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Fozzy The Bear posted:Its starting, I've been eating about 2 roma plus a handful of cherry tomatoes each day, for the past few days. Today picked 6.1 pounds of roma tomatoes to be given to my in-laws. Garden is in high gear. Same here! My 2 sunflowers are rockin, my romas and better boys are exploding into ripeness and I love it. I LOVE having the "problem" of having to harvest so much every day after work, it's like complaining about having too much money to count. Even my 2 near death (because of a NASTY aphid problem when they were teeny tiny) jalapeno plants are now producing cute thumb sized little peppers that are sure to taste excellent.
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Jul 21, 2014 15:04
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Looks like you could use some more light. There you go lettuce!  You're welcome. 
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 21, 2014 23:57
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I had 14 pounds of Armenian and Italian carosello cucumbers last week. I made 5 pounds into relish, tossed another 6 or so, then promptly harvested another 3 pounds monday. Hopefully I'll get a break between flushes, I can't pickle fast enough and I'm sick of vinegary quick pickles anyways.
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Jul 22, 2014 18:31
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Some tiny beetle-y bugs have gone bonkers on my kole crops. They've got hard carapaces so spraying them off doesn't do much, and they quickly moved to every kale and brussels sprout plant and reduced them to awful-looking sickly specimens while I was gone on a 4 day camping trip. They're fast enough that the roommate was convinced that they were some kind of leafhopper but he's a loving idiot, they obviously fly and are more like gnats. They just seem to bite and suck the juice out of the leaves and stuff. I am not particularly interested in dealing with them as I don't really eat much kale and I've had waaaayyyy too much this year, although I'm sad about my brussels sprouts as they were doing okay. The tomatoes are doing well, I'm unsure about the two "blighted" plants that I pulled and if they were blighted at all, because a bunch of stuff immediately started showing stress from underwatering (watering has been sketchy this year as I have tried to maintain a careful watering schedule and my roommate just kept getting  or  and watering whenever he felt like it) right after I cut those two out however, none of the others had that weird crusty black crap on the underside of the damaged leaves, and I still have too many tomatoes.Also my roommate was a lazy gently caress who didn't water regularly while I go out camping and poo poo - despite him eating the majority of what gets harvested from my beds and promising over and over that he's a master gardener and would take care of everything like he would his own pot plants (perhaps he was too literal about this - he treated everything like pot plants which caused all kinds of trouble). He also never trimmed or staked up the bed full of tomatoes which he planted - I honestly don't know how many are planted in that bed anymore because I can't see anything but a big jungle of tomatoes covering the entire bed. So I kicked him out, and now I'm going to just 86 the kole crops entirely (except maybe the brussels sprouts) - I am sick of eating kale.That said, the "Improved Dwarf Siberian" kale which I grew this year is probably my favorite that I've grown in the last few years - it almost doesn't have a central stem and grows more like a chard or spinach, and it produces like crazy and has a mild flavor, and despite the blurb it has not bolted in 90-100 degree weather, after being in the ground for a good four months. http://www.territorialseed.com/product/Improved_Dwarf_Siberian_Kale_Seed/kale_seed I'll plant some fall/winter stuff soon enough, and will want the space anyway. Moral of the story - if you want to share your garden space with housemates, make clear boundaries, don't allow them to plant anything in other areas no matter how often they drop a bunch of money on unnecessary plants, and make sure your brussels sprouts have a LOT of room! coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 18:54
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I need a suggestion for a crop to plant for a fall harvest, since the bugs ate all my summer squash. Last year I didn't see squash bugs until mid to late august, this year I was fighting them in June. They ate my zucchini first, but I replanted it since it was early enough. The squash, however held out longer and now (I think) it is too late to replant them for the year. The squash bed I have is about 3 feet by 6 feet. I am in Zone 6a/5b.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:57
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dangittj posted:I need a suggestion for a crop to plant for a fall harvest, since the bugs ate all my summer squash. Last year I didn't see squash bugs until mid to late august, this year I was fighting them in June. They ate my zucchini first, but I replanted it since it was early enough. The squash, however held out longer and now (I think) it is too late to replant them for the year. Collard greens, broccoli?
