I just planted a rio red grapefruit tree this weekend.....should be good to go in 3-4 years

zooguy96 said:

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So far, I've got:

4 hybrid chestnut trees (all but 1 produced chestnuts this year - have cold stratified some seeds, and they are rooting!)
2 pecan trees (don't know if they made it through the winter)
3 liberty apple trees
3 other random apple trees (thinking of digging these up - they never produce anything in the past 2 years they've been there)
3 peach trees
3 elderberry bushes
3 muscadine grape vines
2 fig trees
4 pawpaw trees I'm planting this year
Tons of blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry bushes/vines


Thoughts on anything else I could plant?

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We had a persimmon tree at our farm that did quite well. Really good fruit. Mulberry tree also was fun.

Anybody grow squash vertically? I probably just blew money on the Burpee "Rise and Shine" variety, but the idea of squash just taking up a few feet intrigued me….. Ive heard of zucchini and cucumbers being done this way, but not yellow.

Im the lettuce, kale and spinach king fight now. Tomatoes are in another bed, but cucumbers have yet to emerge after a week.

B-1 83 said:

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Anybody grow squash vertically? I probably just blew money on the Burpee "Rise and Shine" variety, but the idea of squash just taking up a few feet intrigued me….. Ive heard of zucchini and cucumbers being done this way, but not yellow.

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I am hesitant to try them because I don't want to give up flavor. Let us know how they taste.

I have all pepper and tomato in ground, along with some root vegs like beets and radish. Cabbage is getting close to harvest and we are pushing early lettuce as much as we can. Onions have been in for a while now and looking great. Just in time to harvest before green beans go in after.

I am near Madisonville if anyone is looking for some pepper plants. Many of them are spicy but a few that aren't. I think I planted all the bells.

We typically grow heirloom varities but the one hybrid we have huge success with is a Juliet tomato. We use it for all kinds of stuff. I made sun-dried, sauces, ate fresh in salads, etc. It is a smaller plum type of tomoato with good flavor and it bore fruit all season. We picked all the way to December last year. Give it a try.

think i may have seen it discussed here, but have any of yall that grow tomatoes done the planting sideways method?

If you mean laying it in sideways in order to expose more stalk to the dirt then yes. It helps establish roots along what is buried.

But its the same concept as just burying it deeper if you can.

I've seen more production from pruning as compared to planting a certain way.

Help me! I've planted squash, green beans, and cucumbers. They already look like this: https://imgur.com/a/EK2zC94
What can I do? The squash have started to flower and fruit. The cucumbers are still a ways out but the beans are flowering as well.
What can I do?

Wind damage?

That would be great if it were only wind damage. And we have had quite a few windy days around here. If new leaves don't show it, I guess that would be the tell. Anything else?

Look for 'sawdust' around the base of the squash plant.

Looks like wind burn, maybe a little chemical/fertilizer/sun burn and the natural process of the lower leaves dying, if it's one of the lower (on the plant) shoots. Normal. Don't worry about it.

Looks like blossom end rot is going to get me bad this year. We had four inches of rain a few weeks ago and I've even been adding gypsum and calcium nitrate to the beds since then anticipating it. Frustrating but I'll still take the rain anytime. Surprisingly good year for squash so far. Treating with bt every other evening to try and keep the squash bugs off. So far so good.

How are the gardens doing this spring?

We got a late start, nothing new was planted till Spring break due to a crazy beginning of the year but definitely coming on strong now! Ended up with a few store-bought seedlings due to being later and then also a few other planted seeds.

Really working hard this year to maximize the space available in smaller backyard. Can't wait to be out of the city to a bigger place, but alas that is still going to be years down the road.

New this year: the front planter, arched trellis and vertical panel down the main bed. Front bed currently has a few different herbs, the Cucumbers (one of them a random volunteer, which is a bit odd in a new bed...) and a few pole Green beans heading up the trellis.


Took our regular zucchinis and yellow squash this year and put them in upside down tomato cages and it's working out to help them grow much more vertically. I'm getting some seeds for Incredible Escalator zucchini to make better use of the Trellis with future planting.


Main bed has:
-Pole green beans
-Zucchini (Already Picked some)
-Yellow Squash (Already Picked some)
-Spaghetti Squash (First time growing, first one is almost ready!)
-Corn (because the kids absolutely love growing it after watching Second Hand Lions a few years ago)
-Green multiplying onions (From the same batch I started a couple years ago...)
-Potatoes
-A random Romaine head that my kids planted from a left over cut end from a storebought romaine, so we will see how that goes! Actually growing really well.
-Jalapenos
-Bell Peppers
-Watermelon (Going vertical this year for the first time! A great space saver if it works out... Have hammock nets ready for them).
-3 different varieties of Tomatoes (All with the first ones about to ripen)
-Blackberry plant on its own trellis.
-And a volunteer Okra that is already producing well.

