Imafan's 2024 Garden

imafan26 · Tue Jun 18, 2024 2:57 am

If it is like other ferments it should be ready in about 3 days. My temperatures are now in the 70-84 degree range so it doesn't take long. I just have to remember to burp it every day so it won't explode. The water seal method would work. I have to find the right kind of jar.

I have another question. How do you get rid of grubs in the vegetable garden? Options are limited here. We have scarab beetles but not Japanese beetles so milky spore won't work. Beneficial nematodes cannot be imported. The beetles of concern are Asian flower beetles and coconut rhinoceros beetles.

Grub control products are not listed for vegetable gardens only turf.

imafan26 · Tue Jun 18, 2024 3:21 am

It is the middle of June, I am taking more out of the garden than I am adding. I do have some options. I can start okra, roselle, shiso, and long beans. I already have sweet potatoes and finally the turmeric and ginger are starting to sprout I have a lot of pepper seedlings of both sweet and hot varieties. And I have a couple of heat tolerant tomatoes. I just ordered a 50% shade cloth to go over the bird netting in the garden to see if I can keep it a few degrees cooler there.

I am thinking to try more bush beans. I am marginal on the temperatures. Right now it is still relatively cool for June. While is seems hotter, my days have not really gone much past 84 degrees and the night temperatures are around 70 degrees. I can try the long beans, but I have trouble with Chinese rose beetles and I don't have an insect bag that is long enough for a 7 ft vine. I can try more bush beans although they are not as heat tolerant and see how that goes. I don't have room for gourds to sprawl. My day temperature usually does not go above 90 in most years. La Nina should keep it cooler.

If I don't plant, I can solarize instead.

imafan26 · Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:02 am

I haven't been out in the garden much. Mainly to water and pull a few (very few) weeds. It has been overcast but it only briefly sprinkled. There may be some isolated showers overnight, but I will still have to water tomorrow. I only did a little watering today of the smaller pots. The rest can actually go another day. I watered yesterday afternoon. I used to water everyday in summer, but now, I actually do more spot watering instead. I am trying to keep my water bill down a bit. As long as there are some overnight showers, some things can go a little longer. It was 82 degrees today and now it is around 75 degrees. It feels hotter because the clouds trap humidity.

I did get out late this afternoon. I took the soil out of 2 containers. I refilled one and planted okra. The seedlings have been languishing in the 4 inch pot for too long. Okra is pretty tough, I am hoping it will make a comeback. If not. I can plant something else. I bought enough potting soil for the second pot, but after hauling the soil from the front to the back and emptying the two pots into bags, I am done. I will need to bring another potting soil to the back and more dolomite lime for the next pot. That was my bean container, I am probably going to plant nectar and pollen flowers in that container for now. I have 2 bags of potting soil, I don't know where it I am going to put it. One container did have some earthworms in it and they were rehomed.

In the okra container, I added 1/2 cup of dolomite lime, 2 cu ft MG potting mix, and 1/2 cup of 8-8-8 organic fertilizer. The MG does have fertilizer to start the okra off to a good start. I will see if I can get more vermicast out of my worms to put into this container. This is an 18 gallon muck bucket and I planted 4 sad okra seedlings. I only left about 2 inches of the old soil in the pot. The lime is going to take a couple of months to do anything. I am hoping to keep the pH from dropping so badly over time. I don't usually use organic fertilizer in a container, but I am trying it. A half cup of organic fertilizer is not very much.

I ordered a shade cloth for the garden and I bought a rope to pull it. I did not think twine or parachord was going to cut it. I will have to see how it goes since I don't have help to pull it over the 7 foot frame. I am putting 50% shade cloth over the bird netting to see if it helps to keep the plants in the main garden cooler since the hottest days are still to come. I would not have to do this for corn, but I can't plant 8 ft corn with a 7 ft roof and I don't want to have to pull the bird netting on and off the frame again. Right now, I still have carrots, cutting celery (very unhappy), perpetual spinach, 2 lacinato kale, Italian parsley, and some pots of peppers in the main garden. I may use the space for more potted peppers, or I may plant more provider beans in the garden. I am not certain yet. I may not get to it at all because I can only work very early in the morning or late in the afternoon and I have a low exercise tolerance especially for heavy work like moving media.

imafan26 · Sun Jun 23, 2024 10:22 pm

Harvested 1 meyer lemon (160 g) and 200 gms of beans. I still have a few beans left for another picking.

imafan26 · Mon Jun 24, 2024 5:34 pm

It is 78 degrees at 11 a.m. and very breezy. I will have to go out and water this afternoon. I thought it was going to rain, but it fooled me. Not everything needs watering, so it won't take that long. I am going to try to fertilize the containers. I bought more potting soil yesterday. I will try and fill another pot. Usually, that is exhausting enough.

I transplanted the sad looking okra into the pot I refilled the other day and they improved with a greener color in just a day. I have hope for these now. I don't know what I am going to do with these bags of soil I took out. I need to clean up some of the pots on the benches. That should not take too much energy and I need the space to pot up some things. I am not going to use the cheap soil mix, so hopefully, the plants will look better. I am probably tossing most of the ones I have especially the tomatoes. They are only 5 inches tall and trying to fruit.

I have some small peppers on the peppers in the tower. They seem to grow better in the tower than in pots.

The ginger and turmeric are finally starting to grow and more shoots are coming up (2 months late).

I have to figure out what is wrong with my eggplant. It is a Pintung long but it is getting hard prematurely. The plant had some thrips and mites, but otherwise it looks healthy. I have to figure out if it is a nutritional problem. I know the pepper planted in a similar mix is nice and green but the leaves are small, so I thing that one needs nitrogen and probably kmag.

I will plant some flowers in the bean pot to attract more predators. I took out most of the soil, but this is the third reuse, so I need something to suck up phosphorus and flowers were on the list of things that could do that. I am adding about 1/2 cup of dolomite to hopefully mitigate the pH over time.

There is another plant share on July 13, so I need to get ready for that.

Addendum: I carted 2 more bags of potting soi, lime, snail bait, and Miracle grow to the back yard. I fertilized the pots in the front and back yards and filled the second container with MG potting soil, gave it some dolomite lime and k mag. I think the birds are making holes in the bird netting. The holes are too suspicious. I will have to reinforce it probably with temporary construction fencing. I chased a cabbage butterfly in the garden but I did not catch it. I did not get to harvesting the vermicast. I will try to get to it tomorrow.

imafan26 · Sat Jun 29, 2024 3:24 am

I got a little done in the morning. I watered the garden. Only a few things were still damp. The perpetual spinach may not hang on much longer, it is wilting every day. I still have tomatoes, a few beans that need to be picked. Some of the plants are responding to the MG fertilizer. It means there isn't enough fertilizer in the pots, so I will have to try to feed them more.

My eggplant plant has some mites, but I seem to have that under control. I took the tomato vine off the plants. But the eggplant fruit is prematurely hard. Anyone know what could be causing that? I am thinking it is a nutrient issue.

I cleaned up some of the dead plants off the benches and washed some containers. I got some yogurt cups from a plant share so I put holes in the bottoms with a soldering iron. I had some seedling in the cheap potting mix that are very small and something is eating the kale I can't tell if it is snails or birds. I repotted kale, peppers, tomatoes into better soil. It was too hot to actually work in the yard, so I just went out long enough to collect the dead plants in the pots and get the starts to pot up. I have half a tray unfilled. I will try to get more starts put in before the next plant share on July 13. I also have to do more thinning on the dasheen and Bun long taro and pot up the keiki. I will have to use larger pots, some of them are too big for the smaller pots. I will thin the dasheen first because otherwise, I won't know which one is which. I can bring it to the next plant share.

I also planted some of the lettuce and green onions in the empty pockets of the 7 tier tower. The lettuce will not be good to eat, but they should be good for seed. The other lettuce has started to bloom. I should be getting seed heads soon.

The neighbors yard man lopped off the top of the hibiscus hedge. I have some sun burn on the tropical rhodie but it will handle that. The bay leaf though is getting knocked over because it is so tall. I have to get around to lopping the top off. It has red mites, so it is just as well. Considering this is the middle of bug season, I am not having a lot of pest pressure, just the usual mites, snails and some fungal disease. .

My graft looks like it is going to die. The tip is still green but the graft union is turning black.

I am back on a low carb diet and I have lost 7 lbs of water. I feel better, but between the weather and eating fewer calories, I feel so tired in the afternoon, so I can't get as much as I want to done. I just have to try and do what I can do.

applestar · Sat Jun 29, 2024 8:23 pm

I just saw a video about those small, hard fruits on eggplants that prematurely develop seeds.

