Not a good year so far

I have had a hard time with peppers that are now finally starting to take o ff. Now the zucchini and yellow squash is turning yellow and the fruit are shriveling up and dying. Plenty of sun, water, epsom salt, black cow and 10 .10.10. Too much? I am so frustrated this year. There is the whole vole pro blem, slow growing plants and now this. Ideas or words of encouragement?? M y freezers are empty, I was counting a large amounts of produce. MJ

Reply to
mjciccarel
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Um, vole problem? What are they doing? As the gophers taught me 3-4 years ago, fertilizer does no good if the plants don't have roots anymore.

That was last year for me. I was all ready to ramp up canning and about all I got were occasional snacks. So far things are looking good, though not as far along as I'd like.

Reply to
Drew Lawson

The voles ate about 20 pepper plants in all. We made cages for them with a bottom so that problem is gone I think. I still have traps and decon out for them. Haven't lost any plants lately.

Reply to
mjciccarel

That would be frustrating. I only get that from the slugs and the deer, with the deer mostly stepping on seedlings.

My only other thought is from reflecting on my problems last year

-- are you sure they have enough water? Last year (and similar so far this year), we had frequent rains, but not much rainfall. I kept not watering because it had just rained. In fact, it had rained about 1/10", and most of that just evaporated.

My plants had enough water that they didn't wilt, but not enough to grow when they should have been.

Hopefully other's are more helpful. I'm no expert. I just have many years of playing in the dirt.

Reply to
Drew Lawson

Yeah pretty sure it is not water. The irrigation systems run at 3 am and 6 pm for right around 20 -25 minutes. Plenty. I have many years of playing in the dirt too and that is why I feel so frus trated. I Know How To Do This... and it is not working. I am going to be ou t of town for a week, maybe when I get back the gardens will be chuck full of produce. The cucumbers seem to be doing well. I have them on a trellis t his year and they seem happy about that. Put in an electric fence 3 years ago to finally keep the deer out. As long as I remember to unplug it we ge t along just fine. Been zapped more than once though. MJ

Reply to
mjciccarel

Do you have squash borers? They decimated our yellow squash but don't seem to affect the zucchini. Some of our squash is going yellow because we are getting daily temperatures in the low nineties Fahrenheit.

We have been lucky in that we have had over twelve inches of rain in the last month. This time last year we were in drought conditions and spent lots of money watering the gardens. During the winter I put in soaker hoses in the raised bed vegetable gardens and drip irrigation around the fruit trees and in the flower/vegetable in ground beds.

How has your weather been? That can be the critical element.

Reply to
George Shirley

ke off. Now the zucchini and yellow squash is turning yellow and the fruit are shriveling up and dying. Plenty of sun, water, epsom salt, black cow an d 10.10.10. Too much? I am so frustrated this year. There is the whole vole problem, slow growing plants and now this. Ideas or words of encouragement ?? My freezers are empty, I was counting a large amounts of produce.

It has been hot, 94 today, but it is always hot this time of year. I am in Eastern North Carolina. No borers. No squash bugs, no cut worms. I am stump ed. MJ

Reply to
mjciccarel

You'll get a bumper crop if you already have full freezers and don't want or need a great harvest. Sometimes I dunno why we all bother.

Reply to
Fran Farmer

off. Now the zucchini and yellow squash is turning yellow and the fruit ar e shriveling up and dying. Plenty of sun, water, epsom salt, black cow and

10.10.10. Too much? I am so frustrated this year. There is the whole vole p roblem, slow growing plants and now this. Ideas or words of encouragement?? My freezers are empty, I was counting a large amounts of produce.

Here is another thought. The 10.10.10 I have is 2 years old and has gotten wet. Not wet enough to dissolve, but wet. Will this stop the effectiveness? I also forgot to mention the spent coffee grounds that I put in the dirt. They can't be bad can they? They are supposed to be good for everything els e. MJ

Reply to
mjciccarel

No, it will be lumpy so you will need to spread it with more care to avoid concentration in some spots and none in others.

D
Reply to
David Hare-Scott

Did it develop a slight amonia smell? That would have been some of the nitrogen disappearing.

Generally, I either use coffee grounds spread thinly over the surface or mixed with other organic mulch (generally, shredded leaves). Otherwise, they go in the compost.

I'd worry that mixing them "fresh" into the soil would alter the pH or tie up some N as the coffee grounds start to decay.

Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

. They can't

No there was no amonia smell. One of the thoughts of "raw" coffee grounds i t to also deter the fire ants. Don't I want less Nitrogen anyway to increas e fruit production? Anyone else in North Carolina or close? I am getting th e feeling that I am over thinking this and it is just too early for mass pr oduction. Still feeling the affects of a long crappy winter? MJ

Reply to
mjciccarel

Amen! We had a bumper crop last year even with drought, this year we're getting plenty of rain but the crops aren't doing as well as last year. Picked a zucchini a couple of days ago, we had gone out of town for three days and came home to a zuke that was four inches in diameter and fifteen inches long. Cut it and it had tiny seeds and was very firm, turned it into a large squash casserole for dinner. I guess it rained while we were gone and squash of every kind suck up all the water they can.

I rearranged the big freezer last week, still have produce from 2009 through 2013 in there, all neatly vacuum bagged and labeled. All the old stuff is now at the front. I think we need a walk in freezer, maybe in the spare bedroom.

Reply to
George Shirley

Coffee grounds are very acidic, definitely will alter the pH and also will tie up nitrogen as they decay. I only compost it, along with other acidic food stuff.

Reply to
George Shirley

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