Calling all east coast gardeners...

reply to post by stikkinikki


The funny thing is that the Delmarva penninsula is known for its watermelons.

So I figured it would be a breeze.

But...

I wonder if it not getting hot enough at night is the problem.

I have only done it for two years, and it has not been the best time to start a garden.

For one, I have had a lousy time with tomatoes, it just did not get hot at night last year, and barely the year before. And we have not had a lot of rain either.

I watered the melon constantly, but it is just not the same as rain.

So I think the weather has not beein in my favor.

just make sure you keep putting organic matter in your dirt.
Until the dirt becomes live mist or feed your plants with fish emulsion and liquid sea weed kelp,and black strap molasses at a one to one to one ratio is perfect mix of nutrient.for almost anything that FLOWERS (fish emulsions npk= 5-1-1, Liquid sea weed = 0-0-1, black strap = 0-1.5-3)all macro and micro nutrients are in this mix

the fish emulsion alone misted on all of your plants is a great organic pest and disease control

most Herbaceous plant do not like anything much below average constant 45 degrees faren.,they tend to stop doing anything untill they realize what the earth is going to do.

anything you can eat,plant after the fear of the last frost and you will do just fine.

dont over love them, run on the dry side, and you will keep root rot to a min. and the flow of traces and calcium more consistent .

start your cycle feb 15th and drop seeds every two weeks (depending on life cycle of the plant you are growing)or you can take cuttings and root those once your plants start to produce.

by this time all plants are mature enough to bare fruit once the cutting roots,simply plant and it will produce,this is the best way to keep your cycle until season ends. it takes a good 2 months off the whole life cycle compared to seeds, and with a good sytem you can root most any Herbaceous plant in abot 10 to 15 days .

most anything that you can eat will bare its bounty any where from 65 to 120 days from sprout of the fist cotyledon leaves, so set your cycle according to that .

im just typing quick and off the top of my head if you ask me specific questions maybe i can answer them.

just remember its all 90% water wrapped in a pretty shell, the rest is plant matter and nutrients.and that 90% is important for The turgor pressure
the other 10% is the cells that the The turgor pressure controlls and aranges them into a pretty shell LOL

if you take 100 pounds of plant matter, and dry it down you will end up with 10 pounds of dry matter,and of that 10 pounds 1% of that is made up of the nutrients, and if you follow the rule of twice optimum is toxic! if you use this rule you can figure what your % by weight your N-P-K/traces nutrients needs to be by the amount of plant matter you will grow if you know what i mean?




[edit on 9-3-2009 by lycopersicum]

I'm not on the east coast I'm out west (US) at altitude but you mentioned cool nights. I'm in an arid area and our summer nights are always deliciously cool and tomatoes and cukes don't like that so I cover the base of the plants with a thick bed of straw. It helps retain moisture and keeps the roots warm at night and I've seen quite a difference. The cool nights and hot days can toughen the tomato skins though. I've planted in a greenhouse as well and the tomatoes loved the warmth and protection from drying winds.

I never have grown watermelons the water requirements are too high for my area but if you are supplying plenty of food, water and sunlight I suspect it's your soil. It has taken many years to get my clay soil light and airy and it's still not perfect. This year I will get a bale of peat to lighten the soil more. Western soil is prone to run-off. The soil compacts and water just runs away instead of soaking in so I've got to keep it loose. I think your soil might not be draining off and the roots are drowning & starved for air. I am a firm believer in keeping the soil loose. I do this really thoroughly once a week and hoe quickly around the plants everyday before watering.

I had my problem with bugs worked out fairly well I plant "morning glories" around my garden and most bugs prefer them, don't I know it. They are so resilient and tough they need very little help from me to start early on their own even in this environment. I've seen them wilt back and look like death and with just a little water they spring back to life and grow profusely. The morning glories can keep up with any damage done by bugs producing new leaves to replace those eaten.

