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grumpy posted:I am right with you other miserable bastards. Couple of weeks of 100+ degree temps, no rain, and water rationing here in Austin, Texas. My sunflowers which are supposed to be 6 foot or taller are maybe 4, my cucumber plant which I swear I could watch grow and take over garden last year are growing but quite small, my peas just said "oh gently caress you" and died before they were 4 inches tall. The lone tomato plant, however, I am convinced was cultivated in hell. Why? It's thriving. I swear it just eats heat. We did get rain last night. A little over an inch. Too little, too late Mother Nature. You bitch.
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Jun 23, 2011 00:16
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RoadVirus posted:Hello green-thumbed goons! I built a small fence out of cedar leftovers from my deck. It's only about 2' tall but it keeps my 100lb lab out of the garden.  Honestly, it all depends on the dog.
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Jun 23, 2011 14:39
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NW Arkansas garden status check: No rain for a month after last month's 22 inch downpour. Ugh. SPACE IT OUT, MOM. Onions fell over. But they're not dead yet? They're about ping pong ball sized down there in the dirt. I dunno. Potatoes are blowing UP. We just put 'em in a big old rubbermaid and hilled them up about 6" a week for a month. I am really looking forward to dumping that bucket out. Tomatoes seem to be holding off, just a few small fruits, and I have TONS of these little white bugs covering the plants. Aphids? Not sure. They're hard to wash off. The plants seem to be okay, though? Pepper are coming in. except my habanero. I'm so depressed about it. ONE flower so far. My cayenne has already produced its first round (which I picked off, so as to encourage more peppers). Herbs are mostly good, I have more lemon balm than I know what to do with. The mint is doing spectacularly in hanging baskets. And the catnip has the most adorable little flowers ever. Water consumption: ~10 gal/day. I'd take garden pix but it's 3am here. Just a buncha containers in the yard. 
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Jun 24, 2011 08:43
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Does anyone of you know how to get rid of aphids? They're on a potted Mint, so I need something that's safe for inside and that won't make the plant inedible.
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Jun 24, 2011 12:15
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Prathm posted:Does anyone of you know how to get rid of aphids? They're on a potted Mint, so I need something that's safe for inside and that won't make the plant inedible. Lady bugs! Or neem oil.
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Jun 24, 2011 13:41
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Prathm posted:Does anyone of you know how to get rid of aphids? They're on a potted Mint, so I need something that's safe for inside and that won't make the plant inedible. I just spray them with a mixture of water and detergent. It takes them right off. You might have to do it for a couple of days though. I always seem to miss some.
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Jun 24, 2011 14:41
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Prathm posted:Does anyone of you know how to get rid of aphids? They're on a potted Mint, so I need something that's safe for inside and that won't make the plant inedible. Aphids are supposed to be repelled by mint haha They're also supposed to be repelled by onions but I've seen them on mine Manual control is to crush them by hand (just touching them will kill them) or blasting them with water. Neem or garlic/soap/oil mix would make the plant unpalatable to them The larger and more effective control is biological: creating an environment conducive to predators like lacewings, ladybugs, hover flies, wasps, etc . Having lots of flowers will help attract these; they generally like tight clustered small flowers or compound flowers. There are lists on the internet of what plants can be used to attract beneficials Our first garden year we had lots of pest problems. Psyllids and aphids mostly Our second year though, we now had a established ecosystem of perennial plants, flowers, etc and tonssss of ladybugs. I think our neighbors release them and then they find their way to our yard. We haven't had pest problems since If you are going to buy and release ladybugs, make sure to do it after you have watered the garden and around dusk. This will encourage them to hang around instead of high tailing it to greener pastures dwoloz fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jun 24, 2011 |
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Jun 24, 2011 18:07
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Go the ladybug route, if only because nothing is more satisfying then knowing the little bastards are going to be devoured!
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Jun 24, 2011 18:44
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We're lucky...in our neighborhood, we get *tons* of ladybugs. When I was prepping the beds for spring planting this past February there were ladybug larvae everywhere.
