Garden Update 07/12.
Temperatures have been above 90 most of the week. Wind hasn't been bad although it's still much more breezy than it ever has since I've lived here in New Mexico.
I have had one of two of my beds covered with white mesh. Plants are responding well to the cover but now I have all sorts of bugs wrecking havoc on my squash!
Aphides and Spider mites?
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8640.jpg[/img]
They look like white shrimp.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8641.jpg[/img]
More damage...
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8643.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8644.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8645.jpg[/img]
A different problem...
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8650.jpg[/img]
I've been using some non evasive sprays that have fish oils and other natural remedies. The spray seems to actually work, but the aphides seems to just move around away from where I've sprayed.
I had no idea that Armadillidiidae otherwise known as roly poly's were so aggressive on growing veggies. In fact, I read somewhere they only eat decomposing food. I guess this is not the case as they are feeding on the squash and doing a lot of damage. I don't know what it is about squash, but they are even chewing on the main stem. It's been destroyed in the past week.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8648.jpg[/img]
I am also have some issues with a two of my tomato plants. They are both yellowing and wilting. I added tomato food to the bases of my plants a couple of weeks ago. Big mistake, they are totally fert burned. Should have sticked with compost.
Burned plant on left.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8637.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8654.jpg[/img]
Another plant with issues. I have no idea what this is. Maybe a fungus?
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8636.jpg[/img]
So as of now I have very little fruit and what I do have is being eaten by ants, snails, mites, aphides, and roly poly's. I think it's time to put down some hay, maybe that will slow them down.
Well I have been frustrated with so much blossom drop from 10 plants that I was really loosing patience. Today I was watering and I finally found a tomato. In fact, my first tomato ever!
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/1.jpg[/img]
It's gonna be a hot week. 98 degrees tomorrow with low humidity. Hopefully the sheets will protect the plants from the heat.
More fruit please!
Temperatures have been above 90 most of the week. Wind hasn't been bad although it's still much more breezy than it ever has since I've lived here in New Mexico.
I have had one of two of my beds covered with white mesh. Plants are responding well to the cover but now I have all sorts of bugs wrecking havoc on my squash!
Aphides and Spider mites?
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8640.jpg[/img]
They look like white shrimp.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8641.jpg[/img]
More damage...
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8643.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8644.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8645.jpg[/img]
A different problem...
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8650.jpg[/img]
I've been using some non evasive sprays that have fish oils and other natural remedies. The spray seems to actually work, but the aphides seems to just move around away from where I've sprayed.
I had no idea that Armadillidiidae otherwise known as roly poly's were so aggressive on growing veggies. In fact, I read somewhere they only eat decomposing food. I guess this is not the case as they are feeding on the squash and doing a lot of damage. I don't know what it is about squash, but they are even chewing on the main stem. It's been destroyed in the past week.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8648.jpg[/img]
I am also have some issues with a two of my tomato plants. They are both yellowing and wilting. I added tomato food to the bases of my plants a couple of weeks ago. Big mistake, they are totally fert burned. Should have sticked with compost.
Burned plant on left.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8637.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8654.jpg[/img]
Another plant with issues. I have no idea what this is. Maybe a fungus?
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8636.jpg[/img]
So as of now I have very little fruit and what I do have is being eaten by ants, snails, mites, aphides, and roly poly's. I think it's time to put down some hay, maybe that will slow them down.
Well I have been frustrated with so much blossom drop from 10 plants that I was really loosing patience. Today I was watering and I finally found a tomato. In fact, my first tomato ever!
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/1.jpg[/img]
It's gonna be a hot week. 98 degrees tomorrow with low humidity. Hopefully the sheets will protect the plants from the heat.
More fruit please!
-
GardenJester
- Senior Member
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:59 pm
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30543
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I realize your little emoticon indicates you're just kidding, but let's be clear that doing that will kill off any beneficials that may be present.
The squash appears to be having BER (Blossom End Rot) Rolly Pollies maybe just moving in to clean up. That's probably a watering issue. There's a sticky at the top of the Tomato Forum.
Knock aphids off with sprays of plain water. Unless the insect populations are different for NM, keep a lookout for beneficials like ladybugs and green lace wings. Also for their eggs -- yellow egg cluster for ladybugs and single white egg on a stiff filament for green lace wings. Tiny bee-like wasps -- [url=https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/syrphid_flies.html]hover/syrphid flies[/url] love tiny flowers like clover and mint as well as cilantro, dill, buckwheat. For more info, read the [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=335]sticky on Beneficial Insects[/url].
Get some buckwheat seeds and sow them around your garden. (Sold as cover crop -- try Seeds of Change or local farm supply, but raw (unroasted) organic tan-colored (not green) buckwheat from bulk section also grew for me...) That's the fastest growing beneficial insect attractor I can think of for the hot season. Let them flower. Push over any excess buckwheat -- they have stems that break easily, or cut at ground level and use as mulch. They bring up potassium from deep in the ground to the surface and will make it available to your plants when they break down. If you scatter dill seeds, they should grow when they're ready.
