Imafan's 2021 Garden

[imafan26]

Thanks for the tips. I think part of the problem is that I am growing Camaro because it is TYLCV resistant. If I could grow the heat tolerant tomatoes, BER does not happen. I am also trying to limit the water on the tomatoes which is hard because they are in 18 gallon pots. I water every day, the tomatoes don't wilt in midday at this time of the year, but I have grown good tomatoes before that were bland (Cherokee purple), because I need to let them get a little dry for them to taste better.

My pots actually have enough calcium, the BER is better now that the tomatoes have been in production for a while. I still get some fruit with BER but it is getting better. The day temperature is around 80 now. This is not a heat tolerant tomato and it will drop flowers and fruit as it gets hotter. If I had the tomato in a SIP container the uneven watering would not be a problem, but I would still have the taste problem.

I have moved the smaller Camaro away from the main trellis and I can just use a cage for that one. I have put the red currant which is indeterminate and resistant to TYLCV and it is a wild tomato in my yard so heat won't stop it. It will make better use of the big trellis.

So far the insect net bags are working. I have not had anymore tomatoes stung. But, none of the tomatoes that are not bagged are stung either. The bugs must have found something else to bother, like papayas. So far I have gotten about 8 tomatoes, the birds have gotten three. One was bagged, but the birds opened the bag. I did not have the extra twist tie on that one. Two of the tomatoes were in an awkward position so I could not bag them. I expected the birds would probably get to them before I did. The tomatoes have to taste pretty good. The birds have even been going for the green tomatoes that I haven't bagged yet.

I have a lot of peppers, so I will try them in different conditions. I will try to see if they do better in more shade, in the garden, in bigger pots, in SIP containers. I might try adding more phosphorus and potassium to the containers. The starter fertilizer was 4-6-4 plus micros. It might need a little more phosphorus and potatssium. I do have some balanced 10-10-10 or muriate of potash 0-0-60. I put some of the peppers in the main garden. The phosphorus there is off the chart (2300), I'll see how some of them do there. The main garden now is getting shaded by the neighbor's very tall African tulip. and I need to cut back some of my own overhanging weeds (Fukien Tea). The bell peppers are so much fussier than the hot peppers. The hot peppers do fine in the sun and a basic soil mix with any fertilizer I give them.
The beans are trying to climb onto the tomatoes.

I am getting a couple of cucumbers every 1-4 days. Two more are ready to harvest.

Okra has started to flower at around 3 ft tall. I have 4 okra in an 18 gallon pot. The fit is a little tight, the canopies touch but I think they should still produce o.k. I have nematodes in the main garden so the okra needs to be in the pot now.

The birds ate one of the Chinese Giant peppers.

The lettuce in the tower is ready to eat. I still have lettuce and cabbage in the frig. Why is it always feast or famine. The lettuce that is out in the garden now will be the last lettuce I will grow until October-November. The semposai, komatsuna, and pack choi also need to go to make room for the chard, pepetual spinach, and peppers. Only the kale remains all year in the garden. My summer vegetables are mostly in peppers, eggplant (year round), sweet potato, taro, beans, tomato (year round),and cucumber (year round). The shiso did not sprout, I may just throw the seeds in the garden and dig up the seedlings later. I always have problems starting it in pots. I have made some cuttings from some of the plants and I have smaller ajaka basil so I can get rid of the overgrown one.

The dill and other flower seeds I put in the nectar and pollen garden have started sprouting. Either some of the sunflowers failed to come up or the birds ate the seeds. I am going with the birds ate the seeds. Well, at least I have more seeds.

The finches have been making lace out of my lacinato kale leaves. I caught them in the act.

I found a large African snail in my orchid pot, so I put out more slug and snail bait. I must be getting up too late, I don't see that many of them anymore.

Things seem to be growing fast this week. I need to get some bigger pots for the peppers and hibiscus sabdariffa (roselle).

[imafan26]

I fed the worms the manoa lettuce today. They were looking like cabbages and they have become bitter with the heat. I have a few younger ones, but they will have to be used as fingerlings. it is getting too hot for lettuce.

I lost my swiss chard seedlings. I had to work today and I watered them before I went to work, but they did not survive the day.

I picked a few more tomatoes and some of the other more heat tolerant lettuce. The Paris Cos Romaine and Salad Bowl lettuce are bolting.

I have started to wean the front yard from watering. Most of the plants there are drought tolerant and will do fine if I reduce watering to twice a week if I do long slow soaks. It will reduce the time I spend watering every day. The potted plants still need daily watering but I am trying to pot up the pot bound ones to larger pots and I am mulching the pots to control weeds and reduce water loss. I may have to cull some extra plants that I don't need.

Peat moss is out at some of the local ag suppliers, so I picked up a couple of more bales just in case since I need a lot of soil mix to transplant into the larger pots.

Right now, I have more tomatoes and cucumber than I can eat or give away.

[imafan26]

I found a couple of more okra today. There were a couple of more snow peas too.

The beans are flowering and I found a few beans hiding under the leaves.

The birds ate another pepper and they are stripping the lacinato kale leaves.

I have another vanda blooming. I'll take a picture if I can get it off the tree.

It rained last night so I pulled a few weeds and caught a few African snails this morning.

There are more tomatoes and cucumbers to pick. The semposai and some of the lettuce needs to be harvested as well. The Cos Romaine is setting seed but I have to wait until it dries out again to collect them. I have a few lemons that are yellow and I should pick them before they drop.

The daikon and beets in the bin look like they are ready to be harvested. Some of the daikon are over 5 inches out of the soil now. The beets aren't very big , but they are bigger in the container than in the ground.

I did see some powdery mildew on the Camaro tomato on the upper leaves. The plant is getting old. It is fairly mildew resistant until it gets older. The cucumber and peppers have thrip damage. The cucumber also has yellow leaf margins. I fed the cucumber with some citrus food that contains micros. I am not going to worry that much about it. The cucumber has been producing for almost a month it only has 2-3 weeks more before it is done anyway. It is probably a magnesium deficiency and is not uncommon when the plants start senescence. I have already planted seeds of Progress cucumber to replace Soarer. Progress is similar to Soarer with good disease and heat resistance.