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Jun 25, 2011 23:04
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Well, I have a much firmer idea of what plants are successful on what sides of my house now, that's for sure. Cucumber; taking over everything. Acorn Squash; not so much. Seem to have blossom-rot problems and the plants are kind of stunted. Tomatoes; good thing I love tomatoes. Spinach; wtf? Planted them, and they promptly bolted. Bush beans; not satisfactory, going to have to go with the pole beans again next year. I have gotten exactly five beans off of 5 plants so far. None of my peppers are growing well, which is weird, because last time I grew peppers I ended up with so many I froze them. I am going to have a ridiculous crop of shallots, probably the size of my head. Turnips... they appear to be making the fat root above the ground?? On the other hand, the lavender is growing like mad. Everywhere, in all directions. Definitely going to have to revisit the squash and the peppers next year, maybe they will be happier elsewhere in the yard :/ Gardening is a fun frustrating mystery 
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Jun 26, 2011 16:24
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I've got a courgette (zucchini) plant growing in a big tub on my garden table. Some of the leaves are looking funky. A few of them are looking white/brown, of which this is by far the worst: Others have yellow spots, like this:  Any possible diagnosis?
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Jun 27, 2011 14:58
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It's raining, again. It rained yesterday, all morning (it says 1/2 inch but it had to be more than that), it's raining now and for the rest of the evening. 
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Jun 27, 2011 16:54
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Umbriago posted:I've got a courgette (zucchini) plant growing in a big tub on my garden table. Some of the leaves are looking funky. A few of them are looking white/brown, of which this is by far the worst: Top one in nearly certainly nutrient deficiency. In summer, pot plants, especially greedy ones like cucurbits get very hungry for nutrients. Give it a liquid feed once a week and it should perk up.
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Jun 27, 2011 17:22
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mAlfunkti0n posted:It's raining, again. It rained yesterday, all morning (it says 1/2 inch but it had to be more than that), it's raining now and for the rest of the evening. after never having rain in their entire lives (stupid drought) when we finally get an inch of rain the other day, all my sunflowers fell over. Stupid rain.
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Jun 27, 2011 20:04
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 Shoot. I guess these peppers are done for then? Lasted rather well during other hot days and thunderstorms. Guess the one day yesterday was too hot
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Jun 28, 2011 15:52
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Dear Guy with the plot next to mine, gently caress you for spraying in between your rows with herbicide and killing some of my tomato plants. Like seriously, WTF?
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Jun 29, 2011 03:52
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Well, it seems that there are only 2 possible ways for a zucchini crop to go. Zero, or a nearly infinite number. From the fact that my planters look like a flowerpot rather than a vegetable just now, I'm expecting more than humanly necessary. Good think I love 'em!
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Jun 29, 2011 07:55
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Liquid Communism posted:Well, it seems that there are only 2 possible ways for a zucchini crop to go. Zero, or a nearly infinite number. From the fact that my planters look like a flowerpot rather than a vegetable just now, I'm expecting more than humanly necessary. Dave Barry posted:Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables. He also wrote something around the lines of: A single zucchini is enough to feed a family of four for a year. The problem is one can not grow just one zucchini.
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Jun 29, 2011 19:13
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Yeah, that's why they're in a planter this year. Last time I did zucchini, they took over a corner of the yard, declared independence, and threatened my asparagus with invasion.
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Jun 30, 2011 17:07
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Well poo poo. Went to pick my first tomatoes today, and a couple of them are pretty weird looking. Some seem to have a dark gray/green discolored section on the bottom:  Anyone know what's going on with these? herbaceous backson fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 1, 2011 |
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Jul 1, 2011 00:39
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a handful of dust posted:Well poo poo. Went to pick my first tomatoes today, and a couple of them are pretty weird looking. Looks like blossom end rot. Caused most usually by erratic watering, but occasionally it can signify a calcium deficiency.
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Jul 1, 2011 01:43
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Looking for a bit of advice on weed control. It's baby's first garden, so I don't actually have any idea what I'm doing. It's 20x20 space, divided up into 4x4 beds in a 3x3 grid, so walkways of ~2ft between beds. Everything's finally coming in enough for me to mulch around it (got a late start planting in some cases) which is going to save me a ton of work. But that still leaves the pathways. Herbicide is undesirable both from an ideological standpoint and from not wanting to hurt my plants or those of my neighbors. It did occur to me reading the OP that I could put fabric weedblock down over the pathways, but that seems a bit silly. Any other ideas, besides just hoeing every week?
