Vegetables Archives - Page 4 of 6

Tire Gardens for Potatoes and Tomatoes – Is it Safe?

Several gardening trends are colliding. Lots of new gardeners want to grow vegetables and raised beds are very popular. Combine that with a desire to be green and reuse material and tire gardens seem to be a good option. These are gardens made with old discarded tires.

Tires have another big advantage. They accumulate heat which potatoes and tomatoes just love, especially in colder climates.

But are these tires safe? Do they leach toxic material that will get into the food and contaminate it? There are lots of opinions on this, but very little in the way of a scientific review. Time to change that.

Tire Gardens for Potatoes and Tomatoes - Is it Safe?, photo source Lovetoknow — Tire Gardens for Potatoes and Tomatoes – Is it Safe?, photo source Lovetoknow

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Aspirin Spray for Tomatoes and the Vegetable Garden

Do you want to grow great tomatoes? Most gardeners do and they are on a constant hunt for magical concoctions that will create the best yield and most flavorable tomato. The latest craze involves the use of aspirin. Just mix a few aspirin in water and spray your plants. Spraying tomatoes or any other kind of plant with aspirin will make them grow better, have less diseases and ward off insects.

My regular readers will know that I love to find the origin of a myth, and I think I know how this one got started. Lets have a closer look at how some science can result in an online sensational cure-all.

Aspirin Spray for Tomatoes and the Vegetable Garden

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When To Start Seeds Indoors – Includes a Chart

One of the most frequently asked questions from new gardeners is, when should I start my seed indoors? It all seems so complicated with many different types of seeds, both vegetables and flowers. This post will simplify the answer for you.

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Straw Bale Gardening – Pros and Cons

Straw bale gardening has a small but steady following. Historically, it has been used for a long time, but fell out of favor as more traditional gardening practices developed. In recent years it has seen increased interest but so far it is mostly a novelty form of gardening. Is this a technique we should all be using?

In this post I’ll look at the claimed benefits and examine the pros and cons of the system.

Straw Bale Gardening - Pros and Cons, photo by Colling-architektur — Straw Bale Gardening – Pros and Cons, photo by Colling-architektur

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Soaking Peas Before Planting – Does It Improve Germination?

To soak or not to soak, that is the question Hamlet would have asked if he liked growing peas. Lots of people recommend soaking peas before planting, but does it do any good? Will soaking peas speed up germination? Will it produce fruits sooner?

Dry pea seed is extremely wrinkled and soaking in water plumps them right up. It is also known that seeds need to absorb water before the germination process can start. Soaking peas before planting makes perfect sense but what happens in the garden. Is there really a benefit to soaking?

Soaking Peas Before Planting - Does It Improve Germination? — Soaking Peas Before Planting – Does It Improve Germination?

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Rainbow Tomatoes and Other Fake Fruit & Vegetable Seeds

It’s almost time to start buying seeds and it’s easy to find all sorts of unusual seeds. The rainbow tomatoes shown below are very popular, but what kind of tomatoes do they produce?

What about blue strawberries and purple pumpkins – they sound delicious. The one I am really interested in is the new vegan burger tree seed.

Rainbow Tomatoes and Other Fake Vegetable Seeds, photo source: Family Resale Store

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What Causes Blossom Drop in Tomatoes?

Why are my tomatoes not producing fruit? This is a common question on social media and in this post I’ll look at the real reasons for blossom drop and poor fruit production, as well as some of the myths people spread about the problem.

In a gardening Facebook Group someone asked, “What am I doing wrong??? This tomato plant is over 8 ft tall and hasn’t produced a single tomato. It has tons of flowers but they always fall off. I have 20 varieties of tomatoes growing and none of them are producing fruit.”

Here are some of the answers that people gave to help this poor gardener.

Tomato blossom - What Causes Blossom Drop in Tomatoes? — Tomato blossom – What Causes Blossom Drop in Tomatoes?

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Are Burpless Cucumbers Really Burpless?

I never thought cucumbers were so complicated. When ordering seeds you can certainly order burpless cucumber seed. And the English cucumbers are burpless, or at least my wife thinks since she always complains when I buy the American slicing variety at the grocery store.

I recently posted about a popular procedure for making cucumbers less bitter, on our popular Garden Fundamentals Facebook Group, and someone asked, are the bitter free cucumbers really burpless?

Good question. I thought the answer was yes, and so do 99% of the blog posts on line that talk about this topic. Guess what? We are wrong. Lets stop burping and sort it all out.

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How to Grow Cucumbers Without Bitterness

Cucumbers are known for being a bit bitter and for giving people gas. In this post I will look at why they are bitter, what you can do in the garden to keep them from getting bitter and then I’ll discuss a popular way to get rid of the bitter taste in the kitchen.

How to Grow Grow Cucumbers Without Bitterness

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Difference Between Green Beans, String Beans and Runner Beans?

What is the difference between green beans, string beans, pole beans, and runner beans? I sort of know which is which, but when I tried to define the terms, things got very confusing. We use a lot of different terms for beans.

After a little research, things got even more confusing since there are also French beans, snap beans, and snaps. And what about those yellow wax beans? Are soybeans real beans?

This post is full of beans!

Difference Between Green Beans, String Beans and Runner beans? — Difference Between Green Beans, String Beans, and Runner Beans? From left to right, pinto beans, navy beans, kidney beans, source: Marco Verch

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Growing Food in Plastic Containers – Is It Safe?

Growing food in plastic containers is on the rise, but is this a safe practice? What about the chemicals that leach out of plastic – are they absorbed by the soil or the food? Do they cause a health risk?

There is a great movement towards organic gardening to grow healthy food locally, and for smaller back yards and balconies it’s attractive to grow food in small containers. I’ve even seen pictures of people grow vegetables right in the bag that contained the soil they bought. This is all so simple but is it a healthy way to produce food? Is it still organic if you grow in plastic?

Growing peppers in containers, photo source: http://lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com

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Nutrient Density – Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer?

Everybody wants to grow nutritious food and it has become common to measure nutrient density with a Brix refractometer. High Brix is equated to highly nutritious food, but is this really true?

Brix readings have been used in agriculture for many years but is there a reason for gardeners to bother making this measurement? What does it tell you about the quality of food? I’ll answer these and other questions in this post as I take you down the yellow brix road.

Nutrient Density - Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer? — Nutrient Density – Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer?

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