I have to look for it, but here’s what I remember — (1) often seen on first/early fruits due to low temperatures and coolness due to periods of excessive overcast days resulting in unseasonable low temperatures (2) when this happens mid-season, it’s due to interrupted nutrient uptake and distribution. Eggplants are heavier feeders than tomatoes and peppers. They should be given regular feedings — easiest to use 8-8-8 plus calcium and magnesium, etc. minerals and micronutrients, or equivalent organic fertilizers and supplements, and increase beneficial microbial activity. (3) For immediate relief, cull extra flower buds and suckers, remove lowest non-contributing leaves and prune overlapping leaves that are blocking photosynthesis.
(4) Spray/foliar supplement with diluted cultured natto solution and cultured rice bran solution for good microbes to improve foliar activity, and encourage soil breakdown into plant-available nutrients , and with diluted vinegar (grain vinegar, eggshell vinegar, or SuToChu “vinegar and shoChu with or without garlic and hot pepper extract”) as tonic to supercharge chlorophyll activity, as fungal disease preventive, and pest deterrent.

applestar · Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:35 am

More comprehensive pruning details —

Eggplants — Japanese cultivation always involves some kind of space-saving pruning and styling. With their humid wet summer season, typhoons, heat and longer growing seasons, climate in many, especially southern areas resemble Florida’s I think.

Apparently eggplants are one of the BEST suited crops for the Japanese climate. Their pruning and styling guides usually tout at least 100 eggplants harvested per plant.

Eggplants have unique ability to ENDLESSLY develop a new bud and grow a fruit-bearing branch from each leafnode.

So they style the plant to 2~4 main stems/trunks (3 is most popular — first natural branching, + the strong sucker from just below first blossom) that are secured to stakes or string supports, then allow fruit clusters to form along the stems and — if I remember correctly it’s similar to large fruited tomatoes — 2 leaves and then a fruit truss . From each leafnode, a sucker is allowed to grow for two leaves + fruit truss, tip is pinched and then when the fruit is ready to harvest, ENTIRE sucker is cut off … then the plant will grow a new bud and sucker from the same leafnode (in shorter growing season areas, people allow the sucker from first leafnode of the sucker to grow instead)

Leaves on the primary trunk are gradually removed from the bottom, as they become droopy or become yellowed, just like tomatoes (this focuses growth on new leaves and shoots), all the way up to where the stems diverge/branch. But the remaining leaves are kept on the plant as long as possible since they support the sucker/bud growths. However, ultimately the main leaves are removed as they become old and disfunctional , and only the sucker/branch leaves will be sustaining the overall growth.

Up to four leaves below than the fruit truss support the fruit growth (unlike tomatoes with which only the leaf immediately below is important). Eggplants also receive photosynthesis from up to two leaves above the fruit, rather than mostly just the one above for tomatoes.

Interior growing branches and leaves should be removed to let in more light and airflow so the general form should be vase shape.

…AT LEAST, those are my understanding from studying and studying — year before, last year, and this year. My problem has been that the eggplant themselves won’t grow well enough to practice much.

I’m correcting some of the prior mistakes and am working on growing sturdy plant structures (more water — don’t let them experience drought, more fertilizer in earlier stages, securely staking to prevent being wind-blown and shaken around), so hopefully I will be able to confirm some of these pruning techniques…..

imafan26 · Mon Jul 01, 2024 2:53 am

Eggplant, upo, hot peppers, and shiso are summer staples here. Just abut everyone has grown eggplant, papaya or hot peppers if they do any kind of gardening. It was unseasonably cooler because of La Nina. The temperatures in June had not gotten higher than 82 degrees. The plant looks healthy, I did have some mite issues, but getting the tomato off the eggplant and water has helped. It looks pretty good now. The eggplant bush is quite big. about 3 ft high and maybe 3.5 feet wide. I never prune it. It is near other plants bit it looks like it still gets a lot of sun. I have had problems with hard fruit before. I am thinking it is a micronutrient problem so I can give it some 8-8-8 organic fertilizer because I already have it. I will also give it some vermicast to boost the beneficial bacteria and fungi This is in a pot, so I usually don't use organic in pots. I also have calcium and kmag as well as micronutrient foliar spray. I used less fertilizer than usual for a new mix trying not to add too much phosphorus to the pot. I did put lime in the pot when it was planted. I don't have rice bran, but I do have rice water. I can get some natto to make a tea. Thanks Applestar.

Today, the dasheen I transplanted leaves are wilting. I will probably cut them back. They will regrow from the root.

imafan26 · Fri Jul 05, 2024 1:45 pm

I hope you had a nice Fourth of July. There was only a little fireworks. It isn't as popular as on New Years' Eve. It was enough to startle and send my cat into hiding a couple of times. At least I don't have a dog. Dog's are more scared of fireworks than cats.

When it does rain, it is low slow, but not every day or every week. It did rain over night and it sprinkled briefly yesterday, but not enough to even get the ground wet. It is still raining now and has been raining lightly overnight.

The best thing is that there isn't enough rain to support the weeds in the grass. I also killed a large portion of the area that was more nutsedge than grass. I don't have to weed whack as often.

The tomatoes still have fruit but the vines are dying back. The kale and perpetual spinach are ok as long as they get plenty of water. I have habanero, super chili, a few small bell peppers, Thai chili, and jalapeno with fruit. The shishito is alive but not fruiting now. I potted up more dasheen for the plant share. I had to cut the tops back so I don't know if they will be big enough by then. If not, there are plant shares every couple of weeks and the freestores.

The okra is starting to look a lot better. They really needed to get out of that small pot. They have a ways to go. They are only about 6 inches tall now. Okra is one of the few things I can plant in the heat of summer that will do well, besides, eggplant, long beans, gourds, sweet potato, taro, and hot peppers. I do have the citrus mainly the meyer lemons and calamondin with fruit. The kaffir lime has also budded up, but I usually remove the fruits. They are very pithy and I keep the kaffir mainly for the leaves. I may try to make cuttings from the citrus since they are all flushing now. I need to make space on the cutting bench. My mango graft is black at the graft union, even though the tip is still green, it isn't going to make it. I may have to restart the sweet potato leaves. The plant is looking old and it has been in the pot for over a year so it may just be tired. I have pots, they are just filled with soil I don't know what to do with.

I have harvested the beans 4 times from the tower gardens. I still have a few beans to pick from the second planting of beans. I can pull the beans from the first tower, but my worm bin is full, so I have to wait a few days so I can give the worms the bean plants rather than putting it in the recycling bin. I have voracious worms, they can eat a lot. I stuffed the bin with sweet potato leaves and they have had some vegetables scraps and banana peels in the last week along with some coffee grounds. I was going to give them some rabbit manure, but I have to remember where the bucket is. I did harvest some of the vermicast and put it in the containers I repotted. The okra was already planted so I made a slurry of vermi cast and water and poured it over the soil and then watered it in.

The lettuce has started to bloom but there are still a lot of buds on it so I can't cover the head yet. I need to harvest the coriander seeds.

imafan26 · Tue Jul 09, 2024 3:56 am

Today, I tackled cleaning up one of the benches. Actually, it was only half the bench. I weeded and took out the dead pots. I up potted some aliums. I don't actually know what they are at this time. I got them from a plant share and they weren't labeled. I up potted the miniature roses. Two of them were dead.

I took a couple of containers out of the cutting bench. It is full of weeds too. I potted up the rosemary cuttings and katuk. I planted the spearmint into a bowl.
Some of the seedling I potted before are gone. some of the tops were chewed off by something. So, I still have lots of Thai pepper seedlings, so I refilled the empty pots. Some of the dasheen are drying but most are putting out new shoots.

I divided my lemon thyme. It even started to bloom. This is the first time any thyme has bloomed for me. I replanted the divisions in 4 inch containers. They should be ready for the plant share on Saturday. I should have more than enough to take. There is another plant share on July 27, so some can go there too. I can also divide the peppermint again, but I need to see how much space I have for it. I did wash more pots this afternoon to get ready for another potting session.

The eggplant and pepper responded well to the fertilization. The pepper is starting to grow more and the eggplant has fruit, but I have to wait a little longer to see if the fruit will get larger before it gets hard. I gave these pots a combination of citrus fertilizer 6-4-6 with micros. Kmag, dolomite lime, and sulfate of ammonia. About a tablespoon per pot/plant. The eggplant had some senescent leaves which I took off. It otherwise looks healthy except for what is being dropped on it trom the tomato. I don't see any bugs, but I am hosing off the leaves when I water. It looks healthy.

I pulled the beans out of the towers today. I gave most of them to the worms. I wanted them out because they have some kind of jumping beetle which I could feel hitting me, but really did not see. They have been skeletonizing the leaves.
I was able to get 3 harvests from the beans. The last one today only yielded a couple of beans.

The peppers are doing better in the tower than in pots. They do have broad mite problems and I have found white flies under some leaves. Right now most of them are flowering and there are a couple of fruit, but they do have scars from the broad mites, but they will still be edible, just not pretty. I may have to step up the fertilization in the towers now that they have started to fruit.

