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Can I use my grass cuttings to mulch my veg containers (squashes and Brussel sprouts)? What about tomatoes? Lawn had a combined feed and weed killer on it about 2 months ago. I want to retain more moisture now that the rain seems to have stopped for the summer.
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Jul 2, 2019 19:43
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CancerCakes posted:Can I use my grass cuttings to mulch my veg containers (squashes and Brussel sprouts)? What about tomatoes? Lawn had a combined feed and weed killer on it about 2 months ago. I want to retain more moisture now that the rain seems to have stopped for the summer. By no means an expert but I dont know that grass clippings would be thick enough to help with much moisture retention or as a splashback barrier. See if your county/city offers free mulch. Mine does at the nearby yard waste center, and while its not as uniform as purchased mulch its free and works well enough for me. Otherwise you could try just newspaper and throw the grass clippings in your compost pile so they dont go to waste.
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Jul 2, 2019 20:15
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I know people spread grass clippings on garden beds, but I'm not sure how useful they'd be in containers. Might work. I just get a straw bale at Lowe's every year. And free wood mulch from the county, but I prefer the straw for vegetables.
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Jul 2, 2019 20:24
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We just planted a fig tree in the front yard, apart from some mulch on top or a landscape ring around the edge, what else should we do?
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Jul 2, 2019 20:47
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make sure the root flare is above the soil, don't pile mulch on the trunk itself, extend the mulch to the dripline (continue to expand as the tree grows), deep water infrequently rather than frequent short watering
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Jul 2, 2019 20:53
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CancerCakes posted:Can I use my grass cuttings to mulch my veg containers (squashes and Brussel sprouts)? What about tomatoes? Lawn had a combined feed and weed killer on it about 2 months ago. I want to retain more moisture now that the rain seems to have stopped for the summer. All my beds are plumbed with a PVC drip system (and so the watering is fairly targeted to start out with) so that might help---I just dump handfuls of clippings around the base of plants where I know they're getting watered. toplitzin posted:We just planted a fig tree in the front yard, apart from some mulch on top or a landscape ring around the edge, what else should we do?
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Jul 2, 2019 21:48
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You can use grass clippings in containers, it actually works great. Think of it like you would really fresh pine needles. I would personally not use county mulch for containers especially, just because I'd be worried about what was in it. A ton of people in my neighborhood got some nasty fungus from a bad batch of county mulch a few years back. Personally I get a bag of pine bark mini nuggets and just top my containers off with that.
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Jul 3, 2019 01:49
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I planted two types of sugar snap peas this year, and they both kind of suck. I did sugar magnolia and Oregon sugar pod II peas. Both are kind of tough and starchy. I'm guessing its probably a weather thing, we had a wet and mild June, and then temps jumped straight into the 90's when they started to flower. I put them in the ground at the end of March, but who knows. I need to rework the soil in that bed, so maybe that is a problem, it doesn't drain very well, so I'm gonna dump a bunch of perlite and compost in it before I do a fall planting.
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Jul 4, 2019 18:05
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I've got a bit of a problem. 10 days ago:  Today:  I've been trying to prune the suckers on the tomatoes every evening but they still just keep exploding. In the past I haven't had to do much pruning, but I guess the climate here in California is different. The thing is, I'm worried they're spending too much energy growing instead of flowering and making fruit. I'm getting relatively few blossoms and fewer of those are actually fruiting. Should I start pruning branches? Or maybe a phosophorus fertilizer would help? I've been using a 12/12/12 every 2-3 weeks. I have a similar problem with the cucamelons, they just keep creeping up and around and it's so crowded I can't even tell what's a sucker and what's the main vine anymore:  I never thought I'd have to come in here to post "halp my garden is growing too fast", but here I am. 
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Jul 4, 2019 18:22
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Grand Fromage posted:The eggs have hatched and I have RELEASED THE HOUNDS Baby mantids 
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Jul 4, 2019 19:26
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Jan posted:I have a similar problem with the cucamelons, they just keep creeping up and around and it's so crowded I can't even tell what's a sucker and what's the main vine anymore: Oh buddy you think you've got problems now, those cucamelons have only just got started.
