24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

The term "bush" just refers to the size of the plant itself - small and compact - not the size of the cukes/pickles. Plus the production from bush types is much lower than from regular vining varieties.
One issue that frequently comes up on the Harvest Forum here - the food preservation forum - is how to get enough cukes ready to pickle all at one time since they don't keep for long at all. The answer to that question is that you have to plant many plants so that many of them are ready to pickle all at the same time. If you only grow 1 or 2 plants you end up having to store the cukes for days waiting for more. That results in soft mushy pickles.
So if you want to make lots of gherkins then ideally you will need to plant some of the Cornichon varieties like Parisian Pickling and plant several plants all at the same time. If you use other pickle varieties like national or Boston then be sure to pick them while still quite small.
Dave
edited to add - be sure to check out the pickling info available on the Harvest Forum here as it will help you avoid many of the common mistakes made when first making pickles.



Hokie, so far so good. The skirret is still in pots, about half of the sea kale is planted out and the rest still in pots, they will be planted out in the fall when I have more space, same with the skirret. I grow a lot of heirloom beans and this year most of my gardening space is taken up with them.
The sea kale seems to have finished growing for the year both in ground and in the pots, no sign of flowering but to be honest I haven't looked that close. We are in the in the midst of a heat wave here, something like I have never seen before and I've been around for a looooong time. Water restrictions never seen before are in place and it might get worse before the end of summer.
I've also have yacon, oka and crosne in tubs, all of these are new to me so it's a wait and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained :).
The sea kale at this stage is kind of floppy plant and the skirret needs to be potted up a size or two, I should do the same with the sea kale still in pots. I haven't any new photos but if I get around to taking any I'll post them on this thread.
Annette

Or you can leave the mullein. Makes a beautiful long stalk that gives yellow flowers. I always leave it when it grows in my garden.
And yes, agree w/Lone Jack, cut the scapes now. Looks like the section closest to the plant will be woody, but the rest of it should be good to eat -- add to anything you'd put onions or garlic in (cooked or even raw if you like it strong). I normally see where it will break, and that lets me know where the woodiness stops.

two years ago I decided to grow my own potatoes. I live in Cyprus so what could go wrong. first of all I dug the ground over and over then I planted the six potatoes I had with roots on into the mound I had made. then covered them slightly. after a couple of weeks I noticed the shoots, then the flowers. i started to worry a bit when they reached about four feet high. I then put canes in to stop them from falling over, the flowers kept on blooming. after growing another two feet I decided to bag them up. would you believe it, nothing but the six spuds I originally planted. help what did I do wrong


Well, I've started to harvest melons, and I want to thank everyone for the advice about getting them off the ground. I have not lost a single melon since then, and things are looking pretty sweet. In fact, I was getting antsy about the fact that I had melons that were looking quite ripe, but didn't seem to want to come off the vine. I went out there today and found two huge ones just sitting pretty, completely disconnected from the vine! They popped off in the last day or two, evidently.

I think you need to rethink as discover why you are having sour milk. I can store milk up to 2 weeks in my fridge without any problems. Are you buying too much milk at a time? Is you temperature off in fridge? Milk is pretty pricey to waste so that you can apply to garden. And how much milk is going sour? a quart, a half gallon? I would avoid using it as it will attract unwanted critters and smell bad. this thread keeps referring to baking soda doing the trick by itself.

I too have been losing carrot seedlings, as fast as they come up. I was keeping the carrot bed free of debris to give the seedlings every chance to grow well. I have ruled out animals, slugs, cutworms, earwigs etc. I now believe it is the dew worms eating them. They consume HUGE amounts of vegetation every night. The two photos give evidence. I find these food stashes in worm holes all over my gardens and grounds. The worms come out at night, need to eat, no debris, so they grab the carrot seedlings. These worms are quite strong, which you will know if you've ever gone picking them to use as bait. They can really hang on.
The green leaf is a birch leaf which had fallen to the ground. They grab the vegetation and twist it into the ground. The lower photo is of a pile of debris gathered into a hole, including the stick, which is about 1/8" in dia. These worms can stretch out to about 10" long.
I have been having some success saving my seedlings buy spreading a thin layer of grass clippings on the carrot bed. It only takes a few days and the clippings are almost totally consumed.

Notice how the earth around the hole is almost devoid of debris... it's all in the hole.


I actually have a garden knife. An old one that I don't care if it gets lost.(I also don't lose the good kitchen knives by setting them down and forgetting them! Same with scissors, have a dollar store pair for the garden) Sometimes the twist and pull breaks them off . Nancy

If your tomatoes are already at the top of your cages and you have numerous flowers, you very well will want a stronger support system for them. Those whimpy cages often collapse under the weight of the plant and a huge bunch of big ole tomatoes!
You might look into something stronger. Nancy

when the chipmunks came the voles and moles left ( or maybe it was the other way around). maybe the voles left because i was pouring my urine down their holes. after the chipmunks dined on my tomatoes i finally shot one and tossed pieces of it around the garden perimeter. didn't see any for the rest of the season. i'll have to research the plaster of paris bait. i'm not into causing pain, but a quick death will do.
so far this year, no chipmunk damage to tomatoes. but i think a few got a zuke....

One SURE way to keep chimp monks from plants as r Zucchini ,tomatoes peppers etc is to put coils of double edged barbed wire around each plant. 3 or 4 coils spaced from ground level and then 2 inches apart. Barbed wire is cheap and can be used over again year after year. This also keeps away groundhogs. Barbed wire can be purchased at Tractor Supply stores.
For added protection buy a few mouse traps and spread them around. The critters are smart and don't like getting pricked. They will move on to someone else's garden!
If all else fails a 4.5mm quality air gun takes them out with one shot.

I like digdirts idea of taking some healthy cuttings and giving another go at a second rotation of tomatoes. So worth a try i think.
Very different growing conditions than mine but i did have 6 extra weeks last fall and could have pushed it a couple more with a bit of cover. I put my garden to bed for the winter way too early. I'll try some thing this year different than any other year with not much to lose but a few seeds/seedlings.

But with that kid of heat, sustained, would they flower/fruit? I thought they didn't like 95* and above? I don't know. I'm in No CA where we get some 90-100 from time to time. Usually in the 80s.
Dang! we've had a week of mid to high 90s with humidity from a tropical storm! I don't know how you southerners can handle it ALL summer! Bleah! Nancy

That is a beauty. Like mentioned, harvest some now. Leave some for later. Unless you are in a warm climate with warm/hot soil.
They will keep and store best if kept cool. My soil is cool at carrot depth. I don't start harvesting until mid August thru early November. They keep well through the NewYear in a crisper drawer in a downstairs fridge. (for me anyway)
Some varieties are better 'keepers' than others.
I also plant probably too thick so i just pick early the ones that have a thick top and i can feel the carrot top under the soil. I harvest the big guys and that leaves room for the others to continue growing.


You can check this site out but I really don't see anything there that looks like your picture, http://www.potatodiseases.org/foliardiseases.html





I have the feeling that you probably didn't water enough initially, as the others have said. It's easy to be fooled by what appears, on the surface, to be wet soil, especially when distracted by half-naked people.
A drill is the shallow impression/dent/trench in the soil that you sow into.