Posted on 06/28/2013 1:01:56 PM PDT by 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.
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Thank you so very much for this information. I found a couple of colonies of small black caterpillars on my sunflower plants today and “neemed” them - then stomped on them.
I appreciate the info about the bees. I was squirting this morning and saw a bee, and stopped spraying that plant. I hope I didn’t hurt the bee.
After reading your link, I’m wondering if my concentration is adequate. I’m only using 1/2 to 2 tbsp of neem oil in 24 oz water to treat.
>>I’m wondering if my concentration is adequate.
I just mixed it per the directions on the label. Also, I read that it’s not good for the gills of fish, so I don’t use it on my aquaponic edibles.
I’m a few days behind, but my garden is going well. My runner beans are taller than I am, I’ve got green tomatoes forming on 2 of my varieties, and the corn I planted out on my land is still growing, although it’s a little unnerving when the deer decide to nap right next to it.
Last February I ordered some popbean seeds. After a couple months I assumed the order must have gotten lost, but guess what I got in the mail this week! They’re a cool-weather crop, so I might be able to sneak a few in for fall picking.
(Popbeans are a variety of bean that, when parched in a dry skillet, will swell and pop like popcorn. It doesn’t form the poofy cloud-shapes that modern popcorn does, but I’d guess a hundred years of focused breeding could be the difference there. At any rate, they’re about the only naturally “instant” dry bean you can grow!)
The bunny in the strawberry patch is breeding. There are littler bunnies running around the yard now.
My black raspberries are getting close to ripening, one of them is a light purple right now. I won’t get any red raspberries this year, dad mowed the whole patch down. It wasn’t an accident either, he just decided he didn’t like it where it was, so he mowed it down. Have I mentioned how badly I want to move out?
My “house” is still just a hole in the ground for now, and not a very deep one either. With all the rain lately, the deer have been using it as a secondary watering hole. Lots of deer, I’ll be able to hunt without leaving the sofa :)
Or maybe they will kick you in the head while you are sleeping and leave you paralyzed. And blind.
Wet a sheet and drape it over you, with the fan running. If you need to move around, wear the damp sheet like a cloak.
It’s like wearing your own personal air conditioner.
Most of the legumes on your list are cool-season crops. There are other varieties that prefer the heat. I know tepary is one. You might be able to get nunas there, I’m not sure.
Curiously, given the options of Neem oil, DE, or Malathion it would almost seem the Malathion is actually safest!
“I just mixed it per the directions on the label”
LOL! I guess that’s my problem...the oil I bought is the pure oil from the health food store and has no label for agriculture purposes!
What product did you use, if I may ask? Does Lowes carry it?
Good to know about the fish situation. I tasted it myself, and it is truly nasty stuff!
LOL! Thanks for the enlightenment, Ellendra! You make me see that I need to do a little more homework. One of the black turtle bean plants actually showed a blossom yesterday!
Maybe I shouldn’t abandon all hope for beans...plus I’m now given to understand that I can try again a little later this season.
“Wet a sheet and drape it over you, with the fan running.”
Thanks for the suggestion. I have plenty of old sheets I kept for making bandages and arm slings, etc.. If I get a hurricane and am without power and the heat is unbearable, too hot for my spray water bottles with little fan attached, to make me cool enough, I’ll use a sheet. I have good battery fans that move a lot of air.
Here is the desert drinking gourd vine that I started from seed my neighbor brought back from Arizona. Actually, I had to harvest the seed from a gourd, and put the gourd back looking like nothing had happened to it. ;)
Today is the day that it bloomed.
It's a pretty vine, and a pretty flower.
/johnny
Morning everyone!
We are enjoying a lovely respite from the intense heat here on the Oklahoma Plain!
1) Darlin and I are conducting an experiment. Several days ago we bought a head of romaine at the grocery store. It’s rootlets were trimmed, but we had bought some rooting hormone and decided to put the root stump into some of it in a bowl on our counter and see what happens. We had expected that if it did anything, it would grow more rootlets and then perhaps we could plant it.
What has happened is a surprise and somewhat of a mystery to me! The center of the head has been growing new lettuce leaves. The leaves have grown about 2 inches above the stump where I cut it off. There are no new rootlets. I can understand the stump remaining green, just as the celery stump we are also simultaneously experimenting with. Or a vase of cut flowers. The mystery is what is the source of nutrition? Why is it actually generating more leaves? Is the root hormone something that causes the growth of the plant itself? If that is the case, would it not be a good idea to put root hormone into a vase of cut flowers to keep them fresh longer?
Just a little puzzlement for the day while drinking my morning coffee-like substance. (I’ve started drinking different combinations of tea with protein drink in the mornings, in this case, EAS vanilla, as the creamer.)
2) What is with the stretch marks on the tomatoes? Am I doing something wrong?
3) I’m tickled to report that the sunflower which Darlin’ beheaded recently in an overzealous use of the weed whacker has survived (two leaves had been left) and it has regenerated another head!!!! (I’m glad I didn’t get angry with my sweet Darlin, but just took it in stride as part of the experiment.)
4) We have a baby yellow straight neck squash fruit developing!!!
5) We have a baby okra fruit developing!!!
6) Legumes - some are very pitiful, and fitfully blooming. The black turtles are probably the happiest of the lot. Ellendra tells me that most of my varieties are really not ideal for the hot summer. So I need to talk to some local gardeners to see what kinds of beans do well here, and when! (Thanks for the heads up, Ellendra!)
7) TArcher has given me some great info above with a link about neem which I have printed out. THanks, TArcher!
8) Cucumbers are all over the place like Marcella’s squash - and blooming like crazy! Darlin has said we could use a piece of the wire fencing material to rig up as a trellis for it.
“I see all your great gardens and would like to walk through all of them and ask questions and sit down and have a cup of coffee with each one of you. I take cream in my coffee, please.”
I sure wish that could happen! I could not have said it better. Wouldn’t it be great if all of us could sit down and have coffee (or coffee like substance) together at some point? In the meantime, I’m grateful to greeneyes for providing this thread platform.
THANKS GREENEYES FOR THE THREAD!
This is my first time out of the box to try growing legumes. I’m not having a good result at all. Ellendra has advised me I need to be sure my varieties are planted at the right time for my locale, as most of mine are actually more suited to fall planting. As stated in a previous post, I see I have some homework to do to learn what are the best varieties to grow in our area...and when!
(It gives me comfort that I’m not the only one having troubles with legumes, - and you are experienced with them! I fully commiserate with you on the pitiful peas.)
Re: Onions: You are braver then me. I have not even had the courage to attempt onions. Marcella has mentioned an Egyptian variety called something like “Egyptian walking onions.” I would like to give those a try. Marcella, are those difficult to obtain, do you know?
“Try to keep the bean plants going and they’ll produce again in the fall when it gets cooler.”
That’s interesting. I’ll try to keep them limping along. Thanks.
What you are calling “Egyptian Walking Onions”, I call “Medusa Onions.” They are extremely prolific and come up every year, we have TONS. My dh makes soup with them often. The stalks are very good when young.
Someone gave them to us and I really don’t know what to make OF them. Am I supposed to eat those little top onions?
A fellow Freeper will send me a few. The very best website for these onions is below and you can order them from these people. Here is the link starting on the page with the pictures of the onions in their life cycle:
http://www.egyptianwalkingonion.com/photogalleryonionpatch.htm
“Am I supposed to eat those little top onions?”
If you go to the Egyptian Onion website, it talks about when to eat each part in the cycle.
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