23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

just last night I pulled out my copy of Four Season Harvest because I had the same question about row covers. There's a table in the book that charts temp differences with row covers. I'm considering building a double-wall row cover for extra warmth and multiple purposes.

First, two layers of insulation are better than one--especially if separated by a little air space between layers. Second, if I use shade cloth for the first layer, I can pull off the outer, thicker layer during the day and still have shade/bug protection underneath.

I'll probably go with the hoop method and test using a high/low thermometer to measure inside/outside temperature differences to see how much actual warmth I get from it.....'cause I'm a bit of an incurable data junky.

I think that row cover can be useful in case of an overnight light frost. But because of its porosity, it is not a good insulator. So in case of cold it can moderate a bit. I don't think it has much "greenhouse effect" property. Unless it is very tightly woven. I could be wrong.

Seysonn

Red Garnet is not the usual supermarket sweet potato. Mostly they are Beauregards ans Covingtons. However to start your own plants dot not cut the potato. Place the whole potato root end down into a container of water. The water should not cover much more than the bottom quarter of the potato They can also be started in moist (not wet) potting mix.

Great, I would have cut it, if I hadn't asked. Thanks for the photo which helps. In the Whole Foods, they often have potatoes labeled as Garnet. They are gorgeous and tasty. I don't know what they have in the stores right now though. Will have to check next time. Thanks!

Hi rkslander,

Sandy, hydrophobic soil is a big issue here in Western Australia and it helps to understand what is happening or it will remain an issue - especially before adding organic matter. Check out Hydrosoil and MuddyThumbs (flick through the slides on the first screen). They are dedicated to solving the problem here in Aus and will explain how organic matter creates a waxy coating over the soil particle leading to water run-off and how best to combat it. Good Luck.

Where are you located? High levels of sodium in soil can make the soil seal up and not accept water. If this is the problem, applying gypsum should help. Decomposed organic matter or animal manure are also good additives. Watch out for salts with animal manure.

Remember that with tobacco you are smoking or chewing the foliage not the fruit.

That's exactly right. I forgot that tobacco bears fruit! And the fruit doesn't contain much nicotine. One has to wonder if tomato, pepper, eggplant, and potato foliage has a lot more nicotine than their fruits do. Interestingly, in the depression, people dried and smoked tomato leaves because tobacco was too expensive and, I gather, there is some halfway useful amount of nicotine in those leaves. There is other bad stuff in tomato leaves, so it wasn't very smart, in retrospect.

Ok, there is some of the difference, that you started at the main GW page. I thought you could search the whole website from anywhere on the site, just by typing ‘in Gardenweb’ after your search.

Rodney was right. All the 8,000+ comments that were on the old GW are under Activity on everyone’s profile page. The only problem is that the only way to access them is to scroll down and look at 10 at a time. So if you wanted to get to the oldest posts, you’d have to click on ’show more’ about 800 times! They should have them in pages instead.

It’s always been prairiemoon2

I’ve noticed that for each forum when you do a search, you get ‘in Vegetable Gardening’ or which ever forum it is, in the drop down menu. And I’ve used that.

Yes, you are right, the search is only as good as the person using the search engine, but it’s also only as good as what is in the database to search for, right? So, if I can find, let’s say a post I made from 2010 in my ‘activity’ list, that was on the Vegetable forum, but it’s not now on the Vegetable forum, then my search will turn up nothing.

I did do a separate search for any posts of mine on a half a dozen forums that I know I’ve posted on and there are none there. So it seems to me, they have stored the old posts on the Activity section of every member’s profile page, but not in the forums.

And why would anyone want old posts? It’s ten+ years of content on GW. I might not have any fascinating posts that someone would want to access again, but there’s plenty of people who have spent a lot of time sharing their expertise. Not all of them are still here, either. So I think it is valuable. Otherwise, what did Houzz purchase from GW, if not ten years worth of content?

BTW, Dave, one area of GW where the old content is very valuable, is the Kitchen forum, where they had content that you could find nowhere else on the web, of completed kitchen renovation projects, documented in text and photos. Lots and lots of them. If you've ever had to renovate a kitchen, you would understand how valuable that content is.

