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All good info, thanks much. I should have added that I'm in Minnesota so winter will be covered in snow regardless so not worried about dead plants as long as they re-grow in the spring.
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Jun 3, 2021 00:56
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Mosch posted:What do I do against slugs? I haven't managed to harvest a single thing in the last three years - everything is eaten by slugs. Can't even get anything to grow, those drat molluscs devour every tiny little thing that sprouts up. Not weeds, of course, just my vegetable plants... how do I get rid of them? I go out every night, collect them and throw them a good few meters over the fence, but that doesn't seem to help. Everything I've read online says neither beer traps nor pesticides work and they just attract more slugs. I also don't really want to kill them, but I don't see any other solution. And no, I cannot keep ducks and apparently I'm not attracting any other animals that eat slugs. This is gonna sound stupid, but if you're planting transplants then I've had insanely good luck with simple plant collars. And when I say simple, I mean I just use toilet paper rolls or cut up paper towel rolls. I bend the top down a bit to make it harder for them to climb up and over the top. I catch slugs in my garden all the time, but I haven't had slug damage in years, so I'm assuming it's working. Stops cutworms, too, just be sure to bury the roll into the soil a bit.
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Jun 3, 2021 04:17
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Schmeichy posted:Dividing the hostas, adding compost, and weeding is a good plan, but you might want to consider how bad it will look all winter after the hostas die back if that's all you have. Maybe adding some shrubs and structural plants that will keep interest all year among the hostas would be good. Research a couple good native understory plants that will do ok in the shade. Ferns are nice too, but they also die back. Leaves are extra mulch, why rake them? Perfect answer. I just picked up some Rodgersia for a similar situation. Nice and bold and gets flowers too.  Can also recommend European ginger as an attractive ground cover for shade that doesn’t die back like hostas. I really like Coltsfoot too if you want to go crazy and have 32 inch wide leaves.
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Jun 4, 2021 11:01
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Question about squash (We have crookneck and zucchini). I've seen varying guides either way, but do you trim the leaves from those plants? Especially the zucchini? They seem to get a bit thick. One place I read said no, another said yes, but up to the last fruit on the vine. Another place says don't cut them at all, but they seem to get diseased leaves and, again, really thick foliage. The crookneck doesn't do anywhere near that so those I'll probably leave alone. The one time I DO trim leaves currently is when they are yellow/brown or badly damaged. My second question is with the crookneck. The first batch off of our plant were rather small and very bumpy/warty, and dark yellow. I think the primary problem was too much calcium (My wife's mom put powdered milk on the tomatoes to help with blossom rot). Should I just remove those and throw them out and let the new ones (who look smooth and much lighter yellow) grow out?
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Jun 5, 2021 00:33
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I haven't grown much crookneck squash, but you can trim the hell out of zucchini and the yellow straightneck squash. And when I say "trim," I mean you're going to feel like you're defoliating the plant and it's still going to be fine and produce insane amounts of fruit. The issue with those plants is that they grow like crazy and tons of the leaves end up shaded out by other leaves anyway. I do it mostly because I grow squash on a huge tunnel trellis and heavy pruning keeps them growing in the right direction without crowding out their neighbors. I've trimmed easily 50% or more of the leaves off of mature/overgrown zucchini plants in the past.
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Jun 5, 2021 02:44
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You'll also drastically reduce the risk of powdery mildew and squash beetles by pruning aggressively. Even more so growing them vertically. Keep the cut leaves off the ground in the garden for maximum benefit.
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Jun 5, 2021 02:48
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the leaves are so big and glorious that I always feel a little bit bad about it tho
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Jun 5, 2021 02:50
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Gothmog1065 posted:Question about squash (We have crookneck and zucchini). I've seen varying guides either way, but do you trim the leaves from those plants? Especially the zucchini? They seem to get a bit thick. One place I read said no, another said yes, but up to the last fruit on the vine. Another place says don't cut them at all, but they seem to get diseased leaves and, again, really thick foliage. The crookneck doesn't do anywhere near that so those I'll probably leave alone. The one time I DO trim leaves currently is when they are yellow/brown or badly damaged. Lil' lumpy bby yellow fingerling squash fried up in bacon grease is one of the tastiest things on earth.
