I agree 8 is a little tricky. Problem is sometimes they won’t all mature tassels and silks with good timing so that pollen will be dried up before silks appear and are ready. I’ve had some stalks that form tassels and start shedding way before anybody had their silk showing, and some that were so late that last tassel dried up a couple of days before.
I’m wondering if my 18 (4 as backup) seeds were enough…. in the tiny row. I usually aim for 20 to 24 in a small patch.
@Gary350 — cottonball is a good idea. I never thought of that.
I tend to collect pollen by leaning the tassel over a fold-creased paper (like a manila folder) and shaking instead of cutting off — tassel can shed pollen for several days. In a small patch, it helps to keep them going as long as they can shed pollen.
In the past, I’ve poured the pollen out over the silks from the fold, but on breezy days, have lost more pollen to the wind than I would like. Will have cottonballs handy next time.
(I used hosta leaves one year— that worked well except on humid mornings when dew hadn’t entirely dried and pollen got stuck on the leaves. I bet a cottonball might have been used to sweep them up for use in this case as well.)
A large bag to tilt the entire tassel into helps to save the pollen from blowing away on windy days.
I usually can plant 47 cornstalks 8 inches apart in my main garden and get 67 ears. It has been pretty consistent over the years. However, if I get less than 40 plants, I will be lucky to get 20 ears of corn. With 8, I may only get one or two if I hand pollinate the silks with all the pollen I can collect. I have had luck shaking pollen into a large paper bag. Pollen does not stick to paper as much as to plastic. I can hold the bag under the silks so I can reuse as much pollen as possible. I have gotten more bird netting. It is a pain to use it, but if I can get the garden cleared and replanted the bird netting only has to last until the plants are established the birds won't bother then once they size up. I have the snail fence around the garden that is about 2.5-3 ft high already I may need help draping the bird netting on the fence. I am working on building hoops over the garden, so far I have one up.
I was going to keep the corn to attract the purple ladybugs, but they have no aphids. I don't have aphids on the fennel either, so my garden patrol is on the job. I may just cut them down and use the cornstalks for mulch. I used to bag compost them, but it ends up making so little and attracting ants and other bugs to the bag, that it is not that worthwhile.
What is really amazing is that the corn grew without having the usual side dressing of nitrogen. They are short about 5 ft tall, with the side dressings they would have gotten to about 8 ft tall. I haven't side dressed the main garden for over 5 months. I have that much reserve nitrogen. No wonder the root crops only want to make leaves. That's o.k. it is good for cabbages and mustard greens.
I have hand pollinated one of the corn silks. I may be able to pollinate the other one tomorrow. There are only 3 ears starting to mature. I don't expect to get much from any of them.
Yesterday I dumped out the soil from 2 containers into the front yard. That is quite a workout form me. Today, I mixed 1/3 of some of the reused soil I saved with 2/3 peatlite. Because the reused soil is so high in phosphorus, I added 1 tbl dolomite lime, 2 tsp langebeinite (kmag), and a handful of rock dust for each 5 gallon bucket of new peatlite mix. I also added about a cup of blood meal 14-0-0 to each 18 gallon container because I have it and I cannot use the citrus fertilizer in the mixed media pots.
Pot #1 has been sitting for awhile. I planted 5 kabocha seedlings I started on May 17. I will see if I can trellis the vine, if the tomato will share the trellis.
Pot no. 2, I replanted beans, but instead of Provider, I am using beans from a local supplier, Fukuda Flat podded bush beans. The seeds are white. Fukuda supplies local farms with seeds. They carry Sakata seeds. These beans are heat tolerant.
Pot #3 Planted Summer Delight, this is a japanese type cucumber from Kitazawa that is heat tolerant, monoeceous variety, so it is not parthenocarpic.
It rained last night about 0.2 inches. I watered yesterday. I will see if it can make it overnight. I may have waited too long on the provence lavender. It is toast.
I did tackle the weeds in the main garden this afternoon. It looked daunting but, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It still took me an hour and a half counting breaks to finish it. I pulled out the old cabbages and the Russian kale. I only left 1 lacinato kale and 5 cornstalks with ears. I have been hand pollinating them. I pulled out the smaller corn because they can't help the ears on these corn, but I kept the stalks to use as mulch later.
I found some beans in the garden and a few that were still edible which I had with dinner. There were two volunteer tomatoes, and more than a few volunteer weedy trees. There were a few cabbage roots that looked like nematodes have infested them so I will have to hot water treat the soil and plant crackerjack marigolds or contender beans. The marigolds will trap nematodes, the contender beans are resistant so the nematodes won't bother them. I disinfected my shoes, seat, and mattock, and bucket with boiling water and alcohol and got in the tub afterwards. I kept forgetting to bring my camera out and today the camera was dead, but I did get out and get a few pictures.
At this point in May, I have two choices. I can continue to plant heat resistant plants in the main garden. I can try another round of corn if I can get a cover over the garden to keep the birds away from the seeds, or heat resistant beans, or even squash if it can be contained. The other option especially with nematodes would be to solarize it. It will help knock down the nematodes and it will be less garden to have to water during the summer. I would have to take out the kale.
I wonder if you have noticed that there a fewer pest this year? Except for the birds which are a year round menace, I have only seen a few butterflies and bees. Even the flies have calmed down. The plants in my yard that I usually have to treat like the gardenia looks pretty clean now. I had problems with broad mites in April, but they aren't a problem now. Either there are fewer pests, or my garden patrol is really working hard.
Of course, except for the greens and the tomatoes, I don't have a lot of fruit for them to feed on. I don't even have any producing cucumbers. Maybe that is good thing, they are bothering someone else instead. The tomatoes and strawberries are also being eaten by the birds. The grape and currant tomatoes produce more than I can even use, so I just have more of them to trash. The birds did eat one of the papaya, but they must like the tomatoes more. There are fewer bees though, and I have flowers for them all year.
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I counted the number of tomato containers I have. I missed a few. I have 10. This is valentine, a grape tomato. Most of the tomatoes I have are this variety and most of the valentines have fruit.
Leaves of strawberries have been eaten. I suspect the birds again. Chinese rose beetles are not attacking beans at all and the strawberries went missing. Chinese Rose beetles don't eat those.
Papaya has been topped I am just waiting for the papaya to ripen to cut it down.
The main garden after I took out all of the weeds.
I actually have one cornstalk with 3 ears, Even if there was a good stand, the third ear wound not be fully pollinated.
It is a nice sunny day, 76 degrees and the trades are turned on. I have already watered the garden and pulled a few weeds. Hopefully today, I can get out a couple of times more and plant some cucumbers and prep a couple of more pots. The pots are heavy and moving two pots is all I can do in one session in the garden. Hopefully, I can get some more weeding done. Unfortunately, the grass needs to be weed whacked again.
I went to set up for the orchid show this morning so I only had a chance to water and pull a few weeds.
The Summer Delight cucumber is starting to germinate. I saw two leaves up. I planted about 8, since lately when direct planting, I only get 1-2 out of 5 germinating. I want at least 4-5 in the 18 gallon pot to make the best use of the pot and the trellis. This is a Japanese type cucumber, that is heat resistant, but it is monoecious. This is the first time I am trying it. I prefer parthenocarpic cukes. Summer Dance is gynoecious but not parthenocarpic and it produced good cucumbers as well. I am trying to find alternative varieties that are easier to find. I like the Kitazawa's Soarer, but it is expensive and I don't buy enough seeds from them to make the best use of the shipping costs especially now that it comes from True Leaf Market instead.
