Applestar’s 2021 Garden

[applestar]

Wow, what should I do to support this loong floral stem the first blossom of Allons-y,Dr.X is growing on? Since it’s currently conveniently touching the bamboo stake, should I tie it on? Velcro tomato strap or soft T-shirt strip?

… or should I leave it alone until it sets fruit and start to presumably fall over?

[applestar]

I haven’t mentioned it before (I think) but for the past week, something had been mowing down my Edamame. Every day, I would find more munched down to sticks above the seed leaves, with some of the tops fallen over, wilted but uneaten.

At first I suspected bunnies, because the vented plastic cover had come unclipped, but the predation continued even after I fixed it and no sign of entry point, so I started to think vole (meadow vole/mouse) especially since I had a glimpse of one on couple of occasions elsewhere nearby.
- I tried setting a rolling bar bucket trap
- I tried setting plastic snap traps
- I tried peppermint soap around the bed as repellant
- I tried spraying the remaining edamame plants with hot oil-soap mixture
- I tried moving the “blinking eyes scare” up in the trees to hopefully look like an owl
- I tried exchanging the scare with another design one with red eyes from the Haybale Row bed
- Finally, three days ago, I only had 3 intact edamame left, and I put plastic jug “hot caps” over them to protect them… and this seemed to work in the sense that the hot caps were not knocked over

… Yesterday, I opened up the covers since we are in another heatwave, and took pictures of the Vegetable Gardenbed C — and noticed something in the middle of the devastated Edamame….

***NOW DO NOT TRY TO LOOK CLOSER IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH*** (certainly NOT before having your breakfast)

[told2b]

What am I missing? What Who?

[applestar]

I’ve been diligently managing the suckers on the TOMATOES by
1. pinching/snapping off or cutting off (if overgrown) all suckers up to just below the first floral truss,
2. allowing the strong sucker below the first floral truss to grow as THE one and only SIDE SHOOT to grow as the 2nd vine per plant (even cherry varieties)
3. then pinching off all subsequent suckers

** THE INTERESTING PREMISE to me at least is that you DO NOT remove any lower leaves except when they are diseased and unavoidable **

4. After lowest/first fruit truss of large fruited varieties has reached still green but full size, cut off all leaves below the truss as well as the first leaf ABOVE.
5. When the lowest/first fruit truss of large fruited varieties is harvested (or first group in the truss of cherry varieties), cut off all leaves below the next fruit truss as well as the first leaf ABOVE.
6. Repeat

…Though tedious, and my tomatoes are just setting fruit on their first trusses, this method been working great to control the minimally allotted growing space. Even when overlapping, I can easily follow one variety’s vines and differentiate from the neighbor’s.

But now my determinate, dwarf, and micro dwarfs are catching up to the indeterminate large fruited and cherry varieties. So I researched some more about strictly controlled pruning/styling methods for these.

Early on, I decided to follow the rules for
1. pinching/snapping off or cutting off (if overgrown) all suckers up to just below the first floral truss
2. allowing the strong sucker below the first floral truss to grow
…even for dwarfs and micro-dwarfs

For Determinates I found a rule that I want to try, which is similar to/same as EGGPLANTS styling (and TOMATILLOS as a matter of fact) —
3. Allow each determinate shoot to form one fruit truss and allow the sucker below the first fruit truss to grow
4. Then after 2nd fruit truss forms, pinch to stop the vine above the leaf node above the 2nd fruit truss
5. Repeat.
6. When fruit trusses are harvested, cut back the vine to the main stem

The PEPPERS are different.
Rule 1 and 2 are still the same:

1. pinching/snapping off or cutting off (if overgrown) all suckers up to just below the first floral truss
2. allowing the strong sucker below the first floral truss to grow

But then it changes because peppers typically fork into Y shape branches as they grow, so the rule is
3. DO NOT pinch the growth tip but allow to exponentially increase into Y’s as they grow,
4. Remove all suckers
5. After the first harvest, start assessing the interior branching structures and thin inward growing branches to allow sunlight to penetrate

Between all the solanacea and all the cucurbits, all this pruning and styling is keeping me pretty busy. (According to my crop inventory spreadsheet, I currently have 63 tomato plants growing….)

[Vanisle_BC]

What am I missing? What Who?

I'm missing it too.

