What are your 2020 garden plans?

[bbqcoder]

Looks good Dave.

I’ve been harvesting strawberries this week. They’re very yummy. Also harvested a bunch of scapes from the garlic and some pak choy.

 

[larry_stewart]

Scapes definitely kicking in!! I have strawberries in the ground and another batch in hanging pots. The hanging pots seem too be doing better , more productive and look healthier.

Already trying to decide what crop is going to replace my garlic after it is harvested in a few weeks. Probably Moore cukes and some pole beans. Im saving the other garlic bed to plant carrots towards the fall. Im the worst carrot grower in the world, Im hoping the new location will turn things around. I just have to make sure they are out of the ground before I have o plant garlic again in October.

 

[Vinylhanger]

We harvested our first giant Mustard greens and Arugala. Very yummy.

Still just letting my first bed with the bad dirt do its thing.

Oddest thing is some of the acorn squash and zuchinni are going gangbusters, but in the same 4 foot row, they are not doing anything.

We did kill off the ant colony, so maybe they will get going.

If the slow growers aren't doing anything by next week, I will probably pull almost everything and top the bed with new soil and replant.

 

[larry_stewart]

If the slow growers aren't doing anything by next week, I will probably pull almost everything and top the bed with new soil and replant.

Yeah,im facing the same with my carrots. Everything in the bed is doing great except for them. I seeded directly twice, got a few stragglers, but in general, im pretty disappointed. I dont want to waste prime real estate in the garden for something that is doing poorly at best. Probably pull the plug while I still have growing time, and maybe plant carrots in a few months as a fall crop.

 

[bbqcoder]

Yeah,im facing the same with my carrots. Everything in the bed is doing great except for them. I seeded directly twice, got a few stragglers, but in general, im pretty disappointed.

Here’s what I do with carrots. I have a raised bed with sifted soil. I make a furrow 3/8” deep for the seeds. In the furrow, I stick some 3” pieces of raspberry canes sticking up every 8” sticking up. It can be any old small sticks, I just happen to have raspberry canes handy.

I dribble seeds in the row, over seeding if the seeds are a bit old. Cover with a little bit of soil. Water the row. Cover the row with straw so it’s 1/2” thick. Water the straw so it stays in place. I water the row every day. Keep it wet. After a couple of weeks, I will check to see if I see carrot seedlings growing. If so, then I remove the straw.

The straw is to shade the ground so it keep the soil moist. Otherwise you have to water multiple times per day. The sticks help me to know exactly where I planted the seeds so I can weed it more easily.

Carrot seedlings are distinctive when they come up. The leaves are narrow and pointy. Then they develop their true leaves between the original leaves. You need the soil moist because they are not strong enough to push through crusted soil.

 

[larry_stewart]

Do you plant a late summer/ fall crop? if so, when do u get them in the ground ?

 

[Kathleen]

I've never planted a later crop for the fall, but am considering planting a few cabbage plants. I will likely start seeds in early July....

 

[Kathleen]

My cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers are growing well. The beans are coming up, and the okra and eggplant are growing. I have pockets of herbs that are sprouting from seed. Lettuce and basil in the flower pots. I'm wondering whether I could grow pole beans in a hanging planter and let them drupe. Thoughts? The last is simply the backyard that was a perfect place to laze away some time.

 

[Katie H]

Our 5-gallon container veggie garden is doing well.

We have 4 jetstar tomatoes that have now produced more than 2 dozen nice-sized globes and too many blooms to count. Same for the romas, 4 of those, too. One sweet 100 cherry tomato that is literally weighted with nice little round lovelies. Counted over 50 on the one plant yesterday with, again, too many blooms to count. Most of the tomato plants are well over 6-feet tall and the stems now about the size of my thumb.

Our one eggplant has more than a dozen blooms, with 3 eggplants nicely forming. I think I'm going to have to stake this plant.

Green peppers, cauliflower, zucchini and cucumbers are bringing up the rear, but doing well.

The herbs are doing well. Unfortunately I did have to replant the basil, but the thyme and sage are going crazy. The rosemary and the chives are taking care of business. I've had both for several years and getting bigger and better with every year.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

We should be picking our first zucchini in a couple days, and starting to get raspberries and strawberries now.
Tomatoes and cucumbers have lots of fruit on the vines, will probably still be another week or two though before we start harvesting.
We've been eating lots of lettuce.

 

[larry_stewart]

Red Currants and Blueberries starting. Still waiting for my Male/female zucchini flowers to coordinate.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Red Currants and Blueberries starting. Still waiting for my Male/female zucchini flowers to coordinate.

We have one red currant, and one black currant bush side by side, they are probably 5-6 years old now, and quite large. We've never gotten more then 4-5 currants off either bush. I'm not sure if it's a pollination issue, soil, water, or something else.

They look nice and healthy, they just don't produce fruit.

 

[bethzaring]

Here’s what I do with carrots. I have a raised bed with sifted soil. I make a furrow 3/8” deep for the seeds. In the furrow, I stick some 3” pieces of raspberry canes sticking up every 8” sticking up. It can be any old small sticks, I just happen to have raspberry canes handy.

I dribble seeds in the row, over seeding if the seeds are a bit old. Cover with a little bit of soil. Water the row. Cover the row with straw so it’s 1/2” thick. Water the straw so it stays in place. I water the row every day. Keep it wet. After a couple of weeks, I will check to see if I see carrot seedlings growing. If so, then I remove the straw.

