6

my pepper plants are not longer able to support their own weight. they haven't started producing yet, but are blooming and otherwise look healthy. is this normal? i suppose i'll just stake them up.

also, the cucumber vines are out of control. is it safe to cut them back?

[Edited on June 3, 2009 at 6:11 PM. Reason : .]

6/3/2009 6:11:39 PM

my rutgers!

6/3/2009 6:39:39 PM

Quote :

"So why do they pop back looking like normal plants without me actually watering them? "

There's still water available in the soil. It's just that when it's really hot and dry and the sun is just beating down, the water is being lost out of the leaves faster than the roots can pull more up.

When it cools off, the roots catch up, and the deficit is eased, and the leaves perk back up.

6/3/2009 8:08:10 PM

grows about 2-4 inches a day

6/3/2009 10:42:30 PM

Got me some herbs.









Same containers, pics are a few weeks apart.

6/7/2009 11:34:45 AM

hopefully GREEN JAY or someone equally as knowledgeable can chime in on this. what would cause this to happen, and how to i fix it? My cucumbers started putting out fruit, but the fruit is turning brown before it fully develops. I tried to take a pic, but couldn't convince the camera to focus on it properly:


And just for the fun of it, here's two pics of my flowers (you can see the cucumber vines in the background of the second one, they are otherwise healthy looking plants:




[Edited on June 7, 2009 at 1:49 PM. Reason : .]

6/7/2009 1:48:37 PM

I'm most definitely a noob at this. So I moved my pots to the fire escape because I saw that some other folks had stuff out there. The soil in the pots never really "dry out", or didn't seem to inside. Outside, I watered them, not checking the weather. Then it rained the rest of the week.

So...my thyme and oregano died on me. I'm gonna rebuy them and try them in separate pots, and maybe try parsley, cilantro?

But my question - my basil looks like it might be 'diseased'?



Is there anything I can do about this? Is it safe to eat? The plant is growing nice and hearty, so I want to go ahead and use some (at least make pesto or something) so it will keep growing. But I didn't know if that basil is safe to eat...

6/7/2009 7:45:41 PM

my maters are doing a lot better since i eased up the miracle grow

potted a rosemary plant ambrosia gave me today as well

6/7/2009 11:37:34 PM

Quote :

"hopefully GREEN JAY or someone equally as knowledgeable can chime in on this. what would cause this to happen, and how to i fix it? My cucumbers started putting out fruit, but the fruit is turning brown before it fully develops. I tried to take a pic, but couldn't convince the camera to focus on it properly:"

I think the cucumbers are dying b/c either they aren't getting pollinated by the male flowers (Male has no fruit attached) and/or they are getting too much rain causing blossom-end-rot...blossom-end rot can also be caused by calcium deficiencies in the soil as well.

If I could guess I think it is b/c they are being fertilized. If you see both male and female flowers blooming take a brush/q-tip and transfer pollen from the male to the female flower.

I hope I'm right!

6/8/2009 1:35:43 AM

Just got back from vacation. Too tired and lazy to venture out onto the balcony and see how the plants are doing. Hopefully they're not dead

6/8/2009 10:08:01 AM

my cinnamon basil keeps falling over - is this common? should i put a stick in the pot for it to creep around?

6/8/2009 10:46:42 AM

need some advice please

I am growing tomatoes, broccoli and bell peppers. The Tomatoes and broccoli are going to be given to my daughter (9 months). I have a few issues that have popped up recently, please address any you feel you know the answer to:

1 - They are growing amazingly well... they are staked, but they shot up so fast while I was away that 2 of them bent over. They are now restaked with a much longer pole. I am concerned the plants will not come back from being bent over (they bent in one location pretty sharply, it was not a slight bend).


2 - I noticed about 15 black bugs on the stalk - they looked kinda like ants but maybe not. It was hard to tell as it was raining and I was in a bit of a hurry. There were also 3 white bugs that left a residue when they jumped away... no clue what these are. I want to get rid of any pests, but am cautious since these will be given to my very young daughter. I have also noticed small slugs.... they/something are feasting on the broccoli leaves - big time.