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Jul 1, 2011 21:15
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Doc Faustus posted:Looking for a bit of advice on weed control. It's baby's first garden, so I don't actually have any idea what I'm doing. It's 20x20 space, divided up into 4x4 beds in a 3x3 grid, so walkways of ~2ft between beds. Everything's finally coming in enough for me to mulch around it (got a late start planting in some cases) which is going to save me a ton of work. But that still leaves the pathways. What's silly about putting the weedblock down? It all depends on how much you want to spend, how much effort you want to spend maintaining it, and how you want it to look. You could cover the walkways with pavers, high initial cost and effort, but low maintenance afterwards. You could cover with weedblock, black plastic, cardboard, or newspaper, and cover that with bark, wood chips or sawdust. Or you could plant grass or a ground cover to crowd out the weeds.
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Jul 1, 2011 21:59
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Doc Faustus posted:Looking for a bit of advice on weed control. It's baby's first garden, so I don't actually have any idea what I'm doing. It's 20x20 space, divided up into 4x4 beds in a 3x3 grid, so walkways of ~2ft between beds. Everything's finally coming in enough for me to mulch around it (got a late start planting in some cases) which is going to save me a ton of work. But that still leaves the pathways. Yes, hoeing is one way to do it, but I doubt you need to do it weekly. It depends more on how pretty you want your garden to be. You could probably get away with doing it good once a month and then go back a day later and hand pull anything you missed. You can also put down a couple inches of mulch, whatever you can find between the rows and that will keep down the weeds too. I’ve heard of people using multiple layers of newspaper and wetting them together so they stick, but whenever I’ve tried to that it’s an uphill battle to keep them from blowing away before they get wet enough to stick together.
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Jul 1, 2011 22:13
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Cpt.Wacky posted:What's silly about putting the weedblock down? It all depends on how much you want to spend, how much effort you want to spend maintaining it, and how you want it to look. You could cover the walkways with pavers, high initial cost and effort, but low maintenance afterwards. You could cover with weedblock, black plastic, cardboard, or newspaper, and cover that with bark, wood chips or sawdust. Or you could plant grass or a ground cover to crowd out the weeds. I guess weedblock isn't so crazy, and newspapers could work. I'll have to weigh my options/steal some newspapers. Pavers are no good, though: it's a rented plot in a community garden space, so anything like that I'd have to remove and store at the end of the season.
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Jul 1, 2011 22:23
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Doc Faustus posted:I guess weedblock isn't so crazy, and newspapers could work. I'll have to weigh my options/steal some newspapers. Pavers are no good, though: it's a rented plot in a community garden space, so anything like that I'd have to remove and store at the end of the season. I see. Our community garden is just getting started and dealing with a similar issue. Our plots are 10x12 with two plots touching along one edge. We're trying to figure out what to do with the grass walkways in between all of the rented plots. I like the idea of layering and mulching. Use something that will degrade over the season and then your basically composting in the walkways and you can dig it into the plot for the next year and build up the soil.
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Jul 1, 2011 22:38
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Old cardboard boxes make great temporary weedblock, and worms love them. I've heard you can get lots of old boxes at liquor stores if you're in a state that doesn't have stupid puritanical blue laws.
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Jul 2, 2011 03:40
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Something keeps felling my pea plants! We have three raised beds inside of an eight-foot fence that seems to be bunny-proof - besides, bunnies would probably eat the plants, not just fell them and leave them there. So I figured it was cutworms, and sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the bottoms of all the plants. But they are still being felled! I have pepper, tomato, cucumber, and watermelon plants out there that are 100% unscathed. Does this sound like cutworms? How can I stop them!? Also, today I found this weird bug on one of the pea plant stumps. It kind of looks like a spiny shrimp. Does anyone know what the hell this is and if it could be causing this problem? 
