What can I say, I love squash, so does the rest of my family. My wife and her mom love cucumbers, so thats why we planted so many of them.

So I should go ahead and pick the jalapeno eh?

My soil is decent, some decent top soil, but after taht it turns to that good southern red clay. If I didnt till it up, its hard as a brick. I dont know if thats good for moisture or bad. I know if you dig down, the soil is always damp but still hard.
[Reply]

Clay keeps the water from draining and it's hard for roots to work through. You don't want your plants sitting in water. As long as the topsoil is more than a foot deep the clay may work to your advantage by allowing you to water less. In sandy soil the water passes right through it and dries too fast. Lots of organic material (compost) fixes everything, sand or clay.
[Reply]

The jalapeno will start corking. Look it up. It looks like stress marks on the skin of the pepper. It's ready then. It'll cork before it turns red. Water when you think it's required. Stick you finger in the soil. If dry, time to water. If you notice wilting, time to water. With these hot days you will have wilting, especially cukes, and there be plenty of water. Don't kill them with kindness, but don't let them thirst to death either. I'm in the same boat. We've gotten 0.25" rain in 3-4 weeks. I've been drenching the garden every other day or every second day. I also mulch with dried grass clippings. Once it gets really hot (especially humid), growth will slow. Best of luck.
[Reply]

Im not sure how much top soil I really have, i dont think its a foot honestly. Most of it was pulled to the part of the property next to me when it was initially cleared off years ago.
[Reply]

Sounds like what I started with, except our "clay" is a really fine grained sand, like powder, sometimes called "mudstone" here. I finally gave up on it and built boxes. I would go with Jamie's advice, above. That's about how I do it, too.
[Reply]

I may be wrong, but I believe that warning is because MG garden soil has uncomposted cow manure in it. That is what I have found in my experience. It also does not drain well at all.

When growing in containers, it really is a whole different ball game on what type of soils are used. You should do some reading over at the gardenweb container growing section.
[Reply]

We have real bad Adobe clay here. about 13 years ago I ended up building a 13' x 4' raised bed also. Anything I cant fit in there goes into pots.
[Reply]

I ended up mixing garden soil with potting mix. Hopefully it is a little better. I don't want to replant them again for fear of shocking the tomatoes. I might do another tomato with all potting mix on another smart pot. Fingers crossed.

Uncomposted cow manure is bad for container? What will happen to the plant?
[Reply]

The dangers of uncomposted manure in a closed container are, harmful bacteria and as the manure is composting... heat.
[Reply]

Small garden my #@$. That's a dang nice size garden! I am in south-central AL so I feel your pain on watering. What I do is pull back some mulch and feel to see if it is wet or not. I normally water at night or early morning.

I am pulling squash and cucumbers left and right, with tons of tomatoes sitting on the plant green as a leaf. I was hoping to have 'mater sandwiches by now but I am stuck with everything but! Peppers are nice though.
[Reply]

OK, Scott..... I'm in middle Alabama also. The spell of non-growth you went thru was after the tornados??? That'd be my guess. It was due to the cold weather that followed. I went thru same thing here. As to watering, it depends on how deep you water, how you mulch. If you have good mulch to keep in the water, and you water heavy, you can probably go 3-4 days without watering, easy. I do not have mulch, can't find a suitable medium.

Squash, Zucs, tomatoes, melons and the such need lots of water. A good judge, stick your finger into the soil an inch deep. If it is dry, water.

Contrary to Joe's method, do not water at night, if you can help it. Water in the morning is the best plan. Watering late inthe evening and/or night can lead to blossom end rot on many veggies, especially tomatoes, squash and Zucs. Watering tomatoes starting at high noon, in the hot, hot sun is a big cause of tomatoes splitting the skin on the vine. The cold water on the hot skin does it. Tomatoes are susceptible to several issues if they "go to bed" with wet leaves and fruit, so water in the morning, the plant dries before nightfall. A good plan for most of the leafy plants you might be growing.

Good luck, ALL!
[Reply]

I've done some reading and it seems they don't even recommend using Miracle Gro potting mix. They the chemical fertilizer in it is too strong for tomato.

Damn.
[Reply]

Most Miracle Grow non-specific plant food and soils are heavy in nitrogen. Nitrogen + tomatoes = strong vine and leaf growth, weak fruit growth and fruit drop before they are ready. At most, I will use a 8-8-8 rating on my tomatoes. If they start to grow too fast without fruit, you can add some wood ash (I save ash from my fireplace for this) to the soil around the tomatoes, and water it in good. This will offset the effects of too much nitrogen (it'll take a week or so). If you already have viable plants in the soil, try the ash remedy. You may can still salvage them.
[Reply]

I never knew that was a cause for BER. I had always thought it was from a low concentration of calcium in the fruit.
[Reply]

The fertilizer that comes in the potting mix is so low it's not even worth mentioning. Miracle Gro potting mix has had great results for some people. You really should take a look here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/contain/ if you plan to use containers. That place is a wealth of knowledge.
[Reply]

Gave a big handful of squash to my neighbor yesterday evening. Those babies are putting out like mad. It's easy to say I'll have my fill of squash this year. Also have a couple jalapenos ready to pick. Tomatoes are filling in nicely, too, with many greens ones on the vines. No cukes yet, but plenty of flowers.
[Reply]

Still cold and cloudy here.:-)
[Reply]

How many and what type of squash did you plant?
[Reply]

It's a good way to get all sorts of fungal infections, too. Take it with a grain of salt, Wayner. We're talking doing this repetatively.
There's nothing wrong, and it's actually great, to do a leaf feeding of Miracle Grow at night. That way the plants will suck the goodness right in when they respirate.
It's a good way to "push" the plants, but only if necessary.

BER is also stress induced. Too little water for long periods, too much water for long periods, wet feet, sunscald, just about any stress you can imagine will do it.

The best way to get it is an eternally wet growing season. It's nothing that spraying with fungicide won't hold off. You have to be proactive, though. Constant rain? You're gonna have fungus. Fungus will be the stressor, then you got BER.
If you spray faithfully, you'll beat the rot. When we had the great blight here a few years ago, everyone pulled their plants. I had the best crop ever.

I ised to use a 1/4 mix of Sevin and Fungicide all year long, only halting a couple weeks before harvest of whatever stuff we were growing. It kept the bugs and problems to near zero.
Mind ya, that might not work everywhere. It's food for thought. Every different zone has their own problems and their own ways of fixing them.
[Reply]

Rained up here most of the day too.
[Reply]