2023 Garden Thread

Shawn Seeger

Life of the Party
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Something with small teeth ate my third little cucumber growing in 5 gallon bucket. Rabbit, mouse or squirrel. Lil peckers leave the leftovers in the driveway at night.
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Mark, last year I had the same problem with pole bean plants. This year I had my first strawberries almost ready to go and they got chewed and it looked just like yours. I wired a mouse tap to the strawberry pot and got a mouse the first night!

My recommendation put s mouse trap in your plants!
 

Shawn Seeger

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Something with small teeth ate my third little cucumber growing in 5 gallon bucket. Rabbit, mouse or squirrel. Lil peckers leave the leftovers in the driveway at night.
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Well I just did my morning garden walk and BOOM... got another one!

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PS... already planning to plant garlic in between our new berry plant area. This year we have a bumper crop of garlic!
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Salmo_g

Legend
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Learn me 'bout strawberries. Mine are doing fairly well this year, but the vast preponderance of them are small. As in really small. I'd say about a quarter of the berries are "normal" sized. Why? Not enough fertilizer? Is it time to rip out the old plants and plant new, young ones?
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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Learn me 'bout strawberries. Mine are doing fairly well this year, but the vast preponderance of them are small. As in really small. I'd say about a quarter of the berries are "normal" sized. Why? Not enough fertilizer? Is it time to rip out the old plants and plant new, young ones?
Might be, strawberry plants should be replaced every 3 to 5 years depending on the variety - we had great everbearing berries at the farm in Kansas, would have strawberries every night (freshly picked that night) from May into August. they would start to peter out after 3 years though. You can also use runners from a mature plant to establish new plants (but I'd just get new).

cheers
 
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albula

We are all Bozos on this bus
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Started a new strawberry box this year. No harvest yet but I pinch off all blooms until 1 June to encourage the root and foliage growth. They are now looking very healthy and starting to pump out the blossoms. Fruit size is typically golf ball size and larger.KIMG0451.JPG
 

Greggor

'Schooled' by Roy Patrick
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Our favorite strawberry variety is 'Albion'. It is a day neutral type, and bares fruit June thru October. It gets netted. I let my June bearing red, along with white pineberries run wild. We likely loose half of those to birds and squirrels, and consider it primarily a ground cover with benefits.20230616_150751.jpg
 

Mossback

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Lots of watering today, got a bit complacent after last wekends precip.
Warm sunny days for the next 10...
Things are on the move bigly now, used an onion from the Walla Walla patch last night, an overachiever for sure but decent sized for June.
:)
 

Tom Butler

Grandpa, Small Stream Fanatic
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Concerning your raised garden beds. Are they feeding troughs.? Are there lower and wider ones available.? I ask, because the inherited beds at my home are starting to fail and I am in need of new ones. These look nice..thanks..
I like those too, the height on those is great, however I'm afraid in my sunny Walla Walla lot the soil would just cook. I'm looking to rebuilding in wood but have not decided yet.
 

Gary Knowels

Hack of all trades
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Concerning your raised garden beds. Are they feeding troughs.? Are there lower and wider ones available.? I ask, because the inherited beds at my home are starting to fail and I am in need of new ones. These look nice..thanks..
Mine are failing too, the screws pulled out of rotten wood and the sides are now held in place by the fence on one side and the dog barrier on the other. I'll be replacing them next year, lots of options out there.
 

Mossback

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Using the larger nursery pots works for us, but of course they are leftover from years of planting projects, so the cost is zero.
The concrete block planters will last forever, but can be costly to build, and sort of heavy when you use the 18"x12"x 8" wall blocks (85# each), but they are permanent in every sense of the word.
Our steel troughs face south, and get sun all day here, so watering is critical of course. Grow peppers and tomatoes in them with good results.
 

albula

We are all Bozos on this bus
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Tomato room is progressing along. Have to grow them inside here on the water in PA. They are getting ready to outgrow the 7 ft ceiling. Question for the tamater experts. Should I top them and try to force any growth down or would that be a mistake?KIMG0473.JPG
 

Mossback

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I think indeterminate tomatoes should not be topped. We just train the vines along a rope or some twine...tie loosely...and just keep them growing. Any main leader cutting we do is in October to let more sun in and ripen the last of the fruit.
Our indeterminates get the best flower/fruit set mid July, so we do not cut any main leaders till well after that, but do trim all the suckers regularly.
 

Dr. Magill

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I think indeterminate tomatoes should not be topped. We just train the vines along a rope or some twine...tie loosely...and just keep them growing. Any main leader cutting we do is in October to let more sun in and ripen the last of the fruit.
Our indeterminates get the best flower/fruit set mid July, so we do not cut any main leaders till well after that, but do trim all the suckers regularly.
I was going to refer you to @Mossback
 
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Mossback

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This is just what we do, I do know some folks that have different views on tomato growing. Probably depends on which variety and what climate you grow in.
Removing suckers is always good...early and often on most of ours works best, especially when there's fruit on the plants.
 

Dr. Magill

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This is just what we do, I do know some folks that have different views on tomato growing. Probably depends on which variety and what climate you grow in.
Removing suckers is always good...early and often on most of ours works best, especially when there's fruit on the plants.
There’s ur sign
 
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