official veggie gardener's thread

[HydroSqueegee]

Notified Ag Extension of my early blight. Confirmed it's going around big time thanks to all the water and cool temps. Yanking all my maters, been in the ground less than 2 weeks.

Will let the soil bake for a week and replant with store bought seedlings. Dammit, dammit, dammit, WHY didn't you save some for a late plant or stagger them spidey? Dammit.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Live and learn. Lesson learned.

always start more than you'll need.

 

[TraumaRN]

So far everything is going alright. Only a couple of my San Marzano tomatoes are looking stressed from transplant shock. Everything else looks good so far, I put old tomato cages around my snap peas for them to climb, lettuce looks good, my celery looks AWESOME. A few radishes should be ready to harvest by Sunday or Monday.

Strangely after a crazy soaking wet April we've only gotten a teeny tiny amount of rain in May, I've had to water twice already in the last week because it's been so warm/dry.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Got 2 blooms on my maters! Also - I've been pulling off the little shoots on my tomato plants and trying to just have 1 "main" stalk. Is that correct?

 

[spidey07]

Got 2 blooms on my maters! Also - I've been pulling off the little shoots on my tomato plants and trying to just have 1 "main" stalk. Is that correct?

How you prune tomatoes is like religion, everybody has their way. Pruning suckers to just one main stalk gives less tomatoes, but bigger. I keep three main stalks and let the lowest two sucker branches form. I don't need humongous tomatoes.

 

[snoopdoug1]

How you prune tomatoes is like religion, everybody has their way. Pruning suckers to just one main stalk gives less tomatoes, but bigger. I keep three main stalks and let the lowest two sucker branches form. I don't need humongous tomatoes.

Thanks spidey. I just read online that if you don't prune them, you sometimes just get a big tomato bush without any tomatoes. Maybe I'll do what you suggest and let some of the suckers come in. I don't need huges ones either.

Thanks!

 

[WannaFly]

I harvested 35lbs (total) of cucumbers, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash yesterday! Here are some pics of my current garden:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wannafly37/GardenPics#

Although, the spaghetti squash is not doing well any more- it is covered in a white fungus/dust...It might be too bad to recover from...I'll give it until next week while I look into it on how to remedy it.

My 6 tomato plants are in full bloom...a few more weeks and I'll have more tomatoes then I know what to do with. Watermelon are taking off...seems to be growing 6" a day (the vine). I had to rip out the crookneck squash and they were looking bad.

 

[snoopdoug1]

So it looks like I've got Flea Beetles on my tomato plants I think I"m going to try a soap mixture as some folks online say it works. I noticed them when I saw the holes in the leaves! Anyone else had these before? What worked to get rid of them?

 

[meltdown75]

hmm never had that issue.... let me know how the soap works..

still haven't worked up my raised beds....... they need to be weeded. i re-mulched my rear garden along the fence, that's not a veggie one of course the yard is looking great now my focus will shift to producing some nice tomatoes and peppers

definitely going to try some of the green zebras again this year, maybe 2 plants instead of one although my lone GZ did very well last year, i probably harvested nearly 100 medium-sized tomatoes from that one plant. they were a big hit with people at the office and family... and me

i'm going to try something new re: support system for my more vine-like tomato plants such as the "sweet million" and cherry tomatoes. probably go with some type of custom-made lattice-type setup. i'll be googling for more styles and images for ideas. last year's "florida weave" didn't go so well - it works good depending on what style tomatoes you have but the weave just wasn't high enough and the plants outgrew it completely. i am going to dedicate more space to each plant so i can get between the rows easier too. no matter what i do i end up with a wall of tomatoes, looking to make it a bit more organized this year.

raining again today and more crappy weather in the forecast for SW ontario... hoping for nicer temps mid-week and into next weekend so i can start on this year's efforts

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Weird, of everything on my garden, only 1/3 (1/6 for carrots) has sprouted in two weeks. Since it is the same soil in each location and everything gets the same sunlight and water, is this likely to be a seed issue?

 

[spidey07]

That's the seed. Plant multiple seeds in on spot and thin out the weaker sprout leaving the best one.

 

[TraumaRN]

Alright some garden pics I took today....

First up celery, sage, early and late red and white onions, leeks, carrots and radishes and a 2 year onion plant of which I plan to harvest seeds from.

