WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 37 SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Free Republic | September 13, 2013 | greeneyes

[JRandomFreeper]

Screened compost is the bulk of it. I added finely divided clay for water retention, gypsum to add sulpher and calcium which prevents crusting, epsom salts for the magnesium, rock phosphate, ground bone, charcoal and small fragment broken pottery. I'm dosing it now with my fish emulsion and seaweed solution to encourage microbial growth. I also threw in some nitrogen fixing bacteria and fungi mycillium.

There aren't any viable seeds in it because of the heat of composting, so I don't need to sterilize it. I should have enough good bacteria and fungi in it to prevent damping off from becoming a problem.

/johnny

[greeneyes]

Sounds like it should yield great results.

[Ellendra]

A search of the internet says salad cukes don't make good pickles but I don't see why sliced discs wouldn't work for Bread & Butter Pickles?

Try it and see. I've used all kinds of things in place of pickling cucumbers in pickle recipes. (Salad cukes, zuchinni, summer squash, very underripe winter squash, etc)

[Ellendra]

Take beans out of jar. Rinse. Leave in water overnight with a bit of soda added to the water. Use as fresh beans.

Interesting. The baking soda and vinegar would react with each other to form salt. Probably wouldn't taste like fresh beans, but it might be workable.

[Ellendra]

How tall does squash get before they produce flowers and squash?

My T squash usually starts forming flowers when the vines are around 5-6 feet long, but doesn't start setting fruit until around 7-8 feet. It does its "I'm a zuchinni and you can't keep up with me" thing at about 12-25 feet. At that point I start marking the ones with the fattest bulbs to let ripen into winter squash. If the bulb on the end is skinny, it means that one was poorly pollinated, and there's a chance that the plant might abort that fruit.

[Marcella]

“My T squash usually starts forming flowers when the vines are around 5-6 feet long, but doesn't start setting fruit until around 7-8 feet.”

Thanks so much. Mine is within 6 inches of being 5 feet. The leaves are quite large. It seems to grow inches every night.

The new baby one I planted several days ago, has taken off and growing measurable amounts every night.

If I actually get squash off that big one, I'll have a celebration.

My new problem is, I have to get stakes for tomatoes. The plants are leaning now that they are so tall. I found some cheap metal ones at Lowes and will get those if they will fit in the 5 gallon grow bags. I'll have to measure one of those bags across and then measure at Lowes.

[tubebender]

Remember the 90 cucumbers I picked Monday? Well I picked another 36 today...

[greeneyes]

What a great crop. We have trouble with cucumbers and melons. The vines kinda succumb to wilt. This year was the first decent batch in 3 years.

Are you/your wife going to make pickles and/or relish?

[Sarajevo]

Do you think they would go for ale?

Sure. It's the fermentation that attracts them.

[sockmonkey]

The big excitement of my week...aside from much needed rain..
Waiting for the Ping to the New Weekly Gardening Thread!

[greeneyes]

The big excitement of my week...aside from much needed rain..
Waiting for the Ping to the New Weekly Gardening Thread!

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I think you may be seriously deficient in the excitement division of your week. LOL