2014 Gardening Season Review

[applestar]

Seed Starting with Soil Blockers

This is from last year's seed starting thread:
Subject: I started some too -- experimenting with soil blocks

This was my seed starting thread this year:
Subject: Finally! Off to a haphazard start for the 2014 season

OK, so here are some things I noticed from using the soil blocks:
1) saves tremendous amounts of space, especially when heating pad is needed. Micros can go two sets per rectangular plastic Chinese take out -- that's 40 microblocks, lid upside down on and STACKABLE. One set in small aluminum (also Chinese take out). Many clamshell plastic -- sandwich containers, etc.
2) NOT finding the micros suitable for hard to germinate seeds. About 7-10 days max. Tomatoes are usually perfect (also brassicas, basil, marigold, etc.) With right amount of constant heat, most tomato seeds will germinate in 4-8 days. Micros have too small mass -- difficult to maintain correct moisture and temperature levels for long germination period like unheated tomato or even heated peppers, making them susceptible to fungal and fungus gnat issues.
3) microblocks really need covers but the covers should come off as soon as sprouted -- easiest to MOVE the blocks to growing tray -- this allows for relatively uniform sized seedlings in each tray.
4) Correctly sized tongs and spatula/paint scrapers for each size blocks are essential and makes all the difference in frustration factor, etc.
5) You really want to upblock from micro to mini quickly. Tomatoes will grow for quite a while in the micros and stay looking pretty healthy, but in reality they deplete resources in own block and start stealing from each other. Large outbreak of helmet heads if sprouted blocks are not moved out to separate growing trays.
(Microblocks are upblocked to miniblocks -- 50 mini blocks to a standard 1020 mesh tray)
6) a layer of sand in the bottom of growing trays improves growing conditions if not using bottom root pruning with mesh.
7) Love, LOVE re-using 1qt rice dream containers. In addition to using them to hold 8 mini blocks as growing trays, this year's experiment to deep uppot them in rice dream containers standing on narrow edge worked perfectly (3 per box and 6 boxes fit exactly per standard 1020 mesh tray, maximizing soil volume for 18 seedlings)
8 ) One caveat with the micro soil blockers is the inability to deep uppot and bury the hypocotyl up to the seedleaves as for tomatoes (and most other seedlings). When space on the heating mat is not an issue (smaller number of seedlings or sufficient ambient temperature), sowing single seeds directly in the 2" mini block's cubic hole, then filling the hole as the seedling grows results in better tomato seedlings.

[applestar]

Compost Pile in the center of the bed

I am totally sold on situating a compost pile in the middle of a garden bed like I did with the Spiral Garden and the Kitchen Garden this year.

The Spiral Garden had a chicken wire bin that was filled with a mixed/layered balanced ingredients at the outset in spring, which slowly decomposed over the season without any additional turning or adding. But it was sufficient for growing the 10-12 ft Bloody Butcher corn and winter squash as well as cantaloupe melon and cucumber. (A little side dressing and some compost tea was applied at the height of the growing season)

The patio side Kitchen Garden had/has the commercial plastic bin which has been stocked weekly with kitchen scraps, brown paper, and some yard waste (weeds and leaf piles) and grew an amazing cucumber crop. I'll use the finished compost from here to raise this bed.

I'm planning on situating new fall-winter compost piles directly in at least two beds to furnish next spring's compost for the beds.

I am NOT fertilizing the neighbor's pine trees with leached nourishment from my 3 bin compost piles any more.

[lakngulf]

Compost Pile in the center of the bed

I'm planning on situating new fall-winter compost piles directly in at least two beds to furnish next spring's compost for the beds.

I am NOT fertilizing the neighbor's pine trees with leached nourishment from my 3 bin compost piles any more.

Excellent idea! I am giving that some thought for my garden

[cdog222]

Every year brings something new. Overall, my knowledge base increases every year...but sometimes when I think I have something figured out, nature throws me a curve ball and humbles me.

Overall, it has been a bountiful year with plenty more activity in progress and on the way. I seem to fall into the same routine every year - I go like gangbusters in the spring and early summer, but I seem to get side tracked with other stuff during the summer months and lose focus on timely side dressing, mulching, pruning, etc.

A few specific things I have learned :

- plant corn a little deeper. The seed packs say 1 1/2 - 2", but several years in a row now my corn falls over. The top half of the plants eventually rise up towards the sun, but the lower half is curved or laying on the ground even. My understanding is that the seeds need to be planted deeper so that the 'anchor' roots that develop have enough soil to spread out and do their thing

- don't crowd the tomatoes! I know better, but I can't help myself. I think if I would have remained diligent with my pruning, I would have been ok. Needless to say, I was not and things got crowded. On top of that, the squirrels thwarted my efforts to keep pests out (mammal and insect!). The loss of tomatoes wasn't as bad as the fact that I think they helped speed the spread of disease. This bed in particular was all Romas, which typically don't give me trouble. Apparently if you cram a bunch into a tight space and let squirrels climb all over them, the rules change!

