PNW: June updates

happycamper wrote:

Daniel9999 wrote:

happycamper wrote:Wonderful looking Watermelon radish, I am still waiting for mine. German Giant, Watermelon and Icicle radishes are by far my favorites.

What spacing did you use with watermelon radish and when do you usually plant it?

I did not get much in the way of bulbs and would definitely appreciate some tips for growing it better next time.

Daniel9999, I use 9 per square for spacing with the watermelon and german giant. I have to snip the extra plants off with scissors if I plant too many because they simply will not grow for me if they are crowded. I plant radish from about Feb to Nov (china rose for winter). During this time of year I have to plant them behind something else to give some shade otherwise they always seem to bolt. Example of full sun: Daikon just went to seed, I have pulled two now and they were about 3 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches around. This year is my first try with the Daikon and they have a very mild taste, it made a very refreshing radish salad.

Yep pretty much what I thought...I had them way overcrowded and too warm.

Thanks so much for confirming that.....I can do better next time with them next time I think.....you input is much appreciated.

@family garden....they are not so big....about golfball size...they are in a cereal bowl in that pic.....I hear they can grow to softball size though....and supposedly the bigger they get the better they taste.

Daniel9999 your radishes look so good! Thanks for sharing the picture!

Warbler wrote:...So was this spring a wash? Or am I just needing more patience in our cool weather?


...I wish I had just a little pump spray ready to use - anyone know where to get something like that? Have also used BT powder on the soil when the cutworms were really bad.

Yep, I'd say a dose of patience wouldn't hurt! Actually it sounds like you have a whole mix of cool weather and warm weather crops going on (which is fine - I do as well at this point in the season), so you can't expect all of them to be performing at the same rate. And of course, we can do our best by planting the right things at the right time in the right place, but we can't control the weather. I like FamilyGardening's tag line "I'm learning as I grow". Ask as many questions as you need to, but nothing is going to teach you as well as experience. Good for you for planting such a variety of things and trying stuff out! You'll start to get the hang of what you like to grow and what performs well for you (weather permitting, of course!).

That was too bad about your broccoli bolting. Definitely try again for a fall crop - you'll need squares open for transplants starting next month. Have you found your average first frost date yet?

Oh, and as far as the little pump sprayer - I just use a squirt bottle that you can pick up most anywhere in the cleaning supply section:

You can also get 1 gallon or 2 gallon sized pump sprayers like this at Walmart or Home Depot or Lowes:

Rose, so sorry to hear about your little greenhouse tipping over! Oh, I would be so frustrated if all my carefully labeled plants got all jumbled up like that! We've had an awfully windy time here as well. But maybe it's always so windy in the spring and I'm only just now noticing since it's my first spring fussing over a garden out there! Glad to see you have some carrots growing well. A few of mine that were eaten to the ground have begun re-growing! I take that as a good sign that there must be a healthy root system down there.

Okay Daniel, now I want some watermelon radish seeds. I still think you ought to plant a few in those squares where your new peppers are going. Radishes are supposed to grow and be harvested quickly - in less than a month (well, I don't know about the watermelon type), so you can get them in and out before other plants need the space. And happycamper even said she plants them all summer long in the shade of other plants.

Beans are funny! Long tendrils going up, up, up.

Rose, Oh no sorry your greenhouse tipped over! Though your other pictures are SO worth celebrating, everything looking so good.

With radishes temperature plays a huge role in the overall flavor of the bulbs.

The flavor of the radish bulb is also dependent on temperature. As a
general rule, the cooler the temperature, the milder the radish. High
summer temperatures cause radishes to become pithy and develop a strong
flavor.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/hgic1305.html

Also

Watermelon radishes are a cool season crop preferring soil temperatures
below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Overly warm soil temperatures affect the
radish's flavor, turning a mild pepper flavor often into a bitter sting.


http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Watermelon_Radish_1788.php

The Watermelon Radish takes a bit longer than other varieties to mature around 50-60 days or so.....which means I would not be harvesting until late July.

Happy Camper seems to have good results shading them out during the summer and keeping her soil temps low where she is at....but I am personally afraid if that if I try that method here I might end up with inedible and unpleasant tasting radishes.

Luck is not much of a friend of mine and so I am not that much of a risk taker.

PWN weather being the way it is...as soon I planted them the temps would probably shoot up way high and my radishes would end up tasting yucky.

After gardening quite a few seasons over the years I have become quite convinced that Mother Nature has some kind of personal vendetta against me....I must tread carefully.

Daniel9999 wrote:...PWN weather being the way it is...as soon I planted them the temps would probably shoot up way high and my radishes would end up tasting yucky...

If that's what it takes to get some decent corn and tomato weather around here, I will personally keep you supplied with as many radish seeds as you want to plant!

I've been growing plain Jane Champion rads this year. Usually they grow well, but sometimes they don't. Since they are in the same MM, it must be the weather that causes them to grow poorly, right? Or is it because I planted during the wrong phase of the moon...

Anyway - still a bit discouraged, but hanging in there. I've used spinosad for cutworms and leaf rollers and leaf miner. But the hose end sprayer sprays such a huge bunch of water that it seems difficult to use. I wish I had just a little pump spray ready to use - anyone know where to get something like that? Have also used BT powder on the soil when the cutworms were really bad.

Thanks for the listing of things to plant now. I have some empty squares and was trying to figure out what to do.

Here is what I use. It is a nice little inexpensive sprayer.


[url=http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1v/R-100164531/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=garden sprayer&storeId=10051]http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1v/R-100164531/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=garden sprayer&storeId=10051[/url]

thanks for the info on the radish Dan!

its June and we want the sun back!!......the slugs are trying to take over in the family gardens......ick!!.....hubby and i went out last night....late....found a bunch crawing out of the childrens self watering containers and munching away on the veggies in SFG box one and two..... ....a couple nights before....i found one on the very top of a fava bean plant ......at first i thought it was our first bean

we are really surprised that the tom's are handling the rain so well....they are getting taller and fuller.....cant wait to see what they will do with a little sunshine and heat.....

we have 4 squares in the SFG that are emptying (from bolting spinach & bok choi)and we may have a couple more ..if we decide to pull the beets.....the beets are stunted and havent really grown for at least a month or so......weird.....can we still sow carrots?....

hugs

rose.....who is thinking about sowing some spinach into a container so that we can move it to the shade when the weather warms up.....may put a few raddish in there too

[quote="Warbler]I've wondered if the HEAVY rains we had last March washed nutrients out of my new MM and maybe I should fertilize? I saw someone mention putting a top dressing of compost - would that do the same? How thick?[/quote]

Sorry Warlber, I didn't see this get a response from anyone. Yes, top dressing with compost should replenish the nutrients in your mix if you feel it has become deficient. Adding compost is what the SFG system does instead of relying on chemical fertilizers. I wouldn't assume the nutrients really are too weak unless you're plants seem like they are struggling. If you do see signs of nutrient deficiency, go ahead and add that compost. As far as how much - I would do a trowelful per square just as if you were between plantings. You can kind of scratch it into the top of your mix around the base of your plants.

BTW, do we always get this much hail in May and June around here, and I'm only just now noticing it because this is the first time I've had a garden that I'm fretting over out there?

Well, now that the Rose Festival is over, culminating with the big Grand Floral Parade yesterday, I'm sure we'll be back to sunny weather. (IMO, the rain always has to stick around long enough to ruin all the fun with that event. )

I for one enjoyed not having to water the garden and all the ornamentals I've purchased but haven't planted yet for my new border along the fence. My lettuces, spinach and broccoli's seem to have really taken off this past week. But I do feel badly for my bell pepper plants, who look like they wish they'd never been germinated. Maybe a week of sunshine will cheer them up!

FamilyGardening wrote:
its June and we want the sun back!!......the slugs are trying to take over in the family gardens......ick!!.....hubby and i went out last night....late....found a bunch crawing out of the childrens self watering containers and munching away on the veggies in SFG box one and two..... ....a couple nights before....i found one on the very top of a fava bean plant ......at first i thought it was our first bean

we are really surprised that the tom's are handling the rain so well....they are getting taller and fuller.....cant wait to see what they will do with a little sunshine and heat.....

Same here with the slugs and tomatoes I found a couple of them and sprinkled Sluggo. Hope that helps. The tomatoes are growing so well that I'm getting very excited!

gwennifer wrote:
I for one enjoyed not having to water the garden and all the ornamentals I've purchased but haven't planted yet for my new border along the fence. My lettuces, spinach and broccoli's seem to have really taken off this past week. But I do feel badly for my bell pepper plants, who look like they wish they'd never been germinated. Maybe a week of sunshine will cheer them up!

