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Re: Help Please....

Not enough sun for fruit from tomatoes. You could try reflectors, if you
can get some large pieces of shiny material -- old mirrors best, then
chrome or stainless steel sheets, second, or even plywood covered with
shiny aluminum foil. Position so they reflect maximum sun right onto the
leaves of your tomato plants.

Some trees/plants release growth-inhibiting chemicals into the soil from
their roots that prevent any plants grown around them from flourishing.
Walnut is one. Sunflowers another. Not a good idea to plant a veg. garden
under trees of any kind. Most veg varieties specify "full sun" in the
books. Lettuce does well with part-shade, also spinach, radish, etc. Leaf
crops, in other words. But fruit crops like tomatoes, eggplant, beans, need
all day sun. At least 6-8 hours of it, anyway. Peas do all right in part
shade, especially snow peas.

Now as to slugs, the easiest thing to do is go to DejaNews, rec.gardening
and do a search on "slugs" and you'll get all the many, many posts and
advice on dealing with them. There's too much to go into here, but I've
found diatomaceous earth to be the bar-none best, all organic, and it
completely stops them coming around your plants or anywhere that you've
sprinkled it. I only did it once this spring and they've never come back to
that area, even long after it wore down into the soil. I guess it really
hurts to have your soft, slimy body sliced up by what feels like ground
glass to a slug. (It's actually ground-up sea creatures' shells, and 
benefits the soil -- adds calcium)
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> From: Rick <rmartin01@snet.net>
> To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject: Help Please....
> Date: Tuesday, July 08, 1997 11:13 PM
> 
> 2 Problems from Southern Connecticut (zone 6):
> 
> History - 1st yr. garden - use to be all brush and vines,  raspberries,
> ivy (poison & others), etc.  Soil looks good & rich from plenty of dead
> leaves.  Mostly shaded area (under a huge tulip tree, walnut, pine,
> etc.) - sun till ~ noon. There are other fruit trees but not over the
> garden - (apple) I think they're crab apple cuz they're not doing to
> well.  The soil tilled up good. Part of it had a pool (could tell from
> the sand & cinder blocks). Using well water and trying the organic
> stuff.
> 
> 1.  Slugs, slugs everywhere.  What causes these things??  What can you
> do to get rid of them?  Any natural predators??  I've put boards down in
> the garden and daily go thru picking the little lawyers (about 12 a
> day).  Went down to about 6 a day when I stopped watering at nite. But
> then we had a heavy rain and I picked 24 in the day today so I decided
> to go out tonite (just got back) - picked over 50 slugs.  Can I just
> feed them something?  Can you use slugs for fishing?  Any ideas -
> Please...
> 
> 2.  Tomato plants not bearing fruit yet - transplanted to garden on
> Memorial Day - now 3 1/2 to 4 ft tall , very few blossoms.  No tomatoes
> yet though. Same plants given to my mother - much shorter not as green
> but has 4 good size tomatoes (she planted hers ~2wks after mine).
> Same Plant in another yard (not in the neighborhood, nice & green) - in
> a planter 3 tomatoes. Same Plant in another yard - (in the neighborhood
> , nice & green) in a planter with potting soil - no tomatoes (a few
> blossoms).  Potatoes are growing to beat the band. Cucumbers are slow -
> a few blossoms.  Radishes 2 batches (different kinds of seeds) NO
> radishes.  Now I'M GETTING WORRIED - Could it be something  in the well
> water (minerals, bacteria)?? Could it be something in the soil (bugs)??
> Any ideas??
> 
> all right 3 Problems...
> 3.  Aphids everywhere - in the garden (tomato plants, etc.) NO aphids 2
> house away - tried the dish soap & water spraying the tomatoes (&
> everything else) 3-4 times a day (on wkends) - NO luck.
> Does hosing them off with water kill them??  Where do these things come
> from??
> 
> Any ideas - Any Help would surely be appreciated.
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