2022 Garden Thread

[begreen]

Here are today's pics. Sunny and 71º.


Baby cantaloupe forming. Cantaloupes in a container and in the bed.

First tiny tomatoes, lots of baby squash, coming along. Onions are starting to swell out. Corn will be waist high soon.

Peas, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, & eggplant are all liking the sun. First harvest of garlic complete. Soft neck next.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Absolutely gorgeous, Begreen. I know you’ve had a hard time with the weather, but those photos don’t show it. Wow! Thanks for posting them.

 

[begreen]

Absolutely gorgeous, Begreen. I know you’ve had a hard time with the weather, but those photos don’t show it. Wow! Thanks for posting them.

Thanks. There are some advantages to a cool start to spring. The deer are not among them.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Beautiful gardens. Hopefully your weather is finally on the right road, all your hard work will pay off, and you'll have a great harvest.

 

[bigealta]

BeGreen,, How do you like the taste of that purplish garlic? I got a head of a purplish garlic at the store a few weeks ago and it tasted weird to me. Not sure if it had anything to do with the color (variety) or if something else was off with it?

It made my sauce taste off too so i ended up tossing it.

 

[Dan Freeman]

So far I've had 9 ripe tomatoes. I have gotten 3, and the chipmunks have gotten 6!

I wouldn't mind it if they ate one, but they love to take bites out of each one, the ones real close to the ground. I picked three more that are orange; I figured I would get them before Alvin and the boys do.

Tonight, I bought 3 small Havahart traps. My brother uses them to catch chipmunks in his garden. Once trapped, he does not release them somewhere else. He gives them each a swimming lesson, but so far none of them have proved to be good swimmers.

 

[begreen]

BeGreen,, How do you like the taste of that purplish garlic? I got a head of a purplish garlic at the store a few weeks ago and it tasted weird to me. Not sure if it had anything to do with the color (variety) or if something else was off with it?

It made my sauce taste off too so i ended up tossing it.

Love it. I don't know what it is anymore, we have been growing from the previous year's garlic. I remember it had rioja in the name, but that's all. It's strong and a bit peppery, but that is fine. Our white garlic is coming along and will be picked in a few weeks. That's milder garlic.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

These will take care of chipmunks all day long, cheeeeeeeppppp!

VICTOR M9 RAT SNAP TRAPS E/T - BOX/12 | Bug Off Pest Control Center

Sold in boxes of 12 rat-sized snap traps with extended triggers.

www.bugoffpccenter.com

The problem with trapping chipmunks is you remove the ones there and the ones next door decide to move in. It never stops.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Picked a bunch of orange tomatoes today...the low ones before the chipmunks get them. I'll have to let them ripen in the kitchen, but they are never as good as tomatoes that totally ripen on the vine. Also picked peas and string beans that we'll have for dinner tonight.

 

[Dan Freeman]

These will take care of chipmunks all day long, cheeeeeeeppppp!

VICTOR M9 RAT SNAP TRAPS E/T - BOX/12 | Bug Off Pest Control Center

Sold in boxes of 12 rat-sized snap traps with extended triggers.

www.bugoffpccenter.com

The problem with trapping chipmunks is you remove the ones there and the ones next door decide to move in. It never stops.

Not sure about that. When I had my gardens in my backyard, I used to use 5-gallon buckets with a rotating pipe drilled through two sides at the top and loaded with peanut butter and sunflower seeds. I would place a ramp going up with a couple of seeds at the top of the ramp. After the chipmunks ate "the bait", they would venture out on the rotating pipe and fall into the water and drown. I found that after a while, I would find no more drowned chipmunks, and my tomatoes stopped having bites taken out of them. It didn't take long to get rid of the chipmunks in the immediate area, and other chipmunks would not take their place.

 

[Poindexter]

Those of you that have grown Amish Paste, do these look OK?

I posted a pic from about the same spot Monday - post #748/ page 30 this thread- six days ago.

