23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I've used them for cherry tomatoes, where I had 2 panels, about a foot apart, and put 6-8 cherry tomatoes down the middle of the pair. It kept the plants under check better because my cherries always get out of control sprawling everywhere. I had more fruit and more of it was up off the ground. All I did was redirect shoots that were headed out, bback in. No tying or anything. Worked well for me.

We use hogwire zig zagged between 2 metal pole sunk just outside the beds. I have found plastic clips at the thrift store and flea marts tat just clip the branches to the wire. Or I'll use the soft green plastic ties. Some use nylond, but I don't wear them, so don't have access to them.

At the end of the season, the panels stay connected and are just folded up and slipped behind a shed for the winter. Works for us! Nancy

At least some squash varieties have edible leaves (such as Cucurbita ficifolia). I had a few Fig-leaf Gourd plants (they're not gourds). I ate the leaves and stems (raw). They taste like a mix of spinach and raw green beans. You can still eat the older leaves, but they're kind of like older broccoli in that regard (they won't chew up all the way). The large leaves taste fine, however. The seed leaves (cotyledon), however, are extremely bitter and probably toxic. Don't eat the seed leaves. If squash are bitter they're probably high in cucurbitacins, which can be toxic.

So, because the seed leaves are bitter, I wouldn't make sprouts out of them.

I'll look into the Ramsey county site. It's not far at all.
I don't have any issues coming up with Compost near me and the 4 cubic yards for $23 a yard isn't going to kill me.
I thought the idea was to get manured compost though. I'm not coming up with much for that yet. I see the opposite (composed manure) everywhere I turn when searching online for my area.

I'm sorry if I'm repeating what others have said but I have a plot in a community garden and have thought about this. My community garden is 30+ years old so I don't know how they prepared the soil way back then but now when a plot is turned over to a new gardener it is up to the new gardener to till and amend the soil. This turns out really very well although sometimes it means dealing with a garden where the soil was amended very little if at all and the weeds grew rampant or if you're lucky the previous plot holder took care of the soil. In your community garden project, if you want to till and amend the soil for your first gardeners you should get as much good quality non-manure compost as you can afford, till that in then let your gardeners add manure or anything else they want later on. I think this will get the soil ready to plant without a lot of cost. If the individual gardeners want to test the soil in their garden plots and add amendments let them do it themselves; this is an important part of being a gardener and very satisfying. Often landscape suppliers will offer discounts to community gardening projects and, at least in my area, the municipal sanitary service makes cheap compost available made from the garden waste they've pick-up from the green bins... Good luck with your garden project...

Has anyone tried seaweed? I get tons if it but never used it.

Gunrock Ma

Yes. Over on the Soil, Compost, & Mulch forum here several shore gardeners have talked about using seaweed and how well it works. The search there in that forum should pull up those discussions.

I recall that they talk about the need to rinse it well first to remove much of the salt. Also that when chopped a bit it makes a great addition to compost piles and that it is rich in nutrients too.

Dave

The bottom line is there would be no Gardenweb if Houzz hadn't of bought it. It's better than nothing.

The old old GW had a paying membership [for some serious backers]....better than nothing also.

Thanks, all.

I left a couple of kohlrabi planted in spring of 2014 in the ground. Last time I was able to see them (snow!), they looked quite dead. On the other hand, I have a dozen very small kohlrabi planted in autumn 2015 that are still alive. None of them have stems any larger than my index finger. But I don't suppose they will really be in the "second year" of their biennial nature come April. I'll let you all know if they come through and bloom.

Last year (winter 2013-14) I left some round head cabbage. They just barely made it through winter, but did not have the health and reserves to really resume growth in spring.

You should go to the seed saving page. Yes brassicas are almost all the same species and will cross with each other. It is annoying. I think bok choy is probably b. rapa and the rest are all b. oleracea.

Good stuff. Mats good as a mulch and decomposes into a great soil amendment just like all composts.

Thanks!

