23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Even though they share the same common name they are different species, are in different plant families, and have very different growth habits. Comparing the two would be like comparing apples to oranges. Kinda surprised that not even the Burpee website has the botanical name.
The one you have is a vine related to morning glories.
Rodney
celeriac root is different, as far as I know it is round with several long roots attached(at least it is what my mother grows, it called apple celeriac). So couple of extra roots I guess wouldn't change much on celeriac root. Root parsley looks more like carrot, and spited root is not good, same as for carrots. It is night mare to clean it when you have a root 1 X 1 inch with 4-5 attached long "tails" less then 1/4 in diameter. I think I am going to try, but with some preparation. I am making 5 inch tall 1.25 inch wide tubes from brown craft paper. They fit snugly into standard plastic cells for the trays. I will fill them with mix, start parsley, and when it is time to go in the ground will plant them with paper tube on them - hope this way the plants will have enough length for their root and roots will not be disturbed during transplanting. This is a plan) Will see how it goes.
I guess I was thinking because I heard the two will cross-pollinate that they were similar. But thinking about it, you're probably right because parsley root does resemble a carrot more than celeriac. Sounds like you have a good plan. Good luck & let us know how it works--always looking for new things to try...
Supplemental lights only help when they are several inches away from the plant. But depending on the position of the area, you may provide some light with large mirror, placed to reflect sun that you get on your bed. Also, on sunny days you should get at least some sun around noon, when the sun is in the highest point and shadows are short.
Yes, sorry but the need is for inches, not feet. And LEDs are normally even closer to the plants than fluorescents. Mirrors as suggested of other reflective materials for whatever sun exposure you can tap will help a bit.
Dave
Glib, I'm sitting on 6.2 ph, which I figure to be pretty good for potatoes. Soils a little compacted, maybe more clay than I'd like... but I have access to large amounts of free compost and I'm adding a lot to the new beds. I guess I've never really seen firsthand what happens when ph is out of whack. Low yields? What else can improper ph provoke?
6.2 sounds great to me. Green with envy! :) Shoot I'd even envy glib's 7.6 as a starting point. But it takes a lot of work to get mine down to 7 with lots of compost, peat, oak leaf mold and sulfur.
As for effect of pH - skewed pH retards nutrient uptake - especially N - even when ample nutrients are available. Reduced top growth equals reduced production. In my vegetable gardens the most effect is on the root crops - garlic and onions, turnips, radish and carrots, etc. Doesn't bother much else as long as I can keep it in the 7-7.5 range.
Dave
I would also suggest that you stick to a single type, as opposed to salad blend mixes. I grow lettuce indoors year round, and find that with the blends, some kinds overgrow and kill off others. Asian greens tend to crowd out leaf lettuces. Chard and baby kales grow at different rates. I'm trying to use up the blend seed and will then switch.
You are welcome jenhp. It does not need to be this tall for broccoli. But I use it for Broccoli in the spring and fall and squash/zucchinni in the summer. The squash and zucchini try to bust out of the sides and the top. But without this covering, I can't grow these crops without a lot of losses or time wasted picking off insects or spraying heavily with pesticides.
I used tulle last summer to keep potato beetles off my potato plants. Worked well, so I expect I will do the same this year. By the end of the season I had some holes in the fabric, however - it seemed to be breaking down from UV exposure. I used 108" that I got at Joann's, which covered two adjacent beds, each of which had black plumbing tubing for a frame. I used water-filled milk jugs as weights on the edges and corners. I don't have raised beds. With a 40% off coupon it was about $1.65 per yard, so thanks for the links to various sources. I see that if I buy it by the bolt it can be ~$1 per yard.
It's another fine spring and as the snow draws back, I am sprinkling wheat-based pee-soaked cat litter on the sprouts from my bulbs. The squirrels were digging many holes and had munched the tops off some of my crocuses and tulips until I began this. Now it has stopped wherever the cat litter is placed. Luckily, if you have a cat and buy the more costly wheat litter, the supply of squirrel repellant is constant. It also worked for my sprouting seeds last year after much experimentation with various disgusting methods (see earlier in discussion). I hope it continues to work with my town squirrels. Dunno about the tough urban types.