Second looking down the long length of my garden, alternating rows of tomatoes and peppers, the two fences are for cantaloupe and cucumber. Way in the back on the left side will be watermelon and during the spring time asparagus.

Brassica and lettuce alley. 3 kinds of (again an early and late crop) lettuce, my sugar snap peas, mustard greens, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cabbage, basil and spinach. Where I'm standing and out of frame is my black eyed peas and green beans.

One of my black Hungarian pepper, cool looking even at this young age.

One of my purple Paul Robeson tomato plants. I'm also growing Topaz cherry tomatoes(yellow with green stripes) and San Marzano paste tomatoes

 

[natto fire]

I really need to take some new pictures, but things are coming together good here. We have 2 chicken tractors going with a 3rd and 4th on the way. Asparagus is coming in great, and although the hoophouse got screwed with heat (all the plants are bolting) we are making a more shaded bed for the kale, romaine, and looseleaf mix.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

everything is in! Except the pole beans...

Got the tumbling toms in their containers on the deck railing. Goliath hybrids are in their planters. Early girl has been in for a while along with the 3 Romas.
1 of the 3 mini bell pepper plants is doing well... the other 2 are still tiney.
Cucumbers were doing great... now not so much. All 4 plants have shriveled. Same thing happened last year. Ended up getting 3 cucumbers off of all the plants.
Potatoes have sprouted up above the soil and look nice and healthy.
Lettuce and Radishes are growing like mad.
Carrots are taking their sweet time to come up. Doesnt help that they blend in with the weeds when they sprout.
Onions are the healthiest ive ever seen. I thought for sure when i put in the onion sets they would die. But they have come back with a vengance. The two i overwintered (on accident) are massive and one has a flower bud. Can wait to eat them.

 

[snoopdoug1]

I've got 2 jalapeno's forming! Everything else looks healthy to me, but I'm a beginner

Also, for what it's worth, I believe the insecticidal soap stuff worked. The recipe was 1 tbl veg oil, 1 tbl non anti-bacterial dish soap, pinch chili powder, 1 garlic clove mashed up. Put it all in a 1 gallon milk jug, fill with water, shake it up, and let it sit for a while so the garlic can get around. Put it in a spray bottle and spray away. I did verify that if you spray it on the ant he dies.

 

[BoomerD]

Time for an update...

I pulled two of the four "sunsugar cherry tomato" plants and gave them to neighbors. I just can't use that damned many cherry tomatoes. I planted 4 sunsugar "regular" tomatoes like I had last year. (which is what I THOUGHT I bought earlier...but they ended up being cherry tomatoes..label reading fail on my part )

My "New Mexico Hatch chili" is looking more and more like another "mislabeled" pepper...only this time, it looks like a bell pepper.
My serrano, fresno, and jalapeno pepper plants are all doing well. The serrano and fresno have several tiny peppers (< 1 inch), one jalapeno has a few peppers that are approaching 3 inches, and the bell pepper plants each have a couple of peppers that are of good size already. (one is more than 3 inches long...on a plant that's barely 12 inches tall)

I'm harvesting a handful of blueberries every day from my 4 small plants, I'm picking several strawberries from my plants, and the two sunsugar cherry tomatoes that I kept are already producing sweet orange tomatoes.

The other tomato plants, (2 romas, 1 "black krim," and 4 sunsugar regular all have blossoms, but were planted late enough in the season that I expect it'll be late July before I get edible fruit from them.

Still...it looks like another good harvest is in store for the season.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Here's my update...

I ate some of my spinach and lettuce. The spinach was excellent, the lettuce (some simply salad mixture seed) was disgusting! I'm not even sure what kind it was, but it was gross. I'm going to pull it out tonight and plant some more bush beans.

