Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[bleme]

My 'free' Early Girls are planted side-by-side. Both are over 5 feet tall now. One has 10 tomatoes while the other doesn't even have blossoms. The unproductive one also has a bunch of leaves on the lower half that are drying up for some reason. Google told me to add Epsom salt, so I did that 4 days ago. We'll see if it helps.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm in the Chicago area and we planted one week too early in may. Even though I covered them I lost about 30 plants due to a deep frost. Re-planted and the garden it doing well this season:

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

 

[HoppyDaze]

We have companies here that will blow it right into your garden bed.

 

[mbg]

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

Yes, rabbits! That's the reason I built these. They are tall because I searched their leaping height. I had the dirt, actually garden mix, brought in by truck and dumped in the driveway. Is lot of work using wheelbarrow but I was able to just dump the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and into the boxes using a small ramp.

We really like these but there are some issues to deal with. First, with the garden mix, the soil level drops about 4" per year. Second, I use soaker hoses but the water drains through the boxes quickly so they require watering often.

If you plan to build these I'm glad I did my research you need to seal the bottom with metal hardware fencing with 1/2" openings. This is to prevent your garden from being attacked from below!

BTW - for the past two years we have not seen a single rabbit. Seems the influx of coyotes has taken car of them.

Mike

 

[Deadalus]

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

I have raised beds too, a board shorter than mbg's. I haven't gone the route of delivery of compost/garden soil to finish filling so they are still shorter on the inside. One thing you can do to augment your beds is to take the topsoil from between the beds and add that to the raised beds. I compost heavily too, all leaves and lawn clippings go into a compost bin in the back and we have a tumbler composter for kitchen waste. I make a "lasagna" of last year's leaves and this years grass clippings which helps to speed decomposition. I've got a garden on the larger side so it's been slow getting the soil worked up the way I would like. Still have a few rows needing a good layer of compost.

Bad year here for peppers, even the local greenhouse was having trouble with pepper starts. I've had great luck for once with lettuce, romaine, and spinach this year, some small radishes, broccoli rabe, and peas are finally producing (super slow). Tomatoes too slow starts, I started indoors on heating pads, and transferred to a portable greenhouse but they wouldn't take off. Ended up getting a number of cells from the local greenhouse. They are getting going now.

 

[Deadalus]

I love these clips. Obviously it’s nothing that you cant get done with ties, but what the heck. You’re already $100 in on your free maters, what’s another $12?

https://www.amazon.com/LEOBRO-Suppo...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

I use these too and recommend for indeterminate types. I grow my tomatoes on twine lines stretched between green fence posts. The clips are reusable as are the posts.

 

[bleme]

I use these too and recommend for indeterminate types. I grow my tomatoes on twine lines stretched between green fence posts. The clips are reusable as are the posts.View attachment 685675

I did end up buying those clips and they work great. My tomatoes are next to a fence that I nailed a sheet of vinyl covered chicken wire to. I zig-zagged butcher twine over that to clip the tomatoes to. So far it seems to be working OK, I just wish that one plant would start producing!

BTW, for my birthday this week, my wife got me a bunch of plants and pots from the nursery: oregano, rosemary, jalapenos, cayenne, padron and strawberries!

 

[user 211287]

Jalalpenos are producing and them damn Numex Orange Spice are scorchers. I sampled a tiny one out of curiosity. It has to be 3 times hotter or more than a typical jalapeno.

Store bought black jala(left) next to Spicy Slice(middle) and Early Flame(right). All got a nice jala flavor and average heat.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Got lots of stuff popping up now. My first round of bush beans are ready to be picked.
Squash and zucchini (vine and bush varieties) are coming along.
My Rutgers tomatoes are beginning to produce.
The jalafuego, habenero, and cayenne are all starting to produce.
My blueberries are beginning to ripen.
I'm pretty sure that most of the tomato plants that seeded themselves in my garden are San Marzano, and one of them is a box car willie.

