Weekly Garden Thread - July 9-15, 2022 [Oodles of Zoodles Edition]

July 9, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

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.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Cross-Ping!

Vegetables That Grow in 100 Degree Heat:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4077661/posts?q=1&;page=1#1

Only 83 here, today. Breezy. Tolerable. :)

[campaignPete R-CT]

Maine Gardener: The state finalizes its list of invasive plants that can no longer be sold in Maine

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/07/10/the-state-finalizes-its-list-of-invasive-plants-that-can-no-longer-be-sold-in-maine/

Vinca/myrtle/periwinkle

https://youtu.be/AuZHtR_glOA

Of course, these are the invasives people buy. There’s another 100 invasives that are growing wild that nobody would pay money for.

[Pollard]

Near 100 again today.

Getting a little blossom drop and the existing fruit is growing and ripening slow. Really slow. We’re about to have 70/90 degrees for a week so hopefully things will start moving forward again.

[Paul R.]

Well, the problem is not bait laying around — that is in the form of roughly 2.5 cu. in. blocks and easily collected.

I was more worried about Diphacinone IN the animal itself, then degrading to Diphacinone in the soil when the buried dead animal decomposes, or being transferred around by worms, scavenger beetles, water seepage and such.

Granted that generally the effect will be dispersal / dilution, and, this stuff is not as super-toxic as often made out to be: 3 or more ingestions are usually needed to kill an animal dining on Diphacinone based bait.

All the “1st Gen” rodenticides are fairly similar. (Warfarin is a little less potent.) Strychnine, I guess, predates “1st Gen” rodenticides.

All the 2nd Gen rodenticides are evidently significantly nastier than Diphacinone.

I’m a little surprised, given the level of knowledge of biochemistry in 2022, that no one’s come up with a moderately potent rodenticide that degrades with soil exposure in, say, 2 months. But, that lack seems to be the case...

Apologies for a late reply — I’ve been busy & have not had much time to do “research”.

[Pollard]

Went out this morning to find one of my mater plants bent over so I set up a lean and lower trellis today using stuff on hand. Not pretty but works and it's not like I'll be growing tomatoes there every year so I don't need permanent, I'm using baling twine for the verticals and strips of cut rag to attach to the vine but will be ordering some plant clips from ebay. I didn't keep up with pruning well enough to not end up with some of the plants getting a Y in them as opposed to single stalk which makes lean and lower double work and more crowded on the top wire. Top wire is actually nylon straps and a short piece of chain since two straps wouldn't quite reach each other. Not in the picture; I took a couple of steel pipes about 7 foot long and slid them down over two t-posts, then hooked the straps in the top, open end. Might have to prop the middle if the plants get too heavy and the straps droop in the middle. Bad time of day for pic lighting. Good thing everything I used was orange. LOL Structure is tall enough for plants to be upright but it felt like I was pulling hard on them so I let them lay over a little. Since I planted so close together, they were getting crowded due to the Ys so hanging allowed me to get a little space between them.

Would have been nice if all plants were the same height but there's four varieties there. Would have been nice if the taller ones were on the left which is the only way I can lean them but it's opposite. No biggie. A few of the plants were taller than me and only one's close to me being able to start getting tomatoes from it. How long will the vines be in a month or two? 10, 15 foot? This seemed the best way to deal with it. Low branches get pruned on an ongoing basis with this method.

These are all the cherry tomatoes. The slicers are 4 foot tall right now so I think I can get away with t-posts on those. Plants are planted in a backwards L shape and the slicers are on the short leg and not in the pic. Blue barrel section in the back is potatoes that I can pull whenever.

Something I've never seen done with lean and lower is burying the stems that end up laying on the ground. We know they'll will grow roots.

Also found a hornworm on one plant this morning. It became chicken food.

For anyone wanting to see a proper set up or not familiar with lean and lower, the first few minutes of this video shows a set up but in a high tunnel. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8L_x42RieA

[Pollard]

And there are actually tomatoes on these plants. Couldn't hardly see them in the other pic

The Barry's Crazy Cherry clusters are, well, crazy. I counted about 40 on just this one cluster.

[metmom]

I found a great video on pruning an out of control indeterminate tomato plant. It’s the best one I have seen yet.

Pruning an Overgrown Tomato Plant!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCPaEhDEuBc

[Diana in Wisconsin]

As long as the fruit is set, and then you get cooler temps or provide a LOT of shade, things will ripen.

Is it abnormally hot by you? If not, you might need to adjust your ‘growing season’ and start/plant your tomatoes a lot later than you have this season.

I keep looking back to the 2012 season up here. We had NO RAIN for MONTHS ON END. It was awful. And I was managing a friggin’ GARDEN CENTER that year! Try selling trees, shrubs and perennials in a DROUGHT! Ugh! Not Good Times!

And then into 2013 we had record-breaking snowfalls! My Snow Plow Gal had to hire a guy with a skid steer to remove snow from the end of my drive before she could even start plowing. It was insanity!

