re: 2020 Garden Thread

Not for 6 hours at a time. Start out with an hour of morning sun and work your way up from there.

Didn’t go through the entire thread to see if this was mentioned, but for those new to vegetable gardening, the “Louisiana Urban Gardener: A Beginners Guide to Growing Vegetable and Herbs” by Dr. Kathryn Fontenot, Horticultural Professor and Extension Specialist, with the LSU AgCenter. Published by the LSU Press, is a good reference book. It was published a couple years so it is not dated. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.



As is Louisiana Home Vegetable Gardening written by a number of LSU AgCenter horticultural research and extension faculty. LINK

Is there any vegetable y'all have seen better yields with, grown in a pot than in a raised bed? I have some grow bags I want to try this year and trying to decide want I want in those, and what I want in my raised bed? Is there a difference? I plan on putting tomatoes and peppers in the bags and squash, cucumbers, zucchini, okra and maybe a couple others in the bed unless someone knows better.

What size grow bags do you use for tomatoes?

I used some 5 and 7 gallon bags last fall, but I bought some 15 gallon bags and I'm going to try those out this spring.

Question. I’m having some real issues growing my large tomato plants inside. Mostly due to lighting I think. And then i tried to help them by putting them outside and I made it worse. Frustrating because im using the exact same lights as last fall.

Question is, is it good to prune off dead or dying branches and also dead / dying leaves at end of branches?

Or does this just induce more stress to plant?

Ex. below I have been pinching off the end of branches like this and sometimes the whole branch if it doesn’t look like they can come back to health.

2 questions for everyone
1. Trying to grow tomatoes and peppers in peat pots. The peppers haven't sprouted yet. But tomatoes look very stringy. It's early but looked same way last year. Not enough light? I've read about touching them to induce response or light fan breeze to make them stronger. What do I need to do?

2. some of the peat pots look like they have mold on them. Figure this means too much water but I was afraid I was underwatering them (skipped some days out of town). Common? Get rid of them/don't worry?

Thanks

quote:

---

1. Trying to grow tomatoes and peppers in peat pots. The peppers haven't sprouted yet. But tomatoes look very stringy. It's early but looked same way last year. Not enough light? I've read about touching them to induce response or light fan breeze to make them stronger. What do I need to do?

---

Low light and high heat will usually cause plants to get leggy. Increasing light intensity and a small fan will help greatly. If you are going to put them outside, make sure to put them in a sheltered location to protect them from excessive wind. Introduce them to sunlight a little at a time. See my post further up the page about hardening off.

quote:

---

2. some of the peat pots look like they have mold on them. Figure this means too much water but I was afraid I was underwatering them (skipped some days out of town). Common? Get rid of them/don't worry?

---

This happens to me almost every year and it has not cause any major problems yet. About once a week I add a little peroxide to the water. This helps oxygenate the roots and prevents rot. You can also let them get pretty dry between watering. This will mitigate the problem.

Gardening with hydrogen peroxide

I use the mix rate on the first chart “To water or mist plants, to soak seeds, to add to water used to wash sprouts”.

At work they call that “continuous improvement initiative”.