23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Several things can make radishes more or less hot. How much water they get, how fast they grow, the temps they're grown in, and most importantly the variety. I grew Long Black Spanish for the first time last year and holy geez those things were hot and it didn't matter what time of the year I grew/harvested them.
Rodney
The reason a lot of N sometimes results in small roots/tubers is because it causes reduced availability of K - which is what is required for large root and tuber crops. OTOH, if K is low to start with failing to supply the crop with N is not going to help.
I have 6 rows, each are 3X13 ft. One row has a wire tunnel over it for cukes to vine on one side and green beans to vine on the other. Will put corn, tomatoes, zukes and squash, carrots dispersed properly over the other rows. raspberry and blackberry bushes in the corner. And a bag of compost/worm castings to throw off to the side and stick some watermelon seedlings in there to vine out away from my rows. Have 2, 1x13 ft beds off to the side for wildflowers to feed the honey bees so they will pollinate my garden. No raised beds. Have a, 18 ft lettuce bed with radishes in it as well. And a little 4 ft herb bed
I do not have a lot of room, so I use something called "edible landscap
ing." I have landscaping around 3 sides of my house where I have a variety of flowering shrubs and flowers. Among the landscape plants on the south side, I have planted bush cherries, a blackberry bush, a pomegranite bush and a strawberry patch. In the spring I intend to add 3 cranberry bushes and some tomatoes and eggplants. In front of the house I have interspersed herbs among the flowering shrubs and flowers. On the northside of the house I plant tomatoes, eggplant and peppers among the flowering shrubs and flowers. In front I also have a Japanese persimmon tree and a cherry tree. In the backyard I have a plum, 2 asian pears, 2 paw paws, 2 jujubes, an apricot and 3 fig trees. A also have a blueberry, 2 raspberry and a blackberry bush. I have a trellis on which I run 3 hardy kiwi vines and a pergola on which I run 3 fuzzy kiwi vines. For additional garden plants I have a 10'X20' garden plot where I plant beans, greens, parsley, garlic, leeks and tomatoes. I also have a raised garden where I have 2 gojiberry bushes and I am planting artichokes, radishes and carrots. Finally, I have 2 honeyberry bushes. Here are some pictures.
Ditto on a reduction in watering, which would be my first guess on the cause. However, as the plants age, there will naturally be some leaf die-back on the lower leaves. Your plants are still producing, as long as the new leaves & fruits look healthy, there is probably no need for concern. Given the size of the container, it's possible a light application of fertilizer might be necessary, but I would not do so until the plants stop bearing.
For good California gardening references, I would add the Sunset New Western Garden Book. They are up to their 9th edition now (I still have the 4th from when I lived in California in the 80's). It is a very comprehensive garden book, it was of enormous help to me when I gardened in San Diego and Pala Alto.
My leaves (the older) look like they have powdery mildew and at one point I did have white fly which I sprayed naturally but it still kept the bees away. Now I have a plant that is producing what looks like great fruit (and a conjoined) but most have just shrivelled, turned brown and well that's it
This is my first time trying to grow cucumbers but some how everything else I have grown from seed is doing fantastic... I'm losing friends off handing the stuff!
Why the heck are the cucumbers being so god dang awful to grow! There are heaps of flowers although I admit not many male when I last looked. What the heck am I doing wrong??? Oh and it is grown in a large wooden container with struts for growth.
Any help before the season here in Australia finishes would be so welcome and thank you in advance for the help.
I use the one from Territorial Seeds which is $25.00 a year if you renew after the 30 day free trial. It is worth it to me to make notes to review what happen in the previous years. I have been using it for 3 years now and think it is worth every penny.
You can find some tutorials on the Internet and it will be much more cheaper.
Originally asparagus grew in swamps or wet places, so maintaining consistent soil moisture is very important for good production.
I don't have a soil thermometer, but we've had temps well into the 70swith a few exceptions for several weeks (If you HAVE to have a drought, at least have beautiful weather!). It's been close to 80 the last few days. Planting most things tomorrow. Nancy
<thanks but got to many diff places to test here....>
Is this your native soil? If so then there won't be much difference from one place to the next? Doesn't happen that way. If they are all growing on your property in native soil then they will all be within the same very narrow margin and one soil test made up of several selected samples is all that is needed. And keep in mind that pH changing, if it is needed, doesn't happen over night anyway so trying to amend many locations would be a major chore. If you want to grow blueberries and if your soil is too alkaline it would be better to "create" a specific location for them made up of trucked in acidic soil.
But if that isn't enough for you then a simple $25-50 soil test meter is all that is needed.
Dave
No. Years back, I grew a naked-seeded pumpkin (Streaker Jack) that was impure; one of the plants turned out to have hulled seed. I had (unknowingly) used male flowers from the hulled plant to hand pollinate some of the others in the row, and when harvested, the seed from those plants was still hull-less. Since I liked the quality of the good seed, I wanted to try growing it again... but the vendor had dropped it, probably due to other complaints. :-(
I've grown Kakai as part of a 4-variety trial of hull-less pumpkins, and the seed was large & high quality. The yield was somewhat temperamental, though, and it had problems with seed sprouting inside. If you grow it, I would recommend opening the pumpkins as soon as possible after they are fully ripe.
There is another hull-less variety that I received in trade several years ago that has a high yield & does not sprout, but it also had a hulled impurity... I hope to select a pure hull-less strain from it in a few years.
Duplicate post. Here is a link to your post of this same question last week.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2900704/where-is-the-best-place-to-order-cucumber-seed
This is an old question. However, I want to clarify a bit for folks who are new to growing with plastic mulch in large sheets. Dennis explianed it well. I'lI just add my four cents.
Which is way too much.
