Applestar's 2017 Garden

[wisconsindead]

How do you keep track of all that stuff Applestar?! Everything is looking very happy and healthy!

[applestar]

Thank you! It's been a weird year though. I have several beds -- two designated areas that were never planted, a couple more beds in other areas that also were left unattended.

I actually cleared all the weeds out of the Kitchen Garden today --I've been working with containers on the patio and planted the patio-side Kitchen Garden, but I didn't do anything with the main, circular Kitchen Garden except to harvest lavender and oregano, raspberries and strawberries. Hopefully the saffron crocus are still there and will come up later. I might plant some lettuce, etc.

I guess it helps to name the areas -- I have to surround them with rabbit-proof fencing, so I have carved out one area at a time. Planting schemes and logistics, work involved, etc are naturally organized into manageable chunks. I try to maintain accurate maps and keep records -- at least photograph projects. Otherwise, yeah, I forget. Everything runs into each other.

I like making maps and spreadsheets related to goings on.

...I really do cheat, too, though. I mostly report happy successes. Crop out anything that look bad in the photos, etc. So much is going on nobody notices or everybody is just too polite to point out my omissions. BUT it's a way to be satisfied with what you get each season, too. Sometimes you are really excited to grow something and spend days and months anticipating the result and harvest.... and something happens along the way and you are shattered. But if you have several things going on, you can just say-- "oh well, I have to try that again, next year/or soon" and move on to something else that is growing well for you. Gardening really is an "organic" "diverse" "living community" of entities.

[applestar]

I sifted and screened the harvested compost from the big black bin (not these tumblers in the photo). In addition to the mesh I made out of the wire fencing, I used a 1/2" screen to casually shift out finished compost and sorted out trash and worms.



The worms were put in the Can-o-Worms that I set up fresh with pruned, browned banana leaves in one tray, and green pulled weeds in another tray. Finished compost filled a 5 gallon and two 3 gallon nursery containers. Biggest chunks and unfinished ingredients went in the nearest tumbler, and the stuff that didn't go through the 1/2" screen (including a whole bunch of little worms that were too tedious to pick up) -- about 1.5 cu.ft. worth -- was used to side dress/mulch the melons, squash, corn, and tomatoes in the NE side garden.



...I didn't have enough for all of the garden areas, so I'm going to brew some AACT with the finished compost. I want to supplemental feed the pallet sided raised bed plants including the Korean cucumber that just started blooming female flowers.

[applestar]

Last night we had a pretty severe thunderstorm. Typical weather pattern so the system came up from southwest. It created some kind of a mini whirlwind and flattened the corn in the far arc of the Spiral Garden. So first thing I had to do was empty the catch trays, then harvest blackberries ahead of bugs and birds, then straighten up the corn.

I was going to wear a fresh shirt this morning, but had changed my mind -- just as well because picking up downed corn from the mud was a pretty dirty job.

I did a quick inspection and found one ripe tomato on the ground -- at first I was concerned that some critter got hold of it but it was whole and un damaged except the mud. I noted a TKKx leaf with squash bug eggs and Striped and spotted cucumber beetles in Melon and squash blossoms.

I got the trusty duct tape and started for the eggs, but saw cucumber beetles on the way, and, on a whim, put the duct tape over the blossom -- they are quick and most often scuttle and fly off -- hard to catch, but it turned out that the duct tape can catch them by the hard shell wings. They also try to fly off and think they are clever when they land on the duct tape and then start walking funny on the stickynsurface, but if you are quick, you can squish them against the adhesive and they get stuck.

Then I saw squash bugs mating on the melon trellis. That made me look closer and they were everywhere -- or at least three pairs. Duct tape was handy for catching them, too. They do release their stink once they realize they are stuck though (Blecch)

Getting back to the squash, I got the eggs off of the TKK -- of course majority of the eggs were on the OTHER side of the fence trellis... two more pairs of squash bugs... a few juvies probably from stray eggs I missed... then noticed that what I feared had happened: There was a leaf pressed against the insect netting from the inside and and a squashbug had laid an egg cluster through the netting (top-left photo) --



-- another duct tape to the rescue! Also shifted the vines and leaves away from the netting and further inside while I was in there.