I checked the worm bin. I need to harvest some of the vermicast.

I have pruned the roses in the front yard, now I have to prune the roses, bonsai, and topiary in the pots and of course there are always weeds to pull.

[imafan26]

I went to the garden today and found a nice 1 ft long hyotan. (Really, do I need another vegetable right now). I could not resist it. I can make soup and use up some of the tomatoes at the same time.

My co-worker also gave me 4 persian limes. Right now, I don't have persian limes just some Meyer lemons and calamondin. Most of the citrus is going into my crystal light tea.

I harvested more okra, beans, a couple of snow peas and 4 more tomatoes. The strawberries have some small fruit on them again and I spotted another plant probably also a Chinese giant with one small green pepper. The birds are eating the red bells, so I have to harvest them sooner or start bagging the peppers.

I made more cuttings of the nau gardenia and the hibiscus mutabilis. Actually, I cut the mutabilis down because there are just too many white flies on it. It will make it easier to manage. The white flies are going after the okra and curly kale now, and the thrips are after the pepper seedlings. I still have to harvest and cook the semposai. I got some cuttings of white crown flower. I have to put it in a separate container. The other cuttings I have are from the purple crown flower. The bread fruit looks to be a goner. I may be able to up pot some of the cuttings in the cutting boxes. Some appear to have enough roots. I need to make more cuttings of the double rose pikake (Jasmine sambac), so I can reach my goal of 20 plants plus a few more for back up just in case. I have to find room for it all. And I need to harvest the vermi cast.

I bought more seeds from Kitazawa. According to the site. The Summer fest Komatsuna, semposai, and misome might be able to grow through summer. If I find more space I might try to grow some of these. The African tulip in the neighbors yard is shading my vegetable garden from the western sun so it might work out. I may still hold off on planting more until September. July and August, it is too hot to work in the yard and the plants don't like it in the 90's either, so I usually just harvest and solarize the garden instead. It helps to have less plants to water in summer anyway, because my water bill is usually the worst in summer.

It has been raining at night for the last three days. Today I went out and spot watered a few things that looked a little dry. I checked the rain guage and the garden had 0.5 inches of rain in the last three days. My rain barrel is overflowing.

The grass started greening up again. Bad news, I may have to mow again in a few days.

[imafan26]

I harvested more okra, tomatoes, a couple of snowpeas, superchile, Poamoho beans (a lot of them were hiding), and some of the baby manoa lettuce. One cucumber hiding behind the pot was a goner. I still have more lettuce, semposai, daikon, tomatoes, cucumbers, and lemons that need to be harvested.

The tomatoes still are getting blossom end rot so I have to eat them first.

Below is some of what I harvested this week. The limes were a trade and the hyotan came from another garden. (I don't have space for it at my house.) I had a salad with lunch made from a cucumber, a couple of small tomatoes, and the manoa greens. Actually, I only ate half of it. It was too much.

Part of this weeks harvest is shown
Hyotan 730 g and limes 362 grams did not come from my garden.
Camaro tomatoes 1935 g, Meyer lemon120 g, Poamoho beans 242 g, Soarer cucumber 988 g, mainly superchile with a couple of Thai pepper 126 g, okra 267 g, snow peas 18 g,
manoa lettuce 54 g.

It is peak harvest now. The tomatoes and cucumbers may be winding down soon. The okra and beans have just started to produce.

I planted 4 new progress cucumbers that have already sprouted to replace Soarer. Red currant tomato is flowering now. It will replace the Camaro tomatoes. I got some more tomato seeds of different varieties that have TYLCV resistance. They come from a local supplier of Sakata seeds so they should be adapted to the heat of summer. They only had red shiso and not the green. I only have one packet of green shiso.

I got cuttings of white crown flower so I put them in perlite today. I also can see that the macadamia nut cutting (one is starting to sprout leaves. I made more cuttings of the double rose pikake and dwarf Spanish lavender as well.

I started training the euphorbia cotonifolia I potted up for topiary. I need to find a place I can spread them out more.

The pots are still wet from the rain, so I fertilized the pots and orchids with miracle grow instead.

[applestar]

Looks great! I’m dreaming about when my harvest will begin! Yours are inspiring me to work harder to get everything planted. . I just planted a couple of Manoa starts where there was room for them. I also have Anuenue starts among others. I have to find more spots to squeeze them in

[imafan26]

This is the last of the lettuce I will plant till the fall. It is actually too hot for manoa lettuce, so I harvested them as baby greens. I still have some red lettuce left but that is also getting over the hill. I had planned on collecting seeds from the Paris Cos Romaine and Salad Bowl lettuce, but the rain is causing problems since I cannot harvest wet seeds or they will get moldy. I'll see what is left after the rain stops a few days.

I am sure your garden will be up and running soon. I would not have the space for even half the varieties you are planting. I'd like to be able to get a frame up in my main garden someday so that I could either trellis plants or put up a shade or insect barrier over the garden. Right now, it is way down on my to do wish list.

[imafan26]

I harvested a two foot daikon and about the same size cucumber today. It is probably the last of my cucumbers from these old plants. There are no flowers. The new Progress cucumber won't produce for at least a month.

I will have a break from cucumbers and tomatoes soon. The smaller Camaro tomato is also slowing down. However, red currant is getting big, fast.

The remainder of my lettuce is starting to bolt. It isn't bitter but the leaves are getting tough. It will probably end up in the worm bin.

The eggplant is producing but it should look better than it does. I think there might be a problem with the soil. Once, I pull the cucumber and clean up the pot, I will start another eggplant instead.

I have had to cull some of the Chinese Giants because of pepper spot. It is a problem when it rains for days at a time. The Burpee experimental #5 is proving to be very disease resistant so far, but while they are getting bigger, none of them have any flowers yet. I have to find more pots for the peppers that need to be potted up again.

[imafan26]

I have not planted anything for succession yet. I may replant the tower garden, but I am considering covering some of the pots once they are harvested and waiting until the fall to replant them.

