The Half Ashed Cigar Forum

I've alluded or even probably mentioned briefly on a few occasions the fact that I am an amateur gardener. I love everythign to do with my vegetable garden. Everything. I must admit, however, I am not even remotely close to approaching professional. I happily inhabit the unaffiliated midwest leagues, where I grow and prep with unending intentions of grandeur but often find myself spending exponentially more on the garden than the bounty would have cost at even the most expensive local farmer's market. Nevertheless, I love it. Truly.

As what seems to be an unquenchable thirst for knowledge about my crops, I'm curious if anyone here can attempt to satisfy my need for info on my carrots. I have been growing a sweet red carrot this year and unfortunately have not seen good results. My crop doesn't seem to have achieved color (I can tell by the visible part at the base of the greens) and the one I picked was woodier than Mr.Woodpecker. Has anyone successfully grown carrots before? Should I be pruning the greens throughout the year? I've just nipped off the flowers as they sprout but the greens themselves have approached 2' tall on many of them.

I look forward to talking about this more. Maybe even next year with a crop of tobacco

All we do is plant and weed. Maybe my wife does more...
Is it your soil? Maybe the red varietal doesn't like its home?

Craig, I do believe the hanging tomato idea is working! T'anks, bruh...

Really? I just made that shit up!

My tomatoes have been late this year. I'm just seeing a crop of them now. My purple cherries have been growing like crazy for weeks but my regulars and heirloom-type are just starting. I supplement with chicken manure a couple times over the year and get 8 hours of sunlight daily. I'm not overcrowded either. Anyone have reasoning?

Anyone have a reliable japanese beetle repellent? Cedar oil as a topical makes them leave but does it keep them away? I can't get good results from a local garden center.

White mold/fungus on vine growers is a problem this year. Ideas as to why? I use a soaker hose. I trellace everything so the leaves are up and getting circulation. My melon plant died completely. One cucumber died. One zucchini died (overnight, mind you!) and I'm pulling leaves off of the other veins as I spot them getting infected. I do have some cucumber beetles and squash beetles around but they're not a horrible infestation. The little asian beetles are bad but this fungus has been going on for longer than they've been around. Weird, weird.

Here are some pictures:
This is the asian beetle I've got a lot of. Looks like a pink ladybug and is slightly more oblong. You can also see some of the fungus/mold growing on the leaves.

Here's a good picture of a leaf infected with whatever fungus or mold I've got growing. Yuck. There's a fallen tree leaf on the center of the zucchini leaf. It's just there by accident. The yellow is not part of the infection I'm referring to!

A basic picture of the Cucumber beetles I've got canoodling on my vegetables.