Houston area suburb backyard:

-Biggest success last year was our first time planting malabar (red stem) spinach. Incredibly prolific and durable. Survived the winter and has come back strong. Also grew a ton of Thai scorpion peppers. Dried a bunch, pickled some.

-Had a pot grown Serrano plant that also survived the winter and is producing nicely.

-Tomato plants look good so far. Several Roma, yellow pear, some other kind of cherry. Trying to stay on top of the sucker pulling and pest control.

-Cucumbers and snap peas (just a few plants) look good. Pulled one cucumber, and several peas are almost ready.

-Squash borers get us every year but we're trying again. Most of the plants look good. I keep spraying Bt. Hopefully we get some fruit before the borers do.

-Grapefruit tree looks really good. Lemon and lime are still in pots but seem ok. Fig is coming along. Olive tree is really strong. Will be interesting to see when/if it produces.

-Lots of potatoes in scattered pots. Not sure when I should check them.

Bad year for tomatoes for me. March was hot and a weekend of five inches of rain really stressed them.
Great year for squash. Spraying every other day with bt at the base of the plants and haven't lost one yet. Growing the same variety also helped with pollination this time around. (At least that's my guess)
Potatoes getting close. Starting to pull a few onions.
Started a few citrus trees in pots for a change.
I'll definitely go back to some tried and true varieties for tomatoes. I've been hung up on German queens the past two years and I've been disappointed again. The tase is amazing but the production has been terrible. I like those dark purple tomatoes. I'm hoping to give black Krim a try this fall.

My tomatoes finally started to set some fruit. I'm in Katy using pots and automatic watering.

Peppers are still small, they grow slow.

Something dug a hole in my dill pot, I think a rabbit was looking for a place to have babies

Cucumbers are growing and starting to reach for the mesh fence.

I need to re-charge my in-line fertilizer pot this weekend

I planted my first Black Krims this year. Hope they are as good as Cherokee Purples.

I run Cherokee purples exclusively for my big tomatoes. Went out today and discovered some stowaways from last spring
Life will find a way.

All of my plants are producing right now. Harvested my first two yellow squash today as well as a big bag of butter crunch lettuce. Green beans are producing, loads of flowers and small cucumbers on the vine. Even my Chocolate bell pepper is ready to harvest. My broccoli is sprouting. Three different varieties of tomatoes all have fruit, just waiting till they turn red to pull them. Don't know how long this will last but I am hoping it keeps going.

2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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Diatomaceous earth will work for an organic, Sevin dust otherwise - KEEP IT OFF THE FLOWERING AREAS.

Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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I've tried using Bt the last three years. I think the borers like it. Hasn't helped a lick.

Martin Cash said:

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Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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I've tried using Bt the last three years. I think the borers like it. Hasn't helped a lick.

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You could give Spinosad a try. Just lost one of my squash to a borer. I expect the rest to follow shortly. But I've probably gotten 30-40 squash off 7 plants so I won't complain.

Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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Bt has to be consumed by tiny larvae to be effective. So it would not be effective for a larvae that bores into the plant to eat, when all your bt is on the outside surfaces.

SunrayAg said:

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Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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Bt has to be consumed by tiny larvae to be effective. So it would not be effective for a larvae that bores into the plant to eat, when all your bt is on the outside surfaces.

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thats what i thought. id almost be ready to spot spray the unblemished fruits with some hotter stuff, but them getting into the vines too pretty much makes it a lost cause. just one one of those years

SunrayAg said:

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Serious Lee said:

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2nd year in a row squash borers have destroyed my cantaloupe, and this year theyve gotten 90% of the cucumbers too.

is spraying BT the most practical and effective preventative?

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Bt has to be consumed by tiny larvae to be effective. So it would not be effective for a larvae that bores into the plant to eat, when all your bt is on the outside surfaces.

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I always figured that they had to chew or burrow their way into the vine so if they consume some on the way in they may die before killing the plant. At least that's what I'm trying.

We bought a yellow bell pepper plant… so far it has 2 peppers on it one about the size of a baseball and 1 a little bigger. My question is- when do they turn yellow?

Picked about 1/3 of my onions last weekend. Squash doing ok, tomatoes are a little behind and was able to salvage about 15-20 radish……lost my planting wheel so I got them a little too deep I think.

Jetty said:

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We bought a yellow bell pepper plant… so far it has 2 peppers on it one about the size of a baseball and 1 a little bigger. My question is- when do they turn yellow?

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In my experience it is usually about 36 hours after you lose your patience with them and start to think something is wrong.

Is this pending "heat wave" going to stop my tomatoes from setting fruit? I've quite a few green ones but I'd like to see some more production. Cherokee Purples and a couple cherry varieties.

Just putting my plants in the ground now. Course, lows are mostly still in the 40's and 50's still.