veggie gardens

[cravin morehead]

hey al, does that thing eat cabbade worms??

ok, im getting pissed off. something, i believe mice, are eating my zukes. 2 days in a row, the ones i was going to harvest have bite marks on them. big portions have been eaten. now today, i see bites being taken out of my still green tomatos. im not growing this garden to keep the local rodent population healthy and fat!! this means war!!
i put out 2 snap traps with peanut butter on them for 2 days and nothing. i read they might be thirsty and if i put water in a dish for them they'd leave my veggies alone. not working either. however leaving the bitten zukes on the plant, has kept them to eating the same zukes over and over. what can i do?? can't poison them, i have my 2 dogs that love to catch rodents. but i cant let them into the garden, together they weigh about 230+lbs. and would trample my plants. what ideas do you guys have?? i may just park it outside at night this weekend with an 1/8, a 12 pack, and my pellet gun.
help a brother out,

cm

 

[Zen Master]

Could be opossums. I've got a few in my neighborhood and once in a while find some 1/2 eaten apples or berries. Could try a coon/possum trap and see if thats the critter.

I see ads for "owl boxes" in the paper. They eat somethin like >2k mice/rats/gophers etc a year, maybe you could put one up on your property somewhere?

try leaving the traps baited but not set a few times, try different baits too. Then after you see the baits been taken, re set it and then they come in easier and less leery.

haven't got a chance to check out that forum for the fishing stuff yet cravin but with the weather so nice here its been makin me wanna go shopping for some fresh tackle.

 

[supermanlives]

yup possums or rats . i get both occasionally. the possums get paintballed the rats get killed. i second the pellet gun . i got a gamo varmint hunter . with flashlight and laser .1200fps. yeehaw. if you want real fun leave out some edibles. stoned animals are funny. i had a stoned rat charge me and my shepard in the middle of the day. i had my hiking boots on and stomped it .

 

[SeaMaiden]

We've got VOLES, in a huge way, like I've never seen around here before. Do you think the cats are catching and eating them, though? NOOOOO! Cat's catching lizards, the very animal I need.

So I've decided I need snakes. King snakes, gopher snakes, racers, even rattlers since they don't give me a bother. I just need SNAKES.

Why snakes, you ask? Because, I'll never have to worry about a snake chewing on my herbs, or SHITTING IN MY GOOD FOOD. The cats...? Whole different story.

 

[vintner]

Here's some pix from my 2012 orgnic vegi garden. I expanded it this spring from ~ 300sqft to ~420sqft. (I like that number LOL)
Snow peas. Been pickin these for about a week now.

Broccoli & snow peas in the garden. Been pickin broccli for about 3 weeks. Already have a bunch blanched & frozen. What you see here is smaller side heads. We pick a 1/2 dozen of those every few daze. The snow peas line the fence all along the back of the garden.

Zuccini: Now half eaten by deer LOL. I live on the city side of the burbs in a fairly large metro area & still have trouble with deer!

A jungle of tomatoes 1/2 roma & 1/2 better boy w/a few cherries. I had to leave town for over a week, so they're a bit over run from the neglect.

Pole & bush beans. I'll be harvesting tons of them with in the week. Plan on borrowing a pressure cooker from a friend & canning a boat load of them this year.

Also have a few peppers, cucumbers & a row of carrots & kolrabi.
Stay safe everyone & good gardening ;-}

 

[SeaMaiden]

What kind of bush beans ya growin'?

This year I focused on Tiger Eye and Pawnee Shells, along with the pole beans. I did plant a shit-ton of cowpeas, but they've all been eaten down to the point that I'll be lucky if I get a few seed plants growing.

You've got quite the head start there.

 

[hippie_lettuce]

Really nice harvests/gardens, everyone!