And yet, completely out of my control. As is it all. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Back to, ‘All Things Zucchini!’

If you haven’t made Zucchini Pancakes, you don’t know what you’re missing! This the Best. Recipe. Ever. EVER!

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222870/moms-zucchini-pancakes/

[Pollard]

Is it abnormally hot by you?

Rising temps have been a month and a half ahead of schedule and we've had near 100 degrees more often than not for a month now., 96-100 most days.

Here's normal according to city-data but it seems a few degrees low.

Closest thing to normal is 85-95 from mid-July to mid-Sept. We hit that on half the days of May this year. Our first year here, ten years ago, it snowed in early May.

Yellow cherry tomatoes are ripening now that it's down to 90 by day - 70 by night. Ate three this morning.

Neighbor I gave some plants to stopped by and said OMG, holy sh.. when he saw mine. I guess his aren't doing too good. I didn't give him my best plants but they were far from the worst or smallest. He also bought some that looked better than any of mine.

[Silentgypsy]

Copied and saved. Thank you!!!

[Qiviut]

Got my UV flashlight yesterday & went hornworm hunting last evening. Everything looks so very weird in the UV light - leaves all purple, some bits of blue. Anyway, hornworms show up as pretty “white” in the light - found 3! Two were small-medium size & one was a medium-large. I would not have found the 2 smaller ones without the light - probably not the larger one either. I’ll be back out tonight to look around again.

[metmom]

If they have white things sticking out of them, leave them be. That would be Trichogramma wasps which parasitize the hornworms.

About halfway down in this link, it will show a picture of what that looks like.

https://www.tomatobible.com/tomato-hornworms/

If you leave them be, the hornworms will die and the wasps will hatch and go after more. It’s a good natural way to control them.

Some of my tomatoes showed hornworm damage so tonight I need to go out and hunt for them. I have so many other bugs to deal with that I have a small plastic bucket with water and Dawn for drowning anything I find in it. Then it goes into the fire pit for a bonfire later.

Those black lights are way cool.

[Qiviut]

Several years ago, the first hornworms I saw in my garden were parasitized. I didn’t know better & disposed of them. After researching, I realized my error & now leave any parasitized worms in the garden. Unfortunately, none of the ones I’ve found this year are parasitized.

We had a pretty significant T-storm just come through so it should be good for hornworm hunting after dark - rain will be over.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ve got a fun week ahead. Tomorrow - looking gorgeous, so I have one bed that needs major weeding and top dressing.

Mom helped me tie up tomatoes today that were getting rather unruly. I have a lot of fruit on, but nothing ripe, yet.

I discovered that I have PEACHES, today! I always thought you needed a second Peach tree for pollination, but I guess I’m wrong because there are a dozen or more Peaches on my lone tree. Yay!

Pears are looking terrific and I have apples on Liberty, Bonnie Best and two Honeycrisp - first time for them! It’s gonna be a Hard Cider Candy Apple Christmas, YAY!

Then - Rain on Friday and all weekend - which we really need! But come Monday - 90+ degrees and 100% humidity. Yuck. All week. Double yuck.

So, my tomatoes are going to be slow to ripen, too.

I blasted my grape arbor with Sevin, very early this morning. Japanese Beetles. Not many, but I just checked them and there are now NONE. Jerks.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That UV light is a great trick! None spotted in my garden, yet.

I think Beau has a UV setting on one of his coon hunting hardhats - I will ask him, just in case. He’d be totally into ‘hunting’ hornworms for me!

I can ‘Tom Sawyer’ that man into doing a lot of tasks I don’t want to do. ;)

[Qiviut]

I can ‘Tom Sawyer’ that man into doing a lot of tasks I don’t want to do. ;)

++++++++++

LOL!

[Pollard]

Nope, you can have a single peach tree and get peaches. They say it helps a little to have more than one but not necessary. Anything you grow will have ten times the flavor of store bought.

A month ago, I was feeling bad about not having planted more warm weather crops like green beans and cucumbers. I’m not worried about it now. It’s been like growing in the desert here.

The farmer’s market facebook pages for this area haven’t been posting many pics in a few weeks. I feel for them.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“The farmer’s market facebook pages for this area haven’t been posting many pics in a few weeks. I feel for them.”

You know things are tough when that happens!

I used to SELL Peach Trees for Jung’s. You’d think I would’ve remembered that peaches were self-pollinating, but I sold a WHOLE LOT MORE peach trees using my patented, ‘You gotta have two’ method. I obviously believed my own hype, LOL!

I know my local market peeps had an terrible Strawberry Spring(as did I), but I’ll go check their site and see if they’re making it up in other areas. They’re well diversified. The owner is a really smart farmer (friend of Beau’s) and his wife is great with their marketing on FB and elsewhere.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau called a while ago. He’ll be on the road home tomorrow AM.

He doesn’t have a UV light on his hunting hardhats and he doesn’t own one either, though he was TOTALLY intrigued with the concept, so I’m half way there!

Amazon.dot.com here I come! ;)