New Year and a new thread.
The pac choy seeds I planted are sprouting! It has only been a few days. However, the Poamoho eggplant is wilting. It suddenly wilted last week and it has not come back up. I think it is a casualty of too much rain and the root is rotting. The other eggplant is not doing that, but it is older and the roots are probably all over that pot. The peppers are all turning yellow and dropping leaves. This is unusual for the peppers. The ones in the pots may have needed fertilizer. I don't fertilize them regularly, but the ones in the garden are also doing the same thing. There isn't any nutrient shortage there. I have started more pepper seeds. I am surprised they germinated. It must be warmer than usual. They don't like to germinate well in soils less than 68 degrees. I am germinating mostly the sweet and mild peppers. The super hots really don't like cold soil.
I still am finding pots with ground mealy bugs but less than before. I am still getting pickle worm damage but that is better. The monarchs are around. I saw one lurking in the front yard yesterday. I will have to check the crown flowers again. There are a few white flies, but they never completely go away. And I got another snail today. Actually, one snail is good for this time of the year. I am finding a lot of empty shells though.
Most of the rain is going over the islands but the storms will probably impact California in about a week.
The zucchini is on a roll. Between the Partenon and Dunja I am getting one or two zucchinis every 4-5 days.
Yesterday I planted the Soarer replacements. 3/5 seeds germinated. I have interplanted them with Yaya carrots and Salad bowl lettuce.
The lettuce in the towers are starting to grow faster, and I could start harvesting a few leaves of the romaine soon.
A second broccoli head is forming.
The sunflowers came up and the rooster did not dig them out.
I planted some papaya seeds. I don't know if they will come up. They don't like cold and on a good day it can take a few days to a month for them to germinate especially since they are not fresh seeds.
I harvested a few more Poamoho beans and okra and I had a large cucumber for dinner with tuna and mayo. There are more cucumbers I can pick, but none of them are really large.
The phaius orchid is putting up two flower stalks, but it won't be ready for the next orchid meeting, but should be up for the February meeting. Some of the oncidiums are also starting to bloom way out of season.
The taro has two keiki. I am considering separating them while I still can. I will need two more buckets to do that.
Chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, kale, lemons, limes, and herbs are ready to harvest anytime. I won't need to go get more vegetables for awhile.
The weather has been very mild for a winter month. night temp about 62 and day around 77-78 degrees. I'm going to try starting some seeds I usually don't try at this time of the year. Peppers, papaya, and eggplant. I sorted through my seeds today and put them in separate zip bags. So, I have sorted in separate bags, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and a bag of assorted greens (lettuce, chard, kale, Asian greens, and NZ spinach.) I only sorted couple of bags, but t will make it easier to find some of the seeds and hopefully I won't buy so many this year. P.S. More catalogs have arrived and I am getting emails from the seed companies as well. It is hard to resist.
Harvested 3 zucchini. One had some pickle worm damage, 2 okra, 6 Poamoho beans, 1 very curled cucumber, one broccoli head and two side shoots.
I replanted the nectar and pollen garden with a pollinator mix, marigolds, alyssum, rudbeckia, and Shasta daisy. I don't expect all of them to come up. I just hope the rooster does not come back to make trouble.
Harvested 3 zucchini. One had some pickle worm damage, 2 okra, 6 Poamoho beans, 1 very curled cucumber, one broccoli head and two side shoots.
I replanted the nectar and pollen garden with a pollinator mix, marigolds, alyssum, rudbeckia, and Shasta daisy. I don't expect all of them to come up. I just hope the rooster does not come back to make trouble.
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applestar
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Sounds like you’ll be experimenting with growing things that might be considered “off season” like I am (sort of)
I wish I could try growing more things in containers — your results are inspiring!
My primary issue is watering because of the summer drought — I need to get back to the container growing experiments.
Have you tried bokashi and lactobaccili/probiotics for nutrient support and “refreshing” or neutralizing disease organisms in container potting media?
Apparently in Japan where a good number of people only have container gardens on their veranda's, they have been selling “inoculant packets” for mixing into used container media, then bagging the entire container for heat retention and “treatment period” — I can’t remember now — a couple of weeks? a month? They tout that you don’t have to replace the entire potting mix — a plus for people living in high rise apartments and condos.
I suspect the probiotics involved are bokashi-like yeast and lactobacilli microbial mix.
I wish I could try growing more things in containers — your results are inspiring!
My primary issue is watering because of the summer drought — I need to get back to the container growing experiments.
Have you tried bokashi and lactobaccili/probiotics for nutrient support and “refreshing” or neutralizing disease organisms in container potting media?
Apparently in Japan where a good number of people only have container gardens on their veranda's, they have been selling “inoculant packets” for mixing into used container media, then bagging the entire container for heat retention and “treatment period” — I can’t remember now — a couple of weeks? a month? They tout that you don’t have to replace the entire potting mix — a plus for people living in high rise apartments and condos.
I suspect the probiotics involved are bokashi-like yeast and lactobacilli microbial mix.
I have tried some other things to sterilize the soil. Like hot water treatments. While that worked a bit. It was expensive since it broke my range and my microwave. I would need to get a propane stove to heat that much water without breaking the equipment. I have nematodes and ground mealy bugs and I have tried diatomaceous earth, but it is more practical to bag and just throw the bad soil away. I have to bleach all the pots now. I used to only bleach the ones for the orchids.
I haven't heard of bokashi being able to neutralize soil. I should look into that. I only made bokashi once a long time ago.
The other problem I have in the SIPS is the soil in the bottom of the pot gets very stinky so it has a high fungal count which makes it not a good candidate for reuse. I usually spread that out on the grass. I also have soil from the pepper plants that got bacterial spot. I cannot reuse that because the pathogen can survive in the soil.
I only reused soil because it was so difficult to even find any soil amendments anywhere for the last three years. When I tried to regenerate the soil by adding half old soil and 50% new soil, I still had a mix that was wetter than an all new mix. I also found that I can't use the same formula for the starter fertilizer, it isn't enough.
I stopped trying to do organic in pots. I had to order the fertilizer since I could not find it locally and the plants had more issues with nutrient deficiencies, pests, disease, and yields were poor since the plants did not last as long as they should. I still have soe organic fertilizer left and I am going to finish it off, but I will use it mainly for the tomatoes and herbs which did not have the problems the cucumbers did.
I haven't heard of bokashi being able to neutralize soil. I should look into that. I only made bokashi once a long time ago.
The other problem I have in the SIPS is the soil in the bottom of the pot gets very stinky so it has a high fungal count which makes it not a good candidate for reuse. I usually spread that out on the grass. I also have soil from the pepper plants that got bacterial spot. I cannot reuse that because the pathogen can survive in the soil.
I only reused soil because it was so difficult to even find any soil amendments anywhere for the last three years. When I tried to regenerate the soil by adding half old soil and 50% new soil, I still had a mix that was wetter than an all new mix. I also found that I can't use the same formula for the starter fertilizer, it isn't enough.
I stopped trying to do organic in pots. I had to order the fertilizer since I could not find it locally and the plants had more issues with nutrient deficiencies, pests, disease, and yields were poor since the plants did not last as long as they should. I still have soe organic fertilizer left and I am going to finish it off, but I will use it mainly for the tomatoes and herbs which did not have the problems the cucumbers did.
It is a little cold today 57 degrees at 8:30 am. I was planning to plant some pepper seeds, but that may have to go on hold. It is still a nice sunny day and I have to fill my green cans a little bit more, that should warm me up a bit.
The pickle worms are still going for the cucumbers I missed wrapping. I guess they are not going to take a break after all. I will have to start spraying again. I have spinosad. It is less specific but it should last longer. I still have to spray it in the evening to lessen the impact on the bees.
I was about to pull down one of my two older cucumber vines. They must have heard me threaten them, they are both putting out new flowers and fruit.
I still have a couple of more pots that need the soil changed and a couple of pots I have already cleaned up and are ready to plant. There is always something that needs to get done.
The pickle worms are still going for the cucumbers I missed wrapping. I guess they are not going to take a break after all. I will have to start spraying again. I have spinosad. It is less specific but it should last longer. I still have to spray it in the evening to lessen the impact on the bees.
I was about to pull down one of my two older cucumber vines. They must have heard me threaten them, they are both putting out new flowers and fruit.
I still have a couple of more pots that need the soil changed and a couple of pots I have already cleaned up and are ready to plant. There is always something that needs to get done.
I cleaned up some of the dead plants in the pots. The eggplant suddenly wilted after I did not water it for a couple of days. I thought it was getting too much water, so I backed off. It stayed wilted and never recovered. Then I thought well, maybe it is root rot. I pulled out the plant and while the plant above ground looked fine before it wilted, the root system was very underdeveloped. I also pulled out cucumber vines that had more perlite in the mix so it was definitely not over watered. That cucumber was not that old but the leaves never got to full size. I did produce fruit but less because the plant was so small. The roots of that plant was also underdeveloped.
Because of the issues I had with the cucumbers with the organic fertilizer, I have started to add calcium and potassium to the pots. While it has stopped the cucumber potassium deficiency, I still have not got the fertilizer right. I did not have problems using just the citrus fertilzer.
I should have labeled the pots with the fertilizer mix I used. I ran out of citrus food when I made up these pots so I did use some organic fertilizer in some of the pots and mix of organic, synthetic, dolomite lime, and potassium sulfate in some of the containers. I don't know which one is which. Citrus food is not high in phosphorus and there is little to no phosphorus in the other elements. Both calcium and potassium can interfere with phosphorus availability, so I still have not got the fertilizer combination right. The latest tomato also showed signs of phosphorus and nitrogen deficiency and it was a combination fertilizer as well.
I just mixed up three containers with a combination of citrus food, dolomite lime, and potassium. The containers will be for a1) tomato and lettuce, 2) beets and carrots, 3)cilantro. The cilantro will probably be the least fussy, but I may have to MG the other containers to get more phosphorus. I actually, avoid high phosphorus fertilizers because my garden really does not need it. I did get a bag of 10-20-20 and I have 10-10-10. They don't have micros which is why I like the citrus food. But I think I will try the 10-20-20 half the amount (1 cup) in 18 gallons for the beans in the next pot I have to redo. I have to label the pots with the fertilizers I use so I can evaluate whether the fertilizer mix is getting better or worse.
The stores here have not stocked up the garden shop that much with fertilizers yet so I will see if I can find some superphosphate or bone meal before I plant the containers. I don't like using bone meal but it will probably be easier to find unless I use tsp. But, then that may open up another can of worms.
Because of the issues I had with the cucumbers with the organic fertilizer, I have started to add calcium and potassium to the pots. While it has stopped the cucumber potassium deficiency, I still have not got the fertilizer right. I did not have problems using just the citrus fertilzer.
I should have labeled the pots with the fertilizer mix I used. I ran out of citrus food when I made up these pots so I did use some organic fertilizer in some of the pots and mix of organic, synthetic, dolomite lime, and potassium sulfate in some of the containers. I don't know which one is which. Citrus food is not high in phosphorus and there is little to no phosphorus in the other elements. Both calcium and potassium can interfere with phosphorus availability, so I still have not got the fertilizer combination right. The latest tomato also showed signs of phosphorus and nitrogen deficiency and it was a combination fertilizer as well.
I just mixed up three containers with a combination of citrus food, dolomite lime, and potassium. The containers will be for a1) tomato and lettuce, 2) beets and carrots, 3)cilantro. The cilantro will probably be the least fussy, but I may have to MG the other containers to get more phosphorus. I actually, avoid high phosphorus fertilizers because my garden really does not need it. I did get a bag of 10-20-20 and I have 10-10-10. They don't have micros which is why I like the citrus food. But I think I will try the 10-20-20 half the amount (1 cup) in 18 gallons for the beans in the next pot I have to redo. I have to label the pots with the fertilizers I use so I can evaluate whether the fertilizer mix is getting better or worse.
The stores here have not stocked up the garden shop that much with fertilizers yet so I will see if I can find some superphosphate or bone meal before I plant the containers. I don't like using bone meal but it will probably be easier to find unless I use tsp. But, then that may open up another can of worms.
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applestar
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What about enhancing the soil bio-activity by adding probiotics and pre-biotics? Rice bran seems to be widely recommended among Japanese natural, organic, no-chem, and hybrid practice hobby as well as market gardeners.
I actually haven’t been able to go to Asian grocery stores and supermarkets, so I ended up getting a couple bags of pasteurized types via Amazon (pricey), and I’m also trying horse feed with rice bran as primary ingredient (as well as using brown rice rinsing water to water container plants with) … but I suspect you would be able to get rice bran sold for making nuka pickles locally.
I actually haven’t been able to go to Asian grocery stores and supermarkets, so I ended up getting a couple bags of pasteurized types via Amazon (pricey), and I’m also trying horse feed with rice bran as primary ingredient (as well as using brown rice rinsing water to water container plants with) … but I suspect you would be able to get rice bran sold for making nuka pickles locally.
I have not seen rice bran at the Asian markets. But then I haven't really looked for them.I have to go look for it. Asian and Korean markets are easy to find here. Getting help in the stores though can be challenging if you don't speak Ilocano. I tried to get alfalfa pellets but I have to go half way around the island to get to a feed store. The closest feed store specializes in chicken feed and they carry some other pet food.
Rice water, I can do. I usually give the rice water to the orchids. I make enough rice that I can put some of that into the pots as well. I do add vermicast to the potting mix when I have it and I did add vermicast to the three pots I just made.
I couldn't find any superphosphate or bone meal. I added a little bit of 10-20-20 to the potting mixes. This is going to make it impossible to figure out the actual concentration. This is a lot like playing the Hamurabi game. Except the rats won't eat all the grain, the people won't die of famine, and the politician won't get lynched for being incompetent. I guess I'll find out shortly if anything survives.
https://www.hammurabigame.com/hammurabi-game.php
Rice water, I can do. I usually give the rice water to the orchids. I make enough rice that I can put some of that into the pots as well. I do add vermicast to the potting mix when I have it and I did add vermicast to the three pots I just made.