I also have to do something about the citrus, they have flushed with new leaves, but the kaffir lime has started to flower and fruit again, so I fed it nitrogen to force more vegetative growth and I will have to cull the flowers and fruit. The fruit is pithy and I mainly want the leaves.

The ohia looks like it may be in a stage to take cuttings.

The okra is looking good. In a couple of weeks it has quadrupled in size.

I planted the other container (formerly provider beans) with zinnias and cosmos. They have already started to sprout.

There is so much to do, so I am just picking a spot and just clearing as much as I can in a session. Clearing the half bench, washing pots, weeding and up potting the some of the plants on the half bench, dividing the thyme, and potting up the divisions as well as the rosemary cuttings, and up potting the pepper seedlings took about two hours. I also brought another bag of potting soil from the car to the back yard. I watered earlier in the day. Watering takes about an hour and that is about all I can manage in one session.

A few days ago, I started to clear out some of the pots in the front courtyard. I have to go back and finish the rest of it, but I will have to start earlier or much later in the day because it gets to hot to work there in the middle of the day. I have almost filled up my two green bins. I have a little room left.

imafan26 · Mon Jul 15, 2024 2:31 pm

It is too hot to work in the middle of the day, but yesterday I did get out a couple of times. I weeded the main garden. The bird netting is ripped. I ordered and insect netting and I am waiting for it. One of the things left in the garden is the komatsuna. I am surprised it is still alive. It usually doesn't last this long. It does have some white rust and hole in the leaves. It may be the birds. One lacinato kale keeled over. The roots looked fine and it wasn't rotting, so I think it was just top heavy. I have one more left, but it is the smaller one. I have a bucket of carrots. They may not be good since it is summer and they have been in the tub since October. Cutting celery is looking a little worse for wear. I did clean up the older leaves and the Italian parsley is hanging in there. I took the peppers out of the garden because with the netting ripped, it doesn't matter.

I have almost got one bench cleaned up. I have 3 more pots to deal with.

I treated the eggplant with a cocktail of fertilizer. The hard eggplant is probably a nutritional problem because the eggplant is growing normally now except for the mite damage. I gave it miracle grow, but I do that intermittently with everything. I did give it a mix of dolomite lime, sulfate of ammonia, k-mag, and citrus fertilizer. I think I covered all the bases. Anyway that is what it needed.

I went to the plant share on on Saturday. I brought katuk, peppermint, dasheen, thyme, and rosemary. I got a white crown flower cutting I am drying now, a couple of bunny ears (opuntia), a couple of other succulents, and some small ceramic pots with holes, and some 4 inch nursery pots. I am already starting to plant for the next share in a couple of weeks. My peppermint is trying to escape again. I'll post pictures if I can remember to bring my phone out later.

The kaffir lime wants to flower so I fed it nitrogen to slow it down and start making leaves instead. I want leaves not fruit from this plant. The lemons and calamansi have given me a steady supply. Good thing the trees are small, I can only make so many lemon meringue pies.

imafan26 · Mon Jul 15, 2024 7:17 pm

I went out to get some pictures around noon.

imafan26 · Thu Jul 18, 2024 2:21 am

I started to dig up my Okinawan sweet potato pot. I haven't done anything except water and fertilize for over a year. I did try to harvest potatoes a long time ago but they were full of borer holes, so I took out the ones I could find, but did not actually take out the vines. I was going to renew the pot since I got another pot started already. But, when I started to dig around I found a big root under the surface. It was a good sized potato, but it was very pale with just streaks of light purple. I may have dug this one up to early. Anyway, it is pretty big, so I am going to cure it and see if it is any good. I guess neglect is the best way to treat these potatoes. It was not the biggest potato I have gotten, but there are more big ones near the surface I could feel. This was an unexpected find. I guess I will find out how the others are doing in a couple of months. I may give it more kmag, dolomite, and compost if I can find a good one.

The lemon grass had about an inch of roots at the bottom of the pots. I repotted one into a larger pot and cut the roots from the other two and added more soil to the bottom of the pot. That should stop the second day leaf curling.

Something is still eating the tops of my pepper seedlings. I haven't figured out what yet.

applestar · Thu Jul 18, 2024 3:11 am

I gave up on growing sweet potatoes this year, but for me with the winter freeze killing everything underground as well as above, the bed that grew sweet potatoes in the previous season becomes one of the best — rich with nutrients from organic matter as well as immature tubers left behind as well as thoroughly aerated and fluffy — for the next season.

I guess you won’t be able to get that kind of benefit, but it’s a reason for me to rotate sweet potato beds around from year to year.

imafan26 · Fri Jul 19, 2024 4:30 pm

This is the photo of the sweet potato I dug up the other day. It is an Okinawan potato. I should have purple skin. So, it is is probably early. I am curing it to see if it still will sweeten up.

Today I also fertilized the super chili, okra, tomato, and eggplant with a fertilizer cocktail of dolomite lime kmag, sulfate of ammonia and 6-4-6 citrus food. I gave some fertilizer to my rose in the backyard mainly because it has dieback and it really is not fertilized regularly.

I did not water yesterday and there hasn't been more than a sprinkle of rain. Most of the plants were doing o.k. except the plants that I just potted up a couple of days ago. The lemon grass that I cut an inch of roots off the bottoms and one of the peppermints I divided but it is in a recycled yogurt cup and it is mostly roots, so it dries out very fast in full sun. Everything else was fine and the media on the ones I have media were still slightly damp. I also caught another giant African snail. It was probably the one that I missed the last time.

It may not be a bad idea to recycle some of my pots with the old soil that is high in phosphorus to taro and sweet potato. Actually, that is how the dasheen ended up in the other pot because I put the soil from the dasheen pot into it and the dasheen started growing in that pot as a volunteer. I only have two pots of sweet potato. They are in pots because they are invasive on the ground and a lot easier to harvest out of the pot. I cut the vines almost every week to feed the worms. That and the wild bitter melon are abundant and they usually are clean and don't have a lot of pests or disease.

The pot I harvested the Okinawan potato from has actually sunk a lot. I can add some of the recycled soil to it just to raise the level a bit and hopefully the vines will set more potatoes. Sweet potatoes take about 5-7 months to fully mature. I can grow it year round, but the winter grown ones are much smaller. That is why I did not bother to harvest it. I waited a while longer, but when I dug under the vines, I found the tubers had holes from sweet potato weevils, so I just disposed of the ones I could find and left the vines in the container. I did not expect to find tubers much less large undamaged ones, Since these are holdover vines. I don't remember when they last bloomed. But I do know that it is usually harvest time a couple of weeks after it blooms. The other sweet potato vine I have does not produce tubers since it is a variety that is primarily grown for the leaves.

I found white flies on some of the peppers and on the okra, but pretty mild infestations considering this is peak bug season. I have been just removing the damaged leaves of knocking the nymphs off with water. Thrips and mites are the biggest problems but I usually don't treat them unless they cause more than cosmetic damage because anything that kills them will also kill beneficial insects.

imafan26 · Tue Jul 23, 2024 2:59 pm

I had an IPM class yesterday and was scouting my yard in the morning before the class. I found one African snail ( I have been averaging one or two whenever I get out early enough.) On the grass I saw one mynah bird looking for bugs. I don't have army worms but I do have Pacific beetles (roaches). I saw a few geckos darting across the yard.

I actually did not find that many pests. Thrips and whiteflies are a given but most of the plants have already been treated so there aren't even that many of those. None of my citrus had mite damage, but I did find a rolled citrus leaf with thrips. I had already treated the peppers for broad mites so the leaves were recovering. All I had was a pepper that was scarred from broad mites. I found live thrips on the gardenia so I took a sample of that (thrips on gardenia the easiest to find). There weren't any aphids, or scale on the citrus. Even the gardenia did not have them. The eggplant and tomato had thrips but I already had thrip samples. I had some sunburn injury to leaves, so I brought that. I had saved a leaf from my cabbage that had white rust for this class. Looks like my garden patrol has most things under control.

At the class, the participants went out to scout the area for bugs and bug damage and there were microscopes and loupes to try to id them. Some of them I could not I.d. because I don't know all the instars of all the bugs or what all the egg cases look like. I saw a bunch of nymphs but I could not tell what they were. There was a pirate bug among the samples. I found a mite under the microscope that was almost invisible it was iridescent under the light and translucent I had to tell the person next to me where to look because she did not see it at first.

As for the garden. I harvested some calamansi and kaffir lime leaves. I am letting the lettuce go to seed. One may be ready to harvest seeds from. I need to pull out two of the tomatoes. They are already dry. I did collect some Valentine tomatoes to start new ones. The tomato, peppers, eggplant and sweet potatoes are putting out new growth now that I gave them the extra nitrogen.