So here's the short version
1- Dennis is right and use big sheets
2- make round holes, they tear less.
3- pick up and store plastic away from winter UV
4- don't worry about the weeds and grass. do not till, add compost only at the holes, before putting down the plastic. Water only until the plants are established. A week or 2. No irrigation needed. Ever. Well, maybe in the SW.
5- soil is 5° cooler under black plastic in the summer (Rodale c.1985).
6- Relax,
until Mid August then protect from fifty-five°
I'm not kidding!
The long version.
I have been raising melons, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and more, using six mil or thicker black plastic since the nineteen seventies. My parents started with ten mil (I think), which I inherited and it lasted eight years of leaving it out year round. The winter UV finally killed iit.
My first suggestion is that you roll it up and store it in a dark place. I get six years or more out of six mil black.
Pre-drilling with inch holes is a great idea and I'll try it at about one foot intervals. I just poke holes in puddles when they appear. His nail on a broomstick in a better idea than my method of using whatever is at hand. Why?
Because plastic tears in a line. If you make a longitudinal cut, instead of a round hole or puncture, in later years it will tear more easily.
So, do not make your planting holes with an "x". Make them round with scissors, or as I do. I cut both ends of a can, around four to five in diam, hold it with vise grips and heat the other end with a propane torch. Take a deep breath and psst, cut a nice round, sealed hole and put the circle in a trash bsg . For melons I use six foot diagonal spacing. Less for tomatoes, even less for peppers, eggplant, basil, etc. Plan well, because that's the configuration for years to come. I often use twenty by twenty sheets so I could just turn it each year for crop rotation. You might just slide it down the length of the garden, if north south orientation augers against turning the layout
Now, its about time to plant. Clear plastic will heat up your ground before you plant. Black plastic will not. Clear plastic solarization is thought by some to disturb/ destroy the beneficial biota of you topsoil. So heat with caution and read more to find your way. That aside: in spite of the wind, lay the black plastic on the ground...no need to weed or cultivate. Drive a short stake into the center of each hole. Pick up the plastic and prepare the area at each stake as you wish. I try to remove a half bushel or more of soil to my compost and fill each hole with a compost soil mix. Replace the plastic. Batten down the edges with soil, stones boards, etc. Plant and water individually, as needed for a week or two.
Then forget about it. You may need to weed three inches on all sides of each plant. You will not need irrigation. You have stopped evaporation. The ground in most regions is wet when you plant. It will stay perfectly moist all summer. I have had a few six week periods of eighty to a hundred degrees and no rain w/o water stress. Rodale tested mulches sometime in the eighties and determined that six mil black plastic kept the soil five degrees cooler than bare soil.
For me the major problem with melon production is that i crowd them. So stepping on the vines as I pick and some mildew. I do not lift the melons off the plastic, but puncture a puddle occupied by a melon. Bigger still is that after over thirty years, I cannot tell if a watermelon is ripe.
Beware the heartbreak of late collapse in canteloupes! Fifty-five degrees will make you cry in the August dawn. Get some cover material and get out there on that cool evening, when the clouds go away. A few nights later,you can relax until fall. That's for Western Oregon, Wash, Penna, and the garden state. In NH prepare to keep the patch above fifty- five.
Sorry about the length... I just love eating melons!
It occurs to me that one good reason to transplant is cutworms, which are a problem for me. Now, if I transplant, the plant is *right there*, so I know exactly where to spread my DE or Sevin dust. If I put in seeds, and if I don't mark exactly where those seeds were put in, and where I expect them to come up, I can't do responsible cutworm management. They'll get the seedlings as they come up, probably before I even see them come up. I suppose I could dust the whole seedbed, but that's a bigger proposition.
I suspect that transplantation does do some root damage, but I guess one just has to be careful. I never direct seed my squash and melons, and they always do fine. The best strategy for me is to transplant, but while the containered plants are still quite small.
Thanks for the info . Im trying to get it rite the first year ive been growing for years but a new earea and new climate means as usual listen to the local gardeners . So thanks water be fine in quality gardening soil. Ill get a test kit for the native soil .i m at a loss trying to figure out why my dad and the neighbor both had failed crops last season? My father cant understand the value of composting he says what am i paying for this big trash can for ?") So mg or what ever is on sale and Soluble normaly works for him. Leading me to suspect a ph or toxicity problem .other than that theres the larva in the root systems of the now dead fruit trees . Beatles what ever. Guess i should start a thread of my own .carl garden thanks again hava great day
Hi everyone. I also live in the CA HD - Apple Valley to be exact. Have been growing up here for about 10 years, starting with growing in large pots to the 5 raised beds I have now. I agree that our soil (and some you can buy) isn't the best. I have purchased "garden soil" from a place up here called the Rock Yard (not sure if they are still in business though), mixed in chicken manure and growmulch and have had great success. Last year I harvested 3 kinds of tomatoes, 4 kinds of peppers, zucchini, Asian eggplant, cucumbers, basil, butternut squash, snow peas, green beans and over the winter, chard, lettuces and spinach (with a plastic tent covering on cold nights).
My problem today is - I am turning my garden soil in anticipation of spring planting and in one of my planters, I am turning up whitish light gray looking soil clusters. Not really sure it is soil, maybe larvae of some insect. If so, they are really tiny. Anyone have any ideas?
Sure looks like multiplying onions to me. Here is a good article on How to Grow them. They just need feeding now and then, keep them watered, harvest a few from each bunch 2-3 times a year as needed. If you want them to expand faster transplant a few as you have done. Mulch them well in the fall for some winter protection.
http://www.gardeningblog.net/how-to-grow/multiplier-onions/
There are many cultivars of "multiplyers". Knowing your climate and zone would help.