 

[applescrap]

Awesome gardens! Looks like everyone is off to a dashing start. Glad to see I think some new faces this year. It was cold or hail or something so we got started late too. Wanted to start everything from seeds but another year goes by without getting anything done. We have been camping and up in breck, but the person getting mail said that there was a lot of bunnies in our yard. Ugh!! Nothing new, except this beauty(shrub head to poly connector) , I am now watering my entire garden and flowers with the sprinkler system. Unbelievably one zone is running two different areas. I have two 100 foot or 50 or whatever plastic pipes running off shrub heads I found in yard. Something like 75 heads, which is another confirmation my vision was correct. It all started with a hydroponic pic that I posted maybe a year or two ago. Because the sprinkler runs a half hour it is tricky to get water right and essentially these get flooded every couple days. Dont want to see water bill.

But anyways so glad to not be using timer and seal cock this year. As the last 4 or 5 years no work other than planting. Watering is completely automated and food is slow release. Ill update when I get home from breck as these are from a week or two ago, plus initial planting. I used scots grubex in yard to hopefully slow japanese beattles this year. But wonder if neighbors dont use it, if it matters. Also proactively sprayed insecticide on plants this year.

 

[SirHC_]

Yes, rabbits! That's the reason I built these. They are tall because I searched their leaping height. I had the dirt, actually garden mix, brought in by truck and dumped in the driveway. Is lot of work using wheelbarrow but I was able to just dump the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and into the boxes using a small ramp.

We really like these but there are some issues to deal with. First, with the garden mix, the soil level drops about 4" per year. Second, I use soaker hoses but the water drains through the boxes quickly so they require watering often.

If you plan to build these I'm glad I did my research you need to seal the bottom with metal hardware fencing with 1/2" openings. This is to prevent your garden from being attacked from below!

BTW - for the past two years we have not seen a single rabbit. Seems the influx of coyotes has taken car of them.

Mike

Likewise have raised beds filled w a mix of log chuncks and large branches, soil i dug out from the bottom of the bed before placing the logs in, and topped w bagged soil from HD. As the wood and other filler materials decompose they add nutrients and really hel ppl w water retention.
Look up hugelculture. It's made a world of difference in my water usage.

BTW, I have 7 tomatoes and ~12 pepper plants. Just sweet banana peppers for the kids and "super chili" for me. Depending on how they produce, I'm going to try my hand at hot sauce this fall. 6 varieties of tomatoes including black zebra, Chapman, early girl, grape tomatoes for the kids, brandywine and a mystery one...?

 

[Deadalus]

Likewise have raised beds filled w a mix of log chuncks and large branches, soil i dug out from the bottom of the bed before placing the logs in, and topped w bagged soil from HD. As the wood and other filler materials decompose they add nutrients and really hel ppl w water retention.
Look up hugelculture. It's made a world of difference in my water usage.

BTW, I have 7 tomatoes and ~12 pepper plants. Just sweet banana peppers for the kids and "super chili" for me. Depending on how they produce, I'm going to try my hand at hot sauce this fall. 6 varieties of tomatoes including black zebra, Chapman, early girl, grape tomatoes for the kids, brandywine and a mystery one...?

I have two hugelkultur beds and plan to slowly convert the rest. I'll be doing one this summer. We collect a lot of sticks and branches in my yard, the ones we don't use for the fireplace are collected into a pile and I think it is big enough to convert the next bed. I also have some oddball firewood pieces to add in . I have a strawberry patch started on one this year and another bed is for pollinators with wildflowers and a couple of perennials in it too.

 

[benco]

My first Trinidad scorpion.

 

[bleme]

I’m redoing a brick planter and was thinking I should line the walls to prevent leaks, especially on the house side. Any suggestions on effective, cost efficient solutions? I've considered 4 mil plastic, Wonderboard or maybe Regard liquid waterproofing between 2 layers of Quikrete Wall Float, but currently leaning toward CompoSeal Blue PVC shower pan liner as it is super tough and $.88/sf.

 

[501irishred]

I used scots grubex in yard to hopefully slow japanese beattles this year. But wonder if neighbors dont use it, if it matters.

if you have a lot of grubs, I highly recommend using “milky spores”. I was told about it by our Cooperative extension when I was “invaded”. This is my second season with it and I think I only found 2 or 3 grubs while turning my beds this year vs hundreds before. We mostly had June bug grubs with a few Japanese beetle grubs thrown in for good measure. It seems to take em all out but didn’t hurt the earth worms at all. It is supposed to last up to 20 years per the bag instructions, but they (extension folks) recommend reapplying every 5-10 years “as needed”.
The only down side is my kids didn’t get to have a pet robin this year. They fed those birds so many grubs that a pair of robins would follow them around anytime they were outside.....