[Vanisle_BC]

Applestar I seem to have been inadvertently following your procedure up to step 3, which s where my tomatoes are at (peppers not there yet.) What do you believe is the reason or purpose of leaf removal in later steps?

(Edit) What IS your 'minimally allotted growing space'?

[applestar]

The Japanese market farmer said the leaves shouldn’t be removed but managed for fungal etc issues with the plastic row mulch and organic or chemical fungicides to provide photosynthesis for growing strong sturdy healthy plants, and for nurturing the fruits, but once the job is done, they senesce and function less efficiently, and receive less light by then due to lower position anyway, and weakened, become a liability for disease. So remove them rather than spraying them. The leaves obscuring the fruits from receiving sun to sweeten the gel are also judiciously removed.

'minimally allotted growing space' — my way of saying I know l’m planting way too many / too close in the bed

Not sure what you two are referring to — Is it the part where I was saying don’t look at the dead vole in the picture….?

[Vanisle_BC]

'minimally allotted growing space' — my way of saying I know l’m planting way too many / too close in the bed

I got that; just wondering how close is the spacing you 'get away with'? But In your case it might depend on whether you're growing for food production or for cross-breeding.

Not sure what you two are referring to — Is it the part where I was saying don’t look at the dead vole in the picture….?

You told us to look, but not what for. I'll look again, for a vole - presumably pretty small.

[applestar]

*** NOTE*** I corrected the steps to note that the strong sucker below the 1st floral truss is saved and not pinched off.

…of course the “reason for editing” box is not letting me fix the typo STRONG not “string”

——

Hey, I’m sure I said NOT to look….

I don’t know the exact measurements— I just know it’s not 24 inches and probably not even 18 inches. Some people plant them 30 or more inches apart….

I’m counting on the deep raised beds and basically single or double row bed structures with walkways/path separating (and I trench composted in most of those paths).

I definitely wouldn’t get away with it if I was not keeping them to 2 vines max. and trying to rigorously keep pruned and styled and guided.

[Vanisle_BC]

My tomatoes are in 4x3.5ft bed sections; 4 to a section at abt 24" each way. I used to put another single plant in the middle of that square formation but the tangle was too much to handle. Even now, without the 5th plant, things get out of hand if I don't prune to two leaders and pinch out all else. Some varieties I've grown in the past are so prolific with suckers & branching it's impossible to keep them under control.

Still don't see that vole .

[applestar]

LOLOL — first tap or click on the picture, then use whatever your browser uses to zoom in on the lower panel of the collage. The vole stuck its head in a spring-loaded black plastic trap. The trap is partially behind the short weathered bamboo stake in the middle. The entire (fat) body of the vole is in view.

…at least I can assume it was quick…

[applestar]

It’s been so humid and muggy! Everything is dripping from condensation in the morning.

I get nervous, forget I just sprayed, and try something new every other day or every couple of days.

One I actually haven’t tried this year is actively aerated compost tea because all my air pumps are involved in my airlift pump experiments and I don’t have a spare atm, though I could probably rig something to do double-duty.

* Milk/whey in 1:8 solution with rainwater or dechlorinated water
* Ehime AI-2 cultured yogurt/kefir, miso (supposed to be natto but I don’t have any), yeast and brown sugar
* crushed eggshells in vinegar extract
* crushed crab shells in vinegar extract
* “Heaven’s Blessing Green Juice” cultured liquid leacheate of chopped mugwort and tansy growing tips blended with brown sugar

All of these are natural/organic home brewed plant health promoting beneficial microbes and probiotics, and are described as good for building resistance against nematodes, bacteria, viruses, and/or fungal infections. The “Green Juice” might also contain natural growth hormones. They all supply some level of nutrients and minerals (probably especially the eggshell and crab shell extracts), but I’ve added small amounts of one or more as supplemental feed —
* calcium nitrate
* potassium bicarbonate
* magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)


Except for the milk solution which is at correct strength, these are used at extreme dilution from 1:100 to 1:200 root soak to 1:500 as foliar spray.

I’ve actually tried spraying at too strong concentration 1:200 and caused leaf damage. So judiciously judiciously.

[imafan26]

That's a lot of work, but it does pay off. I grow tomatoes in cages because I don't want to deal with the pruning. It takes up more space, but I only grow three tomatoes max and they still produce more than I can use.