3 - I have HUGE containters... drilled holes.... rocks in the bottom and then a combo of miracle grow potting soil and cow manure. The plants look amazingly happy. When I water (not sure how much to water) the water piles up and the soil floats around some. I wanted to add some soil on top of the potting soil. I got "garden soil", poured about 2 inches or so around the plants.
Then I look down at the bag and it says "not for containers"..... God Dam***, so I try and scoop up as much as I can but of course there is some in there. Can this really matter? It is soil.....


4 - okay, so 3 made me ask.... how do I know how much to water?

[Edited on June 8, 2009 at 11:08 AM. Reason : slugs]

6/8/2009 11:05:43 AM

Quote :

"If you see both male and female flowers blooming take a brush/q-tip and transfer pollen from the male to the female flower. "

i'll run that up the flagpole and see if it flies. thanks!

6/8/2009 7:03:17 PM

Japanese Beetles are beginning to eat my Basil - what;s the best thing to do to get rid of those guys?

6/8/2009 7:54:37 PM

my mama used to have problems with them getting in the pool. she set this like funnel bag trap and it worked pretty good. hers was identical to this:

6/8/2009 9:11:11 PM

Quote :

"They are growing amazingly well... they are staked, but they shot up so fast while I was away that 2 of them bent over. They are now restaked with a much longer pole. I am concerned the plants will not come back from being bent over (they bent in one location pretty sharply, it was not a slight bend)."

If you bought the baby plants, did you transplant the tomatoes deep? you should bury about 2/3 of the stem when transplanting tomatoes. (most other plants you should not do this) the buried part will grow side roots and help support the plant.

I wouldn't worry about the bend, in my experience plants can overcome a bend just fine and always end up growing straight up towards the light.

6/9/2009 5:16:10 PM

oh, btw, answer to the issue of my peppers from above?

It was the fucking rabbits
they ate everything they could reach, and left like three leaves at the top of each plant

6/9/2009 5:18:30 PM

^^ I started all of the plants from seeds. The plants seem to be doing fine since the bend. Anyone able to comment on the other questions I posed, namely the pests and concerns of giving them to my daughter.

6/9/2009 5:28:58 PM

found 3 tiiiiiiiiny little maters on my bigger plant today. each was pretty much just a pale green ball at the base of a withering blossom.

6/9/2009 5:33:52 PM

My plants are looking alright for the most part, except for the goddamn aphids that decided to move in while I was on vacation

6/9/2009 7:18:02 PM

calliphish- your pests sound like aphids. go to walmart and get something called "insecticidal soap" and spray down the affected areas of your plant. its actually a potassium salt solution and will kill the bugs on contact. its non-toxic to humans so just make sure you wash your crop thoroughly. the bugs themselves wont hurt your daughter.


slugs- take a bottle of cheap beer, drink half of it and then bury it in the ground on its side so that the opening is resting at soil level. the carbon dioxide will attract the slugs in and they will crawl in and drown. you can also pour beer into dishes and set it around for similar results.


its ok that you have some soil in the pots as long as they are staying moist. water when the first 1-2 inches of soil feel dry or at the very least when the leaves start to look limp. you may have to water every or every other day soon.





ambrosia- how about some wire cages around the plants? doesnt your husband have a dog? what is he good for anyway? :-P



chop- are they just browning and drying, or does mold/fungus eventually develop? you might have one of a billion kinds of blossom rot that affects squashes. try to minimize the amount of contact bugs are having with your plants- look for cucumber beetles and signs of vine borers and eradicate them if possible. make sure you are keeping the flowers from touching the soil, and are staying dry (ie only water the base of the plant, dont spray leaves and flowers). cucumbers often need hand pollination- i am waiting for some female squash blossoms so i can do the same thing.

