Gardening Questions
Okay, so I planted my first garden this year. I bought compost to mix in, and some organic fertilizer, and followed the directions on the packages about how much to add. I'm wondering if I should have tested the soil PH or added something else like dolomite, lime, rock dust or epsom salts. But I really don't know what I'm doing.
Some things seem to be doing really well, others aren't, and others I just don't know what to do with.
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My cauliflower and swiss chard took off and were doing really well at first, but now the edges of the leaves are curling up and the chard has quite a few brown spots and some of the leaves are dying.
I planted quite a few root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, radishes), and they all seem to have huge tops but not much going on in the root department. Some of them are bolting, but still have teeny tiny, thin roots--we're talking inches of roots and feet of tops. Does that mean there's too much nitrogen in the soil? Is the temperature wrong? Or do I just need to wait for them to grow more?
My daikon radishes all bolted, and the itty bitty roots were completely infested with little white worms that look a lot like maggots. Even if they had been big enough to eat, they wouldn't have been edible--they were all tunneled through and crawling with grubs. The red radishes a few feet away are much less affected by the worms, and the carrots and parsnips inches away seem to be untouched. The spinach and bok choy are thickly coated with aphids in spots.
I planted several different varieties of cauliflower and broccoli. One kind came up much more profusely than the rest, and the leaves look very different--more similar to my oriental greens or to some of my weeds (lol) than to the rest of the cruciferous vegetables. They never got a head that looked at all like broccoli, and before I knew it they were all rocketing up into stalks of yellow flowers. Now I'm wondering if I labeled it wrong on my chart, and maybe that plot isn't actually broccoli at all? The rest of the broccoli aren't even close to blooming yet.
I have a lot of dumb questions. For instance:
Which plants do you eat what part of, and how do you know when they're ready? For example, can I eat the leaves of the broccoli and cauliflower plants? How about parsnips, radishes, and rutabaga? I know turnip, kohlrabi and beet greens can be eaten. What about the outer leaves on the cabbage plants? And how do I know when to harvest the heads?
I planted Brussels sprouts, six starts I bought. Will I get more than one sprout off each plant, or just one per plant? How do I know when to harvest them?
What about when things bolt? My bok choy and spinach are bolting, and so is the Swiss Chard, but the lettuce hasn't started bolting yet. What exactly does bolting do to the plant. It doesn't make it so it's bad to eat, does it? Is it okay to eat the blossoms?
Since some of the things I planted didn't come up, and I pulled up all the daikon radishes, I have some empty space. Is there something that's good to plant in July and August (I'm in the Pacific NW)?
My zucchini are doing fabulously. I picked 3 good-sized green zucchini and 2 small yellow ones today, and have at least a dozen more of each color coming on. The cucumbers aren't blooming yet, but the pumpkins and watermelon are.
The tomatoes and peppers seem to be quite prolific--none are ripe yet, but there are lots of little green fruits growing. The kohlrabi are doing well (wow, are they good cooked fresh from the garden!). The potatoes seem to be going to town with lots of foliage, and they're blooming, but I can't tell whether they're actually growing potatoes. I haven't added more soil on top--is it too late to do that since they're already blooming now?
My bunching onions are doing okay, but the rest of them only a very few came up and they're looking really piddly.
At this point, mainly I'm just watering and trying to catch up on weeding, pinching off the heads of things to try to keep them from bolting (not keeping up on that very well) and trying to figure out how to use up this stuff.
What else should I be doing?
Some things seem to be doing really well, others aren't, and others I just don't know what to do with.
###################
My cauliflower and swiss chard took off and were doing really well at first, but now the edges of the leaves are curling up and the chard has quite a few brown spots and some of the leaves are dying.
I planted quite a few root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, radishes), and they all seem to have huge tops but not much going on in the root department. Some of them are bolting, but still have teeny tiny, thin roots--we're talking inches of roots and feet of tops. Does that mean there's too much nitrogen in the soil? Is the temperature wrong? Or do I just need to wait for them to grow more?
My daikon radishes all bolted, and the itty bitty roots were completely infested with little white worms that look a lot like maggots. Even if they had been big enough to eat, they wouldn't have been edible--they were all tunneled through and crawling with grubs. The red radishes a few feet away are much less affected by the worms, and the carrots and parsnips inches away seem to be untouched. The spinach and bok choy are thickly coated with aphids in spots.
I planted several different varieties of cauliflower and broccoli. One kind came up much more profusely than the rest, and the leaves look very different--more similar to my oriental greens or to some of my weeds (lol) than to the rest of the cruciferous vegetables. They never got a head that looked at all like broccoli, and before I knew it they were all rocketing up into stalks of yellow flowers. Now I'm wondering if I labeled it wrong on my chart, and maybe that plot isn't actually broccoli at all? The rest of the broccoli aren't even close to blooming yet.
