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.

[tubebender]

Due to our cool soil conditions seed rots or comes up sporadic so I have to start my seed in the greenhouse and transplant to rows 30” apart 2 plants per “hill”. I have pulled the soil over the roots twice by the time they are 12” tall and the furrows will be 6” or so deep and then I will lay 1/4 drip line on both sides of the plants. Out of 24 plants per 12’ row I will average 36 to 40 ears of primo sweet corn and this year I have 6 rows and plenty for sharing, eating raw in the garden, lightly boiled and lots left over for freezing.

If I gardened in a warmer climate I would plant just as you do...

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thank you for the suggestion. I am trying to abide by the principles of Square Foot Gardening. But, I am adaptable.

I may never plant corn again, because it takes up too much space; and it is readily available at the farms that surround me. But, I wanted to try it this year. The raised bed gives me the ability to use it for other crops in the future, in case I don’t want to do corn again. How much corn can 2 people eat?

One of the big problems here is racoons. A friend of mine had his entire crop stolen once in one year by raiding ‘coons — the night before he and his wife intended to harvest. Whoever said they are “dumb animals”?

But, I am adaptable. I can still fill in my furrows (add soil amendments like compost, etc.) to provide additional material to beef up the rows without abandoning the Square Foot plan.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I noticed when I thinned my corn how long the roots were. The seedlings were only about 3-4 in. high, but the roots already were 6-8 in. long and extended all the way down the sides of my hill. I do have a wind problem here (I’m on top of the highest point in the County) and I already had wondered about stability, should a brisk wind come up. I had thought about planting the corn in the Indian (3 Sisters) style where the beans crawl up the corn stalk for extra stabililty, but I abandoned that plan because of space.

I wonder if adding a sack of Miracle Gro down the furrows (making the tops of my furrows where the corn is planted the new bottom of the furrow and raking the new soil over as the corn grows?

[afraidfortherepublic]

See 202 and 203

And please ignore that garbled sentence about the coons. Haven’t had my coffe yet. Thunder and lightning kept me up all night.

I was trying to say that the coons stole the entire crop in one night. My friend and his wife had planned to harvest it the next morning, but were cheated of their crop. They now have a wire cover for their corn patch — a cage, somewhat like your blueberry cage. But, I’m sure that it is not as nice.

[Red_Devil 232]

Well earlier this morning I was out in my garden, as usual, just checking progress and while peeking under the huge zuke leaves I saw an encouraging sight. Honey Bees flitting around from flower to flower under the dense cover of the leaves! It is another world under those huge leaves! I have seen Honey Bees in the garden before but at very, very low populations compared to the Bumblebees that uasually visit. There must have been 20 or so under the leaves of the 4 zuke plants. Good sight.

[tubebender]

Raccoons were so bad one year that I put a low electric fence around the corn patch. Now I just go out after dark and pee around the patch, and set traps and pray I don’t catch another skunk in my life.

[Yosemitest]

That's a "Stink-bug", and there are two ways to git rid of them. Squash them between two bricks, or drown them in water.
The best thing to do is stay ahead of them. They sting the tomato and quickly take over.
Look under the leaves for eggs. If you find them, pull that leaf off, and crush the eggs.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Electric fence — possible. Traps — a certainty. Your other suggestion, NEVER! My dog won’t even do that to my garden! LOL.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I need to go out this AM and check to see if my newly planted Zucchini seed surved the rain we got over night. If the rain washed away the cover, the birds will eat all of the seed again.

[tubebender]

LOL...You don’t have a Thunderbolt/Thunder pot in the garden shed? My young First Wife just reminded me of the impulse sprinkler with the motion detector that worked very well last year. I did trap one Coon that was a problem and “transplanted” him to another area in the woods.

[Black Agnes]

Yay. My zuke plants are a whole ecosystem umder the leaves. And the honeybees just hum in the morning on them. There’s just something about squash blossoms and honeybees. There has got to be a ‘wild’ hive around here somewhere. The little old man across the street got out of the honeybee business a couple years ago after he had a stroke. Hubby and I suspect some of them ‘escaped’ while he was laid low.

Hubby and I were in the garden at 6:15 this morning. He dug a 50ft row of his turban garlic while I hand weeded and laid newspapers down about 30ft of a tomato row. When he got done we spread hay on the newspapers. We picked roughly a 2 gallon bucket of asparagus beans, 5 softball sized zukes(these are the round kind) off of my 2 zuke plants and I picked 6 or 8 cucumbers including a couple of my lemon cukes. Those are finally making now. Then he showered and left for work! Bummer. I miss him already and not just because he’s handy in the garden.

I’ve got a whole bunch of little bell peppers, sweet peppers including the ‘yummy’ one I got from jungs (seeds). Also a whole lot of ‘giant thai hot’ peppers. Haven’t looked at any more but hopefully they’re setting fruit now too. Gallons and gallons of tomatoes just ripening now. I had the water on those for about 45 min this morning. The mulching with papers and hay keeps the moisture level constand and the rows we already have done have ‘0’ blossom end rot.