I feel like I got pretty good growth this week, both plants have about doubled in volume above ground, but even watering 2 quarts each plant three times daily I still have curly leaves pretty much all the time. I can't find any yellow spots, no purple staining on the stems or leaves. There are 10 gnats on stem, 8 of those are dead.

I have the determinate variety that should top out around 48 inches height, then blossom, then fruit. Heavily. I was gonna re-feed on July 3, tomorrow, but I have decided to wait a couple more days because the wild fire smoke has been blocking the sun. Maybe hold off to the 5th or 6th.

Second pic is a typical branch for me, 18" from the crease of my elbow to the tips of my fingers. On the one hand the branches are kinda droopy, but they are carrying a lot of leaf weight that looks like healthy leaf to me.

I as going to continue heavy on the next feed with fish meal for nitrogen, with more kelp meal and more green sand. I am kinda thinking about maybe some calcium nitrate sooner rather than later. I have a bunch of rock phospate in the bottom of the transplant hole with ongoing bonemeal for P and only a little bit of K in the kelp meal.

Thanks

 

[Poindexter]

I can't find anything concerning on the individual leaves, just the stems are droopy. Overall the pair of them do look like tomato plants, but the leaves are a little bit on the freakish side. And I found a couple whopper leaves like these out at the tips of the lower stems.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I have never grown Amish Paste, but I imagine that’s just a trait of the plant. Maybe exasperated by the heavy feeding and water regimen.

 

[EbS-P]

My dad and I took azalea cuttings yesterday. Probably 200 split across 6 varieties. A 2.5 quart potted plant from the big box store goes for 17$.

In 6 weeks we will repot to 6” pots. Not sure how we will water 200 pots yet but we will figure that out. Probably will need 12-18 months the pot. Not food but definitely will be appreciated in 5 years or so.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I know how you’ll water them!
























One at a time!!

Rotflmao

 

[begreen]

Those of you that have grown Amish Paste, do these look OK?

I posted a pic from about the same spot Monday - post #748/ page 30 this thread- six days ago.

I feel like I got pretty good growth this week, both plants have about doubled in volume above ground, but even watering 2 quarts each plant three times daily I still have curly leaves pretty much all the time. I can't find any yellow spots, no purple staining on the stems or leaves. There are 10 gnats on stem, 8 of those are dead.

I have the determinate variety that should top out around 48 inches height, then blossom, then fruit. Heavily. I was gonna re-feed on July 3, tomorrow, but I have decided to wait a couple more days because the wild fire smoke has been blocking the sun. Maybe hold off to the 5th or 6th.

Second pic is a typical branch for me, 18" from the crease of my elbow to the tips of my fingers. On the one hand the branches are kinda droopy, but they are carrying a lot of leaf weight that looks like healthy leaf to me.

I as going to continue heavy on the next feed with fish meal for nitrogen, with more kelp meal and more green sand. I am kinda thinking about maybe some calcium nitrate sooner rather than later. I have a bunch of rock phospate in the bottom of the transplant hole with ongoing bonemeal for P and only a little bit of K in the kelp meal.

Thanks

View attachment 296707 View attachment 296708

I don't see anything alarming. They are being super fed so that may be causing excess leaf growth spurts. Tomato leaves can be quite varied. Here is a picture of our early girl last yr in August. Note the leaves. This plant provided tomatoes in the greenhouse until January.


3 quarts of water 3 times a day seems excessive unless the plants are in sand. Our plants get less than half that. If you burrow your fingers into the soil does it feel damp? If so, don't water. Too much water will damage the roots. I am watering our potted tomatoes once every 3 or so days and about 2-3 quarts at that time. FWIW, our plants are in smaller containers than your large 25 gallon buckets. Most of our tomatoes are in raised beds, but I have some experimental varieties in pots. When the plants get much larger, they will need more water. You may be able to get away with deep watering, say a gallon or two, once a week. Definitely don't overwater when the plants have mature fruit or it may split.

