Well that's depressing... come share your sob story w/ me

[mrsgreenthumbs]

I babyed those luffa seeds for MONTHS! The first one came up about a month ago and promptly was eaten up by a slug....





The second one came up just before we left for a long weekend and when I got home... dead...



The third and fourth came up a few weeks ago... they were slow but looked healthy I surrounded it with snail bait and watered it gently and slowly and deeply... I really really was happy to see that it was growing. I had really been into the idea of growing my own christmas gifts...

Well last thursday was trash day and my darling husband took the big can out....

He ran over my luffa....



I think if I can find those seed's in my seed cabinet I'll try one more time... but this time I'll put a wire barrier over it, and a mote of poison, and a drip system... and .... prey...

Any body else got a woe-is-me story this season?

And.. is it too late to try again? Any tips for making Luffa sprout faster?

[Hispoptart]

Awww man sounds like my bad day. Well if it helps any we finished planting the garden on Monday and Tuesday morning it froze, lost a lot of our plants but went and got new ones, so hopefully this was the last one.

[DoubleDogFarm]

My story is more of a stupid, stupid, stupid.

Couple weeks ago, we had friends over for Sunday breakfast. So I figured Saturday afternoon, after the Farmers Market, I would spruce up the orchard- garden. Line trimmed the fence lines and mowed all the trails and paths.

So I'm cruising along, behind my lawn mower. Ear protection in, the smell of cut grass fills the air. I'm rounding the driveway and out of the corner of my eye, I see movement in the garden.
Oh Crap I trip over the mower running for the main gate. I tuck and roll, up and running, making my way to the open vegetable garden gate. Ducks 28 of them having a feast. They ate several rows of plants. Swiss chard, collards, broccoli, brussels sprouts, 3 rows of peas, lettuce, pac choi. I don't know for sure how long they were in there. I was so made, I wanted to boot one over the fence, like a football through the up rights. So, now on always check the gates.

It's a good thing I had hold overs still in the greenhouse. I replanted most of it except the peas and brussels sprouts.

[Liska]

Oh no! I'm sorry about your Luffa

I don't have nearly the dramatic story that everyone else does, and they aren't dead yet, but I just put my Zucchini plants in the ground tonight and needless to say, they're really, really freaking ticked off at me, I'm afraid they're just going to curl up and die.

I needed to transplant them from their little pots, but the roots to them apparently decided to grow into part of their pots, so I ended up pulling on and possibly ripping some of the roots that they had already grown. I hope they all don't die from the trauma! :/

Sob story wise, I lost my first lettuce this morning It started shriveling up the day after I put it in the ground, and it looked pretty far gone tonight when I went out. There's also something gnawing at my pepper plants. Grrr!

[Urban_Garden]

Last year I was pretty upset when my cucumber never came up but I was even more upset to raise zucchini that never grew that big but produced many beautiful blooms, only to die.
This year it looks like my heirloom German tomatoes may have few days ahead of them. Plus my bachelor buttons this year all died, so did any onion seedlings I started indoors, and most of my parsley seedlings died. =/

[GardenJester]

Sorry to hear about your luffas. Good news is luffas are pretty easy to grow and germinate pretty fast. If you want to help the luffa to germinate faster, you could try a trick they use on pumpkin seeds. use a sandpaper sand the edge of the seeds a bit, soak it in water overnight. Use one of those 3" fiber pots, fill it w/ seed mix, stick seed vertically with pointed end downward then push it in with your finger to the first knuckle. close up the hole and pack it a bit with more seed mix. start hardening as soon as the seed emerges and transplant the whole thing when it have 3 or 4 true leafs. It shouldn't take more than 2 weeks from seed planting to transplanting.

lol, yes, it annoys the GF when I kick in the "fix it" mode.

[applestar]

Mrs. GT, sorry about the luffa. But I would try again. You have a longer season after all. I tricked yellow squash seeds into sprouting early by making a pile of 1/2 finished compost and mulching it with wilted grass, opening up a hole, then cutting the bottom off a 1 gal black nursery pot, pushing that into the hole, filling the nursery pot 1/2 way with good compost and the rest of the 1/2 with good potting soil and planting. I put the cut off black plastic bottom on top of the soil for the first 3 days, then replaced it with a cut off 1 gal bottle cloche. When they sprouted, I put a WOW over them (mostly because there was a frost warning). I recently took the WOW off before they grew too big and made it impossible to remove without breaking them off.

I have bushel gourd and giant pumpkin seeds in the same setup right now though they haven't sprouted yet.

DD -- I'm proud of you for your restraint in NOT kicking the duck over the fence. They probably just quacked at you with their silly duck smiles (like Joker's sinister minions with permanent smiles on their faces....) Did they get your gutter pea experiment? What a shame about the cooler weathers that are too late to replant.

For some reason, I can't think of any stories to tell right now -- though I assure you, there have been many "tales of woe".

[DoubleDogFarm]

applestar,

DD -- I'm proud of you for your restraint in NOT kicking the duck over the fence. They probably just quacked at you with their silly duck smiles (like Joker's sinister minions with permanent smiles on their faces....) Did they get your gutter pea experiment? What a shame about the cooler weathers that are too late to replant.