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Jun 5, 2021 02:51
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Paradoxish posted:I haven't grown much crookneck squash, but you can trim the hell out of zucchini and the yellow straightneck squash. And when I say "trim," I mean you're going to feel like you're defoliating the plant and it's still going to be fine and produce insane amounts of fruit. The issue with those plants is that they grow like crazy and tons of the leaves end up shaded out by other leaves anyway. I do it mostly because I grow squash on a huge tunnel trellis and heavy pruning keeps them growing in the right direction without crowding out their neighbors. I've trimmed easily 50% or more of the leaves off of mature/overgrown zucchini plants in the past. mischief posted:You'll also drastically reduce the risk of powdery mildew and squash beetles by pruning aggressively. Even more so growing them vertically. I think last year we got the mildew which basically killed the zucchinis. We also did straight squash, not sure why I bought crookneck this year, but oh well! Pruning makes a lot of sense, but one website was saying something about viruses and crap. Thanks guys! Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Just boil the warty ones with sliced onions and then drain and mash the whole mess with lots of black pepp and cream cheese, top with cheddar or cracker crumbs or something and bake at 350 for a while and make squash casserole. Who the heck expects perfectly smooth yellow squash??? All the flavor is in the warts. I'll keep that in mind then. Time to harvest!
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Jun 5, 2021 04:17
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Paradoxish posted:the leaves are so big and glorious that I always feel a little bit bad about it tho If you happen to know anyone with goats, they love the leaves. Last year my goats spent every morning lined up at the garden fence for the zucchini leaves. They didn’t care for the squash itself though.
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Jun 5, 2021 06:45
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Last year my zucchini got powdery mildew and I cut it right back to the base, within 2 weeks it was flowering again. Another one took over a 4ft x 4ft bed. They are so vigorous it is crazy. Trimming the leaves also means you don't end up with a surprise marrow.
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Jun 5, 2021 09:30
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My long beans are growing but they look hosed up. Does anyone know why? The white spots are sunscald, those leaves were there before I put them out. All the new leaves are just warped. 
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Jun 5, 2021 18:59
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mischief posted:You'll also drastically reduce the risk of powdery mildew and squash beetles by pruning aggressively. Even more so growing them vertically. This all the way. Trim aggressively and often. Thin them out, make sure there is plenty of air flow near the stalk and they will do great. I like to mulch a bit around the plant as well to keep soil from splashing back up which I think also helps.
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Jun 5, 2021 20:13
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showbiz_liz posted:My long beans are growing but they look hosed up. Does anyone know why? The white spots are sunscald, those leaves were there before I put them out. All the new leaves are just warped. Mine always do this at first. I'm not sure why. They start to grow normally pretty soon though.
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Jun 5, 2021 20:32
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Mine always do this at first. I'm not sure why. They start to grow normally pretty soon though.
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Jun 5, 2021 21:03
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SubG posted:Yeah, this. I don't know if there's a gimmick to preventing them from going through that phase, but after an initial growth spurt long beans always stall while they're putting down roots. The new leaves it puts out during the stall always have that weird crumpled look. After worrying you--the germination rate was good, they sprouted fast, grew several inches almost as you watched, then all the sudden they're slowing down and looking weird, what the hell's wrong--boom they'll start climbing like a motherfucker and then they're back to normal. No weird leaves, and they're back to growing like six inches a day. Yeah, this. I can't even get mine to sprout like they're supposed to do. The weather keeps jumping between good and too cold. As in it was 75-80 most of the week, and today it's about 60 again. Oh well, my greens are doing well enough and I've gone through all of one of them. I think I'll just half the recommendations for planting space on the back of the packets from now on. They have so much wasted space around them that I should have filled better.
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Jun 5, 2021 21:17
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my plants have zero clue what the gently caress is going on. These temp swings are absolutely wild.
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Jun 5, 2021 22:52
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It's 36C today here in Zone 3 land and it's not even summer yet. I did some plumbing so that I can water from my well if I run out of stored rainwater.