6/9/2009 10:05:04 PM

Update from page 4:


Romas

Some heirloom something

Sunflowers, corn, and pumpkins. Deer have been nibbling.

corn's tassling

Hops. This is the first year I've had them.

The pumpkins are taking over. That's Okra poking out in the middle of the pumpkin vine. There's a small fig tree doing the same thing on the other side. And cukes and watermelon on another side.

6/9/2009 11:06:43 PM

I bet our plants are all dead.

I watered them on Friday, and then I got married on Saturday so I wasn't in town....had some friends go over on Sunday to water them, and I think they're heading back tomorrow...

They normally like water EVERY DAY and if they don't get it they look like they are dead. So they missed Saturday, most of Sunday, Monday, and today (and won't be watered until tomorrow evening).


Yuck yuck yuck....

6/9/2009 11:39:18 PM

dont know where you are at charlesHF, but its been rainy this past weekend and today for sure. just make sure they get a good soak and out of the sun for a while, you'd be surprised what will come back.


^^How tall is that corn? those romas and pumpkins look amazing, im coming over to nom!

6/10/2009 12:13:20 AM

^Between 5'-7'. I'm pretty surprised at how well and un-deer-eaten everything is going. so far.



Also, in today's N&O,

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1562285.html

Squash blossom article and recipes.

6/10/2009 10:00:02 AM

Not really using containers, but I wanted in on the show-off-your-garden fun! I built a "lasagna garden" in my new back yard in February. I didn't think anything was going to get nearly enough sun, and yet...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtygreek/collections/72157619575023748/


Early Sunglow


From Back Left, Clockwise: Beefeater Tomato, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Squash / Zucchini, Collards, Lettuce and Chard, Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas, Corn, Onions, Peppers, Eggplant, and Basil in the center


Cherokee Purple tomatoes


Cukes


Beefeater Tomato - there are lots of little ones showing up too, but that one got an early start somehow.

Plus, my beans are starting to flower, and I've already harvested a few snow peas. Pretty psyched Now, if my damn squash and zucchini would start fruiting. I've had blossoms for weeks, but I guess a lot of them are still males. Been trying to hand-pollinate the few that I think are females.

[Edited on June 12, 2009 at 1:09 PM. Reason : .]

6/12/2009 1:08:06 PM

Anyone know when its best to pick bannan peppers? I can't remember if I got a sweet or slightly hot variety, but the ones I picked yesterday have no heat to them. They were about 5-6" long. Will leaving them on there heat them up some more, or should they be fairly warm already if they are in fact not sweet banana peppers?

6/12/2009 3:59:50 PM

rose bush has like 7 flowers blooming on it right now

6/12/2009 8:40:54 PM

^^

Ok, so the pepper I ate that wasn't hot I had picked last weekend and just got around to eating it yesterday. The peppers I picked yesterday I bit in to one and it was approaching the heat of a jalepeno. Shit had sweat beading up on my forehead within a few minutes.

6/12/2009 10:03:28 PM

Someone at work mentioned that they have had spicy cherry tomatoes after planting them near jalapenos, so I'm starting to think the cross-breeding pollination is more than a myth!

6/13/2009 12:32:20 PM

We got to pluck a cucumber off and enjoy it last night!

After the first small batch of blackened/rotten tomatoes we haven't had anymore, we have at least 15 on the two plants and they look great! The watering has gotten crazy now that there's fruit, it seems like we're always watering or hoping for rain! haha

6/14/2009 12:29:29 PM

my mater plants need a lot of water too. one plant has 7 little maters and the other has 4 little ones and one that will be ready to eat probably tuesday.

also got two green bell pepper plants and a rosemary plant

6/14/2009 5:04:27 PM

can i cut back my cucumber vines? they are growing in to a tangled mess and beginning to choke itself out. it basically looks like kudzu in a pot. it looks like no matter what i do, i'm not getting anything usable from these vines.

do peppers need to be hand pollinated? i stake the plants up, they went into full bloom, but no peppers ever showed up.