Well it all worked great until last year seems a whole army cutworm village was living on my morning glories when a 45 minute Colorado hail storm hit my morning glories were chewed to pieces my garden was a little better protected but damaged and the army moved in! Those worms left those mgs like rats off a sinking ship. I now see why they are called "army" cutworms. I never found a single one in my garden until those morning glories were destroyed.

This year I don't know what to do. I'm afraid the mg's might be attracting these pests but if critters are out there surely my garden would attract them anyway.

So for now I think I will keep up with the morning glories it has worked so well I stake my name on it. I will be going up with better hail protection.

Earthworms are a great way to loosen and improve soil, I add earthworm castings every spring. Go to the tackle store and buy fishing worms, night crawlers and throw them into your garden. The soil around my garden is like cement so the worms don't migrate out. I gather lady bugs and put in the garden and I have frogs I raised from tadpoles that I let go wild out back they return from somewhere every year. They shouldn't be this far from a pond so it must be my garden that keeps them.

You'll work it out, become one with your soil. It's a real challenge trying to improve on mother nature bending her to your will. You have to do it kindly using her workers they know what's best. I'm still learning lessons.

reply to post by lycopersicum


Some great information Lyco. Thank you.

but where adn what is fish emulsion? And this deters most pests?
does it smell?

Morningglory, our nights are not usually cool. That is the odd part. But the past few years, it has been strangely cool at night.

Usually we have a few months of mind bending heat.

reply to post by nixie_nox

Imo our weather is changing but Colorado is always changing. We haven't been getting our spring snows as usual for this part of the state. It is getting more arid and the winds have been non-stop.

Fish emulsion is great stuff and what I have bought in the past does stink. It's easy to find at garden stores. I've always just watered it into the soil never put it on the plants. I was afraid it would burn the leaves. I'll have to give it a try.

edit to add: My mom would bury fish heads around her rose bushes she had an abundance of the most beautiful blooms I've ever seen. I've got cats so I don't use the fish heads as they will dig them up.

[edit on 9-3-2009 by Morningglory]

reply to post by nixie_nox

fish emulsion can be ordered online or most ace hardware carries it ,the liquid sea weed can be harder to find but you can just use black strap and fish emulsions ,if you do you can find liquid iron to add for traces ,at most hardware/wally world/home depot/lowe's

fish emulsion is the waste from the fishing industry, cooked down and made into an emulsion ,AND yes its VERY! stinky!!! but it keeps deer, rabbits, mites,thrips,white flies,horn worms,cats (DOGs love to roll in it) foxes,HUMANS,grey mold, late blight,southern blight,ect.ect at bay if u spray once a week.

everyone needs to save your pollen from garden.

tap some into a plastic bag or glass jar ect. and freeze it will last a couple years.

when it comes time for the nut cutting!! you want to be prepared and in plant world pollen is gold

bat guano ,worm casting,mushroom compost,fish emulsion,green sand,liquid sea weed, pure fresh fish and natural sea weed composted in peat makes great i mean great organic matter .

and will make your flowers bust, your fruit embarass eddens,your herbs smell great.

and all can be found at nuseries

hope to keep helping

seed the world all !!! grow all you can!!

its easy and fun and cleans the earth when don wright

good luck to you for sure.

hope your bounty is plenty

Since I had thread about gardening with a greenhouse deleted within seconds of it posting, I'll ask my question on this gardening thread.

Have any of you used a small greenhouse to get your plants started?
I live in Mi and I've tried using a small greenhouse, but I've had bad results. If I start from seed, and put the stuff out 6 weeks before planting time, it ususally dies because of the cold. If I wait, then by the time the plants are ready to go in the ground, planting time is long passed.

Does anyone have any tips for me?

reply to post by virraszto


You posted it twice. One of the threads is still there.

