cultivation makes the soil far more permeable. So irrigation of a garden bed can, in principle, carry away a lot more dissolved minerals than an uncultivated bed, in which the water just soaks in and eventually evaporates there. In principle, what this ought to do is to very slowly drop the bed level, and very slowly increase the level of the surrounding soil.

Digging up this old thread after doing a multi-year experiment.
I've had great results with Ambrosia cantaloupe over the years until I began trying other cultivars. So my experiment was to plant only Ambrosia vs. planting Ambrosia and another cultivar. The results thus far are - in (3?) years where only Ambrosia was planted all melons were sweet, vs. in (3?) years where another variety was planted along side Ambrosia, some Ambrosia melons were sweet and some were not. So, was this coincidence or were the non-sweet Ambrosia melons cross pollinated? Or, could it be that the seeds planted in the inconsistent years not true Ambrosia Hybrid quality?
Second, our local garden center expert prefers Aphrodite over Ambrosia...says it's a sweeter melon.

I never did get back here to update my Goddess melon tryout in 2012. Though they got off to a good start many of the Goddess melons were lost due to ends splitting open and the ones that did ripen properly had too firm/crisp of a texture for my tastes as compared to the melt-in-your-mouth Ambrosia melons. The last couple of years I've returned to planting only Ambrosia cantaloupes and am content with sticking to them.

Just wanted to add that I've read all those mom and pop shop worm websites and they all repeat each other about temperature, but are all rather vague if they are honest. It's a general rule from some unmentioned scientific study testing the limits of the worms, but in my experience these worms are more resilient than are described. I'm no expert, just have had them for two years. If your livelihood depends on their health, do some rigorous research and your own study. If you are just trying to get nice compost, try it yourself.
I live in zone 6, I have compost piles of leaves, yard waste, and kitchen wastes that are about 3 feet high and three feet wide during the winter, and the 'red wiggler' adults last winter were outdoors in compost. They survived. I bought them off eBay and was told these are red wigglers.
Besides if they die completely or you feel the count is low, you can buy thousands for ten bucks or so.
I've tried keeping them inside, it's not really worth it because they just sit there waiting for real work to do, and they reproduce like crazy, and you have to check on them to make sure they are not too dry, etc. Better to give them real compost and lots of room, that's when they become useful with no maintenance, in my opinion. Good luck.

Sounds good in theory but in practice probably won't work too well. Worms have their own needs and you'll have to be able to access where they are too feed them. Plus if you don't keep them contained in some way they will just migrate around as the soil moisture and soil temp fluctuates. If you want to raise worms then it'd be best to give them their own worm bin(s), either outdoor or indoor bins.
Red wigglers and their eggs can survive freezing temps but it's obviously not ideal. Here's some info I found earlier this year when I was searching about freezing temps and eggs from the Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture:
"Effects of freezing. Eisenia can survive having their bodies partially encased in frozen bedding and will only die when they are no longer able to consume food . Moreover, tests at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) have confirmed that their cocoons survive extended periods of deep freezing and remain viable."
And if you amend your soil with organic matter routinely then worms should find it all on their own. I always have a ton of worms (figuratively) in my beds after I mix in shredded leaves.
Rodney


Thanks. I am going to leave it on for now. My watermelons are various sizes at this point. Here is a picture that I took on July 7th, it is quite a bit larger now than it was when this photo was taken. If I had to guess I would say it probably currently weighs around 15 pounds. 


Is this container soil you are talking about "trashing"? I assume so since it would be hard to trash in ground garden soil. :)
Keep in mind that bacteria and fungus normally reside in all soil. They are only an issue for the plants given the right weather conditions so normally most container soils can be re-used with no issues. You can just dump the container out on a plastic tarp or such mix it all up well, mix in some fresh soil mix and fertilizer for nutrients, and refill the container.
Dave



Please do not poison raccoons. Golden Malrin is an extremely potent poison that causes a painful death. It is for killing flies. Any other creature (bird, insect or mammal) that eats a poisoned raccoon will die the same way. It's best to trap them or even better to contact a professional or your local wildlife office. It is illegal throughout the U.S. to poison any wildlife other than rodents. Read this:Poisoning raccoons

I used to put a fence round my garden but just to keep my dog out. I have rabbits that don't bother my garden. The deer in the past didn't bother it either. I do have fruit trees and did see one eating some apples. I don't mind sharing and will let it eat as much as it wants. Hunting season for me starts in sept. :) as far as calling local wildlife around here for a coon they would probley laugh at you. I like my traps, but do what works best for you. I told the wife if I see the rabbits in my garden there Gona end up I'm my freezer



Pulled some test carrots. Bolero looks awesome, grocery store size. Purple Haze not so much.
They tasted awesome too! I love fresh garden carrots, they taste so much better.
Mine for some reason always more bitter then store-purchased... I thought it is because of a hot summer, but looks like your summer should be even hotter... May be they don't like my soil...