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Jul 4, 2019 20:06
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Can pollen be saved? RIP to my first squash that apparently didn't get pollinated. I have another female one but no male flowers. Can I save the male flowers somehow as they pop up?
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Jul 5, 2019 02:33
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Jan posted:I've got a bit of a problem.
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Jul 5, 2019 04:02
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Grand Fromage posted:Can pollen be saved? RIP to my first squash that apparently didn't get pollinated. I have another female one but no male flowers. Can I save the male flowers somehow as they pop up? Not for a substantial length of time.
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Jul 5, 2019 08:03
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 I goes this yellowing one is one of my early croppers and it's ready?
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Jul 6, 2019 09:05
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cakesmith handyman posted:Oh buddy you think you've got problems now, those cucamelons have only just got started. The seedlings looked so tiny so I figured I'd plant 2-3 a pot. What did I know.  Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Cut back on the nitrogen for your maters, but the K and P are okay. They look almost a blue green, which is a sign of a very happy, healthy plant. That’s great, except that it means they just want to keep growing bmore and more leaves with all that nitrogen and aren’t that worried about making babies. Starve them a little and they’ll freak out and say ‘oh poo poo I need to pass on my genetic material because I might die’ and start making more flowers. What are the overnight low temperatures? Tomatoes will really slow down on flowering/setting fruit when nighttime temps get in the 70s This is San Jose, so we definitely have a desert climate thing going where temperature dips around 60F at night time and spikes to 85-90F (if not more) in the day. I've been trimming the suckers above the top of the cages to try to get them a bit more bottom heavy but I think the light situation with the balcony railing casting shade for half of the direct illumination is still pushing them to grow upwards. I'll switch fertilizers, it's been 3 weeks since my last use and the tomatoes are draining the soil dry fast, so I think they're due. It's very different from what I'm used to in Montreal, where they didn't grow so ridiculously large. I guess this is why a regional master gardener handbook can be indispensable, I'll get on that.
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Jul 6, 2019 20:13
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Hello everyone, Mostly posting to bookmark so I can come back and read through this. Cheers!
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Jul 7, 2019 22:24
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Turns out that yellowing potato plant wasn't ready, it was dead. Something has eaten the main tuber and killed it, so exploratory digging and investigation ongoing
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Jul 7, 2019 22:59
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my cucumber vines are out of control. can I just cut off branches/leaves without killing it or causing it to not fruit?
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Jul 8, 2019 19:11
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indigi posted:my cucumber vines are out of control. can I just cut off branches/leaves without killing it or causing it to not fruit?
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Jul 8, 2019 23:21
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Managed to get some small, but perfectly formed potatoes out of one of my growbags. Second bag hasn't flowered yet. Also my radishes are doing a thing, but I somehow managed to fail to get pictures of them to get advice 
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Jul 9, 2019 21:00
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Angrymog posted:Managed to get some small, but perfectly formed potatoes out of one of my growbags. Second bag hasn't flowered yet. Radishes got too hot, try again in a month and a half
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Jul 9, 2019 21:07
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I have been giving my peppers tomato feed once a week but they don't seem to be doing great. The pepper that was looking seriously unwell I gave some general veg fertiliser and some fish blood bone meal and seems to be back to flowering. Should I switch to general feed for all of them, or wait it out?
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Jul 10, 2019 11:19
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I would put them all on general-purpose fertiliser. What’s the worst that could happen?
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Jul 10, 2019 11:30
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loving whiteflies
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Jul 10, 2019 12:42
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Platystemon posted:I would put them all on general-purpose fertiliser. What’s the worst that could happen? Root burning. Which leads me to my question... how do I avoid doing that with fertilizers? I've been told to avoid it, but not reliably how to do so.
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Jul 10, 2019 16:12
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Heners_UK posted:Root burning. Which leads me to my question... how do I avoid doing that with fertilizers? I've been told to avoid it, but not reliably how to do so. Spoon-feeding. Err on the side of less and more frequent.
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Jul 10, 2019 16:16
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And always water thoroughly when you fertilize. You're less likely to get burn from organics too.
