Imafan's 2023 garden

[imafan26]

more pictures

[imafan26]

I have been watering the corn seeds in the main garden twice a day. I planted the UH #9 silver corn on July 22. Yesterday, I saw them starting to germinate. Today there were even more. That means they started germinating 3-4 days after planting. I guess I should water my main garden seeds twice a day more often. The extra backup corn seedlings in the 6 pack pots are also germinating so they are in sync. The day temp is 80-85 degrees. Perfect heat for the corn.

I picked tomatoes, cucumbers and beans today. The Southern Delight cucumber looks like a keeper.

[imafan26]

Finally pulled out the two TYLCV tomatoes today. I was able to harvest some of the tomatoes from the diseased Sun King. They are good. I will have to grow this tomato in a bag if I do it again. I was able to pick a handful of more beans. I did not realize I planted yard long beans in the tower planter. The plant is small, and the beans are dragging on the ground.

It looks like most of the corn germinated. I have 12 back up plats. I don't have that many gaps to fill.

I pulled out the carrots. It is hard for me to grow carrots. I got one carrot that was really long but skinny. About the same size and shape as the long bean.

I have neglected my sweet potato container. Yesterday, I looked under the leaves and there are small potatoes on the surface. I grew this container over last winter season. It was so small, I never harvested it. I is almost a year old. I wonder hpw many potatoes I will find when I finally get around to dealing with it.

The kabocha has aborted all of the fruit. I am thinking maybe I should give up on it.

It is hotter in some parts of the mainland than it is here. However, when it is 84 degrees outside, I only work in the yard early in the morning, mostly watering and after 3 p.m. in the afternoon. It is too hot to work in the middle of the day.

[imafan26]

The kabocha is yellowing. It has lots of flowers but all of the fruit has either aborted or been stung by fruit flies. It is starting to cause problems for the cucumber. It is also being stung by fruit flies. I think I will have to give up the either of kabocha now. I have to remember not to plant squash near the cucumbers. This is why zucchini gets banished to the side yard.

I got out early yesterday and cut back the neighbor's hibiscus and filled one green can before the collection came. The collection has been coming later in the day, so it buys me a little more time. Two people stopped and asked for cuttings. That was only 20 ft of the hedge that is the most accessible. I still have 80 ft most of which is not accessible. It is a nice hedge, but I really would rather not spend my time cutting back the neighbors hedge coming over and through my fence.

Weed whacking is today's goal. I just have to do things one day at a time, one chore at a time. The Round Up did a good job. Most of the weeds are dead, but there are a few stubborn ones I will have to try to pull or if I can't pull them, treat them again. The second thing would be after the grass is cut down, to dump at least a couple of pots of used soil. The light tasks would be to start some seeds or maybe repot a few plants. I might be able to fill in the extra corn seedlings into the garden today. They are about the right size. It will make more room on the bench. I need to bring the green can back to fill it again. I'll see how far I get on the to do list today.

[imafan26]

It has been a few days. It took longer to get a few things done
1. Got most of what I set out to do done. Weed whacked the front yard, emptied
2 containers and refilled them. Pulled out the 2 TYLCV tomatoes. Divided and
repotted garlic chives, and potted up lemon thyme. The other thyme died.
Divided and repotted spearmint, transplanted all the extra corn seedlings into
the main garden. I have been watering about twice a day on most days. The
UH No. 9 Silver corn was planted on June 22 and started emerging on
June 26. Today on Aug 4, I gave the corn the first side dressing of 2
tablespoons of sulfate of ammonia and I weeded the garden again. Pulled
the kabocha vine and pulled a few weeds.
2. I started working on one of the rows. It is not done yet. I tied up the vines of
Valentine tomato. This is a determinate, but this is the second flush. Divided
and repotted chives. Gave the carrots to the worms, and dumped the soil;
refilled with new soil and transplanted strawberries from the 7 tier tower. I
transplanted only one tier and I covered the container with a tree net to try
to keep these strawberries from being damaged any more. The other
strawberries in the tower are out of luck.
I still have to take the tiers apart and reset the tower. It is leaning because
the second tier from the bottom is not set properly. At least so far, I haven't
found any more slugs.
3. Cleaned up some of the things on the nursery bench. Planted some
hot pepper seeds, Valentine, and New Big Dwarf seeds
4. Covered the other Burpee Bushsteak with tree net. It looked fine when I
covered it. I will see in the next few weeks if it was covered in time. It is
starting to flower.
5. Picked cucumbers from Summer Delight, Sweet Slice, and Beit Alpha. I
am not seeing pickle worms, but the birds are going after the cucumbers.
I don't have enough long bags, so I am putting the shorter cucumbers in
the ten inch bags. I have ordered more bags from Amazon. Jibai
Shimashirazu has flowers but no fruit yet. I fertilized all the containers
today. It is the only way to get them micronutrients. Sweet Slice is
showing a possible magnesium deficiency and Jibai and Beit alpha are
both small so need a nitrogen boost. I have already given them kmag,
and granite dust. I just gave them sulfate of ammonia so it has not had
time to work. I don't have a good source of micros except for fertilizers that
also have phosphorus. Amazon won't ship the micro fertilizers.

