2015 garden journal

[imafan26]

I got my first broccoli of 2015 today. It is a Decicco and it is not very big maybe 3 inches diameter. I got a little bigger one last year, but I had a slow start this year on account of the seedlings being eaten by slugs. No 2 is just starting to come out.

[Christian1971]

What exactly do you do with the journal?

[imafan26]

It is just a record of what is happening in the garden. It is good to look back and review the year and future planning.

Although, I have a longer season, I don't have long days. Northern gardeners will start indoors about the same time I start outdoors, with a few exceptions. Weather, pests, seasonal changes do seem to affect all of us fairly equally. A good garden year is good for everyone and a bad one just is. As a result, I still should have some of my plants come into flower or produce fruit around the same time as other gardeners. If someone is having zucchini blossoms but no fruit, chances are so am I.

The last couple of years have been bad white fly years. Hopefully that part of the cycle is over and there will be fewer white flies this year. I am already seeing more ladybugs now.

Last year, the broccoli lasted well past Mar 1, actually it hung around till May. I could only get in 2 crops of corn instead of 3. The first one was fine, but because of the later planting the second crop was heavily damaged by pests. If I had planted on time, my third crop would have matured in late September and I may not have had as much corn ear damage.

[imafan26]

Got crown flower cuttings. I am trying them two ways. One is by water rooting and the other by planting them in cinder and peat moss.

[imafan26]

I went to my community garden yesterday. The February 11,2015. The calamondin is flowering again and I actually trimmed off about a third of it. Most off the top to control the height. The won bok should be heading up soon. I planted more beet seedlings and thinned the romaine lettuce. The carrots are starting to get bigger. The unknown squash that started growing in my garden turned out to be two different gourds, an upo and a round gourd. I picked 4 on Saturday and another one yesterday. I cleared a spot to amend before I plant the strawberries.

At home I potted up 28 blue kale seedlings, a couple of Thai eggplant, some curly parsley, sunflowers, and what I think may be cutting celery. I won't know for sure until they get bigger.

[rainbowgardener]

oh sigh.... right this minute intellicast tells me it is 17 deg F outside "feels like 10." I won't be outside much any of this weekend. Very glad I have little indoor seedlings to work on. So tired of this.

[imafan26]

I admire you folks who grow so much indoors when it is snowing outside. One, I don't have a basement and my garage is packed with mostly garden stuff, bales of peat, fertilizer, pots and some things I haven't seen in years. I grow one tomato at a time. I only need three so I try to keep the total number down to 10-15 of each variety. I have to get rid of the ones I don't keep. My nursery bench is a bench master 4ftx8 ft and some of my plants need to stay on it permanently as they do not do well on the ground. My propagation area for cuttings is under the bench. I need to move things off the bench as soon as I can. I grow herbs for the garden for the Feb-Nov monthly sales. I have 2 benches (4x12 ft) at the garden and I move the seedlings I start at home there after they are transplanted out. I put out about 20 trays for sale each month and about 50-75% are sold, but it all depends on who comes. Sometimes, you just cannot predict what people will want. Most of the herbs can stay in pots for a couple of months but I don't do many vegetable starts. I try to keep that at around 10. They do not sell well and they will not keep, so I either have to find them homes by giving them to the other volunteers, plant them in one of my plots or throw them away. I try to rotate what is on the bench, except for peppers which take longer to mature, I will move the rest off the bench every six weeks or so. I do keep mother plants, thyme, stevia, mint on the nursery bench all of the time because they either do not do well on the ground or they get out of control like the mint. Sometimes I will try something new like squash, sometimes they sell, sometimes they don't. I kept having one customer beg for tomatillos but I told him, I probably won't be growing those because unless he plans to buy them all, they won't sell. Some things like pandan, I had a customer who would come and buy up every thing I had. And now that the word has gotten around, they are moving much better, they practically sell themselves.

[applestar]

Sounds like you keep busy! You must have the process down to routine.

...I think I learned about pandan from you mentioning it before. I found a source for it in NJ

[imafan26]

More of the broccoli are starting to form their first heads and the daikon and kale are ready to harvest. The Kai Choy cabbage is about 3 inches tall.
I planted 20 Quinault strawberry crowns, two daylily, and 16 Mary Washington Asparagus. ( I should have looked at the bag when I bought it, the box said Jersey Knight. I would have grown Mary Washington from seed otherwise).

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the anaheim peppers sprouted. I wasn't sure they would when it is still so cold in the low 60's. I only got one yellow bell though, but the seeds may be older.