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Jun 5, 2021 22:56
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silicone thrills posted:my plants have zero clue what the gently caress is going on. These temp swings are absolutely wild. I built bed sheet tents to try to get my lettuce through the next few days. Second loving 90-degree heatwave in zone 6 and we're still almost three weeks away from summer starting. The crazy part is that I was just worrying about the cold nights stunting my peppers.
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Jun 6, 2021 01:46
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I've got a 4x4 raised bed that was 75% lettuce and salad greens. I planted really early in April, some of them from seeds, other transplants and got SO MUCH LETTUCE. Like multiple huge bowls for dinners and family gatherings, by just picking and cutting and letting it grow back. But that is ending now with the heat. I'm keeping some and letting it bolt in an attempt to save seeds for next year. Really hoping Im able to make it work because this year was a banner year for salad greens.
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Jun 6, 2021 03:28
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silicone thrills posted:my plants have zero clue what the gently caress is going on. These temp swings are absolutely wild. I forgot that celery seedlings will prematurely bolt if exposed to too many nights below 13oc. Whoopsie, should have been paying more attention to how low the temperature has been falling while the trays were outside hardening off.
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Jun 6, 2021 03:52
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So I uploaded some of the pictures from the garden on Imgur. I'm wondering if squashes (both Zuc and Crook) should be trimmed more, but I took about about 30% of the leaves so far. I didn't realize my camera was doing 2x, so it was zoomed in more than I expected.   Otherwise everything is doing great except some stunted peppers (stupid loving random cold snap  ). I also decided to give my cucumbers somewhere to go, rather than encroach on my tomatoes:  Need to go find a tall trellis, not sure how I want to do it. May just get some lattice, and build an "A" frame over the cukes, and just weave them through it. Either that or get some more of the welded panel fence (Like I have around the garden, wish they sold less than 16' sections). Not sure of the rolled kind will be strong enough.
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Jun 6, 2021 15:48
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All that squash looks super healthy. Keep in mind that cucumbers will happily run until pressured. If you give them room they will pull down just about any trellis you can come up with. I've historically used a wood frame with sisal twine to let them run but it has the same issue - between weight, rain, and sun they always fail spectacularly at some point. We've switched almost exclusively to Tenax Hortonova on 12' u posts for just about anything but it's loving expensive. I put in the tomatoes from Grandma today, ran a whole row with my wife this morning. That's how gardening/ag gets you - you forget how pissed off and miserable you got last year while you're turning in a new row, etc. Working an office job for the first time in my life it's easy to forget how rewarding just getting out and getting dirty can be. I'm only planting about 10% of our garden this year but dammit I'm going to have some ridiculous tomatoes.
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Jun 6, 2021 17:52
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mischief posted:All that squash looks super healthy. I actually already cut out the other squashes, they were dark yellow (almost orange) and very warty, but from others comments, I could have just ate them regardless. Live and learn! quote:Keep in mind that cucumbers will happily run until pressured. If you give them room they will pull down just about any trellis you can come up with. I've historically used a wood frame with sisal twine to let them run but it has the same issue - between weight, rain, and sun they always fail spectacularly at some point. Bleh, we'll figure it out somehow. I mean, keeping them on the ground and weaving them in and out of the tomatoes wouldn't bother me, just don't want them climbing UP the tomatoes.
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Jun 6, 2021 23:05
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How much direct sunlight should I be giving my habaneros/jalapenos/cayenne peppers? I currently have them placed against a wall where they get direct sun from around 5am to 1pm but would they be better off in a location where they can get sunlight all day? I'm seeing differing opinions on google - some say 6-8 hours is ideal, others say as much as possible.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:47
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Eight hours of early light is great. They might like more, but I wouldn't worry about it if the growth is staying pretty compact (not reaching for more light). Depending on how hot it gets where you are, they might not even benefit much from light later in the day. Most plants close up their stomata during high heat to preserve water, so they don't necessarily benefit from midday sun if it's really hot. Not entirely sure if this applies to peppers though given that they're heat lovers.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:58
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In the past I've kept my peppers in full sun all day because I assumed they'd like the heat/sun, but it seems that it gets too hot for them here in mid summer (like, pretty consistently 90+ and a lot of 95+ days in addition to it being super humid) and they would always drop all their blossoms until about August or so when it would start to cool off. I'm trying to keep them in the shade in the afternoon this year to see if it might help with the heat issues. But of course we had a cold spell a couple weeks ago that made it drop a blossoms and an itty bitty pepper that was just starting to form : ( I think my tomatoes are starting to drop blossoms too, and I figure it might be because of the previous cold spell + it being super rainy lately? The cucumbers and herbs still seem to be going nuts for now though, knock on wood.
