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My pepper plants are doing pretty well, it's been hot lately and they've been loving it.
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Aug 1, 2015 03:41
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| # ? May 31, 2024 17:35 |
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I think I'm about to pull up all my tomatoes, cut my losses, and spend August-September solarizing my beds. It's so awful out there.  Thoughts, anyone? We had a freakishly wet June-July, so I'm not surprised a bunch of fungal crud set in, but now I'm afraid it's in my dirt and I'm going to have issues next year as well. I'm just not sure what to do. Has anyone "sterilized" their beds before? Solarization? Another method? (The internet is full of all sorts of things--peroxide, vinegar, bleach! [NO], etc...) I practice good housekeeping practices out there--throwing out all plant material from the garden, cleaning clippers, etc... Do I need to do something with the dirt? I have both wilts going on, in addition to the usual septoria. Next year, I'm also going to try Mycostop right from the start. Has anyone used that?
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Aug 1, 2015 14:29
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Solarizing might work if it gets hot enough where you are. It doesn't around here. Are you rotating crops? That's about all I can think of besides letting it lay fallow or cover-cropping.
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Aug 2, 2015 02:57
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 Lots of sweet basil, oregano, mini vidalias. I think I am going to dry it all and chop it together to make an italian mix for soups, meatballs, spaghetti. Doing a 2nd planting today as well so when fall hits I will have another harvest
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Aug 2, 2015 21:20
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Flaggy posted:
Those vidalias are adorable. Wish my onions would ever work out. Something keeps eating everything I plant.
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Aug 2, 2015 23:27
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Suspect Bucket posted:Those vidalias are adorable. Wish my onions would ever work out. Something keeps eating everything I plant. My onions last year did much, much better, the stalks on these fell over and were not growing anymore.
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Aug 3, 2015 00:17
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my town went from wonderfully hot to cold, wet and windy, and as such my carrots now have some sort of fungus on the greens. I'm not the only one at least since I saw others asking about it on my local gardening facebook page. is it really necessary to pull all the carrots with it, or can I just take the affected greens off?
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Aug 7, 2015 13:28
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While watering today I noticed the mints were getting a bit overgrown and needed a haircut, lest they begin conspiring to overthrow the government. So I have them all the chop chop, and then went into the kitchen and started experimenting with the liquor cabinet because it's also Friday. Combine in shaker: The juice of one half lemon The leaves picked off a fresh sprig of pepper mint The leaves picked off a fresh sprig of lemon balm 1 tbs of sugar A much vodka as you can handle. Mix and muddle all ingredients using a muddler, being sure to bruise but not shred the mint, then add ice and shake vigorously to chill and dilute. Pour into a tumbler glass, preferably with a pretentious giant rear end ice cube. Garnish with a thin lemon slice. So far the only downside to this is that it's basically pure alcohol because my vodka was in the freezer and didn't melt much ice. Otherwise it's basically an alcoholic lemonade with a tasty grassy minty flavor that tastes like summer gardening.
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Aug 8, 2015 01:56
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mrmcd posted:While watering today I noticed the mints were getting a bit overgrown and needed a haircut, lest they begin conspiring to overthrow the government. God bless you for using lemon balm because as we speak they are at the door. Please send help and vod
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Aug 8, 2015 06:05
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turns out what I thought was squash is actually cucumber! what a world. next year I make plant markers. N E X T Y E A R.
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Aug 8, 2015 12:41
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Micomicona posted:God bless you for using lemon balm because as we speak they are at the door. Please send help and vod Shove it into a jar with baby oil and let it sit for a couple weeks, then strain it. Wood oil!
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Aug 8, 2015 16:43
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Toriori posted:turns out what I thought was squash is actually cucumber! what a world. next year I make plant markers. N E X T Y E A R. Apparently some alcohol was involved in that side of my garden as well. I keep finding surprise zucchini in my squash. The last two "Black Beauty" zucchini I've found were the size of a small child.
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Aug 8, 2015 23:28
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Our last batch of window box arugula was unpalatably bitter, unlike the previous batches. Is this because the soil has been exhausted of nutrients? We put some fresh soil in the box and reseeded.
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Aug 9, 2015 02:08
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Planet X posted:Our last batch of window box arugula was unpalatably bitter, unlike the previous batches. Is this because the soil has been exhausted of nutrients? We put some fresh soil in the box and reseeded. The warmer the weather, the more bitter and "hot" it gets. Take a break from growing it until fall, and it will be much nicer.
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Aug 9, 2015 02:45
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Noted, thanks!
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Aug 9, 2015 03:08
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mrmcd posted:While watering today I noticed the mints were getting a bit overgrown and needed a haircut, lest they begin conspiring to overthrow the government. My strategy for keeping mint reasonable... Every spring I rip every little bit out that I can find. A month later we'll have more than we need.
