Posted on 08/21/2015 12:55:47 PM PDT by greeneyes
Growing beautiful flowers like yours is on my ‘to do’ list. Haven’t gotten to that item yet though :)
I’ve been to Dallas and Houston a few times on business trips. When I was a child we drove across the Texas Panhandle on one of our vacation trips, but I can’t remember where we were going.
Between the my parents vacations, and business trips, I have visited almost all the lower 48. We were all set to go to the Seattle World’s fair and on to Alaska one year, but had to cancel and wound up taking a quick trip to Yellowstone instead.
Hubby and I just might turn into Snowbirds if it gets really cold here.LOL
Thanks for the links. Pray for us. We live just a little North of the midpoint between St. Louis and New Madrid.
Wonder why they did that?
Oh NO!!!!! I can empathize. They got all our grapes the only year we had a good crop going. It’s a downer for sure.
Well, could be that the little clump of banana trees was attracting...”wildlife”...eyew...
wild life?
Raccoons, possums, rats, alligators, boa constrictors, Iguanas, ...you know WILD life. LOL!
Y’all would be very welcome! Our ‘’Snowbird’’ population is growing- especially in the Winter months, on the coast.
I haven’t been too far up into the Panhandle or Davis Mountains/ El Paso area, but both are on our bucket list. (lol maybe not El Paso).
Good weekend all. from Sunny and hot, very hot Central Texas. Composted and divided my 2 4x4’s today and tomorrow I will start planting for the fall.
Ever have that AHA! moment when something just clicks? As I was pulling up all the dead stuff from my gardens, there was a pattern. For two years I didn’t pay attention to it, but I think I found the problem.
I tend to plant stuff from Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The plants come in a pre-packaged biodegradable planter wrapped in plastic. I have been taking off the plastic, and popping the plants in the ground, where the bio-degradable planter would be absorbed by the soil and the plant will grow.
Plant after plant I pulled had the same thing. The planter was still attached, even after removing the plastic. My assumption is that the plants are being restricted by the planter and the root systems aren’t expanding.
So, I am going to get more plants this weekend, prepare them by cutting the pots off and planting them that way. See if there is a difference.
Or am I just taking a shot in the dark here?
Hey Andy,
No, I think that’s really possible, IME. I take everything out of the containers, but the seeds I’ve started in newspaper/ kraft ‘’pots’’ did the same thing yours did. (yet as weed block, weeds just grow right through it BAH!) Conclusion: either shortcuts don’t work or they don’t work for me.
I you’re near San Antonio, maybe check out Schultz & Fanick. They can get pretty wiped out, but I’ve had good luck with what I’ve gotten (maters, bell pepper, okra, & strawberries) - but still, better luck with seeds.
I haven’t gotten anything from HD or Lowes (well, a few herbs), but Bonnie looks like they’ve got some pretty tasty stuff. Maybe soon.
Fall will be new for me. Looking forward to that.
LOL
We probably need to win the lottery first. LOL
I start some seeds in peat pots and I have found I have to peel most of it off including the bottoms as they don’t decompose
LOL How I know the feeling. I’d be happy to get a week’s vacation. (Someplace snazzy is cheaper than the Texas coast in the Summer. Winter isn’t awful, though)
Not sure how parsnips grow in your area, but up here they’re kind of slow-growing. They’re the kind of thing you plant early and harvest late.
Beets might do better as a late crop.
The times I've used traps, they got full fast the first few days, then the local wildlife would notice the nice, tasty, bag-o-protein and bite a hole in the bottom. Suddenly we had the attracting part but not the killing part. Which is probably what's happening with a lot of people, sometimes the hole can be hard to spot. I sometimes watched the JBs circling through the traps, in the top, out the bottom, and back again.
Four-o-clock flowers are supposed to be very tasty to JBs, but they're also toxic. The beetles will actually eat themselves to death. Plant lots, and protect them when they're small. The times I tried this it worked a little too well, and the flowers got eaten before they were big enough to handle it.
If you're allowed to keep chickens, use the scent lure from the traps, but funnel the bugs to where the birds can get to them. They love them. I know at least one person who has made a “beetle dispenser” this way.
Squash won’t cross with watermelon, but squashes in the same branch can cross with each other.
There are 4 main branches of the squash family. Mixta, maxima, moschata, and pepo. The squashes you listed are all pepos (pepoes?), which means they will cross freely.
If you want to save seed, make sure you pay attention to what will cross, and keep them isolated. Another option is to choose squashes from different branches so that they won’t cross.
Re-reading your question, was this all in the same year? Because a cross won’t show until you grow the seed out. If it’s the same-year fruits that are different, then I’d say it was a ripening issue.
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