Thread: So far so good
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Old 24-04-2018, 12:37 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Terry Coombs Terry Coombs is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2012
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Default So far so good

On 4/23/2018 6:29 PM, wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:

Â* I watch the forecast closely now . One year I took it for granted the
"last frost date" was gospel . Planted based on that date and all my
tomatoes got frosted .

Bummer; people don't still say that, do they? hmmm. Sadly,
"average" doesn't mean _this year_; sigh.... I've been bit by "March
surprises" more than one year down here in FL, even. When hanging fire
on "early" planting, I generally wait until the overnight low has been
above the target temperature for at least ten days or two weeks, or so
just "because". Hard to do sometimes. Right now, I have some provider
snap beans that were planted beneath blooming mustard greens in late
February but late March freezing temperatures took out a number of
plants. Those sites were re-seeded on March 26. At any rate, most
survived; I'm picking from them daily now and before week's end I expect
them to be sheltering their replacements.
I think this year I'm going to set up something for the
field peas to climb instead of letting them ramble all over the ground .

For many years, I provided poles (local bamboo) for the peas and
those spaced as necessary to allow three or four vines per pole. This
year, however, I simply am going to place one of the wire field fencing
structures used by the English peas and cucumbers in the bed with the
peas and see how well the peas accomodate wire. Peas do not attach via
tendrils, in the manner of English peas or grapes, but wrap their stems
helically around support structures. 'Til now, I've always used purely
vertical supports (the bamboo poles) and whether the horizontal elements
of the fence wire affect the plants remains to be seen. Foot: For all I
know the plants may be repelled by metal or, at least, may not attach
themselves to it.


Â* I made the mistake of planting field peas next to my tomato cages 2
years ago . They'll climb metal just fine . Tomatoes weren't happy about
their sunlight getting cut off , got way tall and spindly , lousy for
production .

I also have on hand–but rarely use–trellis fashioned from the 6"
wire reinforcing fabric to which you refer elsewhere. Aside from being
initially more difficult to bend into the desired shape, the wire breaks
easily with repeated bending, or so it seems to me.


Â* The re-wire is pretty high in carbon , will fatigue and crack/break
faster than say field fencing wire . If I use that stuff I'll cut it
into panels about 30" wide and bend the ends of the wires into loops to
hinge them together . That will let me zigzag the panels to make them
self-supporting . Probably drive a post about the middle anyway just for
insurance .

--
Snag
Ain't no dollar sign on
peace of mind - Zac Brown