What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

My zucchinis are pathetic. This year, I planted them at the north end of the garden (more as an afterthought than anything). I should have planted them at the south end like a couple of years ago. It's the lower end of the garden, and I think that nutrients get transported their during rains. I had 4-5 plants that year, and we were swamped with zucchinis. We picked them rather small and were trying hard to give them away. This year, my wife has worked out a really great stir-fry recipe for summer squashes, and our crop looks to be poor. That's OK, really, because we'll have free summer squashes on tap from neighbors up and down this road - enough to keep us happy. It's just a bit ironic that now she has worked out a stir-fry with summer squash that I LOVE served on a bed of Basmati rice, the zucchini crop will be small.

 

[Moonbear]

I have 4 plants. They're not being crazy prolific, but just enough to keep me happy. Picked two of the zucchinis today. I didn't realize they had already gotten so big! The rain made them very happy apparently. There's another small one that will probably turn out okay, and a last small one that is looking a bit yellowish. That one might be suffering from the rain...it was lying right on the ground instead of propped up on stems of the plants out of the water. I moved it a bit, so I'll see if that helps.

I just enjoyed my first tomato too. It wasn't quite as ripe as I would normally let it get, but because it was starting to crack with all the rain, I decided to pick it today (I was getting impatient for tomatoes anyway...want some to eat before I leave on vacation and watering and tending the plants gets left in someone else's hands). So, dinner was a grilled zucchini and grilled hamburger with a fresh tomato. Yummy! Even the not-quite-ripe tomato was SOOOOO much tastier than anything from the store.

I'm collecting green tomatoes too...the ones getting knocked off by the rains. Not enough for that green tomato pie though.

 

[turbo]

My garden got soaked again today, but not as bad as some locations east of here that got 4" or more in less than an hour. One hospital was evacuated, with a foot of standing water filling the ground floor. Flood-water has to be cleaned up and the place disinfected before it can re-open.

 

[Evo]

Good grief! Moonbear if I was there (hint, hint) I would use my body as shield for your tomatoes.

Rew those pictures are sad, and poor turbo with mold. And I'm battling the caterpillar hordes from hell.

With my plants wilting a few hours after being watered, I don't know what is going to happen when I go back to work. I have decided to buy some large tubs and fill them with water and let the larger plants sit in the filled tubs during the day. It's the only easy way I can think of to keep them watered.

Next year, I'm going with much larger containers.

 

[rewebster]

evo---is the soil that your tomatoes are in really porous soil to dry out that quickly?--like almost all peat moss?

I've seen some type of an attachment to put on the end of a two liter soda bottle (filled with water) that when stuck into the soil (like a big baby bottle) slowly drips out the water to the soil.


I think tomatoes were originally 'swamp plants---so I don't think them sitting in water would hurt for a day or two--even swamps dried out and had some water circulating around the roots though.

my soil, so the experts say, should be sterilized, or the tomatoes rotated to new soil if they get this wilt.

 

[Evo]

my soil, so the experts say, should be sterilized, or the tomatoes rotated to new soil if they get this wilt.

The wilt is just from getting dry, they perk right back up after being watered. I think you are thinking of the disease fusarium wilt.. that's not it.

 

[rewebster]

yeah---no, I should have said "as far as my plants are concerned..." before that last part.

Is your soil just not holding moisture? if its a bigger plant and the soil is almost all peat, the plant will wilt fairly quickly as tomatoes require A LOT of water up from the roots.

 

[Evo]

I planted them in too small containers because I thought "hey, I will just fertilize the more to make up for lack of space". I didn't think about how little water the container could hole for a large plant.

I will know I can't fool mother nature next year.

 

[rewebster]

I was thinking--if you have room (or can take a little of the peat out without harming the roots) , you can add some regular dirt or top soil to the pot and that may help hold some more moisture for the plant

 

[Evo]

I was thinking--if you have room (or can take a little of the peat out without harming the roots) , you can add some regular dirt or top soil to the pot and that may help hold some more moisture for the plant

I have some in peat mixture and some in potting soil, and the peat mixture retains more moisture.

