Posted on 06/22/2012 7:06:41 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Anybody enjoying the heat???? Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! My thanks to Red Devil_232 and his beautiful tomato plants for hosting last week's gardening thread.
Here in NELA, we welcomed the first day of summer with temps in 3 digits ... at one time yesterday afternoon, our digital weather station had the temperature outside at 102.4! The remote unit that is transmitting the temp is on the north end of the house, tucked up under the eve and out of the sun. Whew!
Lots going on here. We've been enjoying sweet corn (var. Serendipity) all week, and the harvest begins in earnest tomorrow. Three acres ready now and another 3 acres that is 2 weeks behind the first planting.
Last week, I think it was although everything is in a blur here lately, we happened across a few wild plum trees and picked until the heat and humidity wouldn't let us pick any more. After cooking them down and filtering the juice, I got 3 beautiful gallons with which to make jelly. Didn't really have time to do this, but when you try to live from the land as I do, you have to take what you can get when you can get it. We were thrilled.
My husband was kind enough to plant a few acres of scarlet cowpeas for me, which started coming up on the 2nd day after planting. Heat and adequate moisture are magic with seeds this time of year! Enjoyed the first tomatoes of the season from my volunteer plants. I have no idea what they were, but they were delish.
The apiary is also buzzing and keeping me very busy. I harvested another 7 gallons of honey Tuesday, off of 2 hives. Got a call yesterday to go look at 2 hives in one house that need to be removed ... both large and active! That will bring my beeyard up to 12 hives, more than enough to keep me busy and deep in honey year-round.
So ... what have you been up to???
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. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
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Reading posts here about the weather reminds me why I live in FL. While I do miss cool summer nights, it just never gets THAT hot during the day.
Some kind of worm or caterpillar just ravaged my zucchini. A couple hundred square feet of leaves GONE in a couple days. It’s a 1/2” long green thing that folds over a portion of the leaf and makes a little cocoon by holding the leaf together with a silky looking stuff. Also present are a bunch of things that look like relatively fine grain pepper. On the bright side, I can walk between the raised beds again.
Tomatoes are about done for the spring, just a few more waiting to start to ripen. Long beans are starting to produce heavy. Looks like I’ll get a second batch from the blackberries. Should check the figs, a few looked like they were about ready to ripen the other day. Starting some seeds for the fall this week.
Got the aquarium started this week. My first crack at aquaponics will be to simply run the tank about half full with some lettuce and spinach floating on styrofoam with the roots growing into the water. We’ll see.
We’ve had over 10” or rain over the last 10 days or so. Clay fields are muck. Watched two colonies swarm a couple weeks ago. The upside are corn and tomatoes - going beautifully. Way too early to can yet but I’m thinking of setting up a summer kitchen with an old stove stored in the barn.
We’ve had over 10” or rain over the last 10 days or so. Clay fields are muck. Watched two colonies swarm a couple weeks ago. The upside are corn and tomatoes - going beautifully. Way too early to can yet but I’m thinking of setting up a summer kitchen with an old stove stored in the barn.
also here's a question for tater growers...mine look vibrant except the black spots...haven't grown taters in years, and I bought them at a reputable outlet....they are in 5 gallon containers...
blight?....can I just let them go and harvest after they blossum....I guess I don't even know when to dig them out...thx in advance...
Beautiful.
I chucked some peanuts in the ground this week. Never tried them before.
That’s one tough garden.
You are inspirational! 3 acres of corn??? How do you process that all before it becomes overripe?
It could be blight and if so they will soon be a pile of mush. Your milage could vary where your summer temps are warmer than here around Humboldt Bay. I wonder if it will spread to your tomatoes? My taters are beautiful and some blossoms are appearing. We had a rare late soaking rain yesterday and I awoke to weeds popping out of the soil by the thousands...