I couldn't find any superphosphate or bone meal. I added a little bit of 10-20-20 to the potting mixes. This is going to make it impossible to figure out the actual concentration. This is a lot like playing the Hamurabi game. Except the rats won't eat all the grain, the people won't die of famine, and the politician won't get lynched for being incompetent. I guess I'll find out shortly if anything survives.
https://www.hammurabigame.com/hammurabi-game.php
I took off the cover from the snow peas. They look very good, but it may not stay that way. It just makes it easier to harvest not having to undo the cover every day. I removed the TYLCV tomato yesterday. The symptoms were mild and the plant was tolerating it, but it is better not to build a better virus.
Harvested another broccoli head and a couple of side shoots, 4 snow peas, and a zucchini that got pollinated (it has a swollen belly).Parthenon produces maily female flowers but Dunja produces both.
Transplanted the hollyhocks and osteopermum to the front yard yesterday and it looks like they all survived. I have been backing off on watering most of the yard. There has only been brief showers, but because it is so cold, the soil is not evaporating so it is staying wet. I do have to water some things everyday, so I still need to do some watering.
Today, I planted a succession container of snow peas. I used the eggplant pot. The soil looks good and there is no smell, so I am going with it was probably a fertilizer issue. This time I put the fertilizer mix on the pot label. I used 1 cup of 10-20-20 with micros. I usually don't use this in containers because the nitrogen is fast release but it is the fertilizer with the most phosphorus. Normally, I would use 2 cups of synthetic in a pot this size, but the fertilizer has higher numbers (citrus food 4-6-4), so I am using half as much. I pottted up the shishito and basil seedlings yesterday as well. I am already running out of room on the bench. I have some semposai and komatsuna seedlings I can put in the main garden as I pull out the broccoli. A few things may be sprouting. It is hard to tell at this point, they may be weeds.
I could start harvesting some of the lettuce leaves and the first papaya is showing some yellow. I have to back off on watering a few days so the papaya will not get mealy.
Harvested another broccoli head and a couple of side shoots, 4 snow peas, and a zucchini that got pollinated (it has a swollen belly).Parthenon produces maily female flowers but Dunja produces both.
Transplanted the hollyhocks and osteopermum to the front yard yesterday and it looks like they all survived. I have been backing off on watering most of the yard. There has only been brief showers, but because it is so cold, the soil is not evaporating so it is staying wet. I do have to water some things everyday, so I still need to do some watering.
Today, I planted a succession container of snow peas. I used the eggplant pot. The soil looks good and there is no smell, so I am going with it was probably a fertilizer issue. This time I put the fertilizer mix on the pot label. I used 1 cup of 10-20-20 with micros. I usually don't use this in containers because the nitrogen is fast release but it is the fertilizer with the most phosphorus. Normally, I would use 2 cups of synthetic in a pot this size, but the fertilizer has higher numbers (citrus food 4-6-4), so I am using half as much. I pottted up the shishito and basil seedlings yesterday as well. I am already running out of room on the bench. I have some semposai and komatsuna seedlings I can put in the main garden as I pull out the broccoli. A few things may be sprouting. It is hard to tell at this point, they may be weeds.
I could start harvesting some of the lettuce leaves and the first papaya is showing some yellow. I have to back off on watering a few days so the papaya will not get mealy.
It is 73 degrees. The low was about 66 and the high today should be 82-83. It's Kona weather so the winds are calm and there is vog (volcanic haze), which is going to linger a few days. I checked on my seed starts. The Tokyo bekana and green crops are starting to sprout. It has only been 3 days. The cucumber looks like it will be up tomorrow. I don't expect the zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, papaya, to be up so soon. The papaya may never come up. The soil is still damp so only some things got watered today. The cutting celery is shrinking. I did not water the papaya. It is damp and I need the fruit to dry out before picking it. Valentine tomato is also drying up but it still has a lot of tomatoes on it. It will last a few days more. I am still eating the red currants. I had some for dinner last night with my cucumber. One of the Bun Long taro hasn't done anything. It may be rotting. I am glad I found another one, that one already has 3 keiki. The peppers are starting to grow new leaves. I don't know if the MG helped or it just decided to start growing again.
Today, I harvested a handful of snow peas, 4 okra pods, 4 medium cucumbers, and a couple of calamansi for my ice tea.
Today, I harvested a handful of snow peas, 4 okra pods, 4 medium cucumbers, and a couple of calamansi for my ice tea.
It is 66 degrees. It has been cloudy all day. It is raining now and more rain is expected tomorrow. I did get out to the garden and I harvested some snow peas. Then, I don't know where I put them. They are somewhere. I did not weight them either. It has been raining in Maui county today and they had some mudslides and road closures from the heavy rain. The storm is makiing its way up the island chain and should be over Oahu overnight.
I planted more succession seeds. Maxibel bush beans, in the tower and I transplanted Mexican tarragon into one of the open pockets on the 5 tier tower.
I planted starts of Jericho romaine, salad bowl lettuce, ruby chard, won bok,borage, and sage. I wanted to plant out some peppers but it is too cold and germination rates won't be that great. I found some bird planted pepper seedlings in the main garden. I will probably separate them and pot them up later. No new pickleworm damage since I sprayed Bt.
I put the papaya I picked yesterday in the refrigerator. It ripened very fast on the kitchen counter. More fruit are showing yellow on the tree.
The peppers are starting to grow new leaves. I have not figured out why they dropped leaves, but now that they are putting out new leaves, I fertilized them with 10-20-20.
I have not watered for a couple of days, but the plants still look wet. There is algae starting to grow in some parts. That will probably cause problems for the seedlings. I may not have to water
Partenon zucchini fruit is rotting and it is getting powdery mildew.
I planted more succession seeds. Maxibel bush beans, in the tower and I transplanted Mexican tarragon into one of the open pockets on the 5 tier tower.
I planted starts of Jericho romaine, salad bowl lettuce, ruby chard, won bok,borage, and sage. I wanted to plant out some peppers but it is too cold and germination rates won't be that great. I found some bird planted pepper seedlings in the main garden. I will probably separate them and pot them up later. No new pickleworm damage since I sprayed Bt.
I put the papaya I picked yesterday in the refrigerator. It ripened very fast on the kitchen counter. More fruit are showing yellow on the tree.
The peppers are starting to grow new leaves. I have not figured out why they dropped leaves, but now that they are putting out new leaves, I fertilized them with 10-20-20.
I have not watered for a couple of days, but the plants still look wet. There is algae starting to grow in some parts. That will probably cause problems for the seedlings. I may not have to water
Partenon zucchini fruit is rotting and it is getting powdery mildew.
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pepperhead212
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applestar
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Your garden is keeping you busy!
I had to chuckle about the misplaced snowpeas as I have done similar many times. Sometimes they are on the outside washing station off to the side because they threatened to wash away as the bucket overflowed … sometimes they are sitting by a plant that needed 2-handed attention and I had to put them down … or near where I got distracted and launched into a sub-project.
Usually I won’t remember, IF I do, until long after I’ve come back inside and settled down to relax….
And other times, I’ve discovered them shriveled or eaten next time I’m in the area…. 
I had to chuckle about the misplaced snowpeas as I have done similar many times. Sometimes they are on the outside washing station off to the side because they threatened to wash away as the bucket overflowed … sometimes they are sitting by a plant that needed 2-handed attention and I had to put them down … or near where I got distracted and launched into a sub-project.
Usually I won’t remember, IF I do, until long after I’ve come back inside and settled down to relax….
And other times, I’ve discovered them shriveled or eaten next time I’m in the area…. That is probably what happened. I picked the peas but started to take off the diseased chard leaves and pull some weeds. I probably accidentally through the peas in the green can with the chard leaves. Oh, well, it only produces a handful of peas a day, there will be more tomorrow. I don't know if I want to go out in the rain today just to harvest a few peas. It has been raining all night, but nothing really heavy yet. My rain barrels are already full. It is 64 degrees at 7:30 in the morning.
I got up at 5:50 a.m. and got my chili started in the crock pot, changed a light bulb (it was 20 years old), and cleaned half the kitchen counters. I did the rest of the weekly house cleaning yesterday. I may not get out much today, but I am sure there are plenty of things in the house to keep me busy and warm me up some.
The peppers dropping leaves was strange. All of the potted peppers lost most or all of their leaves and that never happened before. I may be a pest from the neighbors' hibiscus hedge. The leaf hoppers and stink bugs are new pests for me because I never had them before. I see the leaf hoppers, but I only see damage from the stink bugs. I hardly spray the back yard because I have good predators. I may not have enough controls for these new pests and the hibiscus hedge keeps churning out more of them.
I got up at 5:50 a.m. and got my chili started in the crock pot, changed a light bulb (it was 20 years old), and cleaned half the kitchen counters. I did the rest of the weekly house cleaning yesterday. I may not get out much today, but I am sure there are plenty of things in the house to keep me busy and warm me up some.
The peppers dropping leaves was strange. All of the potted peppers lost most or all of their leaves and that never happened before. I may be a pest from the neighbors' hibiscus hedge. The leaf hoppers and stink bugs are new pests for me because I never had them before. I see the leaf hoppers, but I only see damage from the stink bugs. I hardly spray the back yard because I have good predators. I may not have enough controls for these new pests and the hibiscus hedge keeps churning out more of them.
Yesterday, I got a pineapple from the garden. They must be harvesting their plot this is the second week they brought some. I missed out last week because the pineapples went fast. They only bring a box of 6. I am debating whether to keep the top since this is a Dole pineapple and I have that already.
Yesterday I harvested a Jericho romaine and valentine grape tomatoes for a dinner salad. One of the other Jericho lettuce had tip burn, so I pulled it out. I threw it in the green can, before I remembered that it could have gone to the worms instead. Tip burn is not a disease. I have a few more lettuces to eat.
I have salad bowl under planted with the cucumber. I might be able to dig some out to transplant into the tower. I also forgot to weigh the lettuce and tomatoes.
It is 65 degrees now, sunny and clear. After I warm up a bit more, I'll see if the weeds are dry enough to weed whack.
The prospera basil has some fungal disease. It may be downy mildew or fusarium. I'll see if I can take some leaves off. I have already taken most of the bad leaves off the devotion basil. Devotion has recovered before. Prospera is smaller, so I will have to see how that one does. The resistant sweet basil are still far from what they need to be after 12 years of conventional breeding. I don't have these issues with the Holy basil. Holy basil does not taste like sweet basil so they cannot be interchanged for most recipes. Devotion and Prospera still have an anise flavor and are not as sweet as Genovese basil, but it tastes less like Thai basil then other cultivars.
I harvested a few more side shoots from the broccoli and a few snow peas.
Yesterday I harvested a Jericho romaine and valentine grape tomatoes for a dinner salad. One of the other Jericho lettuce had tip burn, so I pulled it out. I threw it in the green can, before I remembered that it could have gone to the worms instead. Tip burn is not a disease. I have a few more lettuces to eat.
I have salad bowl under planted with the cucumber. I might be able to dig some out to transplant into the tower. I also forgot to weigh the lettuce and tomatoes.
It is 65 degrees now, sunny and clear. After I warm up a bit more, I'll see if the weeds are dry enough to weed whack.
The prospera basil has some fungal disease. It may be downy mildew or fusarium. I'll see if I can take some leaves off. I have already taken most of the bad leaves off the devotion basil. Devotion has recovered before. Prospera is smaller, so I will have to see how that one does. The resistant sweet basil are still far from what they need to be after 12 years of conventional breeding. I don't have these issues with the Holy basil. Holy basil does not taste like sweet basil so they cannot be interchanged for most recipes. Devotion and Prospera still have an anise flavor and are not as sweet as Genovese basil, but it tastes less like Thai basil then other cultivars.
I harvested a few more side shoots from the broccoli and a few snow peas.
It's raining, reverberating thunder and lightening. It is 69 degrees, but at least it is warm rain. Not much wind only 3mph so this storm can linger a while. It looks like it will be wet for the next few days. I won't have to water today.
I did get out the other day and I weed whacked the weeds in the front of the house and I did transplant out some of the tomatoes and planted more lettuce. I did spray the rosella crimson with copper sulfate.
It looks like a snail has been chomping on the seedlings. I have only stems left on some of the tomatoes, basil, and peppers. I also have broad mites on the Prospero basil. February is not the best month for starting seeds. I may have to start over. I will see what survives. The rain will help some things grow that are direct seeded if it does not flood, but the containers don't fare well with prolonged rain. Partenon zucchini is mildew resistant, but not mildew proof and it is definitely showing signs of decline, although it is still trying to put out more zucchini. Dunja keeps on going. I did plant a second Dunja in the old pot and it has started to bud up. It is in a more open area so it has a better chance to dry out. It is also mildew resistant, but not mildew proof.
The roses, nasturtiums, and alyssum in the pollen and nectar garden are blooming. The roses and alyssum look much better after I got the grass and weeds out of the garden. I added the potting soil from the containers I recycled, fertilized, and replanted alyssum and other pollinator flowers. I even have araimo growing in the pollinator garden. I pulled it out, two containers are more than I need.
Yesterday, I harvested some lettuce, Swiss chard, 1 bean, 1 okra, and two zucchini.
I also covered 3 cucumbers with the net bags.
I did get out the other day and I weed whacked the weeds in the front of the house and I did transplant out some of the tomatoes and planted more lettuce. I did spray the rosella crimson with copper sulfate.