[jal_ut]

Garden Journal: Great idea. I too keep a garden journal. I like to write in it: planting dates, varieties tried, weather and irrigation, insects, and any other events that effect the garden. Then keep track of harvests.

Hate to say it, but as I age my memory is getting worse all the time. The journal is my memory. Lets me go back and check notes. It is a great tool.

[imafan26]

I keep a note book, but, I am not that good about writing in it and even worse trying to read it afterwards. But I am on the computer everyday.

Yesterday was just not my day. I didn't get much sleep since I have this cold and I couldn't breathe and every time I would turn my leg would cramp. I did get some things done, since when I am sick, I rather be outside than inside. I finally weeded the potted plants around the main garden. I still have a lot of other sections to take care of and I still have not gone near the new weed whacker yet. I planted a few seeds and then dropped the whole tray. I shoveled the media back into the pots but I don't know if any of the seeds are going to come up now and if they do, the seeds will probably be mixed up. Some of the seeds like the borage, I only had one package, so I am hoping something survived. I planted borage, kale, cayenne peppers, tronchuda kale, and cilantro.

Today, I am going to try to get to my community garden to water it. I'm glad it is used to neglect. I have a little room left in my second green can so I am going to try to fill it today. Which shouldn't take that long since I have some very big weeds.

[imafan26]

I harvested 4 more broccoli heads. Kale is also ready and the daikon is going to seed. Kai choy cabbage is about 3 inches tall now. It is getting warmer so seeds are not taking as long to sprout. I am going to need more space. The asparagus crowns are starting to sprout, but I am still waiting on the Quinault strawberries to show signs of life.

[imafan26]

I went to my community garden today and harvested some beets, scarlet nantes carrots (they are better this time not bitter like the Danvers last year). I got a few good sized roots but a lot of baby carrots since I did not thin them. I got about 5 chayote too. The won bok is not heading up but one of them already rotted down. All of the Satsuma mandarins are flowering now and new shoots are everywhere. No aphids so far and I have the ant bait out and a new fruit fly trap is catching a few. The calamondin has some fruit on it and the gourd is flowering. There are a few gourds sizing up and the Asparagus is starting to bud up. I can probably thin some of the romaine for baby greens and the Buttercrunch lettuce is half grown. Next week is March. I am going to try to over seed the garden with the corn and see if that works. It will be the first time I have tried doing that instead of taking everything out first.

On the nursery bench, seeds are starting to sprout a lot sooner now that it is finally warming up. It was 78 today, but cloudy. The lows are in the mid 60's now so the peppers should be willing to come up. Transplanted more cutting celery, Anaheim peppers, and nasturtiums out to 3.5 inch pots. More rain is expected Thursday into Friday, but it is expected to be a fast moving system so it may be more annoying than helpful.
More of the asparagus crowns are starting to sprout, but still no signs of life from the strawberries.

[imafan26]

I harvested 4 beets, some of the Scarlet Nantes carrots (they are a lot better than Danver's half long, not nearly as bitter), and chayote. For dinner I made roasted vegetables with the beets, carrots, and red potatoes (I bought the potatoes). Yummy. I am finishing off a Costco roast chicken so I think I will use the chayote and chicken in Arroz caldo or jook next. The romaine lettuce needs thinning too, so I will probably pick some next time for salad.

[imafan26]

March 7, 2015 I harvested 4 gourds and a small head of butter crunch. Most of the citrus now all are flowering. The new shoots are sprouting and the aphids are on them. I blasted some of them off with water. I did not see ants and the ant bait should still be active. I will continue to jet off the aphids for the time being. I still have a few satsuma mandarins on the tree but they are very old now. the calamondin is producing fruit and flowering at the same time. The broccoli is sprouting side shoots. The Bok choy still have not headed but more beet roots are starting to swell.

[imafan26]

It is chilly today. It was 60 degrees at 7 a.m. and it only got up to 71 degrees. I did some weeding in the community garden. I have a few more squash sizing up some are golf ball and tennis ball sized. I harvested some carrots, baby romaine, and kale and gave it away to the other volunteers at the garden. The carrots are planted too close so most are baby carrots. It has been overcast all day and it looks like it will rain, but so far it is just cold and gloomy. I did buy some more strawberry starts of another variety 'Everlasting'. Now I have three kinds of strawberries Everlasting, Seascape, and Albion. The Seascape and the Everlasting have some flowers, the Albion are daughters so they are not very large yet. The quinault still hasn't done a thing. I may have to move them off my nursery bench just because I need the space to pot up the anaheim peppers and kale.