[applestar]

Haha I can’t imagine only growing three…but I really don’t need to be growing so many either. I’m not practical.

Coincidentally that farmer uploaded a video of his tomatoes last night. Even more coincidentally, he featured the high tunnel in which he is trialing 2 leader vs single leader, and double row in 135cm wide mulched bed vs single row (45cm/18 inches in row spacing).

He said he has been looking for differences in fruit size and quantity, plant health, increased difficulty or added workload from using the double leader method, and he said he has reached conclusion that simply put, the double leader in double row DOUBLES the harvest without loss in size or quality and without meaningfully adding to the workload, and that he thinks he will plan on applying this technique in more tomato beds next year;

It’s all in Japanese but that’s basically what he is explaining as he points out the different parts of the tomatoes (and you get a really good view of the pruning/training/styling) —
トマトは２本仕立てで育てると２倍の収穫ができる　21/6/30 - YouTube

[applestar]

I’m finally at the point where I feel like all the first string picks have been planted. There are spots here and there that could be filled, and some VIP benchwarmers that seem a shame not to give them a chance, but I don’t know if I can.

In the meanwhile, the earliest planted are in full hustle and need to be pruned, supported, tied up, supplementally fed, …what have you….

Trying to do these things in limited time before it gets too hot is requiring me to focus and not meander, throwing me off the usual leisurely gardening style.

I’ll just report today about the peppers in the Patio Kitchen Garden SIP3 —

- Most of them have reached the first branching stage and first blossom. Some have been blooming and setting fruits.

- The fastest/biggest by far here is “Chocolate Cake NOT or King of the North”. — the story behind the naming is that the pepper that should have been Chocolate Cake didn’t produce true to type and eventually turned red. So I wondered if it was a mislabeled King of the North.

Well, judging just from the fast maturity, it could very well be King of the North since that is an extra early variety suitable for northern growers and Chocolate Cake is extra late.

- I’m excited to try growing ODA. I have several planted. This plant had distinctly purplish streaks in the stem which might indicate good purple color in the fruits.

- Rocoto Mini Olive is another one that I have high expectations. I am still not very good at starting peppers from seeds, and have spotty success rate, so last time I tried growing Rocotos I failed miserably, and this time, this was the only plant I successfully grew. It has achieved the first split and is loaded with still very tiny flower buds.

[applestar]

I was composing reports about my effort to design and build support frame for vertically growing melons snd watermelons in VGC (Vegetable Gardenbed C) and VG.SIP (Vegetable Garden Sub-irrigated Planter) when I gave myself a near-heart attack thinking I had made NO provisions for the melons and watermelons in the SFH (Sunflower House) bed …then remembered that I already took care of that by planting them below the existing CRW MESH trellis and installing a 2nd one to expand the trellis to cover the entire north side of the SFH. Whew!

Here is the VG.SIP with before photo showing the insect mesh dome (which I was using to retain some heat and protect them from excessively cold temperatures that we had last week), a concept design sketch of the new framework after removing the dome, and today’s photo with the insect screen removed and generally sorting through the melon vines and thinning them:

…you can see some of the vines are long enough to start training them up the trellis — I’ll need to build it asap.

[applestar]

Got this much of the vertical support frame finished for the VG.SIP Korean melons and Jubilee watermelon — ran out of the very useful metal clips for tightly securing the poles together in the right size — I was expecting more to be delivered tomorrow but they were delivered this afternoon so I might be able to finish everything tomorrow morning.

- I had to tell myself to focus on getting enough done to attach the guidelines to the melon and watermelon vines … and did get that part done
- installed ideas almost never match the original concept sketch. In this case, some of the bamboo pole placement was dictated by the pallet wood configuration and some of the pseudo-hugelkultur logs and branches buried at the bottom of the raised beds on either side of the planter….

Queen of Malinalco yellow oblong tomatillo — first husks are developing

* I’m getting into the pattern of pruning them though you might be able to tell that I got confused here and there at first….

First couple of female blossoms are getting ready to open on the Picolino cucumber vines in Patio Kitchen Garden SIP —

— these are parthenocarpic, so no male blossoms needed

[applestar]

They are getting ready to start —

In the Appletree Guild Border, almost all tomato varieties have at least one blooming truss. Some have set fruit.

