Tomatoes like to have consistent watering. When the weather is dry, and then there is a big rain, the tomato will split the skin due to more water than usual.
Squash may need some additional potassium, phosphorous, or trace minerals during the bloom time? I have never heard of squash without squash bugs, so you probably have some.
Fish emulsion is good to add nitrogen to your soil, when you have other nutrients in adequate amounts. For example, you might have grown a bunch of lettuce and depleted the nitrogen quite a bit, but P or K not so much. So you might want to add a little fish emulsion before replanting the second crop in that space.
The 14 14 14 is just a balanced mix, fine for generic soil nutrients. However, plants with blooms like melons, roses, tomatoes etc usually need additional Phosphate(P)especially during the bloom time.
In light of the green beans not doing well, you might want to do a soil test. Even if it’s just one of the at home kits. If your extension office is close, that’s also a good place for info, help, and soil testing usually.
wow. It has been difficult to keep the water levels consistent with the crazy weather! Lots of rain, then not so much...but I DO water on non rainy days! Still and all, just learning, and I’m glad for the yummy maters despite their splits.
Thanks for the explanation about the fertilizers. Ye Gods! It can get really complicated, can’t it?
I did some reading (Jerry Baker - “Backyard Problem Solver” pg 191) and found that he cautions against excess nitrogen for squash:
“Leaf crops like lettuce and spinach need plenty of nitrogen, but for other veggies, go easy on the “Big N.” If they get too much they’ll lose interest in setting fruit (like squash or melons) or producing big plump tasty roots and tubers (like potatoes, turnips, and carrots.)”
I don’t have a clue if that is my problem, but it makes me feel very unconfident about following Darlin’s urge to “FERTILIZE!!”
Didn’t see anything yet about the additional minerals you cite, but I can see it could be an issue.
This evening, after I made my previous post, I went out to water armed with my new killer soap. Apparently my previous neem treatment was successful, because there were NO squash bugs when I squirted, as there had been when I treated with the neem. I flushed out only one tiny grasshopper (which I learned today could be problematic; there had a whole host of them when I squirted the neem) and several small spiders.
I’m wondering if, at least in the case of the yellow squash, that the two baby squashes I lost were due to the damage already done. There was another new forming squash I saw today, and so I’ll see over the next few days if the neem and soap may have done it. I’ll be sure to report back. If I still see a problem, I can see how minerals could be a situation to check.
My cucumbers are blooming like crazy and I have the irrational hope to see baby cucs any day now.
I like your idea about a soil test. I did squirt my legumes with the soap as well. I noticed while doing that that even as scraggly as they look, my favas managed to produce two pods. The cranberry bean produced a pod as well. I’ve lost one Great Northern, and the two others are circling the drain, I fear but holding on.
My black turtles look quasi healthy. The neem must have helped them. I see a few purple blooms, and feel hopeful they might do something.
The snowpeas are very ethereal appearing as they do not look long for this world, but they still keep hanging on somehow.