I am just keeping the perennial crops that will live through the heat (eggplant, hot pepper, ginger, citrus, taro, herbs, kale, cucumber, red currant tomato, and some beans), and the sweet potatoes which will be harvested in the fall.

I am up potting plants when I can get the containers and media so they can go longer without water. Some things are wilting if they have to wait a day and a half to be watered.

I have cut back on watering the front yard which has the new pollen and nectar garden, but most plants there are established now and are heat and drought tolerant. I am letting the grass brown out. It will survive until the next rain.

I do have cuttings that will have to come out of the cutting box and they will need more water once they are potted up. I can group them to make watering easier.

I am potting up and using a mix with more peat moss, reducing planting space and solarizing the garden as the plants are harvested out. I can regroup some of my plants so that the ones that can be watered every 2-3 days are grouped together and mulch the pots to reduce evaporation.

Most of the plants I keep through the summer are heat tolerant and provide multiple harvests. I don't have any more lettuce and the Asian greens will usually make it until July. The kale will do fine in the heat although it will be bitter. peppers and eggplant should have no problem and as long as I don't go more than three days, the citrus should do fine as well. I will be reducing the tomatoes to one indeterminate red currant, which is tiny, but sweet and both heat tolerant and resistant to TYLCV. Camaro is still producing fruit, but it is not heat tolerant and it is a determinant so it is not going to last through summer anyway.

I do have the sweet potato, the wild bitter melon, cucumber, and beans. I may plant more chard in the tower since it is heat tolerant and I can get multiple harvests from it.

What ever I can grow myself adds to my food security. Whatever, I plant offsets some of what I would have had to pay at the store. Food prices are only going up with the drought forcing farmers to reduce the fields they plant and ranchers are forced to cull herds that they cannot feed. We have the added cost of shipping as well since 80%-90% of all consumables are shipped in twice a week. Shipping costs have quadrupled. Local farmers produce less than 10% of what we eat and most of those are tropical fruits like papaya, eggplant, and gourds. Their costs have increased as well. Their ag water rates have increased as well as costs for seed, labor, fertilizer, animal feed, even packaging which has to be imported and costs more because they have to be recyclable.

I am not against recycling. I keep bags and boxes in my car for groceries. But, when you have to ask for utensils and a straw when you buy a meal, it goes a little too far. Lunches cost more because the containers, utensils, and bags have to be recyclable and utensils are by request since the new law went into effect. As well as the cost of food and labor has gone up. I have to keep extra utensils in the car now, in case I forget to ask for a fork.

I am using the same amount of water as last year, but it costs me $30 a month more because of the increasing sewer charges and water charges. The rates will increase again in July that will add probably another $10 a month. With 8000 gallons a month. I only get 2000 gallons allotted for irrigation even though I probably use closer to 6000 gallons in the yard and less than 2000 gallons goes down the sewer.

[Gary350]

I am using the same amount of water as last year, but it costs me $30 a month more because of the increasing sewer charges and water charges. The rates will increase again in July that will add probably another $10 a month. With 8000 gallons a month. I only get 2000 gallons allotted for irrigation even though I probably use closer to 6000 gallons in the yard and less than 2000 gallons goes down the sewer.

Call the water department tell them you use lots of water for your garden. Most utility companies will give you a discount for water that does not go into the sewer. When I lived in AZ it cost less to drain the 12,000. swimming pool into the street than to buy chemicals to fix old water. Utility company gave me 60% discount to fill up my pool it only cost $40 for 12,000. of water. We had a water pipe in TN break one winter water ran for 2 days before we could get it repaired we got a $50 discount on the water bill.

[imafan26]

I have tried that. They said I would have to install a separate water meter for the house and another for the yard. The meter would cost about $2500 to install but it would take more than 10 years to recoup the investment. All of my water is potable. The newer homes have two meters already since the yard meter is connected to a reclaimed water source. The developers had to do that to meet the water limit requirements for the development. The outdoor faucets on the new homes are purple, have flow restrictors, and a warning label. "Do not drink". Most people in those homes don't know that purple pipes use reclaimed water. There is also a minimum sewer charge which is currently $77 and will also be going up in July. My bill was $130 last month, only about $30 was the water charge, the bulk of the costs are sewer charges and other taxes and fees.

In other news. I had planned to pull out one of my tomatoes and the cucumber. Both of them decided to start putting on new growth and start blooming again. Today I went to Lowe's and spent $130 mostly on garden stuff an ergonomic trowel, a new warren hoe, a couple of brooms, snail bait, 2 bottles of root tone. (I really did not need it now, but the supply has been spotty so I got it while it was there), 2 folding tomato cages, and a millionaire eggplant. I wanted the green eggplant, but it had aphids that I did not want to bring home with me. I picked up a 4 pack of Swiss chard and against my better judgement a 4 pack of Muir lettuce. I sprayed the eggplant with 3 in 1 just in case. I did not see any aphids only flea beetle damage on it. The other vegetables were on a different table and were clean. I am going to plant these in the tower garden.

I harvested okra, tomatoes, and green beans today. Some of the glads are blooming. I had to stake a few of them.

[Gary350]

I have tried that. They said I would have to install a separate water meter for the house and another for the yard. The meter would cost about $2500 to install but it would take more than 10 years to recoup the investment. All of my water is potable. The newer homes have two meters already since the yard meter is connected to a reclaimed water source. The developers had to do that to meet the water limit requirements for the development. The outdoor faucets on the new homes are purple, have flow restrictors, and a warning label. "Do not drink". Most people in those homes don't know that purple pipes use reclaimed water.

When I moved to TN 1977 I changed the water pipes under the house. Toilet was the only pipe going to city sewer. Kitchen sink, bathroom sink, shower, washing machine, dish washer, all went to one common 2" pipe to the garden. I had a T valve that could switch all the water go to garden or city sewer. Summer water went to garden. Winter water went to city sewer.

