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Posted on 08/12/2011 5:28:22 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. There is not much garden news to report from East Central Mississippi this morning. I am just trying to keep everything watered and alive and picking a couple of peppers and a zucchini every once in awhile.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
I hope all your gardens are flourishing.
Thanks for the reply. I do have highly alkaline soil. Having grown up in Massachusetts, I have a love for azaleas and blueberries and other acid lovers. They are really out of the question here (except in pots will 100% peat). I will try the phosphorous and see what happens.
My neighbor has several raised beds and his tomatoes are still putting on fruit. On the okra seeds, we used to leave the pods on the plant until they dried to the point that they started splitting a little. Then cut them off and let them dry completely.
Thank you. Some of the pods are REALLY huge. My jades did beautifully.
We’re getting ready, as soon as it cools to 90 degrees, to begin enlarging the garden in the pasture. Today we’re going to look at the space for the community garden and hopefully will have it going for next sping’s planting. I do hope it has water and electricity. It’s funny and great at the same time. Space has already been set aside for our “coming” Farmer’s Market and the names are flooding in for it. I need to go on a recruiting round in the county for produce and products when the market begins. Retirement sure keeps one busy.
Thank you for the information. We will do that and keep an eye for the split “seams”.
Bye for now, off to see the community garden plot.
I’m still getting a cucumber or two a day, but they have mostly stopped, or are going to seed stage. BTW, I learned that orange or yellow cukes are really bitter! I guess thats what seed stage does to them.
I am mostly getting tomatoes and peppers now. Several gallon bags of both orange and red tomatoes in the freezer. I’ll work on something to do with them soon. Definitely a catsup recipe for some of the orange ones.
I wanted to let the watermelons go for a while, but they had other ideas. Of the five I had, one was almost completely rotted out, so I tossed it. One had a few small cracks, so I harvested it, cut away the very small bad parts and the rest was very tasty! Third had a rotten spot on one end, but after cutting away that spot, the rest has been very good. Fourth had some major splits, and will be tossed. Fifth is doing well, but after some rain yesterday and today, I’m worried about it splitting too. I’d love to let it go for a little while longer to get bigger, but we’ll see.
Try some Miracle Grow Bloom Booster Fert on those pepper plants - it is a 15-30-15. There are other brands of 15-30-15 the 30 number is Phosphorous and it helps roots and flowers grow and develop.
I am Redder than a Beet! Please, I am not the “oracle of gardeners!” The info I have has mostly come from all the other great gardeners who comment on this thread each week. If I were an oracle I would be neck deep in my beloved tomatoes right now! :(
As I suspected, the source also says that you don't need to fertilize if your pH is not correct, because the plant will not be able to utilize the food.
Also, a trumpet vine will not bloom in any great numbers before the age of 3-4 years. I did not know that.
I love trumpet vines, which are considered noxious weeds around here. I do occasionally have to kill one if it tries to cover a tree species that I care about. My husband thinks that the best treatment for a trumpet vine is RoundUp. He hates them.
Does anyone have a great pickled beet recipe?
I “harvested” a whole six lovely beets, (rabbits) and later I should have more, but I would like to try to pickle these just for the practice.
Still waiting for the tomatoes to color up. We’ve picked less than a dozen so far. And we suddenly got rain storm upon rainstorm for about 10 days, with yesterday turning pretty cold.
I think the weather killed most of our little cantaloupes, but the two that were fairly good sized are apparently OK. Well, at least I won’t have to worry about giving any away.
My zucchinni plants are finally producing!! I made zucchinni pickles this week. I’ve never made pickles before, so this is something new.
I’m a little worried about my tomatoes. I have one that has been 6 inches tall, all summer long. Another was supposed to grow 15 feet long, but only just reached 18 inches. I know it’s good soil, I mixed it myself, and the beans, zucchinnis, and cucumbers just a few feet away are doing great. So why are my tomatoes so stunted? The only tomato that is just now developing little green fruits is one I grew from a cutting.
Have you been mean to them?
Rabbits wiped out my cabbage.
After 2 weeks of no growth and no new leaves, I pinched the tips a bit. But that’s the meanest I’ve been to them. There was a dry spell for about 3 weeks, and since our hose spigot is broken i could only water them by the glassfull during that time. But, rain has been pretty steady for awhile now, so I don’t think that’s it.
Now my green beans are a total different situation. I have NO clue what their ‘issue’ is but I have not had one pick-able green bean thus far.
I have finally picked my first ‘moon&stars’ watermelon and several cantaloupe. Put up thus far 4 batches of salsa and canned a few quartered tomatoes. Finally the ‘heat’ wave has receded back to Texas and we got a nice rain this morning.
I am tired and weary from the blasting heat of July and first week of August.
Same here. I may get two heads, but I’m certain to get one. I had only planted six. I’ve learned my lessons with the bunnies, although I’ve been a slow learner.
One thing I did while I was trying to get them out and fix my fence was to throw wildlife netting over the cabbage and some of my other bunny food crops. Works great. But I thought I had the problem solved and removed it too soon.
Put it back down, worked on fence again, and now the bunnies really can’t get back in - but the deer have started jumping in. Four foot fence..no problem. But as I had left the netting in place, the deer didn’t eat anything in the garden but snow peas. I’m looking into razor-wire for next year.
I used plastic chicken wire netting over bent pvc.. had it completely enclosed. They just chewed a hole open and ate at their leisure.
Guess I’ll be moving to wire.
Not much to report other than we went to the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale Ca today. They were judging Dairy Goats today...lots of FFA Dairy Goats...
You are a lucky man to have Cecil as a fence building partner.
Is it too late to add more soil to my potato bed? The above part os the plants are not yellowing, although they are a little brown around the edges of the leaves and they are flopping over. Can I still add a couple of bags of soil to that bed (it is a raised bed and it’s not full of soil)? My only previous experience rowing potatoes has been in bags.
Oh no. Don't tell Max. He LOVES tomatoes and eats the cherry size right off the vine.
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