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Jun 7, 2021 15:46
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I have no idea what I'm doing. This is supposed to be a broccoli plant, but it looks like broccoli heads are forming like 18 inches off the ground. That can't be right, right? I'm zone 5b and didn't finish my planters until late this year so started everything too late. I'm guessing just too hot/late in the season?
gvibes fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 22:30
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I have woods around my house and a side yard. Me and my partner are going to start a garden on a patch. Is putting critter/deer repellent around the perimeter of the garden enough protection?
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Jun 7, 2021 23:03
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gvibes posted:I have no idea what I'm doing. This is supposed to be a broccoli plant, but it looks like broccoli heads are forming like 18 inches off the ground. That can't be right, right? I'm zone 5b and didn't finish my planters until late this year so started everything too late. I'm guessing just too hot/late in the season? Yeah that fella is bolting. fawning deference posted:I have woods around my house and a side yard. Me and my partner are going to start a garden on a patch. Is putting critter/deer repellent around the perimeter of the garden enough protection? Really depends on what you're growing and how comfortable the deer are around people. Where I live you can walk out in the backyard at twilight and yell at the deer and they're largely indifferent. I've actually touched a younger doe on the nose out of the window of my truck. An actual physical barrier is ideal, fence, etc. I've had some success keeping rabbits out with human hair but there's always anecdotal evidence that pissing in your backyard works. Go nuts! 
mischief fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 23:16
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gvibes posted:I have no idea what I'm doing. This is supposed to be a broccoli plant, but it looks like broccoli heads are forming like 18 inches off the ground. That can't be right, right? I'm zone 5b and didn't finish my planters until late this year so started everything too late. I'm guessing just too hot/late in the season? You can wait longer but once the head starts opening you may as well chop and eat it. Good news is the entire stalk is edible and goes well in stir fries and friend, that is some stalk. You could let it go to seed and volunteer next year (if it isn't a hybrid) but from the looks of your lovely weeded square foot garden that might not be your style!
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Jun 7, 2021 23:46
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TIL there is such a thing as dog vomit slime mold. A little baffled that it appeared in my pumpkin bed because it's isolated so I only periodically hand water.
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Jun 8, 2021 01:59
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Frankston posted:How much direct sunlight should I be giving my habaneros/jalapenos/cayenne peppers? I currently have them placed against a wall where they get direct sun from around 5am to 1pm but would they be better off in a location where they can get sunlight all day? I'm seeing differing opinions on google - some say 6-8 hours is ideal, others say as much as possible. Disclaimer: I generally have had the best luck with this approach, but this year all of my Capsicum have been sad and runtish. But that seems to have been loving everything this season, not just the peppers. Even the Japanese eggplants, which are usually fuckin' troopers, got confused by the constant hot/cold cycles and just gave up. Really the only things that seem to be performing normally/optimally are the long beans, bitter melon, and Okinawan sweet potatoes (but listing sweet potatoes is almost cheating, it's impossible to kill those fuckers). About half of the alliums are fine but a bunch just suddenly decided to turn brown (waaaaay early in the season for it). All the bok choy has bolted. Gai lan hasn't bolted but is starting to look like it might be stunted. Komatsuna seems fine in general, but lately we've been getting ~90 degree days and ~50 degree nights and the komatsuna has started looking like it wants to lay down during the day (which e.g. last year's crop never did, even through prolonged 100+ degree weeks). The perennials all seem fine. Starting to get full-sized green Sichuan peppercorns, but it'll be forever until they ripen.