I will really need to keep an eye on the melons now. I had been expecting to find squash bugs and leaf foots on them because someone -- maybe toxcrusader -- had reported them on HIS melon trellis one year... and have been looking, but these were the first ones I have seen. But now, I'm sure there will be more.

Melons are setting fruits.

[applestar]

There is trouble in the VG beds. Several plants have been showing signs and now are looking like they might be overcome from mite infestation. It has happened before when I tried to grow tomatoes in VGA. They spread like wildfire, apparently traveling from plant to plant along the support strings. I don't know if this area is more vulnerable because it gets morning sun and morning dews dry out quickly -- mites LOVE dry wood -- or perhaps because it is adjacent to the fence border to neighbor's who uses a lawn service (my personal belief is that their use of herbicides and pesticides weakens the ecosystem and biosphere and sabotages build-up of a healthy Garden Patrol population).

It is somewhat curious the way the infestation is spreading -- or seemingly not spreading this time. I see individual plants that are fully infested, and individual plants that, as far as I can see, do not seem to be infested. Eggplants seem more vulnerable than pepper's or tomatoes. The VGA bed is very closely planted, and the pair of "Tim F2" in the top right photo -- so far only one is affected. Tim F2-1 is next to a Mite Survivor MR.C F3 (Maglia Rosa x Coyote F3). I'm wondering if there are predatory mites still left on that plant.



The mites are also in the VGD.PSRB (Pallet Sided Raised Bed). And the Marz Pulcent and Maskotka tomatoes are infested. I'm not sure if they will be able to finish ripening their fruits or if the fruits will be too damaged.


2nd year carrot blooming in VGA is supposed to be attracting beneficial insects, but I don't suppose predatory mites fly in. There is a farrow bed (VGC/D) of 2nd year celery that has been blooming since spring, but that is not helping VGD.PSRB. I wonder if there *could be* predatory mites on/in the celery? I wonder if it would have any effect to try cutting some of the celery flowers and plants and sprinkling them on the plants in the affected beds....?

[applestar]

Yesterday, I was out of commission -- caught some kind of a virus the night before and spent the day in bed... couldn't go out to the garden. Just one day, but the critters took advantage -- Chipmunk is the prime suspect.



I was happy to see the two Nutterbutter squash growing well until I realized one of them had managed to get stuck in the fence somehow. I used my pruners to pry the bars back and release it. Found 2 pairs of squash bugs on the vine and a leaf with eggs.



...there were more on the TKK cross squash vines and leaves and the melon trellis had 3 pairs and 2 more individual squash bugs as well as numerous cucumber beetles. No eggs on the melons as far as I could tell.


Ripening tomatoes are everywhere

[applestar]

Since the chipmunk has been raiding the tomatoes in the garden, I have been taking our two kitties with me when I am in the enclosed garden space to do their best to sniff around and leave their scent. They are Indoor cats and only go outside on supervised outings wearing their lavender-filled quilted bandannas. Here is one of them -- she is looking very put out because it was drizzling off and on this morning

[applestar]

Yesterday, I accidentally turned on an auto-something or other that takes 4 photos each time I try to take 1 and set different exposure for each one. The brightest 2 are ruined because they wash everything out and can't be recovered, and the darker 2 are too dark and need fiddling to bring them up to viewable level.

Here' are a couple of photos I wanted to share -- I found a leaf-footed stinkbug egg cluster on... I think this is melon leaf stem, might be cucumber.

[applestar]

[Gary350]

There is trouble in the VG beds. Several plants have been showing signs and now are looking like they might be overcome from mite infestation. .

I had a problem with mites this year too. I tried several things, spraying the plant leaves with a hard spray of water with the garden hose knocks them off. I'm not sure where these tiny bugs come from, they don't seem to fly and they can't walk very far with those tiny legs. I don't like to water my garden that waters weeds and grass too. I hate to spray toxic poison on my garden but I am thinking malathion insecticide might be ok but have not tried it yet.