I a surprised the komatsuna has lasted so long in the garden, but it hasn't really been hot. There is a large crack in my garden because I am only spot watering the few plants in there, the rest of the garden is dry.

The lemons and calamansi are putting on fruit and none of the fruit have any signs of mite damage. There have been some white flies but I have managed to keep them down with water. The peppers have the most white flies. I may pull some of them out and just keep the others long enough to harvest the fruit. I do have some Thai pepper seedlings that are finally big enough to transplant. They will be too big for the towers, but I can temporarily plant some of them in the towers to let them get bigger and transplant them to pots later. Some may end up at the free store or plant share because I don't need twenty. I can also harvest some of the seeds from the peppers. Although there is a chance of crossing, I have actually never had any of my hot peppers cross. I saw some strawberries today in the container. They aren't ripe yet. I need to pick the eggplant. :Pingtung long does not make big eggplant and it is narrow and skinny so very good for stir fry. The katuk is about 7 ft tall now, I have to cut it back. I may keep about 7 cuttings. It is not that hard to propagate but it has only about an 80 percent take rate. I only take a few to the plant shares because mainly SE Asians know how to cook it. My bay leaf is putting on new leaves. I have to cut it, so I might try to root the cuttings. I usually don't do bay leaf at this time of the year, but I'll give it a try. The cuttings I took earlier are still alive even though they are thinner cuttings than I usually get. They are rooting slower though.

I did make some cuttings from the hibiscus that fell in my yard after the neighbor cut their hedge. It was full of bugs so I cleaned up the cuttings as best as I could and I did not put it in on my cutting bench. I have it under one of my other benches just in case. That way I can keep an eye on it and not risk the other cuttings.

I have to redo the pollinator garden in front, but I can't keep it watered enough in summer, so I may start some of the flower seeds in containers and plant them out when they are bigger or plant some of them for the plant shares.

imafan26 · Thu Jul 25, 2024 4:38 pm

It is 76 degrees at 10 a.m. It was 74 degrees at 7 a.m. The high will be about 83 degrees. The winds are light and it is overcast with a 20% chance of rain. I watered the garden this morning. Actually, I probably could back off the watering on most things to every two days. Only the smallest containers and cuttings need to be watered every day.

I found 2 snails today. They were hiding under congtainer and in my extra shade cloth. I have to throw more snail bait under there. The citrus are blooming again. The newest lime has two buds (6 inch pot), the kaffir lime has new leaves but is still fruiting. I need to get around to culling more of the fruit. I actually don't see much new damage on the lime. There is minor mite damage on the fruit. I haven't seen any aphids anywhere, not even on the gardenia. Even the scale has declined. I do see a lot of mite and thrip damage that is typical for this time of year. I do see white flies, but actually not as much and mostly on the peppers which need to come out. I have seen the lizards, hoverflies and bees in the garden. I may put out a shallow tray of water for them since it hasn't rained enough to really soak anything.

My netting has arrived, but I just ordered the clips a couple of days ago. I had clips but they were the wrong size. I will have to move the door of the to the end because I would have to cut the netting to keep the door in the middle.

There are a few weeds, but they are not that bad so I have been able to pull most of them. I pulled a few palm, asparagus fern, and weed tree seedlings. It was hard to get to them because I had to move some pots to get access. I need another hoe. I have two pole pruners and one hoe. Two other hoes only have handles.

I made cuttings from hibiscus, lavender, bay leaf, calamondin, and rosemary. I usually don't take summer cuttings, but so far most of them are doing o.k. except the lavender, but it is still alive. The bay leaf for sure has taken longer to root. It usually takes 5 months and it has been more like 7 months. The cuttings were smaller diameter than usual. I might try to grow some of the peppers from cuttings. It should be faster than seeds.

I have let the lettuce and peppers go to seed. I have already harvested the coriander seeds. I planted seeds for more Valentine tomatoes. This will be the f8 series. If I can find my mammoth dill seeds, I am thinking of tossing some seeds in with the cosmos and zinnia. I found the dukat, but it will be too small to compete with the tall flowers.

It isn't that hot, but it is steamy because the winds are light and the humidity is high with the thick cloud cover, so I am only making very brief forays into the yard and only doing a few things that don't take a lot of time and energy to do.

imafan26 · Sun Aug 11, 2024 3:15 am

I harvested my lettuce seed heads. There were bugs in the flowers that I had not seen before. Google Lens id them as roaches. Yuk! They were probably eating the pollen and seeds. I have since pulled out all of the lettuce except one. I haven't seen any bugs in that one.

I have been cleaning up inside the house, so I have been doing the bare minimum outside. I water early in the morning and pull a handful of weeds. Today, I even braved going between the pots along the back wall to pull the weeds between them. All to get a handful of weeds.

Most of the plants have been pulled out of the towers. I have mainly peppers and green onions left. Joe Parker has one pepper. It is not resistant to bacterial spot, so I won't be planting this one again. I have three or four of them. They are surviving, but just barely. Majestic Red is still the best pepper. I haven't picked any, but I should. They have some mite damage but they are otherwise good. I will probably put more peppers in the tower along with some flowers for beneficial insects.

I did plant a tub with insectary flowers. I only have one cosmos, but I hve a few zinnias and I over seeded with mammoth dill and that also came up. I took the netting off the tub since the seedlings are large enough now, the birds should not bother them.

I took the bird netting off the hoop frame. I did some weeding with the hoe. I need to find some time to work on getting the soil prepped for planting. I may be planting late. the komatsuna is hanging in there, but it and the kale look like they have seen better days.

The okra is in bud. The eggplant is producing better eggplant, but I did cull some that were old. There is thrip damage, but I don't treat for that. The tomato responded well to the fertilizer mix ( citrus food 6-4-6, dolomite lime, and k mag) It has put out new leaves and there is some green fruit.

It has been raining, but it has been light, not enough to water the yard. Last night's rain wasn't even enough to wet the road.

I found some more ground mealy bugs in the mint I treated a couple of months ago. It was light and I hit it with alcohol, but the backup mint is growing, so I may just get rid of this one. I don't want to heat treat it again. I treated a nanu that had ground mealy bugs with bifenthrin. It looks fine now. I have it isolated.

I thinned out more of the araimo and harvested 3 that were large enough. I potted up more of them for plant share or free store. There are now three free shares in August, but none of them are close.

I got ahead of myself. I planted some Hawaiian chilies, valentine tomatoes, and Siam queen basil and they have all come up. Now, I have to find containers and space for them.

My dragon fruit looks like it is holding on to the fruit.

I planted Greek oregano seeds in the herb bowl. There are tiny seedlings now. I should see if I have any English or French thyme seeds in my seed bags. I went to a bean class last Monday given by one of the intern MG's. I got a few Poamoho bean pods. The person next to me opened his up in the classroom. One of the beans looked like it may have had something bore into the seed and some of the seeds did not look pollinated but about 80% of the seeds in the pod looked good. I noticed today that a lettuce germinated in the tower. It probably self seeded from the seed head I was saving seeds from. This particular lettuce I have had for a couple of years and it reseeds. It is actually a lettuce grown at the garden for hydroponics. It is very heat tolerant, but not the best tasting in the heat, so that is why I let it go to seed in summer. I need to ask what the variety name is. It is a red lettuce.

I found a couple of cuttings of crown flower I got from the plant share and forgot about. I set them aside to dry and they have been drying awhile. So, I planted them and I will see if they will still take. So far, the citrus. rosemary, and bay cuttings I made are all still green.

I did not have enough in the green cans to put them out. But one of them is 3/4 full now, so it will be ready next time. The second can has a couple of branches in it so it has a ways to go. Of course if I cut back the ti, the cans will be full in minutes. I have more wild bitter melon to feed the worms tomorrow. Tomorrow, I have to cook too, so there will be some kitchen scraps for them. I have some manure and cofee grounds for them too, so they are not going to starve. I gave them carbon last week so they should be good for awhile. If not, I have more cardboard that needs to be cut up, brown paper packing, and egg boxes for them.

applestar · Sun Aug 11, 2024 4:16 am

Whew! Doesn’t it seem like it’s all endless sometimes?

I go out telling myself I’ll “just harvest” and end up staying out for hours because I got caught up in weeding or upgrading support. New projects like planting or cleaning up keep getting pushed back.

