24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening


Is the mix in the pot the same as the mix in the bed? The bed plants are clearly nitrogen deprived, severely so. All the wood chips in that mix could explain it as they could be binding up all the nitrogen in the soil. But the pot plants don't show that so if the mix is the same stuff then that explanation won't work.
So IF you are not over-watering the bed the first thing I would try is a good heavy dose of nitrogen for those plants. If that doesn't help then I'd suspect there is something else in the bed soil mix that is causing the problem.
Dave

I don't think it's over-watering, cuz we're in a drought and I've been pretty carefull about my water schedule.
Dave, GREAT question! and I think you might be onto something. the two soil mixtures are NOT the same. I created the raised bed before I knew that gardens benefit from nutrient rich soil. The picture where the plants look fine was done with a mixture of worm castings, biochar, rock dust and soil...
I dug up the sickly looking plants today and amended the soil. hopefully that helps.
Thank you all for the insight.

I grow Indeterminates with plenty of space in the garden, I try to remove suckers but miss some which is no big deal, The only reason I remove them is to allow more air to move through the plant which I feel helps to reduce diseases, As far as not getting as many tomatoes that way is no problem either since I plant enough tomatoes, As others already said it is mostly a personnel preference.

Wow! guys thank you so much. I am beginning to get the picture. Kind of like pruning in general in the garden. Whether you want fruits or flowers and a well aired disease free happy garden. I think as I see the tomato plants grow up I will understand what to do. Keep 2 or 3 main stems and enough growth the garden space can support in a happy and healthy way.
:)
K.


I have you to thank for Superdome. You gave it high marks in a post or on the Cornell site. Found seed at Shumway. Usually only plant broccoli in the fall but after reading your posts, decided to try a spring planting. Superdome was doing great until the deluge. I cut the heads tonight for freezing. Thanks farmerdill. This Virginia girl has learned so much from you!

One thing that's pretty rare (but not unknown) is you have some creatures that are interested in sprouting beans and so eat them at the very first sign of emergence.
I think you said three related things: the seeds are not sprouting, that there are no un-sprouted seeds still buried, and you find sprouts (or is it un-sprouted seeds?) on the soil surface. Those three observations suggest nefarious little beasties looking for food. I have had sprouts just barely crack through the soil crust and then disappear a scant few hours later.
Birds.




Thank you Dave, I agree with your compromise. I'm just trying to avoid the presumption that supplements are a "must". Not to get too semantic here, but I think one consideration here is the word "required". What a market gardener "requires" is not necessarily what an average home gardener "requires". The market gardener can't be satisfied with 80% performance. That's 20% loss of profit. I myself am not going to get worried about 80% performance, and am unlikely to spend real money and running out to the garden center to try to achieve that 100%. It's just not important to me.
I actually think a home gardener might aspire to a garden that doesn't require bottles of this and bags of that. That goes for pesticides and herbicides as well as supplements. I'm especially proud of a crop that MY topsoil and MY compost and MY mulch produced. I'm less proud of a crop that has a shelf of bottles and bags or store-bought stuff that I've convinced myself that my crop relied on. I think a market gardener probably wouldn't care about that. So it kinda depends where you're coming from.
Again, I think supplements ought to be used to treat recognized deficiencies, and if you don't recognize any, don't bend over backwards trying to find them.


@billy3p I'm also from Folsom and trying to grow some tomatoes in containers. My tomatoes are not doing great, have recently posted on the forum.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3122821/tomato-leaves-yellowing-and-curling
Can you please share your experience? Would be happy to show them to you if you like.



New baby potatoes have a much stronger flavor. I've had them in restaurants a lot, little potatoes taste like that potato flavor from potato chips... on steroids. Large potatoes lose flavor and gain starchiness but are also more filling. Smaller potatoes seem also less "grainy", more waxy or creamy? Not sure how to explain it. They're good, but they're not essential unless you really need or want little baby potatoes on your plate. If it hurts that much, just go to the store and buy some, I've rarely come across a circumstance where I absolutely needed tiny baby potatoes, though waiting for the full sized ones can leave a lot of dinners in between where you need a potato and don't have one! For us, one potato harvest doesn't last from season to season, or the potatoes don't last long enough (winter isn't a possible growing time since it's -50* outside and we don't have the room indoors for a pot).

<and toss (or do you eat?) the itsy bitsy ones? >
ilodato - please understand that there are always going to be some "itsy bitsy" ones no matter when you harvest. It isn't as if every single start on the roots grows to full size - ever - even if left until the tops dry and die and you have to dig them before the ground freezes. So you aren't somehow depriving them of life or something.
But yes you can eat them - just wash, boil, and eat.
Dave


It depends on where you live as to what is feasible especially since you want to squeeze in 3 crops in one season. Beans probably would be your best choice but beans take minimum 60-65 days from seeding until pulling out plants after the first harvest so if you planted 7/1 you would have beans in the bed until early to mid September which in much of the country would be too late for planting fall peas and spinach. If you can leave room in the bed for seeding the spinach and pea rows before the beans are harvested you might be able to get 3 crops in if all the stars align :).
Green beans, collards, kale in mid July, Asian radishes, turnips, escarole (early August), fall lettuces (late August), September, spinach and winter lettuces.