Imafan's 2022 Garden

[imafan26]

It rained most of the afternoon. I did finally get out to give the organic pots fish emulsion.

[imafan26]

I replanted one container with Tokyo bekana seedlings. I have taken out the old plants from 2 organic containers and harvested some overgrown salad bowl lettuce that was 3 ft tall. Surprisingly, it was still soft and not bitter. I have more of it to take out. The
Buttercrunch lettuce does not fare as well. It is getting tip burn and it is slightly bitter and tough. That one is probably destined to be worm food.

I threw out more of the overgrown seedlings and potted up Wailua pepper (Jalapeno) and planted seeds of koba onion, shimonishi onions, garlic chives, garden chives, shishito pepper, cascabella pepper, Jamaican Scotch bonnet, Thai basil (the American version), and Strawberry fields gomphrena.

For dinner I ate salad bowl lettuce, and cucumber I harvested from the yard.

My strawberry bowl was getting sunburned, so I moved it into more shade. I will have to watch it more, because the snails like the shade too.

I found one small grey slug in the Bekana today. Something is eating the eggplant, probably a snail.

[imafan26]

I've been cleaning up the garden for the last few weeks. My winter garden is done and the summer garden is shaping up. Sorry some of the pictures are sideways. I am running out of storage on one drive so it won't sync any more files until I delete more of them.

[pepperhead212]

Nice photos! Sorry to hear about the bell peppers, as well as any other plants attacked, but it looks like most are doing well.

[imafan26]

Thanks. Most of the damage was from prolonged rain. It happens in the rainy season. I got a lot out of the garden and the plants were old so it was time for them to go anyway. The organic cucumbers had multiple nutritional deficiencies. I don't know how to fix that. Actually, I do, miracle grow would have fixed it fast, but it isn't organic.

[imafan26]

I am starting to harvest beans. It looks like I will have beans to pick almost every day for a while. The thing with pole beans are that there are only a few beans ready at a time so it will take a few days to collect enough for a meal. I put bags under my pots to keep them from making contact with the ground. It slows them down when they try to escape the pots and keeps weeds down as well. otherwise the pots end up as casualties of the weed whacker.

I picked a lot of eggplant yesterday and made pork with spicy eggplant. Some of the eggplant was dull so it is tougher, I should have steamed them longer, but I will cook them longer when I reheat them and that should fix that problem. The flavor was good, although, I am sure it was way saltier than I should have.

Spicy eggplant recipe

1.5 lbs eggplant, cut into bite sized strips. 2 inches long and 1/4-1/2 inch wide
12 pc. dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and cut into strips
4 mini bell peppers, cut in strips
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb sized ginger, minced
5 dried red chilies, adjust to your liking
3 stalks green onion. use the white and green parts, chopped
2 tablespoons lite soy sauce
1 tablespoon tamari
2 tablespoons vinegar (Japanese vinegar or sugar cane vinegar is milder)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tablespoon ground bean sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or dry sherry. ( I preserve my ginger in sherry, so I used the sherry from
from the jar. It is infused with ginger flavor)
4 tablespoons water
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Cut the tops off the eggplant and cut them into 2 inch strips, 1/4-1/2 inch wide. Steam eggplant until they are soft but not mushy about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the mushroom, peppers and green onions and set them aside. Mince the garlic and ginger and set aside in a small bowl. In another bowl combine the sauce ingredients (soy sauces, brown sugar, cornstarch, ground bean sauce, wine, and water. Whisk to blend and dissolve sugar and cornstarch.

When eggplant are done, drain in a colander.

Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a wok or dutch oven until hot. Add ginger, garlic, and chilies and stir fry on high heat for 30 seconds. If you are going to add meat chicken, pork, or shrimp prepare them in advance, cutting meat into thin strips and add them now. Stir fry until meat is cooked about 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, bell peppers and some of the green onions. Save some green onions for garnish. Continue to stir fry for about 90 seconds. Add the sauce and stir fry until the sauce starts to boil. Add the eggplant and mix well so eggplant is coated with sauce. Stir fry another 90 seconds. Turn off heat. Stir in sesame oil. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with remaining green onions.

I am working on cleaning up the front yard now. I already have half of the potted plants cleaned out. Then I would have to work on cleaning up the orchid bench before I can put things back. The wind has knocked the Bean trellis over a few times.

[pepperhead212]

Looks good! I just got my 3rd eggplant already, and it's early for them.

[imafan26]

I went out last night but the dragon fruit flowers had not opened yet. So, I went out again this morning. Three flowers bloomed last night. A total of ten flowers over the last three days. Even if I don't get any fruit, the flowers are beautiful.

[imafan26]

I had a rat running around my lanai. I have indoor cats. I bought a package of corn seeds (Early Sunglow) to bait the trap. I planted the rest in the garden. I don't know how well they will do since they are a Northern variety, but they came up and I will go with that.

Still having problems with the organic pots. They have more fertilizer in them, but the conventional pots I planted around the same time have started to sprout.The conventional pots are planted with combinations of tatsoi and summer dance cucumber, Asparagus beans and Okra, Only one organic pot sprouted, but I had to replant some of the cucumber seeds since only one came up. The other two organic pots that I planted cucumbers in are way behind. One pot, nothing has sprouted. The second pot the Thai basil sprouted but I am not sure about the cucumber. If I don't see anything in the next couple of days I will have to reseed the pots again. The Swiss chard is growing in the towers and in the one organic pot I have planted them in. I have had to replant some of the bush beans that sprouted and then died. I am harvesting the Poamoho beans from one pot, the second pot is growing but has not flowered yet. I was planted later.

