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Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

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Picked my 2nd through 5th cucumbers Wednesday night. Decided to give fermented pickles a try. Day 2 and not a lot going on yet.
 
i planted real late, my tiller had to be rebuilt and way too wet here I had foot of weeds and grass to get rid of and that was back breaking but my tomato plants from seed are producing hand ball size right now, just planted the green beens 2 weeks ago and they are already 4" tall , just the right sun and rain. my squash came up as all male and are flouring so no buds, lettuce is doing great and has been picked once, I have a 12' run of leaf and Romain, I have half a garden bare though caught between seasons probably 12' x 20', weeds are shooting up again
 
i planted real late, my tiller had to be rebuilt and way too wet here I had foot of weeds and grass to get rid of and that was back breaking but my tomato plants from seed are producing hand ball size right now, just planted the green beens 2 weeks ago and they are already 4" tall , just the right sun and rain. my squash came up as all male and are flouring so no buds, lettuce is doing great and has been picked once, I have a 12' run of leaf and Romain, I have half a garden bare though caught between seasons probably 12' x 20', weeds are shooting up again

The male flowers blossom first. Give 'em another week.
 
Sharing a pic of my fermenting pickles. This morning I'm seeing the brine turning cloudy(60 hours). Cukes are changing color. I also whipped up a batch of kimchi last nght(not from my garden though). Seemed dry after 12 hours so I added some water. Fingers crossed!

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Today I replanted tomatoes and squash(zucchinis and yellow). After the hail storm we had 15 days of over 105F temps that killed many of the survivors. A few tomatoes and all my eggplants survived, very strange. Our monsoon season starts soon, so we'll have plenty(for our area) of rainfall that will make my veggies take off like rockets.
Luckily our growing season lasts well into November, in fact our best harvests start in October usually.
 
Got blight again on tomatoes. I think they are to close together and not trimmed enough. Next year i am going to spray fungicide as a preventative technique. Also trim quicker as i see trouble brewing. Anyways trimmed and sprayed today. But i am a little jealous of harbortownbrewing because my bannana pepper is little.
 
. But i am a little jealous of harbortownbrewing because my bannana pepper is little.

Hey man, sometimes it's alright to be a shower not a grower.

Alright alright back to the topic at hand.

I've still got just a few strawberries poking through. I'm going to milk that plant until I can't get anything else.

Bell peppers seem to have doubled over night. It's a fun time of year for plants, though it's starting to feel like summer is over now that the 4th has passed.
 
Apparently one of the bell peppers I bought is a banana pepper. Strange since I bought the bells as a 4-pack.
 
Corn is 8ft tall now and starting to silk. Purple hulls will be picked today for the first time. My pepper plants are all loaded too. We have cut, bagged, labeled and froze about 15 lbs of extra squash.

SWMBO and I are preparing for a vacation to San Antonia starting tomorrow so I have to get the garden cultivated today. Someone will be watering it for us while we are gone thankfully.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!
 
Tomatoes are not going gangbusters like last year. Might be the cool damp weather we had early this summer, or the particular strain, or both.

My Zucchini are waist high, though, and the leaves are the size of basketballs. Already picked about a half-dozen fruits between the 3 plants to start with.

Forgot to string up my cucumbers this time though. Can I still do that if I'm careful? I like the thought of getting them off the ground.
 
Tomatoes are not going gangbusters like last year. Might be the cool damp weather we had early this summer, or the particular strain, or both.

My Zucchini are waist high, though, and the leaves are the size of basketballs. Already picked about a half-dozen fruits between the 3 plants to start with.

Forgot to string up my cucumbers this time though. Can I still do that if I'm careful? I like the thought of getting them off the ground.

I agree, its the cool damp weather. I am fighting blight here, but man gangbusters. Need more toxic spray. Haha i grow kale every year and feed the bugs every year. You can string them up, as a fellow string tickler, i have total faith in you. However, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 
Tomatoes are not going gangbusters like last year. Might be the cool damp weather we had early this summer, or the particular strain, or both.


It is probably the damp component. Tomato plants prefer cooler temps but not constantly moist soil. Letting the roots get "dry" and then soaking, then dry then soaking and so on is what Tomato plants respond best to. Make sure you do not have any leaves touching the ground, particularly with damp soil, as this is a pathway for disease. A hard pruning up the stem is always a good thing for tomato plants. Too many suckers equals reduced fruit output anyway.
 
Some heavy storms rolled through the last 24 hours and I came home to find my hops on the ground because the twine broke. Tried to restring them, but it broke again. Going to have a bit of an issue if I can't get it restrung to the existing twine, because I have about three bines running tightly around a weak string of twine.
 
Some heavy storms rolled through the last 24 hours and I came home to find my hops on the ground because the twine broke. Tried to restring them, but it broke again. Going to have a bit of an issue if I can't get it restrung to the existing twine, because I have about three bines running tightly around a weak string of twine.

Just an idea:

Buy some sisal rope to string up the hops. Also buy something to tie up the plant (narrow elastic, cut nylons, plant ties, etc.) Tie the growth to the rope.
 