The squash appears to be having BER (Blossom End Rot) Rolly Pollies maybe just moving in to clean up. That's probably a watering issue. There's a sticky at the top of the Tomato Forum.
Knock aphids off with sprays of plain water. Unless the insect populations are different for NM, keep a lookout for beneficials like ladybugs and green lace wings. Also for their eggs -- yellow egg cluster for ladybugs and single white egg on a stiff filament for green lace wings. Tiny bee-like wasps -- [url=https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/syrphid_flies.html]hover/syrphid flies[/url] love tiny flowers like clover and mint as well as cilantro, dill, buckwheat. For more info, read the [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=335]sticky on Beneficial Insects[/url].
Get some buckwheat seeds and sow them around your garden. (Sold as cover crop -- try Seeds of Change or local farm supply, but raw (unroasted) organic tan-colored (not green) buckwheat from bulk section also grew for me...) That's the fastest growing beneficial insect attractor I can think of for the hot season. Let them flower. Push over any excess buckwheat -- they have stems that break easily, or cut at ground level and use as mulch. They bring up potassium from deep in the ground to the surface and will make it available to your plants when they break down. If you scatter dill seeds, they should grow when they're ready.
-
DoubleDogFarm
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
The squash appears to be having BER (Blossom End Rot) Rolly Pollies maybe just moving in to clean up. That's probably a watering issue. There's a sticky at the top of the Tomato Forum.
This is a quote from another web sit
EricCalcium is required in relatively large concentrations for normal cell growth. When a rapidly growing fruit is deprived of calcium, the tissues break down, leaving the characteristic lesion at the blossom end. Blossom-end rot develops when the fruit's demand for calcium exceeds the supply in the soil. This may result from low calcium levels in the soil, drought stress, excessive soil moisture, and/or fluctuations due to rain or overwatering . These conditions reduce the uptake and movement of calcium into the plant, or rapid, vegetative growth due to excessive nitrogen fertilization
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Urban_Garden
- Cool Member
- Posts: 71
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:06 pm
- Location: Indiana
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Hey BJ,
Sorry to see the issues cropping up, but this is a new garden with new soils and it will take a while to work out the kinks and work in the biology. Some issue are to be expected in that first year especially...
Roly polys are saprophytes; indeed only eating decaying material. The decay I was seeing was fungal; you can even see fruting bodies in one image. Looked like a blossom end rot; we use milk and water as a preventitive (1 to 10) or 1:3 when it first shows up. It really isn'ty a great curative; I use copper sulphate when things go wrong...
You have some very tough issues that need some thought; that sun is obviously one of them. The shots after covering are much better...
Here is advice I have never given here before (although for the life of me I cannot think why), watch the last few minutes of the Godfather. Yep, you heard me... check out how Don Corleone is growing his tomatoes (try to ignore the fact that the idiot is allowing his grandson to run around with the Flit gun). Check out the shade structures; very simple, very easy... feel free to do the monster thing with the orange peel, but try not to have a heart attack...
Sorry to see the issues cropping up, but this is a new garden with new soils and it will take a while to work out the kinks and work in the biology. Some issue are to be expected in that first year especially...
Roly polys are saprophytes; indeed only eating decaying material. The decay I was seeing was fungal; you can even see fruting bodies in one image. Looked like a blossom end rot; we use milk and water as a preventitive (1 to 10) or 1:3 when it first shows up. It really isn'ty a great curative; I use copper sulphate when things go wrong...
You have some very tough issues that need some thought; that sun is obviously one of them. The shots after covering are much better...
Here is advice I have never given here before (although for the life of me I cannot think why), watch the last few minutes of the Godfather. Yep, you heard me... check out how Don Corleone is growing his tomatoes (try to ignore the fact that the idiot is allowing his grandson to run around with the Flit gun). Check out the shade structures; very simple, very easy... feel free to do the monster thing with the orange peel, but try not to have a heart attack...
It's nice to be back on the forum. We had a very severe winter in New Mexico believe it or not. Temperatures reached below -20˚F and in addition to the late frost we had in May, it's taken a while for things to get started, not just in the garden.
With that being said, I have learned a lot in the past year. Mostly from all the mistakes I made during my first attempt at gardening. This forum has been an incredible resource and I appreciate all the feedback and advice I have been getting since becoming a member.
Anyways, I replaced my railroad ties with CMU block. Expanded to four 8' x 4' beds. Installed a drip irrigation that I have connected to a timer and underground manifold, so I can control the beds on various zones.
Previously, I had used the existing soil in my yard and mixed it with compost. This time around I spent some money, removed the soil and replaced it in all four beds with a high quality potting mix, peat moss, hummus, composted cotton burr, mushroom compost, vermiculite, gypsum, and perlite.