- groundhogs are the spawn of the devil! Don't get me wrong - I'm a nature lover and these guys are hella cute. But....one little guy ate ALL of my kale, quinoa, cucumbers, watermelon vines, sweet potato vines, and nibbled on several pepper plants, and some corn. I may have had a record harvest in terms of quantity and diversity if it were not for this foul beast. I saw him today in my back yard and I am torn between taking a picture or plinking him with a pellet gun....

- start my peppers a bit later than the tomatoes. It seems that every year when I put my tomatoes and peppers out (at roughly the same time), the peppers always take about a month longer to 'take off'. I usually start tomato and pepper seeds around early March - I'll probably wait an additional two to three weeks before I start my peppers next year.

- more beneficial insect attracting flowers! This has been a work in progress for me. I was quite proud of the number of little flying critters that have hung out in my garden this summer. I started several perennial flowers a couple of years ago that are finally becoming well established. I am also seeing the benefit of letting some herbs (especially the garlic chives!!!) go to flower- they are swarmed by all types of little buzzing things. My goal is to be able to better identify most of them next year.

- pruning for the win! I have become a pruning fanatic. From early signs of disease on tomatoes to focusing the production of a plant on making less but larger and better fruits and veggies, it seems that less is more. And....things look a little more tidy and organized when the plants are sprawling and unattended.

I started my fall crops over the last couple of weeks, so it's hard to think in terms of a full season recap, but the calendar certainly doesn't lie! Only another 6 or 8 weeks or so, and it's all over till next year!

[Bobberman]

Ya my ground hog has to go also.as cute as that little fat bugger is! I plan on planting more colors on the north side of the garden in sunflowers that made my garden stand out this year. I bet I have over 400 flowers on about 30 plants and the birds are all over them! its nice to see the colored small birds feasting on the flowers! I too plant my tomatoes too close because I hate pruning the healthy stems which do deter the plant later on! Too many varieties of tomatoes over 12 types. I will plant maybe 8 types at most next year. my groups of 4 like tomatoes ina a square seemed to work the best. I will also plant in a different way like 4 tomatoes then 4 peppers and have a smaller plant between the groups of tomatoes to give better access!

[jal_ut]

Been a good season here. The skunks got after the corn. I put a radio in the corn patch to deter them. It seems to help. I could have planted a few more summer squash. I planted some bush beans, but should have planted more about a month later. They tend to have 3 good pickins then taper off badly. A second crop would have extended the harvest. I expect frost within a week. Its about over here.

[applestar]

- plant corn a little deeper. The seed packs say 1 1/2 - 2", but several years in a row now my corn falls over. The top half of the plants eventually rise up towards the sun, but the lower half is curved or laying on the ground even. My understanding is that the seeds need to be planted deeper so that the 'anchor' roots that develop have enough soil to spread out and do their thing

I find "hilling" the corn helps. in the big corn fields, I believe they use a machine with attachment that flips/mounds soil to one side and run it along the corn row from both sides. In my small garden, I either wheelbarrow soil and compost (and other enrichment) mix to the bed or scrape up the path soil and toss onto the base of the corn (I believe I put down a mixture of soaked alfalfa pellets, bran, and a little dolomitic lime first this year). I usually do this when they start developing those octopus roots and bury them as well as the lowest leaves that are trailing on the ground. This helps to anchor them down.

One year, I felt that those lower leaves were getting in the way of hoeing the weeds and clipped them. When it came time to hill, there weren't enough of the trailing leaves to bury, and I had more lodging (falling over) problems.

[digitS']

Well, I'm learning things here!

Skunks in the sweet corn? I wondered what seemed to be a fairly lightweight critter eating several ears. I smelled skunk one morning but didn't know from what corner of the big veggie garden. A radio to deter may not be appreciated by the neighbors ... with my hearing, it would be best for me not to set it up independently ...

Lower leaves have less and less benefit to a plant as they age, or so we are told by the botanists. I don't know how they measure these things. It had never occurred to me to use them as "anchors" for the corn.

Lots of things benefit from hilling. In the post above, I mention pinching back the broccoli hoping the plants would make some more growth before bolting. What I didn't say was that each got some organic fertilizer and was hilled. It has really saved them when Benjamin Bunny has decided to sample every broccoli leaf! Bunnies eat sweet corn ..?