[imafan26]

Technically, this is not from my garden. Today, I went to the carrot field day sponsored by the UH extension service. I got there a little late, so I missed out on the handouts. A graduate student talked about her project on what issues face small farmers in trying to get local produce in the market. Dr Kui Hoon talked about the issues of nematodes in the soil which is prevalent here and can be especially hard on root crops like carrots. So, she said they used neemx every 10 days fertigation to control nematodes in the plot. She said there are other products that act as a fumigant like Majestic. I grow carrots in containers to avoid this problem. However, I do have nematodes in parts of my yard that I have to be careful of. I basically use marigolds and nematode resistant crops. My plot is small so cover cropping with sun hemp, buckwheat, sorghum, and beans is not really practical. They also said that papaya seed extract was trialed, but the quantity of papaya seed required to make a 1% concentration, would be prohibitive.

The carrots in the field trial was planted in May and fertigated every 21 days with urea. By soil test, that was all they needed. The beds were hilled, the seeds were hand planted (2000 sf), hand weeded and hand thinned. The trial ended over a week ago at day 75 when the results were recorded. So, like most field days, we had a field day, with the map and pulling up carrots all over the place. There were three rows or replcations with the different varieties planted in different parts of the row. Some of the carrots were easy to pull , but some had to be dug out. There was not a lot of nematodes, but I did pick up a couple that looked like it did have some nematode damage on the roots. A few of the carrots were splititing. and some of the carrots still looked like they needed more time in the ground. They were long but thinner than a chopstick.

These field days are fun and usually the same people attend so we get to catch up.

I got about 3lbs of carrots. I gave the tops to the worms. I actually gave them my carrots last week and they are still working on it.

Do you have anything like this that is offered by your local extension service? l

[Gary350]

Do you have anything like this that is offered by your local extension service? l

We have extension service here they offer gardening classes. It has been a very long time sense I was there. They pick a topic how to grow a certain flower or vegetable then someone reads about it from a paper. I think most of the people that read and just readers. Few readers have ever grown a garden. Most people that come to the meetings want to grow flowers not food. A lot of people are master gardeners but have never grown anything. If you donate about 100 hours of your time at the AG center you can become a master gardener. If people ask questions they get answers from a paper or book or from a master gardener that read how to grow it in a book. The extension service has no garden to show people how to grow plants. Several years ago I asked, how to grow potatoes in TN. Answer was, I have never grown potatoes and most people can't grow potatoes in TN. I don't spend enough time at the AG center to know what to think about their garden classes.

[applestar]

You’ve been busy @imafan!

You’re lucky you have such an active gardening community around you.

I haven’t checked how things are in a long time, but in NJ at least when I started out, major activities were centered around Rutgers University main campus in northern part of NJ (2hrs away) and some activities near Princeton U. in central part of NJ (1h+) away. Or across the river in Philadelphia (but I’m a country mouse — not fond of city, and Philadelphia “suburbs” are 1.5h+ away)

So really nothing major close by. I did find out where the County Ag offices are and some workshops, etc. were … when I was running round taking my daughters to participate in different activities and programs — no time for myself then… haven’t had opportunity to look lately —too many projects of my own going on.

I was mostly interested in indoor ornamentals until I had an outdoor garden of my own to landscape and grow vegs in.

My horticultural journey started back in junior high school with African Violets. Pretty quickly got into leaf propagating. I was a bookworm and frequented the library — lots of book study and experimentation.

I also pretty quickly found out — I don’t like to follow rules or color inside the lines much, and gardening clubs around here were mostly about luncheons and garden tours…. I WAS asked if I might volunteer at a local community garden at one point, but I had too many external responsibilities at the time….

Haha. I have tremendous respect for everyone’s personal experiences and tried-and-true methods. I love trying different things and adapting them to fit my own micro-environment.

[imafan26]

The extension and another organization called RC&D, offer classes. The extension service offers what is called Extension in the Garden, about once a month mainly to the general public on various gardening topics. The last one was on static hydroponics (Kratky). The master gardeners usually do Second Saturday at the Garden where Master Gardeners lead the classes. Offerings would include things like grafting, bucket composting, xeriscape gardening, invasive species, basic plant propagation, orchids, basic gardening, mini plant sales.