Just an idea:

Buy some sisal rope to string up the hops. Also buy something to tie up the plant (narrow elastic, cut nylons, plant ties, etc.) Tie the growth to the rope.

Thanks, yeah I think that's what I'm going to have to resort to doing.

It's all just kind of a mess because I have my hops strung from a pergola which, with any luck, I'll be replacing this summer/fall (pending the City's repair of neighboring infrastructure which impacts my pergola). So, it's never easy.

Flowers took a bit of a beating from the wind and the rain too (almost sounds like a James Taylor song). They WERE I have my hops strung from a pergola which, with any luck, I'll be replacing this summer/fall (pending the City's repair of neighboring infrastructure which impacts my pergola). So, it's never easy.

pretty perky and standing tall, now they seem a little wilted and stunted. Anything I can do, or just let them be?

I don't have kids, so...this little garden of mine is kinda like my family. Right now the flowers look like a bunch of 17 year olds who started drinking and smoking when they were 13 - short and dis-colored.
 
Thanks, yeah I think that's what I'm going to have to resort to doing.

It's all just kind of a mess because I have my hops strung from a pergola which, with any luck, I'll be replacing this summer/fall (pending the City's repair of neighboring infrastructure which impacts my pergola). So, it's never easy.

Flowers took a bit of a beating from the wind and the rain too (almost sounds like a James Taylor song). They WERE I have my hops strung from a pergola which, with any luck, I'll be replacing this summer/fall (pending the City's repair of neighboring infrastructure which impacts my pergola). So, it's never easy.

pretty perky and standing tall, now they seem a little wilted and stunted. Anything I can do, or just let them be?

I don't have kids, so...this little garden of mine is kinda like my family. Right now the flowers look like a bunch of 17 year olds who started drinking and smoking when they were 13 - short and dis-colored.

Check your moisture levels, the hops may need more water or need to dry out. Otherwise, get them off the ground and let them be. Hard to say with the flowers. Wait and see if they grow out of it and maybe prune the worst ones. I'd guess the flowers are still relatively young?
 
More 7 Pots and Aji Citos plus my Beni Highlands are starting to turn. I just picked a few for a color comparison. I like to leave enough of the first ones on the plants longer for better seed stock.
KPmrOuq.jpg


These Beni's are kinda cool for a chinense. Nowhere near as hot as most habs and very prolific in a variety of climates.
C2Bkrzh.jpg
 
It is probably the damp component. Tomato plants prefer cooler temps but not constantly moist soil. Letting the roots get "dry" and then soaking, then dry then soaking and so on is what Tomato plants respond best to. Make sure you do not have any leaves touching the ground, particularly with damp soil, as this is a pathway for disease. A hard pruning up the stem is always a good thing for tomato plants. Too many suckers equals reduced fruit output anyway.

Exactly, and not only the soil but the air. When it's really humid and or hot, the blooms fall off because they aren't self pollinating. The pollen gets sticky and isn't dry/powdery as it normally would be. If your plants are indeterminate and you have a longer growing season it's not too big of a deal, but if you have determinates and a shorter growing season I imagine it would have a pretty negative impact on tomato production during a particularly wet year. My tomatoes really aren't doing good this year and it's probably for the mentioned reasons because I'm getting lots of blooms, luckily I have about 15 plants, so each plant has at least 4-6 on it right now.

More 7 Pots and Aji Citos plus my Beni Highlands are starting to turn. I just picked a few for a color comparison. I like to leave enough of the first ones on the plants longer for better seed stock.
KPmrOuq.jpg


These Beni's are kinda cool for a chinense. Nowhere near as hot as most habs and very prolific in a variety of climates.
C2Bkrzh.jpg

Very nice! I'm jealous!


Here is a photo of last night's harvest. I'm actually taking a water break from weeding right now.

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Are those small Chinese yard long beans? Or one of the other purple varieties that I had no idea grew so large?
 
Are those small Chinese yard long beans? Or one of the other purple varieties that I had no idea grew so large?

They are just the basic purple hulls that are very popular here in the south. The variety I bought from the Co-op was labeled something like "Pink Eye Top Crop". Top crops are the bush varieties that don't need to be staked, and the beans grow pointing up making for easy picking. In the south, purple hulls are valued above all other garden crops by most people. Purple Hulls are actually the only kind of bean I'm somewhat familiar with growing.....hah well besides soybean (lots of Soybeans grown commercially here in AR) and that doesn't count! I'd say about 95% of all gardens around here that have any kind of beans or peas, have Purple Hulls. I need to learn about the beans varieties that can be grown in the fall or early spring.

Oh and Pintos are being grown more here, but I'm not even going to open up that can of worms.
 
Try the Liana yard long variety. Very tasty and they tolerate northern growing seasons well.

52 days One of the earliest bearing asparagus beans. Like most black-seeded varieties it does well in the North and the South. Since it is day-neutral, in the South it can be planted for early market sales, late for a fall harvest, or year-round in the greenhouse. Green pods up to 23 in. long, but are best picked at 18 in. or smaller (less than pencil-width). A market favorite.
 
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