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Post by binnylou on Jun 12, 2018 21:21:04 GMT -5
I'll start with tonight's case of stupid. I was running the weed whacker out by the barn...put it down to pull a knee high Mulberry volunteer. It came out easy, so I grabbed the one next to it. Only the one next to it wasn't a Mulberry start. It was smartweed. My hand felt like it had been attacked by a pack of honeybees. I have at least three pair of garden gloves, but I was working without gloves. More stupid.
Next?
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Post by deckman22 on Jun 12, 2018 22:06:34 GMT -5
I planted squash next to my cucumbers and they cross pollinated and I have some funky cucumbers now. I ripped the two squash plants up today. I also have a watermelon plant a few feet away so I may have to choose what I want the most soon as it's about to start blooming too.
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Post by binnylou on Jun 12, 2018 22:14:32 GMT -5
I was under the impression that a cross pollination only mattered if you were going to save and plant the seed next year. A cross shouldn't affect the fruit produced this year. Unless it is corn that crosses. Did you plant new seed or saved seed? Somebody else will jump in.
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Post by desertwoman on Jun 12, 2018 22:29:53 GMT -5
that's my understanding, too binnylou, The cross pollination affects the seed. If it is cross pollinated this year, this years' seed would produce some interesting fruit next year. deckman22, I'm thinking those funky cucumbers are a result of cross pollinated seed from last or another year.
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Post by desertwoman on Jun 12, 2018 22:32:49 GMT -5
I placed some cantaloupe starts in my greenhouse last week to let the heat help them to grow swiftly. I forgot them one day and with our 90ΒΊ+ weather the green house got so hot they fried.
Wish I hadn't done that...
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Post by binnylou on Jun 12, 2018 23:33:25 GMT -5
I forgot them one day and with our 90ΒΊ+ weather the green house got so hot they fried. Do you have time to direct seed and get melons?
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Post by tom π on Jun 13, 2018 6:53:12 GMT -5
It was smartweed. My hand felt like it had been attacked by a pack of honeybees. Did you get blisters? Mrs. Grieve says, "The fresh leaves, bruised with those of the Mayweed (Anthemis Cotula), and moistened with a few drops of oil of turpentine, make a speedy vesicant." www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/smartw54.html
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Post by desertwoman on Jun 13, 2018 8:42:37 GMT -5
Do you have time to direct seed and get melons? I might. I've already planted some seed- we'll see. I also have 2 starts that I didn't get into the green house- they're fine and went into the bed a few days ago. It will be a good experiment to see how they compare. A few years ago I figured out that my direct sow pumpkin does way better then the starts I would put in around the same time. I didn't gain anything to start them early. It may be the same with the cantaloupe.
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Post by tom π on Jun 13, 2018 9:53:45 GMT -5
The worst gardening thing I have done was to plant smilax. I was given this "gift" by a relative. I enjoyed his company and felt obliged to plant it. When people give you something, they want to see it when they visit, so I let it grow -- forty feet a year, he had said. As soon as I learned that he had died, I went out to get rid of the smilax. It was too late. Smilax is a plant cancer. It makes huge tumorous bulbs underground. Birds had spread its seed, and it had metastasized over the whole yard. It get inside shrubs, and cannot be got out without destroying the shrub. I will be fighting smilax for the rest of my life.
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Post by desertwoman on Jun 13, 2018 10:27:08 GMT -5
That sounds horrible tom π, So sorry you have to go through this. But what a good friend you are to have accommodated him.
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Post by binnylou on Jun 13, 2018 10:49:03 GMT -5
I will be fighting smilax for the rest of my life. The gift that keeps on giving.
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Post by binnylou on Jun 13, 2018 10:50:29 GMT -5
No blisters, but my palm still smarts/tingles a tad. Lesson learned, I hope.
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Post by deckman22 on Jun 13, 2018 21:07:07 GMT -5
I forgot how to quote but back to the cross pollinated cucumbers. These were store bought seeds, straight eights that I had planted some of last year and since they made such good pickles I decided to use them again. I ate one and know what a cucumber is supposed to taste like and look like, these definitely are freaks. It looks like and tasted like a hybrid. I picked one today to show one of the other growers at the market tomorrow. She had some funky looking squash, yellow squash planted next to zucchinis that were mixed color, yellow mottled with green. I'll take pics and post it tomorrow.
I remember as a kid gardening with my Pop back in Ohio, he always said plant your vine plants away from each other, I should have paid attention to those words spoken long ago. I noticed yesterday my volunteer cantaloupe shed one fruit by itself. At first I thought must have kicked it by accident but, did not remember doing so. What was odd was it was still green and had no texture to the skin like these usually have. Today another shed itself and I noticed the one I left laying there to ripen was turning yellow along with smelling sweet. This plant was next to a yellow squash I ripped up recently. I think that squash crossed with it, should get a better grasp on it tomorrow when I cut the riper one open and eat a test taste. I'll take some pics of it too.
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Post by octave1 on Jun 14, 2018 13:48:22 GMT -5
binnylou, is Smartweed stinging? I pull it with my bare hands all the time, and it does not do anything to me. I never knew I was supposed to handle smartweed with gloves.
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Post by octave1 on Jun 14, 2018 13:51:05 GMT -5
Smilax (rotundifolia) grows in my yard as well. It was planted by the previous owner who thought it to be very ornamental. I don't fight with it. I keep it mowed and it goes nowhere.
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