6/14/2009 9:23:39 PM

I have bananas and bells and I certainly didn't hand pollinate.

6/14/2009 10:09:50 PM

A deer ate one o fmy pumpkins. It was almost soccer ball sized. dagnabbit.

6/16/2009 2:03:10 PM

What a difference a few days make!

[Edited on June 16, 2009 at 10:09 PM. Reason : .]

6/16/2009 10:07:15 PM

damned aphids are taking all the fun out of this. they've pretty much completely killed off the pot of begonias i had and are threatening to kill off my cucumber vines (which btw, still haven't produced anything usable). i've tried a couple of different treatments but just plain water seems to be the only thing that doesn't harm the plants.

i'm thinking about just ripping out everything and starting over or maybe wait for next year.

6/20/2009 6:50:29 PM

damn this sun is zapping my plants...they are doing well but take a shit load of water. have to fill up three seperate gallon jugs to water my plants...half a gallon each for my two morning glories. rose bush likes aqua too.

pruned my diffenbacia(sp?) and palms...hadn't done so in about a year. i didnt realize how good they were doing until i got rid of all the old foliage.

i'm kinda pissed my morning glories are about 9' high right now and have no flowers...

6/20/2009 7:07:09 PM

So far I've harvested 3 hot peppers a squash and a big ass zuccinni. I have another squash and zuccinni that's about ready to be picked. And my rain barrel has about one more watering left in it. I hope it rains this weekend!

Oh and my cherry tomatos are starting to produce.

6/23/2009 8:10:51 PM

Quote :

"http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1562285.html Squash blossom article and recipes."

Thanks for this!

6/23/2009 8:16:36 PM

I've harvested a zuchinni, 3 more are on the vine. Harvested 3 servings worth of green beans. About that much more will be ready in another 10-14 days. Have a few cherry tomatos that will be ready by the weekend with around ~100 more that will be good in another 10-14 days. Harvested about 10 banana peppers with around 3-4 being ready per week. Harvested 5 bell peppers with a couple getting ready per week. My okra plants haven't started setting fruit yet, but they are about 3 ft tall and look really healthy.

My mystery plant finally started setting fruit and it looks like some type of gourd.

6/23/2009 9:15:02 PM

Quote :

"damned aphids are taking all the fun out of this. they've pretty much completely killed off the pot of begonias i had and are threatening to kill off my cucumber vines (which btw, still haven't produced anything usable). i've tried a couple of different treatments but just plain water seems to be the only thing that doesn't harm the plants."

I withheld water for a week (and shaded my plants) and the aphids finally went away. That was the only thing that worked. My plants were dry as hell, but they came back.

6/23/2009 10:18:51 PM

i ended up ripping out the cucumbers, chamomile, stevia, radishes, and half of the flowers. they were all pretty much past the point of no return and i didn't want those fuckers spreading any further.

6/24/2009 7:46:42 PM

My 2 cherry tomatoes are next to my hot peppers so we'll see what happens

6/24/2009 8:02:21 PM

my dad planted bell peppers beside jalapenos and has some weird-shaped peppers on his bell plant. cross pollenation?

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 8:09 PM. Reason : lllll]

6/24/2009 8:09:24 PM

my 'maters keep getting blossom rot

6/24/2009 8:22:29 PM

i use insecticidal soap for aphids. sorry you lost your crops, chop


^you need to supplement the soil with calcium. try some bone meal.

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 8:26 PM. Reason : ]

6/24/2009 8:25:51 PM

yeah, i lose several due to blossom end rod. lime works too, i think.

[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 9:09 PM. Reason : not like the fruit, the greenish powder stuff]

6/24/2009 9:08:44 PM

Lime is calcium carbonate.

It's probably too late to get anything changed, calcium-wise, for this season.

6/25/2009 8:51:09 AM

It's too late to change the general level of calcium in your garden, but the maters will certainly benefit from a side dressing of it any time now.

6/25/2009 9:42:45 AM