 

[user 211287]

Both Chilhuacle ***** are producing now.

Aji Amarillo

One Aji Oro is just loaded with small pods considering its early still

Joes Long Cayenne are both loaded too.

Antep Aci Dolma has a bunch of pods just starting.

This is why i love CARDI scorpions. They grow like mad and produce soon for a super.

Checkout the size of my mammoth sunflowers

Deck crew

Lower patio crew

Peno and panca patch. Also had some volunteer long beans pop so i made a cheap trellis for them

And drum rollllllllll please............late starts..3 brown mutant Reapers (back) and 2 extra Death Spiral. I should get at least a few ripe before the season is over.

 

[z-bob]

I'm about to pull put most of my tomatoes. the plants looked good until 2 days ago when a couple of them suddenly and profoundly wilted. They recovered a bit overnight, but then wilted even more. The one that wilted first looks almost dead. I had this problem last year, but I thought I had burned them with too much fertilizer; that's definitely not the case this year. My soil must have some kind of disease in it. If I them up now, maybe I can still plant turnips or something where they were.

*One *plant looks okay. It's a different variety (but oddly it's one without any disease resistance, and they all succumbed last year but at least it was later in the season so I still got a few) It gets to stay.

The peppers look good but they are still tiny and not blooming yet. Peppers usually do most of their growth here in August, so I might still get something out of them. This year has been miserable for gardening, just like it's miserable for everything else.

 

[bleme]

I'm about to pull put most of my tomatoes. the plants looked good until 2 days ago when a couple of them suddenly and profoundly wilted. They recovered a bit overnight, but then wilted even more. The one that wilted first looks almost dead. I had this problem last year, but I thought I had burned them with too much fertilizer; that's definitely not the case this year. My soil must have some kind of disease in it. If I them up now, maybe I can still plant turnips or something where they were.

*One *plant looks okay. It's a different variety (but oddly it's one without any disease resistance, and they all succumbed last year but at least it was later in the season so I still got a few) It gets to stay.

The peppers look good but they are still tiny and not blooming yet. Peppers usually do most of their growth here in August, so I might still get something out of them. This year has been miserable for gardening, just like it's miserable for everything else.

https://www.gardenmanage.com/status...sionally suffer from,leaf drop and fruit loss.

 

[z-bob]

https://www.gardenmanage.com/status...sionally suffer from,leaf drop and fruit loss.

Thanks. But none of those descriptions match my plants. There is no yellowing, no brown or black spots, no dropped leaves. The plants have plenty of water; the ground is damp from recent rain but not waterlogged. The leaves just shrivel up without discoloring, like they need water. The next morning, the plant looks almost recovered, then when the sun comes up (but it's not hot here, 70's this week) they wilt even more than the day before. After a few days, they don't recover overnight. The stems look fine, no dark streaks. And no insect damage. I think it's some kind of vascular disease.

 

[501irishred]

if you have a lot of grubs, I highly recommend using “milky spores”. I was told about it by our Cooperative extension when I was “invaded”.

Thanks. But none of those descriptions match my plants. There is no yellowing, no brown or black spots, no dropped leaves. The plants have plenty of water; the ground is damp from recent rain but not waterlogged. The leaves just shrivel up without discoloring, like they need water. The next morning, the plant looks almost recovered, then when the sun comes up (but it's not hot here, 70's this week) they wilt even more than the day before. After a few days, they don't recover overnight. The stems look fine, no dark streaks. And no insect damage. I think it's some kind of vascular disease.

So if you end up pulling them, dig up around them and see if you find a bunch of grubs. Your story sounds all too familiar. It’s possible they (the scourge) are eating the roots and basically starving the plants. At least that’s what appeared to be the case with mine in years past.

 

[z-bob]

There are a lot of grubs here. Not sure if they are Junebugs or Japanese beetles. I'm about to go pull up the worst of the plants and examine the roots. Maybe plant some flower seeds where it was.

I emailed my brother the horticulture major and he gave me a list of unpronounceable diseases. Grubs would be a lot easier to deal with, either with a pesticide drench or "milky spore". Thanks.

 

[501irishred]

Not sure if they are Junebugs or Japanese beetles

I spent a lot of time starring at grub asses....er, I mean rasters through a magnifying glass, trying to identify them. In the end, if it turns out to be your problem, there is seemingly no difference in dealing with them anyway. A dead grub is a good grub in my book.