From Right
1. Vol.VGC BackCtrMid
2. MR.C F4 sfhx x-short
3. Allons-y,Dr.X
4. Turhune

5. Molten Sundrops F5 or F6
6. Molten Sky F5
7. Wild Rosa F5
8. White Wonder VGB.PSRB Oct’15 (split leader/culled main)

9. Yellow Mystery. Lindsay’19
10. Wes
11. Wes
12. Grightmire’s Pride

13. PaddyMC’s Steelhead
14. Neves Azorian Red

Also, n the Vegetable Gardenbed B, all except the 2nd Wes have set fruit.
* MoltenSky F5 or F6 fruits are starting to show the “molten”streaks
* Wes now has 2 fruits

Cucumbers, too —
- Haybale Row Suyo Long cucumber on left has 3 female blossoms (and male blossoms), and
- Patio SIP1 Picolinos now have 5 female blossoms
—(not pictured) In VGCX, Poona Kheera was testing the scene with several male blossoms.

[applestar]

I added a nylon vegetable trellis netting stretched between two bamboo cross bars to the VGC melon trellis and re-organized the vines. I might add another cross-bar to the vertical poles.

— eggplants and peppers in the other row of VGC are doing well and are starting to bloom and set fruits. The 5 ft green stakes to replace these 30 inch stakes were delivered today, just in time before they outgrow them. Added to my ToDo list for tomorrow….

I also FINALLY had a breakthrough moment last night, and figured out a simple way to construct an insect barrier for the Asperbloc sprouting broccoli and Fioretto sprouting cauliflower in the Patio.SIP1 of the Kitchen Garden. They had outgrown and were getting crushed under the popup picnic plate cover which I used as the roof of the new little gazebo:

[applestar]

I wanted to show a good photo of Sergeant Peppers first — It’s one of the prettiest tomatoes I know and I try to grow it every year —

Sergeant Pepper's



6/14 - I REALLY LIKE this one

This year, Sergeant Peppers won’t be blooming or fruiting for a while. Four Sergeant Pepper seedlings I started were among ones that got the girdling damping off, and, not knowing sometimes they outgrow and recover, I tried cutting them significantly above the girdled stem (only possible because of the extra-tall nature of Sgt. Pepppers seedlings) and rooting them as stem cuttings under sterile conditions. Three of them succumbed and it was a touch and go for a while for the fourth, but it came back and managed to survive the rash of mild septoria that swept through the seedlings ….

So it was planted in the Spiral Garden and has settled in. Hopefully this one will contribute disease resistance to its offspring line.

[applestar]

One of the two girdled Cow’s Tit in the Sunflower House couldn’t handle the extreme chill then heat then beating rain/flooding stresses and I culled it yesterday but the other one is doing well, and the girdled two Lucky Cross seem to have settled in as well.

[applestar]

Some of you may remember me mentioning this:

Made “nature’s gift” green/weed juice 天恵緑汁 (mostly) according to instructions on videos I’ve been watching recently.
[…]
His primary ingredient is mugwort,
...He uses the resulting juice to inoculate a bokashi blend.

…Today, I started a batch of the “nature’s gift” green juice using tansy (related to mugwort) trimmed from under one of the apple espalier and a small amount of mugwort from the window planter, plus a bit of comfrey and a bit of willow leaves.

I also started two 4-gal buckets of pseudo-bokashi. I didn’t have all of the specific recipe ingredients …I’m trying this with buckwheat hulls instead of rice hulls, etc.

A couple of days ago, I made vinegar extraction of crushed eggshells, crab shells, and some bones, and strained the fortified vinegar out to a bottle. I took what was left of the crushed ingredients, and had been culturing with my sort of AI-2, kefir whey, etc. So I added them all shells and all.

I’ll eventually add some of the green juice too.