[imafan26]

It would be fairer if they metered the sewer, but they don't. The sewer charge is a percentage of the bill. Although they know that 70% of water from single family households are not going down the drain, the irrigation water allowance is so small. I got 2000 gallons out of the 8000 gallons for irrigation. When I use 2000 gallons in the winter time (I still water the garden, just less because of rain), I get zero for irrigation allowance.

[imafan26]

I think my cabbages may be rotting. There is a distinct odor in the yard. Well, it is July and they are cabbages so it may be time to move them out anyway.

I don't have extreme heat, but the humidity has been lower than I am used to. Today the humidity is 69% which is closer to normal. Normally, humidity hovers around 80%.
At least the trades are back which cools things off and will bring a few sprinkles.

I am harvesting beans, okra, tomatoes, cucumber, and a few snow peas. I don't know how much of the cabbage I can save.

Gardenias and jasmine sambac have fewer flowers. The annual seed mix I planted are starting to bud up. I think there is a lot of cosmos in the mix. I don't see any sunflowers and I did plant sunflowers as well. Hybiscus sabdariffa, aka roselle, is starting to bloom. It makes a fine pair with the okra. They are both in the malvaceae family.

[imafan26]

It rained last night and it is still sprinkling. The temperature is 74 degrees but the wind is only 5 mph so it is humid. The dragon fruit bloomed. I got up late, but because it was cloudy the bloom was still open. I did try to pollinate it but I need a thinner brush.

I picked a cucumber, more okra, beans, and tomatoes. I could pick some chilies and some of the lemons also need to be picked.

Broad mites are attacking the Thai peppers.

Some of the plants are getting tall in the row so it is hard to see the other pots behind them.

The gardenia and pikake are putting out fewer blooms, but they are still blooming. The plumerias are blooming. I need to take a picture of that. I can never remember the colors of the flowers on each of the trees. Some of the citrus trees have green fruit and a lot of the sweet peppers are blooming, although I haven't seen many pepper fruit, there are seedlings popping up all over the place.

The red currant has some ripe tomatoes but they are on the bottom and hard to get to.

I have to weed whack again. At least I don't have to do it as much in summer.

The strawberries are not looking good. I will have to try to repot and move them into more shade.

I am contemplating taking more cuttings but I don't know how well they will do in summer.

The honohono keikis look good. I may have some other ones that are ready to pot up.

[imafan26]

Everything has grown so much. The pepper and the sweet potato have gotten so big, I cannot easily see the row of citrus behind them.

I have pulled out one of the camaro tomatoes, Vates curly blue kale, and komatsuna. I have replanted with more of the bell peppers. I did have to throw some of the seedlings out because they had pepper spot. The original Chinese Giant leaves are curling and it is 7 months old, so I think it is done. I still have to take out the pintung long eggplant. I have already replanted the Camaro container with Diamond eggplant.
The snow peas are still producing a few pods, but the plant is dying. There are some volunteer peppers in that pot so it may be time to pull out the snow peas.

I pulled out the tendergreen bush beans today after I harvested the last beans. The poamoho and asparagus beans are looking a bit shaggy, but I am keeping them a while longer. Poamoho pole beans are still producing pods. There are many Poamoho pods I did not pick on time. I am allowing them to go to seed.

Some of the strawberries are not looking good. I may have to salvage what I can. The pot is not draining well either.

The Thai, Numex Big Jim, and super chile are producing peppers now. There are flowers on the Burpee experimental #5 and Carolina bells. The last two peppers look to be very resistant to pepper spot.

The citrus trees are flowering and many of them are starting to produce fruit.

I need to pot up some of the cuttings in the cutting box and repot some of the cacti. They are getting too big. I can probably hang some of the honohono seedlings and there are more keiki ready to pot up. Where to put it all is the problem.

Besides the usual weeding, I need to thin the aloe and bromeliads again.

Yesterday, I pruned the roses and dead headed the crepe myrtle. I also did some trimming on the bonsai ( bougainvillea and Jaboticaba.)

Soarer cucumber has had a resurgence and is producing flowers and cucumbers again. Snails ate one of the Progress cucumber seedlings so I have three left. They are just putting out tendrils to climb.

[imafan26]

I spent 2 hours yesterday harvesting vermicast. I will have to go through it again in a week to save more worms.

I think my sweet potatoes are ready. Some of the lower leaves are yellowing and it has been about a month since it flowered. Another thing for my to do list.

I was planning to start decreasing the number of containers and plants I have now, but that doesn't seem to be how it is working out.

[imafan26]

Picked more okra today. I had extras since I did not pick any yesterday. A couple were too big so they went to the worms.

I have one diamond eggplant ready.

I started collecting the dried pods of the Poamoho beans. The vines are defloiating. I also need to harvest my sweet potatoes. They look done.

I am getting more peppers now. The Burpee experimental #5 is a long pepper. I am also having problems with pepper maggots drilling holes in the peppers so I have to keep picking those off.

The lemon thyme is getting shaggy. I have to divide it.

[imafan26]

It has been raining for three days and I haven't watered the yard. Today it was dark and overcast and it probably will rain again but it was dry for now. I picked off a few dried beans to put them on a tray to finish drying.

I picked a diamond eggplant and three Burpee experimental #5 peppers. It looks like an Italian roasting pepper. I charred the eggplant on the burner; chopped one of the peppers and sauteed it with some bacon. I poured eggs on it and made a version of Filipino Tortang Talong. I steamed the Okra and had that with the eggplant omelette as well with a little soy sauce and lime juice. The pepper is thin walled and has no heat.

I moved the potted up rosemary (3 died), the lavender, and the jasmine out to the open bench. I moved a few of the gardenia out, but kept some back. They don't like as much sun. I have a little more space to pot up the cuttings.

Yesterday, I bought more pots and a couple of orchids. I have a rose and a few peppers to pot up and of course with all the rain, the weeds are coming up as well.

[imafan26]

I picked the smaller of my 2 pineapples. I sprinkled some salt on it to make it sweeter. It was fully yellow. The larger pineapple will be ready soon as well. The top has already fallen over, so technically I could pick it now. I am just waiting for it to be fully yellow.