Steve

[applestar]

I am also seeing the benefit of letting some herbs (especially the garlic chives!!!) go to flower- they are swarmed by all types of little buzzing things.

Don't forget to harvest those garlic chive seed heads after they start to develop. You want to harvest them while the pod and seeds are still tender -- usually while there are still 50% or so blossoms. But it's easiest just to pluck one and taste.

[imafan26]

My mioga has bloomed and the flower stalks are coming up on the zingiber. It seems I just planted the dasheen but it looks hugs again. Maybe this time they will be ready for New Year.

I have the garlic in the refrigerator chilling, but I had to plant the shallots they were sprouting in the bag.

The third set of corn that I grew this year is tasseling now and I am overrun with weeds.

I did manage to prune the bilimbi tree. I usually wait till later but the branches are brittle and some of them had already broken.

I went out to water the garden late last night so I caught 5 more African snails on my seedling bench. Surprisingly, I really did not see any on the ground. I expected more to be out after dark. I hope I got them all. I put out more slug bait and I replanted the pots. Hopefully, they will grow and the slugs won't eat the seedlings again.

I potted up 4 pandan, but one is rotting. I think that was the one with the broken stem. The others are ok. I may pot up for lemon grass. My pot is putting out a lot of keikis.

I still have a ton of weeds to get rid of.

My front yard was so dry my acerola dried up. I watered it and hope it will come back. My lavender in the front yard looks pretty dead. The pelargoniums don't look too happy but considering they haven't gotten much water and they have only been in the garden a few months they are hanging in there. The alyssum is still going strong.

The grass is extra crispy, it needs to rain soon.

I have two small cherimoya fruit on the tree. It will take months for them to ripen, but so far so good.

The volunteer beans are sprouting.

Jicama is trying to get out of the cage

I need to get my pot ready soon, the sungold tomato is almost ready to plant out. The snails have left it alone. They were much more interested in lettuce and broccoli seedlings.

Yesterday, I replanted the romaine, butterhead, bibb broccoli, and bok choy seeds.

[JC's Garden]

It's been both good and bad this summer.

First the bad, I always like to finish up on the positive side.
I lost over 75% of my tomato plants to a combination of Southern Blight, Spotted Wilt and a serious Septoria Leaf Spot outbreak. I planted heirlooms only. They just don't have the disease resistance of hybrids. What they lack in that regard is more than compensated for by their excellent taste. The survivors produced more than we could eat and we gave quite a few away.
What I learned:
1. There is a reason heirlooms sell for $4.00 a pound, growing heirlooms is tough.
2. Indeterminate tomatoes require a lot of time to be spent pruning suckers and tying up branches.
A standard tomato cage is nowhere near enough support, you have to be creative.
3. They taste much better than any I've grown before. A tomato growing friend of mine tasted a
Brandywine Pink and said, “I thought I knew what a good tomato tasted like.”
4. Saving large quantities of tomato seeds is easy if you use the fermentation method.
5. In ground vs container. In ground is more disease resistant and produces more fruit.

Squash Vine Borers got into all my squash, zucchini, and cucumber plants. I got good production at first but when the SVBs got into them, they just shutdown.

On the positive side.
I stuck with organic pest and disease control. I didn't use anything that is not used in food or for medicinal purposes. Result, I can treat then pick and eat on the same day. I also have a stronger Garden Patrol because I made good choices.
Okra, eggplant, peppers and herbs have done very well.
The okra plants have gotten so large that a friend (who has grown okra), thought they were hibiscus. They have suckered out and I have been finding okra all over the plants. The eggplants are producing way more than we need. I have already frozen enough peppers to supply my wife's cooking needs through the winter. A high demand was placed on our summer herbs and they provided all we needed.

At this point, I'm starting my fall plants in the greenhouse. I always enjoy watching these new plants come up. There are many decisions to be made, as to the whats, wheres and whens, for the fall garden. I'll sit down with Kara from time to time and discus her needs and plant for them. The most important thing for me though, is to find new and interesting plants that are fun to play with. If you don't keep it fun, it's just work.

Happy Gardening.

[imafan26]

The slugs and snails ate most of my lettuce and beet seedlings. So, yesterday, I planted new seeds in the ground. There are snails there too, but they are sitting ducks in the pots.

[Bobberman]

Ya lettuce in late summer is hard to grow since the snails eat the first two leaves. There are many tiny ones that destroy everything when it first starts to grow. I sprinkle some Epsom salts around the lettuce every time after a rain and it kills them!