 

[rewebster]

it may be that the root hairs may like growing in the peat if the peat is wet all the time, but the root hairs may draw the moisture out of the peat quickly, and the peat may not still hold the water like a denser soil would--like roots in a clean sponge. A sponge with dirt would hold water longer.---

 

[Moonbear]

By the way, I hadn't mentioned...Evo, thanks for mentioning blossom end rot back when I asked! I looked it up, and yep, that's exactly what was happening. The cure is simple...more lime! It's not a fungus, but a calcium insufficiency. I had added a lot of lime when I started them, but it's either been used up in small pots, or leeched out. (Now you can tell I'm NOT a botanist! ) I'd have NEVER guessed at that if you hadn't mentioned it. I've never seen it before (I guess when I've grown tomatoes in the ground, it's not so much a problem as in containers, or maybe I've just re-limed them sooner without really thinking about it), and I would've sworn it was a fungus from the look of it.

 

[rewebster]

I threw some 'pea gravel' into the garden for lime when I started it--but I think its sunk or something because I don't see it anymore-----I think mine needs potash to help fight that 'wilt'

 

[Moonbear]

I would definitely consider fertilizing if the plants are dying like that and it's not a water problem. Tomatoes are notorious for depleting nutrients in their soil, which is why people are told to rotate them to new locations each year. If you've planted in the same location a few times, a hefty dose of fertilizer may be the prescription.

 

[turbo]

I threw some 'pea gravel' into the garden for lime when I started it--but I think its sunk or something because I don't see it anymore-----I think mine needs potash to help fight that 'wilt'

If you have access to wood-ash, you'll get a two-fer.

 

[rewebster]

I didn't burn anything in the garage wood burner this last year to have ashes to throw on---that may be why I got the wilt back this year

----

and then there's the nectarines----I think there's a small wasp stinging/laying eggs in them---they're 'rotting' on the tree starting at one point on the fruit, then the whole fruit goes bad in a matter of a few days, then has a mold/fungus on it---back to the sprayer to see if I can save a 'few'

 

[turbo]

I would definitely consider fertilizing if the plants are dying like that and it's not a water problem. Tomatoes are notorious for depleting nutrients in their soil, which is why people are told to rotate them to new locations each year. If you've planted in the same location a few times, a hefty dose of fertilizer may be the prescription.

Tomatoes are nutrient-depleters for sure. Some plants (beans, peas, other legumes) fix nitrogen and their rows may be a good place to plant tomatoes in the following year.

 

[Evo]

OMG! The six largest and best tomatoes in my garden have disappeared! Without a trace! I found one half eaten one near the rocks, but the rest are missing. No squirrel could have reached that high, I doubt even the bunny could have, and to not even leave a speck of juice on the patio? I don't think so.

I'm devastated.

I have now positioned crossbows aimed at every tomato.

 

[Moonbear]

Don't underestimate those squirrels! And you should have known the squirrel and rabbit had a conspiracy going when you caught them swapping auras on camera.

 

[rewebster]

I've seen rabbits up on their hind legs munching on my tomatoes, and squirrels carrying off through the trees tomatoes 4 times bigger than their heads. Those rabbits leave behing half chewed one about 18 inches off the ground and then come back the next day to finish them off.

Don't feed the animals!---if there's no food in the feeding ground, they start following the scent back to the source---like a drunk when the bartender doesn't come back soon enough.

 

[turbo]

The daily torrential rains let up today, so we got cool and cloudy instead. The lawn was still pretty wet, but I got a chance to mow - had to keep the RPMs up and the ground-speed down. Wet grass can drag down a 50" mower deck, even with an 18 HP tractor.

I'm stripping out green bean plants as they succumb to powdery mildew - I usually use sulfur powder, but the relentless rains make that treatment tough. Tomatoes are experiencing black stem rot, and we are thinning those aggressively to try to salvage some of the crop if we get sunny dry weather again. Ever...

The bright spot is that the peppers are doing well. Bell beppers, jalapenoes and Hungarian wax chilies are all thriving. The habanero plants were stunted and small when we planted them and they have never picked up. Here's a shot of the Hungarians - these chilies are about 8" or longer and all the plants are loaded.

 

[Evo]

Those are some happy peppers turbo!

I am waiting for the "severe Thunderstorms" to hit. The Weather Channel is prediciting "severe Thunderstorms" for 9 of the next 10 days!

Greg is changing the smilies around to confuse me!

 

[turbo]

Those Hungarian chilies are WAY tasty, too. My dill is stunted and tiny. Luckily, one of my neighbors started his dill early, and despite the daily downpours, he's got nice plants with large flowering heads. I'll have to rely on him for my dill florets, and will use my traditional dill-pickle recipe to pickle the Hungarian chilies. I did that to the jalapenos last year and those pickled peppers are disappearing fast. The jalapeno crop looks great, too, and many of the peppers are getting the nice purple streaks on them, prior to ripening.

