23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Sorry, I had a typo in my original post. I meant the stem goes up 6" - 8" , not 6'8". Basically, if I cut this part off, I would be losing 75% of the total plant.

Your plant will most likely recover just fine, putting out new growth where the old one was removed. Keep an eye out for the borers, but that looks like it might have been pinched either in transit, handling or when it was tied.

Just a tip: It's best to place stakes/trellises at the time of planting in order to avoid possibly damaging the roots. (That being said, I sometimes don't get around to staking until the plant is partially grown and yet I haven't seen any noticeable harm in 30+ years of gardening ... but still keeping fingers crossed.)

There are many possible problems. My first guess from your description of circumstances is salt damage. Salt builds up in soil from fertilizer and other sources, even the water you may use to irrigàte, and cucurbits are more sensitive than most other crops. If you continue to have poor growth after replanting you may need to switch areas or leach out the existing bed.

Barrie, that makes sense. I have added a lot of aged chicken manure to the soil, and it's the wettest and darkest place in the garden. Struck me as odd though, since I have some tiny pepper seedlings planted right next to them and they are thriving. I would've thought them to be more sensitive.

Sorry but it isn't just semantics and it is often very confusing to gardeners if the terms are used interchangeably. Many discussions here to support that claim of confusion.

So the vital differences between hay and straw in the world of mulching, soil improvement, and composting need to be understood and the labels used correctly whenever possible to avoid contributing to that confusion.

Straw is a waste/byproduct. It is the dry, hollow stemmed,residue of grain crops (wheat, oats, barley, etc.) that is mowed and baled after the grain is harvested and so contains only minimal seed. It does not regrow after mowing and has no forage value. It has a high insulating factor even when used in shallow layers, is very slow to decompose, and is moderately water repellent. It is an almost pure carbon and has little to no nitrogen content.

Hay is not a byproduct. It is an almost pure green, high nitrogen/low carbon, flat stemmed, mowed and baled grass (rye, orchard, alfalfa, buffalo, etc.) that is grown expressly for animal forage. It always regrows after mowing and its seed content can be quite high depending on when in the life cycle it is mowed. It has little insulating value even when used in thick layers, decomposes rapidly, and can harm plants if in direct contact as it decomposes, and has little to no water repelling characteristics (it mats).

While both may work, when used properly, to suppress weeds in the garden their moisture retention, decomposition, insulation from heat, and soil improvement characteristics are very different.

Hope this clarifies for future readers.

Dave

Dave I wasn't trying to use the terms interchangeably. I was referring to straw, no hay. Can you clarify what you mean by straw not having "forage value". Straw still has protein and fiber and it's actually recommended to also feed to animals that deal with cold winters. The animals fair much better than those fed hay alone. So I'm not sure what you mean by forage value. Do you mean less nutrients?

I've never, ever had a bale of straw that didn't have grain in it by the way. Perhaps it's because I'm not buying specifically for garden? Even before I farmed, I remember getting straw bales for fall décor and in the spring time I'd have wheat growing. Completely different area that I lived in as well so I don't think it's just where I am now that does this.

I'd definitely add more potting mix to them so that the plants at least have the full 5" of depth to work with. Most roots, even shallow rooted plant, need at least that much. I'm assuming these have the drain holes in the bottom? Some models do and some don't. If not you'll have to make them.

Dave

Oh, I thought you were going to use them for sprouting transplants, which would involve carrying them around. But if these are just to be used as planter pots for growing, I guess the rigidity is less of an issue because they can stay in one place. But they are kind of small. Not sure where you are, but thin black plastic in small pots can be asking for trouble in high sun and heat.

It can be done.

Tip: pick the right year when there's no heat wave.

Summertime is a great head lettuce variety. I grow it treated just like you would cabbage or broccoli if you have grown those. Pinetree Seeds in Maine carry this variety. I grow it as a spring and fall crop in my zone 7 (NC).

Surround, the kaolin clay applied as a spray has solved the problem for me. I spray the bottom portion of the vines every week or so until the borer season is over.

I hate those buggers. I am trying some butternut this year uncovered, but all my summer squash stays covered from here on out.

I use a large shears- looks like a scissors on streriods. They are available at Walmart and various garden centers. The shears gives more accuracy in making a cut among the long leaves. I've used a knife, a corn chopper, and even a machete. The shears are my weapon of choice for just about every crop I need to cut, from bunched herbs, lettuce, onion (tops & roots), flowers and all those Cole crops.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Peter, I use regular meat thermometer to check the soil temp - works just fine

I won't do this again; my garden soil is 10x better than the bagged junk, and it didn't seem to help.

I don't know how, but I stumbled onto this thread:

Root Aphids

It claims that ants were coming in after the aphids that were infesting the roots of her pepper plants, and I believe it. It makes me wonder if I had the same issue. I did not see any aphids but I could have missed them. If what I read was true, then the ants not only protect the aphids but actively move them from one host plant to another, spreading the problem. On the plus side though, the ants would also be a visible signal to the problem.

Going forward, I will keep this on my radar. Now, where did I put that magnifying glass?

<It seems that ants have such a halo of innocence that scarcely anyone could believe that they could do any harm. >

I can understand your frustration and heaven knows they aren't saints. But they aren't the evil denizens that the many "help! ants are destroying my plants so how do I kill them?" posts we often get here.

And in this case it's just that the odds so heavily favor the far more common causes and that the ants are just a side-effect of one of those other causes.

Sure ants can get out of control in some situations and in those instances you have to intervene. You do what you have to do. But the majority of the time ants are beneficial to the garden in so many other ways that in general they should be tolerated, even accommodated, whenever it's possible.

Dave

Thanks Dan. Should I put down those dried leaves (after the mower) now, or wait until there is germination? Should I wet those leaves after I put them down to keep them in place and protect from wind or is there no need for that?

You can put them down anytime, but if you're waiting for seedlings, keep the layer thin. You don't want those seedlings to pop up under inches of mulch. Yes, wetting the mulch lightly would indeed protect it from wind, if you have a lot of wind, though the flakes will settle down into a more or less resilient but soft mat.