What are your 2020 garden plans?

[larry_stewart]

Yeah, hopefully I figured it out. Im hoping the other bed is good ( so far looks good). But then again, the other looked good a week ago, its amazing how quick things turned. This year I grew a few varieties . German white ( which I pick up from the garlic farm), Montana Giant, Music and another variety ( French something, I have it written down somewhere)) that I got from the Hudson Garlic Festival. I map out what's growing where so I can keep track ( if I can only find out my garlic row map, im sure it will show up next year). I didn't notice any real trend as far as location in the rows or any specific row, it was sporadic. The ones I salvaged dont really have the outer paper covering so Im kinda using them as quick as I can, Some were covered, I let sun dry for a few days and now are hanging in the garage, they seem to look ok, but I question how long they will store.

 

[pepperhead212]

I was going to harvest all of my garlic left today, except the Metechi, which is running later, with only a few brown leaves here and there, while all are down to 4 or less. It was 97° out there today, so I'm waiting until tomorrow! lol A few things - cukes and some squash - were slightly wilted, even though not in dry ground, which is normal in that heat and intense sun. All are back to normal, now that the shade is there. One cucumber plant, that I started late, because another in that spot got eaten, just isn't growing, so I took some cuttings from the new vines on the County Fair and put them in my cloner. We'll see if it works. If these don't root, I'll try the other variety.

 

[DaveSoMD]

I picked my first zucchini and yellow squash of the season!!! The beans are still producing. I think I'll but in a second crop this weekend. I still have time for another harvest.

 

[Kathleen]

I picked two tiny bell peppers. Small but delicious!

 

[pepperhead212]

I hope that it doesn't make the tomatoes and eggplant drop their blossoms, but it is getting in the 90s every day now for the foreseeable future, after the last 5 days. This usually happens in late July here, not early. However, the okra, hot peppers, and all those Indian cucurbits I have out there are going crazy! I just saw the first tiny squash on one of those Tindas, and harvested another half dozen okras - still early for them. The habanero plants started getting blossoms, though I'm usually lucky to get a ripe one by 8-1. A bunch of jalapeños, but I couldn't uncover the EB today, due to the wind. The winter squash don't seem to mind the heat, either!
Polaris Butternut, showing first flowers, 7-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Two South Anna butternuts, even larger than the Polaris, just showing flower buds, 7-05 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here is that moschata squash that can supposedly be used immature, as a summer squash. And it is going crazy - probably the most runners of any of them. Yuxi is my short name for it, and you can see why:
2 Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua, spreading well, only starting with flower buds. 7-05 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Bitter melons, starting to take off! 7-05 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This Tinda gourd was the slowest, at first, but it's taking off now, in this heat, with flowers and a tiny fruit on both.
Tinda gourds, starting to send out runners, and both showing the first fruits on both plants. 7-05 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

First squash found, on one of the Tindas, a tiny one, just under the flower on the right. 7-05 by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Got a couple more ripe tomatoes today, from Matina, and a few more first ripening ones. And I got enough sunsugars to snack on, while out there today! The bad ones were the Anahu and Mountaineer Pride, from which I pulled about 20 BER total. Often these are the first tomatoes, but most of these were the ones on the upper branches - like they had too many fruits on them. only a few, here and there on others.

I am getting a lot of cucumbers, and have to do something with them soon! And one of those clones looks like it's rooting, the other not so good. I might snip a couple more, that are getting too far into the tomato trellis. I am probably going to get an excess amount of eggplant, but so far, it's just been the Ichiban - the first one to stop from heat.

 

[larry_stewart]

pepper, what do you got powdered on the leaves? I remember you mentioned it last year and I forgot.