The beets are starting to swell and I may wait on planting the corn until I can get most of them out since I need to put more compost in the bed and I cannot do that without taking them out.

I also need to divide the cardamom since the papaya fell on it and the marjoram and parrot impatiens also need to come out of the cutting boxes. I may make more cuttings of the parrot impatiens.

[rainbowgardener]

Spring! Once it is really spring, every where I look there are things I should be doing! It can get overwhelming.

Start pulling your baby carrots to eat, which will make more space for the ones left to get bigger. I always thin carrots by eating.

[imafan26]

I have been pulling the carrots. I got a couple of good sized ones from the outer part of the patch but most are small. I roasted them with some beets I also grew and added some store bought potatoes and onions.

[803New2Gardening]

This is a great read thanks for sharing

[imafan26]

Last week was the Kunia Orchid Show, so I didn't get to my garden. It only sprinkled a little on Friday. I am glad my garden is used to neglect. The older leaves of the gourd vines are dying but it keeps on moving along the fence. Today I picked a couple of gourds that were maybe 3-4 lbs each. I left another one that must weigh over 10 lbs now, I am keeping that one for the seed. There are still flowers and a half dozen or so baby squash ranging from marble sized to tennis ball size. I picked a few more calamondin and my Satsuma tangerines are all in flower now.

The beets may be ready to pick next week, but the romaine is already starting to bolt and there is a lot of thrip damage so, I think they will end up being worm food. The won bok failed to form heads and is going straight to flowering so, I think they are also heading toward compost as well or worm food.

In my home garden, the kale is ready to harvest and because of the show, I missed picking the broccoli side shoots so they have started to bloom as well. My beefsteak tomato has two fruit that are slowly getting bigger and while the plant is small it is still putting out more flowers and looks very healthy.

Unfortunately so do the weeds.

I found a couple of snail in my orchids, but that is down from what I have been getting so it is an improvement.

The kai choi is also starting to bolt and they aren't very big. I did plant them too close, but They are more for nematode control and they can still be eaten small.

I haven't found any more plants on my nursery bench chewed on and no more snails this week. I have Anaheim and cayenne pepper seedlings to pot up and a few lettuce to plant out. Since my home garden does not have as many thrip issues on the cabbages and lettuce, I will probably be planting them there instead of the community garden. The beets, radish and swiss chard are happier in the community garden.

I decided to put my cuttings in potting soil in the 3.5 inch pots on top of the bench instead of the perlite bulb pans under the bench. They do seem to be doing better. At least the lavender is still alive. The pineapple sage looks like they are putting out new leaves. The borage and Tronchuda kale are looking very nice. The crown flower does not look that good a couple of them have canes that are turning brown. The butterfly weed transplanted well.

I have cleaned and bleached the old pepper pot and it should be ready for more potting soil and a new pepper plant.
The ghost pepper and Trinidad scorpion are both making peppers, so hopefully I will be getting some seeds soon. The peppers are sprouting now, but I will do the easy ones first. The bell pepper I put in the garden has started to flower.

On Monday, I got scorched and on Tuesday I actually started sweating working outdoors. Well, it is time to break out the suncreen again.

[imafan26]

The night temperatures are staying close to 70 now so my pepper seeds are starting to germinate much better. Even my older seeds had more germination than I anticipated, although the seeds over 5 years old dropped off tremendously. I will still wait to plant the hotter peppers as they germinate better in consistently warm weather.

There was a good amount of rain yesterday. It started around noon and it drizzled and at times came down at a moderate pace, but it was a good soaking rain, slow enough and long enough that most of it actually ended up being soaked up by the soil and not running down the roads into storm drains and out to sea. It was also a warm rain. I won't have to water my community garden today.

Some of the beets are ready to pull, the romaine lettuce and won bok are bolting. The won bok and lettuce at the community garden have a lot of thrip damage. The won bok are bolting without ever heading.

I have fewer issues with thrips in the veggies at my home garden. The lettuce and a few broccoli need to be harvested. Some of the broccoli side shoots bolted last week because I was at the Kunia show and barely got around to watering the garden every day.

My parthenocarpic cucumber managed to get pollinated by the bees so it looked like a club, but it was crisp and sweet. My second vine produces and oval fruit that was dark green, but lookabked more like a zucchini than a cucumber. I have no clue what that was, but it still tasted good in the salad. My cucumber does not really produce well in the cooler months. The vines have been short and the last four have only produced a couple of fruit each. I might move the cucumber to a different location and see if it does better. I have planted Suyo cucumber before and know the vines can do better.

