Kent; I've had wilt problem here too. wife bought great looking toms, but only 1 of 6 survived. I was given a 6 pack of big boy. same thing, wilt. So I went and bought another 6 pack Early Girl. crossing my fingers-
So far they are holding up. so I have one that looks great and is blooming and between rains I've been tying it up. The others have a ways to go before I can even think of tying them up. I have 2 that were direct seeded early spring and they are nearly as big as one of the second planting and they look like they may be nearly as quick to mature as some of the others. Of course we are considerably behind any of the Southern gardens ( zone disadvantage). I might just try winter sowing next year.
The rest of the garden seems to be just fine. I guess it is just another bad year for tomatoes. It looks like I should have more than enough squash. Same with water melon. Of course the nasty bugs haven't come full force yet
General Discussions - 2010 - Chapter 32
I am so sorry about your tomatoes Kent after all the work you went to. That is terrible. And for the rest of you too. However, please keep it there.
My tomatoes look the best ever and I don't know why. They are over 2 feet tall and standing up there like trees. Trunks real thick. Not needing tying yet. I got a couple of plants from my sister who grows hers in her greenhouse until she puts them outside. One of them has a tomato about 4 inches across plus lots of little ones and the other one has small ones.
Mine are all blooming. Now the peppers are a different story. They look terrible. But they need heat. We finally got a day in the 70s today. First or 2nd one this year I think. That is how cold and wet it has been.
I don't know Russ, this is the first year I have tried winter sowing anything and what did come up are all far behind the rest of the stuff. But, I start everything else in the house.
Jeanette
Oh, Kent. I'm so sorry. I thought of you this morning, as I discovered my very first ripe KB's. They were hidden so far down in the foliage I didn't even know they were there. I wondered how yours were doing.
Mine bales are all doing well, and I wish I could get some of the produce to you...You are the reason for my success, and it just isn't fair that you not get the best results of all.
sigh...
Kent, Sorry to hear about your 'maters.
My neighbor who has a traditional garden has the left over seedlings that I started and didn't use, all of his have signs of wilt. Mine on the other hand have been producing for me for about two weeks.
My grape/cherry tomatoes are enough for my wife and I to have a handful each every night. My peppers are on their second batch of fruit. Egg plant is coming along nicely. Beans and corn still remain to be seen if they will produce well for me. I've had onsey's and twos'eys on the beans and the corn has silk showing on most of the stalks.
Mike
All: thanks for the condolences!!!
Glad to hear some of you are doing well. Best of luck.
I still have some that are doing OK: Cherokee Purples, Black Cherry, some young Big Boys, Amana Orange, Romas.
Better Boys looking stunted. Some signs of Early Blight. They usually go like gangbusters.
The whole situation has just got me baffled this year.
Neighbors have different issues: fruit worms, slugs, etc.
But, as Scarlett O'Hara said, "There's always tomorrow!"
We'll salvage what we can and "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming"! LOL
Kent
Good luck Kent, it has been a crazy year so far for my garden in general. My Better Boys in the old straw are huge, bushy, dark green and full of babies. The heirlooms I planted in the new straw only 2 weeks later (started from seed at the same time) look stunted and leggy. My peppers in the raised bed look the same. I'm wondering if my soil in the raised bed is TOO rich? A lot of compost and manure in there. I may add some Greensand, phosphate of some kind and even try Epsom salt too as a test. I'll try a different mix on each plant to see if there's a difference. Too hot, too humid.......
Doug
A friend said comfrey fertilizer was supposed to help with blossom-end rot and a few other tomato ailments because of the mineral and trace elements (calcium for one). I just used some for the first time the other day and so far, so good. It stinks worse than anything I've used yet, and doesn't wash off the hands very well either, so beware, lol. I also use fish emulsion, greensand, and bio-char (charcoal). The plants need to be as healthy as they can be to resist everything that's out to get them, so I dump everything I can get my hands on into the soil in the spring, fertilize a little along the way, then leave the results to Ma Nature! Sometimes she can be awfully cruel!
Say hello to my little friend, Sasha!
That's what the kids next door have named "her".
I first noticed her yesterday afternoon on our porch railing. I shooed her off and today, after my afternoon run, I saw her again out in the yard.
My bride took the pic from our porch. She wouldn't come down while I had Sasha! LOL
Kent
I say I say hellooo.
That one is different than what we have around here. Quite contrasting colors.
I don't think she will let you get that close any more. :>)
A lizard without legs . Nice , I hope she can stay safe .
Sasha showed up AGAIN, this time on the rug in front of our back door. My bride called me on the cell and said "that snake is not a dog, and has got to GO!"
