Posted on 06/14/2013 12:44:34 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.
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I have run out of room for some of the peppers and tomatoes that I wanted to plant. Other than that, I have finally transplanted everything. This week, I will be starting some older seeds to stick into any spaces in the beds where things have not sprouted successfully.
I am still enjoying a salad a day from the romaine, spinach, and leaf lettuce. Pulled the garlic yesterday, and am letting it dry outside a bit before bringing it in. Haven't decided yet what I will plant there - maybe peppers or tomatoes-ha.
So far, the only dill I have is growing in a pot-no sprouts in the garden patch. Hope everyone is doing well and having lots of gardening fun and success.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
Corn is up, the soil was dry enough finally to get its first tilling. I got my first two pickings of snow peas past couple of days... hmmm steamed with onions... meal all by them self.
All I will say, even though I should have planted rice this spring, I prefer the wet green to the dead brown.
It’s hot in Texas. Been in the 90s and 100 a day or two.
Ok, so who wants to be on my jury? Hubby got happy with his lawn mower AGAIN. Mowed down my okra. Same exact place where he mowed down my beets last year. Asked him why he couldn’t understand where the garden was when there is a cement curb around it that he’d have to lift the lawnmower over into it. His reply was he didn’t have to lift it over as it was easy to push over and hey, he stopped at the tomato plant so what’s the problem.
He re-tilled.
I have okra seeds soaking and will get them re-planted tomorrow. Between him, Mother Nature and poisonous seeds from Ferry Morse.... I dunnoooooo.....
They have these really cheap white wire fences at Walmart. They are about 18 inches tall. Really easy to stick in the ground. He might not run over them.
Doesn’t he like to eat okra? I think you are going to have to come up with a negative consequence before he takes you serious.
I decided to plant tomatoes from seed this year using only heirloom varieties. I've got Abe Lincolns, Boxcar Willies, Big Rainbow, and Rutgers plants. All of them have come down with some malady where their leaves curl up and become deformed. Any suggestions? Should I pull them up and start over with some typical hybrid varieties that are disease resistant? Or will they eventually sort themselves out.
Well 10 gallons of strawberries is not a total loss, not to mention the other stuff current and future that may yet provide some bounty.
Yep green beats brown.
Do you have a picture to post? There are several reasons that a tomato leaf might curl. Malnutrition, pests, and virus are possibilities.
The solution depends on the cause.
“Mowed down my okra.”
Shoot him with a hollow point bullet to make sure he stays dead, then replant okra. No more problem.
I just wanted to share an experiment: I used several layers of newspaper (free) covered with grass clippings (free) as a weed barrier. So far I’m loving the results! It’s a little slick after it rains, but it has successfully eliminated the need to weed. As I’m 27 weeks pregnant this is a very good thing! This is the second year I’ve used neem oil as well, and I’m extremely pleased with the results. I spray it on everything! It prevents cabbage worms, aphids, tomato worms, and I’ve even stopped tomato blight with it. It’s the only thing I’ll use from now on.
Thanks for sharing that. Always good to know about the cheap and effective methods that don’t rely on pesticides.
I’ve been doing the weed free paper/stray-hay-grass mulch trick since ‘09. We love it too!
I had 3 under 4, who has TIME to weed at that point. And they were beginning to eat me out of house and home. It’s only gotten worse in that department!
I use DE poofed on with one of those infant snotpuller bulb thingies. Haven’t tried neem oil yet. I use dilute bleach for tomato blight. The tomato worms get fed to my chickens. They see me coming with the little bucket and it’s a tsunami of chicken to that end of the pen.
Congrats on your pg.
And best of luck being big pg in the heat of summer. I did that all 3 times.
Inch of rain this week!
Hauled 3 trailer loads of brush to the town brush pile; one to go...and less each year.
I now have 25-30 “rescued” asparagus seedlings going in as soon as I finish posting.
So far, everything is up & growing; have more corn, pumpkins, carrots, and radishes to plant.
Busy time; have to go: doctor shot this morning; Flag Day ceremony at State Veterans Home at 6; street BBQ & revival at 8.
I grow both heirlooms and hybrids. I use the hybrids as my production tomatoes since they’re resistant to lots of stuff.
There ARE heirlooms that are disease resistant though. And just plain old open pollinated stuff too.
Try ‘Tropic’ from southern exposure seed exchange.
http://www.southernexposure.com/tropic-vfn-tomato-016-g-p-905.html
It seems to be the most resistant one I’ve found. I’d love to know of one more. Really. I’m trying to concentrate on the ones I can save seed from.
The leaf curl could be from too much rain and not a disease. My maters do that if they’ve been dry and then get a monsoon.
So your heirlooms might recover and then again those particular leaves might always be rolled and hinky looking. New leaves may or may not be happier. If it’s just the ‘i’m not happy about all that rain i got last wednesday’ leaf roll it shouldn’t really affect production.
I do NOT depend on the old fashioned non disease resistant heirlooms for my main tomato production. They’re tasty, some are productive, but they’re not reliable enough to bet the dinner platter on. Especially down here in disease, fungus and pest central.
Meant to add. There are lots of ‘tomato disease’ sites on the net that have pictures and descriptions of various tomato diseases. Along with treatments and cures. Even if it’s just pull them up and burn them. :P
doctor shot this morning;
************************************
Just for clarification, I assume you meant that you were getting an immunization or similar “shot” at the doctor’s office this morning.LOL
One of the tobacco plants that I didn't top has bloomed, and it has the prettiest pinkish/purplish flowers (said the colorblind guy). I'll have seed for next year.
Tonight, I'll be having stuffed zucchini and fried green tomatoes and asparagus out of the garden. This is a good time of year.
