I am always anxious to get my plants out as soon as possible and sometimes it is imperative given the contraints of the seasons. It is important to not get complacent after you have planted, particularly in the Spring. Most of us are aware of frost free dates and how they affect when you should plant. But as all of us should be well aware of, mother nature can be fickle.

The national weather service for my area publishes April 30th as the frost free date (10%). Note the 10%, that means that 10% of the time it will frost after April 30th. This is important because while 9 years out of 10 it will not frost after April 30th, sometimes it will. Technically, no one can officially publish a sure fire, never will happen frost free date because, lets face it, anything can happen. 10% is usually close enough. Therefore, I have a few suggestions during this critical period.

Keep an eye on the weather min and max predictions each day. By keeping an eye on the weather each day you may be able to save your plants from an early death. If the temperature is predicted to go below 40 degrees (F) then consider protecting your tender starts during the night.

Tender plants include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, corn, potatoes and others. If these plants are just a seed and have yet to germinate then I would not worry about a chilly night since the ground temp probably won’t freeze after your frost free date. But if the plant has green out then you can protect the plant with a hotcap (click to see picture). If the plant is a bit more sturdy then you can throw some thin plastic over the top, making sure to drape over the plant and secure so that the wind/air won’t blow right through or blow it away. Make sure to take it off in the morning before the sun gets too hot or you will burn your plants.

There are several other measure you can take, you just need to keep the temperature above freezing around the plant so that it won’t die. You do not need to do this for your hardy plants such as lettuce, broccoli, carrots etc.

I would keep a keen eye on your plants until about two weeks after your frost free date (10%), after that you should be good. For more information about frost free dates, check out this video on the subject.

This year I am trying a new method of planting seeds indoors called soil blocks. I read about this method in a book called “The New Organic Grower” which I enjoyed very much and would recommend reading. I show you how to make soil blocks and share with you some of my experience doing it. Hope you enjoy. I have posted the soil block recipe below or you can click this link for a PDF.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2_getFvp-0

BLOCKING MIX RECIPE *

A standard 10-quart bucket is the unit of measurement for the bulk ingredients. A standard cup measure is used for the supplementary ingredients. This recipe makes approximately 2 bushels of mix. Follow the steps in the order given.

-3 buckets brown peat (standard peat moss, use a premium grade)

-1⁄2 cup lime.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

2 buckets coarse sand or perlite

3 cups base fertilizer (equal part mix blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand).

Mix. 1 bucket garden soil

2 buckets well-decomposed compost.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

Moisten the mix thoroughly using one part warm water for every three parts blocking mix. Successful soil block making depends on the mix being wet enough, rather than wet like soil mix in traditional flats. The mix should have the consistency of soft putty or wet cement, so that a small amount of water oozes through small openings in the blocker as the blocks are made, and that the individual soil blocks cling to the blocker without falling out prematurely.

* From The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman.

Great news, now VegeNag is free for unlimited vegetables. Up until now, you could get a free account, but were limited to one vegetable. VegeNag has now become an ad supported website. Therefore, this means that you can now have full access to VegeNag for free, however, in order to support the great value VegeNag provides and to keep the site running, you will see ads. We believe these ads will be highly relevant to you as our user and hope that you will find out about great gardening vendors this way. Hopefully, this is a win win for everyone. Many of you have asked that we make the service free and now we have.

So what about all of those who have paid for a subscription. Well, you get the option of not having any ads or you can obtain a full refund by emailing support@vegenag.com. I have already talked to some of you about this and those I have talked to have graciously been pleased enough with the service that they are not seeking a refund and will enjoy the site ad free for doing so. That being said, for those that don’t mind ads, then we are more than happy to apply a refund.

Anyway, please tell your friends about this great service that is now free for the new 2011 season.

When the days get cooler (and shorter), it is now a good time to prune some leaves from your tomato plants to help sunshine reach the fruit. The warmth helps ripen it.

Consider also severing the outer roots of your plants, with a shovel, in random places – about a foot away from the stem. Just sink your shovel into the earth! Snap off (prune) any flowers that have not produced fruit too. These measures will deprive the plant of some water, but it will shock it into ripening its fruit.

Because we all want ripe fruit – don’t we?

Harvesting should be in full swing about now (depending on where you live) so it is a great time to begin considering your plan for fall and winter seasons.

Begin or continue composting garden/lawn wastes as you tidy for winter.