…I was wondering… since you have the hydroponics experience, aren’t some of those crops that have root pest issues good candidates for hydro(or aqua)-ponic culture? You wouldn’t have the seasonal freezing issues that would force me to completely take apart/down a system for at least 6 months of the year (with storage considerations that would add to the difficulties).

imafan26 · Sun Aug 11, 2024 5:43 pm

The root mealybug issues are mainly from the reused potting soil. I must have reused some soil that was infested and then it spread. It is not as bad as before, but it does not go away completely. The hydroponics is done at the garden. I don't do it at home. The lettuce varieties they grow are most adaptable to hydroponics but can be grown in ground. It seems like a lot but it took me a lot of days to get it done and there is still a lot more to do. I may not be able to get my garden amended in time for September planting. It is mostly cleared, although the weeds keep making a comeback, but I actually have to till in some dolomite this time and that is a much harder task since I can't really balance well on a shovel anymore.

imafan26 · Tue Aug 13, 2024 1:04 am

I got out late this afternoon to work on the garden. It has been awhile. It is a good thing the sun is setting later. I took my shorter tower apart. It only had 4 peppers and a volunteer lettuce left. I must remember to keep the bottom tier on the bottom. It had the most bugs ants, roaches, and slugs. I put snail bait under the reservoir. The ants will be another problem.

The soil is not that old and it still had a lot of organic matter so I just topped off some of the tiers with potting soil. I harvested a pot of vermicast to add to each tier. I also gave each tier a cocktail of dolomite lime, kmag, 6-4-6 citrus food with micros, and 8-8-8 organic fertilizer. I don't usually add organic fertilizer to my containers, but this is old soil, so it should have more soil life. I am not counting on it for now and I did put the kmag and citrus food in as well. I found a couple of worms in a couple of tiers. I did not do a good job of sifting the worms from the vermicast. I missed a few big ones, but I was able to put them back where they belonged. I planted sensation cosmos on the bottom tier, the second tier from the bottom, I planted some flowers. These are old seed, so I don't expect much. I moved the top tier down to the third tier. These were the peppers. Majestic red, Joe E. Parker. I added Caribbean Red pepper, long slim cayenne, and Thai peppers. I On the fourth layer I planted some of my seedling starts Siam Queen basil and there were more pepper seedlings. I planted the top layer with the volunteer lettuce, and Kawanui Mescher aka Sweitzer Mescher bibb lettuce. Someone told me they are able to grow it year round and it does not get bitter, so I am trying them out. This will definitely be a heat test since the day temperatures are about 85 degrees and nights are 71. At 7 p.m. it is still 80 degrees. It is a good thing it is a La Nina year. It rained last night so I only spot watered the garden today.

imafan26 · Wed Aug 21, 2024 12:33 pm

I haven't been out in the garden for a few weeks. My roof is leaking so I have been working inside the house and trying to purge 30 years of accumulation.

I do go out to water almost every day. Sometimes, I only water the critical areas. It is not that hot a summer and some plants can go a couple of days. I moved some of my bigger plants away from the house. The okra leaves developed holes in the leaves overnight from the move, but it will survive.

I found 2 giant African snails in pots I was moving in the front yard. I need to put more snail bait out there.

I found 2 roses growing in my culantro. I think they are seeds from my miniature roses. This is the first time I have ever had a rose reseed. At the same time, I still have not been able to propagate any of the hybrid roses from cuttings successfully. Only Moorcap, baby blanket, and green rose have worked. I haven't tried cutting from the miniatures yet. They are too small.

I need to feed the potted veggies about every 3 weeks with the mixture of citrus food, kmag, dolomite, and sometimes nitrogen. I have made some cuttings of hibiscus (30%) take rate from the cuttings from when my neighbor cut his hibiscus. They were about a day old. I have better take rates with the citrus cuttings, most of them are still green. The rosemary looks rooted. I am surprised. This is the first time I took rosemary in summer that took. It has been a weird year, I have a cymbidium and popcorn orchid blooming now, totally out of season. I still have more cuttings to make of the citrus, bay and lavender. I don't know if I will get around to it anytime soon. I may miss my window, so I will have to wait for another time.

In the meantime, The seeds I planted in the tower on Aug. 12, most are growing. I planted a flower mix in the tower and so multiple plants are growing in each pocket. The transplants survived. Only the Schweitzer's Mescher bibb lettuce I just got, out of 6 pockets 2 seeds germinated in one pocket. I only put 2-4 seeds in a pocket and lettuce doesn't really like to germinate at 84 degrees. I may transplant the empty pockets with something else. I will wait for cooler weather for lettuce. The transplant of the volunteer lettuce is still doing fine.

I collected the seeds from the red lettuce and pulled most of them out. I missed a few. There are some pockets empty in the hybrid tower that I may be able to transplant with some of the seedlings I have, at least temporarily.

I was able to do a little potting up yesterday of Hawaiian chilies and Black Beauty eggplant. I still have more chilies, but I need more space and containers.

I took out all of the dasheen from the smaller pot, or so I thought. A couple of more have sprouted so I shall transplant that too. I actually have quite a few takers for these.

I have just harvested my first okra, the sweet pea red currant tomatoes are starting to turn red and I have 3 or 4 volunteer tomatoes. I need to clear a pot to plant more tomatoes. The dragon fruit is hanging on and growing and there are more citrus fruit ripening on the calamansi, kaffir lime (which I have to remove), lemons, and finger lime.

I cut back the katuk, it was taller than me. I did not take cuttings this time. I don't have another free share till next month. I fed the wild bitter melon to the worms. It looks like I can start to collect some seeds from the peppers as long as I get to them before it rains.

I harvested the first two Joe E. Parker peppers. Very mild frying pepper but not resistant to bacterial spot.

I have seedlings of Hawaiian chilies, Thai chilies, and Siam Queen Thai basil. Some of them went into the towers. I will pot up most of them for the plant shares.

The zinnia I planted in the bean container is starting to flower now.
There is also cosmos and dill sharing the container. This container is mainly to support the garden patrol. It is attracting butterflies.

I cut back the Ajaka basil again. I had a hard time finding my hand hold and it was getting floppy again. It won't block so much light from the peppers this way either.

The strawberries are blooming again.

The lemon grass needs to be repotted again. I may take some to the next plant share. I don't need this many.

imafan26 · Thu Aug 22, 2024 10:16 pm

I decided to take a short break from trying to purge stuff inside my house to do some work on the yard. I cut the calamansi and bay leaf and propagated some cuttings. The Hibiscus Breckenridgei, cuttings are still looking good. I added more. I am trying to propagate the finger lime. It is not a large plant and I was only able to get 4 cuttings, so I am not to hopeful on those. The rose I found in the culantro is actually airlayered from a rose in another cutting box. Maybe I should try to air layer my hybrid roses instead of trying cuttings.

I finally weed whacked the tall grass in the front yard. I still have to go back and pull the weeds by the fence. Weed whackers and fences just don't get along. I pulled a few weeds today while watering and discovered more weed seedlings, wild bitter melon and volunteer tomato plants.

I ate another couple of okra today. I kinda like them raw.

I moved some of my succulents out of the way. I have more to move.

I filled up both my green cans and they are out on the curb. That was today's goal. I cut the ti, so I did not cut the roses because there isn't room in the cans for them.

I learned something today. My sharpening skills still suck, but even though the blades don't stay sharp for long, it is better than trying to cut with a dull pruner. I love my saws all. I would not have gotten far with a hand saw.

I did end up putting some calamansi fruit in the can, but I have a lemon in the fridge that I haven't used yet.

There are still a lot to do in the garden, but it was nice to be able to spend the day in the garden and less time trying to purge 30 years of accumulation, which I have to get back to tomorrow.

imafan26 · Mon Aug 26, 2024 2:21 am

I did not go out into the garden today as it rained overnight and Hurricane Hone is passing to the south. I did pick up one plant that fell off the entry table twice today. From what I cna see from the window, most of the plants are still standing. I can't see the shade benches, but the neighbor cut back the hibiscus and that should keep them from shaking the shade benches apart. I will probably be able to go out tomorrow and see how the garden did. The tree in the back has dropped branches before, but I can't see it clearly from my windows.

applestar · Mon Aug 26, 2024 4:30 am

Under the circumstances, I expect the rain is welcome for your garden as long as the storm winds are not too severe, but not so much for the house.

I don’t envy your task — I’m generally more effective with chores outside in the garden than chores inside the house.

Major house repairs are the worst! I have to check the rain gutter along the front of the garage because at the last severe thunderstorm, I noticed it wasn’t draining properly … but one ladder is buried in the back of the garage and my other ladder is currently buried in the back of the Patio Hoophouse, even if my hip isn’t being wonky at the moment. We’re back to no rain around here for now though.

imafan26 · Tue Aug 27, 2024 5:52 pm

I finally got out to look at the yard after the storm. It is still overcast with a few drizzles but now we are in the post tropical low so it is humid and muggy. The garden did o.k. A few pots got knocked over and the Okra which is about 5 ft tall was bent over, so I staked it up. I picked 2 okra pods. Today, I am spending most of my time moving things around. I need to move things away from the house so it can be worked on and I am still packing for the termite treatment. I have to make room for the orchids and try to move my orchid house over toward the fence and tarp it. Otherwise I won't have enough space for all the orchids on the lanai and they cannot stay there for the tenting. I moved some things out this morning but it takes time. I had to repot and add hangers. I gave the worms some old lettuce, but they need more. I can probably find more wild bitter melon or I can cut more sweet potato leaves for them. I have cleared half of the outside of the house this morning of the easy stuff. I moved my rain barrels to the back yard in the corner where they will be out of the way. I need to move my kaffir limes but I have to clear a spot. lay down some plastic bags and pavers for them to sit on. When I get tired of that, I can go pack more stuff in the house. I already got most of my opened bottles in the house cornered. I have to find my open spices. Most of that is in the garage since I had to put a lot of the stuff from the house in the garage to clear the living room.