When I got home, Sasha was "wondering" around the back yard, so I picked her up and we went for a little ride in my truck about 3/4 mile down the road to her new home.
We'll see if she can find her way back!! LOL
LOL, don't know anything about snakes Kent, but a lot of animals 3/4 mile would be nothing. Just part of the back yard. Good luck. Too bad it won't stay out of the house 'cause snakes eat a lot of bugs etc in your garden. But it might eat frogs too and frogs eat bugs.
BUT, I had a frog one year that, no matter how it happened, the frog ended up in the house. Might be the same with the snake.
It would be kind of sad if the snake showed up again at the door and your wife decided that was it!! So, if it does, why not make it a place of it's own somewhere that it would be happy and so would your wife. Now, where would that be????
Why not do a little research on line about that particular kind of snake and see why he is attracted to your house? Maybe you cook something it likes the smell of? Are you growing a houseplant it likes? Does your wife use a particular perfume it smells? How about your aftershave? Maybe your toothpaste? LOL on and on.
Made my trip to N C and had a great time . We stayed at Hampton Inn in Chappel Hill but the wedding was at a park I think was Anderson Point . "bout 30 miles away . Was real close to Kents home area but didn't get a chance to contact him, (you) . Me and D H wanted to spend 15 min and look at his garden layout . Was so hot the Sun we was there and with the new GREAT GB , had to keep him comfortable . I'll report we took backroads from there to Charlotte and saw some beautiful country ,plus great gardens .The soil looks like it will grow anything . I do hope they have had rain , I'm watering every day . So far , my toms are looking good , planted in last years hay. I'll have my first Beef Steak in a few days . My Beef Masters are way over my head and blooming thier little hearts out . Just loaded in toms .
Kent , i'm sorry for all your work and now wilting . Last year I thought I would lose everything , but pulled the wilt off and hit everything with fungiside every day or three and they slowly came out of it . Kept all really wet with lots of water . Maybe all isn't lost yet . Good luck with the rest of the season, and you sure live in a pretty part of the state .
I'll show you all the reason for the trip . Hope you all don't mind , but he IS my first .
Sally, what a beautiful baby. What is his name? Your first huh? They are always the best. You will always think of him as the first.
Sounds like you had a great time. It is always fun to see new scenery and states you have never seen before.
That is sure too bad you didn't get to see Kent's garden and tell him how to grow things. LOL Sorry Kent.
But he probably would have sicced Sasha on you. If she came home that is.
Thanks Jnette , but don't think Sasha and I would have any problem with each other . I've had pet snakes , skunks , racoons , rats ,pig , coupla tropical birds , and still have one ,and a lot of rescue dogs . I don't think I could teach Kent anything about gardens , he taught me how to get a decent tomato plant , at last . I gave up on growing toms after three tries here in Ga. I couldn't thank him enough
Yep that is my first GGB . His name is Sam .We took off to N C to meet him , he lives in Tex , but we had to leave a week before he was born , so all I had was pictures .My dd in law has a sister in Chapel Hill , whose daughter was getting married , so we were invited to join d d in law and d g d when they flew in for the wedding.
I've been all over the United States, but it's been years since I was in that area . Found my first gold at the Cotton Patch mine. Used to own an 18 wheeler with my ex and drove it , so not much of the country I haven't seen. Never been to Maine, Alaska or Hawaii.
I think Sam is beautiful too , hope it's not a case of " all crows think thier kids are the blackest " lol Thanks for the roses
Kent, Is Sasha a black snake? I know they're beneficial critters, especially for gardens, but I'll have to go along with your wife... Sasha better find another place to live!
Digger, Little Sam is a real cutie pie!!
Digger, you said you are growing Beef Master tomatoes now? What happened to those Black Russians you grew last year? Remember, you even sent me seeds for them. Mine are doing so well in all that rain we have had. They loved it. They all are covered width buds and blossoms. We have actually had 2 days now in the 70s. Boy do those tomatoes love that after all that rain.
I have a couple of larger plants my sister grew in her greenhouse and they have a lot of tomatoes on them so should be getting some ripe ones here in a couple of weeks. Got the bacon all ready.
I was giving Kent a rub, but all in fun. I truly am sorry about his plants getting diseased. Hopefully he can pull them out of it. You did. That was what I meant.
I remember you saying about driving truck. Don't think I would like that. H--l, I fall asleep as soon as we leave the driveway. Maybe when I was younger.
I was younger Jnette , About 25 yrs . I was amazed at the age of some of the women drivers , as old as I am now .
Those B R are a great flavor , but found out they rot so fast on the stem end when you take them in the house . They need to be worked up right away , just don't hold over .Other than that , I love them .