Yes, I can laugh along with them now, boy was the steam rollin out of my ears at the time. Their quacking sounds like laughing. I'll have the last laugh, if they don't start laying eggs soon.

They did get my gutter experiment and two other rows. To late to replant, so I planted Scarlet Emperor beans. What was left of the peas, gave the rabbits a good meal. I think they are in cahoots.

[Ozark Lady]

Sad story, my lettuce didn't grow, and my radishes bolted without a single root.
My neighbor was over to visit, and she sees no reason either.
She gave me the benefit of the doubt and said it was "bad seed".

Huh? Okay the lettuce not germinating well, I mean 3 plants for 2 rows? that is bad. But the radishes were big, lush good looking, and lovely in bloom some are pink and some are white... nothing on the roots.

I considered saving seeds, but why would I want to save seeds of radishes that don't make a root?

So, today lettuce bits, and radishes get yanked out, might as well plant something productive in that space!

[mrsgreenthumbs]

I totally feel ya on that Ozark lady... my potatoes didn't do well (first year growing so it was a hit and miss) so I replaced them with a tomato plant. A bit late to plant them but it was a great deal and so sad looking. I felt bad for the little guy.

[tedln]

Eric,

I have a 100 lb. Chocolate Lab who loves garden veggies. The problem is he pulls the fruit with the plant still attached. I put up a four foot tall fence to keep him out of the garden. He still tries to sneak in when I'm not watching him and forget to close the gate.

I built a new bed this year against the fence and planted heirloom tomatoes. I've noticed him eye balling the small tomatoes on the plants against the fence. I know that he knows he can easily get over the fence or simply pull the fence down. Now I am debating making it an eight foot fence or simply putting barbed wire over the top edge of the fence. My garden is looking more and more like a maximum security prison just to keep my dog out.

Ted

[applestar]

Hey Ted, I had an idea! Plant one garden that's just for him! Plant stuff that he likes that are good for him to eat -- you can plant your extras there. Put up obstacles so he has to figure out how to get at the goodies and to make it harder for him to get everything all at once or rip up entire plants. Make it clear that THAT is HIS garden. (Put up a sign. I'm picturing a gateway with ranch sign hanging -- like Double-Bar Ranch kinda thing, but you might have other ideas. Maybe a Little Rascals club-house type, piece of jagged board with clumsily chalk-drawn backward alphabet sign... )

[tedln]

mrsgreenthumbs,

Replant your luffa. After they sprout and develop a reasonable root system, they really take off. I've grown them a lot and I have seen them grow more than a foot per day. I never had any bug problems with them, but I didn't have slugs or snails. They really use a lot of nitrogen though. I don't think compost or healthy soil can supply the amount of nitrogen they require to reach their maximum growth rate.

I have no use for the gourds though many grew 36" long and 6" in diameter. I dried a lot of them in the garage, pulled the skin off like paper. Shook all the seeds out, bleached them white, cut them up and gave them away as sponges. They were good sponges, but you and the neighborhood only need so many sponges. When they are dry, the seeds really rattle around a lot inside the gourd. I guess you can join a Samba band and play your Luffa to the Samba beat.

I did eat a lot when they were about 12" long. They are not that good to eat though. Bland taste and watery when cooked.

Ted

[mrsgreenthumbs]

Great idea apple (although I don't know about the obstacles, doggy might get the idea that the fence around the human crop's are yet another fun obstacle to overcome... YIKES) I plan mint as a decoy for slug's and snails and as a fresh in the garden green treat for my chihuahua. He rarely eat's more than a few good munches but MAN that little dog LOVE LOVE LOVES mint. We go into the garden together to "work" (me singing to my plant's and pulling weeds and thinning carrot's, him... sniffin stuff... and sun bathing... lazy dog! lol) And as I go sometimes I'll get peckish and pull a carrot up rinse it off and munch on it, share some with the dog and the chickens and he just LOVES that some plant's are for him. As he strolls through the garden he know's all the sweet spot's for lea surly munching on some fresh young mint leaves. Such a silly boy. I think I may plan some winter greens for the pup this fall... should be fun to watch him enjoy fresh food straight from the source.

Oh and I will be trying again this weekend as far as the luffa goes. I think I'll plant in a LARGE pot, indoors where I can control temp's and go from there. Thanks for the tips!

[tedln]

Hey Ted, I had an idea! Plant one garden that's just for him! Plant stuff that he likes that are good for him to eat -- you can plant your extras there. Put up obstacles so he has to figure out how to get at the goodies and to make it harder for him to get everything all at once or rip up entire plants. Make it clear that THAT is HIS garden. (Put up a sign. I'm picturing a gateway with ranch sign hanging -- like Double-Bar Ranch kinda thing, but you might have other ideas. Maybe a Little Rascals club-house type, piece of jagged board with clumsily chalk-drawn backward alphabet sign... )

Dogs (especially Labrador retrievers) are like squirrels. They think everything is about them. I could plant him a ten acre garden and he would still want mine. They really do have an ornery streak in their personality. I can look him in the eyes and just know he is thinking about what he can do next to irritate me. Of course my wife says the same thing about me. She has been talking about buying one of those shock collars for me so all she has to do is mash a button when she wants my attention.

Ted