Posted on 08/16/2013 12:42:15 PM PDT by greeneyes
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If we lose a few more degrees there will be no fall crop of tomatoes. Squash, zukes, and cukes continue to produce faster than we can eat them, but not enough to make a batch of pickles, and the freezer has no more room.
The corn has been harvested and is almost all eaten(we didn't plant a big patch this year due to concerns over water/drought, because of last year's experience).LOL how wrong can planning be?
Hope all is well with you and yours. Have a great weekend, and God Bless.
Pinging the List.
When hubby gets home this afternoon he’s got about 10 ripe pumpkins to pick. I’d pick them but he likes to make sure they’ve got enough stem to last and then he keeps meticulous track of how much they weigh. So I let him do that part. There are probably 10 or 15 more that will be ripe in another couple of weeks. Here in temperate southern MS there’s time for another making. When we pick these pumpkins the vine will sull for another week or so and then put out shoots and set another pumpkin, sometimes two. Those will be ripe sometime early October and it’ll repeat the process. It’s those last squash/pumpkins that we cover with the homemade fencing/plastic tarp teepees to let them ripen after we get a heavy frost in late Oct/early Nov.
I have a sneaky Long of Naples that’s snuck into my corn patch. It’s got a female bloom that will probably open tomorrow. I’m going to have to fertilize that part of the corn patch to make sure they don’t feed to heavily on what the other needs. I’ll probably use the regular algoflash for that.
My rice is 5ft tall and each plant has ~20 pannicles of rice grains. Still smells wonderful at mid day too.
Getting a few tomatoes. Got them out late because frost got the first set in early May. Unheard of this far south.
Getting scads of hot peppers though, they were still in the garage that night. Our low was supposed to be 42 but it was 36 on my back porch that next morning and had gotten even lower in my garden.
Corn is 5ft tall right now. It’s really liking the warm nights we had over the past month. It was 65 at my house first thing this morning. Cooler than normal and todays high was all of 84 degrees. 8deg lower than normal. Feels like early fall here. Hopefully it’ll warm up to upper 80’s or lower 90’s next week. For my garden’s sake.
Sweet potatoes are taking over now too. I wish there was some way you could tell how they were doing underground. We’ll have to wait and see though.
My Kroger ginger is about 1ft tall now it its pots. It’s liked the hot/humid weather we’ve had the past 2 or 3 weeks. I need to remember to feed that when I feed my citrus.
And lastly, the Arbequina olive I got from Jungs has put on a whole bunch of new growth since I gave it a bigger pot. I’m growing it for a potted ornamental for my yard as much as I am to see if it will make olives. We’ll cross our fingers for the latter.
It’s all good this week.
Two things we note:
1. The Emerald Ash borer (originally from China) has killed an estimated 10 million ash trees in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. I've lost six beautiful 100+ trees this year, with one survivor.
2. The Buckeye trees around here have no buckeye nuts this year. Well, not all are gone, perhaps only one or two per tree and a lot of trees completely devoid of nuts. Not sure the two events are related, but the trees are taking a beating.
On a brighter note, my last post asked for direction with spreading mint plant. Good news is we've hacked it down and contained the system. Thanks to all who provided direction.
Z
Add me to your garden ping list please.
Ub355
We’re having a bounty of summer squash, cucumbers, basil and little hot peppers. No ripe tomatoes yet, and our prospects are looking slim. Our eggplants have flowers, but nothing more. I hope that next year will be better.
Said another way: Evil predators are in the garden waiting to murder the seeds and I can only protect them in the house where I will be - I will die if I am out in the heat trying to save the seeds from the freaking murdering scum killers in the garden. :o)
I concentrated on the problems yesterday with the help of ApplegateRanch and Black Agnes. I fixed all the problems yesterday with a four foot grow light on a stand. The last I knew, no squirrels and birds are in my house and I think the Yorkie would have a fit if she saw either in the house. Basically, it boils down to this – no seed is safe outside any time of the year, period. All seeds will be started under the 4 ft. long grow lamp INSIDE.
Very early spring: After the seeds sprout under the grow lamp in the early spring, they go in the little greenhouse as that zips and the critters can’t get the tender plants. After they are a good transplant size, they go in a container on the deck and are covered with net.
August to plant for fall: Any seed is sprouted inside under the grow lamp. and stays there until time to transplant. Can’t put them in the greenhouse as they would burn up in 105+ heat and so would I. From the lamp they get put in containers on the deck with netting over them.
I read extensively about this particular grow lamp on a four foot stand. The light will move down and up so the light will be close enough to the plants that they don’t grow spindly trunks. This light can be one inch from the seed to warm it. As it grows the light is moved up. There is a pulley to lower and raise the light.
Some customers listed they are growing peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, onions, spinach, zucchini, basil, eggplant, broccoli, spinach. Some are growing lettuce in the winter and keeping it under the light to eat then. This is the four foot model, not the two foot.
