"VEGETABLE GARDENING" (for fun and nutrition)

[sproutco]

^ great garden. Bugs, disease, and heat are catching up with my 150 square foot raised bed garden. I started cabbage and tomatoes seeds two weeks ago for a fall garden. Good luck everybody!

 

[RuralRoute420]

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some things that i've learnt from this year's garden:

stake and prune the suckers off of tomatoes(all but top) not the flowers, makes for some monster plants, screw those cages

use cut up plastic garbage bags to tie up plants with - recycle

use your cages for pepper plants

don't sprinkle fertilizer above ground on corn, duh!, side dress them, got some in the "heart", burnt them some

i'll be back to finish/edit this, gotta run. i love gardening tips if you got them.

edit: here's a blurry picture of those brandywine monsters, this flower/tomatoe is almost 4" across in diameter:



i do have tassles on the corn, picked my first LILAC bell pepper today, come to find out this is small strain, compared to what i'm used too. i have already mounded up my onions, long ago, twice i think. but they still aren't over baseball sized yet, pulled one up. all the tops are lying over though, and they are soft where they go into the ground, thus the lying over.

 

[Guest]

Hi RR420,

I missed your question about onions in the last post.
When the shoulders of the onion start pressing up out of the ground you have to "hill them in". Keep them covered in either compost, mulch or straw. Sunlight will damage the bulb so pile it on!....As for your corn. In the Spring dig trenchs for you corn, leaving the just removed dirt in a pile that runs the full length of the trench. Plant you pre-soaked corn seed in the bottom of the trench. When the corn reaches a foot or so feed them a high N blast. Sprinkle some 12-0-0 in the trench around the corn....and using a rake, back-fill the trench with dirt---bury the corn at least 6 in. deep...water and stand back!


Hope this helps,
Seed

PS- My tall variety of corn has hit 8ft.....and its barely July. The stalks are as round as a beer can.

 

[RuralRoute420]

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i've got one strain delicious that has blossom end rot on the first 5 tomatoes sofar. i've read up on this problem, and i can't decide what the cause of it might be.

i water everyday. not raining much.
i'm using MG tomatoe food for nutes.
i severlely pruned these plants, this is also a cause i read.

but they also say sometimes that just happens to the first maters off a plant. not too worried about it. all the other look fine. in fact, the bigger brandywines are so big, so fast, splitting seems to be a problem.

 

[Guest]

Hey RR420,
A common cause of blossom end rot is calcium deficiantcy. In the Springtime add plenty of gypsum to the soil. Since we are past that, get you some liquid calcium nitrate and do a weekly foliar feed. Make sure to spray directly on the fruit. Also keep in mind that calcium nitrate is high in N so adjust your feed accordingly.

Hope this helps,
Seed

 

[RuralRoute420]

i have calmag.

but i have 4 different strains of tomatoes, and only one - delicious is rotting.

 

[bongasaurus]

nice to see some other veggie gardners.

ive got lots of peas and beans at the lake. well now im down to just beans. the groundhog cleared out every single pea

in the city ive got a couple rows of both of them too. along with some tomatoes and peppers

 

[Guest]

i have calmag.

but i have 4 different strains of tomatoes, and only one - delicious is rotting.

I had a similiar case last year. My Celebritys got blossom rot and my Romas were fine. It my have to do with the antique strains being more "natural"...resistant and acclamated than the new hybrids are....I dunno...I'll do some research. Anyhow, Calmag works great...should fix you right up.


Seed

PS- Treating all of your veggies with calcium tremendously increases the shelf-life of the fruit. Foliar feed...spray direct on the fruit.

 

[Guest]

Seeds update.

My corns tassles have peaked out and pollen is falling. It usually takes 20 days from the first sight of silk till finish. Here is a pick of the male pollen. It is to large for insect transfer so it relys on the wind and gravity to do the job.


Here is the female flower of the corn plant. The "silk" catches the fallen pollen from the tassle.



Poking my old man cane into a bell pepper plant. That is a watermelon in the back.


See the pack of smokes down inside?




Giant corn and green beans.



Seed

 

[RuralRoute420]

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you ever heard of tapping or shaking the tassles, to promote something or another, heard that from an old farmer.

