Vegetable Gardening

[badger]

I'm pretty sure I read in this thread somewhere about treating mould on the plants? I had forgotten that this happened last year and never got to harvest more than one zucchini. Never clued in that it might be some sort of mould - all white-ish on the leaves and withering the more affected ones. It's now widely affecting my zucchini, snap pea, beans, and some tomatoes.

Could someone who posted a natural remedy for mould post it again, please? I think it's too late for me now, but it would be good to know how to deal with it. thanks!!

[Photoflygirl]

We have located a yellow jacket nest underneath one of our organic raised beds. Does anyone know of a natural remedy to kill them? Or, should I use the pesticide and not plant there for a few years? Or, does it not matter because the roots don't go deep enough to matter? I lined the bottom of each bed with chicken wire so chipmunks couldn't burrow into the beds and eat stuff. any suggestions would be appreciated.

[smilingcat]

Its called powdery mildew.

Seriously affected leaves must be cut off and thrown away carefully so that the dust does not go flying around.

If you live in an area where it rains a lot and the soil can tolerate sodium, then you can mix some sodium bicarb out of your kitchen in water then mist the affected area. Better solution is potassium carbonate, (potash).

You can also use sulphur powder on the leaves. Don't buy the sulphur pellets for acidifying the soil. Powdered sulphur will be referred as organic fungacide. Any half way self-respecting gardener would know what it is.

Another thing you need to do is feed the soil with high potassium fertilizer. You could also feed some potash.

Last item, when watering the plants, try avoid getting the leaves wet or watering late in the evening.

hope this helps.

[badger]

thanks, smilingcat. Two of the things I often do/did was to water at night and get the leaves wet...

I'll try the baking soda route, though I do believe it's too late for my plants. Even with no mildew I think it's getting too cool now. I shall remember for next year and fertilize it properly. They all started out so beautifully, it's such a shame to see them go downhill like that.

[OakLeaf]

The Mildew Cure I posted the link to earlier, works really really well on powdery mildew on squash. It's what I bought it for originally. There's baking soda in it, also garlic and some other things. Squash grow so vigorously that I've never lost a plant that I've treated.

Hoping my plants can hang in there until I get back into town - they needed sprayed before we left on Thursday, but it was pouring down rain -

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

A GOOD garden day- for dinner we had the very FIRST modest harvest from our big new veggie garden...three different kinds of lettuce for our salad: green and purple romaine, loose leaf, and butterhead. Oh, and also a few lovely young beet leaves. Then from the 'old little garden' (which is losing steam fast now) I got some tomatoes and my very first bunch of scallions I have ever grown. Then I had plenty of fresh alfalfa sprouts on hand that I grew in a jar in my kitchen.

So for dinner we had beautiful big salad platters with lettuces, tomato slices, sprouts, scallions, and some garlic-herb creamy goat cheese (the one thing i bought). It was fabulous and so exciting.

[Eden]

Not having a garden, I went out and did a little urban foraging the other day. The blackberries here are superb and plentiful this year (I've heard it was a good year for berries in general in the Pacific Northwest). I picked probably 25 or so cups of big, beautiful tasty berries. There are so many that I didn't even have to get all scratched up to get them - I just worked my way around the edge of the bushes and picked only the ones easy to reach - and I could still be choosy about only getting the best berries. I've made a "slump" and some freezer jam so far. I need to use them up though, they'll only last a few days in the fridge.

[OakLeaf]

Canned 20 pints of cut-up tomatoes, and working on sauce.

Need a chest freezer.

[badger]

The Mildew Cure I posted the link to earlier, works really really well on powdery mildew on squash. It's what I bought it for originally. There's baking soda in it, also garlic and some other things. Squash grow so vigorously that I've never lost a plant that I've treated.

Hoping my plants can hang in there until I get back into town - they needed sprayed before we left on Thursday, but it was pouring down rain -

I was referring to that link, and for whatever reason I can't find it (and yeah, a bit too lazy...). Could I bother you to post it again?

thanks muchly!

[OakLeaf]

Right here.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/p...ubcategory=319