 

[applescrap]

Update, preemptively sprayed insect killer. Everything looks well and the tomatoes are hard to see with the cages and all but they are growing nicely and are almost out of cage, then phase two of stringing them up begins.

 

[Hanglow]

Nice. What variety of tomatoes are you growing? I've only got tigerella this year, from old seeds - was wanting to grow a few different ones but that plan got COVIDed

my plants are taking off now, it takes a while for them to go this far north

 

[applescrap]

Nice. What variety of tomatoes are you growing? I've only got tigerella this year, from old seeds - was wanting to grow a few different ones but that plan got COVIDed

my plants are taking off now, it takes a while for them to go this far north

I grow a variety, not something I pay enough attention to though. Over the years we have planted many. This year I think those fruit from picture are san marzano. We always do a few dererminate, and a few indeterminate. Dont know why the determinate dont do that well. I like cherry and do a few varieties of those. And I have stopped with thr purple krem because the wife isnt a huge fan. Although I think we have one. Ill take a look and report back if there is anything interesting. One of those peppers is that penis plant so that should be umm interesting.
The peppers are fruiting but I think over watered from drip lines. It has been so cool to get back from camping and check on garden. I put no effort other than the obvious once they start growing. That soil in the bags is unbelievablely old potting mix. Maybe next year. Cant wait to start drinking mojitos with the spearmint and using the chives and parsley more. The chives taste yummy. The garlic chives not so much.

 

[bleme]

View attachment 686726

That rosemary is looking good! This is my 3rd attempt at rosemary and it doesn't look like this one is going to make it either.

 

[applescrap]

@bleme i wonder if it just doesnt grow well there? It grows fairly well here. My friend would bring us garbage bags full from her moms texas ranch. So I am guessing it grows really well there.

Arghhh first hail threat of year. And of course luck

would have it, no hail. It only hails when we dont put it up.

 

[Miller4]

Just found this thread, our garden is doing great this year so far. It’s the first year we’ve had the space and gumption to get a bigger garden in.

 

[corkybstewart]

we moved acrossthestate 18 months ago-from 3100' to 6200', new soil, new climate new problems. Our house is on a granite ridge so the soil is essentially sand. I've been introducing a lot of organic matter-store boiught compost and homemade compost, but I still have a way to go on good soil. The problems has been the packrats-everything I planted last spring was eaten at the ground level and hauled away within hours. This year I've created a chicken wire Ft. Knox with multiple layers of defense against the rats. Finally I have squash, tomatoes, egg plants, beets and carrots growing. The rats got all my broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, etc early in the season but I think the rat problem is finally controlled with traps, live traps, and multiple layers of chicken wire.
The soil has killed probably 60 rhyzomes of different varieties that I brought with me when we moved. I'm done trying with the hops.

 

[z-bob]

I spent a lot of time starring at grub asses....er, I mean rasters through a magnifying glass, trying to identify them. In the end, if it turns out to be your problem, there is seemingly no difference in dealing with them anyway. A dead grub is a good grub in my book.

I pulled up a couple of the tomato plants, and there were *no* grubs in the area (I would have expected a couple even if that's not the problem) The roots looked good, there was no discoloration at the base of the stem. No borers, either. Everything looked good except the plants were dying. I assume it's just Verticillium or Fusarium wilt -- but the most affected plants were the Jet Stars, and that's one of the varieties the University of Nebraska specifically recommends for its wilt resistance.

I dug up a healthy volunteer tomato seedling and put it in a huge pot my wife had a passionflower vine in last year. There's no telling what kind of tomato it is, but that's part of the charm of raising volunteers. Also I have tomatillos coming up all over the place, and I transplanted a couple of those (big ones, blooming already) to a better spot where they won't be shading out my pepper plants, and they seem to have transplanted very well. If they don't succumb to the same disease, I should get a lot of tomatillos.

My dill is ready to pick now, but the cucumbers won't be along for at least another month (they have a few buds but are not blooming yet) I wonder if I can pickle some dill (just pack a jar with dill heads and stalks and fill with hot vinegar-water and a little salt) Then add a little of that vinegar and a few dill pieces to my jars of pickles when the cukes are ready? I've tried freezing dill before, and that didn't work very well.