Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 (Vol. 20) June 18

Free Republic | 6-18-2010 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

If you have a question about gardening or just an observation to share please feel free to stop by and participate. There are no stupid questions, just honest ones.

[Tatze]

I’m using the round cone things this year and they appear to be doing their job ok. Of course, the plants are quite a bit taller than the cones, so the upper branches are drooping a bit, but not too badly.

I think my biggest issue and where I need to learn, is the frequency and amount of watering.

[doodad]

Well, we were late this year because our Spring crops were doing so well we waited them out to enjoy them.

Many other gardeners have been in tomatoes for a month. It has been a very good Spring here with plenty of rain and sun both.

[greeneyes]

Do they have brown or black spots kinda like a target on the yellow leaves?

[afraidfortherepublic]

My problem with the round cones (and I’m talking about the cheapest kinds) are flimsy and tip over easily. I’ve had tomato plants lift them right out of the ground as they grow. Then, when you gather them up at the end of the season and stack them, they tangle together to you can’t get them apart the next year. Arrghhhh!

What I bought this year are much stronger (and more expensive) supports. So far, I really like them.

[Silentgypsy]

My potato plants look wilty, too. (First time, also.) Am looking forward to major potato input.

[neefer]

Thanks. Yes - the left one is in a Smart Pot. They’re great and I want more. Husband described them like the fabric used to line a car trunk.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Your salad soup sounds great. I just may try that when it is time to pull out all this lettuce.

It reminds me of “Model A Soup”. One year we bought a Model A Ford in pieces — a real basket case. I decided that the way to afford the cost of restoring it was to make soup out of everything left over in the refrigerator at the end of each week. So, on Saturdays, I would start a big pot of soup. At first we were pretty conservative and went by a recipe. My husband regaled the children one week by tossing a chocolate chip cookie into the pot in front of them while I screamed, “No, no. You can’t put in a chocolate chip cookie.”

From then on, a chocolate chip cookie went into every pot, along with apricots, peaches, etc. that were past their prime. The soup was always good and the kids had fun pointing out that their father was a more creative cook than their mother. (True.)

[afraidfortherepublic]

I have 2 smart pots containing potatoes this year. It’s the first time I’ve used them. They are nice, but I wish they had handles. They get heavy and are hard to move. I think that I saw that yours is on wheels. Good idea.

[greeneyes]

We started tomatoes indoors according to the schedule for the last frost planting time frame. Some of the tomatoes were early types, so hopefully we’ll get something soon “sigh”.

[greeneyes]

LOL. That’s funny. Yeh, I can’t even remember the exact recipe, cause after a while I just starting adding stuff to experiment, and use up stuff. Soup is known to be one of the most satisfying of foods.

[who knows what evil?]

I am using 'Smart Pots' for my tomatoes...all is well; so far.

There ARE 'Smart Pots' with handles; but they are ONLY available to nursery/greenhouse retailers...hopefully; the manufacturer will get their head out of their hindquarters pretty soon...

[Red_Devil 232]

I love your figs! One of my fig trees has a breba crop. They are going from green to yellow and then dropping off! DRATS

I have no idea what is going on!!! Oh how I wish for figs that look like yours!

[neefer]

Thank you very much. What kind of fig trees do you have? This is only my second year but I did a lot of reading before I purchased. Garden Web is a very helpful site: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/fig/

[neefer]

My sweet husband built the green trays with wheels.

[Red_Devil 232]

I have three fig trees a Black Jack, a Cesestial and a fig tree that was sent to me by FReeper "gardengirl" it is from the coastal area of N. Carolina and she did not know it's origin. So I named it Gardengirl. Her garden center grows them from cuttings and sells them.

The Gardengirl fig is the one with the breba crop. All three now have a new crop just starting to grow.