7/6 BOKASHI UPDATE
- For each bucket, mixed in about 2 cups of Dr. Earth Fish Bonemeal 3-18-0 and about 2 Tbs of 天恵緑汁 Green Juice
* 天恵緑汁 Green Juice was very dense and only a little bit came out. Assuming I waited too long and a lot of it evaporated >> diluted with about equal amount of spring water
* SMELLS FERMENTING - like wine or liqueur
* >> collect clean rainwater next time and then add to the greens and drain out the “tea”
* >> consider drying the squeezed out greens and then crumbling and adding to the bokashi for more nitrogen (I did use the Espoma cottonseed meal when first making the bokashi)

- Bokashi smelled like it was fermenting too …kind of nutty, roasted nutty? Fish Bonemeal smelled fishy until it was mixed into the bokashi, then it didn’t smell anymore.
- thinking give them another 7 days to mature

A few more comments
- the buckwheat hulls were “free flowing” and I thought I had let them dry out, then realized they ARE nicely moistened (fermentation/culture would have stopped if too dry). This is going to be a great soil amendment for making well-draining, nutrient and beneficial microbes fortified potting mix.
- I didn’t explain before (I think) but the buckwheat hulls are old used hulls I saved after re-filling all of the family’s pillows with fresh hulls since the old filling had crushed to the point of not retaining loft. I had originally intended to just use them as mulch, then was going to put in the compost pile instead, but ended up doing neither. So I’m very happy with their second life AND that I didn’t just throw them on the ground.
- Original recipe calls for large quantities of rice hulls, which apparently you can get practically or literally free for the taking at self-service rice milling vending machines, if you live in rice-growing rural regions of Japan. Same for rice bran. These are considered waste by-products that spoil and attract vermont’s, so the unattended machine service operators are just as happy that people take them away.
- It’s not impossible to buy food-grade rice hulls here since they are apparently very useful for beer brewing, but it still costs money, and unless you can get/pay more for organic rice hulls, there will be some chemical residues. If you live in midwest or beer country maybe you would have better access (at least better shipping costs).
- I like that I’m making use of my own waste product — I had a king size pillow case packed full which ended up filling two kitty litter buckets after everything was added.
- … for some reason, they wouldn’t fit back in the buckets after adding only 2 cups each of the fish bone meal— the light colored specks in the close up are the bone meal— not like they would have occupied significant space…. (also found out kitty litter bucket full fills the black medium mixing tray with barely enough headroom to rake and mix….)

- This mixture is high nitrogen and high phosphorus with lots of micro nutrient minerals etc. and of course teeming with beneficial microbial activities by lactoacidic bacteria and yeast. The instruction is to use about 6 parts of this with 1 part of wood ash, which of course is a great source of potassium. (If I’m understanding this correctly, you use the two together at time of application but not mix them together…I think because the ash would kill or be deleterious to the bokashi microbes)


- I’m thinking similar bokashi alternative might be made with used coffee grounds if you can get them in quantity
- I was looking for other options at Tractor Supply livestock supplies and think maybe chicken/animal bedding made with shredded oat straw might work. It’s mixed with zeolite which would actually be a plus as micro-mineral source

[applestar]

I got a few more photos from yesterday assembled to share (plus a set from today)—

* Stripes and Swirly Streaks starting to clearly show on ‘MoltenSky’ F5 fruits in the Appletree Guild Border bed

* The much anticipated front-runners in VGB (Vegetable Gardenbed B) Pallet-sided Raised Bed —

TOP 2 — examples of my cross-bred MoltenSky F5 or F6. Expected to grow to pecan size and general shape. These develop pointy blossom-end when they set in cooler weather as these did.
BOTTOM — One of the 2 ‘Wes’ plants now has three fruits on its first truss.

.
.
.

* VGD.Pallet-sided Raised Bed of “dwarfs and compacts” on the other end (with the VG.SIP of melons in between). Due to some mistakes I made as well as cross-bred segregating unknowns, there are very interesting distinct and recognizable differences in growth patterns

FROM LEFT - BACK
- Uluru Ochre - true dwarf
- Mikado White PL (Potato Leaf) - short but not dwarf
- Dwarf Blazing Beauty
- Dwarf Chocolate Lightning

FROM LEFT - FRONT
- (Dwarf Arctic Rose X Utyonok) F2
- Tartufo — this might be a taller micro-dwarf
- Dancing with Smurfs — this turned out to be an indeterminate up to 6 feet tall
- [not really visible/distinguishable] (Li’l Wild Rosa) F5 or F6 — this is a cherry tomato ‘Wild Rosa’ segregate that is growing with short internodes like a compact. It might be showing a throwback characteristic of the Maglia Rosa fore-mother… ‘Wild Rosa’ is a sister line to ‘MoltenSky’ above.