All of the transplanted extra seedlings I put in the main garden survived and are growing. Princess Yum Yum is slower to grow, but Valentine is growing faster and had a fruit. The organic tomatoes have started to set fruit. Sun King has 2 red fruit now.

I harvested one of the Soarer cucumber in the conventional pot. It was stung and it is scarred by mites, but it is still edible. I have 5 or six more cucumbers on the vine and I have sprayed them with Bt to keep them from being drilled by the cucumber worm. I don't see any mite activity now, they may have moved on to other things, like eggplant.

[imafan26]

The beans have fallen over at least twice today. I need to come up with some way to anchor the pot better. The ground is not level so it does not help.

I pulled out the super chili I had in the front yard. It was infested with snow scale.

I cleaned up one orchid bench and after getting rid of the dead plants and reducing some of the pots, I have more room now. I fertilized with osmocote and repotted some of the orchids with deteriorated media. The ferns were taking over some of the pots. They are weeds in the pots, but in reality the orchids would rather grow with the ferns than with media. The anthurium needs to be divided but I think I will take it out of the pot and put it with the bromeliads and ferns on the other side of the house. I think it will be happier there.

I found 3 large African snails and a lot of ants in the pots on the orchid bench. I put Terro bait on the bench. I will have to put more snail bait on the bench as well.

The organic pots are again having problems germinating. I will have to reseed them again. I just can't get the ferilizer mix right. Does anyone have a good recipe for organic fertilizer in containers for vegetables. What kind and how much do you use. I know it is not the soil. I am using the same basic peatlite int the conventional pots and those pots don't have the same problems as the organic ones do. Only one of the three organic pots I redid sprouted fairly well. I did have to reseed the cucumber in that one since only one came up. The beans in the tower have already been reseeded and I may have to do it again. The Swiss Chard in the towers towers sprouted much better. All of the conventional containers sprouted seeds with minimal problems.

[Gary350]

I went out last night but the dragon fruit flowers had not opened yet. So, I went out again this morning. Three flowers bloomed last night. A total of ten flowers over the last three days. Even if I don't get any fruit, the flowers are beautiful.

Those flowers are wonderful. There are certain cactus that blossom 1 night every year, they grow at an amazing rate 1" per hour next morning there are 5" & 10" diameter flowers that are gone by lunch time.

[imafan26]

Pitahaya is a type of selenicereus cactus. I found out that the correct spelling for the fruit of dragon fruit is pitahaya. Pitaya is a synonym but usually refrers to to the fruit of the stenocereus genus which looks a lot different.

Dragon fruit is a tropical cactus so it likes more water and humidity than a desert cactus. The flower only blooms for one night. It doesn't open up until around 10 p.m. and it closes shortly after the sun comes up.

I have a few succulents, but most of them need to be able to tolerate more water and humidity. The cacti often have large bright colorful flowers.

[imafan26]

I had given up on the seeds in the remaining two organic pots. Surprisingly, one of the organic pots, finally has cucumber seeds sprouting. The other organic pot has nada. I am growing cucumbers in starts and they have started sprouting in less than a week. I am going to try to transplant them into the pot. The media has been changed and there is a lot of organic fertilizer in it, but it may need time to break down to support anything. I did put more than a cup of vermi compost in that pot as a starter. That pot dries out faster than most and it may have dried out to much at a critical time.

The troublesome bean pot has been moved closer to the orchid benches. The ground is flatter there and the pot has not fallen over. The vines are yellowing and I don't see any more flowers. I pulled the vines and I will probably grow asparagus or rattlesnake beans the next time.

The conventional beans are starting to produce and the conventional asparagus beans are growing. I don't see any okra though. Okra did o.k. with lettuce but I guess it is not a fan of beans. I can't plant lettuce now.

I harvested my first full size Dunjia zucchini today. I am surprised yesterday afternoon the plant was totally wilted and I caught it just in time. I had 2 other zuchhini earlier but they were 1/3 the size. It weighed in at 362 g. or .798 lb. I also picked a couple more of the conventional Soarer cucumbers today. Their total wt was 892 g. I should have picked them earlier, but the cucumbers are coming faster than I can eat them. There is still another one that is also ready to be picked. I have so much less trouble with the conventional cucumbers.

Sun King tomato is also starting to put out tomatoes regularly. I am eating a cucumber and tomato salad almost every day. I have had 4 Sun Kings so far.
BHN 589 which is bred for flavor has fruit, but none are ripe yet. The red currant is also growing wild and the hardest part is finding the fruit since they are buried in the sprawling vines. But, they are very tiny and sweet.

The main garden is growing faster. The Tokyo Bekana is about to bolt so, I will have to do something about that. I have more bekana seedlings that need to be transplanted so I might just take out the old ones and transplant the others in instead. I need to get in there and get after the ever present weeds as well.

