Jon Sousa

So, every year you have to cut back the old vines to the ground and it is good to drape the new vines over a support of some sort, tying where appropriate. Usually this is done during the winter. My question is, does it hurt the health of the vine (root) to cut back the old vines as soon as they have stopped bearing fruit? or should I wait until winter? I would like to get it done sooner rather than later.

What do you think?

Mike Haasl wrote:I'm trying it for the first time this year too.  Baker Creek seed packet said to soak overnight and plant. It's been a week and they haven't sprouted yet so I'm wondering if the ground is too cold still in my greenhouse.

I soaked in water 4 hours and then wrapped the seeds in wet paper towels, wrapped loosely in plastic where it will stay up high in my house for three days, or until they start to sprout. That should be tomorrow. The seeds need 75-85 degrees to sprout, so yeah, your greenhouse is too cold. Direct planted it could take 2-3 weeks to sprout, especially in colder ground.

Tomorrow I will plant the seed in pony packs and put them on a heating mat in my greenhouse. I expect them to sprout about a week later. I should have done this at least a month ago, but too late to mourn that now.

Just for comparison, I direct planted 10 seeds in a gallon pot that is on the heating pad now.

Good luck to you.

Are there dairies close by? I get all the half composted cow poo I can take away for free and they load it.

Topic says it all. I'm growing jicama for the first time in my greenhouse this year. A friend in southern Mexico is giving me some interesting information that is totally different from what I am reading on line and seeing on YouTube.

Anyone actually grown it??? What happened?

Jamin Grey wrote:The only caveat I'd mention is that squashes in-general cross-pollinate like crazy. If you (or anyone else within 1500 ft) grow pumpkins or other squashes nearby, each resulting seed will be somewhere between 0% and 50% mixed with whatever it cross-pollinated with.

This is not encouraging as my butternut were in the same row as my zucchini. What are my chances???

Jamin Grey wrote: I now am hoping some ostrich farmer somewhere uses ostrich egg shells for starting plants. =D

An Emu shell will do. They are very large and are a lot easier to find.

I will stick with my sandy loam and transplanting into pony packs asap. I first saw it practiced in a commercial nursery. It saves having to plant too many seeds in the same space. I put a bunch of seeds in some loam (at least 2" deep), water, put on heating pad, and wham-o... one one seed is used in each growing spot. Since the plants a pulled as soon as they are up the root has no time to start branching. It is just a straight root.

This is the small variety and I am unsure if it is a hybrid or not. Will the seed produce the same? Will they produce at all?

It would work but I don't recommend it. The reason is the fact that before the seedling pops its cute little head out of the ground the tap root has gone down about 2 inches below the surface. What egg shell has that much room? Putting a hole in the bottom lets out extra water but the root will not follow it.

The reason I know is that I sprout my seeds in sandy loam. As soon as they pop out I transplant into pony-packs pulling the seedling out of the loam and using a pencil to poke a hole in the soil I'm transplanting into. Sometimes I have to transplant a seedling that hasn't quite come all the way out. The root is two inches long.

A couple of years ago I noticed a ton of aphids on my apple trees pretty early in the spring. As i was looking over the tree and thinking I needed to spray soap or something, I noticed some eggs on the underside of some leaves that had quite a few aphids around them. They looked familiar and I thought I was right but went and googled.... Sure enough, they were ladybug eggs. No way was I going to spray anything on those!

Last year in my greenhouse there were a ton of aphids on my pepper plants especially. I went out and hunted up some ladybugs and put them close to some aphids in the greenhouse. Within weeks I had ladybug larva all over the place growing fat on aphids. I showed my wife the larva so she would not disturb them. All of the aphids were wiped out within 2 or 3 months.

Thank you Red and all. It just so happens that my neighbor has some Douglas fir on our property line and the roots are quite invasive. Next time I will throw my slurry there. If I would have known then what I know today I would have been throwing slurry all around my two acres of mostly Douglas fir when we lived in the woods.