[applestar]

A gardening friend from Germany gave me her recipe for home-made mite remedy. I tried it on the mite-infested seedlings this spring, and the three seedlings 3-for-3 had recovered. I didn't include the 4th one in the count since it was munched down to stub by micein the garage the same night I treated it -- I told her and we agreed maybe best not to use Sunflower oil.

I left some mite-infested seedlings untreated, and only 3 out of 8? survived.

[applestar]

Korean cukes are coming in now daily or skip 1 day at most. These are probably hybrids. They came in thick foil or Mylar pouch-envelopes and I think marked good until 2019 or something. And the seeds were coated with hot pink fingernail polish-like stuff. I bought the seeds on a whim at H-mart.

My cucumber-loving DD1 at first wouldn't eat them and wanted someone else to try first. She likes them now.

[applestar]

Korean Melon -- Chamoe (common Korean word for this kind of melon) -- seeds from Hmart.

This is the first one to change color. My understanding is the melon is ready to harvest when it's bright yellow with green cast gone, and the seams are ivory to white... plus strongly fragrant aroma.... so... maybe 3-4 more days?

[applestar]

This morning the very first of the Thai Kang Kob x Seminole cross (TKKxS.F3) winter squash blossoms opened... and it was a female... and that was the ONLY flower.

I saw it from the window and couldn't see any other flower, so I looked over to the hill/trellis for Nutterbutter, which is C.moschata species like TKKxS.F3 and could be used to pollinate with, hoping to see a male blossom but I didn't see any blossoms at all.

So, when I went outside to the garden, first thing I did was rush over to look more closely. Luckily, there WAS a male Nutterbutter flower hiding on the other side, at the base of the trellis



Hopefully my hand-pollination was successful and I will have the first fruit-set from this TKKxS.F3, plus a fun new crossed seeds for next year. Since the Nutterbutter which was planted at the same time has already produced two fruits that are starting to color-break and blush, I'm hoping this cross will introduce the earlier maturing trait to the original cross of TKK and Seminole which are very late maturing. Nutterbutter is also considered a short vine variety vs. the garden-eating, rambling traits of the parents. Very promising.

[applestar]

Here is a great example of why it's a good idea to be observant in your garden so you can recognize it when everything looks normal and when something is out of place or not normal. When I saw the black/dark line on the string, I said to myself -- "What is THAT!?" On closer inspection, I recognized the leaf-foot eggs.

[applestar]

Another TKKxSeminole F3 female flower opened with no male escort. This time there was a Nutterbutter male from the vine that already produced the two fruits, so even though there was a 2nd male at the base of the trellis on the other side like the last time, I decided to only use the one male to pollinate with and label them differently.



In the somewhat blurry telephoto shot, you can see the green stem end of the male anther -- I usually leave in the flower so insects will transfer the pollen some more as they rummage around. You can see the black bumblebee or carpenter bee in the flower.

Bottom-right is picture of a REBA acorn squash I also pollinated today.

[applestar]

I picked the first Korean Melon/chamoe. I wasn't sure if it had yellowed enough, but when I turned it over, there were some cracks -- I think it was starting to split. So it was a good thing I harvested it.




... Korean Melon is a HIT with the family. I served it peeled and cut into disks, then half-disks, leaving the seeds and gel attached since there is a lot of sweet flavor in the gel.

[applestar]

Other melons are mostly hanging around


...I'm a bit concerned about the one in the yellow net bag at right. It looks like it is all scratched up/has tiny fissures all over. It should be Honey Rock Melon which is supposed to get netting, so I'm wondering if it has been infected by fungal disease in the netting fissures? I don't know what to do....

[applestar]

Third TKK x Seminole female blossom. This time with 2 male escorts. But for the first hour I was out in the garden, the male blossoms were packed with bees (and fruit flies) and the blossoms were in awkward position on the trellis that I didn't think I could snip them off without having the bees fly in my face.




The three bees in the lower male blossom just wouldn't leave and I gave up using it. I used the other flower after a bumble bee left it, LANDED ON ME to wash up a bit, then finally flew off. So glad to ensure I can carry this segregate forward.



However, IF there were traffic male -> female between the flowers, My hand pollinating shouldn't have been necessary.

