2012 Gardening Thread (Read 1516 times)


Best Present Ever

    why aren't my kentucky wonder beans making beans?  The vines grew like crazy.  They are in a box with scarlet runner beans and blue lake bush beans right next to them.  The other two are going gangbusters and have been for weeks now, but the kentucky wonders are barely flowering.  Also, I have three tomatillo plants -- really tall, strong looking, covered in flowers, not a single fruit.  Weird.  


    tomatolover

      lack of bees?  Have you tried ahem "manual stimulation?" Shocked of the flowers?....


      Best Present Ever

        There are lots of bees!  everything else is doing just fine. weird.  . 

        kcam


          Good on your for testing and I bet you learn something with the kits. I think the pH test would be reasonably accurate, you can even buy small electronic devices to measure also. I can pretty much guess pH's on our soils by color and position on the landscape. Our soils that were eroded in the 1930's on some hillltops show a reddish color and high clay content a pretty good indication that there is a fair amount of subsoil on the surface. Yes adding organic matter will help, guessing your OM would test low. You are actually dilluting the high pH with the OM so correcting the pH to some extent.It would not be uncommon for leaves and other plant material to tie up some N until it breaks down then give you a big kick when it releases. I would add some Nitrogen in some form whether manure  or urea/ammonium nitrate cause NO3 is NO3 and the plant doesn't care whether it came from the southbound end of a northbound cow or UAN solution. Get the pH under control the phos will become much more available, reason I asked if they did a Bray 1 ( before I knew you did your own test) is not the prefered test for pH's over 7. High K levels will not hurt you unless extreme, just consider yourself fortunate. We have pretty high natural K levels here up to 500ppm so we can have our fertilzer blended without much K and save some bucks although I do like just a small amount in our starters to be readily available to small plants without very much root system development. In a commercial setting we tailor pretty exact amounts of each nutrient each particular crop but getting your pH right is probably one of most basic and most productive things you can do for your garden.

          Good Luck on your efforts , now back to trying to figure out how to salvage whats left in this drought year for us.

           r2farm, thanks for the input - i'll keep it in mind as I go about this thing.  BTW, did you guys get any rain (or maybe too much) in that storm?  Hope things get better out there.

          vegefrog


              Also, I have three tomatillo plants -- really tall, strong looking, covered in flowers, not a single fruit.  Weird.  

             

            I planted 3 also and I had so many Tomatillo's I was giving them away by the paper sack full. Are you SURE you have a lot of bees?

             

            I know these have to have cross pollination, unlike tomatoes. The first year I planted just one and well, I had beautiful yellow flowers but not one single tomatillo. Maybe time to break out the Q-tips!!


            Feeling the growl again

              I planted 3 also and I had so many Tomatillo's I was giving them away by the paper sack full. Are you SURE you have a lot of bees?

               

              I know these have to have cross pollination, unlike tomatoes. The first year I planted just one and well, I had beautiful yellow flowers but not one single tomatillo. Maybe time to break out the Q-tips!!

               

               

              IMHO it is a sun or nutrient issue.  With tomatoes, too much nitrogen and no fruit.  Last year we put ours somewhere with only 4 hours/day of full sun, and we had 6ft plants but a fraction of the usual fruit.

              "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

               

              I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

               


              Best Present Ever

                I noticed that my neighbor is having the same tomatillo issue -- tall plants, flowers, no fruit. I'll chat with him.  I have to swat away bees when I'm near the garden.  We have a small slope that's planted with perennials -- butterfly bush, honeysuckle bush, cone flowers, coreopsis, and lots more just several feet from the box with the honeysuckle.  

                  IMHO it is a sun or nutrient issue.  With tomatoes, too much nitrogen and no fruit.  Last year we put ours somewhere with only 4 hours/day of full sun, and we had 6ft plants but a fraction of the usual fruit.

                   

                  I have lots o' plant and not so much fruit.  Is there anything I can do this far into the summer to get more?

                  Jeff


                  Feeling the growl again

                    I have lots o' plant and not so much fruit.  Is there anything I can do this far into the summer to get more?

                     

                    No idea.  The sun thing I learned on my own, the nitrogen thing came from my plant PhD sister.  

                    "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                     

                    I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                     


                    Prince of Fatness

                      I have lots o' plant and not so much fruit.  Is there anything I can do this far into the summer to get more?

                       

                      Some good info in here.  I have found Rutgers Coop to be a good source of info.  You'll need a PDF reader to view it.

                       

                      Click.

                      Not at it at all. 

                        Some good info in here.  I have found Rutgers Coop to be a good source of info.  You'll need a PDF reader to view it.

                         

                        Click.

                         

                        Thanks.  I'll check it out.

                         

                        Most people don't realize how much rural/farming area is still in NJ.

                         

                        Daughter # 2 went on a visit to Rutgers last week.  While she liked it, she still wants something more "in the city".

                         

                        Heck, New Brunswick ain't city enough?

                         

                         So different from me.  I went to a small school of 3000 (tops) students in the TOTAL middle of no where, I still found it too big.

                         

                        I always wish, though, that I had gone to Penn State (still rural, although HUGE), but I probably would never have graduated...too much fun.

                         

                        But, I digress...off topic.

                        Jeff


                        Feeling the growl again

                          Thanks.  I'll check it out.

                           

                          Most people don't realize how much rural/farming area is still in NJ.

                           

                          Daughter # 2 went on a visit to Rutgers last week.  While she liked it, she still wants something more "in the city".

                           

                          Heck, New Brunswick ain't city enough?

                           

                           So different from me.  I went to a small school of 3000 (tops) students in the TOTAL middle of no where, I still found it too big.

                           

                          I always wish, though, that I had gone to Penn State (still rural, although HUGE), but I probably would never have graduated...too much fun.

                           

                          But, I digress...off topic.

                           

                          Off topic yes...but...

                           

                          Indy goes from city to totally completely rural pretty quickly...I have a 30-33min commute to work downtown and I am totally completely rural (ask Finn).  I have a co-worker who relocated 2 years ago to central NJ.  Her HS-aged daughter was very traumatized by the whole thing, she could not handle how "rural and disconnected" the whole area was.  Coming from Indy that is saying a lot.  She ended up graduating a year early from HS just to get away to college more quickly.  I had a long conversation about this with my co-worker.  Hopefully soon I will have an excuse to get there myself, share some beer with Finn, and learn for myself.

                          "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                           

                          I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                           


                          Prince of Fatness

                            Hopefully soon I will have an excuse to get there myself, share some beer with Finn, and learn for myself.

                             

                            Yeah we can go for a trail run and search for bears.

                            Not at it at all. 

                              Yeah we can go for a trail run and search for bears.

                               

                              There are bears down here now.  One in my township where it borders Wharton State Forest.  And coyotes too. 

                              It's got everyone (unnecessarily) scared. 

                               

                              Went for a trail run a few weeks back w/my daughter and she was scared.  I'm like, "don't worry, you will NOT see the bear".  The real issue is the deer.  I've almost been hit by them dashing across the road while running at 5 AM or so.  Really gets your adrenaline pumping.  :-)

                               

                              Actually, the state says that there are now bears in every county.  I can't imagine that they are in Hudson and Essex...I mean, where would they be?  That place is one giant mass of humanity, buldings, landfills, concrete and asphalt.

                              Jeff


                              Best Present Ever

                                we have bears all over the place.  It's commonplace for me to see a bear on a trail run.