To pull or not to pull

[headfullofbees]

I have heard about the milk but never tried it. Does it prevent or does it cure?

Well, because there can be problems with black rot if you spray with milk too often, the trick is to spray, at this concentration, (10 water to 1 milk, or 5 water if your water is acidic) as soon as you notice mildew.
Milk is slightly alkaline, and mildew will not live in an alkaline environment, so you lose ONLY the leaves already colonised.

 

[Chuck]

Well, because there can be problems with black rot if you spray with milk too often, the trick is to spray, at this concentration, (10 water to 1 milk, or 5 water if your water is acidic) as soon as you notice mildew.
Milk is slightly alkaline, and mildew will not live in an alkaline environment, so you lose ONLY the leaves already colonised.

This must be another one of those England Texas things. My soil is alkaline and so is my well water and I get mildew every spring. I have been using hydrogen peroxide and it works OK but not excellent. I will try the milk next year on a side by side test. Any thoughts on green bean rust?

 

[headfullofbees]

Remove the rusted leaves as soon as you see it, and spray with a mix of copper sul(f)phate and lime.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I had not heard about not composting the squash, and I have usually either put it in my compost pile at the end of the year, or I just let it decompose over the winter and then rototill it in when I do the tilling either in late fall or early spring.
I don't think that i have ever had the mildew though, so maybe that is why it hasn't been a problem before. Now that I know to watch for this, I will be sure to be a lot more careful this fall when the garden is done.

 

[Meowmie]

I guess in some ways I am lucky being this far north, but I pay for it with a shorter growing season and an abundance of deer. This year is really hard on the garden because we have a week of spring weather, followed by a week of hot summer weather, and it's just plain confusing the crops.

As far as BBQ, yes we can do that. Don't have a grill at the moment but will keep that in mind if I do start having trouble with fungus!

 

[Livvy]

Mycorrhizas fungi are probably the most important micro- organism there is. MF breaks down the organic matter in your soil into the micro-nutrients you plants need to survive.

Well, today I learned something very important. Thanks Chuck!

 

[claudine]

Thank you for the information, Chuck!
When I'm feeling lazy, I don't do anything with dead plants and leaves. In fall, we make a big bonfire at least once a week

 

[kevinkimers]

It would depend on the area you are in. When I lived in South East Georgia, I would pull. Here the land and air is dry, so we are thinking of tilling into the ground and adding worms to the soil where we are going to plant. We talked about placing a thick tarp over it all to trap moisture and warmth for the winter. Then in spring, till and plant... the earth here is not very fertile and rich so we are hoping this will help.

 

[Chuck]

It would depend on the area you are in. When I lived in South East Georgia, I would pull. Here the land and air is dry, so we are thinking of tilling into the ground and adding worms to the soil where we are going to plant. We talked about placing a thick tarp over it all to trap moisture and warmth for the winter. Then in spring, till and plant... the earth here is not very fertile and rich so we are hoping this will help.

What you are thinking about doing IMO is a big waste of energy and money. Here in South Central Texas in what is known as the Hill Country we are hot and dry also. If, and I mean if, you have decent soil, let Mother Nature do its job. Adding worms is a waste of time and money if there isn't sufficient organic matter already in the soil to feed them. And even if there is enough organic matter, as the moisture goes deeper into the soil as will happen even with a tarp or not so will the worms. Worms are an after effect of fertile soil. What you want is a soil which is diverse in micro-organisms both fungal and bacterial. The best thing you could do is add as much organic material ON TOP OF THE GROUND now as you can and add a fungal and bacterial stimulant to help in the decomposition process. Molasses is the best agent for this. Then in the spring till it under while at the same time adding more organic matter and other organic soil supplements as needed and you will start to see worms....................and healthy vigorous plants

 

[headfullofbees]

I am also of the opinion that it's best to let the frost get at the soil, as it helps to kill off nasties, aerates the soil, and breaks it down into a far more workable structure.

 

[DancingLady]

I pull out the dead ones. I don't like the messy look of dead things just sitting out there. I want the land to look like it is at rest when it is resting I haven't had any issues with mildew, so I don't think that is going to cause me problems with composting.

 

[kevinkimers]

What you are thinking about doing IMO is a big waste of energy and money. Here in South Central Texas in what is known as the Hill Country we are hot and dry also. If, and I mean if, you have decent soil, let Mother Nature do its job. Adding worms is a waste of time and money if there isn't sufficient organic matter already in the soil to feed them. And even if there is enough organic matter, as the moisture goes deeper into the soil as will happen even with a tarp or not so will the worms. Worms are an after effect of fertile soil. What you want is a soil which is diverse in micro-organisms both fungal and bacterial. The best thing you could do is add as much organic material ON TOP OF THE GROUND now as you can and add a fungal and bacterial stimulant to help in the decomposition process. Molasses is the best agent for this. Then in the spring till it under while at the same time adding more organic matter and other organic soil supplements as needed and you will start to see worms....................and healthy vigorous plants

So basically you think I should just mulch the area and till it in?

Our soil is pretty bad out here. Mostly soft sand and sage brush. Not much of anything else. We were having a talk just yesterday and may just do a green house and pot soil it all instead just to be on the safe side. Don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on trying to create a great garden only to watch it die. Not to mention... last spring we had a locus attack on our garden (lost all but 15 corn crops) and that was after a cow tried to get at our garden and killed off most of our stuff. So we have been strongly debating and we will know for sure what we are going to do.

Thanks for the advice. That is what we are here for! LOL

 

[Chuck]

So basically you think I should just mulch the area and till it in?

Our soil is pretty bad out here. Mostly soft sand and sage brush. Not much of anything else. We were having a talk just yesterday and may just do a green house and pot soil it all instead just to be on the safe side. Don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on trying to create a great garden only to watch it die. Not to mention... last spring we had a locus attack on our garden (lost all but 15 corn crops) and that was after a cow tried to get at our garden and killed off most of our stuff. So we have been strongly debating and we will know for sure what we are going to do.

Thanks for the advice. That is what we are here for! LOL

With soft blow sand like you describe you will have no other choice but to HEAVILY mulch and compost your garden area. And then you must think about how you will water it.

 

[kevinkimers]

Ok, it is official... we are going to greenhouse. LOL That is way more work then I am prepared to do. If I were to do all the work needed to get the land started I would have spent hundreds of dollars and the growing season would be over by the time I was done. Yep, greenhouse is the answer. I might try hydroponics also. Seems like an interesting idea for some of the vegetables that I want to grow. I heard there are some vegetables that grow and taste better through hydroponics.

 

[Noodlesoups]

Wow, thanks for the advice! I never thought about mold being transferred, I wonder if that's why my squash gave up so early in the season this year.