I have to cut back the native hibiscus. I have propagated it twice. So far the cuttings look good. This is a red tag plant, an endangered native, which happens to also be the state flower. I move some of my succulents farther away from the house. The Spanish moss can be thrown in a bag for a day, it won't mind. I already moved my Mexican pocket pots and herb bowls next to the nursery bench. It makes the walkway harder to get through. Hopefully I don't knock any of them over watering the yard.

The next free share is September 1. But it is in a shopping center that does not have great parking and I cannot walk that far, so I may pass. I might have to take some of the plants to a free store in my neighborhood instead or I can take some to the garden and see if there are any takers. The next free share is later in September, I maybe could hold some things back for that one. I don't have to walk so far for that one.

I can move some plants temporarily into the main garden, since it is unlikely I am going to be planting on time.

More rain and possibly some wind is coming next weak from the passing of Gilma and Hector. They will be tropical depressions by then, so it won't be too bad.

Normally, I don't have the energy to do this much in a day, but I have had to do a lot of packing and lifting for a couple of weeks, so I think my stamina is improving. I can hold out a little longer. I am also caffeinated, otherwise, I would not have the energy to do all this.

imafan26 · Wed Aug 28, 2024 2:29 am

I did some work in the garden today. Mostly moving things around. I have to move things away from the foundation so they can work on the roof.
I moved the pots, stands, rain barrels (4), and concrete statues away from the foundation. they are in the yard now. I moved the 3 ft benchmaster from my trellis out into the yard and I started putting back the plants I moved so I could weed whack the jungle. I moved the Jamaican thyme to the back yard. it is in a double pot. It needs to be up potted or divided. There is still a piece of it in the ground in the front yard because it had already escaped the pot. I thought I had more dead orchids on the bench, but I only found two. That is a record for me. There are a lot that don't look great, but are hanging in there. I started making hangers and repotted some of the orchids so I could move them out to the fence.

I moved the Kwai fah (osmanthus), and okra the other day. The okra stems got beat up by the storm, so they are staked now. The Kwai fah fell, but otherwise was o.k.

I moved the Mexican pocket pots and herb bowls to the front of my nursery bench. It is a little tight for watering, but this is a temporary move.

I also finally cut off my old drip system that was on the plumeria trees. I still have not decided what to do with the trees. They are about 50 years old and not looking all that great.

I cleared a spot to move the kaffir lime to. They are too close to the house. I have pavers but I was too tired to move them. I did wash some gallon pots and labels. And I repotted a couple of orchids and hung 4 orchids on the fence. I had to find or make wires for them to hang. I did not even make a dent in the orchids on the table.

I did clear the backside of one of the orchid benches. I need to put down another layer of weed block and move the plants somewhere. They may end up in the main garden so I can move the bench closer to the fence. I found the cement and primer. The cement can was dry, but I think I have another one in the gararge. I remember seeing it yesterday or was it today? I hate working with pvc and glue, but I need to stabilize the pvc frame so it does not come apart in the wind. When the bench is moved closer, I will be able to drape the shade cloth on top of the fence and that will give me more room to hang plants.

I ran out of steam today, so I did not get that far. I did call the convenience center. They said I should be able to bring the broken concrete from the fountain and dirt (potting soil to the landfill). It is a 30 minute drive and I can make 2 trips a day per household. My car is small, so I cannot carry much. I have these bags of soil around literally for years. They were very heavy, but I picked them up today and they are surprisingly light, they have finally dried out and stayed that way even with the rain. I will try to make one run tomorrow after I am done at the garden.

I cut the ti leaves that were inching over 7 feet tall. They get too tall, the mold gets worse under my eaves.

I got up at 4:30 am to clean out the stuff from my frig to get it into the trash today. I fed the worms some of my older lettuce. I still have younger lettuce to eat. I pulled out my carrots. I should have taken a picture. One of the carrots was huge 6 inches and 2 inches in diameter. Of course after being in the ground for 7 months, it isn't edible, but it did not go to waste. I feed the carrots and tops to the worms this week. And I have another empty container to plant. I might try starting carrots sooner rather than later, considering carrots take more than 4 months for them to mature at least for me.

imafan26 · Sun Sep 01, 2024 2:55 pm

I haven't done much in the garden except do clean up. I took some of the potting soil to the landfill. I have more to take out. My car is small and I can't hold that much. One trip takes almost 2 hours round trip, so I can only do one trip a day.
The remnants of Gilma and Hector are bringing more rain and muggy conditions. Temperatures are between 74 and 84 degrees but it seems much warmer. With the rain comes the weeds. I have about 5 wild tomatoes growing in the yard and I found two volunteer lettuce which I transplanted into the hybrid tower.

Strange. The lettuce seeds I planted in the tower 2 weeks ago did not grow, but volunteers grew on top of the weed mat.

More araimo has sprouted in the container I thought was empty. There is a plant share today, but it is in a shopping center that does not normally have easy parking on a good day, so I am not going to that one. I did ask the MG's at the training garden if they could use some of my seedlings and they said they could use some for the October public event at the garden. So, I will be giving them some of the seedlings. I will wait for the next plant share. There should be another one this month, but it has not been announced yet.

I am getting about 2 okra a day. I am eating them raw as a snack in the garden.
I still have Sweet Pea currant tomatoes although they are falling on the ground and the eggplant now is in constant production. I have more lemons and calamansi as well.

I have moved the kaffir limes away from the house.

The okra is being attacked by plant/leaf hoppers. I really don't know what to do about that. I am catching as many as I can, which isn't a lot. More of them get away.

I did cut part of the calamansi tree. It was over 10 ft tall down so I would not have such a tall thing to deal with. I have made some cuttings from the trimmings. So far, all the cuttings I made seem to be surviving. It is unusual and I don't normally do cuttings in summer, but the plants actually were flushing so I took the opportunity.

The Jamaican oregano (lippia micromera) had actually gone to ground So I had to pull out a couple of rooted plants out of the ground. I did not get much root so I did not try to save them. I usually grow this from cuttings as well. I haven't been in the yard for a couple of days because it has been raining. I will try to get out today. Hopefully, I remember to take pictures. I always forget to bring the phone.

applestar · Mon Sep 02, 2024 2:55 am

• Lettuce — maybe freshness of seeds? Soil temp higher in the tower?

• Okra — yep, LOVE having something to snack on while out in the garden

• Leaf/plant hoppers — I don’t think they typically hurt the plants they’re on directly — there’s one kind this year that swarm and line every inch of a branch here that can wilt a new shoot … BUT I find that almost inevitably one or two plants with the ‘hoppers on them will come down with some kind of a virus or bacterial disease — whether due to being weakened or due to THEM being carriers of the disease and infecting them

I don’t go after every one, but soap suds on neoprene-gloved hands can catch them — carry a drink cup of soapy water and dunk and catch, dunk/rinse and catch, etc. Rinse the plants if susceptible to strong soapy solution or young/tender growth….

• Japanese gardening videos are touting diluted vinegar water — x200 so 1tsp (5ml) in 1 liter (1000ml) of water? — sprayed on plants acts as tonic to help fortify the plants to resist diseases and pests. (Specifically watched one recommending doing this for eggplants to fight mites so the fall eggplant harvest won’t be jeopardized).

imafan26 · Mon Sep 02, 2024 11:30 am

I just bought the lettuce seeds and they are supposed to be heat tolerant. But It may be the soil in the tower. It was the tier that was on the bottom and I did not refresh the soil. I did not refresh the other tiers either, but those did not have issues germinating. There is one transplanted lettuce growing in that tier. I'll try germinating seeds in a starter pot first. These seeds were expensive, so I will try with a different lettuce variety that I know is good to see if temperature is an issue. The lettuce that germinated on the weed mat is a very heat tolerant lettuce that grows year round.

Plant hoppers do transmit viruses. I am seeing some scarring on the okra from hopper burn. It is too tall to use insect netting, I can try the vinegar too.

