Posted on 06/03/2011 4:18:59 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Here in East Central Mississippi the heat has arrived. It was 101 yesterday and is expected to be in the high 90s and pushing 100 for the next week. A heat advisory is effect. My garden is surviving these hot afternoons. Some of my younger plants have needed watering every afternoon. My established tomato, squash and pepper plants have been doing well with a deep soaking of water about every three days. Looks like it is going to be a hot summer.
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You might hit the ground again with gypsum as they start to flower unless you really dumped it on earlier. I’ve used lime too for calcium right before flowering and that seems to help too. Not tried the spray.
Water is needed for tomato production, I don’t think it affects blossom end rot. At least I’ve never seen a correlation, except for the water you’d need to dissolve whatever amendment you’ve thrown on like gypsum so the plant can uptake it. I did notice blossom end rot more in one dry year we had but that may have been due to the soil nutrients at the time and not the moisture.
Depending on the heat, I don’t water but every 3 days or so, depending on the existing soil moisture. You might go 2 in an extended drought. Tomatoes don’t like too much water. Mulch helps a great deal. Tomatoes love mulch.
Thank you :) My land is all flat, however, I did order a wind barrier to put up onthe south and west side - hope that will be here Monday or Tuesday. I will try your suggestions of plastic and baggies full of water on cages - I’ve used all of my wall of water’s. They do work, they are just so darn expensive. I’ve got plenty of buckets too.
I had grass clippings around the potatos but the wind seems to cut right through. I will however, put all of these suggestions to work.
HEY,that sounds like my yard.:)
I hear you.I have 3 acres plus the neighbors field around me and I know what it's like to have a grass fire get "away" from you.
It's not funny when it happens.
My squash have been going crazy in these temps. I've been giving squash to the neighbors. No luck with onions though
Geesh...
I “Binged” it and the search came up with hundreds of sites with the info...
Do you have any tips on it anyway?
Thanks RD!
Lay the cloth, decide where you want the plant to go and then cut and plant in the cuts. It’s a bit of a hassle at times, but much less than planting first and then trying to put the cloth down.................I speak from experience...........
For the first time in many years I don’t have a dog and now the rabbits seem to have no fear and are eating my garden!
What can I do other than put up a fence? I really really don’t want to do that!!
Get another dog? Or an outside cat.
Thanx Gabz!
I’m sure we will be harvesting a ton of new found experience when we go for it tomorrow!
Enjoy!!!!
We’re heading out now. Our daughter is on a school field trip and won’t be home till about midnight, so we’re going to act like adults for an hour or so.
Tomorrow I’ve tomatoes, peppers, herbs, rhubarb, and horseradish to transplant. All of which I plan on fitting in and around church and transporting same daughter to and from at least one birthday party. LOL!!!
I have been planting before I lay down the landscape cloth mainly because of the way my PVC drip irrigation system is set up - I need to know where the holes in the pipe are to plant my transplants and I can’t see them if the cloth is down over the PVC.
I may change the way I have been doing things in the future. Like putting my cloth down before the PVC pipe and then cutting holes in the cloth where needed and placing the plants in. It would be a lot easier.
Either way will work but the way I do it now it is much more complicated and I need the help of my wife so I don’t damage the plants - especially if there is any kind of breeze.
Harvesting the lettuce now, since it will be in the 90s for at least a week, and it’s gonna bolt very soon. We love the buttercrunch I planted. So lots of lettuce salad. My broccoli is leafy and huge, but no heads yet. Peas are producing, but will be too hot for those, too. I hope my pods fill soon!
None of my tomatoes or peppers are in the garden yet. :( I guess it will be this week. They were just too darn small, and I didn’t get them transplanted to bigger pots soon enough. Oh well, I’ll start a month earlier next year. Still learning. :)
Heres how I did it on a new site:
First I measured the distance the rows would be separated and drove 12" stakes at each row end, then run a string stake to stake marking each row. I laid out my drip line, which has built in emitters every 6" from stake to stake and pinned them down directly under the string and connected them to the main supply line on one side. I got everything rigged up and turned the drippers on for a while to check for problems. I noted that after running for 15 minutes that I had a 12-14" wide wet strip end to end on the rows. After the test I rolled out the fabric and pinned it down. The string is still in place marking each row, then I plant first seedling, measure, plant next,, making sure that the drip line is visible in each cut.
Most of my transplants survived, but I did have few that did not.
I would think that you could cover yours with cloth, noting where the first dripper is, plant then measure for each succeding plant.
Thanks RD!
We are going to lay it out first and plant in the cuts. You and Gabz helped make up our minds... we LOVE the easy way when we know it’s the better bet!
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Then you're in good company. So are we all. :)
Thanks for the info.
Ayiiii! Did what I figured it would: jumped from freeze to fry overnight.
Wednesday, the Pink Banana & Pattypan squash seedlings got planted, as well as a few peppers and tomatoes. While doing that, I found the 3 (so far) volunteer Cucurbita Unknownicus; missed Walla-Walla Sweet from last year; even MORE volunteer spinach; and some volunteer lettuce.
Thursday was a help-a-friend day, working on his deck project. Picked rhubarb to take to them befroe we left. We also stopped at the Post office to pick up our 3 new (potted) “Carmine Jewel” cherries; they’ll get planted tomorrow.
Friday was an out of town day, so not much garden stuff got done before it was time to leave.
Today, the irritation pump got connected to the garden’s irritation tank, and the first 450 gallons hauled & emptied into it; 40’ of pole beas got planted; and 47 quitagajillion weed sprouts got tilled under.
I also stopped counting when I reached 100 potatoes that have mamaged to finally break through; first hilling sometime next week.
Also next week, the cucumber seedlings will get set out, along with a few melons.
Mrs. A.R. has been madly drying oregano and scallions.
Chicks and rabbits are doing great. Apples are FINALLY blossoming.
We’ve had so much rain this year & last that our dry gully is again a slowly flowing stream, as it last was over 60 years ago. Last year, I had to break through the concrete floor & put a sump pump in the lower basement pump & tank room. It is now pumping out about 6-8 gallons/hour. Maybe it’s time to dig out the old well next to the ‘creek’.
Great resource! Thanks for posting it.
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