Tennessee 2021 Garden

[greenstubbs]

Corn needs tons of water, and it's needs it on a consistent basis for a successful crop. Good Luck

[Gary350]

After several days of camping we arrived home today I see the 1st row of potatoes that were planted March 15 are all dead except 4 nice green plants so I dug them all up. There are 11¾ lbs of potatoes from 39 plants = average of 3 ounces of potatoes per plant. This is worse harvest than last year. There was lots of variety, 5 plants had no potatoes at all, 1 of the big green plants had 2 very large potatoes. Most other plants had 1 large or 1 medium potato with several tiny potatoes. A few plants had a few marble size potatoes. This experiment was not much of a success there are 5 more rows of potatoes to dig up when they become ready. Kennebec are suppose to be a early crop. I put all the potatoes in a cardboard box inside the house to stay cool & dry in AC in the dark.

I am hoping to save 100 golf ball size potatoes until next year for seed potatoes.

$38 was wasted on seed potatoes. $38 will buy 63 lbs of grocery store potatoes.

Corn needs tons of water, and it's needs it on a consistent basis for a successful crop. Good Luck

We are in a drought we have not had much rain for a month & I don't expect more than 1" of rain each month for the next 4 months. Corn will have to do the best it can tiny garden hose is not much water for 8 rows of corn & all the other plants.

[Gary350]

I pulled 3 onions for dinner. Wife sliced them, she said, wow those are very strong onions. We ate them an they are very good.

My new toy came in the mail yesterday, a $9.99 free shipping laser thermometer. I tested it yesterday & tested it today and made notes. First I tested several different items under a large shade tree they all tested 90° & 91°. A black color item tests 1° hotter than air temperature in the shade. My digital thermometer says air temperature is 90°.

These temperatures were all taken about 3 pm in full sun.

130° dry light brown color garden soil.
124° green bean leaf
119° potato leaf
116° cilantro leaf
114° onion leaf
112° corn leaf
104° tomato leaf
94° sweet bell pepper leaf
90° several items in the shade
90° air temperature outside

Digital thermometer instructions say, smooth shinny leaves will reflect the laser so temperature readings may be low. Put tape on the leaves to get a more accurate reading. Maybe tomorrow I cut tiny 1/4" pieces of tape to stick on leaves to see if temperature readings are different about 2 pm.

This is funny. Wife ordered 5 flower spinners 3 months ago they never arrived. She complained Walmart sent 5 more that never arrived. She complained Walmart sent 5 more that never arrived. She complained Walmart said, spinners are all damaged she got a full refund. Wife ordered 5 spinners from Amazon they arrived 4 weeks ago. Today a box with 15 free damaged spinners arrived. Some won't spin, some have blades missing, they all look cute anyway. We have 20 spinners. LOL. I put a good spinner video on Facebook.

Wren we have is like no wren we ever had before it sings several songs like a Mockingbird. It has 4 songs that I hear over & over all day. Bird will be on a tree limb 20 ft away and sing for 10 minutes before moving to another tree limb to sing another 10 minutes. LOL

Corn is at a height that makes it very hard to water leaves hang out like an umbrella. I can water first 8 ft of each row easy but getting water to the center of each row is not easy.

[Gary350]

We have about 113 onions that are 2" to 2½" diameter that are candy onions grown from sets & yellow onions grown from plants. There is another 200 to 250 long day onions that are ping pong ball size. We have been cooking with them they have very good strong flavor. It takes about 3 of the long day onions to = 1 of the larger onions. Most tops have fallen over that is suppose to be an indication onions are finished growing but my father use to say, keep watering the onions bulbs they will double in size. I will keep watering we will see what happens. I think onions can stay in the soil all summer we will pull them up as needed. In the post I pulled up all the onions & put them in the pantry.

Potato trench idea works great to irrigate 2 rows of potatoes it only takes 10 minutes to fill each ditch with water. Trench was a very bad idea for our spring rain rotted about 1/2 of the potato cuttings.

$25 cedar rust spray is doing nothing to the Granny Smith apple tree. I'm not buying more spray now we wait an see if the tree dies I'm wasting more money & too much time. It is too much work to spray tree leaves very day. Even if I can find a spray that works when tree is 10 ft tall spray will cost several times more than grocery store apples.