I took my 7 tier tower apart to replant it. There were 8 slugs under the watering trays and 2 spirals of eggs under the third tier. No wonder, the peppers could not keep their leaves.
I pulled out the kale. There were two tiers with one large kale in them that took up all of the root space. I planted bush beans and Curly vates kale in the open tiers. The strawberries, a couple of curly kale remained.
I will try to go out and do a little more light weeding later. I can't do much of the heavy lifting work in a day.
Taking the tower apart and putting it back together was all I could do for a heavy session.
Addendum: I did get out after 4 p.m. and pulled a few big weeds out. There was a rainbow over the mountains, so I decided not to Round Up the pathways in case the rain comes over tonight. I took the 5 tier tower apart. It also had slugs on one tier piled together. This tower had more empty pockets so I pulled out most of the chard and Devotion basil. I left a smaller chard and a very large Italian parsley. I had to cut the roots to make room for the plants to go in the other pockets. I planted the rest of the seedlings I had which were mainly chard. The lettuce had reseeded in two pockets so I left those. I replanted the remaining pockets with peppers and bush beans (Maxibel and contender.) Some of the pepper seeds are very old, so I put multiple seeds in each pocket hoping to get a few to germinate.
The green bin is 3/4 full and the root masses on some of the chard and kale were massive. The green bin is quite heavy. The rubbish bag was only half full, but since I have the slugs and eggs in there, I put that in the trash bin.
This was a productive day for me. I spent less time watching Chinese dramas, and although, I still had to have the long breaks. I did get some laundry done and cleaned the upstairs bedroom and bath. I got a few big weeds pulled, and took the two tower gardens apart and replanted them. Watered the yard (that takes me almost an hour) and weeded and trimmed three bonsai starters. There are three other starter bonsai that I have not got to.
Another cucumber has sprouted. Still waiting on the beans, and there is still a lot more to do.
All your gardens are in production now. Mine is in transition. I am mainly pulling out plants and weeds and changing the soil on my pots. It is still raining enough that I have to keep weed whacking as well.
All the plants I transplanted into the two towers seem to have survived. I have to wait to see if any seeds sprout.
The papaya is trying to grow new leaves at the top and some new fruit, but it is still coming down once the larger fruit mature. I will get 3 papaya this week.
Yesterday, I cleaned up part of the nursery bench and got rid of most of the overgrown seedlings and washed the pots. I will be planting more seeds of cucumbers and peppers. I got the soil mixed yesterday, but I was too tired to plant it.
I have one green bin almost full and another one that is about a quarter full. I still have a lot of stuff to pull. I may have to bag some of the weeds and trimmings and take it to the convenience center or the green waste facility. First, I have to get that far. I still have a few more containers of soil to dump. I usually only have the energy to dump two a day. I have to weed whack the grass first.
I have very hungry worms. I thought I overloaded the bin with sweet potato leaves and kitchen waste. I went to give them a couple of banana peels this morning and except for the sweet potato stems, most of the leaves are gone. Its' fine, I have more bitter melon and sweet potato leaves they can have.
I usually don't plant much at this time of the year. I know I still have soil issues with the containers but it seems like it is harder to get things to start and to grow now. The new eggplant and tomato I planted in the reused soil, need to be supplemented or they don't really grow. I know that is a soil issue.
Even seeds are not germinating as well or growing. I have stopped putting osmocote in the starter mix and that could be part of it.
The lettuce that went to seed started new plants. Although, it is a heat tolerant lettuce, I don't expect much from it at this time of the year. Heat tolerant lettuce will have less tip burn, but it is still bitter in summer
Have you notice any change in the way plants are growing because of climate change?
I am noticing plants are blooming late.
Ginger should have come up in March or April. It finally sprouted near the end of May. Cooler temperatures lasted longer this year.
I am experiencing poorer germination rates than normal. It may partly be because of the fertilizer issues in the containers. I had to switch to smaller starter pots because all the rain caused the pots to stay wet and turn green.
And because I normally don't try to start plants at this time of the year.
I have noticed and so have beekeepers that there are fewer bees and the honey flow was late because of the late blooming of the plants.
On the plus side, there have been fewer pests. I don't really have problems with aphids, but the white fly population is down (it is cyclical). I did have broad mites earlier, but no spider mites yet. Even the gardenia is relatively clean and that is rare when it has not been treated.
The humidity and the off and on rain have increased the fungal diseases. Other people are complaining about grubs and caterpillars, but except for increased activity in the butterflies, I have not seen that many caterpillars or beetles. I am finding fewer snails, but more slugs.
I had a bit more energy today. I only partially watered the garden. It should rain overnight. I was able to cut back my 8 ft rosemary and pulled a few of the larger weeds to fill the first green can. I pulled a few weeds (big spurge) out of some of the pots and trimmed the mussaenda glabra. It was over my head. I have to keep it to a level where I can maintain it from the ground. That filled most of the second green bin. If the pickup is late tomorrow, I may be able to top off the can with a few more of the big weeds or cuttings from the larger plants. That is if the rain stops early enough in the morning.
The seeds I planted on June 9 are sprouting. At least the cucumber in the com pot and the maxibel beans in the tower are sprouting. Most of the transplanted seedlings in the tower are alive. Something ate the top off the Prospera basil.
There is fruit set on the TYLCV tomato. I have to find the tag and see what it is. It is very stout with thick stems and mid sized fruit. The other tomato I have in the bagged pot is also growing well. Something put a hole in the Rosella crimson tomato. I have to look for holes in my netting.
The ears on the UH no. 9 are very long. I don't expect them to have full cobs because even with hand pollination, there just wasn't enough pollen to go around. I still don' have aphids on the corn. All of the remaining cornstalks have three ears, but I know they won't be pollinated. At this point I just want to see how large the ears will get.
I was reading reports about bad potting mix causing stunted to standstill seedling growths in this year’s spring seed starting.
One was from overseas on UK. In his case, he thought it was nutrient deficiency and seedlings were delayed but resumed growth after repotting to different brand fresh potting mix. The other gardener in the US had to give up but heard similar experiences from others.
This was the first I heard — I haven’t been paying attention online much this year since I seem to have very limited extra time on hand.
And as luck would have it, due to budgetary concerns, I didn’t buy any more new potting mix and had opted to omit the final step of uppotting prior to planting out that would have put the solanacea in larger containers (needing additional quantities of potting mix).
You might see more references to the bad batch potting mixes if you look around.
For your reused container mixes, have you tried inoculating with vermicast tea? That should give the needed boost when soil denizens are tired/depleted and encourage more biological activity. If you can add a little kelp meal or crab/shrimp/fishbone meal, or coral sand, that should help with the micro nutes
For me it’s convenience for obtaining quantities of reasonably functional mix that is consistent in aggregate texture and growth results.
Garden soil is too heavy and always need to be combined with other ingredients for container use, may be contaminated with fungal or pest infestation and need proper pre-treatment, etc.
I use potting mix because they are better for pots. I have tried other recipes that use compost, garden soil, and perlite or vermiculite for drainage. I also tried putting composted manure in the pots.
