23,821 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Plants draping back down a trellis is normal/common/standard practice. Done with many different vining plants with no problems.

Cutting the main stalk doesn't stop upward growth anyway and only reduces production and since cukes can easily vine 10-12 feet tall or more there is no point to having a trellis so tall that you need a ladder to pick.

Dave

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 12:53PM
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sjkly

I like the trellis "picture' in your post-it would work just fine.

    Bookmark     April 19, 2013 at 9:44AM
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greenmulberry(5-Iowa City)

I follow this, because one time when I was putting onions starts in, I stuck them all over the garden, and I noticed that my snap peas in areas that had green onions growing in them only grew 50% or so of the size of the ones growing away from onions.

Now, this was just one season, so there could be another explanation, one trial is not conclusive, but, I find it pretty easy to keep my peas away from onions since then, and they all do equally good.

Maybe I will do this experiment again this year.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 11:39PM
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pnbrown

I have been growing walking onions for many years, and they grow all over. Because they are a perennial, they overwinter and start growing vigorously in early spring, right around pea-planting time. Whenever I have planted peas near, within their root-zone, the depressing effect on the pea growth is very significant. I speculate that the well-established onions have had time to saturate the soil with root exudate.

Spring-planted onions from sets or tiny plants would generally not have time to have that effect. Perhaps later in the season they could depress new-planted beans, but that is not a situation I have observed.

    Bookmark     April 19, 2013 at 8:00AM
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bobosaur

Found out most of the tank is chemical treated.
So I think I'll stay away from those.

One of my tank which hold random fish does not have chemical substance in it.
It is quite murky and you can see feces all over the bottom.
One of them, less murky and is used to grow tons of aquatic plants.

I assume those 2 would be safe to grow vegetable in?

I'm very new to this myself. Just can't get over the facts dirty water contain so much good foods for the plants!

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 9:15PM
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greenmulberry(5-Iowa City)

Oh yes, fish water, especially dirty, poopy, fish water is great for gardens. I have had gardens since childhood, and also aquariums, and always put the water change water on plants. I use this to water my vegetable seedling starts exclusively until they go outside.

I would put it on my vegetable garden outside, but it is too far to carry buckets, so my hostas get it once I put my seedlings in the garden,

I can't think of any aquarium chemicals for FRESHWATER aquariums that would be an issue, with the exception of treatments for disease or parasites. I would avoid that tank water for a while.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 11:36PM
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mhuffman51

my neighbor gave me a starter off her artichoke plant when she handed it to me the leaves were already wilted over the side of the pot, i water it and its still wilted, and the leaves at the edges are drying and starting to get a little brownish
how do i bring it back to life???

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 10:08PM
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yukkuri_kame(Sunset 19 / USDA 9)

I'm not too familiar with artichoke...

In general when taking cuttings, it can be very helpful to remove most of the leaves (all but the tiniest new leaves) to prevent water loss.

Keep in full shade, keep the soil moist, but not soaked. Misting it a few times a day may also help.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 11:14PM
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IAmSupernova(SE Texas 9A)

Unless like every leaf is destroyed, it'll recover on it's own. Although I've never seen a whole leaf sunscalded, and it's been a big problem for me. Well, a problem as far as aesthetics are concerned. My plants produced fine even with the scald.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 8:16PM
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sjkly

Cucumbers? Maybe, if you plant one to a pot and trellis them-you need some sort of watering system for hot weather though they will dry out so fast.

Green beans-absolutely probably 4-6 plants per bucket if you get the bush variety, I don't know about pole beans-they are much bigger plants but I haven't grown them and don't know how huge the root system is.

Snow peas-you can plant 10 or so in a 3 gallon bucket-maybe more-tiny superficial root systems and short plant life to begin with-they will die when it gets hot regardless of where you plant them.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 6:33PM
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terrybug

Good to know abt snow peas, i put 4 in a 5 gal n thought that was too many. Thanks for the advise.
Terry

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 6:53PM
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lelia(Northern Cal)

I have four 5'x10' boxes terraced into a hill. I've grown all kinds of beans in the boxes, as well as tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, leeks, lettuces, herbs, peas, cabbages, kale, you-name-it.