TN has millions of cedar trees. Videos say, it is too late to cure trees of cedar apple rust once trees have the disease you can't kill it. Tree must be sprayed very early spring when bugs grow and become leaves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCBHri2zDk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdsiZ0Z00Mc

[imafan26]

I have grown onions and garlic before, but not potatoes. I only grow onion and garlic now if I have the space. I have learned that it isn't worth growing things I can't grow well, take up a lot of space in the garden and I can get cheaper at the store. I can only grow southern varieties of onions and garlic anyway and the small harvest I get, does not keep well. It hasn't rained that much here either, but I do get some. Not enough to water the garden. I just got the sticker shock from my water bill. I am not using more water than I usually do at this time of the year, but the rates have gone up so the bill is about $30 more.

The prediction is for this to be a hotter and drier summer than last year. Prices on everything has gone up but especially for food. So, I guess, I am just going to have to deal with it.

[Gary350]

I have grown onions and garlic before, but not potatoes. I only grow onion and garlic now if I have the space. I have learned that it isn't worth growing things I can't grow well, take up a lot of space in the garden and I can get cheaper at the store. I can only grow southern varieties of onions and garlic anyway and the small harvest I get, does not keep well. It hasn't rained that much here either, but I do get some. Not enough to water the garden. I just got the sticker shock from my water bill. I am not using more water than I usually do at this time of the year, but the rates have gone up so the bill is about $30 more.

The prediction is for this to be a hotter and drier summer than last year. Prices on everything has gone up but especially for food. So, I guess, I am just going to have to deal with it.

YOUR right, if you can buy it for less at the grocery store then why grow it unless it tastes better. Some things taste better from the garden like, corn, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, strawberries, blackberries. But, beans, squash, melons, okra, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, from the garden taste no better than grocery store. There are several things I can't grow so I gave up trying. There are several things I don't want to grow anymore. I am still determined to learn how to grow potatoes in TN. I hate grocery store tomatoes that have less flavor than cardboard.

I have not checked tomato plants in 2 weeks today I see they need to be tied up and trimmed. Then I notice there are lots of big green tomatoes on the plants. Maybe we have ripe tomatoes by July.

Granny Smith apple tree is gone. I cut it into 5 pieces so it fits in the trash can.

Wife pulled up 1 large slicer onion and 8 smaller onions for lunch. She made, BBQ bake beans with onions, potato salad with onions, chicken & cheese sandwich with 3 thick slices of onion. I ate the rest of the slicer onion like an apple. This is very good onion. Next year I know how to grow 100 good big slicer onions in a small spot. Next year I have a better idea how to grow 1 good row of potatoes. If this new sweet corn turns out good next year 200 ears will be enough.

[applestar]

You could have saved the apple tree for the campfire. I save my fruit tree pruned branches to put in my fire pit, and add twigs in the barbecue grill for a bit of smokey flavor.

There are other disease resistant ones, but I highly recommend Enterprise apple cultivar for all around performance against cedar-apple rust and fireblight. It’s later maturing (Oct) but that shouldn’t be a problem for you. It’s good as early as September when harvested young for cooking, and develops fantastic deep complex flavor for fresh eating when harvested fully ripe and stored cool (or fridge) after about a month

I’m totally enjoying those spinners — the colors of the 15 from Walmart matches your chicken and look like you planned it that way.

[Gary350]

Does anyone know why corn plants have side shoots growing up from about 50% of the plants? Some plants have 3 side shoots & some have 2 side shoots. It looks like 2 or 3 seeds grew in the same place. Are the side shoots necessary or not? I wonder if side shoots are taking water & nutrients away from the main corn plant? I wonder if side shoots could be making chlorophyll for the main plant? Should I cut off the side shoots?

I have water levees around, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos. I have levees along both side of all 5 rows of potatoes. I can lay hose in center of each potato row and let the ditch fill with 25 gallons of water. I hand fill all the containment ponds around tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos.

[applestar]

What I’ve read is some varieties grow those side shoots more readily than others — there is a technical name for them that I can’t remember atm.