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Aug 9, 2015 15:13
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I don't know if it's the soil or the climate, but I can't really keep mint growing in my garden, it doesn't seem to spread and dies back every winter.
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Aug 9, 2015 22:32
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I bought a peppermint plant and it doesn't seem to be growing so well. the leaves are tiny and the stems are woody and tangled. best rehab?
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Aug 10, 2015 14:47
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I left for 2 weeks and while I was gone, a giant heatwave happened and I'm not actually sure how often my roommate watered my plants Zucchini is dead, pepper plants and basil look extremely wilted and sad, tomato plant somehow made a tomato and when I went to twist it off the entire branch snapped like a dry twig. Cucumber looks sparse and has a few fruit but they look hell of bad, and now there's some sort of bug that is eating just the outside of them creating channels all over the fruit.  my garden I guess.
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Aug 10, 2015 17:39
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Y'all, I'm so frustrated with my garden. All I've got is a balcony with a little bit of room for pots and things, with pretty terrible sunlight exposure. That weird plant that popped up a few weeks ago? Never grew any real leaves and I just found it flopped over and yellow without having ever truly opened it's baby leaves. So I'm going back to the basics and I just want to find one plant that I could keep alive fairly well in a smallish pot on my balcony. Preferably something that's also useful rather than ornamental, but I can't afford to be super-picky. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good Babby's First Plant?
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Aug 10, 2015 20:02
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/\/\ Herbs. They love pots, and can deal with part sun. Basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary... I ripped out the tomatoes. Left two black cherry in a back corner, because they only have V. wilt a little bit, where as everybody else succumbed to F. wilt. Got some 1 mil clear plastic sheets and am going to try and solarize the soil for the rest of year. August and September are pretty drat hot and sunny, so I think I'll have a good 6+weeks. I just had to accept this year was done, and not pass an opportunity [hopefully] prevent next year from being as bad. The peppers are dealing with early blight and septoria, but that concerns me less. I can spray for that, but I think that so long as next June/early July aren't as wet as they were this year, that bed will be okay. They're also being stubbornly productive, despite looking like total hell. I have a big bowl of jalapenos in the fridge that are going to be bread and butter pickled soon. (So good!). Rain washed out an entire sowing of carrot seed, so crop Number 3 is delayed enough that I won't be able to sow Number 4. Oh well. Started some sugar and snow peas along one side of the fence. It gets afternoon shade, so I figured they'd enjoy the protection from the hottest part of the day. Also pulled up the cukes and planted broccoli in those barrels instead. Also going to set out fall lettuce soon. Trying to focus on growing everything else...bye, tomatoes. 
AlistairCookie fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 10, 2015 21:08
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AlistairCookie posted:/\/\ Herbs. They love pots, and can deal with part sun. Basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary... I might need to scale it back even from there.. I've killed off the lavender, the purple basil, the cilantro, the marjoram (?), and while the rosemary and basil are still technically alive, they certainly aren't thriving by any definition. Oh, I've also killed 1.5 mint plants and the lemonbalm is on its way out as well.
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Aug 11, 2015 02:48
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Pucklynn posted:I might need to scale it back even from there.. I've killed off the lavender, the purple basil, the cilantro, the marjoram (?), and while the rosemary and basil are still technically alive, they certainly aren't thriving by any definition. Oh, I've also killed 1.5 mint plants and the lemonbalm is on its way out as well. How often are you watering and do your pots have drainage? How bad is the sunlight? Maybe post a picture if you can. I feel like it's probably a watering issue though unless it's really dark.
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Aug 11, 2015 03:03
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Also don't be afraid to pinch them back, I've had several herbs do ...okay... until I decided, hey, I bought these for eating, let's eat some. Once they lost an inch or two from up top, they went insane, got very bushy and full.
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Aug 11, 2015 12:42
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Pucklynn posted:Y'all, I'm so frustrated with my garden. All I've got is a balcony with a little bit of room for pots and things, with pretty terrible sunlight exposure. That weird plant that popped up a few weeks ago? Never grew any real leaves and I just found it flopped over and yellow without having ever truly opened it's baby leaves. Spinach and lettuce are super easy to grow. Spinach is also very shade resistant so there's that as well.
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Aug 11, 2015 13:02
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Tomatoes for EVERYONE!
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Aug 11, 2015 18:05
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Peppers for EVERYONE!
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Aug 12, 2015 00:35
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Peppers for EVERYONE! I might get 3 green peppers this year woo
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Aug 12, 2015 16:22
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I have 3 jalapenos and they just decided to say "gently caress it" and stopped growing two weeks ago. And my tomatoes refuse to ripen. 