Thanks for the comment on Sam . I waited so long for him , D G D is in medical school and waited until she was 27 before getting married . DGS has been married for six years , and still putting it off . Told him he would be to old to enjoy a kid if he kept waiting . His wife is not really into kids , I told her that her own is different , that's a love she'll never know ,until she has one of her own.
I know you was rubbing Kent , but for sure , I wouldn't ever had the good luck with toms if it hadn't been for him and these strawbale forums
Have you used the plastic milk crates for any of yours ? Takes a lot of watering with the temps in the 90's. I'll post a pic later today . I'm saving all my composted hay & straw to plant in . Only growing toms this year .
Got my new room built a coupla weeks ago .No lot of time for garden . Have to finish it inside and run line and water and all for washer, dryer . Will enjoy having my deep freeze in there, instead of shop and where they are now, washer/dryer, will make a nice pantry . WHOOPEE
I was going to use the crates for them but the way we were planting it just worked out that, for some reason my peppers ended up in the crates. And then of all things which I have never had a problem with here, slugs have been eating them. The peppers were doing real good until then. Now I will try to get some coffee grounds around them.
I guess I am lucky then that I only ended up with one of the BR plants. You see, my thing is that every year I seem to try different tomatoes. I will plant at least one plant of ones I have really liked in past years and try new ones after that.
Your new room looks great! What are you going to do with the space underneath? Looks perfect for a root cellar.
Way to hot on that side for root cellar . Too cold in winter . That's my storage area for tools and stuff we use all the time in yard , mower , limb grinder , cement mixer , my special stuff that I will use (someday) like that picture window in the room and louvered doors .
Remember that area I dug out a coupla years ago with a shovel and a wheelbarrow to dump the dirt ? Liked to killed myself and didn't lose one ounce of fat . lol . I posted a pic somewhere but here another one is . My special storage area.
After the walls are up . I worked hard for this , starting when I was 69 yrs old and by jimmney , I'm gonna enjoy it
Well guys we got rain last night, 3-1/4". That give me a rest, can't get in the garden, would probably sink in so deep I couldn't get out.
I need to get a panel up for my cucumbers. I can drag one close but will have to wait to put it up. I did weed my cannas, they are along the edge of my strawberries. Didn't stay out very long though. The heat was giving me a headache, so back inside.
Sally You are going to have get your spoiling technique sharpened up, so you can have a little sidekick while you are in Texas.
There are only 4 or 5 of the GG Babies I see regularly. I have held all of them at one time or another but their momma's and Daddy's seem to have a lot going on and of course 2 of them are up in the mountain the other side of the hill from Jeanette. They were here for about 2 & a half weeks, so we were able to see them while they were here.
We heard the other day that the 21st. great grand baby will be coming soon. They are only 40 miles from here. That's not too far so we will just have to break away from things at home and go spoil them. lol
21 great grandkids , wheew , someones been busy . I couldn't keep up with that many .
Your line will far outreach mine , unless we go to G G GB,and my bunch gets busy, all two of them , but I won't be here to see it .
I don't think I want to see what they grow up to be , A few generations down the line .
Oh , b t w , the rhubarb all bit the dust . It's just too hot here for it , iiiiiiiiiI guess . I won't try again . Thanks for the chance to try . Hugs , and tell Barb I'd still love to meet you guys . Sally
That Sally, she travels all over the country and goes right by everyone and waves without stopping. Yes Sally, boy do we remember all the digging you did. How could we forget. Don't you know that muscle weighs more than fat? So, there is not a chance of losing weight when you work that hard.
Russ has bragging rights to the amount of babies around. Don't know how he can remember the names. Cripe there were 5 of us girls in my family and my dad named all when he was pointing at one of us and always hit the right name last. Now that I think of it, I am sure he did it on purpose. LOL
Those daddys sure loved thier little girls ,didn't they . I was a brat and he thought it was cute .
Yup, he had 5 brats. Always picked on the youngest. LOL 'cause she was the most spoiled.
Barb can name them all an that's all I'm going to admit LOL Right now there are 3 or 4 names that just won't come to mind. Oh well!
Hey I know what you mean by going down the names till you hit the right one. Now the girls laugh while ribbing us about it. Course they are doing that now, so I don't feel too bad.
Your family too Russ? LOL, that is funny. I thought my dad was doing it on purpose. Teasing us. There were only 5 of us tho, so maybe he was. LOL
Yes I love being Grandma.I have 8 children but only 4 grandchildren One son has a boy and my daughter has 2 girls and a boy. My granddaughters are 5 and 8 and am trying to teach them about gardening so they will just grow up naturally with it.They actually help pretty good. Congratulations Digger They do grow to fast. Deanna
Two of us ,I was the only girl ,six years younger, Daddy was 46 when I was born . Therefore , I was THE ONLY brat . lol
Jnette , here are pics of my left over bales from last year . It makes such good planting medium . Just as I was leaving for S. C. my neighbor had a sign out , hay for sale . It was 3:00 am so couldn't stop . When we got back ,all the hay was sold . I wouldn't have fed it to my cows , but I sure would have planted toms in it. They only bale about 10 acres , so didn't have that much to sell .