 

[pepperhead212]

Larry, That's the Surround - kaolin clay spray, which safely keeps most bugs off, but the main ones I use them for are the flea beetles, on EP, aphids, on okra and tomatoes (except for small ones), squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and related ones on cucumbers, squash, and other cucurbits. I don't spray it on peppers, after they begin to flower, only before, plus peppers don't have many pest around here, except under cover. I always combine a tb of potassium bicarbonate per gallon of water, plus 2 c Surround - the bicarb is a prophylactic fungicide, and mixes well with this, and even saves, as nothing degrades, waiting until used up the next time. It doesn't wash or blow off easily, like DE, so usually I'm just spraying the areas of new growth.

I bought a 25 lb bag of this stuff 7 or 8 years ago, and just emptied the end of it out of the bag into the 4 gal bucket I keep it in, and filled it right to the top. So I'll have it for another couple of years.

 

[larry_stewart]

Larry, That's the Surround - kaolin clay spray, which safely keeps most bugs off, but the main ones I use them for are the flea beetles, on EP, aphids, on okra and tomatoes (except for small ones), squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and related ones on cucumbers, squash, and other cucurbits. I don't spray it on peppers, after they begin to flower, only before, plus peppers don't have many pest around here, except under cover. I always combine a tb of potassium bicarbonate per gallon of water, plus 2 c Surround - the bicarb is a prophylactic fungicide, and mixes well with this, and even saves, as nothing degrades, waiting until used up the next time. It doesn't wash or blow off easily, like DE, so usually I'm just spraying the areas of new growth.

I bought a 25 lb bag of this stuff 7 or 8 years ago, and just emptied the end of it out of the bag into the 4 gal bucket I keep it in, and filled it right to the top. So I'll have it for another couple of years.

Any issues with this stuff and bees" ?

 

[pepperhead212]

I've never seen a shortage of bees on my blossoms!

 

[pepperhead212]

I hope nobody had any damage from this tropical storm Fay!

I opened my 3rd covered pepper Earthbox yesterday (did nothing today, with this rain!), and harvested my first jalapeños! Besides the 3 jalapeños, this box also had 2 Superthai and one Byadagi - a relatively mild Indian pepper, that I figured would need protection from the pepper maggots. The Superthais have a lot of peppers, too, but they are one I ripen and dry all of the time, though I'm sure they would be good fresh, too. The Byadagi only had flowers, so far.
The 3rd covered pepper EB, with 2 Superthai, 3 Jalapeños, and one Byadagi. Uncovered on 7-09. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Superthai peppers - largest plant in the EB, and getting a lot of peppers on it! 7-09 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also saw my first flowers on my bottle gourds today! The peduncle of these flowers is incredibly long, both males and females, though males are longer. They are night opening flowers; it was still bright out, but I didn't see any pollinators on them - this was about 7 pm, so early ones are still in, and night pollinators aren't out much yet. So I did it with a q-tip - what I usually do early on.
First female blossom on a bottle gourd, 7-09 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Male blossoms of a bottle gourd. 7-09 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

These tinda gourds are another gourd on steroids! The number of side shoots is incredible on both plants. If they work out, I might try cloning them, as they begin flowering quickly after vining.
Incredible number of vines forming on tindas, on the left, and bitter melon on the right, 7-09 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

On the topic of cloning, I have four cucumber clones started - I took 2 cuttings several days ago, dipped them in 2 different rooting gels, just to see, and both looked like they were dead the next day! But they recovered some by the second day, and began getting greener, and growing in 3 days, and even more today. After those first two showed that they could come back, I took two more cuttings, and the same thing happened! Here's a photo of the first two, with one that looks almost dead above them. But that one, and the other are coming back, since this photo, and the roots are over 4" long now, with just one day since these photos!
Clones, cuke in back starting out bad, like the two in front of it looked before! Those are now rooted. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Roots just started up on the cucumber clone, 7-08 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

Are those cukes all the same variety? The leaves on the closest one doesn't look cucumbery ( if thats a word) to me.

As far as Fay goes, Still watching the wind blow things around up here. A little nervous about the sunflowers, some of my squash vines that have climbed and my tomatoes ( I have 6 + foot tomato cages that I made. they are secured pretty well, but not sure they can withstand some of the extreme wind gusts. Ill find out in the morning). Everything else should be ok. I had to bring some of my seed starter trays under cover so the downpours wouldn't either wash them out or drown them.