NancyJane - no weed cloth. The weeds just root into it, and it won't be good for your asparagus since it interferes with the exchange of water and air.

I don't grow in anything like your conditions, but have you considered mulch well during the growing season and then after frost raking off the mulch with its overwintering beetles and perhaps leaving it in black bags in the sun to cook the beetles?

We haven't really had much frost this year. We're in a drought and have been in the 60-70s most of the winter.

Last year we had a couple of weeks of nights in the teens and we didn't get the beetles, but I can't remember if I mulched them or not.

The year before, I did the leaves and got them.

I live next to horse fields and have to cover everything I haven't planted with cardboard so I don't have to round-up! The weeds are brutal!

How bout newspaper after I cut down the gus in Nov/Dec? The gus could probably make their way through that! Ya think? Nancy

codym17, I've had pretty good success starting them indoors in a sunny south window, then transplanting them outside right as their second set of true leaves emerge. If you are worried about germination due to cold/snow, perhaps starting them indoors would be another way to get them growing quickly.

Thank you triple, from what I saw they didn't seem to like the full blast of the lights so I will use that method.

I didnt realize that they should have been seperated. The instructions they came with wanted you to plant the whole thing, pot and all. But I did remove the pot about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I'll try seperating them. What type of spacing should I be using?

Yes I would separate and replant. Lettuces transplant very easily. Always best to transplant when cool and cloudy though. Spacing for head lettuce is usually around 12 inch, but if that's your only bed, 9 plants may not fit at that spacing. You may want to try leaf lettuces too, those can be planted at a variety of spacings depending how you plan to harvest. It;s easier to grow than the head types.

For seed storage, I think the manual-defrost chest freezers are best, since they don't keep cycling the temperature around the freezer walls. Chest freezers are also very energy-efficient. The cold air doesn't pour out when you open them. But chest freezers don't give you nearly as good access as uprights.

I like to put a few plastic gallon jugs of water in the freezer and let it freeze. If the power goes out, the ice keeps the freezer cold for a long time, especially if you cover the freezer with a big blanket or some big sheets of bubble wrap.

What jars do is to protect seeds from pressure, as in, when the ziploc bags get rolled up, squeezed, and tossed around. But that's a good point about bags minimizing air content. There is some evidence that seed lifetime decreases with oxygen concentration. I guess you can purge the bags with nitrogen or CO2. But interestingly, vacuum sealing has been found to be the best for seed storage, and even more effective than refrigeration. I guess if you want to really do it right, use a Foodsaver on your seeds, and stick the bags in the freezer in a bottle. Though I think the smallest Foodsaver bags are pint-sized. That's pretty big. BTW, there are rumors around that seeds need oxygen to survive. That's simply wrong.

The questions to the OP are simple ones. Did these cukes see any freezing temperatures? As to powdery mildew, do the white spots rub off? That's what mildew would be like. And yes, it's really helpful to have a clue about where you are. Gardening advice is somewhat site-specific.

BTW, you can grow a Meyer Lemon where there are light frosts, though you may not get good fruits after you have one. If you've got it in a pot, as this one is, taking it indoors isn't that hard.

Since the Op mentioned that they "got this cucumber plant recently", it appears the plants may not have been hardened off sufficiently prior to transplant. I would expect to see far more damage had they been exposed to frost, especially for young seedlings; the newest leaves appear to be healthy. The only cure necessary may be time... that, and perhaps thinning the clump to reduce crowding.

And just as an aside, I concur with the post just above. Anyone who has gardened for any length of time knows what the USDA hardiness zones mean, and what they don't mean... so give it a rest, and let's stick to answering the OP's. I wish the USDA would switch to a system that is more indicative of overall climate (such as the Sunset zones) and put an end to the arguments.

I raise them as transplants as do the large growers these days...no problem with transplant at all if you transplant 21 days or so after seeding. I use 3 inch sq. plastic pots and they slide out perfectly if moist.

transplants as well