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Jul 10, 2019 16:18
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Fitzy Fitz posted:And always water thoroughly when you fertilize. You're less likely to get burn from organics too. This seems like a good time to crosspost my question from the weed growing thread. I was given some expensive organic stuff and would like to know what to do with it  I came up on some 5 gal jugs of Pure Blend Pro Grow (https://www.planetnatural.com/product/pure-blend-pro-grow-3-1-5-4/) and hi brix molassses (https://www.planetnatural.com/product/hi-brix-molasses/). I don't grow weed anymore but I grow a lot of peppers and other veggies, should I use this stuff on them? What is the hi brix? I'm worried about hitting my veggies too hard with this stuff as it says, I believe, to use some every time I water? My pepper plants are just past producing flowers and you can definitely see varied stages of pepper growth on them so I did an initial watering with like 25% strength solution.. something like 1 tablespoon of the pro grow in 2 gallons of water for ~20 sq ft. I was thinking once a week sounds more in line with what I've done in the past with plant food. Thanks in advance for any tips Fitzy Fitz posted:And always water thoroughly when you fertilize. You're less likely to get burn from organics too. like... after I mix it with water and douse the dirt?
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Jul 10, 2019 16:27
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I'm not sure why the P is so low on that first one, and I can't even tell what the second one is for. re watering: it wouldn't hurt to do a full watering even though you've mixed your fertilizer with water, but it's probably fine if you're using diluted wet fert like that.
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Jul 10, 2019 16:38
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Brix is a scale for sugar concentration, used when comparing fruits and many other things. Here it’s just a brand name, though.
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Jul 10, 2019 19:34
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:This seems like a good time to crosspost my question from the weed growing thread. I was given some expensive organic stuff and would like to know what to do with it Brix is a measurement of dissolved sugar in a liquid solution. So that molasses has a lot of sugars in it. I don't do much fertilizing for my peppers, but you can use light fertilizers infrequently (I have a bunch of 10-10-10 that I'm using for the first half of the summer). I use one every 3-4 weeks, and I'm using it in a 5'x7' raised bed with somewhat still sandy top soil (I only have so much organic matter to compost each year). I may switch to using fish manure next year because you supposedly only need to use it when you plant them.
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Jul 10, 2019 19:44
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Hubis posted:loving whiteflies Update: got some yellow sticky traps. After about 24 hours they have a metric shitload (possibly even an imperial shitload) of flies stuck to them, so I guess they're working?
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Jul 10, 2019 23:06
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Fitzy Fitz posted:You're less likely to get burn from organics too. Hubis posted:Update: got some yellow sticky traps. After about 24 hours they have a metric shitload (possibly even an imperial shitload) of flies stuck to them, so I guess they're working?
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Jul 10, 2019 23:26
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You're right, that's not a helpful generalization.
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Jul 11, 2019 00:16
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SubG posted:This isn't true. It just depends on the kind of fertilizer. Thanks for the tip. I'm doing that as well, but the density of foliage (I probably need to prune as well) has made getting good coverage on the undersides hard so I wasn't sure if it was being effective. I'll keep on it. I've been rustling the leaves to knock some of the flies into the air first in the hopes of getting them while they're moving as I spray from below. This also seems to drive more of them into settling on the traps. Next time I need to remember to set up the traps BEFORE I get an infestation, I guess...
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Jul 11, 2019 02:02
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I've of my patio fruit trees that never grew as strongly as the others has died above the graft, guess I get to find out how Thompson and Morgan's customer service is like. The other 4 trees have had identical location and treatment and are growing strongly.
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Jul 11, 2019 08:10
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cakesmith handyman posted:I've of my patio fruit trees that never grew as strongly as the others has died above the graft, guess I get to find out how Thompson and Morgan's customer service is like. The other 4 trees have had identical location and treatment and are growing strongly. Was it the Gala apple?
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Jul 11, 2019 08:19
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No the gala's looking great, it's the golden delicious Left to right in black pots:. Cherry, gala, conference, golden delicious, plum
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Jul 11, 2019 09:13
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Huh funny, I just rang up customer care and their first question was "was it the gala?" I hope mine were labelled correctly. They're sending another out though it might not be until September.
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Jul 11, 2019 09:23
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