23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
You need to learn about onions to grow them.
Look at
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click on Learn option near the top
and then look at the online guides, Downloadable Guides
(PDFs) and Frequently Asked Questions. Look at the catalog and learn all you can. Several questions are answered in detail in the guides.
This year I planted a few Yukon Gold in a couple of barrels, They grew well, and died off in mid August. I did not get them harvested, was gone on vacation, plus being tied up with tearing out my kitchen, I just did not get to it. Now in late October they are growing again. Should I just let them grow and when the frost gets them dump them out or dump them out now??? Leaving them in the barrels over winter is not an option as they would freeze.
OLD thread:
Potato maturity is very similar to tomatoes. In average it take 90 to 120 days from sowing seeds to harvest.
Now then it depend on where you are. For example, in North GA I used to plant in mid March and harvested around early July. Starting in June, I would reach in and get some young ones for cooking. Then In August I did fall planting.
It seems to me that a little bit of regular soil cultivation, even with a soil rake or a hand fork, would do the job. Wouldn't hurt the veggies you have growing either. Just dig 'em in (the weeds). You do that before the weed roots get deep, and they won't be competing with your veggies.
I also get big winds from the horse fields next door and don't like to go out during the winter and deal with windblown seed( I just pick the chard,kale,lettuce etc)
I plant 2 of my 8 beds for winter stuff and pile as many shredded leaves as I can, then cover with perforated cardboard so water can get through. Because most of the beds sink a bit, I usually add compost/soil about a month before planting in order to settle.
Cardboard usually lasts me 2 seasons. Nancy
2 years ago SVBs wiped out every winter squash and pumpkin vine I planted. So last year I put beneficial nematodes in the garden as soon as the ground warmed up. Last year and this year I haven't lost a single vine.
Next year I'll re-seed the garden with them including some that go after termites and ants.
One more for mantis eggcase.
Rhizo- I have a lovely picture of one hanging upside down eating a cabbage moth. Not all butterflies are welcome, after all. :) I've seen the big ones eat grasshoppers who were eating the zinnias and once spied a wee one eating a wee bug... I think what they eat depends on how big they are.
I could have sworn I commented on this a long time ago but apparently not. So here's a short, but long overdue update.
On April 3rd I began keeping the indoor started seedlings outside in a mini-greenhouse. I was bringing them back inside when the nighttime temp was forecast to be below 40*F.
The winter sown seeds that I planted on March 10th, sprouted on April 9th. These remained outside at all times. On April 20th, these nearly died because I accidentally left the cover on the container during a sunny day and forgot to water them but they eventually recovered.
I planted both the indoor started and winter sown plants on May 9th. The winter sown plants were about half as big as those started indoors. Both sets of plants should have been sufficiently vernalized.
The artichokes were growing well but they stalled out about a month ago. I've given them fertilizer but they're still the same size. The two winter sown cardoons I've got planted in the same bed are growing larger and the two rows of beets I planted down the middle of the bed in early June are growing well and nearing harvest. So at least I'll get something from that bed this year.
To be honest, I'm tempted to rip the artichokes out and replant something for Fall. But I also want to see if I can overwinter them successfully. So I'm not sure what to do. One thing I do know for certain is that this is the first and only time I'm planting artichokes. Major waste of space in a small garden like mine.
Rodney
P.S. Congrats to those of you who were successful!
When I sold luffa that I grew to a health food store I charged $2 and they sold them for $3.50. This was probably 15 years ago.
Cleaning the outer shell was my biggest task. I only grew them that one year or i'm sure I would have had to find an easier way to do it.
Thanks everyone for the info! I ate some about a month ago. They were very hard to peel and not very flavorful. From what I read you can scratch the skin off after it dries up. No shaking or beating for me. I also read you can put them in water and the skin will explode off. Maybe it had to be hot water? Mine are still green on the vine. I don't plan to bleach them. I'm trying not to make a major Walt Disney production out of this little project. I only have 4 or 5 gourds to sell.
Strawberry patches are good producers for a set period of time (from my experience 3-5 years) and then need to be renewed in some manner. One method is to keep your allium row free of strawberries buy removing invaders and plant your alliums in the same row each year, adding compost and manure as needed. After 3-5 years move the strawberry plants to the allium rows and the alliums to the strawberry rows.
Floral instead of scientific data to indicate "how" the allium/strawberry relation ship works, there is a mountain of experience based information that supports the improved production resulting from the relationship.
I just thought of it as an experiment - in my case, I have only 4 strawberry plants-not enough to plant a bed. They are everbearing, not producing many runners (I have only 2 runners from one variety).
Garlic bed is ready and wide/long enough to 'tuck-in' few other plants. I would plant strawberries along the edge, far enough not to interfere with garlic.
And final thought - maybe, just maybe the 'smell' of garlic may deter some critters???
As Galina pointed out, I vaguely remember my grandma doing something similar...
Rina
Competition from roots of felled trees? A halfway decent plow or a beefy tiller will cure that fast. I can't understand how well turned soil can host any competing roots. In fact, it's well known that reforesting a recently logged area doesn't even require serious tilling.
First, Thank eveyone for the feedback! and I apologize for the delay in response. I have not totally figured out how to navigate this forum and for some reason do not get email updates on replies.
I will try to answer all of the questions but let me know if I miss one.
1) I am certain that these are all Oaks and are broad leaf oaks, appear to be white oaks but I verify when I get home today. I do have some Maple and Black Walnut but they are not close to the area in question.
2) The garden is facing south with the Trees directly behind to the North and the closest trees are about 6-8ft behind the garden. They are 40-50ft tall and about 30-50yrs old.
3)The area gets approx 6-9hrs of sunlight depending of side of the garden.
4) I have not gotten a soil test to this point but plan too very soon before I shread and compost the leaves this winter. The soil is primarily orange clayey silt with fine/medium course granuals throughout
5) This past year I added in 10cuft of compost/manure and 6cuft of peat moss to the 10x20 and didnt hit any roots from the trees down to 20inches of tilling.
Thanks for the help! It definitely was red spider mites, once I looked closer I could see them. I mixed up an organic insecticide and it seems to have gotten rid of them but I'm going to keep sprtizing the plant with it for a while.
I live in NYC by the way and have it in a window that gets a lot of sunlight. Before the infestation is was growing quite happily.It has about six tomatoes growing right now. I'm going to try giving it some plant food to help it recover. Wish me luck!
I think having it inside causes spider mites for some reason. I've never seen them outside on maters. Try to isolate it from your other plants so it doesn't spread. We always threw out plants at the garden center I worked at that had spider mites. My boss said they were so hard to get rid of.