They can supply more energy to the main stalk (chlorophyll/ photosynthesis), and some varieties will bear additional corn on those stalks IF planted with sufficient extra spacing and properly fertilized.

…description for Luther Hill corn at Fedcoseeds said this:

Because the suckers often yield good ears, each plant, if spaced widely, can make up to four ears.

[Gary350]

What I’ve read is some varieties grow those side shoots more readily than others — there is a technical name for them that I can’t remember atm.

They can supply more energy to the main stalk (chlorophyll/ photosynthesis), and some varieties will bear additional corn on those stalks IF planted with sufficient extra spacing and properly fertilized.

…description for Luther Hill corn at Fedcoseeds said this:

Because the suckers often yield good ears, each plant, if spaced widely, can make up to four ears.

I have never planted this variety of corn so I don't know what to expect. I was expecting about 50% to 60% germination and 1 ear per plant like other sweet corn I planted in the past. In the past about 1 our of 20 plants will make 2 ears. This year I was expecting 250 plant from 500 seeds planted but we have about 490 plants. If this plants makes 2 ears each that will be 980 ears. If 25% of the suckers make 1 ear that will be 1080 ears. LOL. Best thing to do is wait & see what happens then we know what to do next year. Online says, last years crop Peaches & Cream is 82 day crop. This years crop is 2 weeks longer 96 days ears will be larger with more kernels. 200 ears of 96 day corn will probably be = to 250 ears of 82 day corn. If this turns out to be true next year we can plant 125 corn plants and get 250 ears that is all we really need. I read online super sweet corn has a poor germination rate about 70% and I usually got about 60% with peaches & cream small single ears. 50 years ago our sweet corn was as large as field corn but these days super sweet corn is 50% smaller than typical yellow dent field corn.

[Taiji]

Don't know if this means anything, but corn I grow in AZ always gets large suckers. Here in the U.P. the same variety (Ambrosia) gets no suckers, or maybe a few very small ones. Maybe the plants response to extreme heat and drought is to create suckers for the reasons Applestar mentions?

[Gary350]

I spent several hours online doing research on, corn suckers & corn side shoots, when I finally learned the preferred name for suckers is TILLERS I had no trouble finding lots of very good information about corn plant tillers, Google & YouTube.

Lots of people have tried many things and most agree tillers are no problem. Several people have cut off tillers only to have them grow back. One thing several people agree on is, if you have good soil with lots of nitrogen your corn plants will grow tillers. If you plant seeds in low nitrogen soil plants may not grow tillers until you fertilize corn with nitrogen then plants grow tillers.

I have 8 rows of corn, 2 rows with 5" seed spacing, 2 rows of 6" seed spacing, 2 rows of 7" spacing, 2 rows of 8" spacing. I tried to count the number of tillers in each row and plants in all 8 rows have about 50% tillers. It appears seed spacing has nothing to do with how many tillers corn plants grow.

Crawling through the corn rows on my hands & knees I see corn seeds that germinated 2 & 3 weeks late have been shaded out by 3 ft tall corn so I pulled up all the 6" & 10" tall corn plants. Short corn will never catch up with tall corn it will only steal moisture & nitrogen from other corn plants.

I see a few grass & chick weed plants so I grab each plant with a hand full of soil like a construction company backhoe then toss the soil away. Tiny grass & weeds are like tiny parachute they catch air and fall to the ground much slower than the hand full of soil. Grass & weeds lay on the soil surface dry up & die.

The whole garden is mulched with 1" of loose top soil. This is especially good for corn it holds much needed moisture in the soil. I pulled top soil back by hand an took a picture you can see moist soil below the loose top soil.

There is a volunteer potato plant growing in the corn. I'm letting it grow it will never get good sun and will take very little nitrogen away from corn.

[applestar]

TILLERS! That’s the word. I love how you proceed like a science experiment. Looking forward to hearing about the results.

[Vanisle_BC]

.... the preferred name for suckers is TILLERS .....

Not for me it isn't. I dislike the use of potentially ambiguous wording, as when words like 'gay' and 'virtual' - and 'tiller' - get hijacked to mean something other than the original. Admittedly 'sucker' isn't completely unambiguous but at least if we're talking about gardening I'm unlikely to mistake its meaning. Not so 'tiller': Who, other than some specialist expert would assume it was not about mechanical cultivators, but the growth patterns of corn?