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Jul 22, 2014 21:01
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dangittj posted:I need a suggestion for a crop to plant for a fall harvest, since the bugs ate all my summer squash. Last year I didn't see squash bugs until mid to late august, this year I was fighting them in June. They ate my zucchini first, but I replanted it since it was early enough. The squash, however held out longer and now (I think) it is too late to replant them for the year. Broccoli, spinach, leaf lettuce, any other green, carrots, an early potato (yukons are a good one).
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Jul 22, 2014 22:20
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Breaky posted:Collard greens, broccoli?
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Jul 23, 2014 00:18
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SubG posted:I'm about to put in some gai lan, so I'm going to suggest gai lan. It's the same species as common broccoli (Brassica oleraea), but is leafier and has a punchier taste. Most sources say it works well for late Summer planting.
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Jul 23, 2014 00:54
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Need help with my mint. I potted some from my parents' place (because I don't want that stuff growing wild in my yard). It was doing fine in the ground there despite the ground there being hard clay and rocks. It grew vigorously in the pot here for a month when suddenly, starting last week, a lot of leaves started turning yellow and then black and crisp before falling off. It's not spots, it's the whole leaf losing color uniformly. What's going on? How am I killing mint of all things?
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Jul 23, 2014 01:30
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Stultus Maximus posted:Need help with my mint. I potted some from my parents' place (because I don't want that stuff growing wild in my yard). It was doing fine in the ground there despite the ground there being hard clay and rocks. It grew vigorously in the pot here for a month when suddenly, starting last week, a lot of leaves started turning yellow and then black and crisp before falling off. It's not spots, it's the whole leaf losing color uniformly. What's going on? How am I killing mint of all things? Can't offer advice, but empathy. I've had tons of trouble with my mint - had an armyworm infestation and some sort of fungus. Think I've got both dealt with now, but it's not foolproof.
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Jul 23, 2014 01:55
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toe knee hand posted:Can't offer advice, but empathy. I've had tons of trouble with my mint - had an armyworm infestation and some sort of fungus. Think I've got both dealt with now, but it's not foolproof. I got mint rust last year, I think I overwatered. I think next year I'll just put it in the ground and sink some 2x12s as a barrier.
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Jul 23, 2014 02:02
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Ugh. Update on the ants. The DE killed the side action but the main nest in my tomato bucket just stayed dormant until I watered tonight. It was unbelievable how many ants came out of that one plant's root area, and since it had long stopped producing I just nuked the whole thing with dawn and water. So annoying. Before the dawn flood I fed gave them a gel bait for 24 hours so hopefully the queen is dead or has moved on to another person's yard. I guess I'll wait till it dries and toss some lettuce in that pot since I'm zone 8b and it's a trillion degrees here now. On the good side my herbs are all doing well, other than one small rosemary and one lavender grosso that wasn't doing well anyway. AND in my pursuit of ants I found 2 ruby red grapefruit hiding in the back of my potted tree that I had mistaken for leaves this whole time. Woo As far as ants are concerned, my experience is that there is no real solution to a big old nest of them unless you're willing to use actual poison. It's insane how fast they took over. Yikes.
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Jul 23, 2014 04:11
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How can you tell if a pepper is sexually mature? Basically I have some red habaneros which ripened very quickly and grew robustly. I want to harvest and make a hot sauce or something but I also want to save the seeds for next year. Think going from green to red a good enough indicator? My other pepper plants the fruits are in varying shades of green or only a little bit of their final color still. In other news I grabbed all the brown seed pods off my arugulas and put them in a plastic bag. Gonna do a solid fall crop! Hopefully these gathered seeds grow just as well as commercially bought ones, the flowers hung around a while and were almost surely pollinated.
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Jul 23, 2014 17:55
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Comb Your Beard posted:Think going from green to red a good enough indicator? Yeah, they're good.