My soil is not good to use for pots because it is heavy clay and that slows the drainage in the pots and the pots dry out too slowly. Clay + perlite = cement. I also have nematodes which is one of the reasons I grow some things in pots in the first place if they are not nematode resistant. Manure in the pots have always resulted in basically, nothing will grow. The amounts recommended and the amount I can actually use are not the same. My friend also experienced the same thing using chicken manure in containers. I do use vermicast. As long as I have it, I was putting a handful or two per five gallon new potting mix. That works.
Coir would be an alternative, but it is harder to get and has its own issues, like it is even harder to wet, needs to be washed well because of the salt and you cannot plant anything tall in the media, because the pot dries out too fast and the plants keep falling over. It also does not hold on to nutrients as well as peat moss so the plants have to be supplemented more often.
The fertilizer I use 6-4-6 citrus fertilizer with micros works well with a new mix, but does not work with reused soil.
I had the reused soil tested and it is very acidic pH 5.5, phosporus is very high, Calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron are low. The recommendation was no phosphorus which means no vermicast in the reused soil bins and no potting mix or compost with added fertilizer. Compost has minerals, but it also has a lot of phosphorus. I can't reuse all of the soil, so I am dumping it in the yard. It is actually causing the crepe myrtle to show chlorosis.
What I worked out to save some of the soil was only to use 1/3 of the soil and mix it with 2/3 peat lite. I normally mix my own soil mix. I use an organic peat moss that has been buffered so it does have some lime in it to bring the pH up to 6.0 and it has organic wetting agents, which is not as good as synthetic wetting agents and that may be one of the issues with the reused mix. It has no fertilzer unless I add it. Normally for a new potting mix I would use 2 cups 6-4-6 with micros. Plants grow fine in that and do not need supplements. for starter pots I add osmocote to the mix.
But for the reused soil that would be too acidic and add even more phosphorus. The consultant for the soil test agreed that diluting the old potting mix with 2/3 new was a good strategy to cut costs. Since the media is already loaded with phosphorus. He told me to add 1 tbl dolomite lime, 1 tsp kmag, 1 tsp gypsum to each 5 gallons of potting mix. I had to convert ounces to tsp per 5 gallon container which is 0.670 cu ft.
Actually this is the communication:
"I agree that diluting the media, using 1/3 by volume with soil is a good strategy. You can incorporate a 1/3” layer of food waste or greenwaste compost. HEP no longer adds 11-52-0 to their products.
I don’t know what the soil media/soil mix contains nutrient wise, but you can try this on a small scale trial basis:
Incorporate Dolomite AG65 along with gypsum and K-Mag. Mix in 0.75 ounce of AG65, 0.5 ounce of gypsum & 0.25 ounce of K-Mag per cubic foot of soil/media mix, incorporating together uniformly.
Do not apply any manure or compost or guano that contains phosphate. Cold turkey on the soil applied P may reduce stunting. Miller Microplex is good for minors, chelated minors still work if soil solution P is high.
You could try supplemental Peter’s Excel Cal-Mag 15-5-15-5Ca-2Ca for maintenance. I agree with you about K deficiency in the cukes. Potassium nitrate is pretty quick acting to correct that. The one picture appears to be progressed Mg deficiency."
He also suggested microplex chelating agent for minerals or adding compost even though it does contain more phosphorus. Finding a compost without added fertilizers is the problem. He suggested Peter's cal mag special 15.5 -5- 15.5 for maintenance.
Of these things only dolomite lime is easy to find. The others have been hard to find I got the gypsum and k mag from amazon. They won't send all brands. Even the ones I could get before, I cannot get now. I will have to check the ag suppliers for the Peter's special. And I can get potassium nitrate from the hydroponic store. In other words, this is a very expensive fix. If I can get the fertilizers, so little is used per container that it can last a long time, but I will have to store them a long time as well.
I also have to side dress with nitrogen. Urea is impossible to find, that leaves me with blood meal which has issues in containers and timing and sulfate of ammonia which will deliver nitrogen quickly, but is acidic.
This is a case where I know what the problem is, but figuring out what to add and how much is the hard part. I am trying to grow squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and melons in the reused containers because they are heavier users of phosphorus. Tomtoes and cukes use more of the minors, calcium and potassium, which is probably why they show the deficiencies in the reused soil.
I am having some success in the reused pots, but they are not as vigoruous as the new mixes. I have been slowly feeding the egpplant extra side dressings of nitrogen, k mag, lime, and miracle grow. MG works because the nutrients can be absorbed through the leaves and avoids the problems with the soil binding.
Two of the containers that I used only 1/3 of the old mix are doing well. One has a tomato the other has four kabocha squash. The containers that I made prior to getting the results got additional phosphorus, so I will have to reblend them. Either nothing grew or they are showing calcium deficiency and/or stunting.
Something ate a top off one of the bean seedlings in the tower. I suspect birds. It is at the tip of the seedling. I will have to come up with some solution or grow the beans in small pots until they are bigger.
More seeds are sprouting. Most of the cucumbers are sprouted. Some pots with peppers and tomatoes haven't popped up yet.
I did check the tag on the tomato that has just started to fruit. It is Sun King, A TYLCV resistant slicer I grew before. It is determinate and not heat tolerant so I will see how long it produces. The summer hasn't really heated up yet. Most days are between 82-84 degrees.
I finally pulled out the 6 cornstalks I had. I did not expect to get much corn, so this is more for evaluation of the variety. This was UH #9 a yellow corn. I have bought this variety and UH #10 before. Now, UH no 9 is the most common cultivar. I found out years ago that Dr. Brewbaker, who researches tropical corn, is always tweaking the genetics. I got a UH no. 9 variety (white corn) that was not sweet. I told Desmond who runs the lab about it and he said that even though the corn variety on the label is no. 9 or no. 10, each batch is a little different because the genetics would be a little different. So, what I got was a 9.#### variant.
I had problems with the birds eating the seeds, so I only got 8 plants. I hand pollinated the corn, but I was only able to hand pollinate 5 of them with the available tassels. Only 3 of them could be pollinated more than once. Considering, I grew this corn with no additional inputs and no additional nitrogen since March. The corn stalks did grow to their expected height. The shortest one was about 5 ft which is not surprising since the papaya roots has been stealing nutrition from the garden. The others did end up between 6-7 ft tall.
I have grown this variety in the past to 8 ft tall, but those got supplemental nitrogen. Of the 6 that remained after culling the two smallest corn plants. 2 of them had formed 2 ears and 4 formed 3 ears. Even with a good stand, the third ears never develop. but usually I can get a second full ear in about a third of the corn stalks. I can get a few more if I plant a second border of the same variety on the perimeter about a week later. These won't really produce ears because they are on the outside but they can provide more pollen for the second ears.
UH no. 9 can be either yellow or white. The white corn is called UH no. 9 silver.
It is a tropical corn that can mature with less than 12 hours of daylight. It takes about 80 days to maturity. It is a super sweet shrunken kernel variety with a tight husk, resistance to maize mosaic virus, and very good disease resistance. In a temperate climate it will take longer to mature. I live around 600 ft so I can get better yields than corn grown at sea level.