I have only about 5 beets but three of them should be ready soon. The cilantro is bolting, but it is summer. Only one slip of the sweet potatoes survived, but I am rooting the vine in the pot and that should make up for it. I put the trellis in the pot to start training the vines up. The hot peppers are ready to pick and some of them are already drying on the plants. I can either grind them to make chili powder or save them for seeds. Most of those are Thai peppers. I actually don't have a lot of crossing even though I plant the peppers fairly close. So, I don't worry too much about the seeds not coming true. The birds now are eating the Blue vates kale. It is the only kale that is big enough to support their wt. I cut down the toscano kale because the finches were eating that more than I was. I guess I have another building project to consider: a cage for the kale.

None of the dragon fruit took. I did wait too long to pull the flowers and it always seems to rain when the dragon fruit are flowering. More buds are coming out. It will be a couple of weeks until they mature. If nothing else, the flowers are worth it.

Princess Michiko, my vanda orchid, is blooming now. I have to put a cover on the on the oncidium orchids. The leaves are getting burned by the summer sun. I ordered the pvc pieces from amazon and I just have to get more 1 inch pipe to put it together. I ordered the 35% shade cloth earlier. I am not as good as Applestar at construction so it takes me 4 times as long to do things as it should.

I did get the corner of the front yard weeded. I have to go back with the triclopyr to kill the bleeding heart roots and the palm seedlings I can't get to. I have already pulled out over 50 palm seedlings.

[imafan26]

It's been raining most of the day. The low was 69 and the high was 79 degrees F. I can't believe it is already the fourth of July.

I cleaned up the front yard over the last couple of weeks. I cleaned up the 8 ft orchid bench and the pots in front of it. I still have to mow the grass. I can't mow wet grass. I pulled out the Poamoho beans and replanted the pot with Emerite pole beans. So far, the pot has not fallen down in the new location.

I have harvested zucchini, cucumber, peppers, green onions, tomatoes, Tokyo bekana, eggplant,beans, and a lime over the last couple of weeks. I still have a lime and tomato on the counter and 3 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, and green beans in the refrigerator. I made Lion's Head soup the other day with the Tokyo bekana, I will be eating it a few days more. I made finadene with the peppers. Today I harvested the remaining 4 Detroit Dark red beets and I made Harvard beets with onions.

I planted a couple of starter pots and the rain stopped long enough for me to pull the old Tokyo Bekana plants and weed the main garden.

I still have more peppers, cucumber, beans, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, limes, and Swiss chard that are ready to harvest. The Big kahuna beans are in flower so they may start producing beans in about a week. I probably can harvest the daikon too.

[imafan26]

Today, it was still a little bit wet out, but it dried up later in the day. I did get out to fertilize the organic pots with fish emulsion and Miracle grow the orchids and cuttings.
I am just glad I have 5 fewer organic pots to fertilize now. It is not fun mixing fish emulsion in a five gallon bucket. There were a few holes in one of the tree bags on the BHN 589, so I sewed up the holes this morning while it was drizzling rain. Despite the rain, I still had to lightly water the pots. Pots are such small targets, they still need to be watered.

There are more cucumbers on the way and I still have three in the refrigerator.

I cleaned out the refrigerator this afternoon. I grilled a pork chop for dinner. It was what fell out of the freezer when I opened it. I sauteed some onions (I had half an onion in the frig), and sliced up the Sun King tomato on the counter to go with it.

[imafan26]

The oldeset Soarer, may be winding down. I don't see many new flowers anymore. It has been raining now for about 5 days and nights intermittently in a row. The cucumbers that had formed on the oldest Soarer and the newest cucumbers on Summer Dance are curling. Some of them did have damage from pickle worms, and a couple of the Soarer show uneven growth, which is usually a sign that the fruit were pollinated. I picked off the pollinated and severely curled fruit from Soarer. One of the Summer Dance cucumbers does not have a severe curl so I left that one. All of the fruit are also scarred probably from the wind knocking the fruit into the trellis.

Dunja Zucchini had a better fruit set than Partenon in the trial I read. I am not finding that to be the case. While Dunjia does produce a lot of flowers it is more dependent on pollination than Partenon. I usually only grow one zucchini plant. It takes up a lot of space and one usually produces more than I need. I do grow disease resistant parthenocarpic zuchhini because regular zucchini will stop or slow production of female flowers once it gets hot. (> 75 degrees. That is like everyday in summer.) Dunjia is producing 4x more male than female flowers, but the flowers are not always in sync when they open.

I have a hole in the main garden where I took out the older Tokyo bekana. I am still trying to determine what I should put in its' place. It is a short; narrow strip. It is an awkward time of the year to plant as the hottest days of summer are approaching


https://www.hort.cornell.edu/expo/proceedings/2014/Vine%20crops/Seedless%20squash%20Reiners.pdf
https://agronomy.unl.edu/documents/part ... ni2008.pdf

[imafan26]

Harvested 2 more Sun King tomatoes. Total wt 306 g. I am getting a couple of tomatoes a week so right now it is a good pace. Especially since I am not a big fan of tomatoes. I don't have a lot of cucumbers that are going to be ready soon. It will give me a little time to (very little time) to finish off the cucumbers I have in the frig.