I ended up shooting at a deer yesterday. It's a doe with two small ones, and it's real aggressive. It has learned how to push cages around the fruit trees to browse on the leaves and the thing even comes on our back steps and eats the Morning Glory vines. Don't worry, I shot a spoiler. I didn't have the time to slaughter the animal yesterday, and today it's just too hot.
Tomato Question
My tomatos still on the plant still green are starting to get brown and shrivel on the bottom of the fruit... Really ugly I pulled about 10 tomatos off yesterday and threw them out.
Not just one plant I have 10 plants I looked at a lot of the fruit and many of them are starting to do this...
I wish I had someway to host a pic and I would post a pic of one....
thoughts? Anyone?
yes but they are still green when they are doing that...
so what do I do about it and how do I stop it?
You need to give the plants calcium. It is a deficiency that causes blossom end rot. A foliar feed will begin to help immediately. Anything you amend the soil with will take longer. Blossom end rot will also affect cucumbers and peppers.
I process as much as I can and sell the rest. The first planting is getting hard from the 110+ degree temps we are enduring, and the second planting is about ready.
Sounds like you've got everything going well ... I'm jealous of your dump find! I did get 2 truck loads of chipped wood a couple of weeks ago, which I've been using as mulch in my flower beds.
One of these days when we get to visit, I have got to talk to you about the rabbit raising. I want to do that so badly!
The 110+ temps here have taken out the onions that you sent me. I am beyond upset about it. :(
Don’t despair; they do go dormant in adverse conditions, then green up again. Ours are brown right now, to. Just keep them watered so they don’t desiccate. REALLY hardy little buggers, Zone 3 to Zone 9.
Actually, more than hard. A few tomatoes have rotted on the vine . . . completely. Never had that happen before.
First . . . suggested remedies.
You can buy commercial sprays, such as Green Light's Blossom End Rot Spray, Bonide Rot Stop, and Ferti-lome Yield Booster. You might also visit your local drug store and buy epsom salt and apply it as a side dressing. Epsom salt is the treatment recommended by our local radio organic gardening guru.
Once it shows up I don't believe there's anything to be done about it. I just toss the tomatoes, but that's because I have so many plants I'm pretty much guaranteed to get all the good maters we can eat and more than enough to share with neighbors. If I didn't have so many plants I'd let the BER afflicted maters ripen, pick em, cut off the end, and enjoy! BER does not diminish the taste. Just looks bad.
My experience with BER pretty much is like what Carolyn Male, a retired professor of microbiology, describes in Blossom End Rot (BER) in Tomatoes
Both my father-in-law and daughter-in-law this season have grown BER-free tomatoes. They got their plants from seedlings I grew! We have similar soil, spaced them about the same, and gave them about the same amount of water at about the same time of day. Into each planting hole I included worm castings, manure/compost, and a time release fertilizer with calcium. Every few weeks I fed them Medina Hasta Gro Plant. So why was I cursed and they were blessed? Who knows?
Two seasons ago my father-in-law was the one cursing his luck with BER while I was BER-free. Last season we were both a little bothered with it.
I can tell you that my plants do provide lots of blemish free tomatoes, after tossing the BER afflicted fruit. My biggest headache now is staying ahead of the birds and squirrels! :-)
Carolyn still posts frequently at Tomatoville, although it seems to off-line for some reason at the moment...I have NEVER seen that happen. I'm sure there a number of informative threads there concerning blossom-end rot. I have dug up so many great ideas re: growing tomatoes at that site it is nigh impossible to employ them all. 150 varieties here in Red Hampshire; all plugging along...that doesn't count all the volunteers coming up in my raised beds...so many that I have just blown off using them for any other veggies...I want to see what comes up.
NO I didn’t
its my 3rd year on the soil.
I went ahead and did a light epsom salt treatment.
when I pull em up I will add some dolomite
I have 4 volunteer I call them free range plants and they seem to do better than the others.
Thanks for the hint on Tomatoville
I will puruse the site and get some hints as well.
Funny I had no idea what that was and I was seeing it on the green maters and its really ugly before the rot dries out.
THANKS for your help
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