Anyway .... Do these corn tillers/suckers make cobs or are they just 'passengers'?

[Gary350]

.... the preferred name for suckers is TILLERS .....

Not for me it isn't. I dislike the use of potentially ambiguous wording, as when words like 'gay' and 'virtual' - and 'tiller' - get hijacked to mean something other than the original. Admittedly 'sucker' isn't completely unambiguous but at least if we're talking about gardening I'm unlikely to mistake its meaning. Not so 'tiller': Who, other than some specialist expert would assume it was not about mechanical cultivators, but the growth patterns of corn?

Anyway .... Do these corn tillers/suckers make cobs or are they just 'passengers'?

I don't like the word tillers either. Before I figured this out I was watching a video where the man was talking about a 20 acre field having 1000s of tillers. I was thinking, why would a 20 acre field have 1000s of 5 HP garden tillers why not use a tractor. LOL. Tillers sound stupid. I like suckers best.

Virtual is another stupid word. Virtual TV really means fake TV or imaginary TV. TN channel 2 use to be real channel 2 but now channel 2 can be any of 60 TV channels, the only thing that is real channel 2 is the channel number 2 on your TV.

Gay is a word that was selected to sound better than Queer. LOL.

[Gary350]

CORN has been waist high for a week, I am not watering it, this forces roots to grow deeper & deeper in search of water then when it rains the very large root system sucks up lots of water fast. We have no rain in the forecast. Every day plant leaves get greener & greener plants must be storing up lots of chlorophyll waiting for rain.

Tomatillos are 5 ft tall with lots of blossoms. I have never grow these before. It looks like tomatillos will be several weeks after tomatoes. I can never get, ripe tomatoes, ripe cilantro, ripe peppers, all at the same time to make salsa or Mexican food.

Sweet Bell peppers are always slow to grow they are only 2 ft tall. It will be August before plants are 5 ft tall. Plants seldom produce peppers until cooler weather about late Sept when we have a bell pepper explosion about 100 bell peppers before first frost.

Tabasco pepper plant are very small not even 1 ft tall yet.

Rutgers tomato plants started from seeds are about 10" tall. 1 plant died, I had several replacement plants growing in a 1 gallon pot.

3 rows of Russet potatoes look good. Plants came up at random times more than a month apart so they will not all get harvested on the same day unless I wait a month for all plants to die.

2 rows of Kennebec potatoes look spotty but good. Spring rain killed about 1/2 if the plants. I hope this crop turns out good.

We can hardly want to have rope tomatoes. I see 30 large green tomatoes on the plants.

We are enjoying our onions wife wants me to slice more onions to cook today. I am going to slice them outside where the breeze will brow tear gas away. I see several of the long day onions have grown larger bulbs sun is almost at its peak 2 more days & day length will be about 1 minute longer. I have been wondering if 14 hrs of sun will trigger long day onions to bulb.

We have too many spinners. I lined them up in 1 long row they were in my way being scattered all over the garden.

[Gary350]

First blackberries this year.

[Gary350]

Today storm clouds are very dark & over cast & very windy and 20° cooler so I decided to cut Bermuda grass vines that are slowly trying to grow into the garden. Bermuda grass grows roots about every 2" the vines have to be pulled up by hand. You can't cut this grass into small pieces it won't die all the pieces will grow. I found some online research where they kept small pieces of Bermuda grass inside where it stayed dried for several years when the grass was allowed to get wet it grew. They think dry dead looking Bermuda grass is no different than seeds it waits years for rain then it grows. Storm radio is driving us crazy it keeps going off, 70 mph wind, hail, rain, lightning, flash flood, but no rain here yet.

[Gary350]

This morning both rain gauges show it rained 1" last night after we went to bed. Storms all day yesterday gave us no rain. It is interesting that strong wind can smash corn down like a big animal has been in there but there are no animal foot prints in the mud. In the past corn stalks smash down try to recover but they are never very successful. Smashed corn has never been a problem plants grow ears with kernels anyway.

We have poke berry plants growing everywhere around the, yard, house, patio, garden, they are very nice plants for about 3 months.