The bell pepper I put in the ground has started to flower and looks good so far.

The kai choy cabbage is starting to bolt. I planted them more for nematode control than to eat.

I have tomato seedlings volunteering in two of the tomato pots. I may keep one but I already have a red cherry tomato planned for the other. The beefsteak tomato is still looking healthy and putting on more flowers and so far the fruit is small and green and the birds have not bothered them.

I have a lot of different pepper seedlings coming up. I don't know where I am going to put them all. I planted Wailua pepper (jalapeno), serrano, bhut jolokia (only a few as a trial), anaheim, tabasco, cubanelle, yellow bell, Chinese Giant bell, banana, hot portugal, Key Largo, and cayenne.

[imafan26]

I finally filled a couple of cans of weeds. It barely made a dent.

I did manage to bite the bullet and decide to pull some of the broccoli, two daikon were already blooming and the roots were starting to rot. I was going to take out the rakkyo, but to my surprise, the bulbs are finally getting bigger. I am thinking they are a biennial crop, because they were so small they were not worth harvesting before. I pulled out most of the kai choy and the garlic chives seems to be making a recovery from the black aphids. Hooray for ladybugs!

I got one quadrant cleared mostly and amended with steer manure and grow mulch. The soil there did not have a lot of life in it and is was muddy and heavy, so I put some vermicast in as well. Hopefully the increase in organic matter will make a difference. I think that was where I dug out the soil because there was just so much nut sedge and I put in potting soil instead. It worked to control the weeds, but the soil did not have much organic matter in it. I only managed to dig up one earthworm, which is not the norm for that garden.

This is the first time I am using grow mulch. It has some chicken manure and gypsum which I don't really want or need, but at the time it was all they had and it had rained the previous week so I could not lift a 3 cu ft bag even if they had one. It did not say it was for vegetables but it contains rice hulls, feather meal, composted dairy and chicken manure, forest products, feather meal, gypsum and arbor fines (whatever that is). I did also break down and use 6-12-12 starter fertilizer. Usually I would not add any phosphorus.

I will move my cucumber trellis over a few feet, to see if a change makes a difference, my last few cucumber plants have not produced much. I am probably going to put in one zucchini (dark green), some lettuce and beets as under plantings. The rakkyo is still in its' same spot, although I took some divisions an potted them up. The quadrant is about three feet by four feet. I still have three quadrants to go.

I finally replanted the super chili in the 20 inch pot. I found one chili growing wild among the weeds, now if I just manage not to weed whack it.

[imafan26]

I finally got around to getting some pictures.

[imafan26]

I cleaned and weeded the community garden today. It took me about 6 hours and I fertilized and added some compost and steer manure. I also added some Big R since they did not have the compost I wanted. It will dry out faster, but it is acidic and won't hurt since the soil there tested a pH 7.4 anyway.

I am saving one of the round gourds for seed. I hope it doesn't pull my fence down. I harvested one long gourd and three round gourds. I gave one of them to another gardener and I have a couple more that may be ready next week and some smaller ones that are still growing. Some of the older parts of the vines are dying but the tips are making their way along the fence. the loofa is still small and I will add the sunburst melon once it has true leaves.

I planted UH #10 corn seeds today (a month late) and pulled out more beets, turnips and few carrots that were still left.
The citrus tree leaves are growing and the aphids seem to be gone now. I can see small fruit on the mandarin and there is calamondin ready to pick on the other tree. I will need to thin the citrus a little bit.

I planted a couple of more strawberries under the citrus tree. None of the quinault roots have sprouted, and I am pretty much giving up on them. This is the first time I tried growing them from roots, they did not look very alive when I got them and they should have done something by now. I can get more seascape, but I would rather have more albion. At this point I take what I can get. There was a runner from one of the strawberries already under the tree.

I took out the romaine lettuce and won bok that had bolted. I have kept the cilantro as it is still flowering and I want to collect the seeds. It does attract beneficial insects while it is in flower.

The asparagus crowns are growing well in their pots. I need to clear the space for them that is currently occupied by a healthy patch of weeds before I can plant them. I may have to use weed block when I plant them to give them a better chance of competing with the weeds.

[imafan26]

Some of the UH no 10 corn seed have sprouted but I have some holes. I may seed them again. They may be late but maybe they will provide pollen for the third ears. This is what I get for planting last year's seed.