I fertilized yesterday in anticipation that the heavy rains would soak everything in.

 

[pepperhead212]

Are those cukes all the same variety? The leaves on the closest one doesn't look cucumbery ( if thats a word) to me.

That plant on the bottom is a clone of a Seratta basil, so you're right - not cucumbery. The two above are the first two cukes that recovered, and that small one, that looks bad, has come back even more!

 

[larry_stewart]

Which plants do you find the most successful to clone ? and are there some that just dont work , in your experience ?

 

[pepperhead212]

Most herbs that I've tried worked well, and tomatoes and peppers. Basil and epazote are two that I clone every spring, to bring back outside, and in the fall, to bring back inside. Two that I tried, just to see, were the kaffir lime tree and curry tree, but no matter what I did, they wouldn't root! I tried all different stages of maturity of the stems, scarred them, which helps with the basil and other herbs, and nothing worked. That's when I tried the air layering, with the lime tree about 10 years ago, and it worked out in 7 months. That's the experiment I'm doing now, with the curry tree.

 

[pepperhead212]

Larry,

Here are some photos of the clones, taken this morning, showing the incredible roots on those cucumbers after 7 days, and basil after 12 days. And the 2 new ones from 4 days ago are recovering, growing straight up now, just like the first 2, and one even had a flower on it, which I pinched off.
Roots growing on County Fair clone, after 7 days, 7-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Roots growing on a Serrata basil clone, after 12 days. 7-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Recovering clones of Wisconsin 58, 4 days after planting, like the others did. 7-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

That really is unbelievable growth in that amount of time. Is the cloner in or outdoors? And if indoors, do you have to harden the plants to the sun prior to planting outside?

 

[pepperhead212]

The cloner is indoors, under the same lights my hydroponics is under - I take apart the smaller tub in spring, when I want to start cloning the herbs, for outside. I haven't hardened them off, and never had a problem with them.

 

[larry_stewart]

Larry, That's the Surround - kaolin clay spray, which safely keeps most bugs off, but the main ones I use them for are the flea beetles, on EP, aphids, on okra and tomatoes (except for small ones), squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and related ones on cucumbers, squash, and other cucurbits. I don't spray it on peppers, after they begin to flower, only before, plus peppers don't have many pest around here, except under cover. I always combine a tb of potassium bicarbonate per gallon of water, plus 2 c Surround - the bicarb is a prophylactic fungicide, and mixes well with this, and even saves, as nothing degrades, waiting until used up the next time. It doesn't wash or blow off easily, like DE, so usually I'm just spraying the areas of new growth.

I bought a 25 lb bag of this stuff 7 or 8 years ago, and just emptied the end of it out of the bag into the 4 gal bucket I keep it in, and filled it right to the top. So I'll have it for another couple of years.

Pepper, what sprayer do you use to spray your plants ?

 

[pepperhead212]

Pepper, what sprayer do you use to spray your plants ?

I have 2 old Gilmour 2 gal sprayers, but they don't make them anymore. In fact, I looked for it several years ago, and the design had changed (no extension tube), and a couple of seasons ago it looked like all of the Gilmour sprayers were not being made - maybe someone bought out that part of the company? I really like that model, because it had the pump on an "extension tube" , so when I pump it to pressurize it, I barely lean over!

 

[larry_stewart]

Will most sprayers be able to handle the kaolin clay mix? for is there something I should look for when purchasing one? Ive never really used a sprayer before, just want to make sure I dont get something that I clog up in he first use. This will be he first year Ill be using the Kaolin clay, as I got clobbered last year with the damn cucumber and potato beetles. I had just an average year of cukes, above average of potatoes, but still frustrating as hell. And it is so disheartening when you see the cuke vines start to wilt, knowing there is nothing you can do at that point. I try my hardest to keep away from any insecticides. Usually its thee cabbages that I have to deal with, but lately the squash have been taking a hit.