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Weekly Garden Thread - July 29-August 4, 2023 [Planting a Fall Garden Edition]
July 29, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

Posted on 07/29/2023 5:12:01 AM PDT by 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!


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; Gardening; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: fall; food; garden; gardening
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Thank you for the detailed update. Wow! Is all I can say. We are eating zukes (romanescu) and more yellow squash than I wish we had... haha. Cukes, not pickling which is the only kind we like, but DH is picking them small. Beans... bugs were eating the plants but we do have flowers. Small tomatoes, several varities, hope to have ripe ones soon, we like romas best, more solid, less acidy. DH picked several weird squash and I couldn’t figure out what they were, harder but light green/whitish stripes and then I realized he’s picking the immature butternut!!!

He’s doing the garden himself this year becaucse I currently can’t walk without assistance and garden is 250 feet away. Hope that gets fixed, as he is not a natural gardener. He refused to put labels on what got planted, and thought that 5 or 6 collard and kale plants were ehough. Finally I told him that you need 20 of each! (sob sob, my faves).

:-D

I just hope he’s keeping my catnip alive.


21 posted on 07/29/2023 2:58:11 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Never worry about anything. Worry never solved any problem or moved any stone.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Find his website and read up on it. It’s a microbe booster. All our yields are up. We used it last year too when planting. Once a month after planting.
The event was awesome. I had such a good time. Too pooped to post any pictures. Maybe tomorrow. Many of the docents dressed up. I was glad not to be the only one.


22 posted on 07/29/2023 3:42:21 PM PDT by MomwithHope (Forever grateful to all our patriots, past, present and future. )
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To: MomwithHope
ugh...my Asian long beans have done nothing....but the few Forex beans I am in love with and will plant only them from now on, preferably heirloom....

I was proud to raise almost all my tomatoes from seed but alas, I have serious blossom rot .....I've sprayed and I also mixed a slurry with lime and gave each plant a drink....I'm picking off the maters affected hoping that with these indeterminate plants I'll still get a good harvest...

leeks for the first time....my "accidental leaks", the ones I just basically thru in with the onions surprisingly grew nicely while my onions did terrible...I've got another batch that are looking good too...

I've got 5 half gallon fermented cukes on the counter and am drying a bunch of green peppers....

I too have planted some late sugar peas and bush beans and even a little more cukes.....why not?...sometimes Sept can be quite warm....

23 posted on 07/29/2023 3:51:13 PM PDT by cherry
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To: cherry

We are going to have oodles of those Chinese long beans. Fine by me, any that we vac sealed last year got eaten. They are flowering now and a few beans started forming. Probably 9 or 10 vines on the pole.


24 posted on 07/29/2023 4:17:11 PM PDT by MomwithHope (Forever grateful to all our patriots, past, present and future. )
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To: daniel1212

My guess on the ‘Mystery Plant’ is some sort of Coneflower, Daisy or Black-Eyed Susan?


25 posted on 07/29/2023 6:17:41 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: MomwithHope

Glad you had a Good Day!

I will read up on that fertilizer. Your results speak for themselves. :)


26 posted on 07/29/2023 6:23:26 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: cherry; MomwithHope

“...but the few Forex beans I am in love with...”

Fortex is a GREAT pole bean. But, I have abandoned Fortex and have changed to ‘Saychelles’ over the last three growing seasons.

Just a future option for you. :) I can ignore picking them for a week and they are not the least bit stringy or tough. :)


27 posted on 07/29/2023 6:27:10 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; All

On a road trip, visiting relatives. Just watched a sunset from the deck of a cabin in the NC mountains. Coffee on the deck in the morning is supposed to be outstanding (view & coffee) so I will be checking it out. We will be visiting more relatives tomorrow, one more night at the cabin, & home Monday.

After oven-like temps last week, we have “mountain AC” here & it’s just wonderful :-)


28 posted on 07/29/2023 6:27:51 PM PDT by Qiviut (I'm not out of control, I'm just not in their control. $hot $hills: Sod Off)
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To: Qiviut

Jealous!

Our humidity went down GREATLY today after The Big Rain, Big Hail, and ‘maybe’ a twister (which never touched down) last night but I’m STILL jealous of your current scenery! :)


29 posted on 07/29/2023 6:30:44 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; daniel1212

What Diana says. If not, maybe a sunflower.


30 posted on 07/29/2023 6:30:54 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; Eric in the Ozarks

A counter top full! (Var. Picus?)


31 posted on 07/29/2023 6:33:48 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: daniel1212
Daniel; You have a good looking brace of cherry tomatoes there!

Note that your brother pruned the unnecessary growth which improved tomato yield. (See John 15:-4!)

Next year consider buying your seeds of hybrid varieties with disease resistance, provide more space between the plants, and remove the lower branches and any suckers. Fewer tomato plants will require less fertilizer.

