It's official. All of my cucumber plants have bit the dust. I still don't know what killed them, but from now on it's off to Harveys for my cucumber cravings. My tomato plant is still getting taller, but is setting very little fruit. The basil has rebounded from the worm attacks and vigorious pruning. My calamondin plant set out a bunch of flowers about a few days ago but then, all of a sudden, they fell off. The plant is still growing and there are little greenish bumps, but they're not getting any bigger...even the ones that were on there when I first got the plant more than a month ago. Wonder if it's the heat? My gardenia is definitely feeling the heat. It wilts most afternoons and rebounds in the evenings. And I've managed to just about kill some plant that I don't know the name of: it looks like a small, low growing succulent with profuse peony looking flowers. Maybe I overwatered it. Anyways, I do have thriving plants too: my mint plants are growing like weeds. Made some tea out of the dried leaves the other day and it was fantastic. My oregano and rosemary are growing steadily and the oregano has even set out little purple flowers. Oh, and my little petunia (which was a .99 afterthought at Walmart) has set out a min. of 10 blooms every single day. It's like the purple energizer bunny of flowers and isn't fazed at all by the heat.
Update of my garden
Hey, what kind of tomato are you growing? Are you growing a type that sets fruit in heat? Some do, some don't.
Zebra Striped is setting fruit in heat but heat less than 95, and marvel striped is doing OK but something is eating it and it's got blossom end rot - the only one of my plants suffering from that.
Yellow looked like it was dying then it sent out a runner, and set fruit on two days that we had which were slightly cooler. The Burbank also set fruit on a few cooler days and has more fruits than I ever imagined it would. All the vines are well over 6' now. Marvel striped is going on about 8.5 feet (she's on an arch). The Sweet 100 sets fruit mainly in heat as cherry and grape tomatoes tend to. I put her in very late with plans on getting the largest crops in Late August and Sept. after others are finishing up.
Pattypan squash is full of borers. I thought it would die but it's still setting fruit and going strong! Beans are a bean factory. The yard-long beans are setting beans now it's hot...the wintermelons are super tall..one eggplant has ONE FRUIT! ouch! I don't know what's up with that. The tiny thai hot peppers are really working hard as is the "Holy Smoke" which is a pepper we bred at our church. It's purple with purple fruit and is very cute (miniature). Next year I'll do sweet peppers. It was difficult for me to find the seeds I wanted as you call them "Stuffing Peppers" (elongated peppers) in the US, and they were just peppers in Canada. Next year I should be freezing stuffed and roasted peppers out the wazoo!!
GGG
My bell peppers have only produced a total of 3 peppers on 4 plants...not doing very well. I'm trying yet another round of squash...might work, might not, but figured I had the seeds so why not try? Everything else is surviving. Ate our first corn on the cob last weekend - YUMMY! Tomatoes doing okay. *Hint* to prevent blossom end rot, toss a handful of lime into the hole when you plant it.
Kimchee, your mystery plant sounds like what I think is called moss rose...very drought tolerant, and very possible to overwater - it happens to me almost every year. It gets too dry and Mother Nature decides to rain after I've watered it.
Girlgroupgirl: Sounds like you're having better luck than I. My tomatoes are a cherry variety, but I can't remember which kind. During two glorious days of rain, a side stalk shot up out of nowhere and started to set out blossoms, and the main plant is still getting taller and putting out little yellow flowers, but not many fruit. I was harvesting around two a day and now I'm lucky if it's two a week. And these are all fruit that came out weeks ago...it's just that they're ripening at different rates. All of your other plants sound yummy and I'm jealous at your success with the thai peppers. I cook with them all of the time, but since I had seed failure this year, I'm stuck with buying them from the local asian market. Love the name of your church bred peppers btw: Holy Smoke...lol...how creative.
Jmzms: I just did a google on rose moss and you're right...that's my plant. I have a reddish-orange variety that was thriving until a week ago, but I think it's b/c I was watering them each time I watered my veggies, which was once a day. I figured that since they were in a smaller pot in direct sunlight, they might need lots of water. I'll be sure and ignore them a little more from now on. They're so lovely! I'm going to get more next year and focus more on flowers and less on edibles. I'm just not having luck with any of them.
Kimchee, I'm sorry your veggies are not surviving. We have been lucky. We used seed we didn't use last year and were not sure it would work so we overplanted........OMG.......way too much squash, lots of pole beans, cukes, the tomatoes, bell peppers and hot peppers we bought plants, butter peas are ripening. I will add that the success is due to 7 years of gardening (the soil is very enriched by now) and the fact that DH installed rainbird sprinkling system for this. Our garden is 40'x40' so it is large enough to grow a lot. We canned beans today. We also have many beneficials to help pollinate. It is fenced in as well. Now that won't stop the squirrels/raccoons from grabbing the corn, which they've done!!
Tomatoes will have a very hard time setting fruit while the day temps are in the 90's. This heat wave is really tough on gardens.
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I'm inclined to also believe soil surely has something to do with it. The raised bed in my backyard wasn't the best, and I had a hard time with veggies in there. I'd tried and tried to ammend the soil to no avail.
This time I moved the beds to a) more sun, and then built them 12" tall. I purchased soil (I know it sounds rediculous, but it was a great choice) and used well aged horse manure. Mixed in a bag of "Dr. Soil" or whatever it is (fine ground pine bark) and it's worked wonders. The soil is beautiful, water retentave, doesn't cake (like mine does in the garden).
The problem with the blossom end rot can not be the soil. The other 5 plants are in the same soil, no problem. I had them pre-ammend (organically) and test the soil I bought before it arrived, so it was perfect for the tomatoes (which needed to go in immediately). Only one darned plant is having the problem, but not so bad as to spoil the entire tomato thankfully. The marvel striped are small but good eating.
GGG
Well, I have converted to Vigoro for Tomatos fertilizer (they ought to pay me for how I have been promoting them this year!!!), after I saw my neighbor's plants. I was stunned and asked her what she used so she gave me some...
I was outside yesterday and she came over to show me what she had just picked - a huge basket of these beautiful reds. She put me onto this Vigoro and mine are getting huge too. I am harvesting everyday. I love this stuff!! Mine are 4th of July and Whopper II, from seed.
http://home.comcast.net/~sterhill/tomato/tomato.html this was a couple of weeks ago so they are now turning red