[applestar]

Insect Barrier Tunnels

Last year, I grew broccoli and cauliflower under insect barrier cloth help up with arched PVC pipes and tightly held down to the ground along the hems with great success. (I also grew cabbages under an insect barrier low tunnel in previous year)
Subject: Yay! Got some planting done!

These are easy because excluding pollinating insects is not an issue.

This year, I tried a medium tunnel (almost 4 ft high x approx 5 ft wide x 10 ft long) supported with PVC arches to grow winter squash that are susceptible to SVB (squash vine borer) and it was a great success in terms of protecting from SVB's, Squash Bugs, and Stink Bugs. I still don't see any sign of infestation.

The size of the tunnel accommodated smaller fruiting (max 10 Lbs range) squash, but I think larger squash vines would have been pushing it. When they were at their most robust, the leaves were pushing on the sides as well as top of the tunnel.

One big minus is that you do have to get in there and hand pollinate. (In fact I have found that even outside of the tunnel, there was more success rate when I hand pollinated winter squash and watermelons). I was diligent at first but as it got hotter and the gardening chores increased, it became harder. When they were lush, it was difficult to get everybody back under and close the tunnel. I often saw female buds that would open THE NEXT DAY and then didn't get out to the garden or didn't get to opening the tunnel and pollinating. VERY often discovered femal blossoms that opened the previous day -- too late to pollinate.

I also lost three very nice squash fruits when I didn't realize they were ripe/mature enough to pick. I had grown early maturing varieties, and I think in the heat and humidity they matured faster than expected, and then was susceptible to becoming overripe and spoiling when I didn't get out in the garden for multiple best wave days. They had completely softened and fermented/rotted by the time I discovered them. The fact that they were new-to-me varieties didn't help.

For fall growing, I'm using a picnic table tent for protecting food from bugs to grow some cabbage and kale starts. I know from past experience that without the protection, they would be almost immediately covered with cabbage moth and cabbage butterfly worms and dessimated.

...so far, one Armyworm snuck in, and I think there's a slug. But enough survivors and significantly reduced damage/loss. I did lose a bunch of earlier seedlings to damping off when I failed to empty the catch trays after a heavy rain for 24 hours.

(I'll come back and embed applicable thread links for these at some point later -- I do have ongoing threads -with lots of pictures - for all of these experiments/projects.)

--- initial insect barrier tunnel used for the planted out squash seedlings is pictured in this thread here:
Subject: 2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs

Some of the protected C. pepo and C. maxima squash progress

...and here
Subject: 2014 Spiral Garden Garlic Onion Pea Corn Squash Cuke Beet

Winter squash that are susceptible to SVB's were planted in the Haybale Row. They were C. pepo Bush Delicata and Kakai, and C. maxima Uncle David's Dessert, Red Kuri, and Guatemalan Blue. I covered them with this insect netting row cover

--- picnic table tent is pictured and described here:
Subject: Protecting summer cabbage/broccoli/kale seedlings for fall

[digitS']

The Weather Service says that the morning low should be 34°f on Friday.

Turning on the sprinklers is all I'm planning to do. After a very warm summer, it just seems that I should not be where I'm at, all of a sudden. And, I don't think I am ...

My beefsteak tomatoes are in their sprawl and down against what I like to think of as their rock mulch. It would have to be pretty severe to damage them. Since the 8 to 14 day is for "above normal" and Sunday afternoon should be above 80° again, I'm not planning on bringing in buckets of green tomatoes!

The cukes and zuks have had a good run. Big harvest of the last sweet corn planting just came off. I got the last of the Charentais melons and most all of the Galia melons. The Blacktail Mountain watermelon will never make it! I do have a bed of bush beans that was sown mid-July where I've only seen 1 bean ready to pick.

Meanwhile, the dahlias ... always getting just about to peak season, just about now.

Steve

[applestar]

Bump. Want to come back to this later and see if I thought of anything else.
--- have you?

We gotta get ready for the new season, lots to plan ahead and techniques to grow things better to try... and there's no sense in making the same mistakes we made before.
So let's learn from each other's!

[Mian5]

2014 was one of the coldest winters in Chicago history. It was my first year starting tomatoes and peppers from seeds. I made a lot of beginner mistakes with proper lighting, planting too closely, and not thinning. I also let most of my herbs flower instead of pinching them off to extend harvesting. I'm extending my garden to an area that has weeds.

[applestar]

Hah! I didn't add the link to my pre-germinating experiment.
I'll just put it here and add more comments later when I get the chance.
I'm definitely doing this again this year.
-- peas and favas. I want lots of them
-- with squash and may even try growing some of the C. pepo summer squash with extra early start and see if they can produce ahead of the SVB'S
Subject: 2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs