Depressing...

I planted most of my garden back the end of March and they started off pretty well, but now everything seems to have quit growing and my green beans are outright pathetic! I've tried worm compost, fish emulsion and something called superthrive and so far nothing has helped. They have been this sad for a month or so, though I have added the fish stuff before that! I really wanted to go totally organic, but I'm about ready to try miracle grow or something! This is my first garden so I really don't know what I am doing and any help would be greatly appreciated! (The cukes were recently transplanted and the strawberries look ok but the fruit looks like it came from Chernobyl and are small, though they taste great and the radishes are round 2 after something ate all the leaves off round one.) We haven't had rain for ages so they have been watered from a hose. Maybe it's all the chemicals?


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Others can give you a lot more input, but here's 3 tips to get it started. Radishes are more of a cool weather crop and most don't like high temps. Strawberries can take a while to mature and most produce much better in the 2nd year. Mel also recommends watering with sun warmed water. By letting your water sit in a bucket, it will be the temp closer to the plants and not shock them as you water. It will also give the chemicals time to dilute. Also if you water by hand (or with soaker) at the roots, it will help with preventing fungus on the leaves. Are you watering consistently? Do you have enough sunlight? Did you mix your soil according to the book?

If you have a lot of chlorine in your water (like we do here in the city) you can draw your water the night before and let it sit to reduce the chlorine.

Alternately, you can draw your water an hour or two before you use it and hook up a fish tank "bubbler" hose to infuse the water with air. A couple hours of that will greatly reduce the chlorine.

There are lots of bad chemicals in the water in some places. Have you had your tap tested?

Your basil looks good. It is about the size mine is. It is so hot right now that your plants are probably on survival mode. I am having to water at least twice a day to keep my plants happy. My eggplants, squashes and melons seem to be thriving in this weather.

How long ago did you plant your cucumbers and what kind are they? I ask because I planted some straight eights and some burpless bush hybrids in April. The straight eights have grown but have not set any fruit and the burpless bush hybrids are huge and producing some fruit but only about 5 fruits out of 6 bushes.

I have been feeding my plants with John's recipe once a week.

Is that Okra in the pictures? What do you have on your trellis?

LWilliams

My climate is nothing like yours, but a couple of things that apply no matter where you live.

Cucumbers often do not transplant well, so can easily be set back by a transplant.

Strawberries, if not fully pollinated, can grow weirdly shaped and small fruit. Apparently the bees really need to root around in the blossoms, not just kiss them. Also as Pam Nix stated, strawberry plants produce better the second year.

Don't forget, you cannot overwater Mel's Mix, so make sure everything is getting enough water.

I hope you get more help from your Texas neighbors.

Mamachibi wrote:If you have a lot of chlorine in your water (like we do here in the city) you can draw your water the night before and let it sit to reduce the chlorine.

Alternately, you can draw your water an hour or two before you use it and hook up a fish tank "bubbler" hose to infuse the water with air. A couple hours of that will greatly reduce the chlorine.

There are lots of bad chemicals in the water in some places. Have you had your tap tested?

Another thing about water, if you have a water softening system, all the salt will effect your plants.

We have a softener in our house but we use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride. We do that because it's better for us to drink but I wonder if it has less of an affect on the plants as well, I wonder. Of course, after it goes through the softener, it goes through a whole house filter to get the chlorine out, hmmm....

My suggestion would be to add some flowers around the garden to attract more pollinators.