I ended up with about 18 formed ears. some of the third ears did not develop a core. Of the 11 ears I harvested, only 4 had any kernels on them. One other had a few immature kernels, but not were fully developed due to poor pollination. The tray they are on measure 15x20 inches. The corn ears measured from the 6 inch third ear (no developed) to 15 inches for the largest ear.
Tastewise, it is typical of a Hawaiian supersweet corn, it is sweet. I have had sweeter but they were white corn.
The thing with tropical corn is that is can be grown here for most of the year. It takes longer to mature in the winter months, but I can get 3 crops of corn in a year if I time it right. I had to pull the corn, because to try another crop, I have to start the next one soon as the longest day is tomorrow.
The other good thing about the Hawaii bred corn compared to mainland varieties is that the tight husk makes it harder for corn earworms to become a problem. This time I did not get any mutant corn. I usually get mutant corn in almost every planting. It also has good disease resistance. I found out the hard way, that the only suitable corn to grow here must have maize mozaic virus resistance. This stand of corn was very clean. There was one black bug on the corn ear, but no damage or fungal diseases on any of the cornstalks or ears. No aphids, so no ladybugs either. I did not spray the corn with any fungicide or pesticide. I use beneficial insects to control pests.
Tropical corn is best suited for this climate. There are very few temperate varieties I can grow because of the daylight requirements and the lack of pest and disease resistance. The few I can grow can only be grown during the peak hours of summer and I can only get one crop a year. I could potentially get three crops of corn in a year. However, the other limiting factor is space. Corn is not high yielding for the space it occupies which is why it is not recommended for small gardens. However, in summer, there aren't a lot of plants I can grow that will tolerate the summer heat, and while I may not eat half the lettuce I grow, I will almost always harvest and eat every ear of corn. Only once was I not able to eat all the corn, but that was because I had planted corn in two garden plots and it was impossible for me to eat over 100 ears in two weeks and although I told other people to harvest the corn, they didn't.
I took me two days and a lot of breaks, but I worked in 2 cups of kmag into the main garden. (1 pound of potassium). The soil report called for calcium as well, but it is hard to believe that the calcium could have gone from over 5000 to 3200 in a couple of years, especially since it has tested consistently higher before. I don't see calcium deficiencies in the main garden. The part of the main garden that has nematodes, I only put the fertilizer on top. I don't want to till that, so I did a hot water treatment instead which took me a couple of more hours to do today.
It rained all night long, a slow rain which is good for the soil since all of it will soak in. It also means the weeds and the grass will also be growing.
I just have to level the soil in the garden before I replant and I have to come up with some way to get the bird netting over the garden to keep the birds out.
The seedlings responded to the miracle grow, they are elongating and the true leaves are starting to come out on some of them. I will have to up pot them soon from the plug trays.
Some of the peppers have started to sprout except for the 7 pot hot and Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. But they are slow starters anyway. I will give it a while more. It can take up to to month especially when the temperature are still on the cooler side.
It rained overnight. It was sunny during the day. The high was around 84 degrees. I is 74 degrees now and will probably get down to around 69 tonight. Just barely optimum to sprout a super hot chili. The long slow rain though is usually good for sprouting other seeds, especially weeds. It started raining again and it will probably rain overnight. This is the usual pattern here. Most of the rain comes overnight while being mostly sunny and humid in the midday.
The papaya I topped is no longer sweet. it is totally yellow and hard. I probably took off too many leaves off and it can't make enough sugar. I will take down the tree slowly. It is mostly water and it is very heavy. I have a seedling from this tree. I think I will toss it since it is not worth saving seed from a tree that isn't good. The birds are not eating the fruit even though it is ripe. That is the best indicator that the tree is not a keeper.
It has been windy with some rain drifting in. I was able to get two conta[ners of cucumbers planted from seeds sown on June 6. One with Beit Alpha and the other with Sweet Slice. Beit Alpha produces male flowers but if a Persian type cucumber about 4-6 inches long and a small seed cavity. Very good heat and disease resistance. Sweet Slice is a new one for me. It also has good disease resistance and should be non-bitter and productive. It is a monoeceous variety so it will require pollination. I wanted Sweet Success which is parthenocarpic, but could not find seeds available.
I had planted more varieties and I have more containers to set up. I have Suyo, parthenocarpic, good heat and disease resistence. Less PM resistant than other varieiies. Diva is a persian cucumber, parthenocarpic, crisp with no bitterness, disease resistant, AARS winner. Tasty Jade is a parthenocarpic Japanese cucumber about 10-12 inches long. An old variety I was able to find seeds for it. This is a popular greenhouse variety. Jibai Shimoshirazu, a japanese type cucumber from Baker Creek. It is shorter and fatter than most Japanese cukes about 8 inches long. I am trying to see how this one does. It is supposed to be heat and disease resistant.
I have one surviving Summer Delight cucumber all by its lonely. It is now to big to try to plant something else with it. It was planted earlier, so it should be the first to produce.
I am seeing slug trails and I found some baby slugs under a couple of pots, so I put out some slug bait today. I did not have much so I put it around the youngest plants.
I also took off some of the smaller papaya. The birds had eaten two of the yellow papayas. I found the fruit on the ground this morning. One was eaten to the skin the other was half eaten. Either the papaya just needed more time to sweeten or there isn't much else around for the papaya loving birds. The tomatoes are also getting eaten as well. Most of the birds around my yard are fruit and leaf eaters not insect eating birds. There are a pair of mynahs that come around and they are more omnivorous and will eat both fruit ant insects.
I transplanted the one remaining Prospera basil was transplanted from the pot with the tomatoes to its own pot. It is a compact DMR variety. I had three come up, two of them had the heads chomped off. Hopefully, this one survives to adulthood.
I washed and replanted the peppermint, spearmint, and the one puny thyme. So far the mints are taking off and the thyme is starting to grow.
More peppers are starting to sprout. I won't count them until they survive transplant.
I actually have carrots from about 4 months ago. They are starting to finally get bigger roots, but they are already too old, so they will become worm food. I will have a couple of more pots to redo.
Taro is growing in the kabocha. It must have been in the reused soil. I will transplant them. The other araimo need to be harvested and divided anyway.
The kabocha has started to set flowers. I am going to try the trick in the video that Gary posted and see if I can get fruit on a shorter vine. I need to review the video so I know when to cut the tips. Otherwise, kabocha will get to be at least 12 ft.
I have spiny amaranth growing in my yard. Where did that come from?
I’m following typical Japanese cultivation method for all my cucurbits although some of the OP types may not thrive this way (I’ll find out).
Cucumbers and zucchini/summer squash main vine is allowed to grow/protected from tip pruning (cucumbers until they are grown straight up a vertical trellis and then cut at gardener’s height.
Cucumbers 2ndary shoots/suckers and fruits are removed for first 5 leaf nodes, then specific pruning regimen is followed, with 2ndary and 3iary (tertiary) vines not allowed to grow on until later (but before the main vine is tipped)
Kabocha/winter squash and all melons main vine is cut after 5 or 6 true leaves, then 2ndary side shoots are selected 2 to 4 vines per plant. Then if I remember correctly, 1st female blossom is culled and 2nd female blossom is chosen for hand pollination, with additional female blossoms also hand pollinated, but only 2 fruits are allowed to grow per each 2ndary vine.
