Posted on 07/02/2022 5:55:36 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Oh, what a privilege! It's such a special place.
Thanks! Great addition to our thread! Visiting Monticello is on my Bucket List.
We have a Monticello, WI but it’s just not the same, LOL!
Great news on the tomatoes! I have many on, but still green (Zone 5a) as things got in later than normal due to really wacky spring weather.
Yesterday morning, while checking out my garden, I noticed one of my two Celebrity tomatoes looked a little “light” on top. The reason was obvious when I checked it out closer - there was a hornworm munching away on that plant. I looked and looked - no luck. It was super hot outside with a heat index over 100 - felt like you were breathing through a hot, wet washcloth, so I abandoned the search until it got cooler.
In the meanwhile, I was looking for a UV (black light) source like a flashlight - hornworms glow in the dark when lit up with UV light. That would be a sure fire way to find the thing; however, no UV light could be found in town - I even tried the pet store (UV light will light up pet urine, too). Dagnabbit.
It was raining lightly when I tried again to find the hornworm - cooler, since it was almost dusk. I took off my glasses (for distance) & got my nose about 6” from the plant. I’d read an article that hornworms are usually not deep in foliage, but on branches that are higher & they are closer to the ends. This article also suggested looking for hornworm poop & that would indicate an approximate location within 6” or so. No poop spotted. Drats. So I started in the area where the munching had occurred and started working my way out. I found the stinker within 2 minutes - yay! I hope it’s the only one .... to make sure, I’m ordering a UV flashlight for future checking. My SIL has had the top of a hot pepper munched out by a hornworm, too - don’t think she’s found hers yet.
This is not my first ‘rodeo’ with hornworms, I just haven’t had any for about 2 years. The very first one I ever had was already parasitized - I made the mistake of removing it from the garden since at the time I didn’t know what it was or what was going on. Upon research, I should have left it so the hatching braconid wasps could patrol the garden for more hornworms. I think I found 2 that year, both parasitized. The one I found yesterday had no wasp eggs on it, so it was in full “munching” mode.
Cool pic at the link:
Tomato Hornworms – finding them with UV light at night
https://giantveggiegardener.com/2016/09/20/tomato-hornworms-finding-them-with-uv-light-at-night/
I've decided that green is good.
There are treatments that can be done to remove suspended clay particles from pond water, but clear water brings its own set of problems - weed and algae growth - to the extent that lots of chemicals and/or mechanical removal become necessary to prevent that stuff from choking the pond.
I had nice clear water until I stocked 100 Virile Crayfish (Faxonius virilis) that came out of a friend's pond. Those things did a great job cleaning up the algae/eurasion milfoil/bladderwort/etc., with the added benefit of increasing the turbidity of the water. Less light penetration = less algae growth = less chemicals added to the water.
This is the third summer that I've been running aeration in the pond. That helps keep the water fresh, but it doesn't do anything to reduce/eliminate turbidity or algae growth.
https://commonsensehome.com/tomatoes-not-ripening/
"The optimum temperature for ripening tomatoes is 70 to 75°F. When temperatures exceed 85 degrees to 90 degrees F, the ripening process slows significantly or even stops. At these temperatures, lycopene and carotene, pigments responsible for giving the fruit their typical orange to red appearance cannot be produced. As a result, the fruit can stay in a mature green phase for quite some time.
What can you do if you're stuck with green tomatoes and intense heat? Once the tomatoes have reached mature size, you can bring them inside to finish ripening. Remember, tomatoes like it 70-75 °F – just like many of us humans."
Even though the Temperatures here on the KS/MO border were in the mid to upper 90's las week, several Early Doll tomatoes ripened last week!. Mrs. Pete was thrilled!
Early Doll: 55 Days. Every gardener needs a variety like this one - early and packed with flavor. Produces 4 to 5 oz. bright red, globe shaped fruit that is excellent for fresh use in salsas, salads or slicing. Determinate.