Yesterday I made a chunky marinara sauce. I used most of the beans, 2 zucchini, and Italian parsley from the garden. I was trying to make meatballs for the marinara, but I put a lot of bread in it to use up the bread and they were so soft they broke up. I ended up with a thick "bready" bolognese instead. But it is all good. The bread made the sauce thicker. It still tastes good but the texture is not as smooth. Now, I don't need pasta. I wonder if I can use this sauce with the eggplant. I have a lot more of those too use up too.

Next week more of the Big Kahuna bush beans will be coming in. I hope the cucumbers stop curling.

It rained briefly again last night. Another 0.10" The low was 75 and the high was 86 degrees at about 1 p.m. It has cooled some at 5 p.m. it is 80 degrees. The skies are cloudy on the windward side but clear on the Leeward side. So, I guess there will be more of the same weather again tomorrow. It is getting warmer which is typical for July.

[applestar]

One of those community garden advisor videos mentioned cucumbers start to curl when they start running out of nutrients — will post link if you want to see.

[imafan26]

That's a thought. I did fertilize everything. The organic containers got fish emulsion and the conventional ones got Miracle grow a week ago. I'll see if the new cucumbers grow better. Some of the cucumbers got pollinated so they were bulbous on one end. Two of them were drilled by pickle worms when they were very young. I thought the weather might be part of the reason for the curling since this time it is not limited to just the organic cucumbers, but also the conventional ones.

Although, I have grown Soarer and Summer Cross before, I usually grow them in cooler weather and grow the more heat tolerant Suyo in Summer. I planted the Beit alpha cucumbers also which can handle high heat but none of them are big enough to produce fruit yet.

I really did not consider fertilizer because except for the older Soarer which is probably nearing the end of its time, the younger cucumbers conventional and organic have nice leaves. The organic cucumbers had 2 cups of all purpose organic fertilizer, one cup of kelp meal, and 1/4 cup of langbenite, plus about 2 cups of fresh vermicast from my worm bin. So, they should be good for a little while. It will take a couple of weeks to see if the conventional cucumber respond to the miracle grow. It might take longer to see a change in the organic pots. I fertilize the organic pots with fish emulsion once a week. But because of the rain, I missed a few feedings and the rain will leach out fertilizer. The conventional pots don't get regular side dressings. But I had to fertilize the orchids and peppers, so I decided to boost all of the potted plants. I did not fertilize the main garden because it got its' sulfate of ammonia last month when I transplanted the leftover seedlings.

[applestar]

In these videos, they recommend dehydrated/pasteurized chicken manure, but I can’t find the brand I used to get, and this year am trying fish bone meal and fish bone meal fortified “rice bran (horse feed)/UCG bokashi” kelpmeal, and home made liquid cultures.

With the clay subsoil, what I need are lots of microbes to help get the locked up minerals into plant-available forms.

[imafan26]

I have chicken manure pellets which are pasteurized. I actually have had it for a long time. I have problems using any manure in pots. It usually kills everything. The organic fertilizer I am using has feather meal and chicken manure in it. The biggest problem with doing organic in pots is the fact that the potting mix does not have a lot of organisms in it. It has none in new soil. It should have some in the older soil, but the older soil also has more bad fungal and bacterial spores which cause more issues with dampening off, not to mention the weeds. My garden soil is super rich in nutrients so growing in ground is easier. However, I do use sulfate of ammonia which is not organic, and that is why all the organic stuff needs to be in containers.

I can make bokashi though. It has been awhile so I have to look up the recipe again.

[applestar]

It’s difficult to add any kind of dry organic fertilizer that has ingredient potential to burn roots to established container because there’s no way to avoid the roots — they are everywhere …at the surface and circling the rim of the container….

One option might be to make compost/manure tea with the amount of fertilizer you calculated for the container, and then apply well diluted over course of several waterings?

[imafan26]

So you mean do a manure/compost tea instead? Chicken manure has an average NPK of 3-0.5-0.5 only half of the nitrogen in chicken manure is available, the rest is slow release. It also contains calcium since the source is manure from egg laying hens who are fed calcium to harden their eggshells. I have chicken and composted steer manure that are well over 90 days old. I can blend it with the vermicompost make a tea with that. It will not be as rich as the fish emulsion, but I can probably add some fish emulsion or blood meal to the tea instead to boost the nitrogen. I will probably still have to add some kelp meal to take care of the micros. The micros seem to be more the problem with the cucumbers than anything else. Since I have cinders. I can add some cinder dust to the pots and that may help boost some of the minerals. Cinders are high in Aluminum but in small quantities it should not bind up too much of the phosphorus.

[imafan26]

Two of the dragon fruit buds bloomed last night and another one looks to bloom tonight. I am not going out at 10 p.m. to pollinate it, so we'll see if any pollinators came by. Today was the first day, I have spent any time in the yard. It has been raining, so I have only spot watered the smallest pots. There are small holes in the eggplant, beans, and cucumber that look like the same culprit. I haven't seen it yet. The rain did take its' toll on some of the peppers. They have bacterial spot and the Sun King is showing more fungal disease on the lower leaves. Sun King is a determinate and I have gotten some fruit from it. This is the first time I planted it so, I don't know how heat tolerant it is. There are more fruit ripening but only a few flowers.

BHN 589 has smaller fruit, but is more prolific than Sun KIng. The first of the BHN 589 tomatoes are starting to color up.