It looks like a snail has been chomping on the seedlings. I have only stems left on some of the tomatoes, basil, and peppers. I also have broad mites on the Prospero basil. February is not the best month for starting seeds. I may have to start over. I will see what survives. The rain will help some things grow that are direct seeded if it does not flood, but the containers don't fare well with prolonged rain. Partenon zucchini is mildew resistant, but not mildew proof and it is definitely showing signs of decline, although it is still trying to put out more zucchini. Dunja keeps on going. I did plant a second Dunja in the old pot and it has started to bud up. It is in a more open area so it has a better chance to dry out. It is also mildew resistant, but not mildew proof.
The roses, nasturtiums, and alyssum in the pollen and nectar garden are blooming. The roses and alyssum look much better after I got the grass and weeds out of the garden. I added the potting soil from the containers I recycled, fertilized, and replanted alyssum and other pollinator flowers. I even have araimo growing in the pollinator garden. I pulled it out, two containers are more than I need.
Yesterday, I harvested some lettuce, Swiss chard, 1 bean, 1 okra, and two zucchini.
I also covered 3 cucumbers with the net bags.
They are very similar taste wise. Dunja has a leaf pattern that looks like it is bleached and it is not parthenocarpic. Partenon, I have grown before. It is partenocarpic and usually a very good producer and has good disease tolerance.
I have Partenon next to roses and a 3 ft tall x 5 ft wide Rama basil, while Dunja is in my side yard and in a more open space. It puts Partenon at a disadvantage because it can't dry as fast. Zuchhini will produce better in the cooler months, but does not like rain and high humidity. It is a trade off since we get our annual rain mainly during this time of the year. Rain storms can stick around for days or even weeks.
Later, Partenon does have an advantage over Dunja because it is parthenocarpic and will produce more fruit as the temperatures get warmer. Both will stop producing once the temperatures get above 82 degrees in the daytime. If they do produce flowers then, it will be male.
This was the first time I planted Dunja because it did well in testing for partenocarpy. I tried to grow it under netting, but found out, it really produces better with pollination than without.
I cannot keep the zucchini near other cucurbits because they are magnets for bugs. They are where they are because they are the sacrificial plants. Any fruit I get is a bonus. If I keep zuchhini near the cucumber or bitter melon, the fruit flies will attack the other cucurbits more. I have them on the opposite sides of the house with the zucchini nearer the pollinator garden and farther away from the ti which are roosting hosts for the melon fruit fly. I do have fruit fly traps around the yard. I have very little damage from fruit flies especially at this time of the year. I have fewer pests bothering either of them. I have longer net bags, but the zucchini necks are short and it is very tight where they are attached so it makes it difficult to attach the fruit bags. Bagging the pot is easier, but I would have to hand pollinate. Snails are the biggest problem with them now and mealy bugs from the neighbor's hibiscus hedge.
Addendum. The sun did come out but the skies are darkening again. I did pick one long skinny Suyo cucumber (197 gms)
I have Partenon next to roses and a 3 ft tall x 5 ft wide Rama basil, while Dunja is in my side yard and in a more open space. It puts Partenon at a disadvantage because it can't dry as fast. Zuchhini will produce better in the cooler months, but does not like rain and high humidity. It is a trade off since we get our annual rain mainly during this time of the year. Rain storms can stick around for days or even weeks.
Later, Partenon does have an advantage over Dunja because it is parthenocarpic and will produce more fruit as the temperatures get warmer. Both will stop producing once the temperatures get above 82 degrees in the daytime. If they do produce flowers then, it will be male.
This was the first time I planted Dunja because it did well in testing for partenocarpy. I tried to grow it under netting, but found out, it really produces better with pollination than without.
I cannot keep the zucchini near other cucurbits because they are magnets for bugs. They are where they are because they are the sacrificial plants. Any fruit I get is a bonus. If I keep zuchhini near the cucumber or bitter melon, the fruit flies will attack the other cucurbits more. I have them on the opposite sides of the house with the zucchini nearer the pollinator garden and farther away from the ti which are roosting hosts for the melon fruit fly. I do have fruit fly traps around the yard. I have very little damage from fruit flies especially at this time of the year. I have fewer pests bothering either of them. I have longer net bags, but the zucchini necks are short and it is very tight where they are attached so it makes it difficult to attach the fruit bags. Bagging the pot is easier, but I would have to hand pollinate. Snails are the biggest problem with them now and mealy bugs from the neighbor's hibiscus hedge.
Addendum. The sun did come out but the skies are darkening again. I did pick one long skinny Suyo cucumber (197 gms)
It is 68 degrees now. There are thick dark clouds on the windward side but clear on the leeward side. There may be some showers but nothing heavy later today or tonight. This is a typical winter pattern.
I went outside to see what was left after the rain. I did have some washouts of marigold seedlings in my front yard. I also had seeds and seedlings washed out of the starter pots. The older seedlings held on. I put out slug bait and I don't seem to have lost any more seedlings to night raiders. 2 of the three tomatoes I planted out disappeared, so I will have to replant those. Only Rosella Crimson is hanging in there. I did spray that one with copper sulfate. The lettuce and pac choi seeds I under planted the tomatoes with though did survive and have sprouted. Only one snow pea came up, so I will have to reseed that pot as well.
I did harvest a cucumber, a couple of side shoots of broccoli, my last romaine lettuce, 1 okra (3 were too old to harvest), and 1 calamansi ( for my tea).
There weren't any beans, the snow peas were too old to pick.
There is some powdery and downy mildew showing up on the basil, cucumber, and zucchini. They are resistant but not immune. It is especially hard to prevent disease when the rain has lasted for so many days.
I planted a replacement Partenon since the one that is out there does not look very good. It did survive the rain. The one out in the front yard though is still hanging in there, but is definitely stressed. I may have to move that pot to a more open space so it can dry out better.
The pots will older seedlings with better root systems ( cilantro, beets, carrots, pac choi) held up well. The cucumber was transplanted only 48 hours before the storm and they do not look good so I may have to reseed that pot as well. I did plant additional cucumber seeds with the transplants so hopefully they survived but there is no sign of activity yet.
Trying to start seeds in January and February is always a challenge because of the cold weather and it is in the middle of the rainy season. I start seeds on an open bench and most things want the night temperature to be at least 68 degrees not 62 at night. At lower temperatures and with nocturnal rain, seeds are slow to germinate and can rot, or with heavy rain they wash out. I can still get more heavy rain in February and March. I need to consider if I should cover my bench frame with plastic to limit the rain damage. That is a hard thing to do since it increases the chances of fungal and bacterial diseases as well. Usually, I just wait until March to start the bulk of my planting when at least it is warm enough for the seedlings to grow faster and be able to tolerate the rain better. It has been a relatively dry winter, so I chanced it, but I know that this is not the best time for me to try to start seeds. However, a few things did survive. The peppers and some of the basil planted in December were big enough to make it through the rain and the lettuce and Asian greens came up even in the cold but grew very slow. The snails were what got to them and the lone papaya seedling that emerged. The strawberries in the tower, though look like half of them are dead. I will have to replant those later.
I was waiting to replant the other two large containers and was letting them dry out. Now, they are wet again, so I will have to refluff them and try to dry them out again or I will have to dump the soil and start new. I probably have to replant the okra as well. It does not really like cold weather. It has downy mildew and the leaves are getting smaller, although it still produces pods. I found out that the okra is actually a trap plant for stink bugs. No wonder they have so much stink bug damage. Well at least they are keeping the stink bugs off the tomatoes.
I went outside to see what was left after the rain. I did have some washouts of marigold seedlings in my front yard. I also had seeds and seedlings washed out of the starter pots. The older seedlings held on. I put out slug bait and I don't seem to have lost any more seedlings to night raiders. 2 of the three tomatoes I planted out disappeared, so I will have to replant those. Only Rosella Crimson is hanging in there. I did spray that one with copper sulfate. The lettuce and pac choi seeds I under planted the tomatoes with though did survive and have sprouted. Only one snow pea came up, so I will have to reseed that pot as well.
I did harvest a cucumber, a couple of side shoots of broccoli, my last romaine lettuce, 1 okra (3 were too old to harvest), and 1 calamansi ( for my tea).
There weren't any beans, the snow peas were too old to pick.
There is some powdery and downy mildew showing up on the basil, cucumber, and zucchini. They are resistant but not immune. It is especially hard to prevent disease when the rain has lasted for so many days.
I planted a replacement Partenon since the one that is out there does not look very good. It did survive the rain. The one out in the front yard though is still hanging in there, but is definitely stressed. I may have to move that pot to a more open space so it can dry out better.
The pots will older seedlings with better root systems ( cilantro, beets, carrots, pac choi) held up well. The cucumber was transplanted only 48 hours before the storm and they do not look good so I may have to reseed that pot as well. I did plant additional cucumber seeds with the transplants so hopefully they survived but there is no sign of activity yet.
Trying to start seeds in January and February is always a challenge because of the cold weather and it is in the middle of the rainy season. I start seeds on an open bench and most things want the night temperature to be at least 68 degrees not 62 at night. At lower temperatures and with nocturnal rain, seeds are slow to germinate and can rot, or with heavy rain they wash out. I can still get more heavy rain in February and March. I need to consider if I should cover my bench frame with plastic to limit the rain damage. That is a hard thing to do since it increases the chances of fungal and bacterial diseases as well. Usually, I just wait until March to start the bulk of my planting when at least it is warm enough for the seedlings to grow faster and be able to tolerate the rain better. It has been a relatively dry winter, so I chanced it, but I know that this is not the best time for me to try to start seeds. However, a few things did survive. The peppers and some of the basil planted in December were big enough to make it through the rain and the lettuce and Asian greens came up even in the cold but grew very slow. The snails were what got to them and the lone papaya seedling that emerged. The strawberries in the tower, though look like half of them are dead. I will have to replant those later.
I was waiting to replant the other two large containers and was letting them dry out. Now, they are wet again, so I will have to refluff them and try to dry them out again or I will have to dump the soil and start new. I probably have to replant the okra as well. It does not really like cold weather. It has downy mildew and the leaves are getting smaller, although it still produces pods. I found out that the okra is actually a trap plant for stink bugs. No wonder they have so much stink bug damage. Well at least they are keeping the stink bugs off the tomatoes.
It is 76 degrees at 1 p.m. There is a light sprinkle of rain and the skies are overcast. I only had to water a couple of things. One of the towers looked dry and the orchids have not been watered in days and that it under cover.
I replanted Warrior tomato with my last surviving back up seedling. Rosella crimson is still hanging in there, but barely. I may have to replant that one, It looks like it is shrinking.
I harvested more of the broccoli side shoots (123 g). I found a couple of snow peas, but they were too old to harvest. Some of the seeds I planted on Jan 28 managed to survive the rain and have sprouted. Most of the plants I transplanted a couple of days before the rain did not make it.
The alyssum I planted from seed in January have started to bloom along with the nasturtiums in the pollen and nectar garden. The marigold seedlings look like they were totally wiped out by the rain, so I will have to replant those. I may start them in pots first to get them bigger before planting them out since there will be more rain storms and they are planted where the water drains from the side yard. Only well rooted plants can take that kind of erosion.
I have leaf spots on the chard, so I have been picking off the bad leaves. There were also white flies on one of the citrus plants so, I hosed them off.
I fed the worms yesterday. I hope they like mizuna, it does have a bite. I need to put more browns in their bin, they consumed the brown paper packing really fast.
My phaius orchid is starting to bloom. It has four spikes but they are half the size they usually are. I did repot the plant last year, so I need to feed it more and it should bloom better next year.
I replanted Warrior tomato with my last surviving back up seedling. Rosella crimson is still hanging in there, but barely. I may have to replant that one, It looks like it is shrinking.
I harvested more of the broccoli side shoots (123 g). I found a couple of snow peas, but they were too old to harvest. Some of the seeds I planted on Jan 28 managed to survive the rain and have sprouted. Most of the plants I transplanted a couple of days before the rain did not make it.
The alyssum I planted from seed in January have started to bloom along with the nasturtiums in the pollen and nectar garden. The marigold seedlings look like they were totally wiped out by the rain, so I will have to replant those. I may start them in pots first to get them bigger before planting them out since there will be more rain storms and they are planted where the water drains from the side yard. Only well rooted plants can take that kind of erosion.
I have leaf spots on the chard, so I have been picking off the bad leaves. There were also white flies on one of the citrus plants so, I hosed them off.
I fed the worms yesterday. I hope they like mizuna, it does have a bite. I need to put more browns in their bin, they consumed the brown paper packing really fast.
My phaius orchid is starting to bloom. It has four spikes but they are half the size they usually are. I did repot the plant last year, so I need to feed it more and it should bloom better next year.
I haven't had to do much watering since Feb 6. I did have to do some watering because of the drying effects of the wind, especially the smaller pots and pots with the newly germinated seeds. The rain wrecked the new transplants and dug them out of the pots, but seeds germinated.
I also have a lot of broken branches and had to pick up the same potted plants multiple times in a day because they kept getting blown over.
The Dunja zucchini I planted last May, finally bit the dust. It lasted much longer than I thought. It's replacement, another Dunja, has its' first fruit. I wonder if I or the snails with get it first. Snails come out in the daytime when it is this wet and overcast.
After waiting 10 months for the papaya to start producing, now I have a steady supply. I may have to give some of them away, because they are ripening too fast. I will probably have to pick a couple more today. They get mealy when it gets too much water and more rain is coming starting tonight.
I did pick more broccoli side shoots and string beans yesterday.
I had a few sprigs of cilantro left so I harvested all the remaining leaves. I have started another tub of cilantro that is about 2 inches tall with true leaves for the next batch. It will probably be the last batch for the year. Cilantro has a very short season.
I started a few tomatoes. More that I usually do. About 6 varieties. All except one are determinate and some are dwarf determinates, so hopefully, I can use smaller containers like a 5 gallon bucket for the smallest ones.