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Jul 2, 2011 18:44
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I share your pain. Pea plants have rarely done well for me. They seem to the favorite food source of many pests; for us, mostly slugs They're just finnicky also, I think they have sensitive root systems. Our plants that survived the slug onslaught later died from unknown causes, the stem started turning brown on the bottom then the whole plant died
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Jul 2, 2011 21:26
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Doc Faustus posted:Looking for a bit of advice on weed control. It's baby's first garden, so I don't actually have any idea what I'm doing. It's 20x20 space, divided up into 4x4 beds in a 3x3 grid, so walkways of ~2ft between beds. Everything's finally coming in enough for me to mulch around it (got a late start planting in some cases) which is going to save me a ton of work. But that still leaves the pathways. I have found that grass clippings work very well
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Jul 2, 2011 22:14
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dwoloz posted:I share your pain. Pea plants have rarely done well for me. They seem to the favorite food source of many pests; for us, mostly slugs Man, that sucks. Do you think it's because their stems are more fleshy and succulent or something? Tomatoes and cucumbers are kind of hirsute, which I could see dissuading the slimy or soft pests. The peas were our heartiest seedlings this year, the first ones we transplanted outside, and every single one lived through the hail that killed off most of our cucumbers. I'm just pissed because literally a week ago the plants looked like this:  And now I have almost nothing left. I only got to harvest like three pods. Those three pods were tasty, though.
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Jul 2, 2011 23:29
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Peas really start to poop out once the temps start getting over the low 70's regularly, and a day of 80 degree plus weather will pretty much finish them off. I didn't even bother planting peas this year because we jumped almost immediately from 40-50 degree days straight into the 80's where I live.
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Jul 3, 2011 06:01
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I planted snow peas early this year on the advice of a neighbor, and they did really well until we finally got some heat waves here in the SF bay area. Two medium-hot weeks and they are barely hanging on. We did get quite a bit off of them earlier in the season, though. Meanwhile, it's not been hot enough for my squash and tomatoes to really take off. I've had green tomatoes on the vine for three weeks.
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Jul 3, 2011 06:56
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Marchegiana posted:Peas really start to poop out once the temps start getting over the low 70's regularly, and a day of 80 degree plus weather will pretty much finish them off. I didn't even bother planting peas this year because we jumped almost immediately from 40-50 degree days straight into the 80's where I live. I'd like to grow peas (northeast colorado, zone5) but how do they do with freezing temps? cause with low 70s in the day, it seems like we're still freezing at night, or it seems only two or three weeks between freezing at night and then 80+ temps during the day.
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Jul 3, 2011 07:20
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Welp, came back from a quick little vacation to find three of my broccoli plants snapped off close to the ground, and deep hoof prints throughout the garden. So looks like the deer have discovered my veggie garden. They've only hit my broccoli so far, but looks like they're eyeballing all the other plants. So, what do you all recommend for repelling deer? My foot and a half high fence is good for the bunnies and chickens but sure isn't going to stop deer.
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Jul 3, 2011 23:44
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Shotguns, root vegetables, herbs, and a nice dark malty beer to braise in.
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Jul 4, 2011 01:14
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Kilersquirrel posted:Shotguns, root vegetables, herbs, and a nice dark malty beer to braise in. Nope, I'm too close to a school for that. Sounds tasty though. =)
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Jul 4, 2011 01:32
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Lyz posted:Welp, came back from a quick little vacation to find three of my broccoli plants snapped off close to the ground, and deep hoof prints throughout the garden. So looks like the deer have discovered my veggie garden. They've only hit my broccoli so far, but looks like they're eyeballing all the other plants. Only things you can do to stop deer are either a tall enclosed fence or only plant plants deer don't like (and there aren't many) Some say peeing around your garden will deter wildlife but I wouldn't put too much stock in it dwoloz fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jul 4, 2011 |
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Jul 4, 2011 01:52
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dwoloz posted:Only things you can do to stop deer are either a tall enclosed fence or only plant plants deer don't like (and there aren't many) comedy option: Go balls-out berzerker with a spear like that one crazy cajun guy did with the feral hogs on his brother's rice farm. Or, call a friend who bowhunts, no report from a bow for anybody to call the cops about. real option: Rosemary is supposed to do a good job deterring deer, get some in pots and move it around the perimeter. Otherwise a (sturdy) fence will probably be your only option there if you can't locate something like coyote or wolf pee.
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Jul 4, 2011 02:05
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My mother-in-law used some tall netting and it seems to have worked, so I guess I'll get a hold of her and see where she got it. I was hoping for a simpler solution than a big ugly net around my garden, but oh well. Better that then getting no veggies.
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Jul 4, 2011 13:44
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