[Gary350]

This evening I experimented with my old brass water nozzles. The 4 hose adaptor will hold 4 water sprayers but only 2 sprayers can be used to spray straight ahead. 2 sprayers drop the water pressure too much to spray more than 25 ft. 25 ft is good and fast too if I spray 1/2 the garden then walk to the other side and spray the other 1/2 of the garden. The big dark color brass sprayer in the center of the group picture works best it sprays almost 3 times more water than the red color Harbor Freight sprayer. Maximum range is 52 ft when water is strayed into the sky at 45° angle. This 60 year old sprayer is great I can set in a chair under the shade tree and water the whole garden while eating an ice cream cone. LOL. Darn mosquitoes are bad already it has not even been 24 hours sense it rained. I had to rub generic Vicks vapor rub on me to keep those little vampires away. Anything with strong smell keeps mosquitoes away.

[Gary350]

We had some excitement this evening. After dinner I was setting on the patio 1 of the baby wrens kept sticking its head out of the bird house looking all around. About 30 minutes later baby bird jump out onto the perch then went back inside the bird house. A few minutes later baby bird blew out onto to the ground where is hopped around all over the place like it was lost. After several attempts to fly it took baby bird about 4 minutes to fly a distance of 4 ft about 10" above the grass. Baby rested then flew up on the house window seal about 3 ft high. Then bird flew to the carport and landed on the top red color board. Then bird tried to make its way back to the bird house by flying 1 ft each time on the white color boards. Baby ended up in the grass, then back to the window seal, flew to the roof of the garage where metal was too slippery it slide off to the grass. Baby blew up to the white color board then slower got closer & close to the bird house. Baby blow over the front side of bird house then through the white boards to the carport where it stayed for 20 minutes. Baby flew up to the white board 1 ft from the bird house. Then baby blew past the front side of bird house over the fence into the side yard. Baby spent the next 30 minutes on the carport learning to fly. Then baby blew to a tree over by the big metal building where it tried for 20 minutes to land up in that tree. Then baby bird flew around far side of the building where all the pine trees and brush are. Sun is very low in the sky and it is very hard to see. I can hear the 3 birds chirping to each other. I was amazed at how quick the little bird learned to fly it has no tail feathers & very short wing feathers. Baby has very little control trying to land where it wants. I hope baby bird survives the night. I guess that is why all the eggs don't hatch on the same day each baby has a few days to learn how to fly.

[applestar]

Haha. I’ve heard the racket when the babies start to fledge and the parents fly around chirping alternately in scolding tones and encouraging tones… but usually from the window with limited view or even outside, too many bushes to see.

Your descriptions were super and easily visualized! Thanks so much for sharing.

[Gary350]

Onion sets vs onion plants.

April I bought 2 bundles of intermediate yellow onion plants about 50 plants per bundle for $6.99 per bundle = $14 total. There was a total of 112 plants only about 80 plants lived. The plants that grew turned out to be 2" diameter bulbs. Onions taste very good.

I bought 2 lbs of intermediate candy onion sets $3.50 per lb = $7 total. There was a total of 223 sets. Most of the sets grew to become 2" diameter onion bulbs. Onions taste very good.

I paid too much for yellow onions plants. If I had bought 223 yellow onion plants it would have cost $28 instead of $7 for Candy onions sets. Both onions grew to 2" diameter and both taste very good. Next year I will buy 3 lbs of candy onion sets & no onions plants. I am going to plant an onion bed with seeds about Sept 15 to see how it turns out.

Online says our day length is 5am to 8:30pm = 15½ hours of sunlight every day an some long day onions are starting to grow larger bulbs. Some bulbs are 1½" diameter while 90% are still about 1" to 1¼" diameter. I removed the wooden dog fence it was blocking sunlight so now I want to see if that helps onions grow larger. Dog is no problem now that plants are larger. I have learned how important sunlight is to onions candy onions that got full sun all day are larger than candy onions that that got shade 3pm to dark. Next year onions will be in the very center of the garden where they will get the most sunlight.

Tomatillo plants have several tomatillos they are all hollow like a balloon. I never grew these before is this normal?

