23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Very strange weather indeed NHBabs I wish I could send some of this rain we are getting to the NE. I'm just the opposite here in Kansas City area (where it is currently raining again), other than watering in a few seeds I have not had to water my garden at all this year and it is a good thing that I raked up raised beds in my in ground beds or everything planted in them would be drowned. I can't walk on the paths between the raised rows even though I put down cardboard and grass clippings over them. Things are looking up though with the 10 day forecast showing only a small chance of rain any day. I think most of the farmers around here managed to get their corn planted, but I don't think many soy beans have been planted yet.
Because my feeling is that the containers (especially with the loose 5-1-1 mix) won't support the spreading branches after a while. I figure the upper branches will rest on the cage as it grows upwards. It's just an experiment at this point. Last year I grew yellow squash in regular growing soil and it didn't do so well so every year I try something new.
In my area, we've been having problems with this sort of contamination for at least 5 years. None so far this year but it's very early in the growing season for us. Warm weather crops aren't in as yet.
When you obtain the manure, you can -- and should -- ask about any herbicides used on the farm or by the farmer.
But you need to know that some farmers won't have a specific answer because they have hired a pest control company/person to do their spraying for the crop/pasture. Even so, the farmer can request that info.
Okay, I first saw the info about managing soil where contaminated OM was used in WSU info about clopyralid contamination. (Clopyralid & Aminopyralid are very similar herbicides in their action & persistence.) http://puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt-old/Clopyralid.html .
I don't see it now, but as I recall, the gist was to irrigate & cultivate actively through the season. Growing a "grass" (corn) would do the same thing and, IMO, make better use of the water.
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I thought I was well informed about contaminated OM, but I hadn't come across some which has been added to this thread.
So, here's a plea to PLEASE include URLs for the info you're turning up. Doing so helps us all.
Hard to say without a picture as there are different patterns of yellowing and they mean different things. I will say that putting potatoes out in Albuquerque just 3-4 weeks ago sounds rather late. Admittedly though, New Mexico is not conducive to potato growing but it is fun to keep trying.
Many tomato growers do advocate preventive spraying for fungal diseases. Chlorothalinil or Daconil is considered most effective, but I am nervous about using it. So I have used actinovate, neem oil and serenade with some success to slow down early blight. I haven't had problems with other diseases, so I don't generally use fungicides on anything but tomatoes.
I couldn't understand why I've had luck with planting onion at the end of May and I didn't think there would be that much difference between our zones, but I found out the reason why.
"...the US zones are based entirely on average minimum temperature, and the zones are not subdivided. The Canadian index is far more complicated, and is based on a complicated mathematical formula that takes into account snowfall, wind, rainfall, the warmest month, etc."
From a different site
"The hardiness zones are informative: the extremes of winter cold are a major determinant of whether a plant species can be cultivated outdoors at a particular location; however, the USDA hardiness zones have a number of drawbacks if used without supplementary information.
The zones do not incorporate summer heat levels into the zone determination; thus sites which may have the same mean winter minima, but markedly different summer temperatures, will be accorded the same hardiness zone."
Of course I am also in a slightly cooler zone so I am sure that is the biggest factor now after hearing you say it's way to late. The ground is still frozen in April here half the time. We just had 0c temps on Friday, last year had snow on Mother's day and killing frost on Sept 1st, year before frost at the beginning of June. The old couple I buy my hay from said they never do seeds and almost plant in June because they've had frost in middle of June here. Luckily I haven't seen that yet, and hope I never do. I was devastated enough to go from middle of October frost dates for a 5b zone to early September for 5a. It was a shocker that first gardening season for sure. We do also have a bit of a micro climate here with a almost 50 foot elevation level between the upper and lower garden so that could be part of the reason since this is the first year I've had onions in the upper garden we'll see how they'll do. So far the sets have grown 8 inches in about 2 weeks with three frosts in that time.
With all that jibber jabber said, I'd still much rather prefer a pearl onion to bitter carrots. Only reason I put some seeds in now was for the livestock. I guess it's a preference thing though.
Honestly, most all seed vendors - even the big box stores - now offer many heirloom varieties of seeds so you can probably buy many locally.
The problem is that for marketing purposes many vendors label them "heirlooms" when they really are not. They are open-pollinated varieties, not hybrids, but don't have the age or documented history to really qualify as heirlooms. So it is a shopper-beware situation if true heirlooms are what you want.
Dave
Southern Exposure