23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Onions (all types) are normally planted much earlier, months before last frost date. Even when using transplants. Direct seeding is even earlier. Like most alliums they are very cold tolerant so last frost date isn't really relevant to planting them.

I start my plants from seed in late Nov. and plant transplants in the garden in late January.

It may seem over-simplified as all types will grow anywhere when planted at the correct time. But the type classification is geared toward "best bulb size", DTM, color/flavor (important to many), and storage life, NOT planting dates.

Dave

Months before the last frost the ground will be snow covered and frozen. Even 4-6 weeks before the last frost the ground will not be workable. They will have to be transplanted as soon as the ground can be worked, which will be around April 1st. (That still gives only 30 days to grow greens for a 14 hour onion)

I pulled the trigger on the long-day sampler, Lancelot Leeks from Dixondale, Beauregard Sweet Potatoes from Steele, and Kennebec from Potato Garden. I've got all my seeds picked out but waiting until next month to order those.

This post was edited by Peter1142 on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 12:49

zeedman, I used 3 inches of mixed sizes of sand...mixed with 4 inches of local peat moss [90% sphagnum]. This was all mixed into the top 7 inches of topsoil.

My county soil survey says that in my area it is mostly Blount, Pewamo, and with tads of Morley, Brookston, and Crosby. Most of these soils are productive but slow draining. They are silt loams with silty clay loam in the lower and darker soils. I probably have Pewamo and maybe Brookston in the lower ends of 2 gardens. These are great soils if drained and even better when 'lightened'.

This post was edited by wayne_5 on Sat, Dec 27, 14 at 10:20

I can see dumping logs deep in the pit that the backhoe makes, but if you're going to be growing that season, keep those logs well under the topsoil that the plants are actually growing in. In my view, hugelcultur is a long-range proposition. In fact, after those logs have been down there for a few years, that's when to get the backhoe out and stir them up.

There is little sense in using a backhoe for routine (as in seasonal) tillage. But it may be the only way to develop the soil deeply in the long run.

I don't see see any contradiction, and I guess I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing.

Chalker-Scott says that "One of the most frustrating myths is that wood chip mulches rob your soil of nitrogen. Absolutely not true!" That's correct. In fact, the nitrogen retention in compost is highest in high C/N mixes (aka wood chips/sawdust). But the soil microbes are using that soil nitrogen at the same time that your plants are trying to. So indeed they're not robbing the soil of nitrogen, they're robbing the plants of nitrogen.

She also says that "A mulch is simply a topdressing. An amendment is worked into the soil." So she's not talking about tilling wood chips into the soil. She's saying that woodchips make a fabulous mulch=top dressing, which is exactly what we're all saying.

bboy, Thanks for the link to the conversation with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott. I think this year I will do an area with about 10 tomato plants in cages with several inches of wood chips, and see what happens.

ZACKEY, I give potatoes to my family and all my friends.
You should get some COVINGTON sweet potato slips
for next year. Here in North East N. C. I try to get my slips
planted by the 1st. week of MAY. This Covington is the
type that all the commercial growers here in N. C. plant.
They are very productive, look pretty in the grocery store and they taste great. That's what its all about for the big
growers. I always have extra slips left over if I can help.

Thanks for the info, but I need to use what I have. I have no complaints about how well they grow or the flavor. We are under Scrimp and Save rules until we can get our van fixed and our loan paid off.

You might have just had the bad luck of a couple sucky heads of cabbage too. I've had it happen with produce where suddenly for a couple purchases it wasn't good as expected- regardless of where it was bought from. Then just as inexplicably, it was good again.

The dense heads are the sweet ones. I pick mine by how heavy they feel relative to size. A really dense head is usually good. The light ones aren't worth buying. I'm pretty sure cool growing conditions lead to the denser, sweeter cabbage.

LOL... nice to see this thread get so much attention.

I'm with the side that says deterrents are worthless. Poison works. Beer works. Chickens(geese, etc)(no room for fowl though). I was just wondering if I could use my overabundance of yeast on them. I made a couple yeast traps and they did attract and kill some of those spirally snails. They look like decollate snails(which are supposed to eat slugs), but as many as the sprallies I have, one would figure that there wouldn't be a slug problem at all.

Seysonn: I suspect that the POISON you add to your eggshells et al is what's working. Not the actual eggshells and coffee grounds.

Kevin

Seysonn: I suspect that the POISON you add to your eggshells et al is what's working. Not the actual eggshells and coffee grounds.

Kevin
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Maybe so. But the other stuff at least works as a substrate so i just use a little bit of the poison. That also lasts longer because of the drainage. So I get a big bang for the buck, at least. Next year I will experiment methodologically .