I am trying to start another 2 gallon pot planted with about 40 cilantro seeds, I am watering them with ice to make seeds think it is cold weather. Ice melts slow and soil stays cold for about 4 hours. I have had good luck germinating seeds in the refrigerator in summer in the past.

Tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes. We might have ripe tomatoes in about 2 weeks.

Wife baked a BBQ chicken with 3 garden onions, also 2 garden Kennebec baked potatoes, & BBQ baked beans with 1 garden onion for dinner. Sunday we ate 9 onions, we had them in, potato salad, sandwiches, and dinner every day this week.

Wrens are gone, nest is empty. Patio is too quite, I miss all the songs those birds sing every day.

[pepperhead212]

That's normal for tomatillos, Gary - mine are getting those hollow ones now, too. They grow to pretty much full size hollow, then start filling in. Much later in the season, they start filling in much smaller, and turning gold much smaller, too. I think it must be the shorter days triggering it.

[Taiji]

Going back a couple of frames, that is one stupendous stand of corn! Pollination should be excellent. Did you mention what is the variety?

Coincidentally, after 3 or 4 summers now in the U.P. I only just yesterday heard about the vapo rub repellent you mentioned, from a different source. Am gonna buy some today.

[Gary350]

Going back a couple of frames, that is one stupendous stand of corn! Pollination should be excellent. Did you mention what is the variety?

Coincidentally, after 3 or 4 summers now in the U.P. I only just yesterday heard about the vapo rub repellent you mentioned, from a different source. Am gonna buy some today.

I bought bicolor corn G90 at Farmers Co-op 1/2 lb of seeds for $7. It looks like I planted about 1/2 of the seeds so there must be about 1000 seeds in 1/2 lb bag. Chart on wall at Farmers Co-op said this is a 90 day corn but online says it is 85 day corn. Full season, bi-colored variety that is easy to grow, the ears are 9 inches long with 16 rows of kernels, used for home gardens and some local markets.

I switched corn this year because I have a very poor germination rate on other super sweet corn. I had been planting 2 extra rows every year to make up for 60% germination rate. A few nights ago I read online super sweet corn is not as hardy as yellow dent field corn germination rate is sometimes low as 60%. Online says nothing about germination rate for G90 corn and it says nothing about if plants have 1 ear or 2 ears. Someone 2 nights ago said this corn makes 2 ears.

I still remember how bad bugs were when we lived in Michigan July was the begging of bug season. Some times you had to wear a net over your face so you don't swallow bugs when you breath. Very large mosquitos 2 times larger than Illinois mosquitoes. Bait shops use to sell a super powerful bug repellant that was 58 years ago. Bugs were not as bad in town trucks sprayed DDT after dark on city streets. The most memorable thing was 1000s of multi color butterflies every where.

[Gary350]

More potatoes, 2 lbs 2 oz. Potato plants started dying 2 weeks ago but I waited for plants to get more brown dead leaves. Today I dug up 3 plants the dark brown skin looks like I should have dug them up sooner. I know potatoes are not suppose to be washed but I washed them anyway we will eat them soon. Dry potatoes don't look as ugly as wet potatoes. Every time cat sees me outside she comes and wants more petting. Very patient cat she will set and wait until I pet her. Cat keeps squirrels out of the corn when it gets ripe, she can often be found sleeping in the shade of corn plant leaves. Look at those cat feet next to the potatoes. LOL

[Taiji]

Yes, I think you mentioned the G90 corn before, think I missed it. Up here seems like June is the worst bug month for me. There were lots of colorful butterflies earlier like you said; they are starting to go away now.

Lots of lightning bugs though on the warm humid nights especially. But I guess you have plenty of those down south where you are. When I was a little kid in West Virginia there were tons of them.

Nothing wrong with that potato harvest; looks good!