How Often Do You Water Tomato Plants in Garden Beds or Pots?

How often do you water tomato plants? It depends on many factors like weather, soil and how you're growing the plants. Read on to learn more!

savvygardening.com

Do the barrels have good drainage? That is important. Tomatoes don't like soggy soil.

 

[Dan Freeman]

This morning, after digging and pulling one of our garlic plants, we decided to pull all of them. 51 heads of garlic, some the size of golf balls, but most the size of tennis balls. We will use the largest to plant in August for next year. We have them drying on the front porch in the shade right now.


I also FINALLY got the air conditioner I bought for the cellar last August installed today. We have a dehumidifier in the cellar that keeps the humidity low, but I also want to lower the temperature somewhat since we will be storing our potatoes, beets, and turnips down there this year. The spring, fall, and winter are not a problem as far as temperature, but it can get warm down there in the summer.





I also took these pics today of "volunteer" sunflowers. I imagine they were seeded from one of our bird feeders during the winter. Sometimes the 1st inch or so gets caked because of moisture. One of us must have dumped these seeds into this garden bed over the wall in our backyard.

 

[begreen]

I took a shot of our Blue Beech. The foliage is similar to the Amish Paste. It is in recovery mode from the deer attack, but doing well. It is definitely not suffering from too little watering.

 

[begreen]

The garlic and sunflowers look great. Super healthy roots on them, Dan.

 

[EbS-P]

I know how you’ll water them!
One at a time!!

Rotflmao

Once they go in pots they will get automatically watered with a sprinkler system. Or they’ll die. I have 5 kids so unless it’s set it and forget it it probably is more trouble than it’s worth. Right now they are on a timer system in their little shady greenhouse.

 

[clancey]

Everything looks just great even with the crazy weather and those garlic's are big and healthy looking. My tomato "bush" is growing but not tomato's as of yet--no yellow flower buds as of yet and I have not seen any "bee's or wasps" this year I guess they are waiting until it gets hotter. The neighbor gave me two kinds of hedges and I really do not know what they are and later I will take some pictures of them...I think one is a boxwood or something..but not sure...Everything looks great including the ones in the real hot weather down south--been hot on the east and south and its been cooler here..but today it was in the 90's but now it is raining and this is good and cooling it off a bit. Good timing on getting that ac finished...lol clancey

 

[Poindexter]

Appreciate the various tomato pictures.

I am probably not the first person this far north to try Amish Paste, but online info is sparse.

I do have a dozen quarter inch holes in each of the two planters. Watering half gallon each three times daily I am getting, total for the day, less than a pint on the patio under both planters combined. Growth in this phase is much improved, compared to watering two quarts each plant twice daily.

I am not sure how well acclimated the variety is to having 20+ hours of daylight every day.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

So here a pic of the garden today.. tomato plants are between 4 and 5 ft with a couple branches at 6ft.. we picked alot Saturday.. 1 bag cubanella peppers 1 bag green/red bell peppers 2 bags steing beans 1/2 bag zucchini.. all grocery size bags. the onion are almost baseball size now. 3 heads of Roman lettuce.. lots of production out of my sqft.. my sons doing an outstanding job helping out..

 

[begreen]

Wow, that is outstanding. There's a reason NJ is called the Garden State. We are easily a month behind this year.

 

[Dan Freeman]

We put in a full day of work cutting the grass in the front and back yards.

I also removed one of the 8 x 2 raised beds near the house (lump of raised soil in this pic) and all the river rocks that were between it and the raised bed closest to the house. The raised bed was too rotted to reuse, and the one against the house I have to replace the front 10 x 2. I'll pick it up tomorrow at Lowes or Home Depot. I saved about 6 5-gallon buckets of river rock that we will be able to use in the pond down in the FF.



I picked some more tomatoes today:



And I picked our first "tasting" of Shishito Peppers. 22 in all.