General Discussion
Vegetable Garden
6/30/04 @ 1:47 PM
Who's got one ? what are you growing ? and how's it coming along? Mine consists of sweet corn , cabbage , brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli ,cucumbers, zucchini, peas, tomatoes , peppers , acorn squash, pumpkins, and assorted spices. The cold wet weather hasn't been very conducive to good growth so far for me. But with warmer weather in the forecast things should turn out. I hope those of you growing fair better.
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anything in the nightshade family (potatoes are in the nightshade family, so are peppers and tomatoes), and also anything in the squash/cucumber/melon family the stems can be buried and they'll root. From what I read when growing a single, jumbo pumpkin people will bury the stem and use real fertile soil on top of it so that some of the nutrients the pumpkin is getting will come directly from the stems that will become roots.
Also, since I got such an early start on peppers I'm experimenting with double topping them. They all rebounded from the initial topping and are bushing out nicely. I trimmed a few of the bell pepper and sweet marconis down similar to pruning an outside bush to see if it'll help bulk up the stems. I have a few that are pushing a 1/4" stems which is great to see. Something new I learned this year - as long as a pepper is young enough and the stem isn't starting to turn woody at all, it can be buried up to the first set of true leaves when re-potting or transplanting. I always thought that tomatoes were the only ones that you could do that with.
Exciting to have carrots sprouting already! My early carrot planting never does well, I have far better results planting late may/June for whatever reason. The only thing that has sprouted from my planting ~1.5 weeks ago are my radishes. I might have seen one or two broccoli popping through, or I'm imagining it. Still not sure if everything else got washed out or not and 28 degrees this morning sure isn't helping! Fingers crossed for last frost of the season??
I got a later start on purpose with my tomatoes and peppers this year. I have found I like them smaller when I plant them, like how you buy them in the 4 or 6 packs at some greenhouses. Menards sells their vegetables in 4 and 6 packs for around 2 bucks. Heck I can barely start my own from seed for that price! Just about every seedling I started has now emerged. A few I planted over 6 weeks ago which were older seeds never germinated, so I have a feeling they probably won't germinate. The onions I started from see I planted a week or so ago and haven't really taken off yet. Need some more rain! One of the onions that survived the winter is now getting pretty big above ground. Don't see much of a bulb yet though. I bet it'll just go to see this year. Lettuce I planted last week also hasn't started growing yet but it will within a week or two then I'll have lettuce by the time most people are just starting to plant theirs in their gardens! Also I can see a few carrot seeds have emerged, but again we need some more rain! Supposed to rain Friday I guess.
Tomatoes and peppers got their last transplanting before going out into the garden. We were gone for 4 days and came back to a jungle. Using mostly 2 gallon buckets and planted 2-4 plants in each. That should give them plenty of room to work with for a few weeks. Fingers crossed weather cooperates to get things in the ground mother's day weekend. We have peppers pushing a foot tall, tomatoes about 18" but potted them down to ~6-12". Definitely didn't need to plant as early as I did, but glad I did with how well they've been doing. A little concerned about how the onion transplants are going to do, I didn't harden off very well, planted right before the big rainfall and then had multiple nights of soft freezes. But they are pretty hardy so we will see.
I'd say ~75% of my garlic is popping through. They had 5" of mulch/compost and were planted 2-3" deep so they had a long ways to poke through. Should produce some monsters this fall! I spent the last 4 days between MKE and GB, it's crazy the difference in how much stuff is growing between the areas. People already cutting grass, just crazy!
I'd say ~75% of my garlic is popping through. They had 5" of mulch/compost and were planted 2-3" deep so they had a long ways to poke through. Should produce some monsters this fall! I spent the last 4 days between MKE and GB, it's crazy the difference in how much stuff is growing between the areas. People already cutting grass, just crazy!
Here's some of my seedlings as of a few days ago. Tomatoes have also all come up in the last couple of days. They only take a few days to germinate but some peppers take almost a month! I'm trying to put these in the ground at a much smaller size this year, much like when you buy a 4 or 6 pack at a greenhouse. I think I'm on good track. A lot of the peppers I planted about 3 weeks ago are starting to grow their first set of leaves. Once they get a second set of true leaves I'll transplant them into bigger cups, which I mostly use Dixie cups. I tried Styrofoam cups one year and they didn't root as well, plus they really only lasted once. Dixie cups I can use over and over again. I wash them in a light bleach solution then rinse well and they're good to go for the next season!
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