The dark green zucchini is blooming male flowers
I have one small bell pepper on a 5 inch bell pepper plant. Having it in the garden has so far not made that much of a difference, but I also did not plant it in the best place. I will have more peppers soon to experiment with.

The anaheim peppers planted in February are finally fruiting and peppers planted in March are starting to flower
I potted up some bell peppers today from 4 inch to 1 gallon pots.

Planted more pepper seedlings Carnival mix bell peppers, Wailua pepper (Jalapeno), Trinidad Scorpion, Bhut Jolokia, Carmen, Carolina Reaper, Thai duo, Super hot Thai, and Super chili.

I have more Wailua peppers, serrano, habanero, Chinese Giant, and yellow bells in 4 inch pots that will need to be potted up soon.

Bouquet Dill, toscano, and more peppers still need to be potted up to 4 inch pots. I need more space.

The asparagus crowns I planted have 3 ft fronds now, I should plant them out in the garden soon.

Snails are still a problem. I am finding 3-4 a day. They are actually on the neighbors hedge and my fence so I am still putting out slug bait. So far, it looks like I got rid of the ones on the nursery bench and I am still putting out bait around and under the bench and around the main vegetable garden and under the plumeria trees.

Someone gave me another coffee tree so I need to pot that up. My old neglected coffee tree is still hanging in there and had some cherries on them.

The weather is quite muggy now with vog. There is more rain especially at night but it is not a cooling rain and not enough to green things up enough.

Apple blossom amaryllis is blooming now and the One Day Wonder orchid should be blooming any day now. It will only bloom for one day.

[applestar]

You have been busy! I'm envious of the coffee plant, though my one seed grown plant on the sofa table is towering over us and I don't have room to keep another one. But I have heard that they would set fruits better with two. Do you know how long it takes for them to bloom after they start budding? I hope mine is going to bloom, but I would prefer that it blooms after it goes outside for the summer where the pollinators can handle the job... But maybe I would get better fruit set if I also help with a paintbrush....

Did you see how I have been pre-germinating then starting corn inside? I'm still amazed by how quickly the seedling grow, and I like that I can plant the evenly sized ones in oredesignated patterns. I really should plant mine today.

[imafan26]

Actually, coffee only needs one plant. Cacao sometimes needs two to pollinate.
Coffee and gardenia are in the same family so they bloom around the same time which would be around now. They start blooming after about a year. It is an under story tree so will bloom in good light but does not need full sun.

The cherries take nine months to a year to mature and they will ripen sporadically. It is why coffee is a labor intensive crop since the cherries have to be hand picked at their peak ripeness; a machine cannot do that and leave the green ones behind. Coffee is a repeat bloomer and flowers and fruit will be on the tree at the same time.

The cofee flower does not smell anything like coffee. It is more like gardenia but with a much lighter sweet scent. The flowers are similar to jasmine sambac but bigger.

My rose pikake (it is what jasmine is called locally) is blooming now as well.

[imafan26]

I squeezed a few plants and removed some dead pots and found a little more room.

I potted up plants sown on 3/27 Bhut Jolikia, lacinato kale, Florence fennel, Bouquet Dill (partial only not enough space for the entire compot. Some of my newly transplanted peppers are in media that is puddling, I will have to watch that, for now I poked a few holes to make sure the water can leave the pot.

I still have more X77 papaya and many more peppers to move up into 4 inch pots. The lavender cutting (multifida) looks like they have taken so I can pot Them up to gallons. The Provence lavender does not look as happy, I will try to make more cuttings since my mother plants are rebounding.

The orchid I thought was the one day wonder (eria) turned out to be den. aggregatum. It is within its' bloom range it is just a little early. It usually blooms in late May or June for me. The honohono orchids (den. anosum) are putting out new keiki so I need to cut off the bloom canes and feed them so I will get longer canes next year.

I picked the second beefsteak tomato ad the plant is now nearly at the top of the cage. There are a few clusters of tomatoes. They are not very big, but the plant is still small. The cherry and wild tomato are starting to flower and I found another two wild tomatoes in the vegetable garden. I will need to decide soon if I want to keep them or not.

The weeds are out of control. They just get bigger every day and I don't have time or energy enough to tackle them.

So far only one of my Mr. Lincoln rose cuttings looks like a survivor the rest are browning. I will remove them and try again.

[imafan26]

It has been raining nearly every night and my peppers have septoria leaf spot. I picked off the infested leaves and trashed them and sprayed them with copper sulfate and chlorothalanil. Unfortunately it is also hot and humid around 80 degrees so I am hoping the leaves won't burn.

