OFFICIAL 2011 Garden thread

[DarkRose]

I'll take a look later today.

On the trellis note, they seem to be doing fine now that I've extended my trellis. They had reached the top and had nowhere to go, and dad had some of my old arrows from a bow I no longer have, so grabbed 4 of those, snapped the nocks onto a crosswire, zip tied them to a vertical support, and got another 2 feet of height to tie plants to. Now they're supported all the way to the top again...

Still a few blooms on them, so maybe some more fruit will develop.

Edit: Appears I might have the critters, damaged stalks down low, split talks up a little higher... now to find a cure...

 

[grunt soldier]

my freaking watermelon and cantaloupe are taking over the garden. i wonder can i prune back there shoots? they were spaced over 6 foot away from each other and are now fighting lol. i don't see any cantaloupes yet but i have noticed about 12 baby baby watermelons. green beans need to be picked asap and canned. i think that is what i will be doing all day lol.

 

[88GT]

Edit: Appears I might have the critters, damaged stalks down low, split talks up a little higher... now to find a cure...

Good luck. I've tried the slicing the stem open, removing them, and then covering it up with soil, but I really think you have to get it before more than one or two take up residence. Otherwise, you practically have to cross-section and bisect the whole stem to get them all out. I've counted seven in one stem before.

Nothing I've done has ever saved them. Merely prolonged their life in order to get a few more fruit out of them.

 

[grunt soldier]

was just out walking through the garden getting ready to pick green beans and i have a couple questions.

1. my baby watermelons look like they have a small cut in them, is that normal or is there something i need to do. i remember getting full grown watermelons that have basically cuts in the rhine and scaring so i thought maybe normal?

2. do i need to prune the watermelon and cantaloupe away from each other? they are growing into each other now?

3. what would be digging into my potato's and like burrowing under them? can i go ahead and harvest the potato's now as the plants all seem to be dying (they aren't dead yet but they are dying, turning brown and drying up)


on a side note now that i looked around i have some softball sized cantaloupe's growing and i probably need to put some straw under them or something. i'm stoked as they are doing really well.

 

[DarkRose]

Good luck. I've tried the slicing the stem open, removing them, and then covering it up with soil, but I really think you have to get it before more than one or two take up residence. Otherwise, you practically have to cross-section and bisect the whole stem to get them all out. I've counted seven in one stem before.

Nothing I've done has ever saved them. Merely prolonged their life in order to get a few more fruit out of them.

Yeah, looking around on the web, the solutions I found were more pro-active than re-active, so slicing and killing is about the only solution left, and I'm not sure I want to invest the effort, these aren't for food, just for fun, so maybe I can be a little more proactive next spring and stop the problem before it starts.
We'll see how these turn out.

One set of my eggplants (pumpkin on a stick) is still doing well, the other set on the other side of the sidewalk has had 90% of their leaves eaten off...

 

[bwframe]

Anyone got a clue what this bug is?

 

[DarkRose]

Anyone got a clue what this bug is?

Amorous?

 

[grunt soldier]

nope but they are making babies and you need to kill them. if they lay there eggs on your plants and they hatch it is so much more annoying to get rid of lol. spray them down sir

 

[DarkRose]

Bingo! Found it!!! Blister Beetle.

Interesting article... Toxic bug!

BLISTER BEETLE INTOXICATION

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Bingo! Found it!!! Blister Beetle.

Interesting article... Toxic bug!

BLISTER BEETLE INTOXICATION

Spanish fly huh.....looks like your making more than just veggies.

 

[XtremeVel]

Bingo! Found it!!! Blister Beetle.

Interesting article... Toxic bug!

BLISTER BEETLE INTOXICATION

Thats exactly what it is. They can do alot of damage to a tomato plant over night. The damage can look like a bad infestation of tomato horned worms.

In close to 20 years of gardening, I've only seen them a handful of times. This year is definately the worse for us. One bit of good news is they aways seem to disappear about as fast as they show up... In the meantime, they don't seem to like to crawl over diatomaceous earth. if you watch putting chemicals into your soil, buy it from a gardening shop rather than a pool supply company.

 

[bwframe]

Bingo! Found it!!! Blister Beetle.

Interesting article... Toxic bug!

BLISTER BEETLE INTOXICATION

Thats exactly what it is. They can do alot of damage to a tomato plant over night. The damage can look like a bad infestation of tomato horned worms.

In close to 20 years of gardening, I've only seen them a handful of times. This year is definately the worse for us. One bit of good news is they aways seem to disappear about as fast as they show up... In the meantime, they don't seem to like to crawl over diatomaceous earth. if you watch putting chemicals into your soil, buy it from a gardening shop rather than a pool supply company.

Thanks!

They were eating the crap out of the potato foliage. I gave them a dose of a (Jerry Baker) cleanup tonic last evening. Couldn't tell if it had any effect on them or not but there were still bugs moving around. I didn't want to make an insecticide run unless totally necessary, so I went another route:

 

[88GT]

Yeah, looking around on the web, the solutions I found were more pro-active than re-active, so slicing and killing is about the only solution left, and I'm not sure I want to invest the effort, these aren't for food, just for fun, so maybe I can be a little more proactive next spring and stop the problem before it starts.
We'll see how these turn out.

I have been told by someone far more experienced in gardening that the SVB moth is almost never seen, despite being a diurnal species. I have been on the look out for it for the last two garden seasons with the intent to kill with prejudice. No joy. I can't even find the eggs, despite looking every day or every other day. And after the plant gets big enough, the spines are down-right irritating and there are enough leaf stems and flower stems that I can't physically look under all of them. Everybody recommends Sevin, but I'm still figuring out how to apply it to the UNDERSIDE of the leaf/stem since that is where the eggs are laid.

