Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So, what that article tells me, is that I should always eat potatoes in the form of french fries or chips. I can live with that!

Guffaw. You know it.

Seriously, green=bad.

argh!

What ate this pepper? It takes SOOOO long for a pepper to turn red, and I've been patiently waiting. Only to find this! There were also some tomatoes with similar bite marks. No chance of underground varmints. Would a hornworm do this? It is in the bed closest to the compost... I've never seen mice or rats in this part of Texas. WTH??

whoa! something with chompers!

coon? bunny? 'dillo?

I've seen some massive horn worm damage, but I highly doubt this was the ravaging of a larvae. I believe you have a very hungry vegan varmint that is staking out your garden that waits until nightfall to eat. I'm picturing something along the lines of Templeton the rat from Charlotte's Web, singing the smorgasborg song. I'm so so sorry, Jess! You might want to get some hot pepper wax animal repellent or some kind of fencing for your garden area to protect those veggies. With our cute lil' armadillo friends, they love to digdigdig, so I can imagine a fence wouldn't deter them if they saw that big juicy red pepper! I know raccoons, opossums, mice, and rats are scavengers--are armadillos as well? I'm not well informed of the wildlife in your area.

Okay, here's some info on armadillos. They really like to nom on insects and worms:
http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/armadillos.asp

Jess, I've had opossums eating veggies out of my compost, so maybe that?

it's possible, but I'm in one of those clear-cut-all-the-trees-to-build-a-subdivision neighborhoods, so I don't even have squirrels here. I did see a bird once, though. I'm gonna go out there with a flashlight tonight and scope it out.

I WISH IT WAS A BUNNY SO BAD.

Hey Jewy! I want to watch those videos you posted on the old boards! Where are they?

Gimme a minute. I think they're in the workshop. I'll re-post links here. We just filmed a couple of new ones.

worm bins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RWa9Wjc ... re=related

pH and TDS meters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogODxIyU ... re=related

beneficial insects part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5S-g52 ... re=related

beneficial insects part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbV7qF6- ... re=related

beneficial insects part three:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v49Vddz ... re=related

seed starting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dkdaTC ... re=related

nutrients and fertilizers 101:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HC25ggB ... re=related

I live pretty close to you and we have a big possum problem, you probably wouldn't even notice them if you didn't have an insane beagle who spends all night on possum patrol.

I don't think I've seen a bunny...but maybe

I used to see mine when I worked nights and would hang out on the porch at three in the morning.

jewbacca, I told my niece to go pick some kale leaves yesterday so she could take them home and eat them, and when I looked at my garden this morning, I noticed she completely cleaned off the stalk. There are no leaves left, just the stalk sticking out of the ground. Will new leaves appear or should I just not count on that one anymore?

I planted some pole beans (kentucky blue I think? Or maybe fortex? I can't remember...) and they were growing so well! Then yesterday I noticed the bottom leaves turning yellow. Could this be from a lack of watering or do they have some disease?

I had a disease problem with my pole beans the past two years, so this year I rotated to another bed on the other side of the yard. I really hope it didn't spread.

Hey everyone,

Sorry I've been away for a few days. I moved and have been without a consistent computer.

Gaia, is there any evidence of baby leaves on top of the plant? If so, It will keep growing. I hope you don't think I'm laughing at the clean stalks, but I did smile when I read your post because I think it is really adorable that she thought she was helping and was super thorough.

Aubade, yellow leaves usually mean the plant isn't getting enough nitrogen. Can you post a pic?

Oh Wise Jewbacca....

Advise me on my melon troubles, please!
I started this plant from seed (french charentais variety), I have just enough space for one melon plant, so I only kept one seedling. So far it has been fine..it was inside for a while but I put it out this month. Seemed to be thriving for weeks but now 3 of it's big leaves have these brown patches on it!




Could it be under/over watering??? I see no evidence of bugs. This is my first time growing a melon...

Thank ye

OH man so jealous. I wish I had room for one of these. I actually put a start of this in my plot a while ago when there was room, but I forgot to water it and it died. Now I've planted up every possible real-estate and I'm sad I didn't re-try this melon. Good luck with that melon! Okay you know what I think I need to plant a melon. I've just realized after typing this I don't think I can go on living without a melon plant. I'm going to shove it in somewhere. :P

Just get a big start from a nursery maybe there's time still....! And trellis it to save space! : D

MT--what are you feeding your melon? My initial urge was to say it looked like leaf burn, but when I saw the photo with the small ring of brown on it, I wondered if it was rust or some sort of fungus. Look at the link below or google image "rust on bean leaves" to see if any of it looks familiar. I'm going to read a little more.

Yeah, I'm thinking a kind of blight.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/02913.html

Here's a quote from the link. You're in PDX, right? Isn't it moist there?
Common bacterial blight symptoms exhibit a scalded appearance on leaf tissue and contain water-soaked spots. These small, irregularly shaped lesions often enlarge to greater than 1 inch or more and form dark brown lesions along the edge of the leaflet. A narrow lemon-yellow margin often surrounds these lesions and large portions of the foliage can be infected. Infected pods exhibit circular, water-soaked areas that often produce yellow masses of bacterial ooze. Later, spots dry and appear as reddish-brown lesions. Pod infection often causes discoloration, shriveling and bacterial contamination of seeds; however, some seed may appear healthy.

Bacterial wilt symptoms may appear after plugging of the water-conducting tissue of young seedlings which may wilt and die. Leaves of older infected plants will wilt, especially during moisture stress and warmer parts of the day. Golden brown, irregularly-shaped leaf lesions occur, with or without evidence of water-soaking, and affected leaves wilt and may drop off. Infection can occur on pod sutures similar to that caused by other bacterial diseases, but seldom will it produce circular water-soaked spots. The bacterium may cause a seed discoloration (yellow, orange, purple), depending on the strain of wilt organism and bean market class

Yeah it has been a crappy summer...so maybe it's too wet? After following your link and checking around the web, it might be early blight/ Alternaria fungus? I'm finding a lot of prevention info, but absolutely no treatment info....!
Should I pull it out? Or wait to see what happens?

j-bac! Help me with leaf miners! They are eating everything in my garden!

Hey Y'all,

I've been in the middle of a move and it was a holiday weekend. Sorry I'm just getting back with you now.

Leaf miners aren't a specific insect--they are actually the larvae of many different kinds of insects that are hell bent on nomming on your leaves. Whuuuut?

Best cure is prevention. I know, I know--it might be a little too late for that, but not really. Many moths have several life cycles in a gardening season. Get some nematodes to water in your soil to kill them at that stage. Make sure you are weeding regularly, since many leaf minters LOVE plantain weed and chickweed. Having those around only attracts the lil' buggers to your garden. Parasitic wasps are nice (caterpillar killers!) because they lay their eggs inside the eggs of caterpillars, so a teeny wasp emerges that does the same thing over and over on future caterpillar generations. You can spray your leaves with Bt-(bacillus thuringiensis) which is a soil dwelling, gram positive bacteria that caterpillars cannot digest. Larvae shrivel up and well, you know the rest.

Other pesticides won't really work because the larvae is hanging out inside the leaf. Sure the stomata will absorb whatever you are using, but many don't have the desired effect on the larvae.

Always remove the leaves and dispose elsewhere, preferably away from your compost and other plants.