WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 27 2015

free republic | 7/3/2015 | greeneyes

[greeneyes]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.

No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.

[Oberon]

One thing I did different in the garden this year was that I applied Ironite fertilizer with minerals, which was to address what I thought might be a micronutrient deficiency in my garden soil. I was seeing leaf yellowing in several of my garden plants which I thought might be due to iron starvation.

Application of the Ironite seemed to fully address the yellowing problem. The withering pictured has only occurred with my habaneros (the only peppers I have in the garden).

[Oberon]

That's a Mexican bean beetle, Epilachna varivestis. A very common garden pest.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for this recipe. Do the pickles turn out crisp?

[greeneyes]

Thanks. I’ve been reading about the health benefits associated with the old ways of preserving food with fermentation. Canning would kill the beneficial bacteria, so this sounds pretty much like I’d like to try.

I assume that the pickles stay crisp this way? It is hard to get crisp pickles with home canning. Mine aren’t horrible, but I can tell you that zukes make crisper pickles when you are processing in a pressure canner. They make really nice pickle spears.

[IMR 4350]

I wouldn’t say crisp but firm.

If you use the small, 3” max, pickling cucs instead of the the small slicing cucs it works better.

Fermented pickles are an acquired taste that may not be for everyone, especially someone that has never had a real fermented pickle before.

If you want something really good try fermenting some peppers.

You can mix sliced bell, and different sliced hot peppers.

[greeneyes]

I may do that. I have been thinking about doing a batch of pickled peppers and onions.

[Daffynition]

Hey darling!

I have a pickling question. I made refrigerator dill pickles w/ my GD. We followed the directions religiously. After day-1, they were nice and crispy [as we expected]. It's day-5 and they are all mushy and soggy.....taste is OK....but they have lost that nice crisp snap.

Recipe we used:
http://www.almanac.com/video/how-make-refrigerator-dill-pickles

Any idea what we did wrong? I have another batch all set to put together tomorrow ....I hate to waste the ingredients, if they are going to fail, again.

I suspect that the cukes we used may have been too *old* on the vine.

I'd appreciate any suggestions; especially B4 I repeat the disaster. Thank you. ;D Should I try *PICKLING LIME*?

We need a .....

[Daffynition]

Lots of troubleshooting reading here:

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/05/pepper_troubleshooting/

Good luck....wish I could help you.

[Oberon]

Thanks for the link.

Whatever the issue is, water is part of it. I lay the hose down on that patch and properly flooded it the day before yesterday, and within a few hours the plants had perked up considerably. I think chronic water stress has been weakening the plants.

[Daffynition]

My potato plants have been having a *curling* problem. I found a site that had pix of every permutation of curling leaves on potato plants one could ever need .... I think my problem may be in the soil.....not enuf potassium or nitrogen. We’ll see.

This is the first year, I’m keeping a faithful gardening journal....in the hopes that I can use it to help me *remember* what I did right/wrong, as the case may be.

When I’m in the garden, it’s so peaceful...I don’t think of or worry about politics and the decline of our once great Nation ....it’s the best way to clear your mind.

Happy gardening and good luck with your peppers!

[Oberon]

At Lowe's I found a bag of something called Ironite fertilizer. It has a full set of minerals and trace elements required for plant growth, so if your taters are suffering some something weird like Boron deficiency, that will fix it.

You have to be careful not to overapply, though, as some of those trace elements can hurt the plants if you give them too much.

Curling leaves, though... that sounds like a bug to me, not a nutrition problem. Do you see any critters or eggs inside the curled leaves?

[Daffynition]

Thanks for your great ideas. Outside of taking a soil sample to our university extension/ag center ...I may just guess what is wrong. I mean, it's not very serious [yet] ....but temps are getting hot & humid....so other things can happen if plants are compromised.

Fortunately, I see no creepy crawlies...only critters are the deer and rabbits......raccoons are watching the corn stalks for their annual attack on the bounty.

[Oberon]

Oh boy, here's a new one on me... a couple of months ago we saw that there were some volunteer pumpkin-looking plants popping up in the garden near the compost pile. Now, we could tell that the plants were some member of the gourd family, but whether it was a melon, a cucumber, a pumpkin, a squash, or a good old-fashioned decorative gourd we really had no way of knowing. Figuring it was the typical pie pumpkins we have had in the past, I transplanted them into more appropriate locations, and watched them grow.

Now they've made fruit... and, honestly, I still really don't know what they are. I included the glasses in the photo to give some sense of scale:

They look like a gourd, but also something like a crook-neck squash. I have tried one sliced up raw while it was still tender, and it had the mild flavor and texture of a yellow crook-neck summer squash.

So that's good at least... they're edible. Still, I've never seen a squash that looked like these. Has anyone else?

[Daffynition]

I've seen gourds that are similar.

Since you tried eating it, sounds like you could go either way....if you don't already have bushels of green & yellow squash to use up...you have a leg-up on a Thanksgiving centerpiece.

[greeneyes]

I think I saw some knobby looking squash in the Baker’s Creek catalog one time. Those look like a cross between summer squash and something else!