[applestar]

Nutterbutter butternut squash -- the first two fruits are definitely changing color. I suppose you just do the thumbnail test to check for when to harvest? This is my first time growing butternut.



The one on the right grew upside down between the wire panels. I have been widening the gap as it grew, then when I had to open it wide enough to threaten it falling over, tied some strings to cradle it in place. It's stem attachment to the vine is slowly bringing crushed, but it couldn't be helped.


So far, only the Sweet REBA acorn squash have been producing female flowers. Sibley/Pike's Peak banana squash is supposed to mature about 10 days later. They are C.pepo and C.maxima, respectively, and inside the insect protection, so I have been hand pollinating. I think there should more than these three but I was in a hurry and these were the ones I could photo from the outside.

[applestar]

It feels like I haven't done this in a while.... a collage selection of 9 recent harvest photos



...yesterday, I had an eye doctor's appointment so I took a clear clamshell of cherry and cocktail tomatoes for her. I didn't know if she liked tomatoes or not. It turns out she grew up on her grandfather's home-grown tomatoes and only buys fresh Jersey tomatoes in season. I think she will like the ones I gave her.

[applestar]

We had a severe thunderstorm sweep over us at dusk. DD showed me the weather time lapse showing the storm system with large dark red band right over us, trying split but not managing it and getting pulled back/converging back again. Spark warned that the nearest lightning strike was 0.0 miles away (across the court).

And as the last rays turned the world golden.... my corn, the big Pink/Purple Mexican that I had been planning to post about because it is most certainly as tall as the 2nd floor floor level... I was going to take a picture when the top of the tallest showed when the iPad camera lense sightline is lined up to the bottom edge of the window.... have been blown over



...the medium-shorter ones in the front that are also down are the popcorn type segregates of my Kandy Korn F1 x Glass Gem x medley

[applestar]

I only had 1 hour to spend early this morning so concentrated on repairing the corn damage after hurriedly harvesting things that were ready and tomatoes that might split if left to absorb all the swampy rainwater remaining in the garden paths' swales. Three of the corn had kinked and where bent over while nearly a dozen were bowed nearly horizontal. I managed to splint each of the three stalks and stand them back up, then bundled with the bowed ones in small groups and guyed them to fence posts, etc. they look good so far. If we are spared from strong winds for a week or so, the kinked ones should heal enough to continue to grow and the bowed ones should be back to growing upright.



...added these photos from this morning to illustrate the repair work. Also, some of the supertall Pink and Purple Mexican and other corn were severely infested by aphids and I was beginning to wonder why the Garden Patrol were not arriving to take care of them, but this morning there were Ladybeetles on duty.

[applestar]

Other melons are mostly hanging around


...I'm a bit concerned about the one in the yellow net bag at right. It looks like it is all scratched up/has tiny fissures all over. It should be Honey Rock Melon which is supposed to get netting, so I'm wondering if it has been infected by fungal disease in the netting fissures? I don't know what to do....

I think it's looking better. Maybe it was just a phase....

[applestar]

The balsams I sowed in front of the tomatoes in the VGB.PSRB (Pallet Sided Raised Bed) are blooming now they are affected I think by the same mites that are attacking the tomatoes as well as having some fungal issues on the leaves but I keep pruning them when I clip off yellowed and spotted tomato leaves. A couple of balsam plants wilted so I culled them. You can see the sage -- so much shorter! -- down below, but I don't know if they will even get to bloom at this point. First of the tomatoes are starting to color break.



To my surprise, one of the balsams is blooming red flowers.


Here is the KG.Patio.SIP now.



Today's harvest:

[applestar]

The corn, btw was delicious except for that white one 2nd from the left -- I don't think it's so much that I picked it too early as it must have been heavily pollinated by the Japanese Striped Maize (JSM) which is a popcorn type. The purplish kernels on the first ear shriveled when cooked. I think that might actually be a good sign that they ARE shrunken kernels and Sweet.

I'm harvesting these early ears for eating and then save a couple of ears from when JSM had mostly finished producing pollen and most of the pollination was being done by self and same Medley tassles. I have a few ears of heavily variegated JSM that I hand pollinated with the #sweetcorn# Medley pollen for saving and experimenting with for possible inclusion in the #sweetcorn# or #popcorn# Medley in the future.

