23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Give Yellow Moon & Stars a try. It is an excellent watermelon.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I looked up everything you guys/gals posted. Next year I am going to go with everything I planted this year because I have leftover seeds and I am happy with the melons they produced. I am also planning on adding Ali Baba, Yellow Moon And Stars, and Charleston Gray to the list for next year. I wish I had room for more :). Yellow Moon And Stars looks so beautiful, I can't wait to try it.

This post was edited by Christacharlene on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 23:45

This was my first year adding okra to the garden. I planted 8 Clemson seeds at the beginning of May, all germinated within a week, and by July 4th we were getting at least 20 small 3 inch pods per week, which wasn't much, but was fine for just me and my boyfriend who would fry them up on Sundays with our greens and cornbread. :)

However, in August and September the temperatures were in the high 90s or higher every day and we got more than 20 inches of rain both months. So, with nearly daily thunderstorms, the blistering heat, and the humidity that it caused (read: mosquitos), it was hard to get out to pick the okra quick enough and at the right time. Even if I was out there every day, there were still days when the pods grew from one inch to eight inches within the span of a workday. And the pods were tough and not tasty anymore like the earlier ones were.

It is mid-October and the plants are about 10 feet tall and with the lowering temperatures, the pods are returning to normal. I'm thinking I want to try a different variety next Spring. It is very disappointing to have to pick so many enormous, nearly-inedible pods for months. The best part about the plants is by far the large, beautiful flowers that bloom every morning. The bees love them for sure. :)

This post was edited by Kalie_Florida on Tue, Oct 14, 14 at 9:30

I grew Chinese Okra this year for the first time. Its a beautiful vine plant which produced a ton of okra.The vines grew to about 10 feet long and they love to climb fences and around trees I let some of the pods grow to full maturity which is about 10-12 long. Allowed then to dry out on the vine for next years seeds. Each pod will produce about 100 seeds. After seeding them they make excellent luffa's.
A word of warning if you grow these you want to pick them when they are 6-8'' long after that they are too tuff.
They are great for frying, soups, gumbo and stews. I would not boil or pickle them

Thanks every one for all the info.

So, I planted some of the winter leafy stuff, first time doing winter garden. I am in Dallas. Early September, we had a week when night temps dipped down into 60s. After that i planted these things. Since then day temps have been up and down, highs between 80s - 90s, but the night temps have been in high 50s to low 60s.

Over the first 3 weeks of September I planted various kales/collards, spinach, cabbage, mustards, Chinese cabbage, broccolli etc. The only things that germinated were radishes, turnips, beets. Most others did not germinate at all. Thinking that i planted them too deep, I replanted most of them, not so deep this time. Since then, a few things have germinated very sparsely. In 3-4 weeks since germination, none of them have really grown much. Most don't even have the first set of true leaves.

Cause?: Is this temperature related? Or may be this is normal. Should I plant some more seeds when the temps go down or the ones that are already in the ground will germinate then. The first frost will be around Nov 15.

thanks.

Thank you, Conchita. It'll be fun to grow little tiny heads for my rabs.

Onion seedlings typically sprout folded in half and unfold themselves after a few days to look like thin grass blades.

Lets get this straight:

OP ordered seeds , not seedlings. So the first ID of any onion family seeds is BLACK color, rough shaped. It does not mater what color, variety of onion.

SECOND:

It is probably too late to start onions from seeds in zone 7. It should have been sown like 40 days ago, to germinate and grow a little and overwinter.

THIRD:
You have to order the right variety for your LATITUDE.
There 3 kinds of onions: (1) Short Day (Like for way down south) . (2) Intermediate Day: where longest days are 14-15 hours (that would be like central USA) (3) Long Day: where summer days are Very long, like in northern states and Canada. Onion growing is more tricky than one might think.

I would personally plant onion plants in the spring time (sold at BBS in bunches like scallions).
I would suggest that you post in "Alliums Forum" for more expert ideas.

Older leaves look okay except for the powdery mildew.
Newer leaves are gnarly.
Any chemical weed killer used in the area?

I didn't even notice the older leaves... PM would not do that to the newer ones.

You'll need to first neutralize the acidic peppers. Soaking in a baking soda solution should accomplish that. Then you'll need to reinocculate with a yeast or suitable bacterial culture. The outcome still might be questionable.