All 2ndary and 3iary suckers/vines are removed below the first fruit, but are allowed to grow on beyond. When growing on the ground, they are guided to loop back so the foliage shades the fruits to protect from sunburn (and hide from pest birds like crows).
The foliage/growths below the fruit diverts nutrients and water away from the fruit, but the foliage growing beyond the fruit feeds and builds sugar in the fruit from photosynthesis — the chlorophyll converted solar energy — (This is why you always keep at least one or two leaves beyond the cucumber, eggplants, etc. including tree fruits when pruning).
…Haha sorry for rattling all that off. I’ve been reviewing those techniques. This was a good refresher
Thanks it may come in handy. I will have to print this page because I won't remember all the steps.
I cage cucumbers and I try to plant multiple vines in a pot because I average about a dozen cucumber per vine that I actually get to harvest. The pickleworm is my biggest nemesis. It works for me with minimum pruning required.
Kabocha, I have trellised before. But squash vines take up way more space than cucumbers so that is why I want to try to limit the spread of the vines. I am aiming for one good fruit per vine. Bonus, squash tips and flowers are edible too.
I went out to work in the garden and it started to rain. I still got the main garden leveled. I put up the second hoop on the main garden and got started on the third one. I need to get more parts. I ordered bird netting to go over the hoops. I have bird netting, but it is too short and it is hard to work with. I only use it for temporary protection.
The birds have been poking in the garden looking to see if I planted anything.
I caught a cabbage white butterfly today. My aim is getting better. The last two times, I caught nothing. I am seeing more butterflies in the garden. There are bees foraging, but not that many.
The cucumbers I transplanted yesterday and the basil are all up, so far no casualties.
I made some roasted chicken and vegetables, so I gave all the peelings to the worms along with the over the hill vegetables I cleaned out of the frig. The bin is still full of the sweet potato leaves, but the worms have been eating through the food fairly fast. The bin does not smell so it is probably o.k.
I side dressed the cucumber, kabocha, tomato, and eggplant with a pinch of sulfate of ammonia and a pinch of langbeinite (sul-po-mag). I did the math. It came out to about 1/8 of a teaspoon of calcium nitrate and K-mag. every two weeks. I figured a pinch is just about that. I am only supplementing the reused soil containers. I did put lime in the containers, so I am holding off on the calcium nitrate for now and see how it does. Right now, the growth is just slow, so I am going to concentrate on giving them more nitrogen to speed up growth. No deficiencies are showing up. I would rather under fertilize than over at this point. The tips of the tomatoes are showing smaller leaves. Sun king is a TYLCV resistant tomato, but sometimes there is break through. I will see if the nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium helps. The tomato is fully grown and has started to produce tomatoes. The other tomato I have growing in the tree bag has also started to flower.
Beans in the tower are starting to flower. Some of the beans with the heads cut off are growing new leaves. One of the tiers on my tower is not on right and it is making the tower lean. I will have to take the tiers off to reset it.
I just came in from watering the yard. Some of the plants were definitely showing signs of stress with limp leaves on the bay leaves, peppermint, and Virea. Except for the peppermint, all those pots are pot bound. Surprisingly the cucumber starts were o.k., but I did water them even though I did not water the yard.
I literally pulled a handful of weeds, most of them kylinga. It is a good thing they are easy to pull. Especially since Round Up won't affect them that much.
I spent the day working on the frame for the bird netting. I had to get more pvc pipe and then I had to go out this afternoon to get cable ties. I go to the garden tomorrow so I will see how tired I am after that to work on it. I only have the braces and securing the base of the lower netting with U pins. I did find the U pins. I broke one of the coupling trying to bend the frame. I had to give in and actually glue the pieces together and I waited a couple of hours for the glue to set and dry. Now, all the hoops are up. I just have to make the support pieces. For that I can use whatever scraps I have around, since it is just for support.
I did do a little straightening in the garage. I had to move some stuff to get to the pvc pipes. I cleaned out my tool can and I have some tools in my car to donate to the garden and a couple of brooms, and a mop that needs to go to the dump. I may save the handles, they would be good for stakes. The heads will fit in the garbage can.
The kabocha flowers are blooming. They look to be all male, which would be normal for the male flowers to bloom first.
For me this was a productive day. I still have to take long breaks, but I am getting more done before I get too tired.
I found a lemon that had dropped on the ground. I am thinking this lemon is not a Meyer. It has a pointy end. I may be the Lisbon. I thought it died. Maybe not.
Watching this morning, I thought of you @imafan. He uses floating row cover to protect from crows eating ripe red tomatoes. He said he’d been using this during the June rainy season in combo with weekly vinegar spray to prevent pests and fungal diseases.
I’ll have to go back and find his recipe, but other viewers have asked for the vinegar recipe as well so may see update in comments. Pretty sure he posted about it before though — probably 1:200 (rice vinegar:water). << it was 1:500 >> see video in next post
He thinks there has been less tobacco hornworm incursion this year as well, not from the vinegar sprays but due to the physical barrier.
In Japan with readily available Chinese imports, he can get 1.4mx5m row cover in 100 yen shop. We probably pay a bit more.
Last edited by applestar on Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
* preventative against aphids and leaf-eating beetles
* preventative against fungal infections like powdery mildew, gray mold
— 500 ml bottle of genuine brewed rice vinegar.
— Add garlic and takanotsume (seeds removed)
— extract for 30 days in hot shade like shed
— use in 1:500 water dilution
** Use on mature plants about 3 weeks after planting out
** spray no more than once a week
* preventative against aphids and leaf-eating beetles
* preventative against fungal infections like powdery mildew, gray mold
— 500 ml bottle of genuine brewed rice vinegar.
— Add garlic and takanotsume (seeds removed)
— extract for 30 days in hot shade like shed
— use in 1:500 water dilution
** Use on mature plants about 3 weeks after planting out
** spray no more than once a week
I have used full strength 5% vinegar on garden plants many times. College Biology class I remember vinegar kills mold & mildew very fast less than 1 minute. I always worry if vinegar stays on plants very long it might be bad for the plants so I wash vinegar away with the water hose after about 2 minutes. Plenty of water on the soil washes vinegar away.
Mother Earth News magazine 40 years ago showed results of using 5% vinegar as weed killer. It has to be hot 90°+ and full sun all day, also vinegar needs to dry on the plants and stay on the plants with no rain no water for 3 days to kill weeds and some plants are not killed by vinegar.
2 cups of pickling salt mixed into 1 gallon of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of dish soap to make liquid stick to leaves, will kill several weeds in hot 90° full sun all day. Other salts will not work they are not 100% pure salt.
I tried this salt vinegar weed killer 40 years ago, some weeds died and some didn't. 2 days ago I made salt vinegar weed killer and sprayed several places in the yard hoping 99° will kill weeds but yesterday flash flood probably washed it all away.
I have a very good garden patrol. The pickleworms are the only pests I have on the cucumber. Bt and bags work for that.
I have very few aphid problems. Even fewer this year. Even the gardenia is relatively free of aphids which almost never happens if I don't treat them. Even the white fly numbers are down. I only see a little. Thrips and mites are perennial problems, but for the most part I rarely treat them either since the damage is mostly cosmetic and I cannot kill them without killing predators. I only treat the orchids or I won't get any flowers. Water remains my best weapon against pests.