This tomato is supposed to be determinate but its over 6 feet high at this point and I think i need to get some paracord and string it up! Here is something else I read in another Early Doll description that was interesting! "Dandelions are another good plant to have in your tomato patch believe it or not. Tomatoes are susceptible to fusarium wilt, which is a soil borne fungal disease and dandelions can help keep this in check." Humm...
Gotta feel for all the Midwest veggie farmers trying to make a living at the Farmer’s Market this year. A farmer’s market near me was doing a video tour every weekend to show what the vendors have. They quit doing them June 18th and up to that point, it was mostly meats, crafts, baked goods, jelly/jam etc. Very little veggies because May was the new June this year and June was the new July and July is a bonafide heat wave. Near 100 a few days here and there actually started in mid-late June.
My mater plants are hanging in there but only because they get shade at 4pm. They still look stressed. Near 100 most days and mid to high 70s most nights.
Good year to show how important it can be some years to have a high tunnel, low tunnel, greenhouse to get a month or two head start.
For those that put up food, it’s a good year to show why you might want two years worth put up.
And of course all the real farmers aren’t having the best year by any means. Even if their region had/has good weather, fuel and fertilizer have doubled or tripled.
Gardening/farming. This is year has been difficult. I do not think my small backyard garden would be doing as well without the low tunnels, good varieties, and drip irrigation.
I have spent too much of my life standing outside at twilight trying to water in the garden. I am retired now, can do it in the morning with a timer and drip irrigation. I try to get plants and varieties that do well in the Midwest heat and as you indicate, start seedlings early, plant under the low tunnel, and protect it until the last frost.
I hope your garden, goats, and chicken(s) do well! (Some things might benefit from shade clothe?)
Heat...Okra, sweet potatoes, peppers, eggplant, some tomatoes, corn, some herbs. I tried to select tomato varieties that had some indication they preformed well in the heat.
Herbs! A Czech woman I worked with told me that in Europe, the farmers feed herbs to the chickens and if flavors the eggs. Thyme, and Tarragon I suppose.
I have only been to local suburban farmers markets several times. They are located in areas that do not have much parking and traffic is congested. I have avoided the KC River market in MO for the same reason. (Who wants to pay for parking?)
Ate our first broccoli for dinner. So sweet. Picking lots of snow peas. Tomatoes still just green. Peppers lots of flowers.
I started a good variety of plants from seed and got them to decent seedlings and transplanted them and they grew more. First time for all of that so I wasn't expecting much more. I'm happy with what I've done and more importantly learned. I also grew a few things I've never eaten or even seen in stores before. All brassica and two were basically turnips. Figured out the root is tasteless and lacks nutrition so if I grow them again, it will be for the greens, not the root which is where the nutrition is.
Goats and hen are doing fine. Keeping everything quenched is my main task. Mulching heavily helps with the plants. Animals, I just keep up on.
My broccoli refuses to head, but it is the HEALTHIEST looking stuff I’ve ever grown! (It’s been too hot.) I’m going to let it grow for a while yet; I can always eat the stalks, peeled and chopped up. Or maybe Ithaca will get a treat?
My total ‘haul’ from the garden so far are two cucumbers and one zucchini.
It is slow, SLOW going for me this year. This week EVERYONE is getting another shot of fertilizer to compensate for so much rain.
My wildflowers look nice, as do taters and sweet corn and my monster-size sunflowers are starting to bloom. I probably should post some pictures - things LOOK nice, I’m just not producing much FOOD yet, which I THOUGHT was the point of all of this! ;)
Our broccoli is the tallest ever, all between knee and waist high. But they are coming to heads. We use the Chicken Soup for the Soil. They got fed at the beginning of June and then July. Picked more pea pods, banana peppers small first Duke which I sliced in half and threw in the basic jar, and the first shishito. I’ll have to take a picture of the plants. Patience on the harvest grasshopper!
We would feed our lower broccoli leaves to the goats, a real treat. Ithaca would probably love them.
I found my black light flashlight at Wal-Mart.
I looked at Walmart - didn’t have anything. :-(
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