I ordered mine from Walmart on line as they are selling the four foot one for the same price, plus a few cents, as the two foot one. I suppose they will find their error at some point but mine is bought. I’ll pick it up at the store next week for free shipping.
I have every seed I need for spring, except by spring I need blackberry and strawberry plants and the new On Deck Corn seed when they become available. I found a place to get Chandler strawberry plants in pots, not just the roots as most places send. Ordered those today to plant in Sept.. They start sending orders the last of August. Have a place to order two year Ouachita Blackberry plants so they should produce this coming year. The berry and corn plants will all be in solid containers or grow bags on the deck.
I now have three Mortgage Lifter tomato plants in the big tomato container, and five in 5 gal. grow bags and one in a bucket to take to rightly_dividing tomorrow. He has made me a dolly for my barrel to grow the squash.
A MIRACLE: The Tromboncino squash seed I dug up with a spoon to see if it had died, had just split the seed pod and I figured I killed it by digging it up out of the little cup. I put it in the greenhouse and low and behold, the thing grew through the soil to a good one inch tall with two leaves showing. I moved it out of there a while ago as the heat was making the leaves not look good. I will be moving them in and out of the roofed deck to get some sun then back under the roof. I really hope that grow lamp puts an end to this method.
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50 degrees - man, that sounds good as I am sweating in Texas. Hope you don’t lose tomatoes, though.
You’ve really done a lot of research.
I had a packet of that On Deck corn but it got damp somehow and sprouted in the packet. It arrived in good condition but I suspect one of my children was involved with the ‘damp’ part. I’ll probably get another packet next year if they’re selling it.
I have to ask where you’re getting the Chandler strawberry plants that are in pots.
You have an olive small tree? You can grow rice - that is just amazing to me.
You could grow rice too. Turns out you don’t need a paddy.
I started the seeds by soaking them in warm water for 48hrs and then planting the ones that weren’t floating in a seed tray with 128 divots. 3w later I planted those out 12” square with 1 plant per square foot. I then did the paper/hay mulch thing. Put down osmocote under them before I put them in though and when I got done I watered them in with algoflash regular. I’ve only had to water them 2 times this summer so far. It’s been really damp compared to normal for this area.
Jungs sells those olive trees and they had a sale back in May or June plus I had a 10% coupon. I think I paid $13 for it and they’re normally ~$30 there and everywhere else I can find them. It’s a pretty ornamental tree though. I plan to get it a really nice huge ornamental pot and put it in my front near my front door. Hubby’s got a moving dolly that we’ll put it in the garage with if the temps get below 25 or so.
Chandler strawberries in pots are below. Twenty-five plants for $24.95. I think being in tiny pots will help keep them from stress when planted. They do start mailing them the last part of August. I found this place yesterday.
http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/-c181.htm
I know I likely bored you to death with all the posts I made yesterday, but I had to solve the problems I had if I was going to have any success doing this.
I’m certainly not bored by gardening posts. If I don’t reply it’s probably because my kids are up to something or I’m cooking.
Or I’m in the middle of reading some journals.
I found this one that helped me understand corn:
http://www.agronomy.ksu.edu/teaching/doc2374.ashx
One more surprise. I planted a Sesame flower seed in a large pot in the dirt garden and covered it with net. That was a month or more ago and I don’t remember if I planted one seed or more seed. That plant grew in spite of me and now it’s getting tall with lovely green healthy leaves. The thing is, there are two stalks coming out of the soil. I don’t know if that is one flower with two stalks or two flowers. If it keeps living, it will have long pods with sesame seeds to eat.
Johnny, I sent you some of those seeds. Did yours do anything?
I got Asian pears ,, oodles more after using netting.. still losing some to maggots but still nigh a bumper crop considering.
HaPPy pickin’!
Just a quick update to my rabbit problem question from last week>
I decided against putting used kitty litter around the beds as the smell would definitely keep me away.
Someone had mentioned that rabbits on’t cross dried blood I had a bag that I got for soil amendment, so I put that around all the areas where Mr. Bunbun was munching. So far, it’s keeping the rabbits at bay. Not sure if i’ll have to reapply it, but for know it’s bye-bye bunnies.
Sounds like a really great year for your garden. We have had some good stuff this year, but disappointments too. Biggest of which is the dying peach trees, and the goji berry bushes.
Last year, the goji bushes did very very well, and were superbly drought resistant. This year they keep being cut off or the leaves chewed up. Insects supposedly don’t love them, so they are supposed to be kinda easy and trouble free.
Last year they were A OK. This year not so much. Doubt they will have the strength to survive the winter.
What is the name of that weather guy that you have talked about? The one that says we are in a 1950s weather pattern, and doesn’t believe in the Global Warming stuff so much?
So many unwelcome things from other countries. It’s really sad about your trees, but glad the thread was helpful for your mint issues.
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