We've got more rain and thundershowers in the extended forecast, with temps in the low 70's. Hopefully, we won't get the "severe" ones with the heavy down-bursts. I had to stake up quite a number of my tomato baskets today. The plants are heavy with fruit, and the soil is VERY soft and wet.

 

[Moonbear]

At least your peppers are enjoying the rain. We've had light drizzles all day, but no downpours. The tomatoes seem to be excited that even that much of a let-up has happened. I heavily pruned yellowing stems this weekend again to give the rest of the plants a fighting chance. At least I've gotten a few tomatoes off the plants already to enjoy fresh eating. I was hoping for better success, but will take whatever I get at this point. I wonder if commercial crops are suffering as badly.

 

[turbo]

We're getting some tomatoes, too, Moonie, but I'm pretty aggressive about culling any with soft spots, black stem rot, etc. I'm saving as many as I can, hoping that someday we might get a stretch of warm dry weather that is conducive to ripening. This has been a horrible gardening season. The bright spot is that most of the peppers seem to be toughing it out, so I can lay in a fair crop of hot salsas, relishes, etc. The "edge" is going to be off the heat unless the habaneros pull off a miracle turn-around, though.

 

[hypatia]

I picked green peppers for dinner, and when I cut them open, I discovered they were full of water and were rotting from the inside! I've never seen such a thing.

 

[Ouabache]

we didn't get it that bad but we had another storm go through this AM. the wilt causing more to fall --more today:
The wilt/blight --bottom limbs first, then it sneaks up the vine:

Sounds/looks like http://pmo.umext.maine.edu/factsht/Earlytom.htm (Alternaria solani ). With all the rain, and not enough warm dry weather, the inoculum is building up to devastating levels. My tomato plants are also under attack. Too many suckers per plant, which decreases air flow in a wet season and the fungus is having a field day. Most practical management for organic gardener is to prune off all the yellow foliage, infected fruit and discard (not compost). Throw away!
I'm already aggressively thinning suckers to maybe 3 or 4 per plant to improve air flow (I'm not a proponent of single stem plants). Also make sure you keep the stems off the ground (they will fall over with all the rain), re-stake/cage them as needed.
On a positive note, my plants are HUGE and laden with many tomatoes.

 

[turbo]

We finally got (after ~3 weeks) a fairly warm and sunny day without rain, so I harvested the garlic. I have shaken off as much mud as I can without bruising the bulbs, bunched them, and hung them for curing. I took care to segregate the larger, healthier bulbs to use for this winter's planting for next year's crop. I'll tend them from time to time, cleaning dried dirt with a soft brush and making sure that mold doesn't have a chance to set it. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and give me some good dry days for a while. Gardening is slow going at times, but can get touchy when conditions aren't favorable. Almost everybody in livestock here has lost their (sometimes only potential) first and second hay crops and is hanging by fingernails hoping for some small gains in the traditionally poor late hay crops. This weather is going to put some dairy farmers out of business, and already horse-breeders and beef-cow farmers are selling off in advance of winter.

 

[hypatia]

Nice framing on your garage, did you build it yourself?

 

[Evo]

I picked green peppers for dinner, and when I cut them open, I discovered they were full of water and were rotting from the inside! I've never seen such a thing.

That is really bizarre hypatia. We seem to all be having weird gardening problems this year. The cold this summer is really messing with the vegetables. But I am not complaining about the weather!

 

[turbo]

Nice framing on your garage, did you build it yourself?

I estimated and priced the project (do everything myself), hypatia, and then I called a local specialist. He's a little younger than my father and he grew up in a town even farther north than ours. He generally sub-contacts slabs, but since my garage was modest-sized, he agreed to do the slab, too as long as I pitched into screed it, and when he priced out the total project, it was less than my cost of materials. He and one employee came in and we did the floor, and the next day, two of his employees showed up, the materials were dropped at about 10:00am, and the garage was finished, roofed, with windows and overhead door installed before 5:00 pm. It's a very solid and well-built little building.

 

[Evo]

Here is some of what I picked today that is going to become ratatouille tomorrow.

 

[iBop]

What is the yellow one's name ? Is it pumpkin ?

 

[rewebster]

my, my, my, Evo---what big peppers you have!

 

[Ouabache]

Here is some of what I picked today that is going to become ratatouille tomorrow.

I'm impressed, very pretty vegetables Evo! (good color and shape)