I don't know why those toms didn't have a lot of limbs and leaves on them . That is supposed to be beefsteak . Got one almost ready . Now these are the beefmasters . Same age, but do they grow big . I can't reach high enough to tie them , got to use a short step ladder .
LOL, pretty cool Sally, but why not just use a 5 gallon bucket? I used those one year and planted corn. Got 3 ears per plant. Had 3 plants in each bucket. LOL cripe I'll try anything.
I have 2 cherry tomato plants, one red, Tomato Berry, and one yellow, Sun Sugar, my favorite, planted in a pot on my kitchen deck. They are blooming, so they are about the same progress as the others, but am thinking about moving them to the rest. I have a couple small peppers that aren't doing anything so might just take them out and put these tomatoes in there.
The squirrels love the Sun Sugars and they produce so many that the few that the squirrels eat I don't miss. That way they would leave the rest of the tomatoes alone. Normally they will go along and take one bite out of each ripe tomato.
My dogs and cats keep the squrrels chased off . I did try toms in a bucket , never got a decent plant . they died from the bottom up. then I met Kents method and haven't gotten away from the straw . Might try the buckets next year and hopefully more bales
Wish I had been able to get bales this year but they were priced out of my range this year. And yes I'm pulling weeds. but soon the sweet potatoes and the melons will give enough shade and at least slow the weed growth.
There were 6 of us but 3 have gone to be with our Lord. We had 3 girls and they brought the boys. that is when things just exploded. They gave us 9 grand children only 1 being a boy. He is the only one not married and no children. Do you think I should clue the girls in on what causes babies????
I have several cats hanging around and I have found a few squirrel tails and even some half eaten garter snakes and some bunny fur as well as a pile of feathers now and then, so I know they are keeping some of them out of the garden. But they are finicky eaters though, I will find a dead mole or mouse but not a bite out of them.
I think I may have a problem in my one garden patch, I think I have a borer problem but they seem to have hit a couple of my castor bean plants and not gotten to the squash or cucumbers yet. Hope the
C Bs do a number on them.
Russ, so sorry about your loss. That's tough.
Russ, do they still bale small bales in your area? They are making the big ones here. Not the round ones. I think they have finally gotten past that one. Now they are making large square, 3 wire bales. Those are too big for me to handle and also, I don't have room for them.
Don't know what they would cost if I did want them. They say they load better on the big flatbed trailers they take out of the area. No sway to them. I can see that, but it doesn't help my situation.
The only other one in the area that does small bales is the guy selling the orchard grass he calls hay. The local feed store didn't even sell straw or hay this year. She said she couldn't get it. Don't know what she was looking for. I think her problem was the price of gas. Her husband goes after the stuff she sells and I, and everyone else refuses to pay per prices.
Jnette, wouldn't orchard grass hay work? (Or if it's orchard grass, does that make it straw? Hmmm.)
It was slimy and never did decompose like normal stuff. So, this year it is finally ok to plant in, but not like using this year's bales. Sorry if that doesn't make sense. You've seen a tall, real thin stemmed grass? Don't know what kind. but no "meat" to them. Just long tiny stems.
No, not even straw. But, it is ok this year because I used a lot of compost with them to plant my tomatoes in. It is just holding the compost in.
Orchard grass packs too much and doesn't let enough air get down into the bale to do the kind of decomposing that would be preferable for bale gardening. Like Jeanette said it just molds or rots and gets slimy.
Which would keep too much moisture around the roots of most plants and block most of the necessary oxygen from getting there.
I think that is the way I would assess that situation.
Of course it could be considered a source of green manure for a regular garden.
Jeanette I didn't get out in the garden yet to really investigate further as we had a really good down pour, over 3" Then when I headed out today I found my two goats in the garden. They were really enjoying themselves. They were loving my sweet potatoes, my iris's, the apple tree branches and of course the sweet corn. I found where they got out and we herded them back in. I don't think they really hurt too much of the garden but the SPs have some re growing to do. some of the corn got eat off too far down but goats will just be goats, so I can't really get too upset over it.
I'm glad you drew my attention back to those borrers, so now I will go back out to that part of the garden and check that situation.
Hi all! Got my first crrokneck and zucchini yesterday! My tomato plants are huge and incredibly lush, but haven't found any ripe tomatoes yet. What does the tomato blight look like?