My tomatoes are doing phenomenal. I've got probably 7 or 8 good sized green tomatoes right now, and probably another 40-50 blooms on my 4 plants. The plants are probably 3.5 feet tall now too. Green peppers are coming along, but are still pretty small. They are finally starting to bloom, so I'm hoping to have a good harvest. I've still got 2 jalapenos growing, and a couple more blooms on that one. My broccoli flowered while I was on vacation, so I lost the main harvest. I'm going to leave them in until I see if they'll make any additional florets. If not, they're getting ripped otu and I'll have 4 spots for new stuff (was thinking about more beans and/or some spaghetti squash - has anyone ever grown this? I have a couple questions

 

[HydroSqueegee]

most everything is doing fairly well. Cucumbers arnt doing so well. 2 are dead, 1 is almost dead and the last is making a decent comeback, but is still looking worse than when i planted it. Potatoes look great. Beans are up. carrots look to be doing well. Lettuce is great. Radishes are done, left some in the dirt too long. Herbs are strong. Onions are doing amazing. Bell pepper plants... eh. theyre getting there. Tomatoes look fantastic, lots of buds, but not a single green tomato. Lots of blossoms are just turning brown. Been way too hot.

 

[spidey07]

most everything is doing fairly well. Cucumbers arnt doing so well. 2 are dead, 1 is almost dead and the last is making a decent comeback, but is still looking worse than when i planted it. Potatoes look great. Beans are up. carrots look to be doing well. Lettuce is great. Radishes are done, left some in the dirt too long. Herbs are strong. Onions are doing amazing. Bell pepper plants... eh. theyre getting there. Tomatoes look fantastic, lots of buds, but not a single green tomato. Lots of blossoms are just turning brown. Been way too hot.

Too hot and it kills the pollen in tomatoes. You'll have blooms just wither and fall off. "blossom drop". I forget the exact range but something like over 85/90 for extended period will do it. You can try shaking the plants in the early morning or late evening to get pollination before the heat gets them.

I had to deal with it one year. Will drive you mad. All these awesome blossoms, only to see them all just fall off.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

yep. been way too hot. went from decent and rainy to 85+ 90+ rapidly. we had about 2 weeks of spring this year. ill try shaking them in the morning to see if that helps.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Too hot and it kills the pollen in tomatoes. You'll have blooms just wither and fall off. "blossom drop". I forget the exact range but something like over 85/90 for extended period will do it. You can try shaking the plants in the early morning or late evening to get pollination before the heat gets them.

I had to deal with it one year. Will drive you mad. All these awesome blossoms, only to see them all just fall off.

crap - i bet this happens to mine then too!

 

[spidey07]

crap - i bet this happens to mine then too!

Read up on it. It's when night time temps stay up there (70+) and daytime are way high. The extended heat essentially kills or makes the pollen nonviable. Google "tomato blossom drop"

 

[IceBergSLiM]

luckily i only have a couple early blossoms right now. They are surely f'd!

 

[fatpat268]

Too hot and it kills the pollen in tomatoes. You'll have blooms just wither and fall off. "blossom drop". I forget the exact range but something like over 85/90 for extended period will do it. You can try shaking the plants in the early morning or late evening to get pollination before the heat gets them.

I had to deal with it one year. Will drive you mad. All these awesome blossoms, only to see them all just fall off.

Yea, living in Texas, I deal with this every year. As long as I plant my tomatoes super early, I'll get a decent crop, but I might as well forget about it starting early June.

I've got several nice thriving tomato plants, but they only have 2 tomatoes on them each. I won't get any more unless the weather cools down for a change, but that wont happen.

Likewise, I'm having similar problems with my squash/zucchini/cukes... I've got a ton of blossoms, but they're just not producing. I'm not sure that they have the same problem as tomatoes do with high heat, but it sure seems like it.

 

[TraumaRN]

Little update for me:

I've got so much lettuce I'm selling/giving it away to neighbors. I even made a sign and put it out front.

I've got my first snap peas... should be ready to harvest a handful or so by tomorrow. All my tomatoes have blossoms. My first pepper blossoms just showed up. Everything else is growing well, my corn is already ankle high! Not bad for June 9th. I should easily be knee high by the 4th of July with that.

 

[fatpat268]

Everything else is growing well, my corn is already ankle high! Not bad for June 9th. I should easily be knee high by the 4th of July with that.

That reminds me... I had to rip out all my damn corn because each and every single corn cob had bugs in them. Only had about 30 more days of growth too, I was set to pick them July 15. Damn.

But yea, I checked one cob to see how it was doing, and to my surprise, there was a circular bore hole in the husk. I may try again and spray the damn corn with insecticides... we'll see.