Diseases are different. In my climate, selecting for resistant cultivars and planting at the right time of the year is best practice.
The biggest issue to deal with are the birds. They are eating the seeds out of the starters if I don't cover them. They ate most of the bean and corn seeds out of the garden. They go after the sweetest ripe fruit and will also eat the bean seedlings and beans. They really like sluggo and will come back for more.
Other than water. I occasionally will use cinnamon, alcohol, 3 in 1 spray, Imidicloprid, and hydrogen peroxide. Cinnamon can help with soil born diseases. I use the sulphur and pyrethrin spray to control thrips and mites on selected plants. alcohol is all purpose tool sanitizer and it also kills bugs. Hydrogen peroxide sprayed right after the rain stops will kill fungal spores before they can take hold. Insect netting and fences for the large pests. It won't stop all of them, but I can at least get a decent harvest that way. I have a cage around one of the tubs for bush beans. I have to use bird netting on trellises. I have a snail fence, because I have massive African snails, but it won't stop slugs. The toad keeps the numbers down. I don't find as many any more and I am using less snail bait.
The imidicloprid is used for the roses, gardenia if it is heavily infested, and the hibiscus. Roses, gardenia, orchids, plumeria, and jasmine are pest traps. They cannot be grown here without regular pesticides or fungicides. I have 3 hibiscus. One of them is a modern hybrid and will be totally devastated by hibiscus erineum mites if it is not treated. The other two hibiscus have palmate leaves, the erineum mites don't bother them, so they don't need to be treated. The plumeria is too tall to treat and too close to the vegetable garden to use a systemic. Most of its problems are not transferable, except for the thrips.
Ground mealybugs are getting better. I no longer try to save plants, I just get rid of them and wash the pots with soap and soak them in very hot water.
I use Round Up on the areas of the yard that are not covered in weed mat and are bare. When it rains there are just too many to keep up with any other way. Weed will grow on top of the weed mat and it is better to use herbicides rather than pull the weeds because it would leave a bigger hole in the weed mat.
It is very hot today. 84 degrees. There is a breeze, but it still feels very muggy. It rained overnight and I pulled a few weeds this morning. I had to climb over the low tile wall into the bed next to the wall to pick out the weedy trees and asparagus fern. Not an easy task with arthritic knees that don't bend easily. Some of them were too deep and did not come out. I will have to go at them again. A handful of weeds isn't much, but if I can get some weeding done everyday, it will help. I filled my two green bins that were almost empty in one day. The first bin I filled just by weeding one corner of my yard and cutting back, the rose, rosemary, katuk, and sweet potatoes growing there. Along with pulling out the spurge and bitter melon. The second can, I filled by hand weeding the pollen and nectar garden that was overrun with spurge and baby's tears. I have a big hole in the flower bed now.
I finally finished putting the frame together for the bird netting. It was hard to put it up myself and it is not straight or even because my garden is not straight either. I asked my BIL if he can help me put on the bird netting tomorrow. Bird netting is a pain to work with and I got one that is 13 ft x 40 ft, so it may be unwieldy for one person to manage.
Something is happening to my cucumber seedlings. I should have taken a picture. I don't see any bugs, but I have seen leaf hoppers on the tomatoes. I don't know if this is a heat, soil, or bug issue. I did spray it with 3 in 1 spray this afternoon, in case it is a bug issue that is feeding overnight. It seems to be affecting one seedling at a time, so I don't think it is environmental and I think it is more likely something that is feeding on it at night, because the leaf starts off with white spots and the edges of the new leaf curling. Overnight, the center of the leaf has interveinal scorching.
I fed some of the potted plants today. I just noticed, or I wasn't paying too much attention. The citrus in the smaller pots are not looking good. I haven't fed them in awhile. They also need to be up potted, but first I need to get them looking better. I have some chlorosis and yellowing on the nau gardenia, so I fed all of those plants today. I still have to feed the roses, gardenia, crepe myrtle, and other plants in the front yard. I watered them yesterday, they looked a little dry, and then it rained overnight.
@imafan, do you remember this? I posted in reply to something you commented in MY garden thread last fall. I made the laundry net/basket “capsule” this spring and found it works for starting brassica seedlings without pest issues.
I was thinking that the type you might find beneficial might be an insect-free screened “house” with rain shelter solid roof or shade cloth roof (and maybe side).
If not enough space for a walk-in, maybe one or more of those mini-green house shelving units? If you set one up back to back, that might allow them to stand-alone. Otherwise, you need to stake them down so they don’t fall over.
You could also DIY an open wire shelving unit as an alternative.
…also… You might find this useful if you can obtain the cylindrical fine mesh blanket washing bag — maybe you can in Hawaii.
They — as well as the collapsible laundry baskets — are apparently readily available in “100 yen” — their equivalent for “dollar” — stores. But I can’t find the cylindrical washing bag on-line at all, and the laundry baskets seem to cost closer to $10….
That is interesting. I have to see what is available. The closest thing would be a food umbrella, but I don't usually have to protect seedlings from insects. I have to protect seeds from birds picking them out of the pots. For that, putting a tray upside down over the seed tray works. The insect netting, snail fence and hoops for the garden do help with some of the smaller insects, except mites, but they are mainly to stop birds from eating the tomatoes, pickle worms from infesting the cucumbers, and the net bags to stop white flies that carry TYLCV. I made a "cage" for one of the pots from construction plastic fencing. It is mainly to keep snails and birds out otherwise I would not have any beans. The construction fence has 1 inch eyes so it won't stop any insects. It won't stop slugs either, but it will stop African snails. Keeping them exclusive is the main thing. I do have insect netting for a row. I would have to move things around to create a low hoop tunnel to use it.
Stink bugs and leaf hoppers, are new bugs that are coming because of the neighbor's hibiscus hedge. I am also getting more different kinds of butterflies in the yard. They are coming for the cosmos and penta I have planted in the back yard. Most of them are only coming for nectar, but I will go after the cabbage white butterfly because that one is a pest. The only defense I have against the leaf hoppers and stink bugs are the insect mesh bags and lizards.
My BIL came over yesterday and helped me get the netting over the top of the garden. I did not even realize it was the Fourth of July, I forget what day it was a lot and I don't celebrate holidays so, I don't think about or miss them. It is 13 ft wide but too short. so I will have to find a way to extend it. It may take me a while to figure this new wrinkle out. I also have to figure out how to be able to access this fortress once I close it up. I already discovered one problem I did not think about. Leaves dropping on the netting.
Elsewhere in the garden. The papaya is trying to sprout new leaves and fruit. It has to go anyway. Burpees bush beefsteak and Sun King have tomatoes.
I started bagging Sun King. I have another determinate tomato without a label that has started to flower. I think it may also be a Sun King because of the short internodes and it is TYLCV resistant. Rosella crimson, tomatoes all have BER. I will have to start over with better soil.
The Sun King has Cosmos as a companion and both of them are almost 5 ft tall in the 1/3 old mix pot with the modified fertilizer. I have had to supplement with nitrogen since this mix has no nitrogen component. I guess it got enough. I am worried about Sun King because the tips don't look right. If TYLCV is breaking through, I will have to get rid of it. If it is something else, I will try MG foliar feed to see if it improves.