We have indoor cats, and spreading their pee-soaked litter around my garden did NOTHING. Neither did pepper flakes. That was disappointing. Yes, it may be that urban squirrels are just tougher and more fearless.
As to chicken wire, be aware that squirrels will push themselves under the wire (yep, tried that), so the wire has to be very carefully anchored to the ground.
As to relocation regulations, yes, they vary. In my locale, relocation of squirrels to private property (without permission) is prohibited. But not being specified, relocation to public property has to be presumed legal.
I love what you are doing. Good for you!
Personally, I think you could put an indeterminate tomato on that pretty branch trellis. If it looks as if your plant might need extra support, you can simply tie a few key sections to the fence behind it to bear the weight.
I use a natural string made of cotton or hemp, even raffia, to tie up my plants so that I can compost it along with the plant later on.
The chain link is great too. Lean it against the fence with enough room for you to reach behind to pick peas or beans and it should be fine. It would probably work for cucumbers too. Check Pinterest for pea trellis and you will see all sorts of fun ones. I spotted one made from an innerspring from a mattress this morning.
We live about a mile from a farm that grew cotton. Last year they grew peanuts. I think most of the bugs came to my yard that didn't get killed at their farm. I've had stink bugs and leaf footed bugs galore. I will definitely try your soap and tomato bucket. Thanks!
I have used a similar method to drown codding moths that attack my apples. This "brew" consisted of water, vinegar, molasses, and a bit of banana, hung from the tree limbs in cut off milk cartons (the plastic gallon sized ones with handles work best). The containers fill up fast and need scooping often, the brew just gets stronger with time and needs refreshing every 2 weeks or so.
I'll have to give your tomato/bucket method a shot as stink bugs and leaf footers are terrible here, for the asst fruit trees as well.
I am not a market gardener who is trying to make a living from what he grows, but I do grow vegetables for our family and of course, I want to produce as much as I can. And no one enjoys working hard on their garden only to see some of it destroyed by pests of any kind.
I was lucky enough, that my first gardening experience was meeting a new friend who had an organic vegetable garden. His enthusiasm and success was inspiring, and I started my own garden the next spring. That was back in the 1980s and I'm still gardening organically. I have not had a pest problem that ever tempted me once to buy an insecticide or herbicide.
Yes, I sometimes get a minor amount of slugs, oriental beetles and plenty of aphids and two years in a row, I had amazing numbers of ear wigs, but if I leave the aphids alone, the ladybugs are right behind them and make quick work of them. The ear wigs required a trip after dark with a flashlight to knock them into a cup of soapy water for about a week. Last year, we had cabbage bugs in the broccoli/cabbage and the next thing I noticed were wasps patrolling that bed and no more damage on the brassicas.
I have winter moths in my trees which I do nothing about. I have Red Lily Beetles that I hand pick. If I get too busy with other chores, the RLLB can get away from me and the foliage on my lilies can become a mess. But I can live with that. If it bothers me that much this year, than next year, I am sure I will pay more attention to picking them off. And if I get sick of picking them off, I'd rather dig them all up and get rid of them, than disturb the well earned equilibrium of my garden, by using a pesticide/herbicide.
This year, I'm concentrating on increasing the diversity of plant material that attracts beneficials and I want to provide pollinator homes and saucers of mud for butterflies. There's always something new to learn or to try that benefits an organic garden, and the more that benefits it, the easier it is for me.
That looks about right for the tomatoes except that mine were almost always eaten when almost completely ripe, and so the result was a lot more mushy. The melons were eaten from above the soil. So maybe I don't have voles, which is good because they sound hard to fence out. Squirrels, though, could be trouble. I doubt even my 7' deer netting will deter them much. They'll just climb the posts. I honestly have not seen squirrels nearby in this area, though. There aren't a lot of trees around. I've seen deer, rabbits, possum, foxes, and coyotes.
I don't think voles live this far south. We have two feral/fixed cats that take care of our rodents and grasshoppers. Two years ago something ate all of our best grapes overnight. They were Scuppernongs. I'm thinking it was rats. That was before we had the kitty cats.