[applestar]

This pepper called ‘Rocoto Mini-Olive’ F4 has gorgeous dark purple blossoms! First one to open (unless there is one at the branch fork that I forgot to look for). It’s so dark that I had to use the “magnifier” feature to highlight it.

…The white one is a bell pepper blossom.


I started some fall brassicas already. It’s really a bit too early according to all the fall planting schedules for my area, but in the past, I would wait to time it right, and then have trouble getting the seeds to germinate or grow in the heat, or end up with some kind of pest infestation…. So I tried a new method for germinating — I’m going to call it “put a sock in it (fridge)” method

…You might be able to see the Purple Pakchoi that sprouted first if you zoom in —

…others…
Katarina Cabbage
Point One Cabbage
Aspabroc Broccoli
Dulce Fresca Basil (yeah, yeah )

——

I found the inspiration link for “put a sock in it (fridge)” method so I want to properly credit her. The reason for my naming is she uses a fabric that I don’t know what it is, but by description is very like athletic socks — knitted, smooth on one side, fuzzy on the other (another way to repurpose socks with holes). She warns to put the seeds on the smooth side because the root hairs will get tangled into the fuzzy side.

- she uses this method for spinach, onion (2days in fridge), brassicas (1day), daikon/radish (2~3hrs). Her onion seeds germinated in 2 days at room temp in this video.

*I remember successfully using a similar technique for spinach seeds a while ago based on fukuberry.com video….

[applestar]

I forgot to mention — today, I spotted what looked at first glance like striped cucumber beetle on the Queen of Malinalco Tomatillo, but when I was capturing it, I remembered — this was the small Potato Beetle that I had to research to find what it was before. The size is like cucumber beetle but the spotted one, not the smaller striped one, but the coloring is bright orange-brown (kind of like barbecue sauce color) and stripes are tan.

After dispatching a couple more — they are slower than cucumber beetles — I started noticing the egg clusters on the underside of the leaves. Easily rubbed off the leaves but sticky.

Later on, once hatched, they will turn into grey grubs that pile their own poop on their backs. So disgusting, and they eat in swarms and can decimate the tomatillos. They also attack ground cherries, potatoes and eggplants.

[applestar]

Vole #2 that has been devastating the Side Yard garden beds has been dispatched
… It ate
- Spiral Garden - 3 melon plants, 1 cucumber plant, and a watermelon with stem that has been gnawed on
- Sunflower House - 2 melon plants
- Haybale Row - practically ALL of the Luther Hill White corn

>> I’ll probably pivot and plant the fall cabbages under a row tunnel insect mesh cover where the corn had been growing
>> sunflower house melon spots can be considered extra room for the rest of the melon vines to grow for now
>> spiral garden — may try to plant fall squash in the freed up space


…also this pest…Spotted Lanternfly (actually a treehopper)

…it was doing the hopper trick of moving to the other side of the net string to avoid getting caught …unfortunately for it, I could reach both sides at once from the top and clapped my hands together It’s not as easy to catch them when they are on tender plants.

[applestar]

First cucumbers to be harvested were the Picolino mini cucumbers. The biggest one was starting to look bottom-heavy so I thought it might be ready (although it turned out to be only about 3.5 inches), and I picked the other two to compare and see if they should or shouldn’t be harvested when smaller.

…My official taste testers said the big one was … “cucumbery” and “concentrated and watery at the same time” — whatever that means LOL. But definitely the biggest one has the most flavor, so I’ll let them grow rather than pick early.

Now that the vines are trying to load up with fruits, I’ll give them a good supplemental feed.

[pepperhead212]

apple, Are you having problems with the SLF on the cukes? Those, and the bitter melon plants are the most infested plants in my garden! Surround, which keeps pretty much all of the cucumber beetles and other beetles off of mine, have done nothing on mine. They don't seem to like tomatoes at all, so yesterday I blended some trimmed tomato leaves with water, strained it, and used that as some of the water mixing Surround. I'm hoping the smell will keep them off, and I only saw one there today.

[imafan26]

Applestar. At the farm I used to work at we used tomato clips to hold tomato vines to the string trellis. They are easy to use and reusable. There are also garden clamps that can be used on thicker supports like bamboo stakes. They provide support but at the same time they won't pinch the plant and does allow the plant to move in the wind. Movement is important when you live where it is windy. If it is staked to rigidly, the stem will snap.