The okra got too tall to pick so today I cut it down and cleaned out the pot. The roots were quite large and tangled. I had to wrestle with it a bit. I pulled out the beans in the other two pots as well. Those were a lot easier. I have some ripe tomatoes but the birds must have lots of bitter melon and pepper to eat because they are not being bothered. The tomatoes are o.k., but not special. I grew Camaro because it is TYLCV resistant. I found a couple of more varieties that are resistant so I got seeds for them to try. I got Rally seeds. They are supposed to taste better. However, I have to try them in the cooler months since they are not a southern variety. I am surprised at how long Camaro has lasted. I stopped producing tomatoes for a while and I thought they were done. But they and Soarer cucumbers have gained a second life and are producing again even though the vines are old and shabby looking.

Progress cucumber has one cucumber. I think I need to fertilize it. I just bought some nitrogen. I just don't want to open a 20 lb bag when it is raining.

[imafan26]

It is hot, humid, and the sky is overcast. It is August! Not the most pleasant month to work outside. I have to weed whack too. I have pulled the beans and the seeds are drying. I cleaned out the okra pot and I am letting it sit until the leftover roots rot. I have bought more Sta-Green potting mix ( it is the cheapest), since I can't find good quality compost and the ingredients are not that bad. I am going to clean out part of the main garden and add it on as another layer. The semposai and perpetual spinach are dying so I stopped watering them so it will be easier to till them under and work the soil a little bit drier.

I have a few less pots to water now. I will have to decide what to plant in them next month. The diamond eggplant is doing well. I just ate the first two of them and picked three more cucumbers and a tomato. Some of the strawberry plants are biting the dust. It is always hard to keep them going in summer. The younger plants are surviving, but the older ones are dying out.

The dill seems to have fizzled out as well. Unfortunately the palm seeds have germinated so I will be pulling out seedlings for a while.

I can probably start topping the bilimbi tree. It isn't as fussy about when I do it and I don't grow it for the fruit anyway.

The zingiber is getting ready to bloom. The bud stalks are up so they will be ready to harvest soon. I am curious to see how they will do. I planted them in a shallower, but wider pan. The rhizomes were not very big so I don't expect to get really big pieces.

[imafan26]

I accidentally stepped on a giant toad yesterday. It was the first one I have ever seen in my yard. I hope he is eating slugs and snails. I don't mind him being around since I don't have a dog. I did find 3 snails yesterday and one large one today on the succulents. That is still less than I usually find, but I did get out late.

The dragon fruit has been blooming. It just had 6 blooms and there are still more buds. I have not hand pollinated and so far none of the fruit has set. It has set before so I know it can do it. I think the night rain is probably messing it up.

I missed the last green day, but my can was not full. It isn't like I don't have stuff to fill it. I just need to do it. I did finally weed whack the weeds in the front yard. The best thing about summer is the grass goes dormant, so it does not need a lot of trimming except where it is near the plants I actually do water. However, the weeds come up anyway. I still have to weed whack the grass in the inner courtyard. It is a pain. When the grass is tall, the string trimmer line breaks every 3 feet. I had to respool 8 times in the front yard and it is only 19x20 ft.

I need to take some of the things out of the cutting box. They are already blooming. One of the breadfruit is sprouting so it looks like it is holding on. The hibiscus is already pushing the shade cloth on the bench. It needs to come out. I have a lot of dead cutting that need to be cleaned up as well.

[imafan26]

Linda did not bring a lot of rain but it was a slow rain that got to soak into the soil, so it was a good rain. Unfortunately, it sprinkled for a couple of days so I did not spend much time outside or water the plants except for the 3.5 oots and cuttings. It looks like I should have watered even when it was raining. I did not water for about 3 days and some of the plants especially the lavender, Mexican mint marigold, cucumber, and Ohia took a hit. I may lose some lavender stoechas and the ohia does not look good either.

I moved the rose, Gold Medal, to more sun but the leaves are yellow and don't look good. I don't know if it was moving it or not watering for three days that causes this. I may have to cut it back to the main stems and hope for the best.

The ginger is about to bloom and the roots can probably be harvested.

It looks like none of the dragon fruit flowers set fruit. I harvested my second pineapple.

After the rain, I have found either some soft scale or mealy bugs on the hibiscus. I have hosed them off of both the roselle and native hibiscus. They don't seem to be bothering any of the other plants. My neighbor has a hibiscus hedge by the fence, but they look o.k. as well. The Princess Mikasa looks ok except for some erineum mite damage on the leaves.

I can't believe that Camaro, looks like it is putting out some new branches and more flowers. I am still getting a few fruit, but I am not bagging them so the birds are helping themselves.

The cucumber, Progress, does not look good. I don't think it is the variety, but the location that is the problem. I have had problems growing in that organic potting mix. It does dries faster than other parts of the garden and although it is fertile, the plants always are a bit stunted in that section.

The rain did bring out the weeds. The wild bittermelon, bleeding heart, bindweeds, spurge, baby's tears, palms seedlings, and California grass are all popping up again.

It is still too wet and windy to use Round Up, in a day or two the winds should die down again and I can spray some of the more obnoxious weeds again.

I is time to head back the bilimbi as well as cut back the murraya.

Some of my orchids bloomed. A catleya, an oncidium, Sharry baby, renenthera, a Miltonia, and the eria one day wonder. More orchids will be blooming as the holidays approach because I have a lot of Christmas bloomers.

[imafan26]

Yesterday I harvested some of the Burpee experimental #5 peppers, and two of the diamond eggplant.

Today, I repotted a couple of more orchids and moved some of the orchids to the shade bench. I need to sluggo the bench or the snails will eat the leaves and new shoots. I caught a snail next to the bench on a plumeria leaf. I watered late, the bees were I foraging so I had to ask them to leave so I could water my plants. They obliged and did not buzz me. These are docile bees. My Ohia is coming back to life. I thought I killed it. It does have a lot of dead branches, but the survivors are greening up.

It is hot and humid and I have to work today. I have the next two days off. I hopefully will get something more done tomorrow. (It may be wishful thinking on my part. I hardly ever get everything I want done.) Green day is not till next week. I want to try to fill at least one can tomorrow. It should be easy since the bilimbi needs to be topped again.