Mr. LIncoln also has some downy mildew so I sprayed that one as well.

This off and on rainy humid weather is forecast to hang around for awhile so there is nothing more I can do except anti fungal sprays and picking off the infected leaves. I also sprayed the seedlings that are not showing any disease yet just in case.

So far the birds and I are even. We each have gotten three tomatoes. The tomatoes on the beefsteak were small but there were a lot of fruit. Now, the fruit looks like they are getting bigger and the plant is at the top of the trelllis now. The red cherry is still green and my wild tomate is a yellow one. This would be the third generation of sungold.

My one zucchini did not fall off, so I think it will keep growing it is about 3 inches long now.

The pineapple is getting bigger. This is the biggest it has ever been. Maybe I will get a full sized one this year for a change.

A few of my orchids are blooming in time for Mother's day.

The corn I planted at the community garden came up spotty. I should really not use old seeds for that. It was last years's seed. I planted a sunburst melon and sugar baby watermelon.

Some of the beets and turnips were in the ground a little longer than I planned.

[imafan26]

I finally got to eat my tomatoes. They weren't very big for beefsteaks, but the ones coming up now are getting bigger. The color was a deep red and very meaty. I made Beef tomato with them. I could have used a few more tomatoes in the pot.

So, far the birds and I are neck and neck, they have gotten half the tomatoes and I got the other half (six tomatoes so far). I picked my first yellow cherries. The birds don't seem to be interested in them right now, they were fully ripe. I picked another two beefsteaks that were starting to blush. The red cherry tomatoes are still green.

I got my first zucchini today and my bell pepper in the garden is a mini. The pepper hasn't done much better in the garden than it does in the pot. But, the spot I planted it in was not the best. I will try another spot.

The oakleaf and manoa lettuce are bolting and Suyo long cucumber have flowers. I actually had to buy a cucumber a couple of weeks ago for a salad. I felt so strange. I haven't bought cucumbers, bell peppers, or lemons in a very long time.

The peppers are sprouting well and I have a couple of dozen that need to be potted up. Some of the one gallons already are flowering. The Anaheim and Banana peppers have fruit ready for picking. Some of the ones I planted recently have sprouted, so I will need even more space for them.

It has been raining nearly every night and drizzling for part of the morning, but it remains very hot and muggy. The peppers are getting septoria leaf spot, so I removed the infested leaves and I am spraying with copper sulfate and chlorothalanil weekly. It seems to be under better control. Now, the mites are attacking the leaves as well. So, I added some insecticidal soap to the fungicide. I may have to up the ante and get some pyrethrins if that doesn't work.

[imafan26]

It rained again last night a little. But it steamed off during the day and made it even more muggy. HIgh 85 low 74 , at least the trades are still coming in.

Harvesting peppers super chili, Hawaiian chili, carmen, habanero, Wailua pepper (Jalapeno), serrano, orange and red habanero, Czechoslovakian Black, Cubanelle, and Carmen. Yellow bell is only about the size of a large marble.

There is some problems with bacterial spot so I had to destroy some bhut jolokia and Trinidad scorpion seedlings. I have been able to control it by picking off the leaves and sulfur sprays.

I harvested exactly one Texas granex onion from my garden. I thought it was a green onion until it started bulbing. The zucchini only gave me three fruit and it looks like it is starting to decline. Cucumbers are starting to form fruit now.
Kale is still going strong. The citrus trees are putting on fruit now most are still months away from picking except the calamondin, but that fruits nearly year round anyway.

Strawberries are fruiting, as well as lychee and mango. Lettuce is getting tip burned and bolting.

Not many bugs in my garden but the herb garden has the usual problems with thrips and spittle bugs.

It hasn't rained much so the grass is drying and dying and only the weeds are thriving.

There are still a few white flies around but I am seeing more ladybugs and lady bug pupae so they should be kept under control. I cut back the hibiscus too since it is a host.

I treated the hibiscus earlier for erineum gall mites. The leaves look better now and the season for them should be peaking soon.

Glads are blooming as well as agapanthus.

Weeds are still winning and it is hard to stay outside and do any work in this heat.

I have more pepper, sage, eggplant, kale, and lemon basil seedlings to transplant.

The corn at my community garden is tasselling but it did not get enough water so I don't expect much. the plants are short and sparse.

I have a wild tomato growing in my community garden and it has a few green fruit. It is unusual since tomatoes don't grow very well there. I am amazed it is even alive. The sugar baby watermelon did not make it and after the corn is done I have to add more compost so it will hold on to water more.

