sd white/non-white midwestern thread topic of the day (garden)

[cDubya]

Rain the past few weeks has screwed up all my tomatoes and peppers, but man are the cukes and squash loving it. At least I'll have plenty of Sriracha pickles this year...

[ben ji]

Rain the past few weeks has screwed up all my tomatoes and peppers, but man are the cukes and squash loving it. At least I'll have plenty of Sriracha pickles this year...

Favorite recipe for squash?

I've got some growing now but not sure how I'm going to eat them. Only Way I have prepared them in the past is to slice them up and sautee them with other veggies for a side dish.

[WonderMeal]

@Dobber @WonderMeal - best way to (organically) kill all these Aphids on my potato leaves/stalks?!!

Whenever I have an organic gardening question, I always go to Mike McGrath's "Garden Answers A to Z" website. His weekly You Bet Your Garden podcast is a great resource, too.

http://www.gardensalive.com/category/you_bet_your_garden


Here's his answer on aphids:

Question. I transplanted a beautiful heirloom rosebush from my mother's garden to mine last year. Now it's FILLED with APHIDS!!!! I found a ladybug and put her on the bush, but she looked at me like, "now why did you do that?" Please help. Thanks,
                    ---Beth in Emmaus, PA

Answer. Aphids are EASY! Cradle the infested part of the plant in one hand and blast the little rats off with a sharp, strong steam of water from one of those multiple-choice nozzles. It'll kill 80 to 90% of 'em outright, and the survivors will be too depressed to go on. Do this a couple of times and that Lady should be able to handle any stragglers.

[sys]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

[wetwillie]

@cDubya will you be planting a fall garden?  im excited to try out some spinach and romaine varieties i got a while back

[slobber]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

YES! Big Chemical is gaining strength!

Sorry, for the smart-assedness.

You are correct. They are not easy. Chemicals work very well and can be applied without harming a bee hive 50 ft away or whatever.
What if I told you that chemicals were used INSIDE THE HIVE?!?!? BY BEE KEEPERS!!!!!(maybe I already did tell you that?)

[ben ji]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

YES! Big Chemical is gaining strength!

Sorry, for the smart-assedness.

You are correct. They are not easy. Chemicals work very well and can be applied without harming a bee hive 50 ft away or whatever.
What if I told you that chemicals were used INSIDE THE HIVE?!?!? BY BEE KEEPERS!!!!!(maybe I already did tell you that?)

Dobber, did I tell you that ben ji's dad is an amateur bee keeper (Maybe I did already tell you that)? He does not use chemicals in his hives tho, just smoke, au natural.

[slobber]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

YES! Big Chemical is gaining strength!

Sorry, for the smart-assedness.

You are correct. They are not easy. Chemicals work very well and can be applied without harming a bee hive 50 ft away or whatever.
What if I told you that chemicals were used INSIDE THE HIVE?!?!? BY BEE KEEPERS!!!!!(maybe I already did tell you that?)

Dobber, did I tell you that ben ji's dad is an amateur bee keeper (Maybe I did already tell you that)? He does not use chemicals in his hives tho, just smoke, au natural.

Ask him how he controls varroa mites?

[ben ji]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

YES! Big Chemical is gaining strength!

Sorry, for the smart-assedness.

You are correct. They are not easy. Chemicals work very well and can be applied without harming a bee hive 50 ft away or whatever.
What if I told you that chemicals were used INSIDE THE HIVE?!?!? BY BEE KEEPERS!!!!!(maybe I already did tell you that?)

Dobber, did I tell you that ben ji's dad is an amateur bee keeper (Maybe I did already tell you that)? He does not use chemicals in his hives tho, just smoke, au natural.

Ask him how he controls varroa mites?

 

[WonderMeal]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

cDubya only mentioned aphids on his potatoes. Unless he is a potato farmer with "a couple hundred plants," it seems like this would be a useful strategy for a home garden potato crop. It's worked for me and my citrus. 