[imafan26]

I am very behind on things. I did manage to go out and weed behind the benches. The neighbor's hibiscus have mealy bugs and I have a few on my roselle as well. They don't seem to bother the hibiscus mutabilis.

I cleaned up a few pots and repotted about 4 orchids. One of them only had an aerial, but it had 3 canes and a good root system so hopefully it will survive.

I am over due in harvesting the sweet potatoes. The ginger is budding up and getting ready to bloom and there are probably a couple of more araimo I should pull out. I haven't even started my fall seeds, but I did make some space on the bench today.

There were a few more pots infested with ground mealy bugs and I threw the plant and soil away. I suspect the Thai pepper also has it. It is too big to dip so I will save the seeds and get rid of the plant instead. I am bagging the contaminated soil with diatomaceous earth for now. I will try to see if I leave it in bags long enough, the mealy bugs may die. Otherwise, I will have to take the soil to the Waianae dump once I collect enough bags to make it worth the 45 minute one way trip.

It has been raining overnight lately, so I brought the beans into the house to finish drying.

The roselle calyxes are not drying. I may pick them and dry them instead.

I have a lot of peppers. Mainly the Burpee experimental #5 which is similar to an anaheim pepper.

The greenstalk is still producing nothing really wants to grow in the empty pockets. I am contemplating redoing the containers. It is not high on my to do list. I did manage to fill the 2 green cans on the last day. I topped the bilimbi and the murraya koenegii. I have already filled half a can with weeds.

I checked the worm bin. The bitter melon leaves have finally broken down but the papaya still needs work. They have enough food for now.

The sale in November may be postponed till next year because of the covid surge. I have a lot of cuttings to come out of the shade bench. I don't know where I will put them.

I found only two snails today. That is pretty good and I did go out early this morning. I put out one bag of slug bait but it did not make it to the front yard where I see the snails and trails. I will have to put more bait in front.

[applestar]

It sounds like you’ve been working hard.

I meant to note a couple of posts ago that when you mention that your ginger is blooming, I almost always find that MY ginger, turmeric, and myoga are starting to bloom as well. They all seem to be on a universal clock….

[imafan26]

The ginger came up one month early, and it is blooming early as well. I think the clock has been reset due to climate change. After the flowers bloom, I will have to harvest the ginger. I still have last year's preserved ginger in the frig. I can actually harvest some of them now since it might be easier to do it in stages.

I got up early this morning, the cat's were insisting on breakfast before the sun came up. I did get a lot done in the morning. I watered the yard after I fed the cats, went to the clinic and got my blood work and flu shot. ( In the middle of the week, there was only one person in front of me at the lab and I just walked in to the flu clinic just in time). I went and got some groceries, did a load of laundry, and had sent the imartine to vacuum the floor. I hand pulled a lot of weeds in the main garden yesterday. I could barely see what I was doing as it got darker.

Today, I pulled the peppers, and beans from the main garden and the tower garden. I still have some potted peppers left. I took out the toscano kale (I fed the leaves to the worms), and I was inspired by Pepperhead's last posted Jambalaya recipe so I raided the frig and put the beans and peppers I harvested in tonight's dinner. It rained in the afternoon, so I did not do any more stuff in the yard and I was going to roast the remaining peppers, but I did not get around to doing that. I may do something else instead. I saved some seeds from the Burpee experimental #5 peppers. It is a hybrid, but it was very disease resistant so it is worth seeing if the progeny has some good traits. I did not have too many ripe peppers because the birds had eaten most of the red peppers.

Yesterday, I started some seeds, finally, for the fall garden. I have more peppers, kale, swiss chard, cilantro, lettuce, and fennel. I have pulled most of the plants out of the tower. I just have the Swiss chard and green onions to take out. The green onions can be potted up again. I can redo the soil in the tower and replant the green onions and some other herbs.

The weeds have been cleared from half the main garden. I can start the strip fertilizer and layer more newspaper and potting soil on top of that to plant. The one thing I found out with no till gardening is that while it has been much better weed wise. The nut sedge is buried so deep it does not come up anymore. Most of the weeds are seeds that have blown in. I still have nasty weeds like baby's tears, spurge, and bindweed, so it is still no picnic to keep up with that. The other thing about no till is that if you don't till for a long time, there are fertility issues with plants that have deeper roots. Without incorporating more organic matter or fertilizer into the lower layers, it becomes depleted and the plants are more stunted. Other people found this out and they solved it by strip tilling. So, I will try that this time. My soil is loaded with phosphorus, so I actually only have to add nitrogen to the lower layers.

The neighbor's hibiscus is infested with mealy bugs and I am finding it on my hibiscus as well. I only have a few roselle, the hibiscus mutabilis, Princess Michiko, and a native hibiscus to worry about. The legacy hibiscus I had in the front yard looks like it bit the dust. It was old and I am surprised it even lasted this long. I have been able to either cut or knock off the bugs. I put diatomaceous earth on the plants near the fence. I still have problems with the ground mealybugs and I threw away more infested plants when I cleaned up yesterday. The hibiscus mealy bug is a different species than the ground mealy bug, but both are hard to control. Thankfully, the hibiscus mealy bug does not infest any plant, but I have other plants they will infest like gardenia.

[imafan26]

The camaro tomato has ripe tomatoes again. I really did not expect this determinate tomato to last this long.

Harvested Swiss Chard from the tower, and replanted the green onions and leeks. I made a big mistake. My vermi cast was infested with ground mealybugs and I did not notice it until I dumped it into my container. I have added diatomaceous earth to the container and I will let it sit for 5 days and hope for the best. At least the green onions and tower soil is still clean.

I have thrown away a few pots that were infested with mealy bugs and I am bagging the contaminated soil. I am soaking the pots now in soap water and I will bleach them after I have enough. I have to change my habits since I don't know where the mealy bugs will show up next. Hot water dips do kill the mealy bugs and I have successfully treated some small pots that way. I have also cooked a stone pine and the chili barely survived the heat treatment + malathion dip afterwards. For small quantities of soil, I can hot water treat them, but the larger quantities I am mixing it with diatomaceous earth and bagging them for now. These things are really hard to get rid of.

