Posted on 03/21/2014 12:44:59 PM PDT by greeneyes
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All the garden plants were started from seed in January.
We do have some house plants that over winter in the beach house.
Maybe they’re the source.
Thanks everyone for good ideas...
It’s 39 degrees here in Massachusetts. We started some tomato seeds on Sunday in peat pots on our kitchen table. We still have snow on the ground, but there are finally some clear areas in the woods, and so we are hopeful.
I would imagine that crop rotation would work better than anything. Here’s my notes from Patty Leander, a Master Gardener from Austin, TX. Do a search for her tips. She says:
Don’t plant a particular “family” in the same area for 3 years. Families are:
Amaryllis = onion, leek, garlic, shallot
Composite = artichoke, lettuce
Crucifer = arugula, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collars, kale, kohlrai, mustard, radish, turnip
Goosefoot = beets, chard, spinach
Legumes = peas
Umbel = carrots, cilantro, parsley, dill
Eliot Coleman, who wrote Four Season Harvest, has this to say about an optimal 8 year rotation plan:
Potatoes follow sweet corn, which follow cabbage family, which follow peas, which follow tomato, which follow bean, which follow root crops, which follow squash, which follow potatoes.
I haven’t ever planted fingerlings. However you need to take potatoes out of the sack and let the eyes sprout. Cool temps of 40-50 degrees are desirable.
It will take about 2 or 3 weeks for the potatoes to be ready. If sprouts are visible, then a little light will help speed up the process.
I am hopeful too, but our weather forecast says snow on Thursday next week. Here’s hoping they are wrong - maybe rain instead!LOL
These Fingerlings are small so I’m planting the whole potato. A bright spot would be right where the upper deck meets with the lower deck as that gets bright with a little sun in the morning but the shade from the lower deck roof puts shade over that place fairly quickly.
The are in a heavy duty blue plastic net sack so I’ll spread them out in there and leave them in the net so no killer could get to them. I copied what you said. Thanks.
Fertilization with a well-balanced fertilizer (like 10-10-10,along with micro-nutrients)will do wonders.
But don't forget to use crop rotation to prevent diseases from over-wintering, or re-infecting a newly planted crop.
A good source of calcium is "Bone Meal", which should be incoporated into the soil.
If you have 2 raised beds, alternate or change which bed has the high demand crops ; and switch locations in the bed.
Just for example :Hypothetical Crop Rotation ; 4 year plan
1st year : swiss chard , cabbage, kale, kohlrabi (all are high demand calcium)
2nd year : tomatoes , beets ,peas , onions, herbs , flowers peppers,etc.
3rd year: beans (with nitrogen innoculant), corn, squash, cucumbers,carrots , parsnips, lettuce.
4th year: melons , spinach, tomatoes , onions, etc.
If you continue to plant the same crop in the same location, you are inviteing catastrophic disease to hit and wipe out your entire crop.
Its much better to diversify not only crops , but also locations . Keep a homeade chart of what grew where , and then change them arround to different locations.
The leaves on one or two of our tomatoes have tiny light dots, like they were burned.
Thrips or Aphids? When you hold a leaf up to a strong light, and look at the leaf underside, do you see any damage? If so, what does it look like?
You may see many references to various books on this forum. Make a list of books you may wish to review.
Your public library is your friend for books to borrow !
Two books that I highly reccomend: "Crockets Victory Garden "(maybe out of print), and " Square Foot Gardening".
The internet is a good source of general information, but you will get lots of information right here ! As greeneyes says: " There is no such thing as a stupid question .." , just ask here in this forum , you are among Freeper friends
While out there, my wild cat came to see what I was up to while things in the neighborhood are quiet. Between us tilling and the neighbors drilling and big tractor trailers driving through for some reason, she's been skiddish. Did I tell y'all she had her kittens? I don't know where she's keeping them but she better think about bringing them closer to the house what with everything going on around here.
Too bad! I am so tired of snow, as I am sure almost everyone is this year. This is what we have to look forward to :)
Tonight
27 °F
Clear
Tomorrow
55 °F
Partly Cloudy
Tomorrow Night
29 °F
Clear
Sunday
40 | 14 °F
Partly Cloudy
Monday
31 | 16 °F
Clear
Tuesday
38 | 24 °F
Mostly Cloudy
You bet. :)
I just saw our resident wild cat out rooting around the garden. She is coal black, usually has kittens hidden somewhere, and she catches squirrels. Can’t get within 60 feet if her, and don’t really want to.
Whew, just got back in from double digging another bed. Ok down to 12 feet, but that 2cnd foot was really tough. settled for another 8 inches or so. Mixed some leaves and hay in with the bottom and replaced the top soil. Now it’s ready for compost.
So that takes care of the beds for carrots, onions, beets, and potatoes, tommatoes and peppers. Next up is lettuce then corn, and grains. Probably growing cukes and melons in containers this year.
Coming to the end of the winter season, which was pretty much a bust. I started seeds early, then waited, and waited, and waited for the temps to cool. There wasn’t a single two week period we didn’t see 80 degrees this “winter”. I got one head of broccoli, and almost got a head of cauliflower only to find it chewed down to nothing when I went to harvest. Now I fear I’ve waited too long to plant my spring crops.
On the bright side, my Roma and Martian tomatoes made it through the winter and are starting to produce. So did a couple green peppers, and a poblano pepper plant is loaded with peppers.
Finally got a hold of some turmeric root, which is taking forever to start. I’m keeping my hopes up, as the ginger root did the same thing but finally took off.
This year, I’m going to learn to prune my tomatoes and peppers back to maximize production over growth. Really, I am. Uh huh.
When I had a problem with something last year, I took an affected leaf, put it in a ziplok bags and went to the Mrs Henderson at the seed store. She pulled out a book that looked 50 yo, and went to the peppers and started looking at the pictures to ID my problem. Now that is customer service in the old way!
We are in Kansas this weekend helping our daughter with her first garden. Everything is tilled and a few bags of compost and other topsoil added. Already planted a few shallots for her first crop.
We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow or Sunday. I can only hope. We really need the moisture.
You may have to grow your cool crops indoors, and concentrate on summer veggies for outdoors.
Wish we had someone like that here.
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