So, the results are mostly in:
Tomatoes were the surprise winner this year - about 12-15 large tomatoes harvested from 4 plants.
Peppers didn't yield much this year, and I think our dog was eating them off the vine - they'd show up elsewhere in the yard with dog teeth marks, but I'm not sure if she plucked them from the vine or just "retrieved" ones that had fallen/been pulled by other animals.
The big disappointment was pumpkins. I have about a 300 square foot area that I've had pumpkins on for the last 2 years. Last year was a big success - ~10 harvested, decent sized orange pumpkins. This year, the vines were smaller, faced more competition from the grasses/weeds, and I don't think I will get any (no fruits growing that I can see as of mid-August.
I'm not sure if last year's crop sucked the nutrients out of the soil in a way I didn't properly restore (I think I threw down a bit of 15-15-15, but maybe not enough, or maybe something else went missing.)
Or possibly it was the weeds - not sure best approach on this. I can whack down most of what's there until the seeds sprout, but then have to be careful. As the vines spread, it's hard to pull the weeds & grasses without accidentally pulling/damaging the pumpkin vines. I wonder about maybe just rolling out some of that weed-blocking fabric across the whole space, just putting in holes for the pumpkins/mounds. I'm not sure how the vines would do spreading over the fabric. Also not sure if I could re-use that stuff for future seasons. Or maybe some kind of heavy, semi-waterproof paper designed for single-season use?
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How'd you do, what tips do you have?
Tomatoes were the surprise winner this year - about 12-15 large tomatoes harvested from 4 plants.
Peppers didn't yield much this year, and I think our dog was eating them off the vine - they'd show up elsewhere in the yard with dog teeth marks, but I'm not sure if she plucked them from the vine or just "retrieved" ones that had fallen/been pulled by other animals.
The big disappointment was pumpkins. I have about a 300 square foot area that I've had pumpkins on for the last 2 years. Last year was a big success - ~10 harvested, decent sized orange pumpkins. This year, the vines were smaller, faced more competition from the grasses/weeds, and I don't think I will get any (no fruits growing that I can see as of mid-August.
I'm not sure if last year's crop sucked the nutrients out of the soil in a way I didn't properly restore (I think I threw down a bit of 15-15-15, but maybe not enough, or maybe something else went missing.)
Or possibly it was the weeds - not sure best approach on this. I can whack down most of what's there until the seeds sprout, but then have to be careful. As the vines spread, it's hard to pull the weeds & grasses without accidentally pulling/damaging the pumpkin vines. I wonder about maybe just rolling out some of that weed-blocking fabric across the whole space, just putting in holes for the pumpkins/mounds. I'm not sure how the vines would do spreading over the fabric. Also not sure if I could re-use that stuff for future seasons. Or maybe some kind of heavy, semi-waterproof paper designed for single-season use?
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How'd you do, what tips do you have?
Statistics: Posted by psteinx — Fri Aug 16, 2024 12:22 am — Replies 1 — Views 370