I have a few aphids on the gardenia and lemon tree. That is not unusual now. There are bees foraging but I don't see as many of the other beneficial insects around. The lemon and gardenia are flushing new leaves now. So, far, I have been able to wash off the aphids.

It has been overcast all day, but no rain. The temperature peaked around 80 degrees and it is 76 degrees now. We had 12 hours and 13 minutes of daylight today.

[imafan26]

It rained early this morning, but it stopped for now. I decided to do a mini till in the main garden. I have been trying no till, by layering newspaper and topping with potting soil or compost for the last three years. The organic matter is high, but I am noticing that the plants are getting smaller. I read that one of the problems of no till is nutrient stratification. Tilling mixes the organic matter and fertilizer deeper into the soil although it does disrupt the soil biology. I have virtually eliminated all the problems that I had with nut sedge because they are buried very deep now. However, the soil now is very compacted from not tilling it for years. I also discovered that I may have introduced soil mealybugs from transplants I put in the garden. UGH! I just loosened the soil where I could and put down diatomaceous earth where I suspect the mealy bugs are. I did lime this time. The soil tested a pH of 6.2. And I am adding sulfate of ammonia which is acidic so I need to counter that. It is easier to get and use than urea. I will layer newspaper on the bed and add about 4 inches of potting soil on top of that.

It has been windy (17mph) and it has rained off and on. It is too windy to lay newspaper down and keep it from blowing away. So, I did not get around to layering the main garden. The birds have been eating all of the tomatoes, so I wrapped some for me to get later. They don't taste special, but they are o.k. for cooking. I am surprised Camaro has lasted this long (6 months). At the end of the day, I did go out and prune some of the shrubs and roses. It was dark by the time I quit. I will have to go out in the daytime and survey the damage later.

I did finish doing this week's housework and finished up wiping the handles, knobs, counters, and the inside of the car. I made jook this morning from the remains of a Costco rotisserie chicken, and I have enough of that for at least a couple of days. All in all a productive day. I am now trying to decide what I am going to plant in the garden and in the 5-18 gallon containers.

[applestar]

I don’t know if I get soil mealy bugs here, but I wonder have you tried introducing shellfish compost into your garden? I suppose it’s possible your locally made compost includes shellfish scraps anyway…. I have heard that shellfish compost will boost your beneficial soil microbes against pest denizens because of the increased chitin-eating bacteria.

For my garden, I tried adding commercial Maine Lobster Compost to inoculate my compost pile, as well as separately making AACT with it to soil drench the garden, and I always add crab and lobster shells to my compost pile and wormbin when we eat them. We are too lazy to get and shell our own shrimp very often, but those and shrimp tails get added too.

This year, I bought a bag of fish bone and crab shell meal and cultured the experimental used buckwheat hull bokashi with it as one of the ingredients.

[Gary350]

I decided to do a mini till in the main garden. I have been trying no till, by layering newspaper and topping with potting soil or compost for the last three years. The organic matter is high, but I am noticing that the plants are getting smaller. I read that one of the problems of no till is nutrient stratification. Tilling mixes the organic matter and fertilizer deeper into the soil although it does disrupt the soil biology.

I noticed the same thing, no till hard soil restricts root growth and plants grow smaller. My garden is one big compose and compose needs to be turned it requires oxygen. Years ago I notice if I till 50% peat moss into the location where peppers are planted I get 6' tall pepper plants with lots of peppers. I read online roots need to be large enough to support the plant above the soil. If I till 2" deep instead of 4" deep my plants are smaller & harvest is smaller too. I stopped putting news paper & cardboard in my garden now I burn it first then till in the carbon before carbon totally burns up to ash. I use the lawn mower to chop corn stalks then blew them into the garden then tilled them into the soil. No till method does not work well for me soil needs to be soft for roots to grow with lots of oxygen for good compose soil biology.

[imafan26]

I actually had to work a bit to dig into the soil. It had a lot of organic matter still, but it also had a bunch of roots that were spread out. It has been raining off and on so the garden is not really dry even though I haven't watered it directly for weeks. The soil drains well. When I lifted the soil, there was the typical clay clods that you get when the soil it worked wet. It is the main reason why I settled for just loosening the soil rather than double digging. My soil test was really high in nutrients and even higher than before in phosphorus so I added some nitrogen and dolomite lime (my calcium is high as well, but the pH is 6.2) If this is not enough, I may have to do a proper double dig on the garden the next time, hopefully, when the soil is drier.

I usually buy bagged soil. This time It was twice as expensive as before. The prices have gone up by a third. I ran out of potting soil and I barely covered half the garden. I have to get more potting soil for the other half. I may have to change brands. They were repaving the road to Lowe's today, so it was a little bit of a hassle to get into the parking lot. Lowe's also only had the smaller bags which are easier to carry but more expensive to buy. I spent over $70 today on bagged potting soil and 3-4 packs of vegetable starts (romaine, perpetual spinach, Swiss chard)

I was able to refurbish my tower garden ( it took about 40 quarts of new potting soil).
I planted some starts of Swiss Chard and perpetual spinach. The rest of the pockets were seeded. I will see what comes up, and what does not.

I had to go to work after that and I was tired already, so I still need to replant the 5-18 gallon containers. They will also use up some of the potting soil since I have to replace the soil in those as well.

I actually don't use a lot of plant residues because of pests and weeds. I gave the greens I pulled out of the garden to the worms and the rest went in the green can. Some of it was really nasty weeds and that went in the trash. The hibiscus and some of the peppers were infested with mealy bugs. The ones on the hibiscus are not that bad, but the ground mealy bugs are a plague.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/ip-6.pdf
https://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/reports/hIlandsc_rootmealyb.htm
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/root-mealybugs
https://www.optimara.com/doctoroptimara ... ybugs.html

[imafan26]

Applestar, the mealybugs are mainly in the potted plants and they have perpetuated because it took me awhile to recognize them. I was reusing potting soil and that was one of the issues. The other was that I usually only bleach pots for orchids. The mealy bugs apparently can live a long time in the pots and I did not realize the white spots on the pots were mealy bugs. Now, I have to bleach all the pots.