The remaining Southern Delight cucumber is growing well with big leaves and no nutrient issues. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
The basil I transplanted is starting to grow bigger leaves now it is not competing with the tomatoes and cosmos.
The kabocha has started putting out female flowers. I should be able to pinch the vines next week.
The other two pots with cucumbers Beit Alpha and Summer Slice are growing. I still need to prep the other two pots for the cucumber seedlings I still need to plant out.
Harvested the first handful of contender beans from the tower. Valentine tomatoes are still producing, but the vines are looking worn. Chili peppers are ripening. MY BIL took some home to make chili pepper water.
I harvested my two eggplant and along with the eggplant from the garden I made an eggplant stir fry. I will have that for at least a couple of days.
I have miracle berries and papaya as well.
I weeded the turmeric and more shoots are coming up. Only 7 months late.
The mint bowls need a haircut already and the wimpy thyme is growing bigger.
Some of the citrus trees are looking grim. I fed them and hopefully, they will come back. It has been a long time since I fed them or even paid that much attention to them.
If I may, In my experience easiest way to create entry for draped netting is to form an overlap, then secure thin poles of some kind along the vertical edges to mark and stabilize. Use the poles to clip the netting on at strategic places sufficient to keep from flapping open and keep out wildlife. The overlap itself is sufficient against birds, but rodents and probably raccoons would get in unless secured.
Leaves — leaf blower from inside
Blossom End Rot — have you tried …
* Pruning the leaf on the other side of the stem while fruits are still developing? — supposed to prevent calcium from being diverted to the leaf instead of the fruit (leaf gets priority).
* Also cull excess flowers on floral truss early and limit number of fruits per truss.
* Remove suckers — no need to let nutrients including calcium to be wasted on those.
Thanks for the tips. I do have mice in the garden but they don't cause a lot of problems since I don't use sluggo anymore. I may have to get a blower. No racoons here and I don't have mongoose either. I could try to secure the flaps with bamboo poles or make something more flexible using drip tubing that will be easier to conform to the curve of the structure. Birds here are pretty smart. They go under the netting to get to the fruit, so I have to secure the bottom of the netting and they have untied the organza insect bags, so now I have to make sure I put twist ties since I cannot count on the purse string closure to be secure enough. The cardinals opened the bags to eat the tomatoes. I had to put stops on my shade houses to keep the bulbuls from strafing the orchids on the fence. occasionally, a bird still gets inside a section of a shade bench and can't get out.
I also found a bird trapped in the bird netting I put over the pollen and nectar garden. It was trying to eat the flower seeds.
The BER is from the soil in the pot being very low in calcium. It was one of the pots I made without adding any lime before I got the soil test. Potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium were all low. pH was 5.2. At that level the aluminum will bind with phosphorus. Even though the phosphorus is very high. Zinc was actually a little above normal, but because of the high phosphorus, the recommendation was to foliar feed with the micros because the zinc may be bound. Since this is a determinate tomato, it is easier to start over than try to fix it.
Thanks for the tips. I do have mice in the garden but they don't cause a lot of problems since I don't use sluggo anymore. I may have to get a blower. No racoons here and I don't have mongoose either. I could try to secure the flaps with bamboo poles or make something more flexible using drip tubing that will be easier to conform to the curve of the structure. Birds here are pretty smart. They go under the netting to get to the fruit, so I have to secure the bottom of the netting and they have untied the organza insect bags, so now I have to make sure I put twist ties since I cannot count on the purse string closure to be secure enough. The cardinals opened the bags to eat the tomatoes. I had to put stops on my shade houses to keep the bulbuls from strafing the orchids on the fence. occasionally, a bird still gets inside a section of a shade bench and can't get out.
I also found a bird trapped in the bird netting I put over the pollen and nectar garden. It was trying to eat the flower seeds.
The BER is from the soil in the pot being very low in calcium. It was one of the pots I made without adding any lime before I got the soil test. Potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium were all low. pH was 5.2. At that level the aluminum will bind with phosphorus. Even though the phosphorus is very high. Zinc was actually a little above normal, but because of the high phosphorus, the recommendation was to foliar feed with the micros because the zinc may be bound. Since this is a determinate tomato, it is easier to start over than try to fix it.
I think it was college biology class that I learned certain plants can create certain chemicals that do not exist in garden soil. Example, sugar beets & melons create sugar, there is no sugar in soil for plants to take in. Some soils have chemicals locked and not available to plants but adding calcium will release the lock chemical so plants can use them. Wood ash contains a variety of chemical that plants can use. Different tree ash contains different chemicals in different amounts. Forest soil is very fertile compose that has almost no food value for plants until you add calcium. The process of burning wood & dead plants creates potassium. Potassium in wood ash will evaporate away keep fresh burned wood ash in a closed air tight container. If soil has iron shortage throw rusty nails & empty food cans into the garden soil. Some plants can take chemicals from the air and convert it to something else and put in in soil. I don't remember enough of this to make good use of it in my garden.
That is very true. The soil here is basically volcanic basalt. In the higher elevations where I am, the soil is an oxisol. A weathered soil that is high in aluminum so it locks up phosphorus especially when the pH is below 5.5. It is nutrient poor but can be made fertile with amendments and fertilizer. For years it was recommended to use high phosphorus fertilizers because of the locked phosphorus. Now, my soil is really over the top. It has hundreds of times more phosphorus than it needs. I have not added phosphorus except for what was in the compost for 10 years. I have red clay, so it is actually relatively high in natural iron, so I rarely see iron chlorosis except maybe in gardenia, but that is usually related to pH. My soil pH usually is between 6.0-6.4. I live in a high rainfall upper elevation, so my soil is naturally acidic. The compost usually brings up the pH, and I only limed about every two years. My calcium is also high, it has been over 5000 ppm for years. The last lab test came from a different lab and it had much lower numbers, but the normals were different too.
I rarely used lime or even had it in the house because my other two garden plots, one in Wahiawa, the same oxisol as mine, was amended with chicken manure and compost for years so the pH there was 7.8. The other plot was 800 ft lower. It is filled soil, but the base soil is a mollisol. It was also heavily amended with compost that had a pH between 7.8-8.13. That also had a pH of 7.8 and it was a struggle to grow anything that required acidic conditions like tomatoes, gardenia, lovage in those soils. They were better than my home soil because the higher pH is better for root crops like daikon. The temperature there is 3-9 degrees higher and rainfall is 25% of what I get in the upper central plain. I had to give up the Wahiawa community garden plot because I could not take care of it or spend 6 hours in the garden at one time anymore.
I have been testing my soil for over 10 years now about every 3 years. The soil test from each garden looks about the same except for pH, which I usually have to adjust downward for the other two plots. I only used lime on my home plot. The one thing I learned in all that time, is that the base soil is the governor. The soil will always want to return to its natural baseline. It is better to just grow what works rather than try to constantly change it.
The potassium on my soil tests were never very low just on the low normal or slightly above the normal range. But the nitrogen in my soil is high, so it is better for leaf and fruit crops, but not great for root crops which develop large leaves instead.
The containers are the only places where I use a complete fertilizer. In new peat lite, it works fine. However, the pH changes and the nitrogen and potassium an micros get used up, but not the phosphorus which is why I have so many issues trying to figure out how to fertilize the reused soil. I used to dump all of the old potting soil in the main garden. I haven't been able to do that for years, because I did not need to add more phosphorus to the main garden.