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Jul 23, 2014 18:30
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Peristalsis posted:I have a very basic question. If I grow varieties of squash near each other that can cross-pollinate, I know that can affect seeds I try to save for next year. But will the cross-pollination have any effect on the properties of the fruit that the plants produce this year? I'm not really worried about saving seeds, but I would like to grow lots of different winter squash. For what it's worth, I asked the same question of the local extension office, and they confirmed Hummingbirds' assessment (which is what made sense to me, but I wanted to be sure). In fact, they sent a link.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:03
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Supposedly you can also put the seeds in some water after you separate them, shake it up, and the one's that sink are more likely to be viable. I did that with my pepper plants last year, and the seeds grew fine this year. Just be sure to use gloves when separating the seeds out. I learned that the hard way. With Habaneros.  
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Jul 23, 2014 19:56
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Supper Harvest!
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Jul 23, 2014 21:59
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Peristalsis posted:For what it's worth, I asked the same question of the local extension office, and they confirmed Hummingbirds' assessment (which is what made sense to me, but I wanted to be sure). In fact, they sent a link. Or at least this is true in the general case. If there's data which suggests it's not true specifically of cucurbits I haven't seen it (but would love to).
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Jul 24, 2014 01:57
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SubG posted:I have to reiterate that while it is true that different species won't cross-pollinate and different cultivars that cross-pollinate won't produce hybrid fruit in the first season, cross-pollination does affect fruit set and quality (specifically, fruit set and quality are improved by cross-pollination over self-pollination). More generally, pollination quantity and quality affect fruit set and quality, in addition to affecting seed production and progeny quality. I've read that, of the 4 species of squash, 2 of them can cross pollinate, though only in one direction. The improved fruit setting is interesting - I'll have to encourage cross-pollination next time around.
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Jul 24, 2014 15:47
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Peristalsis posted:I've read that, of the 4 species of squash, 2 of them can cross pollinate, though only in one direction. The improved fruit setting is interesting - I'll have to encourage cross-pollination next time around. The reason I bring it up at all is just to make the point that most sources that discuss the issue seem to approach it like it's just a question of whether or not you'd get hybrid fruit the first season (you won't), but there are other factors.
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Jul 25, 2014 01:02
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What IS this plant? I've taken to calling it "basil's weird roommate". It's a year old now, it's definitely something I planted, but I can't remember what it's supposed to be. All it does is send up those leaves, it has never flowered, and it LOVES full sunshine and a ton of water. Like, "puts out a new full-size leaf every few days" loves sunshine. Those dead leaves are from when it was living indoors; the sun got high enough that it wasn't beaming directly through my windows at mid-day, and the plant immediately started drying up.
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Jul 25, 2014 01:52
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Looks like a poorly growing lettuce. Have you tasted it?
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Jul 25, 2014 01:54
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Breaky posted:Looks like a poorly growing lettuce. Have you tasted it? I haven't, but that's entirely possible! I'd discounted leafy vegetables because I can't seem to get spinach to grow for poo poo here, but yeah, lettuce is definitely among the seeds I could have planted. Let me go check. Trip report: not lettuce, or lovely lettuce if it is. Bitter, and it doesn't have that "go ahead and chew on me" leaf-texture like the basil or my sage plants have
Notgothic fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 02:02
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You actually took the advice and just tasted a random unknown plant?
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Jul 25, 2014 02:28
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Rurutia posted:You actually took the advice and just tasted a random unknown plant? Sure. I mean, it's not something that snuck in there, the container has been 100% indoors until recently. I don't know what it is, but I know what it can be. I tasted a small piece of leaf, spit it out, and rinsed my mouth out when it turned out to be bitter. In retrospect, I'll admit it's not the brightest thing I've done today. I've been dumber, though. Notgothic fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 02:59
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I just put a gallon of sliced cuces into limewater and blanched/vacuum sealed 18 cups of summer squash. IT'S ON NOW.
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Jul 25, 2014 02:59
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Notgothic posted:I haven't, but that's entirely possible! I'd discounted leafy vegetables because I can't seem to get spinach to grow for poo poo here, but yeah, lettuce is definitely among the seeds I could have planted. Let me go check. Do you have any morning glories in your garden? I hear those are tasty.
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Jul 25, 2014 04:42
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Got my fall/winter veggies going. Carrots, beets, butterleaf, green leaf, bush beans, and a butternut behind the strawberries. Let's hope this works out. 
