Planting cole crops
For several years I have tried my hand at planting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts from seeds purchased from Baker Creek. Every year the plants are very small and most never produce. I end up going to a greenhouse to purchase these plants. I try to make a very good environment, not hot, plenty of light and not saturated roots but not dry.
Can you give me some pointers on what I may be doing wrong? Also, this year I am going to try planting herbs for different purposes. Some will need to be potted to keep from year to year. Just wondering what kind of pots, soil and anything else that might be helpful in this endeavor! Thanks for the information you gave me about 1.5 years ago about our milk cow. She was a heifer and I was having a hard time getting milk from her and keeping it in the bucket. With your information I continued to milk her regardless of the fits she threw. After about two months the kinks got worked out. She has calved a second time and I have the best mannered cow I have ever been around. She never moves when I milk her and is as gentle as a lamb. She is a true Blessing to our family. Without your information I think I may have given up.
Mary Ann Nelson
Franklin, West Virginia
I’m so glad to have helped you. We had a doe, Fawn, who was absolutely THE worst bronco I’ve every tried to milk. She kicked, bit, threw herself off the milk stand and even laid down when I tried to milk her. It took Will and me both to even catch and get her ON the stand. But after about a month of all that, suddenly she quit and was absolutely the best goat we’d ever had. Go figure!
Baker Creek has excellent seeds so it isn’t the seeds. First off, I’d be suspicious of your seed starting medium. I’d either use Jiffy 7 peat pellets or a good seed starter such as Pro-Mix. When you start seeds in poor soil, they never do well, staying small and puny looking. They do like cool weather once outside, although they need warmer temperatures when first germinating. They also need plenty of light when indoors. If you don’t have a south-facing window, put a plain shop light just above the seedlings so they grow nice and strong. I hope these tips will help you get nice plants this year. — Jackie
Blight resistant tomatoes
We have been having so much trouble with tomatoes! Can you recommend tomatoes that are blight resistant?
Virginia Grooms
Stout, Ohio
Tomato blight can be a real challenge for many gardeners. A few blight resistant tomatoes include Legend, Manyel, Old Brooks and our own Punta Banda plum tomato. To help keep the blight from spreading, water from soaker hoses and try spraying early on with an organic fungicide such as a copper fungicide. Actinovate is a product that has been found to help before the blight strikes. It contains helpful bacteria. It is recommended that these sprays be used weekly when you have had a serious blight problem.
Destroying all old tomato and potato vines by burning them will also help as it can significantly reduce the over-wintering spores. Better luck this year! — Jackie
Deb,
While mustard will help blight to some extent, be aware that spores are carried by the wind; it’s not just in the soil. And, please, please don’t let your mustard go to seed! It can be a terrible, terrible weed!
This suggestion is for people with problems of blyte in their gardens. Blyte consumed my tomato and potato plants this past summer. I contacted Johnny’s Seeds and they said to plant farmer’s mustard seed. The seed can be planted in as low as 40 degree temperatures and when the yellow flowers begin to show (60-80 days) till under the entire garden. They said, “This will eradicate the blyte because blyte can’t stand mustard.” Continue to watch for any type of over watering or water build-up. And when signs of storms or excessive humidity appear they suggest using the copper fungicide as a deterrent. Since we can’t plant seedlings here in Maine until approximately the middle of June, depending on temperatures, I will plant the mustard seed the 1st of April. I was told this will kill the blyte that would otherwise be in the garden this summer.
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