[applestar]

I love that you captured the very typical smug cat-look on her face! (Not easy to do since they seem to turn around and do something else the moment you aim a camera lens at them)

And I think cat paws are perfect for relative size scale— even better than quarters, cig lighters or beer cans

Those potatoes look great! Will you be canning some later on? I’m going to learn how if I ever manage to grow potatoes as well as you do. . (…had to give up on growing them this year since I just couldn’t get the garden ready fir early spring planting)

[Gary350]

I love that you captured the very typical smug cat-look on her face! (Not easy to do since they seem to turn around and do something else the moment you aim a camera lens at them)

And I think cat paws are perfect for relative size scale— even better than quarters, cig lighters or beer cans

Those potatoes look great! Will you be canning some later on? I’m going to learn how if I ever manage to grow potatoes as well as you do. . (…had to give up on growing them this year since I just couldn’t get the garden ready fir early spring planting)

We are canning only tomatoes this year. We still have beans is jars from last year. Wife wants to freeze corn kernels in 20 oz bags again, frozen corn taste better than canned corn. I am going to save golf ball & ping pong ball size potatoes to grow next year. I learned something interesting, it takes 1" of soil to block sun radiation. If soil is less than 1" potatoes will be green color. TN potatoes need 3" of soil over them in winter to keep potatoes from freezing. If I can get my saved potatoes to grow eyes I will plant a row of potatoes in Nov & March 1st.

I don't consider this a good crop of potatoes because I remember how easy it was to grow potatoes in Illinois and much easier in Michigan. I guess this is probably what I can expect for a TN garden that is under water all winter I need to learn how to deal with a garden that is under water for several months.

Yesterday I notice the 10,000. lbs of organic material that I put in the garden 3 years ago is GONE, it has composed completely away.

[Gary350]

We made a garden pizza with what we have available in the garden. We put 3 diced garden onions in the Italian sausage cooked it until done. We have a volunteer Thyme plant in the garden it adds good flavor to pizza plus Dollar Tree Italian herbs. I made a home made yeast crust. After crust was cooked golden brown we added, sauce, cheese, pepperonis, Italian sausage with onions, more cheese, bake 350° until done. Wow this years garden onions are exceptionally good we try to cook only foods that need onions we have about 90 more intermediate day onions to eat. LOL.

[Gary350]

Blackberry's are getting ripe very slow I have picked 1/2 gallon so far. Both berry patches are loaded with more berries than I ever saw. I can't amazing picking all these berries.

A few days ago we had lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. I had Quesadilla Fajita but before I ate it I did a CSI investigation to learn how it is built & took pictures. 10" tortilla is cooked golden brown on 1 side. Uncooked side of tortilla is topped with lots of Queso Cheese. Grill chicken with 3 garden onions, last years frozen garden sweet bell peppers, 6 frozen garden tabasco peppers chopped. Spoon filling onto the tortilla then pour Queso cheese over the filling. Fold tortilla over the filling then top with more Queso cheese. Wow this turned out just as GOOD as the restaurant. We have made Quesadilla at home before but they were never very good we had no clue how to assemble them to make them taste this good. The restaurant served this with, guacamole, cream cheese, Pico de Gallo, lettuce, cheese next time we will have sides too. Tomorrow morning breakfast will be, sausage, egg, Quesadilla.

Wow garden green tomatoes are very large we can hardly wait until they get ripe.

[applestar]

@Gary350, I am picturing you doing this —

at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. I had Quesadilla Fajita but before I ate it I did a CSI investigation to learn how it is built & took pictures.

I was just recently thinking about how self-conscious I used to be when I was younger, and how now that I am (eh-hem) “older”, I don’t worry so much about what other people might think. It gave me a chuckle thinking I might do exactly the same thing in pursuit of the perfect quesadilla.

There was an article I read a while ago about how people go to improbable lengths to take photos of what they are eating at restaurants - like moving everything off their table to the next table, standing on their chair, etc. - so they can post photos to their social media accounts. This might have seemed totally ordinary day at the restaurant…..

I wish I could let them know they were being paid a high compliment that you thought their quesadilla was worth investigating.

[Gary350]

3 rows of Russet potatoes are looking good they were planted from grocery store potatoes peals that were growing eyes. Every time wife cooked I had more potato peals to plant. Plants all came up at different times for about a month. Harvest will probably be a few plants every week for a month.

Kennebec potatoes next to corn are doing great. I dug down only deep enough to find a nice size new potato then covered it up again. I can hardly wait to dig these up to see what is there. I think it is time to trim plants smaller so potatoes grow larger. Plants look so nice I don't want to trim them.

