Barb if you are growing in the GH and still see new growth and buds I would continue...mine are pretty much done here.

Thanks Ronnie :) Is once a week okay with fish emulsion? Too many plants to learn lol

Sounds like solid advice to me.

Sign me Green with Greenhouse Envy

LOL

Becareful of what you wish for Joesph...Lol Lugging gallons and gallons of water every day frozen tundra go packers...Belly laugh

Hey Barb,

Now I'm "our Fran"? Thanks for the compliment, sure better than some things I have been called in my life.

Yes it was me that said once a month, but I don't use fish emulsion, I use Miracle grow flower fertilizer, the one you connect to that garden hose, turn on the water an off you go.

I believe I prefaced the once a month with something like depending on whether conditions and how good your soil is as well.

Under "normal growing conditions" which I haven't seen now in the past 2 years, I'm planting my MG vines in the ground in the first week or so with a good handful of miracle grow potting mix in the hole. I dig that hole deep as well, fill it with the MG potting mix and then plant the seedling and put bark mulch around the area of the seedlings.

About 2-3 weeks later, I'll give them a watering with the MG fertilizer and then in mid July and Mid August.

The soil they get planted in is not the best soil either, so a good dose of the MG soil helps amend it a bit.

Now if I the seedlings are going in my pots, then the only thing I use is miracle grow potting mix, seedling goes in the pot, 1 seedling per pot, and a layer of bark mulch on top of the soil.
Those pots with the MG potting mix is the only fertilizer they get.

This has worked well for and the vines have grown really great until the past 2 years.

That's when all bets where thrown out with the rain going down the sewer drains.

Last year, we had good weather early June. Plants got in the ground and pots, some early some late. The last 50 WS seedlings got in the ground 12 hours before I left the house to go into the hospital for spine surgery, June 26th I think it was.

Came home that night and the next 3-4 days where fine, not real hot, not real humid, couple of brief showers, hubby watered. Then the skies opened up and that was the end.

The entire month of July and first week of August where nothing but deluges of water falling from the sky day and night. The kind of downpours you get with a real heavy thunderstorm. Only those last a brief length of time and they are over. This weather went on for 6 weeks and left behind over a 16 inches of rain.

Move into the second week of August on and it turned blazing hot and humid, 95+ during the day, dew point in the mid 70's (unusual for New England to last more than a few days) and rain you ask? 9 weeks and not a drop of rain in site.

Took more than a week for even the pots to dry out and then it was water every other day, ( I'm on a permanent every other watering day ban, and fined in the 100'a of dollars if caught watering on the wrong day).

Finally everything started to bloom and all was find. But the MG bloomed very late and didn't get a lot of seeds but got enough for trades, lots of trades on some of them.

So, no real fertilizing got done last year on the MG front.

Didn't think we would get a second year of disaster weather, but OMG. This is the worst I have ever seen in 29 years of gardening and the worst I've ever seen since I gardened on my grandparents summer veggie/flower farm in the summer as a kid.

Long cold spring, some loss of seedlings, heat on till almost mid June. Slow germination of everything, some rain in June, but not terrible. got the seedlings in and was supposed to have more spine surgery, but that's another story.

Weather so cold most of June that people who bought plants where losing them and buying more.

Everything got planted late and I mean late. Skies opened up for 2 weeks in June and rained day and night so by the time everything was in the ground it was almost mid July.

Then it started again. Deluges of rain, almost the whole month of July and all of August. day in and day out, rain, rain, and more rain and to add to the rain, the temps where cold, and I mean cold. 60's and mid 70's. Finally end of August we get some sun, then heat and humidity to kill you.

Essentially instead of one month of nothing but rain, it was 2 months of solid rain and very cold temps, followed by about 2 weeks of deadly heat.

Nothing and I mean nothing has really grown well. When one has zinnias that don't grow or are blooming on 3 inch stems and marigolds that are not doing well, you know you are up a creek in the garden department.

So again this year, no MG fertilized and I can't say that lack of fertilizer made any difference this year. They need sun, warmth and water. All they where getting is water this year.

Finally they are blooming, at least some of them, but most are going to be a now show of bloom this year, and if any of them bloom now, it will be without any seed pods this year. Temps are going to be in the low to mid 60's during the day and mid 40's to low 50's at night. very cold for this time of year.

Hey, at least my tomatoes grew some, have green toms on them and my cukes are fine as well. just some basic fungus on them, so far I've escaped the late blight that is rampant all over the east coast, especially in New England and New york.

So, Barb, that's how I do it and next year is a new gardening year. Not even going to think about how much worse it can be next year, cause there's nothing I can do about it.

Oh, I did try the fish emulsion one year. Oh was that a bad, bad, bad mistake. Forget about the smell, that was nothing compared to the trouble it caused. I swear every alley cat, roaming pet cat, ferrel cat and who knows what other wild critter in my 27 square mile town, found my yard to come to. They really, really like the smell. One morning I counted 45 cats in the back yard.

That was too much, hubby and shoveled out most of the dirt, bagged it and I had him take it to where he works for them to spread around the plants at work. Then we had to put in fresh soil, and replant the plants.

At leas the kitties went away. That was the one and only fish emulsion experience and I'm ever going to repeat it again.

Fran

Hi Fran :)

Thank you very much for your help. Wow you really did have a difficult year...

I am so glad your maters and cukes made it for you..I just pulled my maters with that late blight..What a shame with fruit on them...

You really received the rain this year.. Sounds like a record there... Can you believe we had to make a couple of fires at night in August because it was so chilly... Crazy weather... If this would have been my first year gardening I would have given up...

The bee balm had one great season here..It was beautiful..

Lol on the kitties... I bet that was not fun at the time but fun to laugh about it now... We had one member use the fish emulsion and he woke up the next day with the pot and his brug gone... He wasnt happy at all...

Since I used it three weeks ago? The plant has really grown leaps and bounds... Shooo I am gonna take Emmas advice for Bug control this winter... I had bugs this past winter and was out there fighting them till death do us part lol Thankfully I won..hahah

I am hoping a better season for us both next year.. Thank you once again for the help Fran and glad you are feeling better too...Barb