/johnny
/johnny
Questions from me, the beginner:
Some of my questions may sound dumb to you but I have never seen a food plant grow to know what it looks like in various stages except for tomato plants and they are simple to understand. My Ph.D. is not in plants and I haven’t cared one whit about plants, ever. I got in my order of heirloom seeds for the fall and have to work out which Dirt Bags get what planted in them, plus set up the big containers on the deck to handle regular big heirloom tomatoes for the fall.
Now, the questions: OK, my Kentucky Wonder bean plants are growing up the lattice on the back wall. It’s like they know where each strip of lattice is and they are bound tightly on it with the growing end heading for another strip. My question is, when does an actual bean start to grow? As I’ve said, I didn’t use any fertilizer, just dug out some dirt and put the seeds in and covered them up. Am I just going to have vine and leaves and no beans?
Next question is: It’s those squash plants again. I’m sure now they have had atomic radiation. One of the big branches is now in the riverwalk (brick path outside the edge of the dirt) and just about across it – as fast as it grows, it will be across the riverwalk tomorrow. Question is, will there be a squash where every flower is? Flowers have been blooming all over and then finished their bloom and more have bloomed and more are going to bloom and that includes both plants. It’s like the takeover of the squash, movie, except there is no movie like that but I may make one. The thing is, I can’t identify a growing squash yet and that doesn’t sound right. Could I have these enormous plants and blooms and no squash?
As of this morning, there is one very small yellow flower on a plant in one of the Miracle Gro bags that I think is Jalapeno. Do you know if a Jalapeno plant has small yellow flowers? If it isn’t that, it’s a regular bell pepper. Do bell peppers have small yellow flowers?
I ordered more 5 gallon “Dirt Bags” for plants. The 5 gallon has handles on it for easy moving and I decided it’s important to have more depth and a large surface area to grow more than one plant in a bag. If you get a smaller size the circumference is too small for more than one plant and the depth is limited. I can put a small plant in a 5 gallon if I want, but I can’t put a larger plant or more than one in a smaller bag so no more one, two, three, four gallon bags, plus I get handles with the 5 gallon. If I want a smaller plant in a 5 gallon, just turn back the top of the bag to the depth size you want and fill it with potting soil to that level.
Ha, Ha – the four sweet potato plants/roots I planted in a ten gallon Dirt Bag: The top leaves were so limp and pitiful looking, I thought they were all dead. I ordered these “live” from Burpee. I don’t remember if they are heirloom – will have to go back and read again as Burpee does have some heirloom (I know Johnny, should have written it down). Instructions said some people cut the top off and just plant the root – I didn’t do that because they looked so sick I didn’t want to traumatize them if they can be traumatized. They weren’t dead. They are all perked up and already have new leaves on each one. If I actually grow sweet potatoes, I will love myself for being able to do that.
I have more tomatoes than I can eat. That cherry one in the Miracle Gro bag has tomatoes that are larger than any cherry tomato I ever saw. Out of the ones I picked this morning, I set aside three of the large ones. I’ll use those for seed. Have to read my directions again to save tomato seeds. That plant is super strong and major healthy. I bought that at Lowes and it’s from Bonnie and is “Husky Cherry Red”, a hybrid, but Johnny says hybrids can also stay true for seeds. I’ll later plant large tomato seed for fall in the large containers with the attached trellis on them. Guess I should start the seed indoors first, then harden them (had to read what that was) by putting them in the small greenhouse, then in the container.
My son will be here Sunday and I’ll get him to put potting soil mix in the Dirt Bags I have now because I found a very large bag of Miracle Gro potting soil mix I didn’t know was there and it’s so big and heavy I can’t deal with it. I just happened to think – since he is a director of documentary film, why can’t he make a documentary titled, “The Takeover Of The Squash Plants”? I’ll suggest that to him – expect the film next year.
You asked about the documentary film he made last year, “Heroes Behind The Badge”. You can read about that at http://www.heroesbehindthebadge.com/about.html His picture is on the right. Put your pointer on his picture and click on it to read more about him and then read the rest of the information there. You can get the film DVD there, too, if you want. The film was made for the Police Memorial in Washington, D.C.. It has been shown over the country to police departments and the public at those times. It was shown last year at the FBI yearly convention and FBI Director Robert Mueller said there was not a dry eye in the house at the end. It is now required viewing at every police academy in Texas and likely other states but I only know about Texas. I saw it on my computer once, even I don’t have a DVD now so if you get one, you have more than I do, and I knew what it was about and thought I would be fine with it, but I had tears at the end and you will, too. Wayne can determine the right film sequences to film and when he puts a film together, he pulls you right into it. BUT, HE CAN ALSO FILL DIRT BAGS. He is 6’ 1”, grew up in Texas, graduated from Rice University in Houston, and sounds like an Englishman as he has lived in London over 25 years.
Along with my garden report next week, I’ll tell you about being kissed by Hugh Grant before he was arrested with a prostitute in a car in Hollywood – remember that?
So, could you answer my questions about the beans and the squash and small yellow flower on a plant in a potting soil bag?
I am 90% done with tomatoes this year. I have a few stragglers still producing but the plants are 6’ to 8’ tall and have stopped setting.
I planted early and harvested 124 lbs from 80 sq ft, 1.5 lbs per sq ft of garden. Made lots of spaghetti sauce and new friends, as well..
Cherokee Purple and Sunny Boy were best producers and best tasters as well...
I used blackstrap molasses and epsom salt this year along with compost tea. I also used only rainwater...did not see a single hornworm this year. Along with providing nutrition and building the soil, blackstrap is supposed to inhibit pests, even ants...
There is good info on molasses here:
http://www.ehow.com/info_7976252_organic-fertilizer-molasses.html
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