Recent Activity
A few years back I had a rabbit addicted to my cayenne pepper. Won't touch any of the other 30 pepper plants, only the cayenne. The rabbits certainly like asparagus, and I have some trouble with sweet corn when they're young. I figured they'd attack my Brassicas but never did.
Anne, if those 100 old milk crates are the metal ones you may have thousands of dollars sitting outside. They sell very well on EBAY for between $20 and $80 depending on the dairy they came from with people paying more for shipping than the price of the crate.
I sold two for $25 each at a garage sale last fall, and used ebay's "items sold" prices to price my crates.
Unfortunately I only have 8 or 9 of those metal milk crates, most of them are the heavy duty plastic. I'll sure watch for the metal ones, though, thanks for the heads up!
Annie
Buy a bee house and place AWAY from your deck. Seal the holes in your deck. Move them away from what you need to protect.
Not a bee house for carpenter bees. They don't use the premade holes, that's other bees. Carpenter bees like a chunk or few of untreated soft wood like pine, fir, and cedar to chew a nest in. Preferably weathered a bit. Extra if is where it gets moist, but protected from direct precipitation. It's part of why they are so attracted to our construction- a lot of it is made with the wood they like most. If left to weather or unsealed, it becomes softer and nicer for them to chew.
Hostas are out, soil temp is 60 at 4" down. As long as I keep a close eye on them worse case I just add some more heaters. I have a lot of elec heaters of all sizes.
I put tom's and peppers in and built a few more cold frames. Covered now with light bulbs in them to add a little heat. I am able to keep air temps 10 degrees higher than outside. Soil temps 4" down are 55 in AM and 60 during the day. I am sure this will increase with cold frames built yesterday. Lowest forecast is 32 so I should not get below 40 air temps (and only at 40 for a couple hours).
I feel confident air temps will always be over 40 and soil over 57 (most times 60 or more).
I think this should be good. We have a cold week ahead then a big warm up. After next week most likely no more temps below 40 until fall.
If they're not mushy, harvest and enjoy them.
They are still to small so I need to decide what to do.
Not sure about what works better on slugs, but as per safety, I'd consider SDS as opposed to whether someone thinks they are organic. Iron Phosphate is completely benign, though eye irritation can occur. Sodium Ferric (EDTA) is a little less benign. Not carcinogenic, but can trigger allergic reactions, and may cause respiratory damage if ingested in large quantities.
I've been using iron phosphate bait for years now and can attest to its effectiveness. I believe that one's OK for organic growing, since it breaks down into fertilizer, basically.
I just did it again and got aprox 150. I have a slug problem!
That's a lot of slugs!
I am sorry to hear that. I LOVE my garlic and like you store bought is not even in the ballpark! My garlic has never had issues and I have grown over confident. I am going to research this pest soI can keep an eye out for them. Good luck!
Interesting that people are recommending specific pesticides to control allium borers (leaf miners), and quoting respectable sources. As I noted a few days ago, it has also been claimed that no residential pesticides are available that will work. See https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/allium-leaf-miner. So I guess there is some disagreement in the community. Though it is true that spinosad, for example, is banned in several states and some countries. Permethrin is also mentioned here, but that is not approved for residential use.
daninthedirt, that was also my understanding. An exceedlingly difficult pest to deal with.
Perhaps if I were younger I'd try some of the suggestions. But at nearly 80, I can't take on more garden set ups than I've already got. So, probably gilroy garlic from now on.
It seems very suspicious that they are not giving me the info.....................
Hmmm. They seem reluctant to admit that something might have happened to the seeds between the time they left their site, and when they ended up in your hands, and seem to want to presume that you did something wrong. They also conspicuously did not reassure you that their germination tests for that lot didn't show anything wrong.
Fair point. If your native soil isn't pretty acidic, it's understood to be largely a losing proposition to try to strongly acidify it. That is, you can heave sulfur on it, and it will reduce the pH slightly, but the pH will pop back up to a higher level in a year or two. It should be understood that where your soil is alkaline, your water (probably ground water) is going to be alkaline as well, so just watering de-acidifies. My soil pH is 7.9, but my water pH is over 9! My lake water is 8.0, but they bump the pH up to remove minerals. Growing blueberries for me in the ground is hopeless, and I suspect growing them in containers wouldn't be much easier.
Thanks guys! I do suspect it will "revert back" if left alone. I will get it tested but not every year. It is only for blueberry bushes so only a localized area. I was also guessing 2x a year was overkill so will reduce it to once a year. I will watch my blueberry harvest, if it is bad then i will test the soil for sure.
Thanks again everyone!!!!!!!!!!