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Old July 29th, 2010, 03:43 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Some Gardening Questions From A Moldy Thumb

For you fortunate green thumbers, I have a few questions (some more coming in the near future no doubt ).

- Tomato plants...is there a reason the lower leaves curl in on themselves? Too much water? Not enough water? Is fertilization necessary? How often and with what?

- Lawn care...what do you use as a safe weed and feed. I don't mind dandelions at all but not when they take over the complete lawn and it's starting to get a little out of control here. We have lots of clover, which I love but, they attract too many bees so I don't want more than what we already have...especially with Nukka, the mighty bug hunter . I manually pull out the weeds around the new trees and shrubs we planted but it's humanly impossible to do the entire property.

- Morning Glory...ours is growing like mad but no flowers . It's planted in a non-glazed ceramic pot on our deck. Full sun from sunrise to about 3pm. I water early every morning as the earth dries very quickly, probably due to the pot it's in.

- Lilac trees...we planted 8 young ones this year. I just noticed today that four of them have a white powdery mildew on the leaves. From past experience with other plants, I know it's only a matter of time before the leaves dry up and fall off . Can I stop this from happening? And how can I prevent it on the remaining trees? I have cedar mulch around them but about 6" from the base. I only water (without getting the leaves wet) when it's really hot and we haven't had rain for 3-4 days.

Help .
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Old July 29th, 2010, 04:16 PM
aslan aslan is offline
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Lp the white powdery substance on your lilacs is actually called powdery mildew..it does't hurt the plant at all. You can prune the lilac so it gets more air but it will probably still get the white powder anyway.

the tomatoe plants could be a few differant things..the dandelions you can use vinegar on,,also helps with foxtail, velvetleaf, smooth pigweed and thistle.
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Old July 29th, 2010, 04:25 PM
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Sorry I do not have answers to some of your questions,but hubby has one of those hanging thingys for his tomato-plants and the very lowest leaves are curling too,but there are a lot of tomatoes.

We really do not fertilize anything and I have a lot of flowers and bushes,if it has not rained,we water everything very well every morning.

The Morning-Glory spells trouble after what I've heard,kind of spreads everywhere.
I don't know why yours is not flowering.

The grass,we have given up,after the pesticide-ban,I did not use pesticide even before the ban,because of my cats.
My motto is,if it's green it's ok,but we do pull Dandelion and Crab-Grass.
I know,if you keep a nice thick lawn,you will starve the weeds.

The Lilac I have no idea why it's mildewy,but it happens sometimes late in the season.
See,not much help,but I tried
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Old July 29th, 2010, 04:33 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Aslan, so do I just water the lawn with vinegar ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by chico2 View Post
Sorry I do not have answers to some of your questions,but hubby has one of those hanging thingys for his tomato-plants and the very lowest leaves are curling too,but there are a lot of tomatoes.
So far I see lots of tomatoes too...they're just tiny and green still cuz I was late to get the seeds started .

Quote:
Originally Posted by chico2 View Post
The Morning-Glory spells trouble after what I've heard,kind of spreads everywhere.
Not too worried about the spreading as it has nowhere to go other than the lattice above the deck walls. It's simple enough to pull out. I'd just like to see some blooms .


I'm really worried about the lilac . We had phlox at our old home and once the mildew completely covered the leaves, it killed the plants.
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Old July 29th, 2010, 04:43 PM
aslan aslan is offline
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ummm no just put it right on the dandelions,,unless you're trying to kill the lawn to then suuuure go right ahead.
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Old July 29th, 2010, 05:34 PM
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Lp I use Scott Weed & feed and it works very well.....I also tried this stuff new this year called weed be gone and it works well at killing just the weed. I actually thought it was a gimic but thats all it kills. It worked great getting rid of clover...if you dont keep that under control the whole yard will be full.

The lilac trees I would not mulch underneath...just dirt...I dont have the mildew but I bet if you google mildew problems on lilacs youll find something. How big are these trees?

