Vegetable Gardening

[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.

[NoNo]

Went back to my aunt's last night, as I was told there were blueberries to pick. Took a walk around the garden to see what else I could pick, and was shocked to see the stringbeans were still growing! I'd harvested quite a few about a month back and I thought they were done, but I was happilly mistaken. Also, the zucchini had totally rebounded from whatever was affecting it a few weeks ago, and the leaves looked healthy, flowers were blooming, and we picked four more. Grabbed a few cucumbers, some eggplant, a few peppers, and lots of cherry tomatoes:


Then I took a trip to the blueberry bush. I cannot believe how many blueberries we've picked off this single bush so far, and last night was no exception!


Those bowls quickly became these:


This weekend I'm going raspberry and pear picking, and we'll be doing some more canning on Sunday

[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

[GLC1968]

We've been harvesting zucchini, tomatoes, cukes, plums and apples, like crazy. I've also got some gorgeous watermelons developing and we are picking about a half-quart of strawberries every week still.

Oh, and get this! I just harvested a beautiful acorn squash from our compost heap! We decided to let the plant that grew out of the side of the compost pile keep going. It's now spreading across the lawn and I harvested the first squash off it last night. We will cook it up tonight and see if it's worth waiting for the remaining squash that is developing. Totally free food!

So far, our only disappointment this year has been the beans. The asparagus beans are icky, the two kinds of Kentucky beans didn't do well at all (one bush, one pole). Only the cross breed bean that a guy at work gave me is doing anything at all... Eh...maybe next year.

Lastly, our corn is unbelievable! Some of the varieties are about 8 ft tall! All of the stalks have ears developing nicely, too. Unfortunately, I didn't think about cross-pollination, so I planted 4 types too close together. I may have a ton of dent corn in the making!

[badger]

Right here.

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

"cannot be shipped to Canada"...

I'll book mark it for next year. My female zucchini buds are turning yellow after about a week (it's green zucchini), and two of the smaller plants are basically dead now, so I'll just have to keep this in mind for next year. Live and learn!