I am seeing some leaf hoppers as well. I am catching fewer snails in summer but I still manage to find 3-4 a day. I just put out more slug bait after they ate one of my cucumber seedlings. Right now thrips, mites, white flies, and rose beetles are the biggest problems. Your bugs are much more colorful than mine.

[Taiji]

I forgot to mention — today, I spotted what looked at first glance like striped cucumber beetle on the Queen of Malinalco Tomatillo, but when I was capturing it, I remembered — this was the small Potato Beetle that I had to research to find what it was before. The size is like cucumber beetle but the spotted one, not the smaller striped one, but the coloring is bright orange-brown (kind of like barbecue sauce color) and stripes are tan.

After dispatching a couple more — they are slower than cucumber beetles — I started noticing the egg clusters on the underside of the leaves. Easily rubbed off the leaves but sticky.

Later on, once hatched, they will turn into grey grubs that pile their own poop on their backs. So disgusting, and they eat in swarms and can decimate the tomatillos. They also attack ground cherries, potatoes and eggplants.

I think you're talking about these crazy things, Applestar. I remember them well! I thought at first they were cuke beetles too, but your research helped me out. They absolutely devastated my tomatillos in AZ. Never have seen these things before or since, but if you plant tomatillos, they will come. Never could figure how they could find my little tomatillo plants miles from town, out in an arid environment where I'm sure no one within a 50 miles grows tomatillos.

[applestar]

@Taiji, thanks for posting your photos. I was too busy squishing them to remember to take pics and then they were not “photo-worthy” anymore….

I really should have inspected the Tomatillos again today, but Elsa dropped about 2 inches of rain as it passed through here last night, and I couldn’t access them with all the puddling and mud.

I took new overall progress photos and made group collages —

* Kitchen Garden Patio.SIP 2 and 3 … my cross-bred patio-size tomato segregates and the VIP peppers

* Sunflower House melon row, peppers, short/compact tomatoes, and tall indeterminate tomatoes. EXTENSIVE puddling in the paths need to be corrected.

* View from both perspectives of the Appletree Guild Border ~ Vegetable Gardenbeds (A, B, C, Cx, D, SIP)

[applestar]

Bouquet Dill seeds have germinated and were sown — carried around the garden in heat, humidity, and sometimes rain in its original seed packet for almost 3 weeks forgotten in my waist pouch — I started them using the “put a sock in it (fridge)” method on July 4th.

[applestar]

According to the compilation of one generally accepted solanacea growing techniques that I am following this season, it’s important to remove all lower suckers and then let the blossom at the first splitting of the main leader/stem set fruit and develop the fruit to about 1/2 size, then — in the case of eggplants and peppers — remove this fruit.

The explanation is that this organizes the plant’s systems to enter early production phase so that it will continuously bloom and set fruits as long as conditions are favorable.

Removal the half-sized first eggplant and pepper fruit forces the plant to turn attention to the other floral trusses that had been triggered into forming.

Tomatoes apparently do not need the added incentive of fruit removal, but in order to ensure that the first truss sets fruit sometimes in cooler early conditions, Japanese market gardeners use gibberellic acid/gibberellin.

[applestar]

I’m getting the hang of dealing with this pest —

>> Chase with other hand — posture shows which way they’ll jump. Angle clear cup so they hit the inside wall of cup and fall in. They fall in if chased down with no chance to jump….

HOWEVER, for this pest, I’m going to need bigger traps

…They conducted a full tour last night, checking out what’s growing — the corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, even melons — their tracks led from the open end of the Sunflower House all the way to the back …

…actually currently making plans to set up an electric fence and purchase necessary supplies…

[imafan26]

Wow, applestar you have got raising tomatoes down to a science. I am too lazy to do any pruning and I don't like to have to stake things to a pole or string so I use cages and just push the vines inside the cage. I have to use some string supports on the outside of the red currant though because it is sticking almost three feet out of the cage.

I don't have as many beetle pests as you do. Except for bagging fruit and using water to wash off pests, the garden patrol takes care of most things. I did see a monarch butterfly in the garden yesterday though. The only things I actively hunt are fruit flies and snails.