I got about 30 tomato plants this year. Most are doing well but a couple have wilted leaves. I water them sufficiently but don't flood them. It has been hot here lately but cooler for the past couple of days. It's either: I'm overwatering them, underwatering them, or they are suffering from the heat. I just don't know what it is. Anyone have advice? tia

 

[SeaMaiden]

If it's only a couple of leaves then I would suspect something has violated the xylem. If they're kind of curling up, then it's a response to the temperature in relation to the relative humidity, AKA vapor pressure deficit.

I can't tell you if you're over- or underwatering. But I can tell you that, to me, 30 tomato plants are a HELLofa lotta tomatas!

 

[cravin morehead]

hey everybody!! been busy lately, but nice to see this thread moving along nicely...

hey superman, i've got the same pellet gun, gamo varmit hunter!! its badass, i love it!! great minds think alike. i've put some old snap traps out baited with peanut butter. took a couple days, but so far, i've got 4 of em. 2 rats and 2 not sure if they're young rats or mice, but i got them little fuckers!! also got 2 with my pellet gun!! been fishing lately?? good numbers in my area lately.

vintner- excellent work!! looks great!!

Zen buddy- i will be looking into those owl boxes. thanks for the tip. i've seen an owl in my yard a few times already. kind of rare in my area of the city. but there are some undeveloped hills real close by. i have 2 akitas, so the only possums i see around here are torn to shreds and find parts around the yard. i love my dogs!! have you got any tackle yet?? around here, the corbinas and croakers are really showing up. i've averaged around 20" on these lately. gonna try and get out this weekend, i'll post some pics here if i get lucky.

so far we are harvesting nicely. broccolli raab and radishes daily. ate our first 4 ears of corn the other night. (tanglefoot is keeping them insect free!! yes!!) we're over 100 on nash green beans. cukes and zukes every couple days. im keeping a tally sheet on veggie harvests this year. i'll post it soon. still waiting on my tomatos, but shouldn't be long now. as long as i can get them rodents. but i've made a good dent on their numbers so i'm hopeful.
thanks for contributing everyone, i really like this thread!

cm

 

[supermanlives]

had a skunk run at me today in the garden . i was watering and it was down wind. it got sprayed instead of me . i hope it enjoys the buzz

 

[kaotic]

I agree with the pellet gun idea. I'm an airgun fanatic. I have dozens. I declared war on the squirrels here last year after they ate every single ear of corn off the stalk. My favorite gun is the .25 Marauder. I took 28 tree rats (squirrels) with it last year, and that was just in my backyard.

I had the same problem with birds pecking holes in my tomatoes. They just wanted water. I set out a pan last year and it didn't work. I put out a small fountain then and didn't have any problems. Running water was the trick. I guess they can't resist the noise.

 

[Al Botross]

Plant geneticists say they have discovered an answer to a near-universal question: Why are tomatoes usually so tasteless?

Yes, they are often picked green and shipped long distances. Often they are refrigerated, which destroys their flavor and texture. But now researchers have discovered a genetic reason that diminishes a tomato’s flavor even if the fruit is picked ripe and coddled.

The unexpected culprit is a gene mutation that occurred by chance and that was discovered by tomato breeders. It was deliberately bred into almost all tomatoes because it conferred an advantage: It made them a uniform luscious scarlet when ripe.

Now, in a paper published in the journal Science, researchers report that the very gene that was inactivated by that mutation plays an important role in producing the sugar and aromas that are the essence of a fragrant, flavorful tomato. And these findings provide a road map for plant breeders to make better-tasting, evenly red tomatoes.

The discovery “is one piece of the puzzle about why the modern tomato stinks,” said Harry Klee, a tomato researcher at the University of Florida in Gainesville who was not involved in the research. “That mutation has been introduced into almost all modern tomatoes. Now we can say that in trying to make the fruit prettier, they reduced some of the important compounds that are linked to flavor.”

The mutation’s effect was a real surprise, said James J. Giovannoni of the United States Department of Agriculture Research Service, an author of the paper. He called the wide adoption of tomatoes that ripen uniformly “a story of unintended consequences.”