Let me try a more sys-friendly strategy: what if cDubya nukes his potatoes with chemicals, a rat eats one of his poison plans, then a snake eats the poison rat and dies? I'm just thinking about the snakes, sys.

[sys]

wondermeal, i have a confession.  i don't really care about cdubya's problems.  i just wanted to talk about my own experiences with aphids.

[cDubya]

wondermeal, i have a confession.  i don't really care about cdubya's problems.  i just wanted to talk about my own experiences with aphids.

I see how it is, sys.

[cDubya]

THIS is why I want organic alternatives. Someone close by has used something nasty and decimated one of our hives...

[slobber]

THIS is why I want organic alternatives. Someone close by has used something nasty and decimated one of our hives...

you probably have nastier things under your sink or in your garage. Somebody may have misused a chemical and if killed your bees. That sucks.
I will be very interested to know what actually happened. This is not typically what somebody would expect to see if a chemical was misused. I hope you figure out what happened and then kick the dumbass responsible for it right in the taint.


Gonna win 'em all!

[cDubya]

@d(sl)obber - not sure specifically, but reading up on it I wouldn't doubt someone close by was using something like Sevin, maybe? This all happened in a span of ~48 hours. From what I've heard/read from other keepers you have to get a live, poisoned bee in the freezer and then send it off to be able to get a viable test done to find the cause. We may try to do that and send it to whoever does that kind of thing.

Gonna get in contact with the Dept. of Agriculture and go from there.

[ben ji]

Decided to try and make sun dried tomatoes with some of my crop.

Did like 3 min of research online and it seems pretty simple. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds, bake in oven at 175 degrees for like 8 hrs.

[HerrSonntag]

So I see the before's.....

[puniraptor]

i just googled that the temperature of the sun is 175 million degrees F so i dont know what you think that dinky oven will do

[slobber]

@d(sl)obber - not sure specifically, but reading up on it I wouldn't doubt someone close by was using something like Sevin, maybe? This all happened in a span of ~48 hours. From what I've heard/read from other keepers you have to get a live, poisoned bee in the freezer and then send it off to be able to get a viable test done to find the cause. We may try to do that and send it to whoever does that kind of thing.

Gonna get in contact with the Dept. of Agriculture and go from there.

Any update?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[slobber]

aphids are not easy, at least not without chemicals.  i guess maybe they're easy if you only have one plant, but eff mr. organic if he thinks it's easy to hand wash a couple hundred plants every other day.

YES! Big Chemical is gaining strength!

Sorry, for the smart-assedness.

You are correct. They are not easy. Chemicals work very well and can be applied without harming a bee hive 50 ft away or whatever.
What if I told you that chemicals were used INSIDE THE HIVE?!?!? BY BEE KEEPERS!!!!!(maybe I already did tell you that?)

Dobber, did I tell you that ben ji's dad is an amateur bee keeper (Maybe I did already tell you that)? He does not use chemicals in his hives tho, just smoke, au natural.

The smoke is only to calm the bees when you enter the hive. It actually masks the pheromone warning that the bees give off when they want to warn the rest of the hive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dr Rick Daris]

i planted some stuff exactly three weeks ago. watermelon, pumpkin and cucumbers. i'll be sure to keep everyone updated. right now they are all looking pretty decent though.

also re: pumpkins, i got the kind which are supposed to grow huge gigantic humongous ones. 

the cucumbers went bonkers, i have about five watermelons that look viable and one pumpkin. really hoping that thing gets huge.

[WonderMeal]

the cucumbers went bonkers, i have about five watermelons that look viable and one pumpkin. really hoping that thing gets huge.

I've never had much luck with watermelons. I'm really cheering for you. Both pumpkins and wmelons are really heavy feeders.

Just cleared out the garden for the Fall/Winter crops. Also planted a lot more flowers for cutting for Mrs. WM. Citrus harvest coming soon!

[ben ji]

So I see the before's.....

After

[The Big Train]

hopefully none of those went to waste, you made so many

[puniraptor]

I thought my ghost pepper was done for, but now its going gangbusters