I find the boxes offer an advantage with certain vegetables, although some of that is because they are terraced, with one side about waist high. With beans, for example, I sow the seed fairly densely, use no trellising, even for pole beans, and get a nice dense mat of beans climbing all over themselves at a perfect height for harvesting.

Planting big leafy vegetables like zucchini is pretty cool because I can easily peek underneath and admire the whole other world under the leaves that looks like a veggie wonderland.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 3:23PM
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tammyinwv(z6/WV)

I have three 4x8 beds, and two 5x16 beds, and a long "u" shaped bed around the perimeter of the garden. I have grown pole and bush beans in the beds and they have done very well. Bush beans can be succession planted by planting again as soon as the other is done. With pole beans you should be able to plant things around their base that dont get too big.
Tammy

Here is a link that might be useful: My beans in raised beds

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 6:49PM
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ChicagoDeli37

There are all different size boxes

    Bookmark     April 10, 2013 at 11:13AM
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t-bird(Chicago 5/6)

My "companion planting" list says hot peppers do well with escarole...and basil, parsley, oregano

Basil, parsley, scallions for sweets

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 3:55PM
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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

Inadequate/insufficient pollination (aka fruit abortion). A common problem when grown in greenhouse where insect-vectored pollination is difficult. There is a FAQ here about how to hand pollinate.

Some plants will also abort fruit when they become overly stressed. For example you have several cukes there that are clearly ready for harvest if not going past ideal harvest. Leaving fruit like that on the vine stresses the plant. It can only support so many fruit at one time and begins to shut down if not kept picked. Cukes are notorious for shutting down if not kept well picked.

In a GH excess heat can also be a problem.

Dave

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 3:50PM
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digdirt2(6b-7a No.Cent. AR HZ8 Sun-35)

It is often called wide-row gardening - fairly common practice been around for probably 30 some years - see link below for pics in links to info.

And yes i have used it for years. Others here have posted about it too but I can't recall who off hand. One recent discussion I'll see if I can find for you.

Some do enclose the beds but usually with a moveable frame of some type. I guess because they like the appearance better or something. But most don't. I don't. You don't have to alternate the beds but it is easy to do and quite good for the soil improvement. And if you have a series of them then rotation is easy to do, just skip 3 rows over for tomatoes or whatever each year.

If you use clover or rye for the ground cover (aka green manure) you'll get good break-up of the clay soil too.

Bought compost can be risky from what I have heard. Never had to buy it as we do plenty all on your own with the hay fields and cattle manure. But you have the space now to start doing your own so get a good load of manure and get a big pile started. Meanwhile there is good stuff out there and you'll need to track down a good source to get incorporated into all your tilled clay.

You can buy it in bags but that can get expensive so look for a source that does active hot composting rather than just stock piling it, uses diverse ingredients, and that is at least 90-120 days old. It should be a good dark brown in color, smell like earth not ammonia, and crumble well in your hand with no big recognizable pieces.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Wide row gardening

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 2:41PM
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veggiecanner(Id 5/6)

I'e always reffered to raised beds with no sides as passive wide bed gardening. I used it for years. Just went to flat gardening last year.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 2:42PM
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marcguay(5b, Montreal, QC)

We're looking into getting some 5 gallon containers from a local restaurant that serves pickles (fingers crossed) and possibly using these smaller ones as the reservoir if they fit inside.

After all of the research I've done and the help from y'all, it's no wonder that my first attempt at container gardening last year, which consisted of 3 tiny plastic planters on the deck here at work, with no reservoir, not even a dish underneath them to keep excess water from running away, failed so miserably. I think I had 1 pea and 1 cherry tomato over the whole summer. It's an entirely different art from gardening in the ground.