Long day onions continue to grow tops & larger bulbs. Some of the bulbs are 2" diameter like the intermediate onions. I have not pulled up any long day onions yet I want to see how long they continue to grow & how large bulbs get. I am surprised long day onions are growing large bulbs.

Corn has gotten a foot taller in a week. I hope it rains tomorrow there is 20% chance of evening showers.

12 tomato plants are doing great I started straying for blight last week to try and keep plants from getting blight. Once plants get blight it seems like there is no killing it. I started fertilizing tomatoes with wood ash last week & suddenly the number of tomatoes have doubled. There are about 5 or 6 large tomatoes per plant and an equal number of 1" tomatoes.

Breakfast Quesadilla turned out good but too much food I am not a big breakfast eater. We have left overs for breakfast tomorrow.

Update 90 minutes after breakfast. Onions were not a good idea for breakfast wife & I both need antacid. Change of plans, NO onions for breakfast tomorrow. I can eat 1/2 a Quesadilla for lunch & onions will be no problem then. Garden onions are much stronger & better flavor than grocery store onions.

[Gary350]

Did you every have a tomato plant with 1 limb laying on the soil surface? I tied up all my tomato plants several weeks ago. I had all the limbs tied to the cages. Then 5 tiny limbs near the soil surface decided to grow & next thing I know a few weeks later there are 5 tomato plants limbs laying on the ground. Sometimes I tie the limbs up & sometimes I cut them off. This year I put a hand full of soil on the limb then water it every day, the limb grows roots in about 10 days it is ready to cut loose from the mother plant then transplant to a tomato row. Mother plant is Big Beef the cutting will be Big Beef too. I don't need another tomato plant but 1 tomato plant in the new row died an I hate having an empty places in the middle of a row. Now I have an odd tomato plant in a whole row of Rutgers tomatoes. This plant will straighten up in a few days.

[pepperhead212]

I have had a few tomato sections blow down in really bad wind, even after looking to make sure I tied anything up that looked prone to blowing over; only one entire branch broke off, but the plant is so large you wouldn't know it. I do have one pepper this happened with, unfortunately, and it doesn't look like it will recover.

[Gary350]

This morning I picked a quart of blackberries. Ripe berries are 2 weeks late this year maybe because it is so dry we have been in a drought watch for a few weeks. Berries are small but very good concentrate flavor. I need a ladder the older berry patch is 8½ feet tall & 12 feet diameter. The new berry patch looks like it has just as many berries as the old berry patch. I will be glad when plants start making a gallon of berries every day.

[Gary350]

Today I needed a ripe tomato so I bought 1 at farmers market. The first garden tomato plant on the south end of the tomato row has 24 green tomatoes, 3" to 1/2" diameter, also 22 blossoms that could become tomatoes. There could be 46 tomatoes about 3/4 lb each on this plant.

This morning I made Pico de Gallo with our, cilantro, onion, peppers, I had to buy a tomato at farmers market. I also made, guacamole I had to buy an Avocado. Wife cooked a pork roast in her new technology crock pot that heats up in 5 minutes instead of 2 hours, we had pulled pork in 2 hours. We made pulled pork Quesadilla for dinner. 10" tortillas are too large we need to buy 8" next time. I made all the side just like the restaurant it was very good. Garden is dry as desert it needs rain.

I wish I could remember what blight spray Rainbow said he used, our tomato plants are starting to get blight. I have been spraying with a blight spray but it never seems to work very well. Rainbow had it figured out he knew the name of what kills all TN tomato plants.

[Gary350]

This morning I see corn plants have tassels. I was expecting harvest to be about Aug 15 but now maybe not? Plants have no ears yet. I am not a very experienced corn grower, in the past I never looked at corn plants very close until harvest day. Last year I remember tassels came 2 weeks before ears had silks but that was a different variety of bicolor corn. I hope corn is not ready to harvest Aug 4 we will be in Michigan for a week. Wow very heavy dew corn is very wet like it rained. When I step outside the house door it is like walking into a steam bath. Step back into the house I feel wet. Humidity is extremely high & we are in drought watch. How can it be so extremely humid and dry at the same time. Corn is 6 ft tall.

[Gary350]

I finally found this information about what I have been calling, tomato blight.

https://www.thespruce.com/identifying-a ... to-1402974