I am finding there are more tomatoes that are resistant enough to TYLCV that are not listed. Like the sweet pea currant. It does not mean they are not infected, or are not hosts for the virus, but they remain asymptomatic and production is not impacted. For the tomatoes that are not resistant. They don't last long and stop producing shortly after they display symptoms.
Most of the resistant tomatoes are determinate and have good disease tolerance, but poor heat tolerance and flavor is market tomato flavor at best.
To grow the tomatoes for better flavor, I have to rely on the dwarf and determinate tomatoes, because they have to be grown in net bags to exclude the white flies to get a chance to produce any yield.
I have to grow more varieties to see if any of those may have some natural resistance to TYLCV. The net bags need to be sealed tight and can't have holes. the holes happen because they get caught on the trellis. The mesh can stop larger bugs but the mites can still get through the mesh. So far, besides red currant and sweet pea currant tomatoes, Valentine is also resistant. Early blight is all that Valentine has been listed for, but it has also done well against bacterial spot and mildew for me. The currants seem to be resistant to everything. I did have to destroy one currant that showed mild symptoms, and I have to keep doing that to prevent building a better bug that can overcome resistance. The other vines do not show those symptoms so it could have been the genetics of that one plant was weaker or the virus in that plant had a mutation to overcome the plant resistance, in either case, it was not worth keeping around.
Tomatoes that have TYLCV resistance, don't have to be covered. I still have to use the mesh bags to cover the fruit to protect them from pests. Except the currant. They are very sweet, but so productive that even if the birds eat them, there is still enough left for me. I really don't eat that many tomatoes, but they are good for barter.
I found out about the dwarf tomato project. I am not into tomato breeding, but the tomatoes have very good parentage and some of them I have grown before. They are also small enough to fit into the tree bags. The smaller tomatoes may even be able to be grown in smaller containers, so I want to try them out.
I still have to rework my tomato culture to improve the flavor. I do get large healthy plants, because I choose resistant varieties, but the flavor has not always been there. I know one reason is that I water them too much especially when the fruit it ripening and I am diluting the flavor. The other is probably that I may have to find a way to change my soil mix without making it too wet. Much more challenging a prospect.
I don't know if changing the fertilizer matters. I get plants that are within their growth parameters and are productive. I use a low phosphorus fertilizer. I am going to try the 10-20-20. I have not used that in years because my soil tests are so high in phosphorus. The only places I actually use a complete fertilizer are in the containers. I put half the amount I would have if I used the 6-4-6 ( one cup per 18 gallons instead of two.) The nitrogen in 10-20-20 is not slow N. I will see how that goes. I used an 8-8-8 organic fertilizer + sulfate of potash with the last Valentine tomato and it showed severe phosphorus deficiency. I also did not supplement it. I am finding organic in containers at least, to be much harder to balance and that the organic fertilizers are not complete or available to plants when they need it. The container is large enough, but I don't want to have to ferment vermi compost tea or lug around buckets of fish emulsion every week either. I really don't want to have to keep guessing how to blend the organic fertilizers to balance them.
l have used peatlite for years and it works for most things except when there is excessive rain. I am finding the larger containers are compressing and the soil does not dry out causing more fungal and algae growth. I am going to experiment with adding pine bark and small quanties of aged manure and compost to the mix. Probably replacing some of the peat moss with the organic compost. The aged bark is primarily to improve aeration. I have tried adding manure to the containers before and it has always been a failure so, I am reluctant to add too much of it. Compost has also posed problem with holding too much water.
So, I will have to replace the peat moss with the compost because the standard recommended 1 part peat moss, 1 part compost, and 1 part perlite never worked. I will try alternating peat moss and compost with perlite. Adding The bark, if I can find it for aeration. Rubber mulch is easier to find than bark chips. I have a bag of steer manure that has been around for about 3 years so I think that is aged enough. I still will only add a little of it. If I can't find good quality compost, I will go with an organic potting mix. I think a coarser mix would improve the aeration and minimize the compaction. I just won't try to grow carrots in it. From what I researched, organic composts and aged bark were common themes for lightening up soils. I would really like to use leaf mold, but that is something I would have to make myself. I don't have two years to work on it. I don't even have that many leaves unless I strip my bushes and palm leaves take way too long to break down. I can't use the plumeria leaves because they have chronic plumeria rust.
I also have a lot of broken branches and had to pick up the same potted plants multiple times in a day because they kept getting blown over.
The Dunja zucchini I planted last May, finally bit the dust. It lasted much longer than I thought. It's replacement, another Dunja, has its' first fruit. I wonder if I or the snails with get it first. Snails come out in the daytime when it is this wet and overcast.
After waiting 10 months for the papaya to start producing, now I have a steady supply. I may have to give some of them away, because they are ripening too fast. I will probably have to pick a couple more today. They get mealy when it gets too much water and more rain is coming starting tonight.
I did pick more broccoli side shoots and string beans yesterday.
I had a few sprigs of cilantro left so I harvested all the remaining leaves. I have started another tub of cilantro that is about 2 inches tall with true leaves for the next batch. It will probably be the last batch for the year. Cilantro has a very short season.
I started a few tomatoes. More that I usually do. About 6 varieties. All except one are determinate and some are dwarf determinates, so hopefully, I can use smaller containers like a 5 gallon bucket for the smallest ones.
I am finding there are more tomatoes that are resistant enough to TYLCV that are not listed. Like the sweet pea currant. It does not mean they are not infected, or are not hosts for the virus, but they remain asymptomatic and production is not impacted. For the tomatoes that are not resistant. They don't last long and stop producing shortly after they display symptoms.
Most of the resistant tomatoes are determinate and have good disease tolerance, but poor heat tolerance and flavor is market tomato flavor at best.
To grow the tomatoes for better flavor, I have to rely on the dwarf and determinate tomatoes, because they have to be grown in net bags to exclude the white flies to get a chance to produce any yield.
I have to grow more varieties to see if any of those may have some natural resistance to TYLCV. The net bags need to be sealed tight and can't have holes. the holes happen because they get caught on the trellis. The mesh can stop larger bugs but the mites can still get through the mesh. So far, besides red currant and sweet pea currant tomatoes, Valentine is also resistant. Early blight is all that Valentine has been listed for, but it has also done well against bacterial spot and mildew for me. The currants seem to be resistant to everything. I did have to destroy one currant that showed mild symptoms, and I have to keep doing that to prevent building a better bug that can overcome resistance. The other vines do not show those symptoms so it could have been the genetics of that one plant was weaker or the virus in that plant had a mutation to overcome the plant resistance, in either case, it was not worth keeping around.
Tomatoes that have TYLCV resistance, don't have to be covered. I still have to use the mesh bags to cover the fruit to protect them from pests. Except the currant. They are very sweet, but so productive that even if the birds eat them, there is still enough left for me. I really don't eat that many tomatoes, but they are good for barter.
I found out about the dwarf tomato project. I am not into tomato breeding, but the tomatoes have very good parentage and some of them I have grown before. They are also small enough to fit into the tree bags. The smaller tomatoes may even be able to be grown in smaller containers, so I want to try them out.
I still have to rework my tomato culture to improve the flavor. I do get large healthy plants, because I choose resistant varieties, but the flavor has not always been there. I know one reason is that I water them too much especially when the fruit it ripening and I am diluting the flavor. The other is probably that I may have to find a way to change my soil mix without making it too wet. Much more challenging a prospect.
I don't know if changing the fertilizer matters. I get plants that are within their growth parameters and are productive. I use a low phosphorus fertilizer. I am going to try the 10-20-20. I have not used that in years because my soil tests are so high in phosphorus. The only places I actually use a complete fertilizer are in the containers. I put half the amount I would have if I used the 6-4-6 ( one cup per 18 gallons instead of two.) The nitrogen in 10-20-20 is not slow N. I will see how that goes. I used an 8-8-8 organic fertilizer + sulfate of potash with the last Valentine tomato and it showed severe phosphorus deficiency. I also did not supplement it. I am finding organic in containers at least, to be much harder to balance and that the organic fertilizers are not complete or available to plants when they need it. The container is large enough, but I don't want to have to ferment vermi compost tea or lug around buckets of fish emulsion every week either. I really don't want to have to keep guessing how to blend the organic fertilizers to balance them.
l have used peatlite for years and it works for most things except when there is excessive rain. I am finding the larger containers are compressing and the soil does not dry out causing more fungal and algae growth. I am going to experiment with adding pine bark and small quanties of aged manure and compost to the mix. Probably replacing some of the peat moss with the organic compost. The aged bark is primarily to improve aeration. I have tried adding manure to the containers before and it has always been a failure so, I am reluctant to add too much of it. Compost has also posed problem with holding too much water.
So, I will have to replace the peat moss with the compost because the standard recommended 1 part peat moss, 1 part compost, and 1 part perlite never worked. I will try alternating peat moss and compost with perlite. Adding The bark, if I can find it for aeration. Rubber mulch is easier to find than bark chips. I have a bag of steer manure that has been around for about 3 years so I think that is aged enough. I still will only add a little of it. If I can't find good quality compost, I will go with an organic potting mix. I think a coarser mix would improve the aeration and minimize the compaction. I just won't try to grow carrots in it. From what I researched, organic composts and aged bark were common themes for lightening up soils. I would really like to use leaf mold, but that is something I would have to make myself. I don't have two years to work on it. I don't even have that many leaves unless I strip my bushes and palm leaves take way too long to break down. I can't use the plumeria leaves because they have chronic plumeria rust.
It is 68 degrees. There was some overnight rain. Most of the rain today will be concentrated on the Big Island and on Maui County. Most of the rain for Oahu will come later today and tomorrow.
I harvested broccoli side shoots, 2 cucumbers, 3 okra pods. I am debating if I should bring the seedlings into the patio later today. Some are ready to plant out but it is not a good idea to do that before the rain. I want to keep the wind and rain off them. In the lanai or garage they will be protected a little more and there are not that many of them so it might work out. Otherwise I may lose more of those seedlings to water logging or disease.
I continue to keep track of my harvest value and costs. I am doing better. So far, I have spent $141 on garden expenses. Fertilizer, soil amendments, seeds, and plants. I have harvested $111 value so far. Actually, my harvest is higher since I did give some things away and did not weigh them. So, I think I am around -$20 at this time for this year.
It is actually hard to tie costs directly to production because of the production lag. My expenses were twice as much as the production value last year because I bought the towers and I had to buy fertilizer and pest control and the organic products online. Much of those things will carry over to this year. And I also have a lot of containers, different kinds of fertilizers, seeds also that have carried over year after year. I bought fewer seeds so far this year than normal. I also have seeds and plants that I can propagate without buying more seeds or mother plants.
Most of the $111 of produce I have harvested in 2023 were actually started in 2022. So, there is that carryover, so the return was realized this year, but the cost occurred last year. Since, I am calculating this on a simple calendar year cash basis, I am not amortizing costs and because of the lag between the expense and the harvest, especially at the end of the year, it will only balance out over the long term. It is still good for tracking. There are still errors because I do forget to include some small items I bought and I have produce that I did not harvest in time so that was wasted and some that I either gave away or forgot to weigh. Still, it does give me an overall picture of how the garden does. Costs and value are also all over the place. The prices keep changing so much. For some things, they are so rare in the markets, I don't know what value to assign them, like Indian curry leaves. I tend to pick sprigs of rosemary, basil, thyme, or bay leaves which are actually expensive in the market but I often forget to count them since I only harvest enough for a meal. I have to say, for the things I do grow, they look better than what has been in the market. I have cut down on my grocery bill and I buy less when I do go shopping although I am paying more for the same size bag of groceries. I do over spend on the garden. I have a lot of pots I bought when they were on sale, but I have had some of them for 4-5 years, taking up space, and I still have a very large bag of seeds taking up a shelf in my frig. So, there are things that I spend in the garden, that I can cut. Other things get used up like some pest and weed control products which I have to use more often, specialty fertilizers, plant replacements, and specialty seeds that cannot be saved.
I renovated (basically, I pulled out the invasive grass), the pollinator garden and border, but since none of it has been assigned a $ value, it only shows up as cost. The flower and nectar garden, not only provides food and habitat for beneficial insects and other things, it also provides beauty as well. It saves me $ on pest control. I have already seen more hover flies now that the alyssum has filled in and started to bloom. I even saw a cattle egret in the flower bed. Unfortunately, the cattle egret's favorite snack are geckos, but they do eat other pests. The roses are also growing and blooming now that the front garden has been re-amended.
There are of course other benefits to the garden that doesn't have a monetary value, and it gives me a lot of joy to be out in the garden everyday. There is value in that as well.
I harvested broccoli side shoots, 2 cucumbers, 3 okra pods. I am debating if I should bring the seedlings into the patio later today. Some are ready to plant out but it is not a good idea to do that before the rain. I want to keep the wind and rain off them. In the lanai or garage they will be protected a little more and there are not that many of them so it might work out. Otherwise I may lose more of those seedlings to water logging or disease.
I continue to keep track of my harvest value and costs. I am doing better. So far, I have spent $141 on garden expenses. Fertilizer, soil amendments, seeds, and plants. I have harvested $111 value so far. Actually, my harvest is higher since I did give some things away and did not weigh them. So, I think I am around -$20 at this time for this year.
It is actually hard to tie costs directly to production because of the production lag. My expenses were twice as much as the production value last year because I bought the towers and I had to buy fertilizer and pest control and the organic products online. Much of those things will carry over to this year. And I also have a lot of containers, different kinds of fertilizers, seeds also that have carried over year after year. I bought fewer seeds so far this year than normal. I also have seeds and plants that I can propagate without buying more seeds or mother plants.