[applestar]

Started brewing a batch of AACT -- rainwater, compost, a bit of Epsom salts, fermented molasses, vermicomposter leacheate, last bit of tomato-tone in the bag and bag rinse-out ....

[applestar]

I harvested four more corn a couple of days ago but rushed them inside to cook them and forgot to take a picture So I made sure to take a pic before taking them inside yesterday.


...that might not be Sweet Chocoloco -- trying to find out for sure...

Corn Garden Patrol

[applestar]

This is an odd year -- tomatoes were planted (way) later than usual and harvest has been correspondingly later. I think some years, I would have been done with the biggest maters by this time. But not this year. We've had more rain than usual, too, and septoria/early blight have been creeping up the vines, but it seems like production has been pretty decent. And some of the later maturing varieties are actually coming in. Maybe less stress is the contributing factor.

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Tomatoes (and peppers and eggplants)

Allons-y, Dr.X, Big Cheef Stripes, Steelhead-1, Steelhead-2


Wes, Big Cheef Stripes (2), Steelhead-1, Dwarf Chocolate Lightning, Dwarf Orange Cream, Cheste (these 2 look pink... maybe not true)

...my mug is 16 oz size and 4 inches at widest diameter.

[applestar]

Melons:

[applestar]

I've been planting the brassicas, etc. under protective cover:


... One row of radishes in an exposed area ...

[SQWIB]

Looking Good.
The picture bottom right, that isn't a Hugelkultur Mound is it?

[applestar]

That one is not. But I am redoing a section along another part of the garden enclosure fence that will be my new sorta-hugelkultur bed... maybe with pallet sides though I haven't decided about that. I intend to plant tomatoes or potatoes there next year.

[applestar]

The Mexican Pink/Purple corn have FINALLY STARTED TO TASSLE. Those arch and melon trellises in the foreground are about 6 feet high, and I would estimate these corn must be about 14-15 feet tall. The somewhat "shorter" corn in front of them are my KKxGlass Gem x popcorn/field corn medley segregates that are showing similar "giant" growths as Bloody Butcher and I'm guessing 10-12 feeet tall. DD asked me how I am going to hand pollinate those....

[xtron]

I grow tuckers favorite dent corn for grinding cornmeal and making masa herraina. it grows 12-14 feet tall, and is quite the point of interest in the neighborhood. come halloween, I usually have several requests for "those giant corn stalks" for decorations.

[applestar]

I'm starting to harvest fully mature Japanese Striped Maize.


...actually didn't harvest the one in the bottom-left since I realized the leaf for that ear is still green and hasn't started to dry.

[applestar]

I grow tuckers favorite dent corn for grinding cornmeal and making masa herraina. it grows 12-14 feet tall, and is quite the point of interest in the neighborhood. come halloween, I usually have several requests for "those giant corn stalks" for decorations.

I wish I had room to grow more -- not sure if I will be able to harvest filled ears at this rate.

[applestar]

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden

Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:59 pm

I was tempted by this thread into sowing some Okra seeds. Both the Okra and the Butta summer squash have sprouted.
Subject: Okra question

Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:18 pm

I soaked and sowed some Clemson Spineless and Alabama Red, but it turned out my seeds are kind of old, so I'm not sure what kind of germination I will get. I sowed extra, extra, which should mean there will be more than enough, but we'll see.

I will have to get new seeds for next year, or if these germinate, save at least one plant for seed-making (sacrifice and allow first pod to mature to ensure pod will have the chance to fully mature before frost)....

...forgot to mention one of the volunteer squash I was letting grow had the telltale wet sawdust on its stem -- I dissected it to see and found 2 SVB's, so the summer squash may have no chance.

I've harvested two Butta squash so far and there are more developing:

...Okra plants are still pretty small and with the onset of cooler late summer/pre-fall weather, not likely to do much at this point...

[applestar]

Random pics from the garden --

[rainbowgardener]

Everything is looking great!!!

Bottom right, are those your apples? They have the blotchy discolored look I was describing on mine. Is that normal?