I’ve got to pick blackeyed peas (cowpeas) this evening. I might try to do that while my babies take their naps and get my oldest to help :) I saw at least a 5 gallon bucket out there this morning but didn’t have time to pick before the babies woke up.

This evening when hubby gets home from work I’m going to hand weed a spot for my winter melons (I got a couple varieties from baker creek).

Yesterday morning hubby and I planted a whole bunch of winter squash along some field fencing he set up. Mostly butternut but a few baby blue hubbards, some ‘confection’ and some spaghetti squash. IF we get those we’ll be ecstatic. We’re planting them (the non butternuts) mainly as a trap crop for SVB’s. I also planted 3 hills of ‘butterbush’ butternut squash (burpee, let’s cross our fingers I actually get decent germination). We’re going to try out spraying with diatmaceous earth solution for the SVB’s.

My ‘Avalon’ and ‘Long of Naples’ winter squash that I planted the second week of May are *huge* now. Some of their leaves are 18”-2ft across. They’re already making all those nifty roots at the leaf nodes too. Yay squashes! I have high hopes for these. We love butternut squash soup and casseroles.

And, still picking about a gallon of blueberries/day. I’ve put gazillion ziplocs of frozen berries in the deep freeze now. My kids just eat them out of the bag, frozen. Tasty little cold bites of berriness!

Might post more later depending on kiddos.

[Yosemitest]

Read this page Nematode Management .

Nematodes are microscopic animals that attack the roots.
Go to the farm store, where you buy seeds and plants, and ask for "Nemacide",

it's a yellow and red bag of powder, either in 5 lbs or 10 lbs,

and buy it.
Wear a mask when sprinkling it on the ground around the plants.
Ask them how to use it. I normally treat the holes that I put the plant in with it and spray it down with water, before I plant the plants.

If one of your tomato plants dies, dig it up and look at the roots. Look for knots in the roots.

[Yosemitest]

If you don't want to transplant, plant the corn seed at least 1 1/2 inch to 2 inches deep,
and the crows will give up trying to dig the seed you to eat them.
Also the sprouted plant will be deep enough and the roots established well enough
that the crows can't easily pull them up to eat the seed ball off the bottom.

[texanyankee]

No, it's been identified as a "leaf-footed bug." It's related to the "stink bug" but this is a different species.

Here's the link that captions the above photo:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/10919/bgpage

[Yosemitest]

It's called "laying the corn by". Put 0-0-34 ammonia nitrate about 1 to 2 inches away from the plant, about a tablespoon per plant on the soil and then pull the dirt over the fertilizer to the plant. But don't get the ammonia nitrate touching the plant, or it'll burn it.
The added dirt to both sides of the root of the plant will also add stability to the plant in high winds,
and protect the roots from the hot sun, drought, rain, etc,
and give more root for more feeder roots to stabilize the corn stalk.

[texanyankee]

Here is the stink bug:

I got stink bugs, too - but not near the population nor problem as compared to the leaf-footed bugs.

[Yosemitest]

" ...recommend good cucumber varieties for pickling"

"Straight 8" or "Burpless" are the best growing, and easiest to take care of in central Mississippi.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I did trap one Coon that was a problem and “transplanted” him to another area in the woods.

Arrrrrgggggghhhh! NEVER transplant coons. THey'll either harass his new neighbors, or he'll be right back. We learned a long time ago to lay down a rule that you couldn't borrow our trap unless you promised to shoot the coon in the trap and dispose of the body. One of my neighbors (a Democrat, naturally) used to borrow our trap and transport her caught coons and let them go on other farms. We refused to lend her the trap after we found out what she was doing.

My husband calls them small bears. They can do a tremendous amount of damage to your house, barn, pets, etc. If you have any amount of acreage, a coon will be picked clean by the crows in 3 days. Otherwise, bag him up and out with the trash.

[Yosemitest]

Plant corn close to the house, reference racoon, and a shotgun work great to stop coons,
or a good yard dog will keep coons run off.

Plant your corn at least 1 1/2 in to 2 inches deep, or else you're just feeding the crows.
2 people can easily eat 4 rows of corn planted 36 inches apart per row, and 8 to 10 inch between plants down the row.
My rows are about 150 ft long.
The corn will get ready to harvest in about 85 to 90 days and will all be ready to eat over about 2 weeks,
After that, it'll be too hard.
P.S. save yourself some seed ears if you plant open-pollinated seed.
Also plant at least three rows, due to pollinization. A single row will lose more pollen that it uses.

Check out "Ironite" as well as fertilizer. 10-10-10 Is what I use with red-clay soil.

[Yosemitest]

Go to Lowes and get a 40 pound bag of "Ironite" as well as a bag of 6-8-8 or 10-10-10 fertilizer, depending on your soil.
Lay the corn by, with 0-0-34.