Garden question (1 Viewer)

taygolf

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ok Guys as some of you know I am in my second year of gardening. Last year went well but I want to do better this year. The Squash died after just a a little while. Guessing because of lack of water the week I was out of town. Banana peppers produced more than i could eat. japs were great but could have produced more. cayenne did well too. The tomatoes did well but they did not get very big. I will have to watch the suckers better this year I guess.

Ok so I doubled the size of the garden to give more room although I think I simply filled it with more stuff. planting all of the above as well as corn. swet onion, and cucumber.

My main question is this. I know th put cages around the tomatoes and the cucumbers but do I need to stake or put cages around the pepper plants or just leave them alone?

Any advice for the squash?

Any advice for the peppers and how often to water them or get them to produce more?

Anyone ever done cucumbers or onion. any tricks?

Thanks

T
 
I've had success with green onion. They came right up from seed.

My bell pepper plants already have fruit on them. I don't think it's necessary to stake them unless the weight of the fruit is too much.

I water every morning in the Louisiana heat. Sometimes twice a day in the heat of summer, but I have to use pots instead of planting in the ground. Once it gets really hot though, I would still water every AM.
 
To get more peppers, use epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). Put about a handful around the plants every few weeks. This will keep the flowers from falling off before they bear fruit. It works for tomatoes, eggplant, and beans, too. Also, if you fertilize, make sure you use a fertilizer that is balanced (i.e. 8-8-8). If you use too much nitrogen (the first number) then you will get a beautiful plant with not much fruit.

You don't have to cage the pepper plants. As for squash, If the the leaves start wilting before the die, there may be leaf borers. To find them, cut the bottom of the stem, then slice it open, if you see an ugly fat worm in there, you have problem.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I did not think I needed to stake/cage the pepper plants but I wanted to make sure.

Also thanks for the epsom salt idea. I will try that this year for sure!

Of course I plant everything last week and we are having a chance of a freeze tonight. We probably won't get there but I will cover everything anyway. better safe than sorry!

T
 
Thanks for the help guys. I did not think I needed to stake/cage the pepper plants but I wanted to make sure.

Also thanks for the epsom salt idea. I will try that this year for sure!

Of course I plant everything last week and we are having a chance of a freeze tonight. We probably won't get there but I will cover everything anyway. better safe than sorry!

T

where do you live? i live in youngsville and i planted on friday then heard about the weather tonight. gonna go cover everything. what all did you plant?

i have 8 strawberry plants, 5 yellow squash, 2 tomatoes, 3 white squash, hopefully get 4 okra from seed, about 30 white onions, 4 cucumbers, 3 honeydew, 3 cantaloupe, and 5 lettuces. and 7 green onions. hopefully ill be eatin' good soon!
 
where do you live? i live in youngsville and i planted on friday then heard about the weather tonight. gonna go cover everything. what all did you plant?

i have 8 strawberry plants, 5 yellow squash, 2 tomatoes, 3 white squash, hopefully get 4 okra from seed, about 30 white onions, 4 cucumbers, 3 honeydew, 3 cantaloupe, and 5 lettuces. and 7 green onions. hopefully ill be eatin' good soon!

I live in central Mississippi.

I planted 8 better boy tomatoes, 1 better boy bush(I just want to see how this does), 9 japs, 9 cayannes, 50 sweet georgia onions, 4 crock neck squash plants, and one package of corn seed that I will thin out once they start to grow. I left a space for 6 cucumber plants and 8 banana pepper plants.

This is my first year doing onion but it came in a bushal and they say to plant them 3 inches apart so it seemed like I could fit plenty in a small space. First time planting cucumber if they ever get any more in the store and I grabbed bell peppers instead of banana peppers so I will be getting some of them when I go back to get the cucumbers.

First time trying corn as well. We will see how things go. I almost tripled my square footage from last years garden. I was dealing with 64sqft last year and was cramped with planting only half of what I listed above. This year I am 140sqft and probably still tight for what I have but I just could not throw away a perfectly good tomato or jap plant so I made it fit! The plants still have more room this year than they did last year.

T
 

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