Most of the $111 of produce I have harvested in 2023 were actually started in 2022. So, there is that carryover, so the return was realized this year, but the cost occurred last year. Since, I am calculating this on a simple calendar year cash basis, I am not amortizing costs and because of the lag between the expense and the harvest, especially at the end of the year, it will only balance out over the long term. It is still good for tracking. There are still errors because I do forget to include some small items I bought and I have produce that I did not harvest in time so that was wasted and some that I either gave away or forgot to weigh. Still, it does give me an overall picture of how the garden does. Costs and value are also all over the place. The prices keep changing so much. For some things, they are so rare in the markets, I don't know what value to assign them, like Indian curry leaves. I tend to pick sprigs of rosemary, basil, thyme, or bay leaves which are actually expensive in the market but I often forget to count them since I only harvest enough for a meal. I have to say, for the things I do grow, they look better than what has been in the market. I have cut down on my grocery bill and I buy less when I do go shopping although I am paying more for the same size bag of groceries. I do over spend on the garden. I have a lot of pots I bought when they were on sale, but I have had some of them for 4-5 years, taking up space, and I still have a very large bag of seeds taking up a shelf in my frig. So, there are things that I spend in the garden, that I can cut. Other things get used up like some pest and weed control products which I have to use more often, specialty fertilizers, plant replacements, and specialty seeds that cannot be saved.
I renovated (basically, I pulled out the invasive grass), the pollinator garden and border, but since none of it has been assigned a $ value, it only shows up as cost. The flower and nectar garden, not only provides food and habitat for beneficial insects and other things, it also provides beauty as well. It saves me $ on pest control. I have already seen more hover flies now that the alyssum has filled in and started to bloom. I even saw a cattle egret in the flower bed. Unfortunately, the cattle egret's favorite snack are geckos, but they do eat other pests. The roses are also growing and blooming now that the front garden has been re-amended.
There are of course other benefits to the garden that doesn't have a monetary value, and it gives me a lot of joy to be out in the garden everyday. There is value in that as well.
The skies are clearing and it is 70 degrees. I took the trays of seedlings back out to the bench. I am glad I did bring them in. I have a little cleaning up to do. there are some diseased and damaged leaves from the wind and rain and I probably have to do a general fungicide spray. I had about an inch of rain in my rain gauge from the last two days. It is muddy but the rain was spread out and I only had brief periods of heavy rain, so the lanai did not flood. I did have some fungal bloom on at least one of my pots. The soil is just too wet.
The peppers are prematurely blooming so I pinched the tops. The peppers in the tower are blooming but they are at least a foot tall. Those are blooming at the right time. It is the same soil mix and 10 ft away from the seedlings. But the peppers in the gallon pots are midgets. Maybe I need to try to grow the sweet peppers in larger pots or in the main garden instead of pots. Hot peppers are not affected by pots this size, only sweet peppers. I have had sweet peppers in this size pots that got larger. I may have to use a higher nitrogen fertilizer on the seedlings to get them to grow more so they will be taller and pot them up earlier even if they are small. They actually should be taller at this point. They are not pot bound, they just did not grow well.
The starter mix has vermicast and osmocote. I may have to supplement the container peppers with regular fertilizer sooner. Starts of other plants are not going to be kept in a small container and I transplant them out to the ground or large containers with additional fertilizer, so the starter in the potting mix does not have to sustain them. I just have to figure out how much fertilizer to mix into smaller pots when I pot up the peppers.
The snow peas are blooming again. The Poamoho beans may be done. They had a lot of damage from the rain. Warrior tomato is growing. However, the cucumbers and tomatoes I replanted in the other pots are slow coming up and the lettuce and mustards that I planted with them are getting taller. The other two older cucumbers should be coming out as well. The vines are not flowering as much and they had a lot of rain damage as well as being old.
The cilantro, beets and carrots had no problem with the rain. It actually looks like they liked it. They probably liked that it was cooler. It hasn't even hit 80 degrees for the last few days.
The peppers are prematurely blooming so I pinched the tops. The peppers in the tower are blooming but they are at least a foot tall. Those are blooming at the right time. It is the same soil mix and 10 ft away from the seedlings. But the peppers in the gallon pots are midgets. Maybe I need to try to grow the sweet peppers in larger pots or in the main garden instead of pots. Hot peppers are not affected by pots this size, only sweet peppers. I have had sweet peppers in this size pots that got larger. I may have to use a higher nitrogen fertilizer on the seedlings to get them to grow more so they will be taller and pot them up earlier even if they are small. They actually should be taller at this point. They are not pot bound, they just did not grow well.
The starter mix has vermicast and osmocote. I may have to supplement the container peppers with regular fertilizer sooner. Starts of other plants are not going to be kept in a small container and I transplant them out to the ground or large containers with additional fertilizer, so the starter in the potting mix does not have to sustain them. I just have to figure out how much fertilizer to mix into smaller pots when I pot up the peppers.
The snow peas are blooming again. The Poamoho beans may be done. They had a lot of damage from the rain. Warrior tomato is growing. However, the cucumbers and tomatoes I replanted in the other pots are slow coming up and the lettuce and mustards that I planted with them are getting taller. The other two older cucumbers should be coming out as well. The vines are not flowering as much and they had a lot of rain damage as well as being old.
The cilantro, beets and carrots had no problem with the rain. It actually looks like they liked it. They probably liked that it was cooler. It hasn't even hit 80 degrees for the last few days.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7429
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Wow, it sounds like you have a very good winter garden. 65° temperatures are perfect for so many plants. I can only dream of growing, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, TN temperatures go from 20° to 95° in 6 weeks all of those plants grow seeds. Your winter temperatures much be like AZ when I lived there it was 65°f all winter everything was so easy to grow in winter only.
It is 68 degrees. It is 9 degrees cooler than it is downhill. I had a carpenter fixed my fascia, gutter and dry rot on the exterior wall yesterday. It was sunny for most of the day. The front from the west is impacting Kauai and Oahu. Now, there is thunder and rain. Overnight, my rain barrel filled with about 25 gallons of water. It may fill the rest of the way today.
I get mainland spring temperatures from November to about March. The days can get up to 80 degrees, but the nights will be in the mid 60's. The lowest it got so far was 57 degrees overnight. January and February are the coldest months. January usually is the windiest with the highest surf. Normally it rains from September to about May. LaNina caused the rains to start later in January. September to April is when I plant the cool season crops.
Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Gobo, carrots, beets can be started as early as September even though it is still hot then. Onions from seed can be planted in September. Garlic needs to be refrigerated from July and planted out October 25, for a May harvest. Ginger and Turmeric bloom September-November and are harvested after the foliage dies back. Galangal, does not die back after bloom, but it is harder to harvest.
Nov-April is the best time to plant temperate crops that like to mature in temperatures under 75 degrees. Lettuce, root crops, most green crops, cilantro, peas, and bush beans will grow best at this time. I can plant Swiss chard, kale year round, although they will be more bitter in summer. Lettuce, cilantro, spinach, peas only have a short growing window.
Nov-April. I can grow cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini but I need to use heat tolerant varieties through summer. So, I plant the cultivars most resistant to fungal and bacterial diseases in the fall, and switch to heat and disease tolerant varieties in summer. Tropical vegetables and fruits grow year round, but they also have specific time of the year when they grow best and when they need to be harvested. Taro, sweet potatoes, Jicama, Jamaica, Shiso, ginger, and peanuts prefer to be grown at specific times of the year.
After June, I am mainly harvesting and solarizing the garden. Last year, I planted through summer because I had so many extra seedlings. Normally, I don't do that because it uses too much water and it is the peak pest season.
The rain now is causing a lot of damage to the plants from fungal and bacterial diseases.
The new Dunja suddenly wilted yesterday. I think it was because the carpenter was painting too close to the Dunja and it was affected by the volatile compounds in the paint. It was just starting to make fruit. I don't know if it will survive. If not, I still have time to start another one.
I did not bring the seedlings under cover yesterday. I did not anticipate the heavy rain now. I will have to see what survives. I can't do much about it now.
I did get a chance to go out yesterday to pull out some old plants and pull off diseased leaves.
On a side note, I ran out of bay leaves. I have both kinds of bay leaves in my yard, but when I went to try to buy bay leaves, none of the stores had it. I ended up getting it from amazon. I may have to get a dehydrator to preserve some of my own herbs and spices. Fresh bay leaves are not usually used for cooking. My humidity makes it difficult to dry most herbs naturally. I did not expect such a common herb to be on the list for the shortage of everything this year. It just goes to show the many things that we take for granted, until we have to pay a premium price or we can't get it.
I get mainland spring temperatures from November to about March. The days can get up to 80 degrees, but the nights will be in the mid 60's. The lowest it got so far was 57 degrees overnight. January and February are the coldest months. January usually is the windiest with the highest surf. Normally it rains from September to about May. LaNina caused the rains to start later in January. September to April is when I plant the cool season crops.
Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Gobo, carrots, beets can be started as early as September even though it is still hot then. Onions from seed can be planted in September. Garlic needs to be refrigerated from July and planted out October 25, for a May harvest. Ginger and Turmeric bloom September-November and are harvested after the foliage dies back. Galangal, does not die back after bloom, but it is harder to harvest.
Nov-April is the best time to plant temperate crops that like to mature in temperatures under 75 degrees. Lettuce, root crops, most green crops, cilantro, peas, and bush beans will grow best at this time. I can plant Swiss chard, kale year round, although they will be more bitter in summer. Lettuce, cilantro, spinach, peas only have a short growing window.
Nov-April. I can grow cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini but I need to use heat tolerant varieties through summer. So, I plant the cultivars most resistant to fungal and bacterial diseases in the fall, and switch to heat and disease tolerant varieties in summer. Tropical vegetables and fruits grow year round, but they also have specific time of the year when they grow best and when they need to be harvested. Taro, sweet potatoes, Jicama, Jamaica, Shiso, ginger, and peanuts prefer to be grown at specific times of the year.
After June, I am mainly harvesting and solarizing the garden. Last year, I planted through summer because I had so many extra seedlings. Normally, I don't do that because it uses too much water and it is the peak pest season.
The rain now is causing a lot of damage to the plants from fungal and bacterial diseases.
The new Dunja suddenly wilted yesterday. I think it was because the carpenter was painting too close to the Dunja and it was affected by the volatile compounds in the paint. It was just starting to make fruit. I don't know if it will survive. If not, I still have time to start another one.
I did not bring the seedlings under cover yesterday. I did not anticipate the heavy rain now. I will have to see what survives. I can't do much about it now.
I did get a chance to go out yesterday to pull out some old plants and pull off diseased leaves.
On a side note, I ran out of bay leaves. I have both kinds of bay leaves in my yard, but when I went to try to buy bay leaves, none of the stores had it. I ended up getting it from amazon. I may have to get a dehydrator to preserve some of my own herbs and spices. Fresh bay leaves are not usually used for cooking. My humidity makes it difficult to dry most herbs naturally. I did not expect such a common herb to be on the list for the shortage of everything this year. It just goes to show the many things that we take for granted, until we have to pay a premium price or we can't get it.
It rained heavily overnight. The rain barrel only took a couple of hours of heavy rain to fill the remainder of the half barrel. So the two barrels are full again and any more rain goes to the over flow.
It got down to 67 last night and it is 76 and overcast but the wind is back 16-25 mph. I have stayed inside all day. It is too muddy to do anything outside.
Instead I cleaned out the frig. I had some broccoli, peas, and a couple of string beans that I had harvested earlier, so I made a stir fry. I have more pork than beef or chicken, so I made a pork stir fry. Yesterday, it was raining intermittently, so when it paused, I went shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart. I used the Asian salad kit I got from Sam's along with the vegetables in my frig to make the stir fry. It should be enough to last 2-3 days. Then, I will have to figure out what to make next.
It should start to clear tomorrow and for a few days after that, before the next front moves in early next week.
This kind of weather makes it hard to get plants to thrive. Seeds start well when it is warm, but plants that are susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases take a beating with the prolonged rain. I am not going out everyday and some plants still need water. I have seen snail damage, but I only caught one snail. I did find some slugs under and in pots, so I will have to look under a few pots while I am outside to check. Most of the containers are too wet to even work them. I was able to fertilize some containers two days ago. I need to cut back the roses, but I have to wait until the weather dries. Even with pruning paint, it is not a good idea to cut rose stems when it is wet. I can pull a few weeds. Weeds do come up easier after it rains.
It got down to 67 last night and it is 76 and overcast but the wind is back 16-25 mph. I have stayed inside all day. It is too muddy to do anything outside.
Instead I cleaned out the frig. I had some broccoli, peas, and a couple of string beans that I had harvested earlier, so I made a stir fry. I have more pork than beef or chicken, so I made a pork stir fry. Yesterday, it was raining intermittently, so when it paused, I went shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart. I used the Asian salad kit I got from Sam's along with the vegetables in my frig to make the stir fry. It should be enough to last 2-3 days. Then, I will have to figure out what to make next.
It should start to clear tomorrow and for a few days after that, before the next front moves in early next week.
This kind of weather makes it hard to get plants to thrive. Seeds start well when it is warm, but plants that are susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases take a beating with the prolonged rain. I am not going out everyday and some plants still need water. I have seen snail damage, but I only caught one snail. I did find some slugs under and in pots, so I will have to look under a few pots while I am outside to check. Most of the containers are too wet to even work them. I was able to fertilize some containers two days ago. I need to cut back the roses, but I have to wait until the weather dries. Even with pruning paint, it is not a good idea to cut rose stems when it is wet. I can pull a few weeds. Weeds do come up easier after it rains.
I went out into the garden for the first time in a couple of days. Some of the broccoli florets were starting to flower. I harvest about 8 broccolini (202 g) and 2 papaya (1620 g). The papaya is not going to be very sweet because it has not had a chance to dry out and I know they aren't that sweet because they are yellow and the birds have left them alone. They are not bad, just not as sweet as they can be. They won't be at their best until they can get more sunshine and more time to dry out.