[applestar]

So far, I’m not sure what the Spotted Lanterflies pose threat to in the garden. BIL was seeing the lanternfly invasion earlier than here, and he said they were all over the cucumbers, and now it certainly looks like they hang out more among the cukes. I am seeing the Picolino cucumber leaves wilting one here one day, another next day, and am concerned that they are infectious carriers like other hoppers — so I am removing any wilting leaf that is not suffering from the mid-day heat.

Apparently these are too newly introduced and native wildlife have not learned to eat them. The colors red-orange-white-black are said to be perceived as toxic … like the Monarchs (though THEY do get eaten by spiders and birds)

Last evening, near dusk, I saw a Monarch butterfly that was flying in a nervous, erratic way typical of new arrivals. So I thought the migration has arrived. But today, I came across 5th instar caterpillars, so it could have been an earliest and just eclosed.

[applestar]

It turned out that I accidentally planted a Piccolino cucumber plant in the bed I had designated for Suyo Long to isolate from the other varieties.

But that meant I had THREE Piccolino cukes to harvest today . I also harvested some Triple Crown thornless blackberries

… those tiny pears are culls. For some reason, this Seckel pear set over abundance of fruits in spring. I’m wondering if these are too young to be safe to process for something — pearbutter? pear liqueur? I already have one of these plastic bowlful that these ones will be added to.

[applestar]

@imafan, it seems like with your humidity and rain issues, styling these crops could be beneficial. Here, we have the mid-Atlantic region humidity issues, and I wanted to try implementing very detailed step by step instructions which are easy to follow. In the past, when I tried pruning and removing suckers, etc. it always got confusing as to how to deal with the growth patterns as they changed.

I tackled the peppers and eggplants today since they had grown enough to have branches to “tie down” and style. I’m using the green stakes and tomato clips, but will likely switch up to velcro as the trunk and branch diameter increases, and I have 60 inch green stakes on stand-by to take over for the eggplants as well as pepper varieties that want to grow tall(er).

If you click/tap and zoom in, you might be able to see the pepper buds forming after every forked branch

[imafan26]

When I worked at the farm I had to prune and string train tomatoes. They required pruning to a main stem and weekly tying. There were a couple of hundred tomatoes in the tomato house and they were grown in an aquaponic Dutch bucket system. It is probably why I like caging better. It is less work and minimal pruning. However, if I planted as many as you do, I would probably have to plant the vines closer and prune and train just to get more density in the space.

Two or three tomato plants produce more than I can use. It does take longer to experiment with varieties because I can only try a two or three different ones at at time. To do more varieties I will have to grow the tomatoes for half a year to do double the amount. When the tomatoes are not that good, it isn't that hard to do. I wish I could plant more of the varieties I like, but TYLCV forces me to select for tomatoes with resistance. The choices are limited unless I run into tomatoes with resistance accidentally, like the red currant. The TYLCV tomatoes have actually been remarkably resistant to other common diseases especially the mildews, but they have been lacking in the flavor department.

I like your pvc hoop house. It might be something I could do if I plant zucchini again. It is almost impossible for me to keep zuchhini from being stung. My 10 inch bags are still too small. I could put the hoop structure around the zucchini and cover it with insect netting.

[applestar]

Our kitty may have drawn the short straw on her post-surgery life expectancy. We were told 4 months to a year.

Yesterday, she spent 4 hours at the Vet ER due to rapid breathing and general lethargy. Indications are fluid-filled chest cavity likely due to metastasized cancer.

With the continuing Covid precautions, the three of us, my daughters and I, spent the entire time waiting in the parking lot in initially 89°F— at least I took DH’s extended cab 4-door pickup truck so we had plenty of room.

There was thunder and lightning in the distance — which was pushing a lot of air, so we could turn off the engine and for long periods and only occasionally cool off with the AC— that eventually swept over us. At one point, it was raining so hard that we joked that even if they are finished examining her, they wouldn’t bring her out….

Her prognosis isn’t good. We opted to bring her home without a procedure that requires an overnight hospitalization and carried risk of shock and trauma.

She had meowed in that forlorn way pets do all the way on the way to the vet. She purred the entire way home.

She is on palliative medication and may only have days.

While waiting for her discharge paperwork, the sun set. I was taking photos of the amazing skies when I realized people were pointing THEIR phones in the opposite direction — there was a rainbow.