I had beets and carrots in the garden before the corn and they weren't done so I planted the corn around them. It is probably why the corn is not doing as well. The soil could use more compost so it can hold on to water more and the weeds are competing with the plants for nutrients. I have to clear and amend before I plant the next round of corn again. Ants are congregating on the tassels but I don't really see aphids. I am not catching many fruit flies in my trap.

I am still getting chayote, but it still wants to climb my citrus and pear tree. instead of the fence.
My one Brussel's sprouts is still alive, this is the longest it has lived but I still haven't gotten any sprouts.

[applestar]

I love that you are growing so many different things and trying. I do that, too, and even if one or two plants is all that makes it and you get even a single harvest, it seems like a victory.

...at the very least I feel like I've learned a little bit more about the plant and how I might try differently next time. I only give up after I feel like I've made every reasonable attempt.

I agree about the corn -- at least I think I'm agreeing -- you need to be able to pull soil up around corn and hill them. They seem to do so much better when you do that. So I try to think of companions that can handle it, or plant things AFTER hilling. (This year, I planted a row or potatoes next to the corn and hilled the corn as I pulled up soil and mulch over the growing potato stems.) sometimes I sacrifice what was growing before corn and just hill WITH the soil they are growing in, or bury them with brought in soil. And after seeing the images of flooded Midwest with corn under water, which subsequently thrived, I water corn way more than before by planting them in the lower part of the garden or where there is a swale to flood for them.

Good luck! I really enjoy reading about your garden

[sweetiepie]

Imafan, you make me so excited for the harvesting part of the season, right up to the point where I am overwhelmed with it. I wish we could split the temps, we were in the 40's for the third night in a row with high's in the 50's. Today we are suppose to be in the 60's and really dry also. My garden is taking a lot of watering. But just south of us they had 4 inches in an hour. So I don't want that either.

Applestar, I am sure you will let us all know how the potato and corn thing works out. I would love to try that. My potatoes would make a good ground cover for the corn but grow so much quicker and are taller than the corn right now. The corn is probably a week or two away from hilling yet. So I have never tried it. I have tried cucumbers, squash etc. in sunflower rows and that worked like a charm. They crawled right up those sunflowers.

[imafan26]

Temperatures in the 40's happens around January in the middle of the night. Usually it is about 51 with a few dips to 49, other than that the low days would be in the 60's and the normal is in the 80's.

While I can plant year round and plant in succession. If I start March 1 with my first batch of corn I can get three crops in a year. The corn in my community garden has to be maize mosaic resistant so I am planting UH number 10 which is a tropical corn. It usually gets around 5-8 ft tall. Now most of them are 4 ft tall and tasseling. This was the first time, I tried to inter plant among my lagging beets, so I did not add the compost or the extra nitrogen I usually do for the corn. I usually only water a couple of times a week and it hasn't rained as much so the soil was drying faster than usual. Well, live and learn.

At my home I don't have as many issues with leaf hoppers so I can grow Silver Queen as well as the UH varieties and that one gets 8 ft tall. Golden bantam grew but it really is not a sweet corn. Most of the temperate corn will not grow well as the days get shorter. I haven't planted any corn at home this year. My home plot is still occupied by kale. The beans got wiped out by the snails but the kale keeps on coming.

[sweetiepie]

I am knocking on wood here. As far as I know, I have never experienced snails or slugs. The occasional cutworm. My bug problems are usually ants, aphids, or grasshoppers. Three growing seasons, that sounds tiring but really no need to preserve food then which would be nice. Preserving food is time consuming but then so is gardening for 3 seasons.

[imafan26]

Actually, it is probably easier to grow year round since I don't have to worry about over night freezes. But, it also means that there are peak pest times but no time when pests are not a problem year round. No winter kill of pests or disease and weeds are never ending.

I plant tomatoes year round. I can grow peppers and eggplant year round but they only germinate well in the warmer months.

I plant the cool season vegetables October-May.

Some plants which would be annual for you are perennial for me like impatiens. Glads and amaryllis stay in the ground year after year and do not need to be dug up until they get too crowded.

I can grow plants that grow in zone 9 and above so some things like Rhodies (except Tropical Rhodies), lavender augustifolia (buds will not open and will not tolerate the heat of summer), French tarragon (can't handle summer heat), most fruits that have require chilliing to produce (low chill apples, peach and apricots will grow in the higher elevations. Most of the Northern trees and most of the bulbs like bearded iris and tulips that require chilling can only be forced here but won't survive.