[dainbramaged]

Everything is behind this year due to the cool, wet spring in the Puget Sound region - our asparagus has produced nicely and strawberries are ripening. Bush and pole beans are coming along, as are the sweet peas and eight tomato varieties. Lettuce has done well with the weather along with a couple varieties of carrots, and we are trying brussels sprouts for the first time.
Getting ready to install a small electric surprise around the base of our six foot high chicken wire fence for the raccoons who climb over and devour our grapes. It runs on two D cell batteries and hopefully will deter the bandits.

[neefer]

Maybe it’s a watering issue? Many of our breba aborted when I skimped on the water. When they had 2 plus gallons a day, the remaining figs began fattening. I keep a thin wooden stick in the soil (even in raised beds) and use it as type of “dip stick” when I water. If it looks dark, it’s still saturated. Or maybe your tree has a nutrient deficiency? I forgot to mention I added a handful of lime to each pot. Also, pinching the tips of branches will send the trees energy to fruits.

[afraidfortherepublic]

3 years ago (being frustrated at the lawn never getting mowed with the big tractor) I bought myself a Hustler Mini Z lawn mowing machine. I love it and I was devastated when my husband informed me last week that a bearing had failed and I could no longer use it.

I was even more angry after a call on Monday morning informed me that my warranty was expired (only 140 hours on the machine and one month after the expiration date) and that the dealer would not stand behind it. The most he would offer was $100 towards a new clutch. Believe me, the cost of pick up and repair was going to eat up that $100 in a NY minute -- even in a WI minute!

My husband is not the greatest gardener, but he is a Mechanical Engineer by education (UC Berkeley) and a danged good mechanic by training (his father). Mechanical engineer and mechanic are NOT interchangeable skills.

My husband said that this failure was unwarranted, and he got on the phone. Hustler was no help whatsoever. It turns out that their warranty issues are handled by a distributer in MN, and they were no help either. But, they did tell him that the maker of clutch was Warner Electric. A phone call there brought the immediate response:

"What is the date on your clutch?" My husband provided the date and:

"I know exactly what happened. We had a batch of those that were distorted in manufacture, and we notified everybody that there was a problem. It seems that they didn't pay attention."

Short end to long story: I got my new clutch (well half of it -- the part that was broken) in the UPS today and my mower will be back in service by tomorrow.

I'm NOT allowing our dealer to touch it. My husband will do the work. And I will stop referring my friends go to that dealer too.

This machine has been wonderful, except for this catastrophic failure. The point of my story is that a little phoning around will often get a manufacturer to stand by a warranty -- even after someone lower down the chain has told you no.

My husband (the hero of this story) has done this over the years with 3 cars, a refrigerator, and an air conditioner -- each time by doing a phone chase and getting to the person in charge. And he's helped skeptical friends solve the same kinds of problems, mostly with their cars. It helps to be able to speak "mechanics" too.

[PUGACHEV]

No the leaves and the stems simply turn yellow (entirely), then brown, and wither. And it is only some of the stems, and only on one side of two plants beside each other. Overall, both plants are still quite healthy and green, but I worry that it will spread — whatever it is.

[Ellendra]

I picked my first sweet pea today! Ate it raw, with only 8 plants I doubt I’ll get enough to bother cooking, but boy do they taste good raw!!

My tomatoes are having issues. I had planted 6, only 3 sprouted and 2 of those died shortly after. So I replanted, and none of those sprouted. My indoor tomatoes have way too many vines but few flowers. So today I decided to balance things out. I took some cuttings of some of the vines that were escaping the trellis, and planted them in the outdoor garden. Had 1 more cutting than tomato spaces, so I filled a soda bottle with dirt and planted the cutting in that. Later I might hang it as a homemade topsy-turvy planter, but I want it to grow a few roots first.

I was supposed to be going out to the land yesterday, but I had to stay home and babysit Kitty instead, she swallowed 2-3 feet of yarn, whole! The vet couldn’t do much but said we had to watch closely for signs it was tangling in her gut, it could kill her if it catches wrong. So Kitty supervised my gardening today. She thinks putting dirt in a soda bottle is silly.