Soil Lab Report - Need Advice (Middle TN Zone 7A)
Andy
7 years ago
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7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoAndy
7 years agoRelated Discussions
2014 Watermelon Report/review
Comments (40)I am over here in Southeast Montana and have sandy soil that melons love. When I started raising melons in the 1970's, my Burpee Hybrid muskmelons were simply delicious, now I cannot get hardly anything good out of a muskmelon. The exception was the Sunder which was superb, but Willhite quit selling. I can get good-tasting Savors in the early part of the season, but the later ones rot before they taste good. As for watermelons, some do not do well for me (Desert King). I have had only two watermelons that had a "perfume" when eaten. The one I remember the most was a White Seeded Simpson. I used to grow lots of watermelons, did not rotate and eventually my field got too diseased. Now, years later, I start on new ground, till in lots of leaves and I have vines all over the place. I really like the Sweet Favorite. They ripen early (around a month after setting on), and I can turn around and get two crops off the same vine. Some Sweet Favorites do not get the sweetness of the others, I wonder if one should withhold the water for a few weeks before ripening. To tell when a melon is ripe: I used to scratch the melon with the date it set on. For example, if a melon set on July 19, I would take a knife or nail and scratch "J19 on the skin and the resulting scar would remain. Then, since it takes six weeks for most watermelons to ripen, I would harvest the melon six weeks later (September 1st for the above J19 melon. Now, I think I will take an ear tag (that they use in a calf's ear), and if a watermelon sets on July 19 th, write that on the ear tag and set it beside the melon. I actually would go out July 23 d, see a watermelon the size of a chicken egg, and subtract a few days and write J19 on the tag. But I do agree that the Orange Glo is a very delicious watermelon. And it has a taste that is more than sweet. This year my Orange Glos tailed off in sweetness at the end of the season. I tried the Moon and Stars a few years ago and was impressed with their earliness. But I ran into problems this past year as I picked the first ones too early. I think that in excellent soil, they ripen later than if they are on just average soil. And they do taste very good. This year, I will plant around 50% Sweet Favorite and 50% Moon and Stars. With a few new ones. I finally found a source for the Tiger Baby (Anderson Seed and Garden Logan Utah.) The Tiger Baby is a small melon, short vines and ripens in 30 days from setting on for me. The flesh is only pink, but I am going to try plastic tunnels, underground heating to try and get very early melons. I like to take a heat lamp (put in a 100 watt bulb), and set it next to the watermelon plants in the plastic hot kap for overnight heating of the soil (heat lamp is face down on the dirt). Sometimes the bulb breaks due to moisture on the bulb. But the plants really thrive and grow fast if it is 100 degrees in the hot kap at night. I like the Tiger Baby's short vines because I have to cover all my watermelons with wire with small holes due to the hail we seem to get every year. Is that called hardware cloth?...See MoreSouther live oak - who in TN has one and how far north/east ?
Comments (57)This is a new reply to an old post, but there are native live oaks in the area roughly between Ft. Worth, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, Texas that should work beautifully in your area. For some reason, nobody has developed commercial cultivars from this area. Live oaks, especially along the northern margin of their range, can vary in their characteristics. The ideal would be one with dense foliage that stays dark green all winter on a non-stoloniferous tree that branches With strong crotch angles. For commercial growers, it would probably require two trips to western North Texas—one in February/March to identify trees with the right characteristics, and once again in September/October to collect acorns. Maybe ten years of field trials would be in order after that. Of course this would be more of a long-range project than collecting an annual or perennial, but it could fundamentally change the landscape in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Eastern Seaboard up to Philadelphia or maybe New York....See MoreBest soil and pH for different roses & plants & your goals and plans
Comments (32)Just went out to check all my leaves. The disease-resistant roses with glossy foliage all have 7-leafets: Kordes Flower Carpet, Pat Austin and Tchaikovsky. Kordes Flower Carpet doesn't have mildew in shade, but Knock-out (5-leaflet) has mildew. Other DISEASE-RESISTANT with 7-leaflets: William Shakespeare 2000, Duchess de Rohan, Excellenz von Schubert, Annie L. McDowell, Blue Mist, Poseidon, Cloudert Soupert, and Crown Princess Mag. ... all have leaves in set of 7. These can take wet soil well, like multiflora rose thriving in wet lands. But the blackspot-prone roses: Comte de Chambord and hybrid teas have leaves in set of 5, and much larger & round leaves. These prefer well-drained soil, and tend to blackspot with prolonged wetness & acidic rain. Multiflora-leaves are clearly a set of 7, see below pic: http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/invasiveplants/factsheets/pdf/multiflora-rose.pdf "Each multiflora leaf as 5 to 11 one inch-long oval leaflets with toothed margins. The undersides of the leaflets have tiny hairs and are paler than the upper surface. The base of each leaf stalk has a characteristic stipule (green, leafy structure) with hairs or a comb-like fringe along its margins. Flowers. As indicated by its scientific name Rosa multiflora, this plant has abundant, showy clusters of flowers which typically are white, though sometimes slightly pink." Below is Austin rose William Morris, which did terrible in slightly acidic wet & peaty potting soil, then finally died when I put in my wet clay made acidic with cracked corn. Note the leaves are in a set of 5, which means it prefer well-drained & loamy soil, and CANNOT take acid & wetness like those of set-7 leaves. Folks complain about WM being stingy and rust-fungal-prone. The drought-tolerant & disease-resistant Rugosa has rounder leaves in set of 9, plus very bristly canes full of thistles, see below:...See MoreBest own root roses for your type of soil and annual rainfall?
Comments (60)lizzieswellness I have been growing roses for 30 years (I'm 60) and I have been rooting roses for a decade. I grow 150+ varieties of OWN ROOT roses. What you wrote fit GRAFTED roses that are grafted on ONE PARTICULAR ROOTSTOCK, but DOES NOT APPLY to own-root roses which are vastly different from each other. Like Bayes Blueberry is a long rope root, or shallow cluster-root of Baby Fauraux, or thick & woody & chunky root (like a tree) of French Romantica roses. I dug up plenty of dead own-root roses that don't survive my zone 5a winter at -20 F below zero. And their roots are DIFFERENT from each other, just google "StrawChicago and HMF" and you'll see I posted plenty of pics. of roots of roses: Even grafted roses are different from each other (Fortuniana, Multiflora, Dr.Huey). Below is multiflora rootstock (pic. from internet): Below is Dr.Huey rootstock, dug up from my garden of rock hard clay: Below is a pic. of own root rose that a friend sent to me. NO WAY that such a tiny own root can handle rock hard clay. One size DOES NOT fit all when it comes to own-root roses....See MoreAndy
7 years agoAndy
7 years agoUser
7 years ago
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