23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
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
Can't say for sure from the photo but it appears to be Early Blight in the very early stages, combined with some mild environmental damage. EB is quite common in most of the country and something we all have to deal with much of the time.
You can treat EB with fungicides as most do or you can just let it run it course and remove the worst affected leaves to slow its spread. It usually doesn't kill the plant unless it becomes quite severe and yours isn't and it continues to produce. There is no reason at all why you can't harvest and eat the peppers.
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.
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.
Laceyvail you grow your onions in a flat? Like what people start seeds in? I'm a little confused, am I missing something here. do you transplant them then? If you could explain a little more I'd really appreciate it. Thanks
I'd suggest you ask the folks over on the Hydroponic forum here. And a quick search there pulls up several discussions on nutrient sources.
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.