So far, all of the Summer Dance cucumbers I successfully transplanted into the troublesome organic pot look good. I hope it stays that way.

The old Soarer has two fruit (slightly curled) on it. The vine is old and there aren't anymore flowers. I still have some of the organic Summer Dance cucumber seedlings. I might just take out the Soarer and replace the soil. ( I have used it three times already). It will still be a conventional mix for this pot. I don't need anymore organic cucumber containers, and I will have less problems with a conventional mix.

I have more of the older extra seedlings, I have to decide whether to keep or toss. I cannot keep them all. I just have to decide how much to keep and more importantly, where am I going to put them.

The Early Sunglow corn is thigh high in the main garden now. It is growing fast. I did not intend to plant corn this year, and these were the only seeds available so, they are not a variety I would have chosen if I had planned it. I got the seeds to bait the rat trap. But the rat is smarter than the trap. The corn and then the peanut butter bait were both taken and the trap was never sprung. I hope the two stray cats I see in my yard will take care of the problem. They usually do a better job anyway.

I found out that the toad in my yard came from my neighbor. They said their toad was MIA. I guess the toad is going back and forth through the fence.

I found one snail today. I haven't put out any snail bait in a long time.

[imafan26]

The cucumbers are really sensitive to the fertilizer formulation. I obviously haven't got it right yet. I feel a bit like Hamurabi trying to figure out how to allocate resources.

https://www.hammurabigame.com/hammurabi-game.php

The latest is that the oldest Soarer cucumber which is conventional but got extra potassium is showing signs of a magnesium deficiency, most likely caused by the extra potassium. This cucumber is at the end of its run, and the soil has been reused three times, so it is really hard without doing a soil test to figure out how to fix this. Since the plant is so old and there are no new flowers, I'll just start the pot over with fresh soil and the soil in this pot will be used as fill in the yard.

One of the other conventional pots is showing potassium deficiency. This pot has a mix of old and new soil and the usual citrus fertilizer. I don't remember if I added anything else. It has had Miracle grow once.

Today I added dolomite lime to the organic pots. They all have additional potassium and while none of them show problems yet, that may be coming. The dolomite will take time to work. I also got some epsom salts and bone meal.

I know if I increase the magnesium, I will have to be careful of the calcium/magnesium ratio. It seems, like Hamurabi, if I go too far over on one end there are negative consequences on the other.

[imafan26]

It was a long day. I volunteered at the garden today and it started with a meeting. I went to Costco and got gas. The price had dropped 20 cents from the last time I filled up.

It is feeling more like summer. The temperatures today is a humid 86 degrees which feels more like 90. This weather is from the post tropical low associated with the former cyclone. It will bring a few more showers in over the weekend and this will happen again in about 9 days when Darby passes to the South of the islands.

I only did a couple of things this afternoon. I emptied the Soarer cucumber pot out and put in fresh soil. Actually it was 1/3 Sunshine #4 and 3/4 Miracle grow. I don't like Miracle grow now. They are replacing the peat moss with compost and that makes the mix hold too much water. This is a conventional pot so it also got 2 cups of citrus food. I planted the remaining 4 Summer Dance cucumbers that I had left. I started 9 Summer Dance cucumbers in organic media. I planted 4 into the organic pot, I broke one accidentally and I am planting the last four in this conventional pot.

My Brackenridgeii hibiscus, the state flower and an endangered species was infested with mealy bugs above and ground mealy bugs in the pot. If it were not a rare plant, I would have tossed it. I hosed it off well, sprayed the roots with alcohol, dusted the root ball with diatomaceous earth and replanted it in a larger pot. I moved the pot to the front and put 3 in 1 rose care in the pot. Imidicloprid will kill both the root mealybugs and the mealy bugs on the plant. I have 2 other hibiscus which are clean, but I gave both of them 3 in 1 as well. I could not treat the hibiscus in the back, because the vegetables are there. I can only use the systemics on the ornamentals in the front yard. The mealy bugs are specific to the hibiscus. They are infesting my neighbors hibiscus hedge and I suspect that is where they came from.

The first of the BHN 589 tomatoes are coloring up. The beans are producing, but the birds are eating the leaves tips and beans. The Big Kahuna beans are not very big, but they do have a lot of flowers. I picked three cucumbers yesterday. I have 2 more organic cucumbers to pick. The last 8 cucumbers have all been curled because of the weather. The cucumbers are edible, but not very pretty.

It is too hot to work in the middle of the day, so I water in the morning and work again for a short time in the afternoon. It rained a little last night so I only spot watered today. More rain is expected within the next 24 hours. So, that means it will remain humid. I will have to fungicide some of the plants rain and humidity = powdery mildew. I have a lot of cucumber flowers now. There are a lot of male flowers compared to female flowers. The heat must be getting to them. This is a monoecious variety so it produces more male flowers. I sprayed them with Bt again since the rain washes it off.

[imafan26]

I got up early this morning and waited until the was enough light. I filled the green can with the remnants of the currant tomato and some Swiss chard and perpetual spinach leaves that were drying. I got the can to the curb about an hour before pickup. My neighbor did not get his can out in time and missed this morning's pickup. The next one will be in two weeks. I only filled one can this time. I pulled the dead flowers off the dragon fruit. I will see if it sets better. It always rains when the dragon fruit bloom. Another flower opened last night but a branch was siting on top of the flower so it did not open properly.