32 posted on 07/29/2023 6:57:57 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
My guess on the ‘Mystery Plant’ is some sort of Coneflower, Daisy or Black-Eyed Susan?

Thanks. Based upon its growth rate, it may be a Lazy Black-Eyed Susan.

33 posted on 07/30/2023 2:25:28 AM PDT by daniel1212 (As a damned+destitute sinner turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves souls on His acct + b baptized 2 obey)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission
Next year consider buying your seeds of hybrid varieties with disease resistance, provide more space between the plants, and remove the lower branches and any suckers. Fewer tomato plants will require less fertilizer.

Got it, God willing we have a garden next year.

34 posted on 07/30/2023 2:27:05 AM PDT by daniel1212 (As a damned+destitute sinner turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves souls on His acct + b baptized 2 obey)
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To: daniel1212
"it may be a Lazy Black-Eyed Susan. "

:)

35 posted on 07/30/2023 7:30:09 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

It’s been another crazy weather week here in Central Missouri. Saturday started off clear and hot and ended up with another round of ugly storms blowing through. We got 1.5” of rain in less than an hour and more bad wind. Trees down, limbs everywhere, garden thrashed. More of the same last night after I hit the rack, and it’s raining again this morning.

Mrs. Augie cut the grass cut Saturday morning before the deluge hit and I got some good stuff done in the victory garden. Took the week whacker to the undesirables, tilled up a spot, seeded the 2nd planting of sweet corn, and set up a soaker hose on that.

Pulled another bucket full of carrots yesterday morning, along with a nice mess of blue lake pole beans. Supper last night was BLTs with fresh green beans and fresh sweet corn. It don’t get much better than that.

For the first time in I can’t remember when I’m having problems with early blight in my tomatoes. 12 of the 16 plants I started from seed in new ProMix mycorrhizae potting soil and I put weed cloth down when I set the plants out. The blight started on the home-grown black krim plants and spread to the rest from there. I’ve treated with copper spray and sulpha powder to no avail. I don’t think any of the plants are going to survive past the middle of September so I’m going to have to root some cuttings if I want late season tomatoes this year.

It’s time to get busy starting seeds for other fall crop plants so I need to start thinking about that real soon now.


36 posted on 07/31/2023 9:40:39 AM PDT by Augie
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To: Augie
Augie. It blew through here last night and this morning. I did not think it was that bad, but there were some neighbors without power this morning. (Probably from the lightning.)

I planted Blue Lake pole beans this year and they were all chewed down by sow bugs. I replanted with romano varieties that survived.

Eating fresh food from the garden at the end of the day is pretty close to happiness!

What variety of corn did you plant? I used Hybrid Northern Sweet corn, 67 days to maturity. Incomplete pollination because the corn was not planted in rows or closely together. Ears half full of kernals were delicious in spite of that.

Tomatoes; Try treating with hydrogen peroxide, neem oil, or baking soda. I used a neem oil and some baking soda on mine this year and have not had any real problem so far. (I am using a red plastic mulch this year. I am also planting in an area that has not had tomatoes before so that might help ) Lots of YouTubes on these things.

Good luck!

37 posted on 07/31/2023 1:24:52 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission (6B KS/MO border 86 F partly cloudy. )
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Peaches and Cream sweet corn - 83 days to maturity.

I alway plant at least four rows of sweet corn and I crowd it a bit. Generally get complete pollination when the wind doesn’t flatten the crop. My spring crop got flattened three times after it had started to tassle so I only got about half of what the yield should have been due to incomplete/absent pollination and having to chop it all in one go due to the tangled mess it was in.

With any luck the 2nd crop will have better luck with the weather. I planted in September last year and was about a week away from harvest when we had a hard freeze and it all got killed. Should be safe from that this time.

Two of my beefsteak tomato plants are loaded with fruit but the vines are toast. The other 14 plants look to be headed the same direction. It can’t hurt to try a few things to keep them alive but I think rooting some cuttings is going to be my best chance of having late tomatoes this year.


38 posted on 07/31/2023 2:04:51 PM PDT by Augie
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To: Augie; Diana in Wisconsin
Sounds like a good idea. Rooting cuttings of your fastest maturing varieties.

Diana; Any suggestions for Augie's tomatoes?

(A....Did you clean your tomato cages before using them this year?)

39 posted on 07/31/2023 6:16:02 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission (6B KS/MO border )
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission; Augie

Root cuttings would be a good idea at this point. You have a relatively long growing season. I have 6 ‘volunteers’ that I know are NOT cherry-types that I’m going to pot up this week and move to the greenhouse to see if I can have tomatoes, along with my usual salad greens until into December this year. Ya never know! With two layers of cover from cold air, I just might be able to pull it off.

As far as the vines being ‘toast’ is it Blight? If there’s still some green to the leaves, give them a pray of Copper fungicide. Can’t hurt, might help!


40 posted on 08/01/2023 6:10:11 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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