Breeders stumbled upon the variety about 70 years ago and saw commercial potential. Consumers like tomatoes that are red all over, but ripe tomatoes normally had a ring of green, yellow or white at the stem end. Producers of tomatoes used in tomato sauce or ketchup also benefited. Growers harvest this crop all at once, Dr. Giovannoni said, and “with the uniform ripening gene, it is easier to determine when the tomatoes are ripe.”

Then, about 10 years ago, Ann Powell, a plant biochemist at the University of California, Davis, happened on a puzzle that led to the new discovery.

Dr. Powell, a lead author of the Science paper, was studying weed genes. Her colleagues had put those genes into tomato plants, which are, she said, the lab rats of the plant world. To Dr. Powell’s surprise, tomatoes with the genes turned the dark green of a sweet pepper before they ripened, rather than the insipid pale green of most tomatoes today.

“That got me thinking,” Dr. Powell said. “Why do fruits bother being green in the first place?” The green is from chloroplasts, self-contained energy factories in plant cells, where photosynthesis takes place. The end result is sugar, which plants use for food. And, Dr. Powell said, the prevailing wisdom said sugar travels from a plant’s leaves to its fruit. So chloroplasts in tomato fruit seemed inconsequential.

Still, she said, the thought of dark green tomatoes “kind of bugged me.” Why weren’t the leaves dark green, too?

About a year ago, she and her colleagues, including Dr. Giovannoni, decided to investigate. The weed genes, they found, replaced a disabled gene in a tomato’s fruit but not in its leaves. With the weed genes, the tomatoes turned dark green.

The reason the tomatoes had been light green was that they had the uniform ripening mutation, which set up a sort of chain reaction. The mutation not only made tomatoes turn uniformly green and then red, but also disabled genes involved in ripening. Among them are genes that allow the fruit to make some of its own sugar instead of getting it only from leaves. Others increase the amount of carotenoids, which give tomatoes a full red color and, it is thought, are involved in flavor.

To test their discovery, the researchers used genetic engineering to turn on the disabled genes while leaving the uniform ripening trait alone. The fruit was evenly dark green and then red and had 20 percent more sugar and 20 to 30 percent more carotenoids when ripe.

But were the genetically engineered tomatoes more flavorful? Because Department of Agriculture regulations forbid the consumption of experimental produce, no one tasted them.

And, Dr. Giovannoni says, do not look for those genetically engineered tomatoes at the grocery store. Producers would not dare to make such a tomato for fear that consumers would reject it.

But, Dr. Powell said, there is a way around the issue. Heirloom tomatoes and many wild species do not have the uniform ripening mutation. “The idea is to get the vegetable seed industry interested,” Dr. Powell said.

 

[vintner]

First batch of green beans with 1/2 tsp of sea salt/pint
a big THANK YOU to my friend for lending me his canner

 

[cravin morehead]

sweet!! thats the way to do it Vintner!! what type of canner?? pressure or water bath?? im stupid, i usually just gorge on fresh veggies instead of canning them to eat all year long. my friends and neigbors make out good though. funny thing is, i have all of the water bath type canning equipment.

 

[vintner]

sweet!! thats the way to do it Vintner!! what type of canner?? pressure or water bath?? im stupid, i usually just gorge on fresh veggies instead of canning them to eat all year long. my friends and neigbors make out good though. funny thing is, i have all of the water bath type canning equipment.

Thank you for the kind words Sir It's a pressure canner We also can our own pasta sauce from the garden every year, but this is the first time I've done green beans or anything uncooked. Everything I read said the safest way to preserve them is to pressure can them. I was suprised @ how simple it was, & also that it didn't make the entire house hot & steamy
Next batch I'm a gonna add 1/2tsp of garlic salt & ~1/2 clove of garlic to each pint see how that turns out

 

[Gremista]

Nice!