My eggplant has thrips and mites, but that is a chronic problem. I admit I don't spray as much. I only spray if the fruit gets too much scarring. Sulfur is hard to find here. Amazon won't send it probably because of the USPS restrictions. It is getting very hard to find anyone to ship fertilizers and even the garden shops now carry a limited selection. Walmart used to carry more, but now they hardly have anything. Most of which are organic and botanical oils which I cannot use in the heat of summer. The organic fertilizers are not useful in containers and they aren't pure. They contain a lot of phosphorus which I need to avoid. The fertilizers I use is sulfate of ammonia ( which I can get locally. One bag lasts about 5 years), osmocote, nutracote, kmag, dolomite lime, calcium nitrate, and micros. The only complete fertilizer I use is citrus food 6-4-6 with micros, but it can only be used with new soil. Reused soil is too acidic and has too much phosphorus to use it again. I have been using less, but it also causes issues since the fertilizer in the containers is not enough to maintain the plants throughout their growth cycle, so I have to watch them more and supplement. No one will send orchard spray and the 3 in 1 spray has been reformulated and is now mainly botanical oils, so I have to read the label to make sure it is sulfur not oil in the ingredients. Sulfur is the main pest control other than water as it is a fungicide, miticide and insecticide. It also does not give me a headache the way the botanical oils do.

I finally ate the sweet potato that I harvested awhile back, It only needed 3 weeks to cure and it was longer than that. It was actually starting to grow roots. It never colored up anymore but when I cooked the potato, the flesh took on a lavender color and it was sweet. The skin however was a little bit dehydrated.

I think I have kept my araimo too long, some of them dried up too much since they don't need a long cure. That is o.k. there are more of them to harvest and I cannot get all the nishime ingredients at this time of the year unless I use the frozen ones.

Storing root vegetables in summer here is a problem. Unless they can be kept in the frig, there isn't any place that would be cool.

imafan26 · Wed Sep 04, 2024 12:47 pm

Finally got around to taking some pictures

imafan26 · Thu Sep 19, 2024 7:18 pm

I got my water bill today. I used 4k gallons, That is half of last month use. I have fewer plants to take care of because I pulled out most of the old plants and I am renewing the pots. I haven't planted many new ones, only transplanted a few. I am also finding with the high humidity, even though the temps are in the mid 80's, many of the pots can go a couple of days before needing water.

I transplanted more of the basil. Some are not looking that good, but I have more basil to transplant, so I am not going to worry about it.

The okra is unhappy but it is still producing one or two pods a day. It is being attacked by plant hoppers, but not as bad as before. I can't do that much about them. I can't move the plant back until after the work on the house is done. It has also had problems with aphids, but I have been able to keep them in check by hosing them off.

The green onions and chives look better. So far, I don't see aphids on them. Some of the peppers are flowering again and starting to fruit. Even though the plant actually looks pretty shabby.

I have been hosing off the Ajaka basil with water when ever I water and so far, it is keeping the mites under control. I just had to take off a few more curled leaves. I repotted one of the peppers. I am not sure if it is a Hawaiian or Super Chili, but it is happier in a bigger pot.

There is a plant share coming up on the 28 and another on October 5. I will take a lot of my seedlings and some seeds I packaged up then. It will give me a bit more space. I did pick up more globe amaranth seeds from the garden.

I did a germination test on broccoli Di Cicco seeds from 2019 and it passed. I think I have 6-8 seedlings that popped up. I packaged most of the seeds for the give away. They should be good if planted this year. I saved a few of the seeds in case my seedling disappear. I also packaged seeds for Koba onions. I buy it in bulk from the university, and the Joe E Parker pepper seeds. It is a good pepper, but does not have enough disease resistance. If someone lives in a drier area, they may do better. I also packed up Upo seeds that I collected earlier this year. One plant is more than I need. It made quite a few packets. I had to destroy my lemon thyme, it was infested with ground mealy bugs. I still have dasheen, mint, Thai basil, Thai pepper, and kale seeds. Rosemary is ready to come out of the cutting bench. I don't have room for them.

My coffee tree cherries are starting to turn color. The dragon fruit is almost ripe. I have a few more lemons that will soon be ready to pick. I also have about 5 wild tomatoes growing on the ground, but most of them will end up being pulled.

The worms got sweet potato leaves and bitter melon vines this week. That should keep them busy a while. I did have to evict a few roaches from the worm bin.

I did not see any snails, but I saw a slime trail today. It is about time to put out more bait.

imafan26 · Tue Sep 24, 2024 10:01 am

I have some peppers to harvest ( Wailua jalapeno, Joe E. Parker, Thai dragon, habanero, and super chili.) The coffee berries are starting to turn red. I was reading up on when to pick them. It should be soon. I was planning to plant these seeds. I may still do that, but the seeds are slow, it may take months for them to germinate. At the botanical garden coffee seedlings came up like weeds and we never paid attention to the time they took to germinate. I am surprised. Since this is the case I will change my strategy and plant them in a tray rather than in individual containers. According to the internet, the seeds lose viability very fast, much like cacao. I am not surprised, most tropicals are like this. I don't really expect anything. This experiment is just to see if I can do it, more than anything else. Cuttings would be faster, but my tree is less than 3 ft tall so it does not have many leaves I can use.

I moved the succulents out today and of course it rained. I moved some of my orchids out from the lanai. I moved some plants on the fence and moved some plants from the darker bench out to more light. There are a couple of orchids that are not doing well and are being attacked by pests. I did spray them and treated them with a systemic. I cannot keep them with the other orchids so I have them on the fence behind the bay leaf. It will be the survival of the fittest zone. I repotted some orchids, but some of them are iffy, they did not have a lot of new growth and they did have rotten roots. I have lost some, which is not unusual, but not as many as I thought I would. I have a few more orchids I may have to repot but I cut the spikes off of most of them. I am down to the wire on the plants. The fumigation is on Thursday. I bagged most of the things in the refrigerator and freezer. I just have to bag the final things and take the final buckets to the storage unit.

The city did not pick up the green waste last Friday, so I took my household trash (1 13 gallon bag) to the convenience center and ti leaves from my green bin went to the composting facility ( They are about a mile apart) Most of my neighbors held out and left the green cans on the curb all weekend. But it paid off. The city collected their green cans today. I did not have my cans out, but I took out enough to leave half a can of space. That will be enough as long as I don't do any major pruning.

I am barely getting out to water the yard, I do need to weed whack, but I don't know how much charge is in the battery. I cannot get to the charger. The dining table is over the storage trunk.

I am still getting okra, but I am not picking it in time, so some are too old. The wild tomatoes are starting to flower. I have lemons, limes, and calamansi that either need to be picked or soon will be ready. The ginger and turmeric did not sprout until June, but both are starting to flower now, which is the normal time for them to flower. I will probably leave the ginger in place longer.

The cutting celery is dying so only the Tuscan kale and Italian parsley are left. besides the weeds. I put out more snail bait under the orchid benches, but I will need to put more bait out by the garden since I found the snail in the bougainvillea pot.

Most of the cuttings on the cutting bench are o.k. I did lose some citrus cuttings and two lavender. The culantro actually likes being under the shade cloth better than being in the sun. I have cleared half the space on the cutting bench. I have rosemary and a rose that can come out but I don't have anywhere to put them.

I have two plant shares coming up. One is on the 28th, so a day after I can get back into the house and when I have to try to get some of the things out of storage. I think I won't be able to get everything out of the storage in 3 days, so I will have to pay for storage another month. The next plant share is on October 5, a week later. I have a grafting hui meeting that morning at 8 and the the share is at 10 a.m. I don't know if I can make that one. These two shares are the closest ones to me. One is held every two months and the other every three months. I have grown some of the seedlings for these shares. The roofers are also starting work October 1 and it will take 5 days for them to finish, which also coincides with all these other things. I won't be able to get up my driveway with my car because there will be a dumpster parked there and I have to park on the street. The good news is that I had enough extra bags for the fumigation so except for the onion and garlic, I won't have to leave the bottles out in the yard and I was able to pack the nuts and seeds so they can stay in the refrigerator and freezer. I seem to have packed my bottle of soy sauce. I have no idea where it is.

imafan26 · Mon Sep 30, 2024 5:23 am

I went to the plant share yesterday. I brought 30 items in a large box. 1 gallon lemon grass, many young plants in small containers dasheen, Siam Queen Basil, Thai pepper, a 6 inch pot of green onions with a bonus plant peppermint, Curly Vates kale. I also brought some fruit: calamansi and jalapeno in sandwich bags. I brought one bunch of katuk. By the time I left only the katuk was left. I don't think people know what it is.

I got a couple of different bromeliads, seeds, and a tangerine (fruit)

There were more people this time than the last time. The host has been advertising more and featuring items that she is bringing. Lots of plants and new friends made.

I have another plant share next week. I am going to try to make it. I have a grafting hui meeting at 8 and the share is at 10 so, I have to leave early. Because the shares are so close. I brought only half of what I had to the first share.

I had my house tented on Thursday and I got back in after 4:30 p.m. on Friday after I picked up my cat. I went early and watered the yard, and I went and got some of the things out of storage and kept it in the yard until I could get back in the house. I did not water the yard on Saturday, because I was busy going to the storage and bringing stuff back.