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Jul 25, 2014 06:12
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Rurutia posted:You actually took the advice and just tasted a random unknown plant? Ehhh he said it was something he planted. It's not larkspur or anything.
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Jul 25, 2014 11:11
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jvick posted:Got my fall/winter veggies going. Carrots, beets, butterleaf, green leaf, bush beans, and a butternut behind the strawberries. Beautiful soil!
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Jul 25, 2014 14:30
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I think I need to make pasta sauce this weekend... This is two tomato plants, two days:
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Jul 25, 2014 15:51
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dangittj posted:I think I need to make pasta sauce this weekend... This is two tomato plants, two days: Those are gorgeous man. I'm totally jealous. I'll be lucky to get a few tomatoes out of my blight stunted plants.
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Jul 25, 2014 17:22
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AlistairCookie posted:Beautiful soil! Thank you! Only in a veggie thread, haha. Don't be fooled since it's darker from being wet.
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Jul 25, 2014 19:30
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jvick posted:Thank you! Only in a veggie thread, haha. Don't be fooled since it's darker from being wet. It's real purtty dirt, though. 
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Jul 25, 2014 19:49
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da411onCLassy posted:Ugh. Update on the ants. The DE killed the side action but the main nest in my tomato bucket just stayed dormant until I watered tonight. It was unbelievable how many ants came out of that one plant's root area, and since it had long stopped producing I just nuked the whole thing with dawn and water. So annoying. Before the dawn flood I fed gave them a gel bait for 24 hours so hopefully the queen is dead or has moved on to another person's yard. I guess I'll wait till it dries and toss some lettuce in that pot since I'm zone 8b and it's a trillion degrees here now. I have a cure-all for your ant problem that I've used to immense success. This works for any location, not just the garden. 1 part borax, 1 part powder sugar and just enough water to make a paste. Spread the mix on an old plate or some other flat fixture you can spare. Make sure the ants can access it (ie if you have a lipped plate, bury in the soil so it's ground level) The ants will go nuts over free sugar, carry it all back to their hill/nest and in a few days the entire colony dies from eating the food. The borax acts like 'alkaseltzer to seagulls', if you're familiar, sadly. The ants cannot expel the gasses caused by the borax in their digestive tract and kills them. That they can smell and taste the sugar causes them to take it down to the entire colony and wipes the entire thing out in a few days time. It's not a preventative to keep more colonies from coming in, but it DEFINITELY controls an existing problem without resorting to wide-band insecticides and the like. Though, to be frank, I don't know if this would cause unintended damage to bee colonies, etc. I honestly don't know, but I 'feel' less badly about this than applying pesticides. If there's something that proves me wrong I'm all for it. edit: totally non-related, I'm growing an 'Indigo Rose' cherry tomato bush for the first time, and the things are freaky little buggers. At the time the tomato clusters go dark purple on their top-halves but still have a lot of 'hairs' on them (sorry don't know the term), if you stand with the sun behind you and over your shoulder and look at them, they are dark blue-ish purple against green foliage, and the sun makes the hairs glow neon green. So you're looking at a purple tomato with a glowing green halo around it. It's incredible looking. None are ripe enough to sample now, but drat if that isn't a neat effect on its own. Couldn't get my camera to capture it properly or I'd share. edit again: This image kinda shows it on the forward tomato, but not even close to its entirety. Big Beef City fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jul 26, 2014 04:48
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I have an over abundance of giant marconi's anyone have any tips or recipes for them? I was thinking of just roasting them adding them to tomato sauce for spaghetti. I am also growing habeneros, I have a couple of plants that are producing, right now they are green, do I want to wait for them to turn orange before harvesting?
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Jul 26, 2014 16:56
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/\/\ Romesco sauce. And yes, wait for your hab's to turn. 
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Jul 26, 2014 17:12
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Big Beef City posted:I have a cure-all for your ant problem that I've used to immense success. This works for any location, not just the garden. Terro ant traps are the same thing: borax and corn syrup. I've used them to control ants in the house with good success.
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Jul 27, 2014 01:30
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edit: I made a comment that the sauce above wasn't particularly economical. But that wasn't the question asked. Removed. Sorry!
Big Beef City fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 02:32
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