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Aug 12, 2015 17:16
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I harvested my potatoes, and there were like two big ones and a handful of tiny ones, and they were all weird and pimply, and I guess that I've got potato nematodes I knew that the bed had been used for potatoes in previous years and am super bummed. From what I see I can't use that bed for potatoes for like 6 years... Ughhh. Anybody have experience dealing with this? I read that you can plant marigolds as a cover crop and that will fix the problem, but that sounds awfully old-wives-tales-y. Do you think the nematodes would affect other nightshades as well?
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Aug 12, 2015 21:59
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Micomicona posted:nematodes My local agricualtual university has this to say: UC Davis posted:You can reduce existing infestations through fallowing, crop rotation, and soil solarization. However, these methods reduce nematodes primarily in the top foot or so of the soil, so they are effective only for about a year. Looks like its real bad to deal with. Fozzy The Bear fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Aug 12, 2015 |
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Aug 12, 2015 23:07
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Jan posted:I have 3 jalapenos and they just decided to say "gently caress it" and stopped growing two weeks ago. Do you know the nitrogen content of the soil? Are/have you used a 10-10-10 fertilizer on them? Broad leafed flowering plants like tomatoes don't do well and can refuse to fruit/ripen if too much nitrogen is applied (so my extension office tells me).
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Aug 12, 2015 23:54
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Angry Birds Suicide posted:Do you know the nitrogen content of the soil? This is the soil I'm using and yeah, I fertilized them twice, including when coming back from my trip and I saw all my plants had grown a bunch of fruit.  Even better, I just checked and it's 20-20-20! Bigger numbers are better, right!? 
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Aug 13, 2015 00:05
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The numbers are just a percentage ratio, if you apply twice as much 10-10-10 you get the same amount of N-P-K as 20-20-20. It just depends on your dilution basically.
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Aug 13, 2015 00:22
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Got a handfull of beautiful black muscadines from my young vines. They've established well! And they are sooooo delicious. Wish I had a tiny cheese plate to go with it. Southerners! Get ye to looking for black jewels! Fight the birds and mile-a-minute! Check the edges of pine growths along the road side! Wear gloves and bug spray.
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Aug 13, 2015 14:41
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Fozzy The Bear posted:My local agricualtual university has this to say: Well crap. That really, really sucks It looks like there's no way to get rid of them, just manage their population. Wow, they mess with like, every good plant
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Aug 13, 2015 19:22
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I forgot to mention the butternut squash vines that are growing out of my compost bin. They've crept and self trellised along the fence, and I have a half dozen fruit set of various size, plus scores of flowers daily. Given what a hot mess the tomatoes were, and how sub-optimal the peppers are, I didn't have the heart earlier in the season to pull the vines. I thought, aww, that's cute. I wonder how they'll grow.  The most productive things I have are growing aren't even in the garden; it's out of the compost bin from grocery store seed scooped out of a squash I ate in May. That's the state of the garden.  I love squash, so I'm rolling with it. So, they're all green (even the big ones.) Pick when the weather cools off? Right before frost (like pumpkins?)
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Aug 13, 2015 20:19
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AlistairCookie posted:I forgot to mention the butternut squash vines that are growing out of my compost bin. They've crept and self trellised along the fence, and I have a half dozen fruit set of various size, plus scores of flowers daily. Given what a hot mess the tomatoes were, and how sub-optimal the peppers are, I didn't have the heart earlier in the season to pull the vines. I thought, aww, that's cute. I wonder how they'll grow. That's awesome. I had a thicket of volunteer tomatoes again this year, and left a dozen or so growing after thinning out the rest. They were late starters, but my garden is kind of a bust this year, so anything I get out of them will be nice. Last year, my only productive cherry tomatoes were the volunteers, and that's probably what I have again this year, though god only knows what they may have crossed with over the past two seasons.
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Aug 13, 2015 21:24
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picked my first cucumber from the garden. it's soooooo bitter
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Aug 14, 2015 01:48
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| # ? May 31, 2024 17:35 |
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So after my soil samples came back "carbonate positive" and my soil being identified as calcareous with a pH of 7.7, I shot the extension agent soil doctor (no really the phD dude of the soil...stuff) and he had this to say when I asked him how to bring down the pH to a more reasonable level: Angry Birds Suicide, Please test your soil and compost using the method in the attached file. If your compost has more than 5% carbonate. Do not use it anymore. If your soil has more than 10% carbonate, do not use sulfur because it will not work well. You can read one of my paper if you have carbonate more than 10% http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/tr004 If your soil has less than 10% carbonate, you can apply 4 lb sulfur per 100 sq ft. mix them with soil. You can read how to use sulfur at http://carteret.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Lowering-Soil-Ph.pdf?fwd=no Let me know if you need further information. Best Regards, Soil Doctor Guy, pHd The test itself is simple and cool as hell so I thought I'd share! https://www.dropbox.com/s/1m5zqw42mazxad5/HS1262%20vinegar%20test%206%2026%202015%20-%20by%20Qiang.docx?dl=0
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Aug 14, 2015 02:38
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