I was just over on the Kitchen forum and evidently, Houzz has truncated those older threads and removed the photos in them. Threads, whose whole purpose was to display a completed kitchen. The forum members themselves have had to bring it to the attention of Houzz and so far, their response was to restore a set # of photos to each thread. In one case, losing 90% of the photos in the thread.

I am in San Diego and my neighbor has been growing it for 3 years....they look like mini palm trees now. I asked him for some seed and he said he has never seen seed pods in the 3 years he's had it....maybe that is why it isn't available? I have no idea. Is it possible to get a cutting and it would root?

Seed appears after it winters over on flushes of growth with small broccoli like heads. However, Winterbor is a hybrid, so seed won't produce plants like the hybrid.

Mine are in the basement at 50 degrees with 50% humidity lying open in huge shelves uncovered and they don't sprout. Agree 60 is way to warm. Some varieties are more suited for long term storage than others. Could be you need to figure out what variety you have, might learn which to avoid in the future.

yes, you can eat them -- just break off the sprouts, and even if the potatoes themselves are a little soft, they're still good to eat.

I store mine at 40 -- 50 degrees (the variation depending on the weather) and complete darkness. A closet is not very dark if the area it is in has light in it, so light may have added to the sprouting. But you gotta work with what you've got.

Did you choose good storage varieties? Katahdin, Green Mountain, Carola -- look for varieties that have excellent storage capabilities.

I do replant some of mine. You could try breaking off these current sprouts, and then let them sprout again (I'm sure they will!) and plant them after that, if it's time to do so in your zone (which is . . . ? did houzz forget we need to know zones? oh well -- I just got back on here, so I may have missed that part.)

Scapes look like small garlic bulbs. My friend used to pluck them off and throw them away. I read that you can plant them or use them in cooking.

changingitup,

Click here for the NW Forum

agree with Dave and Dill. Say you uncover four times your plants, each time painting a male first, and then however many females you can find. That is one hour of work. Having one side of the row cover held down by a pole makes entry and exit quick (the pole lies on the ground holding down one side of the cover). also it helps having drip irrigation in place.

These are all very good points. I hadn't thought of it in that mathematical way. I suppose when it comes to pumpkins that once I have a good number of pumpkins on the vine, I can just stop pollinating, leave them covered and let them mature. I will try the hand pollinating thing again this year. Thank you all for helping me to think this through. And yes, Tahitian Melon is open pollinated. :)

One more question: How wide are the row covers you use on squash, Dave? And where do you get them?

I don't see any reason to start carrots indoors. Sow them directly into the garden and throw some bird netting over them. Otherwise the little seedlings disappear. Without the bird netting, my losses are 100%. Sow them while the soil is still cool and moist in Spring. They need a deep sandy loam soil. If you have to sow them in Summer, use a piece of shade cloth to keep the soil moist and cool. And water every day until they germinate. Take the shade cloth off as soon as they come up, but leave the bird netting on for a couple of weeks.

As someone who transplants almost everything, I will say, do not start carrots indoors!

Definitely remove the heat pad once those seeds germinate, like dave said. If you start more seeds, have the light as close as possible to pots as soon as you see green seedling emerge from the soil. If you can't move the lights down, try stacking books or plastic containers to move the pots up towards the light. Hope that helps. Good luck!

Done and done! Impaired root development is certainly consistent with what I'm seeing "up top". Thank you all for your help. Hopefully, this will be continued at the dinner table this spring.

I do both. I find it easier to get to the site I commented on when I get the emails.

Hi zzackey,

You posted on the other thread about us being able to message one another now, without having to 'follow' the member and vice versa,. You found your profile page for getting set up for members to be able to message you, but you still don't have a message link.

Here is the thread...Traders -> Now ANYONE can message you!

I thought you might like to know.

ADDITIONALLY , you will probably want to turn on getting email alerts whenever you get a NEW MESSAGE. On the same Advanced Setting page as noted above choose

EMAIL NOTIFICATION...(when) Someone messages me...EVERY TIME.

I know lots of folks changed a lot of their settings to receive notification on many or all things to NEVER, rather than get way too many emails.

I set up a HOUZZ folder within my Hotmail, and all HOUZZ emails are sent there directly, so they don't clutter up my inbox. That way they are all together.

Sue...rbb