23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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

Seyson-how do you make tomato PASTE????? I can only get to a medium thick sauce. Do you have a recipe you can share? Nancy

Nancy, if you freeze your tomatoes first then drain all the excess liquid before you start, it will cut your cooking down time by hours. Much easier to get to paste form that way. This is what my sauce looks like before cooking down.

Very nice!

Your picture that you posted above, of the red bug with black spots is, er, a "black and red squash bug", otherwise known as a cinnamon bug. As noted above, that's Corizus hyoscyami. Yep, that's it. Not sure you want to know this, but it's a bug that is allegedly edible and delicious. They attack leaves, especially cucurbits.

FYI, some of us skip the soaking step.

"heck Hubby talked to a guy we know about green beans.. he said he did not blanched just washed and dried and sealed packages....and Froze

did dehydrate other veggies back in 2011 but no greenbeans...

I bought some spanish sounding or french ..while back from a salvage store ..It looked to be like the name had "green" In it like "verde" I think verde means "green " from high school days...

But yall know I tried planting some of my own saved "cherokee" beans before and nothing happened... they would have been organic ,too.

I even gave away some Chinese long bean pods.. I wish that person would have gotten back to me and let me know what happened..

I grew Chinese long beans in my front yard back in 2011 they did fantastic...even canned some

Here in this old money pit acreage,have not tried them yet. Did so good with the Ky wonder and some bush varities.... Hubby got "greenbeaned out".. not me. ate them steamed every nite.now if I could do better on the onions....

Boy I so miss my own Organically grown green beans. Hope God Blesses Us again this year...

better get off and check my chickens and Hubby out in this blankey blank snow.....

Happy Gardening yall

Paulak4, I'm not sure that this is the same as your problem. But, I am growing a Red Robin in a aerogarden. It grew higher than the lights so I pulled them to the side and put an old florescent light above that part. The leaves got bumpy on the part of the plant that was under the old light. I got a clip on light fixture and a CFL to replace the old light and the bumps went away. So maybe it is your lighting? Just a guess!

Can't help but wonder if the OP is getting any of these replies? I assume not given no response but it would be nice to know. My first thought was just leaf edema form over-watering and inconsistent watering but an aphid infestation can have the same appearance.

Dave

I was wondering when the forum participants from the southern hemisphere were going to start complaining about their days growing shorter. Didn't we used to have a Gardening Australia forum in GW?

Looking outside today it looks like a beautiful sunny spring day.

Then you walk outside....

I'm staying, I moaned and complained in the beginning, I'm a grumpy old man that hates change! But I've gotten used to it. It's the people here that make this site great! From what I have read we need to be grateful that Houzz saved the site!

I like that it doesn't jump around as ads are loading. I hope a lot of the same helpful people keep posting.

I use Fert-a-lome. It is available near me. It is a combination starting and potting mix.

My first seed starting attempts were with Jiffy Mix and later, with peat pots. I never had good results AT ALL. (the peat pots dry out in no time and before you know it your seedlings are dead) For a long time I used just a high quality potting mix, and it worked pretty well. But a couple of years ago I decided to experiment with Gardeners Supply Seed Starting mix. I like it very much and I do believe I have a higher rate of germination with it. I also keep a bag of vermiculite on hand for dusting over fine seeds. It holds in the moisture and the seedlings can come up through it very easily.

I really think that for most beginners, it's more about technique than it is about the medium. It certainly was for me. Read the seed packet carefully. If it says the seeds need light, be sure they have it This may mean you just press the seeds into the soil and don't cover. If it says dark, put the pots in the dark, keeping close watch so you move them into light as soon as they begin to come up. Also, pay attention to the germination temperatures that are stated. They are very important. It's always a good idea to google the plant you are growing and learn all you can before you begin. And finally, moisture control is crucial. Moisten your medium well before you put it in pots. Sow seeds and give just enough water to settle them. Let them drain a few minutes and then put them in an airtight location. I use Rubbermaid clear storage crates for a whole flat. If you are only starting a pot or two, you can put them in a ziplock bag. This will keep the atmosphere moist and help the plants come up more quickly and more uniformly.

I have it marked on my calendar for March 14th (zone 6b NY), to be transplanted out about a week or two before last frost towards the end of April. I also don't want them to get rootbound. This is my first time with them though so I can't say yet how it will go.

In Zone 6, as well. I tried starting my early spring crops this early last year and they ended up pretty leggy. I had them in my window sill (facing west). I suppose now would be a good time if you have a grow light set-up. Otherwise, I'm targeting March 1.

I agree with glib that there's probably a good chance they won't make it through the winter.

Rodney

I'm in eastern PA too and did the same as mfran. The beet (tops) I didn't harvest really looked shot after the first hard freeze. From the top, they looked very dead. So it's possible they'll regrow new tops?

I like turnips so I always mix a few in with other cover crops. It's a good day to think of these things just came back in from filling the bird feeders Brrrrrrr!!! windy and 12 above probably colder where you are.

Found the Ambrosia Bicolor in my last Jung seed catalog I'm putting it on my order list it will be my 2nd crop . I have three generations (wife kids and grandkids ) who always make sure I'm ordering that Kandy Korn. can't wait to try it , I won't tell them it's something different see if they notice.