It can be done, IFF it has not been for a long time: If vinegar has penetrated into the peppers already it cannot be reversed.

== drain the liquid
== rinse with distilled water
== make brine with ditilled water ( 3 TBS sea salt in one quart of distilled water"
ADDITIONALY, add plain yogurt whey to get is started quicker. Yougur whey has "Lactic Acid", produced by the batcerium called "Lactobacillus ". So adding yogurt whey you are in fact introducing lacto fermentation culture.

JMO

Zackey, that's true, commercial citrus was all over central FL. We tested the new garden site at a lakeside place a few years ago and it was oddly high in copper (though not toxically high) until one remembers copper sulfate's use as a fungicide. It was very high as compared to normal for central fl sand (almost zero).

Our property was a cow pasture before we moved here. My hubby doesn't want to soil test and I do. An on going battle.They mixed all kinds of soil in and took down trees. Built up our lot with soil removed to make the neighbors pond. God only know what we have.

Our temps are supposed to (finally) drop out of the 80s!
I still have to put several beds to rest. I keep a couple with radish and greens etc, but compost and cover several and try to clean up the weeds, which kinda got out of control this year! Nancy

About 50% of our veggie gardens are now at rest though there are still a few sickly tomato and eggplants hanging on. The other 50% is now fall crops. If winter doesn't come on too strong or too quickly here we'll have some nice broc, cabb, peas, asst greens and root crops going until Dec, ending with carrots into Feb. Just have to keep one step ahead of the deer.

Yellow Jackets don`t like my ShopVac.
Switched on 6-8 hours for one day in the daytime, bye bye flyin` pests.

If it is an in ground nest, after the ShopVac does its` thing, I pour a bunch of Sevin dust on the entrance. All gone in 1 day or so.

Ground nests are fairly easy to deal with, provided they are not adjacent to anything flammable. Go out at night with some rubbing alcohol, a stout metal bucket/bowl/kettle, and some matches. Quickly dump the alcohol into the hole, stand back, and throw a match to light it. Once lit, quickly tamp the metal container of your choice over the hole, pressing it into the soil to seal the edges. The flames will deplete the oxygen, which along with the hot fumes, will kill the nest.

I planted rhubarb seeds in June or July last year and left the seedlings in the ground over winter. Most of them made it through the winter. If your seedlings are tiny, they might not make it.

Thanks. I will see what happens and take a guess about how long to leave the "wall of water" protection around the plants.

Concur

snacking for whom? you or the squirrels? the best sunflower head is the one behind an electric fence.

At first I thought, "How could that be?" Then I read that sun scald on peppers happens when there is high humidity. We're normally not humid at all, but for the past few weeks the humidity has been insane, even as our temperatures rose again.

When temperatures soar, rig temporary shade for susceptible plants.

Nope. I have a family member with a 100 X 35 foot green house filled with ginger!

Bury some hardwood logs in that bed and grow shiitake mushrooms, or pasteurize some straw and grow oyster mushrooms.

You may find the sunless bed is the most profitable and enjoyable bed in your yard.

Well, for one thing....nothing wrong with snagging a tumble weed (which came from Siberia, and are called Siberian thistle BTW! ) or three and painting it white or silver and making it into an Xmas tree! DONE THAT! LOL
We have such a hard time between summer/fall plants, cause some of our summer stuff can go as late as November! It makes it difficult to start by seed, not knowing when we will be getting a killing frost (anywhere from Sept to Jan!)
I usually just buy starts for the fall/winter garden. Nancy

NOT this year, though! All summer stuff is done in and I'll be cleaning up the beds to cover up for the winter.

Still have carrots under a low tunnel here, and they're doing fine.

Our growing season this year featured frost on June 12th, and several days of freezes between September 10th and 13th. It has been in the mid 20's five times since then, and two of those nights were in the 20's for more than 8 hours. Lost count of how many nights were frosty.

Tough year, but carrots are tougher.

Purple Beauty and Sweet Chocolate Peppers are dark varieties often included in mixes. Your peppers look like they are doing fine.

Could it be the Purple Bell in the Burpee Canival Mix? The Carnival Mix seeds are commonnly found on seed racks in the spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: Burbee Carnival Mix