The cilantro has been loving the rain. The second planting is almost ready for a first cutting. The seedlings also survived. Except for some broad mites on the basil, they look good. I just need a window in the weather to transplant some of them out into the towers and containers.
One sunflower is blooming and the others are in bud. My "grass" is peppered with alyssum seedlings. I kinda like the meadow look. However, the HOA will probably hate it, so when it dries out enough, I will weed whack the grass.
I have a couple of cucumber seeds that sprouted in the Tokyo Bekana and it looks like the Rosella Crimson also sprouted.
Yesterday, the garden where I volunteer harvested hydroponic lettuce, and and broccoli, chard, beans, and eggplant. I got one loose leaf lettuce, one package of broad beans, all the chard (frankly, no one else knows what it is, so I always get it), and the two broccoli side shoots. Between that and what I harvested today, I have enough to do another stir fry.
Provider beans look like they are going to flower soon. I need to pull out the other two cucumber vines. They have some small cukes, but the leaves are looking bad, so it is time to start over. I probably need to pull the Poamoho beans as well. I don't see any more beans. The underplantings in the cucumber and tomato pots have come up and they need thinning. I can't work the other pots because they are so wet.
I
The cilantro has been loving the rain. The second planting is almost ready for a first cutting. The seedlings also survived. Except for some broad mites on the basil, they look good. I just need a window in the weather to transplant some of them out into the towers and containers.
One sunflower is blooming and the others are in bud. My "grass" is peppered with alyssum seedlings. I kinda like the meadow look. However, the HOA will probably hate it, so when it dries out enough, I will weed whack the grass.
I have a couple of cucumber seeds that sprouted in the Tokyo Bekana and it looks like the Rosella Crimson also sprouted.
Yesterday, the garden where I volunteer harvested hydroponic lettuce, and and broccoli, chard, beans, and eggplant. I got one loose leaf lettuce, one package of broad beans, all the chard (frankly, no one else knows what it is, so I always get it), and the two broccoli side shoots. Between that and what I harvested today, I have enough to do another stir fry.
Provider beans look like they are going to flower soon. I need to pull out the other two cucumber vines. They have some small cukes, but the leaves are looking bad, so it is time to start over. I probably need to pull the Poamoho beans as well. I don't see any more beans. The underplantings in the cucumber and tomato pots have come up and they need thinning. I can't work the other pots because they are so wet.
I
It is still raining everyday, but I need to get some things started. So I did start some seeds and divided the garlic chives when the rain briefly stopped.
I planted Burpee's Bushsteak (should be a 8-10z tomato on a 24 inch plant) Majestic red bell pepper. This one I know is disease resistant. Bouquet dill. I planted the seeds but I have low expectations from 13 year old seeds. However, I have successfully sprouted 12 year old seeds before. Cumin was also planted. It is a whispy plant but it requires cooler weather so I need to start it. I planted some Hawaiian chili. I have low expectations from that as well the seeds were from 2012 and 2016 and I heavily seeded the pots. If nothing else, I am cleaning out my seeds. I planted one Fukuda Japanese cucumber and 8 soarer cucumber. The soarer cucumber seeds are fresh the Fukuda cucumber is from 2019. I also replanted the turmeric.
The seeds are started on an open bench so it is exposed to the weather. This kind of weather does not stop germination, but it will promote more disease. I wanted to start some other peppers like the Wailua jalapeno, but I know that one gets bacterial spot, so I will have to wait for drier conditions.
The Tokyo bekana in the pot is burying the cucumber. I will have to do some thinning.
Yesterday I replanted the eggplant pot. The eggplant had nematodes at the bottom of the pot. I replanted it with Waimanalo Long eggplant. It is resistant to nematodes. I bleached the pot and put a plastic liner under the pot to limit contact with the ground. I planted contender beans and a couple of Tokyo bekana with the eggplant. Contender is nematode resistant.
I planted the empty pockets in the 5 tier tower with the 4 inch seedlings that needed to be transplanted out. I planted ruby chard, curly vates kale, and I lettuce. I have some pockets in the other planter I can fill as well when the rain stops again.
Another experiment I am trying is to put wood bark chips. It was called nuggets, but the bag has wood shavings and chips. I am hoping to increase the drainage in the pots since they are holding so much water now. It seemed counter intuitive to me to put something in the pot that retains moisture. But I understand that the larger pieces and irregular shapes should work better than adding more perlite which is finer material. I know I will have to add more fertilizer to compensate for the breakdown of the bark, I will find out how much of an issue the bark causes in a while. Right now I have a lot of dampening off because of the frequent daily rain and algae is growing on my pots. They are not compacted, but I can wring out a lot of water from the soil in the pots. I am using the bark in the pots I am potting up. It is too coarse a mix for seedlings.
I planted Burpee's Bushsteak (should be a 8-10z tomato on a 24 inch plant) Majestic red bell pepper. This one I know is disease resistant. Bouquet dill. I planted the seeds but I have low expectations from 13 year old seeds. However, I have successfully sprouted 12 year old seeds before. Cumin was also planted. It is a whispy plant but it requires cooler weather so I need to start it. I planted some Hawaiian chili. I have low expectations from that as well the seeds were from 2012 and 2016 and I heavily seeded the pots. If nothing else, I am cleaning out my seeds. I planted one Fukuda Japanese cucumber and 8 soarer cucumber. The soarer cucumber seeds are fresh the Fukuda cucumber is from 2019. I also replanted the turmeric.
The seeds are started on an open bench so it is exposed to the weather. This kind of weather does not stop germination, but it will promote more disease. I wanted to start some other peppers like the Wailua jalapeno, but I know that one gets bacterial spot, so I will have to wait for drier conditions.
The Tokyo bekana in the pot is burying the cucumber. I will have to do some thinning.
Yesterday I replanted the eggplant pot. The eggplant had nematodes at the bottom of the pot. I replanted it with Waimanalo Long eggplant. It is resistant to nematodes. I bleached the pot and put a plastic liner under the pot to limit contact with the ground. I planted contender beans and a couple of Tokyo bekana with the eggplant. Contender is nematode resistant.
I planted the empty pockets in the 5 tier tower with the 4 inch seedlings that needed to be transplanted out. I planted ruby chard, curly vates kale, and I lettuce. I have some pockets in the other planter I can fill as well when the rain stops again.
Another experiment I am trying is to put wood bark chips. It was called nuggets, but the bag has wood shavings and chips. I am hoping to increase the drainage in the pots since they are holding so much water now. It seemed counter intuitive to me to put something in the pot that retains moisture. But I understand that the larger pieces and irregular shapes should work better than adding more perlite which is finer material. I know I will have to add more fertilizer to compensate for the breakdown of the bark, I will find out how much of an issue the bark causes in a while. Right now I have a lot of dampening off because of the frequent daily rain and algae is growing on my pots. They are not compacted, but I can wring out a lot of water from the soil in the pots. I am using the bark in the pots I am potting up. It is too coarse a mix for seedlings.
It rained a little last nite but it has been mostly sunny the last couple of days. I finally got out to weed whack the meadow that is my front yard. I had cilantro and eggplant growing out there. They probably came from the potting soil I dumped from the pots into the front yard.
I have to take advantage of the sunny hours whenever I can.
I picked two Partenon zucchini yesterday. I was surprised they made it through the rain. They were short and bulged in the middle. I don't know if this is because it might have been pollinated by Dunja or because of the weather. I have grown Partenon before so I know it can be bigger. The leaves aren't that big either and I had to remove some of the older leaves because they were damaged by the wind and rain. Actually, I was surprised the snails did not eat the zucchini with all the rain. This is the first year when I have not seen that many snails (I see a few more slugs) in the rainy season and I have not put out that much snail bait. The toad must be silently working. I haven't seen it in a while either.
Besides the broccoli, chard, cucumbers, mustard cabbage, and a few tomatoes from my yard, I have been getting produce from the other garden every week.
The volunteers from the MG training garden leave the extra produce from their garden on a stand and any visitor or other volunteers can take it. I usually get the chard because very few of the other volunteers recognize it or know how to use it. They always have eggplant every week as well. Last Wednesday I got chard, eggplant, beans, and 1 broccoli. In return I have left 2 papaya that I brought from home. The week before the garden harvested lettuce from the hydroponic tables so I got a head of romaine lettuce then. I still ended up buying peppers and a caesar salad kit from Costco because most of the veggies from the garden need to be cooked. I only have a couple of different recipes for eggplant and chard. Still, my vegetable bin in the frig is always full.
Usually, I steam veggies like the broccoli and beans with the rice. I cooked the chard like spinach with bacon, onions,garlic and finished it with some red wine vinegar and a little stevia to sweeten it. It shrinks a lot once it is cooked. The eggplant is stewed with pork, or I make tortang talong (Filipino eggplant omelette), or spicy garlic eggplant. I made an eggplant caponata and eggplant lasagna. My friend just microwaves the eggplant and eats it with soy sauce.
I have to thin my Tokyo Bekana, so I will be harvesting the younger plants. I could add them into the salad, but I will probably stir fry them instead. I can probably also start thinning the bok choy. These are Shanghai bok choi so they are baby bok and won't get very large anyway.
I have to take advantage of the sunny hours whenever I can.
I picked two Partenon zucchini yesterday. I was surprised they made it through the rain. They were short and bulged in the middle. I don't know if this is because it might have been pollinated by Dunja or because of the weather. I have grown Partenon before so I know it can be bigger. The leaves aren't that big either and I had to remove some of the older leaves because they were damaged by the wind and rain. Actually, I was surprised the snails did not eat the zucchini with all the rain. This is the first year when I have not seen that many snails (I see a few more slugs) in the rainy season and I have not put out that much snail bait. The toad must be silently working. I haven't seen it in a while either.
Besides the broccoli, chard, cucumbers, mustard cabbage, and a few tomatoes from my yard, I have been getting produce from the other garden every week.
The volunteers from the MG training garden leave the extra produce from their garden on a stand and any visitor or other volunteers can take it. I usually get the chard because very few of the other volunteers recognize it or know how to use it. They always have eggplant every week as well. Last Wednesday I got chard, eggplant, beans, and 1 broccoli. In return I have left 2 papaya that I brought from home. The week before the garden harvested lettuce from the hydroponic tables so I got a head of romaine lettuce then. I still ended up buying peppers and a caesar salad kit from Costco because most of the veggies from the garden need to be cooked. I only have a couple of different recipes for eggplant and chard. Still, my vegetable bin in the frig is always full.
Usually, I steam veggies like the broccoli and beans with the rice. I cooked the chard like spinach with bacon, onions,garlic and finished it with some red wine vinegar and a little stevia to sweeten it. It shrinks a lot once it is cooked. The eggplant is stewed with pork, or I make tortang talong (Filipino eggplant omelette), or spicy garlic eggplant. I made an eggplant caponata and eggplant lasagna. My friend just microwaves the eggplant and eats it with soy sauce.
I have to thin my Tokyo Bekana, so I will be harvesting the younger plants. I could add them into the salad, but I will probably stir fry them instead. I can probably also start thinning the bok choy. These are Shanghai bok choi so they are baby bok and won't get very large anyway.
It rained last night and the road is still wet but it is 65 degrees and sunny now. It should clear a bit at least for the day. I emptied my rain gauge. I collected 5.5 inches over the last week. I need to keep better track of the accumulation. I don't empty the gauge daily because unless it rains, I get < 0.10 inch a day.
I harvested one cucumber (194 g), a handful of Provider beans (34 g) (planted 1/13 so it took about 50 days to harvest). and 208 g of broccoli side shoots. A couple of them were starting to flower. I also picked one calamansi.
The cucumber looks beaten up, I may have to start a new one sooner.
I still have more greens to harvest and I haven't checked the peas. I also don't have any more room in the refrigerator. I had to put today's harvest in the drawer with the garlic. That is never a good idea.
I was able to replant the turmeric. I checked the ginger since it is outside in the rain and so far the roots are still firm. They are still dormant and I usually keep them on the lanai, but with all this rain, I forget to water it so I put it outside, but now it is in the rain.
I picked off some of the offsets from the opuntia and I am drying them now. I am even under watering the succulents. It has been raining so much, I am even forgetting to water the succulents once a week.
I harvested one cucumber (194 g), a handful of Provider beans (34 g) (planted 1/13 so it took about 50 days to harvest). and 208 g of broccoli side shoots. A couple of them were starting to flower. I also picked one calamansi.
The cucumber looks beaten up, I may have to start a new one sooner.
I still have more greens to harvest and I haven't checked the peas. I also don't have any more room in the refrigerator. I had to put today's harvest in the drawer with the garlic. That is never a good idea.
I was able to replant the turmeric. I checked the ginger since it is outside in the rain and so far the roots are still firm. They are still dormant and I usually keep them on the lanai, but with all this rain, I forget to water it so I put it outside, but now it is in the rain.
I picked off some of the offsets from the opuntia and I am drying them now. I am even under watering the succulents. It has been raining so much, I am even forgetting to water the succulents once a week.
It has been drier for the weekend, but another round of rain is coming.The rain is not going to be as much but the wind is still kicking up a bit 18-35 mph.
It is still cold. It got down to 57 degrees the other day, but the wind direction has shifted again so it is a couple of degrees warmer. I have been watering the plants mainly because the wind has been drying them out. I don't have to deep water since below the surface, there is some moisture. Just the seedlings and some of the pot bound pots dry faster. There are leaves and citrus fruit all over the ground again from being stripped by the wind.
I did harvest another papaya it was 1090 gms, 2.4 lbs. I made a smoothie with it and saved some seeds.
I haven't seen many snails but it looks like the slugs have been out since I have holes in the cabbage leaves.
It is still cold. It got down to 57 degrees the other day, but the wind direction has shifted again so it is a couple of degrees warmer. I have been watering the plants mainly because the wind has been drying them out. I don't have to deep water since below the surface, there is some moisture. Just the seedlings and some of the pot bound pots dry faster. There are leaves and citrus fruit all over the ground again from being stripped by the wind.