I harvested the beans, cucumbers and tomatoes ahead of the storm. It is warm and humid at 82 degrees. There is still a breeze at less than 10 mph so it isn't that much relief. I think it is time to fire up the fan. Darby was downgraded to TS early this morning and will be passing south of the islands tomorrow. Most of the rain will be falling on the Big Island, but the tropical storm warning is up for all islands. We are hoping to get some rain, but not too much. The storm is compact so the winds only go out about 10 miles, so we could get weather from the outer bands. Usually, that means the winds could be variable, rain likely somewhere and because the storm is to the South, Kona weather which is hot and muggy. I will have to fungicide everything after the storm passes.

I harvested 2 cucumbers (total wt 539 g), 7 tomatoes ranging from 4.4 -9 oz ( total wt 2 lbs 10.5 oz), and about 8 oz of string beans. A couple of the beans already are showing signs of rust. I found 2 pods on the Poamoho beans. The birds have been eating the shoots leaves and beans and not leaving much behind.

I went to the garden today and weeded the bench. I also picked up some plants and pots that were being given away to the volunteers. I could not get them all in my small car. I scored 3 vanilla orchids, a pachystachys lutea ( it is not in good shape. It needs TLC,) a plumeria, 2 finger limes, and cuttings of butterfly weed for the September pollinator event at the garden. If the weather is not too bad tomorrow, I have the bonsai meeting, but I may go back up to the nursery and pick up more plants and pots. I told the other bee hui leader that I was going to get rid of the plants that have been on the bench for a long time unless there was a place for them to go. I am going to consolidate the plants that are left and cap off the irrigation heads we don't need to save some water.

The beets I planted have germinated. There are some holes, so I will over seed the container.

[imafan26]

The weather is still cloudy and muggy. The temperature has gone down a bit. It is 72 degrees now. The expected high is 82.

There is some powdery mildew on one of the eggplant, but the zucchini and cucumbers are resistant varieties so they are holding up well.

The Carolina Bell pepper is resistant to heat and nematodes, but it is not resistant to bacterial spot and it is becoming a problem again. I may have to cull a few more of those peppers. The Burpee #5 remains disease free and full of peppers. Majestic Red bell is promising. It is chugging along despite the fact that it is under extreme stress.

Rutgers DMR sweet basil is still free of basil downy mildew. I wish they would give up on trying to breed in downy mildew resistance to sweet basil. The crosses look like sweet basil but taste more like Thai basil, only not in a pleasant way. It has been 14 years now, since I have been able to grow sweet basil.

[imafan26]

I called my sister today and she came over. I gave her the squash, a papaya, a tomato, and the beans I harvested a couple of days ago. I still have one papaya left and there are more beans, tomatoes, and eggplant to pick. There is another zucchini and more cucumbers that will be ready in a few days.

Today, I potted up some plants. I up potted some peppers and eggplant. I also divided a couple of compots that needed dividing a long time ago.

The Early Sunglow corn is tasseling now. I over seeded the beets. Some of the seeds I planted have started to sprout. The cucumber seedlings I planted into the pots all survived and are growing fast. I have a few more seeds to plant.

[imafan26]

My sister came over late, to pick up the squash. She walked to my back garden where I was. She asked me about some of the plants. She asked about the makrut and I told her I grow it for the leaves and the fruit are pithy so I don't eat the fruit. She told me I should grow more food and less peppers. She said I should grow squash and a tangerine. Tangerines do o.k., but they are big trees and only produce one crop a year. She said I should not grow so many hot peppers. Hot peppers are easy for me to grow and they don't take up a lot of space. They are good for trade because in the market they cost $25 a lb. I traded Tokyo bekana and tomato for the squash and papaya. She tells me to grow squash. I don't have room for a squash vine that gets to be 50 ft +. And she tells me this as she is walking past the zucchini she does not even see. It is a monster plant that is over 3 ft high and now is about 4 ft wide. She also does not see the corn, chard, perpetual spinach, Tokyo bekana, kale, papaya, okra, long beans, beans, eggplant, taro, sweet potato, ginger, cucumbers, or tomatoes. She did notice the mint, she just did not know what it was. I don't know. I think I am growing plenty of food in my garden and more than I usually do in summer. The board of water supply wants us to cut water use by 10%. I really can't, because I am growing more food through summer than I usually do and I have already cut back as much as I can in the house. I am using 4K gals less water than I did 5 years ago at this same time and about the same as I used last year when I grew less food through the summer months. For me it is either pay for water or pay for sad produce at the market.

[applestar]

I can just feel your frustration! I wish I could walk in you garden with you, and appreciate all the things — FOOD — you are growing in person

I bet I wouldn’t recognize a bunch of stuff though …even while recognizing many of what you named

[imafan26]

That's true. I like to grow things that are unusual.And I grow things intensively, so the garden is a mix of a lot of things all jumbled together. A lot of people don't know what komatsuna or Tokyo bekana are. My sister likes green onions. I used to make a pot of green onions for her and she would bring me the dead pot back three months later for a replacement. She has been taking the Meyer lemons off the tree in her yard because it produces too many. Her tree is less than three feet tall. I love her but she is not a garden person.