It also costs 30% more to fill pots with new soil, so I am forced to reuse potting soil and I still have to dump a lot of it spreading it out on my grass instead.
Wood ash is not something I have easy access to. Heat is free here so most people do not have fireplaces. Open burning has been banned since the 80's and firewood is hard to come by. I have charcoal, but I rarely do any grilling either. I thought about going to the park on the weekend and collecting ash from the charcoal ash pits, but most people smother coals in lighter fluid, so I don't think that was such a great idea after all.
I did get sulfate of potash 0-0-50, kelp meal which is 1-0-2, and langbeinite( sul-po-mag) which is 0-0-22. I also have calcium nitrate 15.5% nitrogen, 18.5% Calcium which was recommended by my last soil test for the containers. I also have Epsom salt which was the easiest thing to find and dolomite lime. The numbers are so high on these fertilizers, the amounts are in teaspoons and tablespoons for each container. It is going to take a while to use it up. A good thing since they were really expensive. Now, I have to get gamma lids and desiccants to keep it from absorbing too much moisture from the air and becoming rocks.
I just added 1lb of sul-po-mag to the main garden with 2 tablespoons of sulfate of ammonia.(approx 100 sq ft) Even though the calcium is high, I may still have to lime the main garden to keep the pH from going lower, I need to find compost that does not have any fertilizer added to it.
For the containers dilution is helping and I am adding very small amounts of fertilizer but I have to supplement nitrogen side dressings, and I have to foliar feed more than I like to. At least I can use my MG feeder. Organic fertilizer had to be mixed in a 5 gallon bucket and I did not like having to bucket fertilize every week.
Because of the organic fertilizer issues in the containers, I am now very aware of how the different elements affect each other. Their relative ratios to each other need to be maintained as well as the pH in order for nutrients to be available.
Intermittent rain changed my plans for the day. I was able to plant one more 18 gallon bucket with Burpee Bushsteak tomato. It is a determinate, but I don't know if it is TYLCV resistant. I caged it but I did not bag it. Sometimes tomatoes have unlisted resistance. I would have to take the cage apart and make it a single in order to be able to get the bag over it. If it does not have resistance, then I will know what to do next time. I still had two cucumber varieties left to plant muncher and Suyo. Suyo is being attacked by something. Since I aready have 4 cucumber pots planted and unfortunately they will be coming in around the same time except for Summer Delight that was planted earlier. I have enough cukes. So, I culled both cukes. I can plant these varieties as succession plants later. All of the seedlings had to be dealt with.The cukes and peppers were all planted on 6/12/23 so they are about 3 weeks old and need to move up and get fertilized.
I transplanted Thai hot, Giant Alcongua seedlings from community pots to single pots. I have one surviving 7 pot hot. I will try to plant more peppers. They go into smaller containers and the Thai hots can go into the tower once it gets a little bigger. There has been too much rain for summer. I may have to reduce the peat moss in the peppers. I am losing too many seedlings because the pots are are staying wet too long.
My new dragon fruit has a flower forming on a two foot plant. That's progress. I think it likes it in more sun.
The birds are eating the papaya. This papaya is not that good, there must not be too many other things around to eat. I have strawberries, but they are not ripe. They are also eating the grape tomatoes.that are not bagged.
I picked more contender beans today, It was just a handful. This the second picking.
I fertilized the containers with MG in the back yard. I still have the front yard to go.
It rained again last night. I did get out into the garden and finished fertilizing the front yard with MG. I worked on the tunnel securing the bird netting. I found that it is really hard to thread bamboo through the bird netting. I had a couple of pieces of hanging wire. It is easier to thread but harder to secure the netting so it stays on the wire. I will need to put an extension on the netting. It is too short to make it all the way across. It should be 13 ft wide, but it seems to be more like 10. I may have to pick up more hanging wire. I pulled out a few more weeds. I am still finding weedy tree seedlings.
It took awhile, but I finally got the frame and bird netting up over the main garden. I planted UH #9 Silver ( a white corn) yesterday in the main garden. I was going to plant ambrosia, but this was the seed I found first. I also planted 12 back up plants in case there are holes in the plants that germinate. I have 13hours 12 min and 51 sec of daylight now. I will have at least 12 hours of daylight till September 28. This is an 80 day corn so, I will see if it comes in on time.
I took pictures of the garden. It has been raining a lot, but now all of the cucumbers have flowers and I am harvesting fruit from Southern Delight. I am still getting tomatoes from valentine although some of the valentine vines are done. I do have problems with Sun King. It is a tylcv resistant tomato but virus is breaking through and I will have to pull both plants. There are tomatoes on the Sun King because they were infected late. All the new growth is cupped and stunted and one of them is showing chlorosis. I also culled a Burpees bush steak. It is definitely not tylcv resistant so it will need to be grown in a bag. I have stopped watering the rosella crimson and the Sun Kings so I can pull them out. Pesaro basil looks better and is growing in its own pot. I does not have any sign of basil downy mildew, but it still tastes nasty.
I am harvesting beans from the towers. The beans and strawberries are getting their leaves beat up by rose beetles. The beans will be coming out soon, but I may have to transplant the strawberries to a container I can cover. I am also discovering that it is not a good idea to put plants in the tower that gets big. The Italian parsley and kale have pretty much dominated their tiers and the other pockets are empty.
I sprayed the weeds before the rain and they are dying now. Some weeds will not be killed by Round Up, those I will have to try to dig out or use triclopyr.
It has been raining off and on for days. I did not go outside much, as a result I have some casualties that did not get water soon enough. Some were on the brink and wilting but they came back.
The kaffir lime is making fruit. I may have to cull them. It also has al lot of mite damaged leaves I have to prune off. I will do that slowly so it won't balk as much.
I need to repot orchids. I got the pots and media ready, but that is as far as I got.
I did cut down the papaya tree.
Oncidiums are burning in the sun.
I want to cut the kabocha vines but most of the fruit is being stung and dying off. I need to get a couple of good ones bagged. I have bagged three but none have survived. The biggest one was obviously stung.
There is some fungal disease but it is not surprising given the rain.
There is always more to do.
Attachments
5 tier tower. I am harvesting beans. Parsley is taking over it's tier.
Sun King with TYLCV. I have 2 plants infected and both need to be pulled.
bird netting on 3/4 inch pvc frame. The garden is not square so the height and width of the hoops vary. I needed to get help putting the netting on. It did not reach across and I had to patch it which was hard for one person to do.
7 tier planer. I am also harvesting beans from this tower. Again the bigger plants take over tiers. The beans and strawberries are getting beat up I will need to move the strawberries to a container I can protect.
5 tier tower garden. I am harvesting beans. Lettuce is already bolting. The parsley has taken over the tier. It is taking up too much root space. It is old, I need to start another somewhere else.
Ginger and turmeric got a late start.
Burpee Bush Steak. I have to cover this. So far it has no sign of virus.
First Southern Delight cucumber was perfect
Southern Delight.I am picking fruit now. Only one plant in this pot very productive, nice long cucumbers.
Beit Alpha cucumber
Summer slice cucumbers. First fruit are about 4 inches
jibai shimoshirazu cucumber. The youngest cucumbers.