I did harvest another papaya it was 1090 gms, 2.4 lbs. I made a smoothie with it and saved some seeds.
I haven't seen many snails but it looks like the slugs have been out since I have holes in the cabbage leaves.
Harvested 0.54 lb of broccoli shoots. It rained again for most of the day. I got caught out in the rain while harvesting the broccoli.
I had some of the cucumbers and zucchini in the refrigerator go bad. I steamed the broccoli I harvested today along with what I had harvested earlier.
I still have some Provider beans to harvest but it will wait until tomorrow. I will need to blanch the beans and freeze them to keep them from going bad.
I haven't picked the snow peas for awhile because of the rain and they got a bit overripe, so I dropped the seeds in the pot and new pea shoots are growing.
Yesterday, the weather was nice. I was able to redo the soil in three containers. I planted one with a valentine tomato, komatsuna, and a couple of Ruby chard. The second container is a 4 gallon egg can. I transplanted one shishito plant into it. The third container had the Poamoho beans. I have not planted that one yet. I may do cucumbers. I have seedlings that are starting to show their true leaves. I will have to exchange the trellis, since the trellis on this pot is covered with bird netting.
Yesterday, I went to Lowe's and got more bark mulch and 5 more folding tomato trellises. A few of my older trellises, need to be retired.
I planted the seeds from the X77 papaya and there are two pots of papaya seedlings that have sprouted from the seeds I planted before. It makes a difference when the weather is warmer, longer days, and the fresh seeds in terms of how quickly the seeds germinate. The seeds I planted months ago took forever to come up and only two came up. They disappeared after it rained and probably got eaten by slugs. X 77 is also called Waimanalo Low Bearing. It is a non GMO papaya that flowers at about 3 ft, so the initial fruit are low on the trunk and easy to pick. It will still get to 30 ft over time, but I will cut the tree down once I can no longer reach the fruit. Papaya lives about 8 years. The green fruit can be cooked like squash and the ripe fruit are sweet, although this is not the sweetest tree I have had. The rain makes it hard to tell, if the soil was drier, it should be sweeter.
As it is the birds would rather go after the kale and peppers. They are leaving the papaya alone for now. There must be a sweeter tree somewhere. Birds only go after the best.
I had some of the cucumbers and zucchini in the refrigerator go bad. I steamed the broccoli I harvested today along with what I had harvested earlier.
I still have some Provider beans to harvest but it will wait until tomorrow. I will need to blanch the beans and freeze them to keep them from going bad.
I haven't picked the snow peas for awhile because of the rain and they got a bit overripe, so I dropped the seeds in the pot and new pea shoots are growing.
Yesterday, the weather was nice. I was able to redo the soil in three containers. I planted one with a valentine tomato, komatsuna, and a couple of Ruby chard. The second container is a 4 gallon egg can. I transplanted one shishito plant into it. The third container had the Poamoho beans. I have not planted that one yet. I may do cucumbers. I have seedlings that are starting to show their true leaves. I will have to exchange the trellis, since the trellis on this pot is covered with bird netting.
Yesterday, I went to Lowe's and got more bark mulch and 5 more folding tomato trellises. A few of my older trellises, need to be retired.
I planted the seeds from the X77 papaya and there are two pots of papaya seedlings that have sprouted from the seeds I planted before. It makes a difference when the weather is warmer, longer days, and the fresh seeds in terms of how quickly the seeds germinate. The seeds I planted months ago took forever to come up and only two came up. They disappeared after it rained and probably got eaten by slugs. X 77 is also called Waimanalo Low Bearing. It is a non GMO papaya that flowers at about 3 ft, so the initial fruit are low on the trunk and easy to pick. It will still get to 30 ft over time, but I will cut the tree down once I can no longer reach the fruit. Papaya lives about 8 years. The green fruit can be cooked like squash and the ripe fruit are sweet, although this is not the sweetest tree I have had. The rain makes it hard to tell, if the soil was drier, it should be sweeter.
As it is the birds would rather go after the kale and peppers. They are leaving the papaya alone for now. There must be a sweeter tree somewhere. Birds only go after the best.
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applestar
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I mentioned this once before, years ago… I once bought a ripe papaya and even though I wasn’t impressed with the fruit (I really didn’t know how to eat it), I couldn’t resist trying to see if I can get the seeds to grow.
I ended up with a 1/2 tray of seedlings … more than a dozen, less than 2 dozen … the seedlings were SO persistent that most of them survived the summer in the seed starting cells for the entire summer — 2 or 3 I uppotted to keep ended up dying I think from mealybugs or something.
During my usual scramble to save the container plants as first frost was forecast for overnight, I came across the surviving seedlings (reduced to about 1/2 dozen by this time after a number of 40’s temp) … but I didn’t keep them since they were already so stressed.
I really liked that leaves and the way they grew. Idid no research at the time, so I had no idea they can grow to 30 FEET!
I ended up with a 1/2 tray of seedlings … more than a dozen, less than 2 dozen … the seedlings were SO persistent that most of them survived the summer in the seed starting cells for the entire summer — 2 or 3 I uppotted to keep ended up dying I think from mealybugs or something.
During my usual scramble to save the container plants as first frost was forecast for overnight, I came across the surviving seedlings (reduced to about 1/2 dozen by this time after a number of 40’s temp) … but I didn’t keep them since they were already so stressed.
I really liked that leaves and the way they grew. Idid no research at the time, so I had no idea they can grow to 30 FEET!
Papaya exported from Hawaii has to be hot water treated. Hot water treatment can only be done on half ripe fruit. While papaya will ripen even when picked with just a strip of yellow showing, it won't get any sweeter unless you allow it to ripen on the tree.
Papaya will stunt in a container. It has a taproot and if that is damaged the plant will die. I have been able to deliberately stunt papaya seedlings to keep them shorter, but it is hit or miss on that one. It has to be done just right. Stunting the tree can make it grow less than 5 ft tall but usually it will not be growing straight.
Papaya is a common back yard fruit. It does not take up a lot of space and it is very productive for years. Most of the backyard papaya are mutts. I have had quite a few bird planted papaya. They are usually sweet because the birds only go after the best fruit. If two trees are planted 20 ft apart, the birds will only eat the fruit from the sweetest tree and leave the other one alone. Most of the papaya mutts have some GMO genes. It is easy to tell. If one papaya has ringspot virus and the one growing right next to it is healthy, it probably has GMO genes. It is quite laughable because many people who say they don't eat GMO products don't know. Just because the papaya is of unknown parentage does not mean it does not have GMO genes. I heard someone say once that they don't eat GMO, only Rainbow. Rainbow is a GMO papaya.
Fresh seeds have always germinated better, I don't even wash off the gelatin layer. To store the seed, the gelatin does have to be scrubbed off or it becomes like a plastic coating on the seed.
Most of the other papaya varieties do not flower short. The first fruit will already be higher up on the tree and it only gets harder to reach after that. When the tree gets really tall, only the birds can reach the fruit. That is why I cut it down before then. I could cap the tree and let the side arms grow, but it is just as easy to plant a replacement 6-9 months in advance. It takes almost a year from seed to fruit, but once it starts bearing fruit, it is continuous.
Papaya is a tropical fruit so it should be ripened on the counter. I only put it in the refrigerator the night before I am going to eat it. Usually a 1 lb fruit will serve 2. Scrape out the seed cavity. You can just squeeze lemonjuice on it or fill it with cottage cheese. The firm fruits, not overripe ones can be cut into chunks and you can put it in a fruit salad. It is similar to cantaloupe that way. I will put a very ripe papaya in a smoothie. It does not have a strong flavor depending on what else is in the smoothie, but it has a lot of fiber and vitamins. I like to do a papaya, strawberry, banana, peanut butter smoothie. It can be juiced, but I have a hard time eating really ripe papaya. The papaya and skin can go in the worm bin, but not the seeds. The seeds will make the worms sterile.
Papaya will stunt in a container. It has a taproot and if that is damaged the plant will die. I have been able to deliberately stunt papaya seedlings to keep them shorter, but it is hit or miss on that one. It has to be done just right. Stunting the tree can make it grow less than 5 ft tall but usually it will not be growing straight.
Papaya is a common back yard fruit. It does not take up a lot of space and it is very productive for years. Most of the backyard papaya are mutts. I have had quite a few bird planted papaya. They are usually sweet because the birds only go after the best fruit. If two trees are planted 20 ft apart, the birds will only eat the fruit from the sweetest tree and leave the other one alone. Most of the papaya mutts have some GMO genes. It is easy to tell. If one papaya has ringspot virus and the one growing right next to it is healthy, it probably has GMO genes. It is quite laughable because many people who say they don't eat GMO products don't know. Just because the papaya is of unknown parentage does not mean it does not have GMO genes. I heard someone say once that they don't eat GMO, only Rainbow. Rainbow is a GMO papaya.
Fresh seeds have always germinated better, I don't even wash off the gelatin layer. To store the seed, the gelatin does have to be scrubbed off or it becomes like a plastic coating on the seed.
Most of the other papaya varieties do not flower short. The first fruit will already be higher up on the tree and it only gets harder to reach after that. When the tree gets really tall, only the birds can reach the fruit. That is why I cut it down before then. I could cap the tree and let the side arms grow, but it is just as easy to plant a replacement 6-9 months in advance. It takes almost a year from seed to fruit, but once it starts bearing fruit, it is continuous.
Papaya is a tropical fruit so it should be ripened on the counter. I only put it in the refrigerator the night before I am going to eat it. Usually a 1 lb fruit will serve 2. Scrape out the seed cavity. You can just squeeze lemonjuice on it or fill it with cottage cheese. The firm fruits, not overripe ones can be cut into chunks and you can put it in a fruit salad. It is similar to cantaloupe that way. I will put a very ripe papaya in a smoothie. It does not have a strong flavor depending on what else is in the smoothie, but it has a lot of fiber and vitamins. I like to do a papaya, strawberry, banana, peanut butter smoothie. It can be juiced, but I have a hard time eating really ripe papaya. The papaya and skin can go in the worm bin, but not the seeds. The seeds will make the worms sterile.
It has been sunny the last couple of days. I finally got out today to work on a couple of more pots. I planted the last pot I did with Soarer cucumbers. I could not decide on the companions, so I went with a new mix. Cinnamon basil, Devotion DMR, and cumin. If they come up, I will try to transplant them out.
I did another pot with cucumbers I only had 2 Soarer transplants, so I planted 5 more seeds of Telegragh. I don't expect them all to come up. Telegragh is surprising. I did not expect an heirloom cucumber from 1897 to do so well in the rain. So far, no sign of mildew. The other pot of Telegragh I planted before has started to flower. I put in salad bowl lettuce as a companion for this container.
I have a bunch of tomato seedlings that came up. Red currant, Valentine, Burpee's Bush Steak. I have to find pots and places to put those. Only Bush Steak needs to be netted. The other two are resistant to TYLCV.
In starter pots, I planted seeds of more Soarer, roselle, Wailua pepper (jalapeno), and Tasty green cucumber. It is late for planting these and I have not planted the corn yet. It has been colder than normal and the peppers, shiso, and roselle may be fussy. I won't attempt the super hots like the bhut jolokia until it is warmer.
I harvested some Tokyo Bekana today. Bekana is burying the cucumber. I made a salad with oriental dressing. It was pretty good. When the leaves are very young they are crisp and soft and they don't have the mustard bite. I made a low carb meatloaf to go with it. I had a mix of hamburger and ground pork, onion, cajun spice, garlic powder, oregano, and egg. In the middle of the meatloaf, I had a package of frozen cauliflower and sharp cheddar. I cooked it in the microwave oven for about 35 minutes. I need to throw in a few more spices or get some sugar free BBQ sauce. I only had regular. The cheese and cajun spice does have salt, but I did not add anymore. I would have liked to add some bread or oatmeal to the meatloaf, but this is a low carb recipe.
I did another pot with cucumbers I only had 2 Soarer transplants, so I planted 5 more seeds of Telegragh. I don't expect them all to come up. Telegragh is surprising. I did not expect an heirloom cucumber from 1897 to do so well in the rain. So far, no sign of mildew. The other pot of Telegragh I planted before has started to flower. I put in salad bowl lettuce as a companion for this container.
I have a bunch of tomato seedlings that came up. Red currant, Valentine, Burpee's Bush Steak. I have to find pots and places to put those. Only Bush Steak needs to be netted. The other two are resistant to TYLCV.
In starter pots, I planted seeds of more Soarer, roselle, Wailua pepper (jalapeno), and Tasty green cucumber. It is late for planting these and I have not planted the corn yet. It has been colder than normal and the peppers, shiso, and roselle may be fussy. I won't attempt the super hots like the bhut jolokia until it is warmer.
I harvested some Tokyo Bekana today. Bekana is burying the cucumber. I made a salad with oriental dressing. It was pretty good. When the leaves are very young they are crisp and soft and they don't have the mustard bite. I made a low carb meatloaf to go with it. I had a mix of hamburger and ground pork, onion, cajun spice, garlic powder, oregano, and egg. In the middle of the meatloaf, I had a package of frozen cauliflower and sharp cheddar. I cooked it in the microwave oven for about 35 minutes. I need to throw in a few more spices or get some sugar free BBQ sauce. I only had regular. The cheese and cajun spice does have salt, but I did not add anymore. I would have liked to add some bread or oatmeal to the meatloaf, but this is a low carb recipe.
Yesterday, I harvested the last of the broccoli side shoots (57 g) and pulled them out. I could have gotten more, but the side shoots are starting to bolt faster and I am late for starting the Spring planting which is also going to be the start of my warm season crops. The mizuna was also pulled since it is blooming as well. I did leave one of the heat tolerant lettuces I got from the other garden to go to seed.