I have a lot of dumb questions. For instance:
Which plants do you eat what part of, and how do you know when they're ready? For example, can I eat the leaves of the broccoli and cauliflower plants? How about parsnips, radishes, and rutabaga? I know turnip, kohlrabi and beet greens can be eaten. What about the outer leaves on the cabbage plants? And how do I know when to harvest the heads?
I planted Brussels sprouts, six starts I bought. Will I get more than one sprout off each plant, or just one per plant? How do I know when to harvest them?
What about when things bolt? My bok choy and spinach are bolting, and so is the Swiss Chard, but the lettuce hasn't started bolting yet. What exactly does bolting do to the plant. It doesn't make it so it's bad to eat, does it? Is it okay to eat the blossoms?
Since some of the things I planted didn't come up, and I pulled up all the daikon radishes, I have some empty space. Is there something that's good to plant in July and August (I'm in the Pacific NW)?
My zucchini are doing fabulously. I picked 3 good-sized green zucchini and 2 small yellow ones today, and have at least a dozen more of each color coming on. The cucumbers aren't blooming yet, but the pumpkins and watermelon are.
The tomatoes and peppers seem to be quite prolific--none are ripe yet, but there are lots of little green fruits growing. The kohlrabi are doing well (wow, are they good cooked fresh from the garden!). The potatoes seem to be going to town with lots of foliage, and they're blooming, but I can't tell whether they're actually growing potatoes. I haven't added more soil on top--is it too late to do that since they're already blooming now?
My bunching onions are doing okay, but the rest of them only a very few came up and they're looking really piddly.
At this point, mainly I'm just watering and trying to catch up on weeding, pinching off the heads of things to try to keep them from bolting (not keeping up on that very well) and trying to figure out how to use up this stuff.
What else should I be doing?
Labels: food, gardening, just life
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 12:15 AM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
ROFL At first when you said, "even if they were big enough to eat", I thought you were referring to the worms themselves! Yecch! I would love to hear you explain to Baby E that she had to eat grubs simply because they were something she wasn't allergic to!
I can't help you with the gardening questions, but as far as what else you can do? Get you a nice shotgun and protect those delicious tomatoes from marauding raccoons! I am a NJ transplant in CA and so am extremely protective of homegrown tomatoes...and extremely experienced in the wiles of hungry raccoons!
Hang in there...by this time next year you'll be an expert gardener and preparing loads of yummy veggies from your very own backyard. It does kind of make you wonder how the early settlers even made it, though, doesn't it?
(oh yeah...thankyouthankyouthankyou for contributing to "Weird Wednesday!)
P_K:
First, your garden sounds lovely!!
Do you have a county extension office? Or a public uni with an ag extension? You can call them with questions too. Here's the Oregon State Extension on fall-crop plantings: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/pnw/pnw548/#anchor43274 Usually land-grant unis have ag extensions.
If your root vegetables are bolting but don't have pickable roots, it means the temperature was too high for too long. Usually this is because they were planted too late, or sometimes because spring was unusually short/ hot. It's quite late for radishes, here at least. Usually they're over by mid-June at the latest (then they bolt).
The Farmers' Almanac (available in gardening stores) has a lot of myth and superstition, which is entertaining, but also a lot of info on when to plant what, how soon after the last frost, etc.
Once plants have bolted they get very bitter, usually inedible- especially leafy greens. They're edible, but they don't taste good. You might try blanching them to take away a little of the bitterness. I think even root vegetables get quite bitter.
Planting a row of marigolds near the eaten-up vegetables might help some of the pest issues. Another organic fix is to whiz up a hot pepper in water, strain it, and use that as a bug spray. (Wash before eating, obviously.)
The yellow flowers may be bolted broccoli. Cauliflower and broccoli are often hard to get to sprout; some people sprout in a greenhouse/ covered bit/ indoors in a window to improve germination. You can also refrigerate the seeds for 2-4 weeks, soak overnight, and then plant, to increase germination efficiency- this is called vernalization, and triggers the 'it's spring and I should sprout' pathway.
Most people I know plant onion sets because they are also notoriously hard to germinate. Sorry, don't know about the potatoes.
Brussels sprouts grow long stalks, and sprouts grow along the whole length of them (like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brussels-sprouts-on-stalk.jpg). You can pick them at any size; if they get much beyond 2 inches they get very cabbage-y flavored. The small ones are very tender and tasty. Watch out though- potato beetles love them. Harvest cabbages when they're about eight to 10 inches across, or smaller if you want, or if they look like they're unhappy or whatever.
You can eat broccoli and cauliflower leaves, but they get very tough as they get bigger. You can eat radish leaves, though I never have; rutabaga leaves are pretty much just like turnip greens. Ditto with outer cabbage leaves; fine.
The kolhrabi sounds especially tasty! Yum!!!
Good luck-
J
Rats, it ate the links.
Brussels sprouts
July plantings; OSU extension
dish soap mixed with water kills the aphids.
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