Posted on 07/10/2015 12:45:50 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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The yard needs mowing every 4 days, instead of the usual every other week in July. Part of the corn we successfully got to stand back up, the rest is still lodged over.
We've got a few cukes and cherry tomatoes so far. The tomatoes are from containers and they are not doing well at all. Mushy. Too much liquid I think, and maybe nutrients being washed out the bottom?
However, the volunteer tomatoes are doing great. And there's some really big ones hiding under the leaves - still green, but I'm hoping to have some nice ones from these. Hubby has Green Beans almost ready to harvest, so the canner will be cooking soon.
We use quite a few canned green beans, but I have a few left from last year. I hope to get at least 18 months worth on the shelf. I like canning my own stuff, as I can control the amount of salt and there's no weird sounding ingredients that I can't pronounce. LOL
Our nights have been a coolish 60s, so I'm thinking of canning some more meats too. Usually I try to do that in the winter months so as to aid in heating and not overload the air conditioner in the summer.
Our new washer and dryer were delivered last Thursday, so I have been busy catching up on the wash, and "Spring" cleaning while everything is pulled out and stacked on the other side of the rooms. Hoping to be finished with that and get everything rearranged this weekend. Hubby is supposed to put wheels on the base cabinets, so that future efforts will be easier, and I can clean under them more often.
I have had a report on Arrowhead's progress-seems to be coming along, but somewhat slow. They continue to ask for prayers and cards. Prayers up for Arrowhead, and Johnny-may Gods healing power surround them and lift them up.
Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend last week.
Have a good weekend everyone. God Bless.
Hot and humid in Florida today...heavy Clouds..no rain.
Pinging the list.
Finally getting a good hot dry weekend here in SE PA. Will be able to garden, jump in cement pond, and repeat all weekend.
So, I haven't posted in this thread for quite a while, but I've come down with a problem involving my hot peppers. My habaneros started out pretty strong, but lately the top leaves have been very small, kind of curled, and a bit withered-looking. The color is relatively good, but this looks like the pepper-plant analog to Witch's Broom in roses. Never seen anything like it in peppers before.
Oh yes, the humidity is awful! Sometimes we run the air conditioner when a fan would do, just to get rid of that humid air!
Man that cement pond sounds good. Daughter’s pool should be coming in next week, but I don’t think she has her ground level yet-so I hope the weather holds and she can get her buddies to help her out with that.
First look makes me think not enough water. What is your soil like?
Hi all, greetings from west Michigan. Picking broccoli, cukes, no tomatoes ripe yet, cherries soon. Waiting on second crop radishes and lettuce. Put up a half gallon of pickles today, first ones. Also eating our second helping of shishito peppers. Fast sautéed with a little olive oil and then topped with some cheese. They are really tasty. It’s our first year growing them. Also picked my first banana pepper. Always take a nice big inhale of that first one I pick. I’ve been putting up small bags of chopped up green onions through the foodsaver and then freezing them. I tried that last year with 2 small bags and they come through the freezer pretty good. no frost with the foodsaver and I usually use them for soups or fried rice anyway. Yes green onions are cheap in the store but I have them now and they don’t take up any room in the freezer. Zucchini and summer squash almost ready to pick. We like them on the grill sliced in half, not grilled very long with still a little crunch. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Prayers up for Arrowhead and JRandomFreeper!
We've had a pretty jungly summer here so far, alternating between too hot and rainy, and too hot and dry. Our last good rain was about a week ago, and if it gets too dry between times I wet down the garden thoroughly with the hose.
I am amazed sometimes at how much water my peppers need and I have a nice loose rich soil no clay. In your pictures the soil look so flat and level and hard looking. Clay can hinder roots from absorbing water. Next year I would recommend some lime and go down deeper and break up the clay. All it took was one year of growing some peppers in a very large pot. Because I water my patio pots so much, the patio peppers did much better and had terrific yields compared to the ones down in the garden. The biggest thing was in the fall I yanked the plants from the pot and really got to see the huge and fine roots they had. Down in the garden they just die off and get tilled up in the spring. When I saw those root systems I could see why water was so important and drainage too. I suspect the tops of your plants look worse then the bottoms because they have rooted down so deep and are into the clay. Just my thoughts I am no expert.
Tomatoes are slowly growing but still no blooms and it’s going to hit 100 this weekend so don’t expect anything until maybe the Fall. The peppers are barely taller than what they were when transplanted 2-3 months ago and not one pepper. The beans are barely putting on this year - we’ve only had one small pot. There’s been a couple of cukes and some mustard. The melon vines are starting to sprawl and the peanuts just now have one or two blooms.
Every year the borers destroy the squash so replanted those in late June and they’re up and starting their true leaves. I’m testing out late planting - that’s what I’m telling myself. Not that Texas is anywhere close to Minnesota, but U of Minnesota says the moths come through in June and that’s when ours get destroyed, too. Anyway, if this doesn’t work can try a third round in late August. Though I’ve had the little buggers in August, too.
The past couple weeks, I finally got the garden weeded and replanted. The weeds -— they’re baaaack. The spring floods washed everything out and I wasn’t in the mood to start over. Hubby, as he always does, mowed through the onions and took a flame thrower to the fence line twice which killed the berries. It’s too late to buy new berry bushes so will have to wait until next spring. Every year something happens so I don’t have berries or a garden. Was surveying it just now and over the years it has become more and more shady but shade comes first in 100 temps and garden a far second.
Gotta start canning tomatoes tomorrow. I have some 10+ flats on my basement floor. Hit and miss with rain this week here in Atlanta. Bumper crops - everything..
I’m particularly impressed with my Shishito (four) pepper plants. First year planting.. Harvesting fruit every three days.
Checked my squirrel (two) traps this morning and my larger one was missing..,(stolen???) I found it five rows over.. Something ripped that poor squirrel to pieces.., front foot, back feet, guts, skin off its back to the backbone.. Must have been one very hungry coon.
I actually felt sorry for the critter for about two non-seconds..
Your soil looks hard and dry. Keep pouring the water to them.
bgill,
I’ve always had great luck spraying the squash vine stem with pesticide (liquid - less harm to the pollinators) for the squash vine borers. Not sure if you’re organic. Even when a plant or two became infected (you can tell when the plant severely wilts at high heat) I heavily water and “stab” the squash stem with a large sowing (I mean really large) sewing needle..
Tomatoes Fest City here!!!
Early girls. Beeef master. Better boys. ROma. CElebrity.
Already doling them out here..
Big Batch chilli will get a load of them soon enough.
My best guess is nutritional deficiency, as I am assuming you have already searched for any pests that could be causing this. I usually keep a copy of Garden’s alive catalog handy because it has pictures and a trouble shooting guide.
However, I seem to have pitched it in the spring cleaning rush. I also couldn’t find my link to an online troubleshooting site that has pictures and hints/solutions to common problems with veggie plants.
I’d probably give them a dose of nutrients that contain lots of trace elements and nutrients. I’m assuming that you have followed whatever regular fertilizing of more or less balanced N,K,P you always do, and good drainage.
I haven’t seen this in peppers either, but I seem to remember reading about it for tomatoes, but I just can’t remember for sure what the deficiency was.
I am hoping that one of the more knowledgeable gardeners/master gardeners will be able to chime in here and help.
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