I just heat treated some thyme and rosemary. It is a tedious process that is only practical when the pots are small. The pots and soil have to be dipped in 120 degree water for 10 minutes. The trick is to maintain that temperature. The other is to get the pots to submerge and not tip over. While the roots may survive those temperatures, the leaves don't. I will probably lose some of the thyme and rosemary, but without hot dipping them, I would have had to throw all of them away.

Diatomaceous earth works, but the trick is that it has to stay dry. So it is not a practical treatment on the plants that are watered every day. I am adding diatomaceous earth to my potting mix now just in case. I also have to change the way I pot and not pot over my potting mix just in case there are bugs in the plants I am repotting so it won't contaminate the potting mix. That is what happened to the thyme and rosemary. The potting mix got contaminated. I have been tossing plants that have infestations when the plants are easier to replace than fix. I also have to bleach the benches since the mealy bugs can get out of pots when it is watered and drift away or fall onto other plants and spread that way. I am bagging the contaminated soil and adding diatomaceous earth to it. When I have enough to make a trip, I can take it to the landfill or I can try to decontaminate it with boiling water. I have done that on small batches. It has a 100% kill and the infestation does not return. For the ground, my other option is malathion and it takes several treatments since the malathion cannot kill the eggs. The ground may have predators to limit them. But the plants that become infested by them slowly decline and usually that is my only clue that something is amiss.

[applestar]

What a pain! But at least you know what to do that works to fix the problem.

That 120°F hot water for 10 minutes sounds similar to the water bath pasteurization treatment for pasteurize for subsurface diseases in seeds. I want to someday get a sous vide unit which facilitates this (I have so many kitchen appliances on my wishlist….)

Cheering your efforts from the sidelines

[Gary350]

If you burn wood to make fresh wood ash it contains Sodium Hydroxide. Mix 10% wood ash with soil it will kill bugs & bug eggs. Keep soil wood ash mix in a air tight container for 1 week with a lid to keep Sodium Hydroxide from evaporating away naturally, then dump soil in a pile in the garden for 1 week to allow Sodium Hydroxide to leave. You could put a tarp or plastic over your pots for a week to hold in the Sodium Hydroxide. Wood ash will increase your soil ph but you can lower soil ph with kitchen vinegar and vinegar will naturally evaporate away in a few weeks. Rain or water will wash away Sodium Hydroxide & vinegar. Wood ash is also very good to break up hard packed soil. I use to drive the streets looking for wood to burn tree services sometimes throw dry wood on the street. I sometimes get free wooden pallets to burn. I use to pick up other people grass clippings in bags on the street but not any more too many people spray toxic poison on there yard and I don't want that in my garden. I don't have the energy to rake my own grass clippings anymore. Wood ash is very good for BER it contains 20% to 30% calcium & lots of trace elements for plants & very high potassium that most plants need.

[imafan26]

Thanks for the tips Gary. I don't seem to have a lot of root mealy bug issues in the soil except where I planted infested transplants. I have been spot treating those. Wood ash might be something I could try. My soil pH is 6.2 which is good but could stand to be a little higher.

We don't have forests like you do or trees for firewood. Only houses in the highest elevations would even think of having a working fireplace. Heat is pretty much free here. All I really have is my smokey Joe and some charcoal. I don't know if those kind of ashes would be the same.

[imafan26]

It looks like some of the seeds I planted are starting to sprout. The cucumber, semposai, and mizuna looks like they are starting to sprout. Some of the green onions were already sprouting when I redid the tower garden. Cilantro, and the peppers will take a while longer before they come up. Hibiscus mutabilis is starting to bloom again. I finally cut back the roses in the front yard. I had pruned the roses in the inner courtyard earlier, so they are budding up and a few are blooming now.

[Gary350]

Cilantro

That reminds me, I need to plant cilantro seeds today.

[imafan26]

Yeah, cilantro, broccoli, kale, komatsuna, carrots, and chives are usually slow starters and/or slow growers so I need to give them a head start. It is already too late for me to try to plant Brussels' sprouts. I think I actually have to start that in mid summer so it will be productive while the weather is still cool. I forgot, I pulled the fennel. I have to find my seeds or get more. My bean and peppers seeds should be dry enough now to pack up. It is hard to dry seeds in 80% humidity.

[imafan26]

I got a lot done today. My niece came to help me do some of the heavy lifting. We were able to finish topping off the amendments in the main garden, remove the soil from 4 buckets, filled and replanted 2-20 inch containers, repotted one citrus tree, pulled a lot of weeds, and filled one green can.
I finally harvested the okinawan sweet potatoes, 2 months late. Most of the potatoes were on the bottom. I got one big one and many medium and small ones about 5 lbs worth. I took slips to start the next pot, I also harvested two eggplant, and about a third of one pot of ginger about 3 lbs. There is still more to take out and another bigger pot of ginger. I harvested the larger araimo as well. I will have to thin those pots and replant them another day.

I did not water in time yesterday and the romaine seedling are toast. I planted out the remaining Swiss Chard and perpetual spinach into the main garden.

Started seeds of Toscano kale, Di Cicco broccoli (it is a little late), Aristotle and Touchdown peppers, garden chives (for my mom), apple mint (for my friend), and Komatsuna.

I planted Poamoho pole beans and Toy Choy in one of the twenty inch pots and Long
beans with purple tail and Pak Choy in the other.

Some of the tomatoes I bagged the other day are already red.

We snacked on a few of the okinawan sweet potatoes.

I am tired, I am going to pick up a plate lunch for dinner.

I gave my neice some of the sweet potatoes and ginger to take home. I gave some ginger to the neighbors too. I can continue to partially harvest the ginger containers until the tops yellow. Then I will have to harvest the remainder and keep the seed ginger in a bucket with a little bit of peat moss until March when I can replant them. I still have not finished last year's ginger that is in the refrigerator.