Seysonn

I've found varieties but can't find 1 vendor that carries all. I went order 4 pkg. from one vendor and they wanted $8+ for mailing.

Yes that is the reality of the situation. You won't find just one vendor that has everything you want and need.

But the seed packets store almost indefinitely so it is a one time expense.

Dave

Concur; It is difficult if not impossibel to find a single vendor who carries all the varieties one may want. While folks grow all types of regular size vegetables in containers by growing vertical ( trellis) small compact plants are desirable under many conditions. The two categories that need this are cucubits (squash melons and cucumbers) and solanums (tomatoes eggplants and peppers) Corn is not a great container plant but shorter >5 ft plants will work.
Several vendors carry Bush cucucumbers either pickling or slicers. There are lots of bush melons and even a few bush watermelons). Most summer squash wil work, even tho zucchini plants can get a bit large. The round types like Cueball, One Ball, Eight Ball, Lucky 8 are a bit more compact.. Winter squash, look for bush types. As for tomatoes, regular indeterminates pruned to a single or double leader and trellised work well. If not the there are lots of compact varieties available ranging from Patio to Arbason. As for eggplant Hansel and Gretel are popular but there are other compact varieties available. Peppers should not be a problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Container tomatoes

1. I'm impressed 2. I'm jealous you have so much room 3. What's the scale on here?

Thanks for the heads up Floral_uk. The raspberries and blueberries aren't in yet, so maybe I need to reconsider that set up. Thanks Chris! I'm kind of obsessed right now, and have spent a lot of time on it. It's easy when you love doing it :). I like how much room we have, but maybe it's not as big as it looks. I think I have enough room for each plant. Each gray square along the perimeter on the left side is a square foot. I haven't measured the right side, so it may not be to scale.

Tom, I live in northern MA, within walking distance of NH. Our area is rich in limestone, which makes our soil have too much lime in it. How can I reduce the lime and normalize the soil's PH so that the peppers will grow? Last year I tried some raised beds, but the coir that was recommended and put in actually caused my plants to die within a few weeks. But THAT'S a different problem, which I am solving next year by mixing in tons of well-rotted horse manure from a pile that is 4 years old.

BreaHouston: This thread is almost 5 years old. The general rule for ph adjusting is lime to raise it and soil sulfur to lower it. Takes a few months though... so add a little, test 3-4 months later and adjust accordingly.

Kevin

I was also wondering how one can grow peas in UK, in winter. So Flora clarified it . I am in PNW (state of Washington. We have UK-like weather too. Right now it is gently raining temps in mid 40s F. Good weather for onions family and parsley, Rosemary, Sage, oregano .... I plaant peas in March up here. Runner been a bit later . They live until the frost.

Seysonn

'Flora, in southern England don't fall-planted peas over-winter and then flower early in spring?'

tcstoehr has pretty much got the picture. You can overwinter peas most years but they need to go though winter no more than a few inches tall and will still not flower until late April or May. Our springs are long and the increase in temperature is very gradual so they don't really grow that fast. Some years they rot right away, they are often eaten by mice or slugs and many years they are no earlier than outdoor sowings unless you give them protection throughout the winter. I don't bother with them any more, although I do sow favas, which come through the winter better. I just sow peas in the Spring. And it is true there is very little light. At the moment sunrise and sunset are roughly 8 hours apart. The sun is extremely low, IF it comes out from the blanket of clouds.

Winters here are not massively cold but they are pretty dark and rather wet.

I grow savoy cabbage as a winter harvest crop. I sow it in little starter packs, outside in mid June, transplant to bigger pots all under remay and watered faithfully, then into the garden, still under row covers, in mid August. I harvest in Dec. and Jan. And last winter, the last two heads survived the polar vortex--colder than 6 below zero, with no damage whatsoever. Remarkable plants.

I plant a fall garden every year. In N. C. you have to sew
seed in mid July, but its so hot I have to grow the plants
in the shade. I have a shed on the North side of a block
barn with a plastic roof. It takes about 6 wks. to grow a transplant and its cooler by then, about Labor Day. I plant
broc., cabbage, cauliflower and collards.

Don't worry, they will be fine at cool room temps -- just don't refrigerate them. Choose a couple of the largest ones that have no apparent cuts or bruises, and set those aside to work with in the spring. Sweet potatoes are slow to break dormancy, easy and fun to grow.

You have to store sweet potatoes at temperature of
55 deg. F. or higher. I store my eating potatoes and seed potatoes in a spare bed room with door closed and no heat.
The temp. stays about 60 deg. F. all winter. If the temp. get up in the 70 plus range the seed potatoes will sprout prematurely.