Peace

reply to post by virraszto


try to keep the temp ,no matter what style ,72/ at night and 82 in the day .

if you have to cool it uses fans, or a/c window units, they work great for small green houses ,catch the water from your window unit,and your house unit,condensed water is great(dont use it if your evaporator has had evap coil cleaner used on it)

be sure to ventilate it very well. measure your cubic feet of your green house and use the wright CFM fan for the air exchange. use the rule full air exchange every 2 hours and it will help big time .to fast of exchange is bad when fruiting/flowering start s ,any built up ethylene gets sucked out to fast and will prolong ripening.that is why its hard to just use air exchange alone to cool because if you need high CFM fans to keep it cool it adds weeks to your ripening time .

try to use evaporative cooling, its cheap and you can get 10 to 20 degree drop in temp with it.

be sure to keep the air moving not to fast just a slight breeze , to fast and they will spend alittle extra energy building thick stalks (if not needed) and useing up surgars instead of using it for flavor, we dont eat the plant matter we eat the fruit/flowers hehe.

heating is easyer but try to use a burner of sorts for heating ,ethylene is produced.

but just keep it simple, and be very consistent thats the most important thing .

thats just rambling off the top of my head . if you want more detail just ask and we here will try to answer

You are very knowledgeable Lyco, are you a master gardener?
Or a very enthusiastic hobbiest?

reply to post by nixie_nox


Been gardening all kids of ways for a long time, my favorite is Aquaponics ,raising tilapia,and fresh water prawns and plants together very very fun once its dialed in. As my name implies Tomatoes (heirloom)are my fav!!!Any farmer needs a small green house for Propagation/germination of seeds and cuttings.To keep a constant stream of plants ,you have to have a good Propagation/germination regiment .

And when your talking high density green house at 30,000 plants per covered acre ,you got to have a good cycle and the wright plants .


I really love breeding plants ,LOVE eating what i grow .
There is no better feeling to me then to take a seed and nurture it to its maturity,watch it slowly quit taking nutrients up and slowly watch it convert its energy to save its genetics by sending all its energy to its fruit.They are just so pure in their nature very efficient in energy transfer,amazingly smart for being so simple.

They clean our air ,they keep us alive,they are when the NUT CUTTING time is upon us one day, the most important commodity to share with man kind.

Everyone needs to learn basic gardening for sure,One day it will probably save someones life some where in the world .

The more you grow for your self the more there is for people who cant .

Work your land let it work for you no matter what size plot.

If i could do one thing in my life before i die ,it would be to try to get big cities to put greenhouses on top of high rise buildings ,grociery stores , ect . ect .

example: high rise the green house on top of these high rises could produce all the fresh fruit and vegies for the whole building ,and could be sold from a small produce shop in the lobby.It could also Propagate the landscape plants.

It could be done aquaponics(is organic aeroponics think epcot center) ,organic, and hydroponics.

example :1 acre field grown tomatoes can produce around 20,000 to 40,000 pounds per acre,BUT !! any form of water culture can produce anywhere from 250,000 to 550,000 pounds per covered acre.

We shouldnt have to import one dam bit of fruit and vegies we are just to dam lazy these days.

reply to post by Northern Raider
[Of course you now realise that everyone is going to come round and pee on your garden dont you ? ]

My 'garden' is 3 stories up

thanks again everyone for your help.!!!
I appreciate it you taking the time to fill me in.


Just a couple more questions:

I am gonna try broccoli for the first time? Is there anything i need to know?

Also, does anyone do cluster planting? Or do you do row planting? Cluster planting that instead of nice neat rows and sepearted plants, that you just sprinkle the seeds. The point being that you get many more plants in an area. The plants are smaller and produce less, but since you have many more, you have a higher yield to the area.
Doesn't work with stuff like carrots of course.


In summary, what I have decided to do is plant the spring/cool stuff. And do an indoor start to the summer stuff. And then do the fall stuff.
so i am gonna attempt to get three crops this year.

*attempt* being the keyword here. lol

wish me luck

[edit on 21-3-2009 by nixie_nox]