Today, I went out to water. Most of the plants can go a couple of days between watering, But the succulents did get sunburned. I had to take them out of my entry and move them into the yard. Most of the plants are o.k. but the native hibiscus leaves all died. I did take cutting from the hibiscus because it is an endangered species. Hopefully, it will come back, but there is no guarantee with the fumigant. I did find all of my broccoli seedlings had all of the cotyledons topped. I will have to replant again. I also lost pepper seedlings earlier. I baited for snails a couple of days ago. I suspect birds, because they only ate the broccoli and nothing else. The kale, and Swiss chard were not touched. Not even the dragon fruit, but it may not be ripe yet. The birds will know when it is ripe. I may have to start the seedlings in a mini greenhouse (grape container) just to keep whatever is eating it at bay.

Besides the okra, I have been harvesting asparagus spears and snacking on them raw in the garden. They are sweet.

My niece weeded my main vegetable garden (half of it). I have to finish the rest. I still don't have enough time to work on both the house and the garden. I still have a few things in the storage in large bins. I may have to repack them into smaller containers to make them more manageable. The termite workers broke my table leg and pulled out a telephone wire from the house. I have to fix the table too. The roofers are coming on October 1, to fix the roof. I just got my refrigerator shelves back in the refrigerator today and unpacked the bags in the frig. I still have to do the freezers and find the buckets that have the flour and pasta since they also belong in the frig. I unpacked 3 buckets of meds (I have a lot).

Yesterday, I went to Costco and bought a rotisserie chicken, caesar salad, eggs, tortillas, and a couple of hot dog combos. so I have something to eat until I can put everything back. This morning I went back to Costco to get gas and took a couple of more loads from the storage back to the house. I will be unpacking for a while. I am barely getting the watering done every day or every other day. It is a good thing the days are getting shorter and the temperature has been in the low 80's, so things don't need as much water.

The calamansi is flushing again and flowering. I have a lot of things to do in the yard too, but I don't know when I will be getting to them.

imafan26 · Mon Sep 30, 2024 6:00 pm

It is 75 degrees at 11:49 a.m. It is muggy and overcast. It rained early this morning and it was enough to wet the road, so I haven't watered the garden yet. I may not need to.

I am still waiting on the dragon fruit. It is getting softer, but it can be riper. The thing with dragon fruit is that it has to be picked ripe because it does not ripen off the plant.

The coffee berries may be pickable soon. Some of the berries are red and have some give.

The rosemary cuttings look like they are ready to pot up. I just don't know when I will get to it.

There are a few lettuce seedling (volunteers growing in my tower. I also found a couple of baby slugs in the tier as well.

I am picking some of the calamansi to add juice to my ice tea. and I am enjoying the one or two okra or asparagus spears I find when I am watering. I just eat them raw. I am also harvesting green onions for my omelet and noodles. I am still putting my refrigerators and freezer back together and I haven't found all my pasta yet. I have a lot of spices to sort through.

imafan26 · Wed Oct 02, 2024 1:30 am

Today, they started work on the roof. I worked on putting things away in the refrigerators. I haven't found everything yet.

I did get to go out in the afternoon when there wasn't as much stuff falling off the roof. I air layered 4 branches of my calamansi tree. Stripping the bark was relatively easy after watching the videos countless times. Getting the branch bagged and tied was a different story. I don't know if I got the branches in the center or not. I will find out in a few weeks how I did. As back up, I did the tried and true method and propagated some of the calamansi and kaffir lime from cuttings. The citrus are flushing now so it is a good time to make cuttings. The calamansi flushes, flowers , and fruits at the same time. The kaffir is still trying to fruit. I did fertilize some of the citrus, and peppers today.

I potted up the rosemary cutting\s I made in July. This is the first time I did summer propagation of citrus, roses, hibiscus, and bay leaves and most of them took. The weather has been weird.

I potted up a few more araimo keikis and pulled some of the larger corms out. I have a plant share coming up on October 5, and Second Saturday at the Garden on October 12. I don't know how much I can get done. I haven't planted the garden yet. I did empty some pots, but I haven't filled them either. I am definitely off to a slow start. The okra, lemons, herbs, peppers don't care, they keep on producing and I am getting a few asparagus spears as well. Even one of the wild tomatoes has green fruit. The lettuce seedlings are mainly doing o,k. It looks like at least one of them disappeared. Today, I caught a bird trapped inside my shade bench, I chased it out.

imafan26 · Fri Oct 04, 2024 2:19 am

I am still way behind for the fall garden. I did make it to Lowe's yesterday and picked up some Sunshine #4. They have peat moss, but home depot is not bringing in the 2 cu ft bags of perlite so I don't have perlite to mix my own soil.
I was able to set up 2 pots with a 3 cu ft bag of Sunshine. I am still trying to figure out the best fertilizer. I added a half cup of dolomite lime, 1 cup of organic orchid and anthurium plant fertilizer (7-13-7), and 1 cup of citrus food 6-4-6 with micros. and a 6 inch container of vermicast per pot of approx 1.5 cu ft of soil. There was a huge grub in the worm bucket. I don't know what it was.

In one of the 20 inch pots, I planted 5 Soarer cucumber seeds, and seeds fo buttercrunch lettuce. If enough lettuce sprouts, I will transfer some to the tower.

In the 18 gallon muck bucket, I planted a red currant tomato that was growing in a one gallon pot. It did go limp, I will see if it survives tomorrow.

I cut back the asparagus. I am hoping to get more young spears. Hopefully, I will get more than one or two spears a day.

I checked on the air layers I did yesterday. So far, none of the branches look like they are wilting. I guess that is good news.

applestar · Fri Oct 04, 2024 7:10 am

That’s tough that you can’t get the supplies you need.

I can always get them (generally) even if I have to pay more.

Do you have a fall-back alternative to perlite — like pumice gravel or chicken grit maybe? I’ve experimented with both, as well as larger chunk sand/gravel diatomaceous earth sold as oil absorbent and small chip bark mulch. I’ve also used crushed natural charcoal — but you have to treat them by soaking in bioactivity rich solution like vermicast tea first or they will steal nutrients.

(I also screen the potting mix since they contain so much larger woody bits any more, and save the larger stuff for the bigger containers)

… that big grub would be the coconut rhino beetle you mentioned previously, wouldn’t it? It’s still wild to me that it’s considered a pest there when, in Japan, folks seem to be so happy over the related beetles.

imafan26 · Fri Oct 04, 2024 10:57 am

It will be even harder to get garden supplies from now on because the stores cut back the garden inventory to make room for Christmas. Christmas decorations go up before Halloween.

The alternative to perlite is black cinder, but it is not good for most root crops and it is much heavier. Sand is too, and I would have to use play sand. Most sand sold in stores are actually coral sand so it contains a lot of salt. There is coir, but I have not had good results with it and it costs more than peat moss by volume. I used charcoal before. I did not know I had to wash it. It does explain why the plant died.

I have not seen a coconut rhino beetle grub that looks like that. and it was by itself and it was red and cigar shaped. When I found the rhino beetle grubs there were 27 white grubs in one pot. I looked it up online. One possibility is a pupa from a moth. This is the first year I have ever found grubs of any kind in my pots. I usually find earthworms, sometimes ants. I found one of the large red millipedes under one of the pots. That was different too, I usually find slugs under the pots

I don't screen potting soil, but I have noticed the cheaper bags of potting soil have a lot of large pieces of wood chips and compost in them. Those kinds of potting soil also need more fertilizer or the plants look very sickly and I get a lot of mushrooms growing in the pots because the woody parts are not fully composted.

While I was at Lowe's someone was looking for seeds, but their seed racks have been gone for a long time. I asked him what seeds he was looking for and it was oregano. So, I told him he could just buy a plant instead. After that I thought about it, and it is true, most of the big stores Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe's don't have seeds anymore. It really doesn't matter much to me, since I usually buy my seeds online and more recently, I have been picking up seeds at the plant shares. I did start more broccoli seeds. I will have to cover the pot when the seeds sprout to protect them from what ever is eating it. I also started some komatsuna, toscano kale, eggplant, and a couple of other things I don't remember. Good thing I did remember to make labels. The next plant share is tomorrow, so I will have to sort and label the trays today. I have packaged some seeds as well. I just need to remember to bring it. I also have to remember to bring my MG feeder.

My cactus and succulents I moved to the yard have gotten sunburnt. I can't really do much about it. I still cannot move them back because now the roof is being fixed and the termite company damaged the table leg which I had to fix, so I had to move the table to the garage. It will be a day or two and then, I still have to have the house painted, so things still have to move. I have to move everything out of my lanai. I don't know where those are going to go.

Imafan's 2024 Garden

Re: Imafan's 2024 Garden