[imafan26]

It's official. Oahu Kauai developed drought conditions in mid-June. So, the entire state is in either moderate to severe drought. Parts of the Big Island, Maui, and Molokai have been in extreme drought for years. There is less than expected rainfall in the forecast. The only good thing so far has been that La Nina has tempered the heat. August-October are the hottest months of the year and that is still coming up, but July has not been that bad. The temperatures has been under 86 degrees for most of the month.

[imafan26]

I harvested one zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The pickle worms are getting more intense. Almost half of the cucumbers have been bored by them. I have had to step up the Bt treatments and I still had damage the day after they were sprayed. Yesterday, I started covering the cucumbers that are not damaged with stockings and I culled any fruit that had been damaged. The tomatoes are in bags so for the most part the bugs can't get after them. However, the stakes poked holes in one of the bags and I had to mend the fabric and chase the bugs out. A couple of the tomatoes in the bag does have some scarring. Since mending, I haven't seen anymore bugs getting in.

It is raining a bit now. I will have to spray with Bt again today.

The komatsuna is flowering.

The corn ear silk is starting to dry. The tassels have been out for 8 days. I will check again in a couple of days. The corn is usually ready to harvest 10 days after the tassels appear.

[Gary350]

I harvested one zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The pickle worms are getting more intense. Almost half of the cucumbers have been bored by them. I have had to step up the Bt treatments and I still had damage the day after they were sprayed. Yesterday, I started covering the cucumbers that are not damaged with stockings and I culled any fruit that had been damaged. The tomatoes are in bags so for the most part the bugs can't get after them. However, the stakes poked holes in one of the bags and I had to mend the fabric and chase the bugs out. A couple of the tomatoes in the bag does have some scarring. Since mending, I haven't seen anymore bugs getting in.

It is raining a bit now. I will have to spray with Bt again today.

The komatsuna is flowering.

The corn ear silk is starting to dry. The tassels have been out for 8 days. I will check again in a couple of days. The corn is usually ready to harvest 10 days after the tassels appear.

Someone at Farmers Market told me to mix 1 tsp baking soda with 1 cup of water and 2 drops of dish soap. Mix well then spray only the cucumbers this is suppose to keep bugs & pickle worms away. It does not kill bugs or worms soda tastes bad so bugs & worms go away. I was not having bug or worm problems until about July 15. I'm not sure if 1 tsp is a level spoon or heaping spoon of baking soda. I tried spray for a few days but 80 plants it was a lot of work to search & find cucumbers to spray. Spray appeared to work I had several bad cucumbers with worm holes then after spray no worms for the next 3 days. Then I cut down all my plants & gave away about 100 cucumbers. 3 days is not a very scientific test you might need to try spray to see how well it works for you.

[imafan26]

Thanks Gary. I am trying the baking soda now in addition to the Bt and the stockings. One of the cucumbers still got stung with the stocking on so the stocking alone is not going to do it once the cucumbers stretch the stockings out.

[imafan26]

I pollinated one dragon fruit flower at 10pm the other night. I forgot to go out last night so I pollinated two flowers early this morning. I have to set my alarm for tonight. There should be two or three more flowers opening tonight. I have a small paint brush and a toothbrush to pollinate the flower. With more than one flower, I have a better chance for the pollination to take since the pollen can be used on different flowers. This morning, it was a little awkward to pick up pollen with the toothbrush and a lot of the pollen spilled from the leaf. Next time I will bring something to capture the pollen in the cup of the flower.

I see some plant hoppers and some leaves chewed probably by beetles or moths. I have to get more Bt. I have not seen any new cucumbers drilled, but I have sprayed the plants every 1-2 days, and I did the baking soda spray once. I will do that again later today.

One of the conventional cucumbers wilted and did not come back fully. I am afraid its' days are numbered. One organic pot is also slowing in producing new cucumbers. It may be winding down as well. However, two of the other organic pots are starting to flower and produce fruit. One of them is the Beit Alpha and the other is Summer dance. I did not realize Summer Dance is a monoecious variety. It produces a lot of male flowers. Hopefully, I will get some good cucumbers this week.

I have 8 slicer tomatoes that are ready to pick as well. Valentine has also started to produce fruit. It is sweet tart. More on the tart side. When I had it at the garden it was less tart and sweeter. I think the difference is mainly because of the differences in soil and sun. They are using more compost in their soil and it is 5 degrees warmer there. I probably water the tomato more than they do as well. Princess YumYum has flowered but no fruit yet.

Some of the corn silks are drying and some are still forming second cobs. I have never planted such a short variety before. It is a normal sugary corn (early sunglow) but it does seem to be virus resistant.

I finally got around to mulching the border with compost in the front yard. The nasturtium seeds sprouted already. I had to make sure the compost did not bury them. There are white flies buzzing about the blue daze and snow scale on the rose. I hosed the snow scale off. White flies are a nuisance. I will overseed the border with more alyssum. It will attract hover flies and other beneficial insects.

I caught 3 large snails yesterday. I haven't seen the toad. The stray cat is keeping the birds at bay, but I am missing a few geckos. Geckos control a lot of the beetles, flying insects, and caterpillars. However, there is no shortage of lizards in my house. My house cat is too well fed, he has to be in the mood to hunt anything.