I just may postpone planting until late July when the SVB life cycle is past the egg stage. Still plenty of time for zukes/squash. But it doesn't do much for the pumpkins or other long season varieties.

One set of my eggplants (pumpkin on a stick) is still doing well, the other set on the other side of the sidewalk has had 90% of their leaves eaten off...

50% success is better than 100% failure!

 

[88GT]

was just out walking through the garden getting ready to pick green beans and i have a couple questions.

1. my baby watermelons look like they have a small cut in them, is that normal or is there something i need to do. i remember getting full grown watermelons that have basically cuts in the rhine and scaring so i thought maybe normal?

Without a pic, hard to say. I know my zukes get scarred from the spines of the plant they came from if they grow up between two close-growing leaf stems. I would think boring animal would leave more of a round hole too.

2. do i need to prune the watermelon and cantaloupe away from each other? they are growing into each other now?

I don't think so. But I don't know for sure. I have heard that the more you mess with the vines, the greater the risk of damage to the plant itself. I relocated a pumpkin vine that was crossing a walk way in the garden and ended up pulling up roots. Thankfully it seems to have weathered the move okay, but I think they are better left alone.

3. what would be digging into my potato's and like burrowing under them? can i go ahead and harvest the potato's now as the plants all seem to be dying (they aren't dead yet but they are dying, turning brown and drying up)

Mice, moles, or voles most likely. You can dig gently with your hands to see what kind of harvest you are likely to get. Or sacrifice a single plant and see how much progress has been made.

on a side note now that i looked around i have some softball sized cantaloupe's growing and i probably need to put some straw under them or something. i'm stoked as they are doing really well.

Sweet! Literally. I hope mine bears fruit. It went in late so we'll see.

 

[grunt soldier]

yeah i went out today and looked and something had completely dug up my end potato's, so i just finished and pulled that one out. they were not huge but they weren't to small. they were the ones all the way at the end with the least room to grow and most weeds growing on them. i harvest a few out of the middle and they are store sized potato's already. i will wait and see if i can't trap this damn thing. they stalks and leaves are all dying. I'm pretty sure they are dying off now. i wonder if i leave them if they will really get any bigger.

i also found 4-5 softball sized watermelons now. and i think its just the scarring on them like you see on a lot of the ones at the stores. they are literally spreading like wildfire though. i need my freaking cabbages to hurry up and be done lol. my other green beans aren't going to take i don't think. must have been the heat didn't allow them to germinate or something who knows.

 

[RichardR]

It's been another really great season for my garden, a beautiful, bountiful harvest once again!

None of my blue berry bushes greened up this year (I'm going to replace them with more raspberry bushes) but everything else has come in very nicely.

I think this is the 7th season for this garden & it's really matured into a very nice patch of green growing goodness!

Anyway if you haven't guessed it by now, I am very very pleased with my garden.

 

[LEaSH]

I'm happy for you.

I've not had the same fortune.

Getting blossom rot on about 1/4 of the tomatoes and bell peppers. And I suspect squirrels are destroying my near ripe spaghetti squash.

Pole beans have sickly leaves, and potato plants are dieing back. So I'll have to dig them up soon.

WTH about the squirrel and squash, though? It must be a good source of moisture for them. Dang tree rats.

 

[zspeed130]

I need to paruse this thread some more but it is full of great info for our state! What a resource. We have done a little growing but really want to step it up next year.

Z

 

[DarkRose]

I have been told by someone far more experienced in gardening that the SVB moth is almost never seen, despite being a diurnal species. I have been on the look out for it for the last two garden seasons with the intent to kill with prejudice. No joy. I can't even find the eggs, despite looking every day or every other day. And after the plant gets big enough, the spines are down-right irritating and there are enough leaf stems and flower stems that I can't physically look under all of them. Everybody recommends Sevin, but I'm still figuring out how to apply it to the UNDERSIDE of the leaf/stem since that is where the eggs are laid.

I just may postpone planting until late July when the SVB life cycle is past the egg stage. Still plenty of time for zukes/squash. But it doesn't do much for the pumpkins or other long season varieties.





50% success is better than 100% failure!

I read somewhere that you can wrap the bottom of the plants and ground around them with foil and it confuses the moths trying to lay eggs, or set out traps in June, which are just YELLOW containers of water, they're attracted to yellow, get in and drown. Also a way to tell that they're there.

Dad uses Sevin on his roses with a pump sprayer, but i wonder if you can get it as a powder and use one of those hand crank powder sprayers?

 

[grunt soldier]

I'm happy for you.

I've not had the same fortune.

Getting blossom rot on about 1/4 of the tomatoes and bell peppers. And I suspect squirrels are destroying my near ripe spaghetti squash.

Pole beans have sickly leaves, and potato plants are dieing back. So I'll have to dig them up soon.

WTH about the squirrel and squash, though? It must be a good source of moisture for them. Dang tree rats.

the blossom end rot is a calcium deficiency and fairly simple to correct. the ones with it already aren't going to be good just pick them off and go on about it your day. spray the plant with a mixture of epson salt about 1 tablespoon per gallon. and if you mix in your normal fertilizer your good to go. some people say there is better out there but i have never had any problems w/ the above route.


and dark there is a sevin dust, same as the liquid but if it rains you need to reapply it