True tropical trees do not do much shedding of leaves. A few will go dormant like the native wili, and the ubiquitous but non-native plumeria, frangipani (native to Central and South America) Singapore plumeria will keep their leaves year round but the flower is not good for leis. For the most part, tropical trees are green all year although they may still bloom seasonally and some will brown out in summer. Sad, but true if you came to Hawaii, most of the plants you see will be aliens. The Ohia forest surrounding the H3 highway is native, but is being ravaged by alien feral pigs that dig up the roots and spread invasive weeds.

[imafan26]

I got some weeding done and I can actually see the ground now. I filled a green can, but if I try I can probably stuff a couple of more 5 gallon buckets of weeds in there.

What I have discovered once I cleared the jungle of weeds
I have another pineapple. This one is a Dole sugar loaf. It looks a little younger but about the same size as the Del Monte Gold. I found 2 mioga alive. I wasn't sure they would survive in the weeds.

I found a few dead pots except for weeds, but less than I expected
I repotted the strawberries.
I found 6 daikon radishes ready to pick. My beets are way over the hill
I pulled up the zucchini, there was a half of a zucchini on the plant, something ate the other half.
The cabbage butterfly has found my kale. Lots of holes in the Russian and Portuguese kale.
I have two suyo cucumbers. They should be ready by the weekend if they get enough water.
The kaffir limes are flowering and trying to fruit again.
I got killed two snails, one had eggs.
My wild tomato looks like a next next next gen sungold.
Fed the pineapple, roses, ginger, some of the peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and taro.
Picked two more beefsteak tomatoes.
The oak leaf lettuce went to seed
I did a mercy killing of the yellow bell pepper and a couple of struggling swiss chard.
Pulled a lot of nut sedge out of the garden.
Got caught on the rose thorns ouch!
I may have to cut the dragon fruit, it is trying to escape into the neighbor's yard.
Brassia are blooming.

[applestar]

@imafan, I'm going to pick your brains -- I hope you don't mind my asking here (I can separate this part into a different thread if you prefer)

I don't know if it would do any good, but if I were to take my pineapples out of their pots and plant them in the ground for R&R to grow without restriction over the summer, what kind of soil, sun, water, etc. conditions would you suggest?

I WAS thinking of planting them on the raised humps surrounding my little rice paddy (no rice growing in it this year (I tried but they either didn't germinate or died and so far all I'm doing is pulling up the Japanese millet which are rice plant mimics without finding any rice plant...) it's in full sun, the mini paddy holds water so there is a high humidity micro climate with plenty of moisture below the hump which will be dry near the top/surface.

[imafan26]

Pineapple is a bromeliad. It doesn't need a lot of soil just to stay upright and water in the cups. Some people here grow them in 5 gallon buckets with potting soil. The pineapple fields were red clay, heavily limed because of the acidic fertilizer they used. If you use a well drained soil it should work. My uncle said that the pineapple liked a lot of potassium. He recommended K-mag or sul-po-mag. Bromeliads are not fertilized on the ground but in the cups and between the leaves. They like for the cups to have water in them. Most of the pineapple fields on Oahu were in the higher elevations like Wahiawa, Kunia, and Waialua where it naturally rained almost daily but also got a lot of sunshine. Except for where the bromeliads are anchored in the soil, the rest of the plant just needs space to spread out. Most of the stem with fine roots will creep above ground and barely in the soil.

I finally got around to weeding and pulling out the kale from the main garden bed. I have amended it with more compost and fertilizer. I will let that set a few weeks for the fertilizer to start releasing and pull any stray weeds that come up again. There is nutsedge in the garden so I know they will come up. I had some cucumbers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and mesclun planted in starter pots. I just transplanted out the cucumbers and the mesclun ( a bit overgrown). The broccoli has sprouted but only has cotyledons and the beets did not germinate all that well so I am replanting and also planting more kale and swiss chard seeds. August has been hard on the seedlings, they don't want to grow and I have snails eager to chomp down on anything that does manage to pop up. I have a couple of tomatoes, Livingston Grape and Sungold ready to plant out, but I still have to clean out the tomato pots I have. I also direct seeded some Blue lake bush beans. I did plant them in starter pots but the snails got them. I uppotted two Carolina Reapers that I got from the seed giveaway. It is so hot working in the yard that I can only spend about three hours a day doing it, by the time it is two o'clock, I am soaked in sweat and don't want to even move anymore.