The tomatoes sound like not enough sun or because they are from seed they may not be strong plants. I know for mine I get rot on the bottom every other year it seems and that is from the water apparently.

The problem with dandelions is that unless people around you care about them youll always have some! and I just use the long garden tool and it pops them right out of the ground. Maybe you could teach Nukka to be on dandelion patrol!!
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Old July 29th, 2010, 09:41 PM
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Mmmm, I vaguely remember answering your morning glory question before. Guess you didn't like my answer.
From: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...108225028.html

Morning Glories can respond differently to variables


Posted by ron_convolvulaceae 6a/5b (My Page) on Tue, Oct 17, 06 at 6:03
Morning Glories can exhibit delayed blooming from a number of different causes including excessive Nitrogen levels in conjunction with temperature and lighting variables...
the sum total of all environmental factors and variables exert an inter-connected and sometimes synergistic effect...ratios of relevant factors can vary alot and so also does the response of the plants...
The observance of 2 plants responding very differently when exposed to the same environment is an example of the adaptive genetic diversity present in the plants...the plant that blooms well in one environment may not bloom well in another and vice versa...

Growing your next crop of plants from seeds collected from plants that responded the way you would like to see them respond is more likely to result in plants that are the most satisfying for you...

Seeds collected from plants that grew and flowered well in your(!) zone(!) or a climate zone most similar to your own will in all likihood yield the best results...this includes summer and winter high and low temperatures as well as growing season daily(!) average(!) temperatures...
latitude is also a factor because the Electro-magnetic spectrum(!) of sunlight varies at different latitudes...additionally >mountainous areas receive a different spectrum of sunlight than comparatively very low areas like valleys...

The ratio(!) of all the essential and non-essential Macro and Micro nutrients will affect the growth and flowering response of the plants...a ratio that works well in Portland,OR may not work well for someone in Dallas,TX or Chicago,Tampa or New York...

Nitrogen in excessive amounts can sometimes delay flowering,but since the word 'fertilizer' and even 'nutrient' are fuzzy terms that actually can refer to at least 25 or more elements...it it better to be more specific in relation to the particular element(s) being referred to...

Plants can respond to both essential and non-essential(!) elements and nutrient like substances...again the ratios(!) of all substances present can exert widely varying results > and are often almost impossible to calculate in their vast all-inclusive sum total entirety...

The trace minerals can affect the growth and flowering behaviour of plants,but the sum total of all environmental factors involved including the ever important ratios(!) are often very difficult to ascertain completely...
so an intelligent guesstimate is the best that can most often be arrived at with regard to providing a plant with what will most likely induce it to behave the way we as individuals would enjoy...

The macro nutrient Phosphorus is most often bloom stimulating and Potassium is good for healthy root systems...and although excessive(!) levels of the macro nutrient Nitrogen can result in delayed blooming
>too little(!) Nitrogen can also delay blooming and reduce the overall viability of seeds...

Every particular situation and person may discover a particular strain of plants and a combination of climate and soil conditions that work out well for them...if a particular formula works for you > continue with it...

Seeds harvested from plants that have displayed the features that you like >that originate from overall conditions most similar to your own present growing conditions are more likely to do well >in your(!)particular garden than seeds that come from plants that were grown in significantly different overall growing conditions...
that is why saving the seeds from your own plants that do well in your(!) own garden is a very important factor
>because these seeds are most likely to re-produce plants that are progressively better adapted to your own particular growing conditions...

Hope this is helpful and continue to Enjoy...

TTY,...

Ron

Did you start the seed yourself? What did you use for soil? Did you add fertilizer? It is quite possible the soil is just too rich for the morning glory. If you got it from a nursery then they probably used fertilizer to "boost" it along. Therefore you probably won't get flowers this year.

From what I've read on gardening sites other people are having problems with the same thing this year.
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