Horticulture Questions and general Gardening

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

There is that about tomatoes.  Get yourself some good vines, and you'll have 'em all summer.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

My Grandmother and my family grow tomatoes. We love Roma, Cherry, Purple, and Heirloom.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Ill have to choose one that produces year round not just one crop.

[Easy Bakes 253]

These last couple of cold mornings has devistated my squash plant.

Still alive but just barely.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I hope you have seed for spring.  Meanwhile, R.I.P. your squash plant.

[Sam 163]

We've had a lot of rain here and many plants are dying. I think my choko vine has had it, which is a shame, it was very prolific for two seasons now.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Originally posted by: Sam

We've had a lot of rain here and many plants are dying. I think my choko vine has had it, which is a shame, it was very prolific for two seasons now.quote>

Spring where you are, right?  That's too bad, but I assume you can get another one.  What is a choko vine?

[catty-cb 4,412]

Originally posted by: Sam

What is a choko vine?quote>

It belongs to the same family as cucumbers and squash, its more formally know as Chayote

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Thanks.  It seems from the Wiki article that this native American gourd has gotten around.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Today I choped up the dried up  vines and leavse and mixed them up in the planter and heavly watered the whole thing.

by march it should be all nice and mulchy. Ready for tomatoes.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

What?  Not going to try squash again?  Prettier than tomatos and the blossoms are ediible.

Put some marigolds in with the tomatos and you will protect them from tomato worms.

[Easy Bakes 253]

My New try for vegies

the 3 big square ones are for Tomatoes. I have them already but havent put them in the big planters yet. this weekend most likely since any chance of a late freeze wil be slim.

i have Acorn squashs in the left side of the long one.

havent decided what to put on the other side.

  Edited March 7, 2011 by Easy Bakes  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Add cucumbers on the left. They are great in salsas and any surplus can be pickled. For a large cucumber or so, slice them about one-eighth inch thick and pickle them in a brine of cider vinegar, brown sugar and water, together with any flavoring spices, like mustard seed, you might want. The acid in the vinegar should keep this in a jar in the fridge for quite a while. They will be good as condiments or sandwich filling after about two days.

If you trellis all these veggies, you will have quite a pretty display when they bloom.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Im going to put a piece thick carboard or mabey a peice of plywood to keep the plants off the hot concrete

[Sam 163]

That's a good idea especially if it gets really hot where you are as small tubs will heat quickly from the concrete. Cucumbers especially don't like the heat so you might even want to raise a board on some bricks so air flows underneath.

The basil in my garden (i.e. collection of pots) is going really well and I'm also getting some cayenne and jalepeno chillies. I've also got a guava tree in a pot and it is now fruiting. Most other things aren't surviving at all well with the fickle weather we are having. I put some lettuce in and they bolted before they fully grew to edible stage.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Hi Sam. I guess you are in high summer now, there in the antipodes. Sorry about your lettuce, but what do you mean "bolted"?

[Easy Bakes 253]

It ran away

went to seed with out producing any lettuce

Bolting:

Most plants bolt due to hot weather. When the ground temperature goes above a certain temperature, this flips a switch in the plant to produce flowers and seeds very rapidly and to abandon leaf growth almost completely.Bolting is a survival mechanism in a plant. If the weather get to be above where the plant will survive, it will try to produce the next generation (seeds) as quickly as possible.Some plants that are known for bolting are broccoli, cilantro, basil, cabbage and lettuce.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Thanks. Didn't know that term. You learn something new every day.

My farming was always animal husbandry or cash crops like wheat and soy beans, so this wasn't encountered. I have encountered lots of cow pies and horse pucks, though. Neither edible, of course. (a horse, a horse!).

[Sam 163]

Hi Sam. I guess you are in high summer now, there in the antipodes. Sorry about your lettuce, but what do you mean "bolted"?

Yes, technically summer has just ended but it won't be getting cooler for quite a while. It can be very hard to get anything to grow during summer, especially traditional kitchen garden plants. Summer can be more deadly to the plants than winter is. But a few weeks from now will be one of the best times to be planting in the year if it cools down enough. Autumn is often even better than Spring for gardens as you can usually fit in a fast growing crop as well as some plants to harvest through winter. The Diggers catalogue has just arrived, but I haven't looked through it yet.

Bolting is pretty much what Easy Bakes described and is a big problem with some of the common vegetables here. The seeds I was using were even a bolt resistant variety, but they still went to seed at about three weeks old. It means you can't really grow lettuce through summer which is the time you really want to be eating it. The time it does grow well, winter, is the time you don't really feel like eating lettuce. I tried some Amish Deer Tongue lettuce in the spring, and apparently you can use it like spinach as well.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

For salads, there are a couple of varieties of spinach that will substitute. Beware, though. Five pounds of raw spinach will give you the lethal dose of oxalic acid, so just don't overdo it.

How about fancy Italian greens such as Arugula? Italy has a warm climate. I gather it grows mostly around the Med.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Tomatos planted today.

and Squashes sprouted.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Looks great. I don't see any Marigold plants with your tomatoes. They repel the tomato worm moth.

Have you considered starting a new group called Urban Farmers of America?

  Edited March 13, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Finkle 14]

I tried to grow tobacco last year, nothing, the books say its a pretty hard plant to grow. I got a couple orchid in the window (old man advice I got, don't buy orchids from lowes their diseased).

You must be down south, if your starting. I read wood ashes keep bugs off, should have saved up.

Nonny Moose, what do you know about getting rid of black berry bushes, they were here when we moved, and if I don't get em small they take over a foot at a time.

[Easy Bakes 253]

I tried to grow tobacco last year, nothing, the books say its a pretty hard plant to grow. I got a couple orchid in the window (old man advice I got, don't buy orchids from lowes their diseased).

You must be down south, if your starting. I read wood ashes keep bugs off, should have saved up.

Nonny Moose, what do you know about getting rid of black berry bushes, they were here when we moved, and if I don't get em small they take over a foot at a time.

keep em trimed and enjoy fresh black berries.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Nonny Moose, what do you know about getting rid of black berry bushes, they were here when we moved, and if I don't get em small they take over a foot at a time.

The only way I know is to dig them out. You will need a backhoe. Anything else will poison the soil for years.

Why not just keep them? A little trimming will look after the spread, and they are good mixed up in yogurt with some honey.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Nonny Moose, what do you know about getting rid of black berry bushes, they were here when we moved, and if I don't get em small they take over a foot at a time.

The only way I know is to dig them out. You will need a backhoe. Anything else will poison the soil for years.

Why not just keep them? A little trimming will look after the spread, and they are good mixed up in yogurt with some honey.

if you dont like black berries im sure the neighbors may like some.

[Finkle 14]

They surround are whole wood line and most of my neighbors. it looks like an experiment gone bad. even in the woods in spots it hard to walk around, digging and killing is the only way I have heard of getting rid of them, I try to mow them down, have to get the weed eater out, tried and old fashion weed whacker broke the metal most of hit a log in the mist of the berry bushes.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

They surround are whole wood line and most of my neighbors. it looks like an experiment gone bad. even in the woods in spots it hard to walk around, digging and killing is the only way I have heard of getting rid of them, I try to mow them down, have to get the weed eater out, tried and old fashion weed whacker broke the metal most of hit a log in the mist of the berry bushes.

Talk to your fire department. Maybe you can do a controlled burn next winter.

[Finkle 14]

I never thought about having fun with them.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I never thought about having fun with them.

Fun? Pyromania? Whoosh!