[imafan26]

I harvested slicer tomatoes ( BHN 589, and Sun King) Total wt 1732 gms (3lb 13.1 oz). Seven were BHN 589 and 1 was Sun King. Valentine grape tomatoes 267 g (9.4 oz).
Harvested a mix of Summer Dance and Beit Alpha cucumbers. with a total wt of 2587 g. (5 lbs 11.3 oz)

One cucumber had a scar probably from rubbing against the trellis but the rest were fine and were straight without blemishes. Thanks to Gary for the baking soda tip. I don't know what actually worked, but I have been putting the cucumbers in stockings and that does help reduce the scarring. I culled all of the fruit that had been damaged by pickle worms and I have sprayed the cucumbers with the baking soda and I have also been spraying the vines with Bt nearly every day.

Some moths got in under the tree bag and there are some scars on the tomatoes. I have to check the bag and sew up the holes again. But, when the bag works, the tomatoes are good. I do have to cover the entire plant with the BHN 589 because I don't know if it has TYLCV resistance. I haves some white flies on the peppers and lemons but they are less now than they were last year. The individual fruit bags are used on Sun King.

I gave the tomatoes and cucumbers to my neighbors and my mom. I also harvested some ripe peppers and made fenadene for my nephew. I also gave my mom some eggplant.

I still have some tomatoes that have to be harvested as well as more cucumbers. I have two tomatoes and the valentine tomatoes left as well as three cucumber in the refrigerator, so the others can wait a few more days. One of the cucumbers is wilting. It is not very old. It might have gotten too much of the 3 in 1 spray in this hot weather. It will probably be coming out sooner. The other 4 cucumbers are still producing, three have just started so maybe I will plant something different in the container next.

The day temperatures are creeping up. It is 84 degrees today. The bush beans are not happy, they have rust.

I started Siberian Kale seeds. I started a lot, they were from 2016, but a lot sprouted so, I will probably put a bunch of them in the tower garden to replace the beans. Kale will take more heat than the bush beans. The long beans are starting to flower and there are some 2 inch beans starting to form. The tropical plants will do better at this time of the year. I may end up planting more of the long beans.

The beets are coming up and the corn is not quite ready yet.
Early this morning (4 a.m.), I went out to pollinate the dragon fruit. I forgot to do it last night. There should be more flowers opening up tonight. Hopefully, I will finally get some fruit out of this. Unfortunately spraying all the bt does cut back on the moths that are needed to pollinate the dragon fruit. I just wish the moths would stay out of the tomato bags. I did see some leaf hoppers as well.

I have fewer geckos to take care of the smaller insects because the stray cat is still around.

[imafan26]

Four more dragon fruit flowers bloomed last night. I got up early this morning to pollinate them. I could not reach the highest one. There should be about three more blooming tonight, however, only a couple of them are in a place where I can reach them. The others will have to wait to see if a moth comes by. I have found a roach in the flower one night and this morning a carpenter bee was out buzzing me. I did not think a bee would be out so early.

I am finding some stink bugs and plant hoppers in the garden. I usually don't see these pests but the birds are also staying away because of the cat and I did see three lizards on the plumeria tree. I also have these small brown moths. It was inside my tomato bag, so I kicked them out yesterday. They did leave some scars on the tomato. I did not see any holes where they got in. The Sun King tomato has flowers, but I have picked all of the fruit. I am not sure this variety is heat tolerant, so I will find out if the flowers drop or set. BHN 589 has a lot of fruit some green and some orange. I picked all the ripe ones the other day, except one that I missed.

I got more peat moss, so I can mix more soil now. I am concentrating on weeding the pots and up potting the pot bound plants as the days are getting warmer, so are the nights and some plants start to wilt if I water even half a day later.

I had to prop up two of the okra in the pot. They fall down when I water the pot. I will probably underplant them now. Marigolds were not a good companion for them, the marigolds grew so fast, they were overwhelmed. Now, that they are about 6 inches tall, I will try to under plant them with some lima beans. Bush lima beans won't grow that fast and they are one of the few beans that will take the higher temperatures.

I am still averaging 82-84 degrees in the daytime and around 72 at night. But it is much warmer down hill. And the hottest months are coming up. There has not been any rain in a while, the grass in the front yard is extra crispy. I weeded a bit in the borders of the front yard. The grass is trying to invade the borders because that is where the water is. Even the gardenia is starting to drop some of the lower leaves. It gets enough water to survive, but not enough to keep it from stressing. Some of the cuphea are browning out. At this time, I can't do much about it. I'll replace them in September. I have been watering the Rhapsiolepsis Indica and that actually is putting out new leaves. I guess, I can water that one a little less.

The red noodle beans are starting to make beans.

[applestar]

Nice harvest

…small brown moth that got in with tomato fruits— Do you get pinworms? They lay eggs just under the calyx flap, so the hole where they burrow in is barely visible.

They burrow along the central core and poop in gel cavity if they reach that far — this usually initiates rot from inside, especially on bigger fruits. Usually more on cherry tomatoes and you could just toss those without much regret (unless it’s an important cross segregate!)

I only notice after harvesting and there’s the hole and darker shadow might be visible.

But if you do see the hole, process immediately or quarantine the fruit because I’ve had the worm come out at night and start in on neighboring fruit in the basket