You could also sow a green manure crop such as crimson clover, vetch or field peas, in empty spaces in your garden or flower bed. Green manures suppress weeds and add nitrogen and organic matter when dug in next spring.

We here at VegeNag would love to see some of the “fruits of your labors”. Please send us a couple photos or links to your successes this year.

aaron @ vegenag.com

You have been growing cucumbers and you finally harvest a few. Then you slice one up, stick it in your mouth and quickly spit it out due to the bitter taste. I have done it and it made me mad. So what to do about it? Let me see if I can help.

First, why is it bitter? The bitter taste comes from a compound called cucurbitacin. This is found in the plant leaves, roots, and to some degree the fruit. It is also in the peel. Therefore, to minimize spreading it all over the fruit part of the vegetable when you cut it. Make sure to wash you knife or peeler each time you make a pass at peeling and also start from the blossom end of the fruit and peel toward the stem. While this system may help, I have found that I still end up throwing away the cucumber because even a little bit is too much.

So here are some other considerations.

Make sure the plant is healthy and evenly watered. The sure way to a bitter cucumber is a stressed plant. I always use a mulch with my cucumbers and I would recommend this to help keep the plant drought resistant. Other simple practices such as proper fertilization and pest control are also essential.

Another possibility of growing bitter free cucumbers is to buy a burpless variety. Now keep in mind that many seed companies will use the term burpless, but that may just be more of a marketing term than actually being bitter-free. However, it has been my experience that burpless varieties have a less chance of being bitter than normal (non-burpless) varieties.

Don’t try and pickle a bitter cucumber since it will be bitter as a pickle too.

Hope that helps.

Well, after a number of years we are now alive and kicking. I hope you all love the service. Let me know what you think of the new interface and additional features. We are committed to continually add new features and making this service better and better as time goes on.

You can still get a free trial account, but it only allows you one vegetable to test with. Otherwise the service is $24.95 for a one year subscription. Since the season is pretty much over, we are adding an incentive for sign-ups for the rest of the year. You get a 2 year subscription for the price of one year or $24.95.

I hope all of those who used our service this year was successful and enjoying a great harvest. We have heard great things so far. Keep the good news coming.

VegeNag.com is coming out of beta testing on Monday. This means that free accounts will be limited on the vegetable selections. It will also mean the complete redo of the plant manager. One of the new features will be displaying the next event for each vegetable.

Be sure to sign up before Monday so that your free account will be automatically upgraded to a premium subscription. Tell your friends too, since on Monday the site will begin to charge for premium subscriptions.

We hope you will like the new interface.

Thanks for all those that helped during beta testing. You have helped to make this product become highly useful.

Every year I have the same problem and every year it seems so do many others. You may have seen this, your cucumbers or your squash/zucchini plant is wilting so you water it, yet it doesn’t perk up and then it just dies. This is a tell tale sign of squash bugs. These bugs suck the juices and water out of the stems of your plant and if you look at the base of the stem you see these little bugs having the time of their life.

If you see this then you should immediately remove the bugs from the plant and kill them, then you need to look under each leave to see if they have laid any eggs, which they most likely have done. If you do see some, then wipe these eggs off too and kill them. You can also put a wood board near the plant to lure the bug away and then you can kill manually.  If you want an organic spray then I recommend BT  (Bacillus thuringiensis), or a brand name is Thuricide. This organic spray can be injected directly into the stem or applied regularly to control the bugs. Last, of course, is to apply an aggressive insecticide like Sevin. While I do not recommend spraying Sevin since you may kill beneficials, you may have success by applying the dust at the stems to help stop the problem.

If you have the problem one year, you can probably count on it every year. Click here for more information on squash bugs.

It has been a couple of weeks now and I am curious what everyone thinks so far about the new service at VegeNag.com. Any thoughts so far? Here are a few of mine:

The “My Plants” page is sort of confusing. I think some people feel like they have to add a date to each plant. However, no dates are needed for the service to work. The date fields are only for customization.

What do you think of the “planting guide”. I am happy with how it is turning out. I love having all of the information in one place per plant.

The watering nags seem to be overkill. I am thinking we should combine them so they send out per the water schedule (bi-weekly, weekly etc) instead of by way of each plant. Thoughts?

Timing is great for me and my area. What about yours?

Let me know what you think so that I can improve the site.

Thanks,

Alex