I think I am not going to get much more beans from Provider, so I will be replacing that as well.
I harvested some cilantro and two papaya and took it to the garden to share. I got white eggplant from the sharing bench and I gave half of them to my sister. I cooked the rest in basically a teriyaki sauce and I will be eating it for a couple of days. I left about a third of the cilantro in the tub for future use. This is my second cutting of the cilantro.
I took apart one of the tower gardens. There were 4 slugs snuggled together under the water tray. It is time for the tower soil to be renewed. It does explain my disappearing strawberries.
Warrior and Sweet Pea Currant tomatoes are flowering. The currant does have fruit and is sprawling. I still have other tomato seedlings I need to pot up.
Telegraph cucumber has started to flower and is starting to climb the trellis. One of the older Soarer's is trying to make cucumbers. I have been neglecting that pot since the vine did not look very good.
The new Partenon zuchhini has started to make fruit. However, the shape is not uniform as it is fat on the stem end and skinnier on the blossom end. I get this usually with older plants, but it may be because I replanted this pot after the other zucchini died but I did not add as much fertilizer. This should not be a pollination issue since this zucchini is parthenocarpic and does not require pollination. Pollination actually can cause more seediness and fruit deformity, and that is why I prefer to grow parthenocarpic cucurbits. So does anybody know what might be causing this. Is it the weather (it has been colder and wetter, but the lowest temp was 57 and the day temp is about 78, it should be fine. Nutritional problem? This is grown in a pot, but I am not using organic fertilizer, but it can still be a different nutritional problem as I have been different synthetic blends. I did have some hollow core issues, but that was weather related and it will go away when the weather becomes more predictable and fruit does not have these huge growth spurts.
I still get about 2 papaya a week. The fruit are being attacked by thrips, but they scar the skin, but the pulp is not affected.
I do want to plant corn in the main garden. Right now, I still have komatsuna, red Russian kale, shanghai bok choy, valentine tomato, Thai peppers ( I may take them out), cutting celery, and Lacinato kale. I can plant the corn around most of the existing plants and still under plant the corn. I could do bush beans, that way I won't have the bush beans strangling the corn stalks. What else can I plant? I have a choice of more asian greens, pak choi, bok choy, sweet peppers, basil, semposai, komatsuna, cucumber, or tomato, These things can go into the garden or be in the towers or in containers. (lettuce, Swiss Chard, Tokyo Bekana, peppers, herbs:green onions, leeks, thyme, parsley, oregano, sage. Mint has to go into bowls, or they would take over. Containers: usually have the larger plants or long season plants ginger, turmeric, sweet potato, cilantro, beets, tomato, shiso, roselle, cucumber, larger basil, larger peppers, citrus, okra, rosemary, pandan, and katuk. I can under plant most of the slower growing plants with a suitable fast crop that harvests in 30-45 days.
The only plants in the ground are murraya koenegii, asparagus, papaya, dragon fruit. Citrus fruits that go into the ground need to be culled. I cut down the bilimbi tree, so the only trees in the ground are the plumeria, the rest are shrubs.
The wild bitter melon is growing. I can also plant the Chinese bitter melon which is longer and not as bitter. It won't care where I plant it.
All the stormy weather that has gone across the U.S. with the series of atmospheric rivers is going to affect farm production from fruits, vegetables, to dairy, and meat. I got only a small piece of the atmospheric turmoil as most of it passes North of Hawaii and drops most of the rain on the ocean. I do get moisture in bands and pulled up from the South (Kona Low), which can cause locally heavy rain, flooding, high winds, and snow on Mauna Kea and Haleakala.
I have had a lot of rain, and lost a lot of seedlings because of it. More disease because of the fluctuating humidity and pots falling down from the wind, and a gutter too. However, not the widespread destruction that has occurred in the U.S.
I do anticipate that the markets will be short of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and the price of meat will continue to rise in the coming weeks as the impacts of the storm play out with reduced farm output. Most of our food is imported. Most of the produce we get comes from California, so it is even more important for me to keep my garden in production and diversified as much as possible.
I think I am not going to get much more beans from Provider, so I will be replacing that as well.
I harvested some cilantro and two papaya and took it to the garden to share. I got white eggplant from the sharing bench and I gave half of them to my sister. I cooked the rest in basically a teriyaki sauce and I will be eating it for a couple of days. I left about a third of the cilantro in the tub for future use. This is my second cutting of the cilantro.
I took apart one of the tower gardens. There were 4 slugs snuggled together under the water tray. It is time for the tower soil to be renewed. It does explain my disappearing strawberries.
Warrior and Sweet Pea Currant tomatoes are flowering. The currant does have fruit and is sprawling. I still have other tomato seedlings I need to pot up.
Telegraph cucumber has started to flower and is starting to climb the trellis. One of the older Soarer's is trying to make cucumbers. I have been neglecting that pot since the vine did not look very good.
The new Partenon zuchhini has started to make fruit. However, the shape is not uniform as it is fat on the stem end and skinnier on the blossom end. I get this usually with older plants, but it may be because I replanted this pot after the other zucchini died but I did not add as much fertilizer. This should not be a pollination issue since this zucchini is parthenocarpic and does not require pollination. Pollination actually can cause more seediness and fruit deformity, and that is why I prefer to grow parthenocarpic cucurbits. So does anybody know what might be causing this. Is it the weather (it has been colder and wetter, but the lowest temp was 57 and the day temp is about 78, it should be fine. Nutritional problem? This is grown in a pot, but I am not using organic fertilizer, but it can still be a different nutritional problem as I have been different synthetic blends. I did have some hollow core issues, but that was weather related and it will go away when the weather becomes more predictable and fruit does not have these huge growth spurts.
I still get about 2 papaya a week. The fruit are being attacked by thrips, but they scar the skin, but the pulp is not affected.
I do want to plant corn in the main garden. Right now, I still have komatsuna, red Russian kale, shanghai bok choy, valentine tomato, Thai peppers ( I may take them out), cutting celery, and Lacinato kale. I can plant the corn around most of the existing plants and still under plant the corn. I could do bush beans, that way I won't have the bush beans strangling the corn stalks. What else can I plant? I have a choice of more asian greens, pak choi, bok choy, sweet peppers, basil, semposai, komatsuna, cucumber, or tomato, These things can go into the garden or be in the towers or in containers. (lettuce, Swiss Chard, Tokyo Bekana, peppers, herbs:green onions, leeks, thyme, parsley, oregano, sage. Mint has to go into bowls, or they would take over. Containers: usually have the larger plants or long season plants ginger, turmeric, sweet potato, cilantro, beets, tomato, shiso, roselle, cucumber, larger basil, larger peppers, citrus, okra, rosemary, pandan, and katuk. I can under plant most of the slower growing plants with a suitable fast crop that harvests in 30-45 days.
The only plants in the ground are murraya koenegii, asparagus, papaya, dragon fruit. Citrus fruits that go into the ground need to be culled. I cut down the bilimbi tree, so the only trees in the ground are the plumeria, the rest are shrubs.
The wild bitter melon is growing. I can also plant the Chinese bitter melon which is longer and not as bitter. It won't care where I plant it.
All the stormy weather that has gone across the U.S. with the series of atmospheric rivers is going to affect farm production from fruits, vegetables, to dairy, and meat. I got only a small piece of the atmospheric turmoil as most of it passes North of Hawaii and drops most of the rain on the ocean. I do get moisture in bands and pulled up from the South (Kona Low), which can cause locally heavy rain, flooding, high winds, and snow on Mauna Kea and Haleakala.
I have had a lot of rain, and lost a lot of seedlings because of it. More disease because of the fluctuating humidity and pots falling down from the wind, and a gutter too. However, not the widespread destruction that has occurred in the U.S.
I do anticipate that the markets will be short of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and the price of meat will continue to rise in the coming weeks as the impacts of the storm play out with reduced farm output. Most of our food is imported. Most of the produce we get comes from California, so it is even more important for me to keep my garden in production and diversified as much as possible.
It took me a couple of hours, maybe three yesterday to take the 7 tier tower apart and refluff, fertilize, and replace some of the soil. In the end I found about a dozen slugs mostly under the water trays. I replanted it with peppers on the bottom. Three of the peppers were already there and I just cut the tops off. I kepts some of the kale. In the future I will plant kale in a deeper tier or maybe leave that in the main garden, the roots took over the entire level. I need to get more strawberries to replace the ones I lost. I have 1 left. I transplanted some lettuce seedlings from another container. I have to see how many of those make it. I planted salad bowl lettuce, garden chives, and basil. I accidentally left the basil packet open and spilled the basil seeds. That's o.k., it was a Baker Seeds Thai basil and I don't really like it as much as other varieties of Thai basil. I planted more kale (curly vates).
I still have to take the 5 tier tower apart.
I haven't gotten to weeding and replanting the main garden yet.
Another two of my zucchini rotted. They were fine a couple of days ago, so it was probably the work of snails. I found one large African snail on another bench. I am seeing more slugs than snails, but I don't see as many as I used to get in the past. I don't find them everyday like I used to. But they are sneakier. I find the slugs the drain holes, under pots and rocks, and eating the roots or hiding in the cabbage leaves.
As I get older it takes me longer to do things and I can't stay out as long as before, so my to do list keeps getting longer. Of the three or four things I plan to do, I might get around to two of them.
I still have to take the 5 tier tower apart.
I haven't gotten to weeding and replanting the main garden yet.
Another two of my zucchini rotted. They were fine a couple of days ago, so it was probably the work of snails. I found one large African snail on another bench. I am seeing more slugs than snails, but I don't see as many as I used to get in the past. I don't find them everyday like I used to. But they are sneakier. I find the slugs the drain holes, under pots and rocks, and eating the roots or hiding in the cabbage leaves.
As I get older it takes me longer to do things and I can't stay out as long as before, so my to do list keeps getting longer. Of the three or four things I plan to do, I might get around to two of them.
I took out the Provider beans and re fertilized and fluffed the container. I am replanting with 34 Provider beans and cilantro. I went shopping yesterday and got rebar, slug bait, perlite, 3 strawberries, Russian sage, and more cuphea. I planted the strawberries in the empty pockets in the tower. I have two more pockets but it was all the strawberries I could find.
I harvested two small cucumbers.
For dinner, I cleaned out the frig. I made a tofu stir fry and used up string beans, broccoli, carrots,peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini. The Swiss chard was not looking good so it ended up going to the worms along with the vegetable trimmings. I should have enough tofu stir fry for 2-3 more meals.
I harvested two small cucumbers.
For dinner, I cleaned out the frig. I made a tofu stir fry and used up string beans, broccoli, carrots,peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini. The Swiss chard was not looking good so it ended up going to the worms along with the vegetable trimmings. I should have enough tofu stir fry for 2-3 more meals.
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applestar
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- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
You are getting so much done! No comparison (and not even fair to compare since I’m just coming out of hibernation 
) but I’m really recognizing that I’m gonna have to get back in the game! 
…I know you have slugs and snails that are waaay bigger than around here, but do you know if those slugs were coming up the outside of the containers… or could they have come up from the inside?
If outside, maybe you could secure some kind of deterrent like copper tapes or metal scrubbies…belt sander sandpaper band, crinkled up aluminum foil, sticky tree trunk tape or even duct tape taped on sticky-side out, etc….?
Of course slug bait too. (I want to treat the inside of my hoophouse before it gets warm enough for them to hatch and explode….)
) but I’m really recognizing that I’m gonna have to get back in the game! …I know you have slugs and snails that are waaay bigger than around here, but do you know if those slugs were coming up the outside of the containers… or could they have come up from the inside?
If outside, maybe you could secure some kind of deterrent like copper tapes or metal scrubbies…belt sander sandpaper band, crinkled up aluminum foil, sticky tree trunk tape or even duct tape taped on sticky-side out, etc….?
Of course slug bait too. (I want to treat the inside of my hoophouse before it gets warm enough for them to hatch and explode….)
They were inside the container and the most (4) were on the third tier of seven from the top. They have probably been there a while. I don't see many slugs on the ground. I also found them in the bottom of the chive container when I divided it. I see holes they have made in the broccoli and the Tokyo bekana. The rainy season brings them out in force. I only caught one African in the past week, but two zuchhini were ruinded by snails eating the tips. I tried copper tape. It won't stop a hungry snail. I do use fencing and bags. That helps to stop the African snails but not the slugs. I haven't seen the toad in awhile. I need to get another toad. I also need to get some window screen to line the pots when I transplant so they cannot get in the drain holes and eat the roots.
How does the aluminum foil work? I haven't tried that one. Crushed eggshells and hair cut into very short pieces also work, but I can only protect a few plants with hair after I get a haircut.
I cannot use iron phosphate because the birds and rats will eat it up before the snails can get to it. I switched to Corry's sodium ferric bait and Buggetta sulfur bait and at least they do not attract the birds.
It is 81 degrees now at 5 p.m. The trades are turned on. Yesterday it was not that hot but the winds were very light so it was really humid. The overnight low will be 69-70 degrees. It is still overcast, and it is still muggy, but it would be worse if there was no wind. I think it is time to bring my fan back upstairs. More rain is expected tonight.
How does the aluminum foil work? I haven't tried that one. Crushed eggshells and hair cut into very short pieces also work, but I can only protect a few plants with hair after I get a haircut.
I cannot use iron phosphate because the birds and rats will eat it up before the snails can get to it. I switched to Corry's sodium ferric bait and Buggetta sulfur bait and at least they do not attract the birds.
It is 81 degrees now at 5 p.m. The trades are turned on. Yesterday it was not that hot but the winds were very light so it was really humid. The overnight low will be 69-70 degrees. It is still overcast, and it is still muggy, but it would be worse if there was no wind. I think it is time to bring my fan back upstairs. More rain is expected tonight.