 

[Guest]

Hi RR420,
Shaking the tassles simply shakes loose the pollen. Planting corn in blocks ensures the wind will evenly pollenate every ear. An unpollenated ear will have no kernals on it--naked cob.

Seed

 

[RuralRoute420]

horn worms

horn worms

found 2 these munching on my sugar snack cherry tomatos, how do you get rid of them? i found a baby also, so that means there's sure to be more. threw them out in the road, the birds liked them in about 5 seconds
these things can go to town.

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

Hi RuralRoute420
I occasionally get tomato hornworms too - fat ugly suckers no? Picking them off of course helps a lot, and I also have sprayed with neem. In my yard, once the tomatos are unhospitable with the neem they seem to leave them alone the rest of the season - probably go to my neighbors yard .

 

[sproutco]

i've got one strain delicious that has blossom end rot on the first 5 tomatoes sofar. i've read up on this problem, and i can't decide what the cause of it might be.

i water everyday. not raining much.
i'm using MG tomatoe food for nutes.
i severlely pruned these plants, this is also a cause i read.

but they also say sometimes that just happens to the first maters off a plant. not too worried about it. all the other look fine. in fact, the bigger brandywines are so big, so fast, splitting seems to be a problem.

Using MG plant food might not be a good idea. It probably contains alot of ammonia and urea nitrogen rather than nitrate nitrogen. Ammonia/urea is positive and so is calcium...they compete to get into the plant. You could spray your foliage with calcium nitrate at 3 tablespoons per gallon of water. Calcium chloride is another alternative too. Keeping even soil moisture of not too much/too little and mulching will help. Splitting and not blossom end rot is caused by too much water. Next year, try using 5-10-10 at preplant at a rate of 3# per 100 square feet to supply your p and k. Then sidedress with calcium nitrate at 2# per 100 feet of row or 7# per 1000 square feet after 4 weeks. 2 cups 5-10-10=1# and 2 cups cal. nitrate=19oz. Soil test would be best to test ph and your calcium levels.

 

[Guest]

Seeds Garden Update

See the little melon hiding in there? It might grow into my pepper plant.


Green beans have grown to the tops of the corn.


Giant corn, green beans and my mutts.


Garden veiw.


These toms are growing like mad. They were below the wood 6 days ago.


Pumpkins, sweet banana peppers, beans


Yarrow.



Seed

 

[DocLeaf]

Hey Speading Seed ur plot still looks good so do the mutts

...our outdoor temps have been up/down this year,,, the chillies had real problems, let alone the ganja mon,,, this pepper was rescued from the cold nights and brought inside to flower under glass :wink:

the dill, baby spinach, and corriander, are all cropping

Good to see this thread is still dusting the cobwebs from the potting-sheds
big-up all dem wid 'greenthumb' and soil pon the feet

peace all

 

[sproutco]

I have root knot nematodes in my garden. These are microscopic worms that feed on plant roots. I have in the past solarized the soil (covered the soil with clear plastic drop clothes) during the warm months but this left the garden unusable. I have heard sectagon is a good chemical that you can use to beat the nematode population down with. Anybody have this problem? Suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Hi Sproutco,
Marigolds are a sure-fire way to beat nematodes. They control them thru there life and after they die.....just till them under at the end of the season. As far as a chemical remedy I don't know.

Seed

 

[DocLeaf]

In small numbers, nematodes help break down organic material in soil substraits while predating upon other (often as harmful) outdoor pests

Root invertebrates that inhabit root systems (including nematodes and soil gnats/fly larvae) help breakdown dead root matter first, which is beneficial to plant-life, before numbers explode and they start feeding on fresh/new roots.

Turning the soil periodically will organically incourage birds to feed on excess pests while some remain... remember some soil pests mean you have healthy soil :wink:

marigolds we'd forgotten about that 'old granny's-trick' Spreading Seed thanks for the knowledge
dLeaf

 

[Guest]

Hey Sproutco,
I asked a gardening friend about nemotodes today. He says that crab meal/shrimp meal adds a protein that disrupts them. This wont kill them but it will slow there advance.

Hope this helps,
Seed