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Jun 8, 2021 02:16
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Capsicum tend to go wilty a little in the afternoon sun. This is typically fine, but wilted in the morning they need water. Wilted in the late afternoon they need some water too. They seem to pause in their water uptake in the afternoon. They do like as much sun as you can get them, and for super hots you want sun for as much of the day as possible as it’ll help them get nice and heated. The other good news is that they’ll bounce back and leaf out when it gets hot enough. The temp swings isn’t great, but if they aren’t freezing and dropping leaves then they’re putting root effort in slowly. Everything I started last year was kept overwinter and trimmed back. A bunch got turned into cuttings and more plants. Now that it’s hitting 70+ regularly they’re bushing out, and you can lift the pot by the stalk they’re so well rooted (not that I’d recommend it). My long beans finally sprouted this round as I seem to have gotten lucky on when it was cool and hot this time. We will see about the eggplant and okra, but they’re looking fine and happy enough with getting covered at night.
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Jun 8, 2021 02:35
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I've been sweating it up de-weeding the last few days. Before pics above from the previous post now look like this:   I still have to do the rest of the yard perimeter and fix the plastic divider barriers in a few areas. At that point I figure I'll space out the preserved hosta, divide as needed, maybe source a few new things, then lay mulch. It was mentioned that you don't need to rake over mulch, that the decomposing leaves will just add it it. With this in mind, and adding mulch a couple times a year, what prevents the slow but steady accumulation of material in the garden? At some point I assume you need to remove stuff, just conservation of mass and all. Ignore the lovely lawn, thats a problem for another season. Thanks again. Salvor_Hardin fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 8, 2021 03:54
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Salvor_Hardin posted:I've been sweating it up de-weeding the last few days. Before pics above from the previous post now look like this: Basically, the organic matter from the mulch as after breaks down becomes the new plants.
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Jun 8, 2021 04:18
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Salvor_Hardin posted:I've been sweating it up de-weeding the last few days. Before pics above from the previous post now look like this: I am not a scientist, but it’s my understanding that a ton of the organic matter turns into air (nitrogen? Carbon dioxide? No idea!) as it decomposes. The worms carry a bunch more of it down in the dirt and the rain washes quite a bit of it away as well. The best part is that the stuff that stays behind is great stuff that plants like to grow it! Building up good soil in your beds is a good thing, and one of the goals of most gardeners. Between some bark once every year or two and some leaves in the fall, I don’t think you’d see a ton of build up, but climate definitely matters. My gardening experience is mostly confined to a hot, rainy swamp with sandy soil and it’s really hard to build up beds because anything added rots and washes away pretty quickly and it’s a challenge to find enough organic matter to constantly add back into the soil. It’s probably different in colder climates with different soils.
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Jun 8, 2021 04:25
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Salvor_Hardin posted:I've been sweating it up de-weeding the last few days. Before pics above from the previous post now look like this: Wow, good work that looks like a ton of weeding! If you've got some good compost, the hostas would appreciate it under the mulch after you divide them. Give each plant lots of room so they can fill out on the next year or two. Mulch is broken down by worms, other bugs, and microbes into finer soil, and then the nutrients on that soil are used by plants, the plants lose leaves, which decompose, and the cycle starts again. In a closed system with all the pieces, you would lose/gain very little matter over time. In cultivated gardens, you're removing some matter usually, and adding mulch and compost back keeps your plants much more lush. Schmeichy fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 8, 2021 05:00
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Thanks for the comments all re: peppers in the sun. I've left the jalapenos and cayennes where they are but I've moved the habaneros where they'll get sunlight pretty much until the sun goes down at night. I might move them again when (if) it gets too hot over the next couple of months but as we're still in June it's not really an issue yet.
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Jun 8, 2021 10:13
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Thanks for all the comments and the answers re: mulch breakdown make sense. I do have a (rather full) compost system so I will avail myself of that when it comes time to replant the hostas. edit: this might be a question more for the home improvement thread but I noticed a couple thick adolescent trees growing very close to the foundation of my house. About 3/4" diameter trunk. They are too big and close to dig around to remove and too thick to pull out. I think I'm worried about potential structural damage over time. Is there a method for getting those out? Salvor_Hardin fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 8, 2021 14:36
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