The straw is to shade the ground so it keep the soil moist. Otherwise you have to water multiple times per day. The sticks help me to know exactly where I planted the seeds so I can weed it more easily.

Carrot seedlings are distinctive when they come up. The leaves are narrow and pointy. Then they develop their true leaves between the original leaves. You need the soil moist because they are not strong enough to push through crusted soil.

This is key to get carrot seeds to germinate.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

This is key to get carrot seeds to germinate.

That does sound like a good method, but we do it much more simple and never have issues.
We turn over the soil in our raised beds a few days before planting, then poke holes a couple cm deep, drop a seed in, and repeat 3-5cm away. We do several rows that way, then cover and water every other day.
Carrots are in the middle of that closer bed, this photo is from about 2 weeks ago.
The beets to the right are not looking too good there, we had a fungal infection that is now mostly under control.

 

[larry_stewart]

We have one red currant, and one black currant bush side by side, they are probably 5-6 years old now, and quite large. We've never gotten more then 4-5 currants off either bush. I'm not sure if it's a pollination issue, soil, water, or something else.

They look nice and healthy, they just don't produce fruit.

Thats strange, I got 3 red currant bushes, It was a spur of the moment, impulsive buy, as I had no room for them anywhere in the yard, they were half price cause it was mid summer ( this wa 2 year ago), they already had a few cluster of berries when I bought them. When I got home, I planted them in the only location I had left ( which was far from ideal). The bushes now are 5 X the size and are producing like crazy. To the4 point where I wanted to buy a bunch more bushes this year of different varieties, but. I cant find them anywhere, and the place I got then in the past said their supplier was giving them a hard time this year with any kind of berry bushes to the point where the supplier stopped answering their calls ( and they've been dealing with them for 10 + years). Anyway, guess ill buy plants next year if they're available .

 

[GotGarlic]

We have one red currant, and one black currant bush side by side, they are probably 5-6 years old now, and quite large. We've never gotten more then 4-5 currants off either bush. I'm not sure if it's a pollination issue, soil, water, or something else.

They look nice and healthy, they just don't produce fruit.

Do you prune them regularly and properly?

This page has good information about currants: https://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/currants.html

 

[larry_stewart]

Been growing garlic in the same spot , doing the same thing for years. Unfortunately, this year was different. I noticed a few plants dying off sooner ( and quicker) than usual. Usually my harvest date is July 4th ( its become tradition). Anyway, I chalked it off as just a few plants ahead of schedule, maybe a variety thing ( as I planted 4 different varieties). Anyway, the other day I lightly pulled on one of the plants, and up it came ( very easily) with no bulb and smelling like rotting garlic. I pulled another and another, all with similar results. I have about 60 plants in that bed. I picked half of them and at least %50 of those I picked were similar. The other %50 were ok, but still would have benefitted from ab additional week or two in the ground. Its been a relatively dry year. The sprinklers are on a timer as they've always been. I do occasionally water with the hose. Im guessing its either an overwatering issue or a poor draining soil issue. I shut the sprinkler off in that region and completely stopped watering. The other half appear healthy and show resistance with a normal tug on the plant. The second bed,a raised bed, which appears to look normal, is literally 2 feet away from the first affected bed. Both hit by the same sprinkler.

I do amend the soil each year. Im hoping that second bed gives me good results when we harvest in a week.

I will probably add some sand and other stuff to the first bed to aid in drainage. Or possibly just build a raised bed on the same site.

Oh well, garlic was my most predictable crop until this year. What a crappy way to start off the season.

Whats strange is for the past 2 - 3 weeks, ive been harvesting scapes, and the plants seemed healthy, and none just pulled out was I was manipulating the plant to get the scapes off.

 

[pepperhead212]

Larry,

I had the same thing happen with a new variety - Italian red - of which about 1/4 of the plants had all of the leaves die by this week, and the rest only one or two, but they still don't look really good. Nothing rotting, however. Yet the next part of the row (or double row, I should say), which is Metechi, looks very dark green, and hardly a single leaf has turned on those yet. The next part is Montana Giant, which does not have any dead plants, and the last section, Estonian Red, had only 5, out of over 50.
Stunted garlic, mostly Italian red, a few Estonian red on the left. 6-26 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

July 4th is usually my approximate date for harvesting, too. This year has been fairly good, because it has been fairly dry these last few weeks - better than raining constantly before harvest, as the garlic doesn't store well, like last season.

A few seasons ago, I had one variety only get a disease, which must have been on the heads when I bought them, as no other type got it. This was when I started soaking them briefly in isopropyl alcohol, on recommendation of a fellow that used to grow garlic for a living. He said that they used ethyl alcohol - cheaper in large quantities, but they all work, and kill the diseases, before planting.

 

[taxlady]

Interesting. I'm eager to read if you two solve the mystery of the dying garlic.

 

[bbqcoder]

Been growing garlic in the same spot , doing the same thing for years. Unfortunately, this year was different. I noticed a few plants dying off sooner ( and quicker) than usual. Usually my harvest date is July 4th ( its become tradition). Anyway, I chalked it off as just a few plants ahead of schedule, maybe a variety thing ( as I planted 4 different varieties). Anyway, the other day I lightly pulled on one of the plants, and up it came ( very easily) with no bulb and smelling like rotting garlic.

I also had a few plants that were smaller and died off quicker. The bulbs were small and had an off smell. I rotate my crops so they're not in the same spot every year. These plants were in my raised beds. I did not have the issue in my two plots at the community gardens. I do water them heavily when needed.

I do have 3-4" layer of straw mulch around my plants.