I'm with you on that gwennifer! If it's raining I'm happy that I don't have to worry about when and how long I need to water my garden/lawn.

Yes I too see some "dropping" flowers on my peppers and I'm hoping the sun these 2-3 days would help them out.

question for PNW who are or have in the past grown cantalope.....

we are trying for the first time this year to grow cantalope....we are growing it in our green house....question......it took for EVER to sprout....like weeks longer then we thought they would.....we have three of them up now....no true leaves yet...so just babbies.....do you think we can still use these guys or should we look and buy some bigger starts?

would also like to know how everyones corn is doing....we are nervous still about our corn.....we had to start more seeds in the green house as some of the corn hasnt come up yet....we were wondering how big everyone elses corn is.....a pic would be nice too ....worried ours wont be knee high by the 4th of july unless we get some warmer weather around here!!

thanks

rose

FamilyGardening wrote:...worried ours wont be knee high by the 4th of july unless we get some warmer weather around here!!..

That's what I said to my wife this past weekend! I've only gotten about 60% germination out of two packages of fresh seeds. They came up nicely during the warm spell we had. Now they seem stunted at 8-10 inches. Everything in my garden could use some more heat, including me!

I haven't grown cantaloupes.

sorry to hear your corn is having problems too boffer

thank you for the reply....at least it reasures us that its the weather and not something we are doing.....

what are you going to do about the corn not all coming up?...are you going to replant more?.....when i took a look at some of the spots where the corn didnt come up yet....i found that the corn had swelled and some started to make roots but never came to the surface

hugs

rose

They say that corn needs soil temps of at least 60°. Other than that warm spell, we've spent a lot more time under 60° than over. I planted long season corn; I'm out of time to re-plant, unless I switch to a short season cultivar. I planted 250 seeds; I just won't have as much to put in the freezer this year.

we planted in our back to eden-sqf-raised beds 96 corns .....pk says 90 days to harvest.....that must mean a long season too...

about 60 of them came up and are about four inch tall..... ....we have another 20 or so in the green house that are just up.......

hugs

rose who sure hopes we have a nice hot loooong summer so her family can eat some fresh corn!

by the way boffer.....how do you freeze yours?...the whole cob?...or cut off the cob?.....was looking at you tube last night trying to figure out the best way to freeze corn......dreaming i should say.....

FamilyGardening wrote:question for PNW who are or have in the past grown cantalope.....

we are trying for the first time this year to grow cantalope....we are growing it in our green house....question......it took for EVER to sprout....like weeks longer then we thought they would.....we have three of them up now....no true leaves yet...so just babbies.....do you think we can still use these guys or should we look and buy some bigger starts?

Do you have room to experiment? Keep your sprouts, but also buy some transplants, and compare how everything grows? I've read that cantalope will stop growing if temps are below 60*. Surely in your greenhouse the temps have been higher than that though?

gwen yes im sure the temp is higher then 60 too.....i have seen the temps over 100 when the sun is out.... not sure why we were having such a hard time germinating those cantaloupe seeds.....the first set never germinated the second set took a really long time......they are new seeds too...they are heirloom.....not sure if that has anything to do with it.......

we are growing them in the green house.....i was going to have two planters in there for the cantalopes.....do you think i could put two cantalopes into one pot?.....they are large self watering pots that we got from wally world last year.....we are going to put trellis up on both sides of the green house......we also have our five pepper plants and one tomato plant that we wanted to keep in the green house too.....the green house is a 5x6

hugs

rose

Anybody know why are the leaves turning yellow? :scratch:
The zucchini/squash plants are the plants in the first 4 squares.

Compared to mine they look beautiful!!! How'd you get them so big already. Mine are puny and kind of yellowish.

Thanks for the kind words Warbler!

I don't think I can take any credit for their size...could it be because we planted them in the last week of April so it's been around 45 days? How long has it been since you planted yours?

Took me awhile to check when I planted, and then remember how to post a pic...

It was planted on May 8, as a transplant. That night we had a frost and it really looked bad, so I planted a seed next to it - I think within the next week. That is what is on the right.



Did you protect yours from frost somehow?

This is a pic taken last week of my watermelon transplant. Crimson Sweet variety. They look worse now. I've sprayed it with a fungicide. Is it a goner? Any ideas?? We have a soaker "drip" hose.