Essentially, the soil has been completely replaced. After planting three weeks ago, I made sure to use plenty of straw to keep the soil temperatures down for when it starts getting hot.
These first images are after planting 06/01/2011. The two beds in between are currently covered compost piles.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8745.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8741.jpg[/img]
A bed with bell peppers, oregano and eggplant.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8742.jpg[/img]
More recently - 06/23/2011
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0559.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0555.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0554.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0552.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0550.jpg[/img]
Egg Plant - Black Beauty
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0592.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0589.jpg[/img]
Mr Stripey
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0581.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0587.jpg[/img]
Yellow Pear
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0573.jpg[/img]
Chives
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0579.jpg[/img]
More Herbs
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0562.jpg[/img]
Cinnamon, Thai, and Italian Basil
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0571.jpg[/img]
Cucumbers
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0563.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0564.jpg[/img]
Roma
Mr Stripey
Yellow Pear
Brandywine
Two Black Beauties
Two Red Bell Pepper
Three Cucumber
Thai Basil
Two Italian Basil
Cinnamon Basil
Pineapple Sage
Common Sage
Lemon Thyme
Texas Tarragon
Chives
Lavender
Cilantro
Everything looks healthy. I'm not having the same issues with flowering that I had last year. It been even more hot but I think the soil quality is having a serious impact. What I've noticed is that all the plants are flowering earlier and the tomatoes especially are developing much more fruit this time of year compared to last.
With that being said, I have learned a lot in the past year. Mostly from all the mistakes I made during my first attempt at gardening. This forum has been an incredible resource and I appreciate all the feedback and advice I have been getting since becoming a member.
Anyways, I replaced my railroad ties with CMU block. Expanded to four 8' x 4' beds. Installed a drip irrigation that I have connected to a timer and underground manifold, so I can control the beds on various zones.
Previously, I had used the existing soil in my yard and mixed it with compost. This time around I spent some money, removed the soil and replaced it in all four beds with a high quality potting mix, peat moss, hummus, composted cotton burr, mushroom compost, vermiculite, gypsum, and perlite.
Essentially, the soil has been completely replaced. After planting three weeks ago, I made sure to use plenty of straw to keep the soil temperatures down for when it starts getting hot.
These first images are after planting 06/01/2011. The two beds in between are currently covered compost piles.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8745.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8741.jpg[/img]
A bed with bell peppers, oregano and eggplant.
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/IMG_8742.jpg[/img]
More recently - 06/23/2011
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0559.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0555.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0554.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0552.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0550.jpg[/img]
Egg Plant - Black Beauty
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0592.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0589.jpg[/img]
Mr Stripey
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0581.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0587.jpg[/img]
Yellow Pear
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0573.jpg[/img]
Chives
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0579.jpg[/img]
More Herbs
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0562.jpg[/img]
Cinnamon, Thai, and Italian Basil
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0571.jpg[/img]
Cucumbers
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0563.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a478/bjwam/_MG_0564.jpg[/img]
Roma
Mr Stripey
Yellow Pear
Brandywine
Two Black Beauties
Two Red Bell Pepper
Three Cucumber
Thai Basil
Two Italian Basil
Cinnamon Basil
Pineapple Sage
Common Sage
Lemon Thyme
Texas Tarragon
Chives
Lavender
Cilantro
Everything looks healthy. I'm not having the same issues with flowering that I had last year. It been even more hot but I think the soil quality is having a serious impact. What I've noticed is that all the plants are flowering earlier and the tomatoes especially are developing much more fruit this time of year compared to last.
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Blue Cohosh
- Full Member
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:35 am
- Location: CT Zone 6B
Thanks for the compliments! I'm definitely having issues with the heat these days. We are close to hitting 100˚F pretty much everyday. It has never in recorded history been this dry in Albuquerque. It's quite sad actually.
In addition to the now regular and annoying wind and no rain for 6 months, there have been some serious fires in the State of New Mexico. Los Alamos was evacuated because of the smoke- it's just not a good place to be living right now.
I am beginning to realize that you need at least 4 hrs of shade for many vegetables to well in this type of environment. I think this winter is gonna be all about designing a shade structure that won't fly away in the wind.
Haven't seen many gardeners on this forum from New Mexico. Thanks for the comments, more pics to come.
In addition to the now regular and annoying wind and no rain for 6 months, there have been some serious fires in the State of New Mexico. Los Alamos was evacuated because of the smoke- it's just not a good place to be living right now.
I am beginning to realize that you need at least 4 hrs of shade for many vegetables to well in this type of environment. I think this winter is gonna be all about designing a shade structure that won't fly away in the wind.
Haven't seen many gardeners on this forum from New Mexico. Thanks for the comments, more pics to come.