Marc

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 9:45AM
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NilaJones(7b)

Use the 5 gallon for the reservoir and the small bucket for the plant. Then you will only have to water every 2 or 3 days.

Better yet, go to a big box store and get some 10-20 gallon containers for $5 each. Or get them at yard sales, if recycling is a requirement.

5 gallons is still too small for efficient water usage and for healthy-sized plants. A tomato plant, for example, needs bigger than that.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 12:00PM
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NilaJones(7b)

As someone mentioned on another thread, a good method is to let the hose run for an hour or so, then dig down and see if you find a dry layer of soil below the top, damp layer (and then a deeper damp layer below that). Keep the hose running until the dry layer disappears.

That's your length of time. Where I live it is 1.5-2 hours for vegies, 3 hours for stuff I water less often such as shrubs.

For frequency, do as Dave says and see when the soil gets dry a couple inches down. For me, that's 2-3 weeks for vegies, 4-5 weeks for shrubs.

Of course, the dry layer thing might not work if you live in a desert, but anywhere else it should :).

    Bookmark     April 17, 2013 at 1:44PM
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bart1(6/7 Northern VA)

I can only get to my garden on the weekends so that's the only time I run the soaker hoses. I usually do it for about 2 hours per hose. I've never noticed a problem with dried out plants doing it this way.

Most of my plants are under a thick landscaping fabric so that probably helps conserve moisture too.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 8:21AM
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

It looks like you are heading for a June harvest or late May with the broccoli. You probably could have set out plants at the end of March if the weather has warmed some. Broccoli and cabbage are tender to heavy frost and freezing until the roots get established. You can tell when roots are established because the plants are growing after transplant.

    Bookmark     April 17, 2013 at 7:45PM
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planatus(6)

I grow fast-maturing broc and cabbage in spring, and it's ready in June from early April transplanting.

I often have seedlings waiting to go into the ground until another crop is harvested. Tomatoes will hold in containers for quite a long time.

In my garden, the first big turnover of space comes in late June, when early garlic and cabbage are harvested. I don't plant anything where tomatoes will be planted in May.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 7:40AM
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SaraElise(8b)

I generally have good luck just watering from the top. Just make sure they have good drainage and get good airflow or you risk drowning them or developing mold.

I don't start big batches, so it's not bad for me to have the starting pots in large dishes of any sort to catch the overflowed water. I pick my pots out of the dish after they have drained and then dump the overflow into a container to save for the next watering. I think if I had a larger number of plants, I would set them on some sort of mesh screen which would sit over my drain pan--then I wouldn't have to worry about moving the pots to dump the excess water. And, they would get some extra airflow around the pots from below.

Probably due to my own technique, I've not had luck with bottom watering. But, I figure the way I do it works for most seeds and rain falls from above in nature so I go with it.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 4:54AM
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chickenfreak(7)

I agree that it sounds like you're underwatering - I don't believe that the soil for seedlings should ever get "really dry".

I water seed flats with the "gentle rain" setting on a multi-setting water nozzle on a hose, and water them until the water runs through and out. And I never let them get bone dry.

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 6:27AM
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z5gardener

I did the same thing with tomato cages last year and my cucs. I planted burpless and pickling cucs. I did not notice a bit less yield than when I left them on the ground. The plants seemed healthier and I did not have any insect issues (which have been a problem in the past). The vines will climb up and back down the cage then across the ground if you don't keep an eye on them, so I doubt they were any shorter.

    Bookmark     April 17, 2013 at 9:19AM
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uscjusto

My concern is the height of the cage limiting the growth and also the shape of the cage not supporting or promoting proper vine growth.

I'll just see how it does since I'm probably not going to change it now.

The seedling cucumbers in the single pack I bought had 3 tiny stalks all next to each other. Am I supposed to let those all grow or do I pick the healthiest one and allow that one to grow by itself?

    Bookmark     April 18, 2013 at 3:33AM
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