The extension agents also do research through grants. The field days are mainly to showcase field trials of what the extension agents are working on and what they publish. Their audience is mainly small farmers but others like myself who are master gardeners do know what to look for and have signed up for the email notifications when they have events at the research stations, The public could also sign up, if they want to, but it is not sponsored under the same name as Extension in the Garden or Second Saturday. They have done lettuce, beans, onions, and today carrot field trials. The UH only has 28 foundation seeds and most of those were developed years ago. The trials showcase a variety of commercial seeds to see which ones are suitable for my climate.

When we did the onion field day, Candy, an onion that Gary really likes did very poorly in the local trial. Short, short day onions Plethora, Sapelo, and Madalyn did better in my climate. The commercial variety that most people know here is Maui onion, aka Texas grano. Location and soil matter when growing onions here.

RC&D also offers classes to both the public and focused classes for farmers.
https://oahurcd.org/

[Gary350]

I took an Ag class my senior year in high school 1968. I took an Ag class in college about 1974. The high schools classes were mostly about, soil, fertilizer and what each plant likes. That is when I leaved each plant needs its only weather conditions it likes best, plants need a soil they like best and plant food they like best. The high school Ag class was mostly about farming large crops 100 to 2000 acres of something. The college class was the science of plants and soil.

NPT educational TV channel has a TV show called, Tennessee Gardener that I have been watching for 40 years. It use to be about vegetables but now it is all flowers and shrubs. It was very educational years ago it was mostly local university studies growing vegetables in TN.

Trial and error in my own garden is what works best for me. Talking to people on Tennessee Garden forum is very good too, there are several people that have learned what works best for them buy experimenting. It is very helpful to know what plants like best and what plants don't like. Universities have the best Ag classes.

I need to find a better intermediate onion better than candy onion with a longer shelf life. I am still learning. I mostly grow what we eat and what my family grew 60 years ago. I grow fun things sometimes like, Zinnia flowers, melons that take up too much space, herbs & greens that we seldom eat. Celery & strawberries are new for us I am glad I started growing them. 21-0-0 fertilizer is what onions like but those super strong onions give me terrible heart burn. I planted celery with AZ type irrigation plants were doing good until we started having every day rain, 1 celery plant died the other 3 don't look good, growing in hills like strawberries would be better rain could run off but if our summer weather next year is desert again celery will grow best like I am growing it now with AZ irrigation. Undependable weather is a terrible garden problem. I learned from 1 of the TV shows too much rain causes BER it washes calcium out of TN soil. That confirms what I already expected, too much rain causes BER.

[imafan26]

That is also what the extension teaches here. Most of the vegetables and fruits in the store and what people learn online or from youtube are about temperate crops. Things like frost dates and not starting to plant until May or June don't apply here. Most people here don't even know what zone we are in and why it matters. Many new gardeners fail here trying to plant lettuce in Summer, or are overwhelmed by pests because they delayed starting a garden till the "Spring" when the pest pressure is the highest. I can only plant temperate or cool season crops from Sept-May. Even then, some temperate plants won't grow well. Most temperate crops will not tolerate the heat and humidity in summer. The trials help farmers and gardeners to learn what varieties are best suited, and what obstacles, like nematodes, soil, and microclimates they need to be aware of.

There is a go farm program that helps teach anyone who wants to start their own farm business everything from propagation, soil prep, IPM, food safety, marketing, to budgeting. The survivors that graduate from the program then get to lease an acre of land from the UH for one year. This is because the legislature will only give farm loans to farmers that have been farming for at least a year. This was a barrier to entry since most farmers here, unless they inherit land, don't own the land they farm on. I have a couple of friends who changed careers and went through the program and lease land to farm.

[Gary350]

Most people here don't even know what zone we are in and why it matters. Many new gardeners fail here trying to plant lettuce in Summer, or are overwhelmed by pests because they delayed starting a garden till the "Spring" when the pest pressure is the highest.

Same problem here. Every day people ask if they can plant tomatoes now. 3 days ago someone posted a picture of a 1 ft tall tomato plant in a coffee can wanting to know why her plant has no tomatoes. People buy Miracle grow and give there plants 1 teaspoon of water once a week, what is the problem? It is hard to tell people the truth it makes them mad.

When I lived in AZ 99% of the population are from places where they grow summer gardens. 99% of the people will say, you can not grow a garden in AZ its too HOT. Everyone's brain is programmed to plant a summer garden. You don't plant a summer garden in AZ you plant Nov 1st it is 65° every day with full sun for 4 months.

[imafan26]

There is an increase in people gardening since the pandemic. It was always hard to get garden supplies after September. This year, some garden supplies are already hard to find and Amazon is not shipping a lot of things. I still have to stock up on more peat moss and perlite for the fall and winter months. I just got two bags of perlite and I need to pick up at least 3 more of peat moss.

Fall is the better time to garden for us, but the big box stores have the most convenient garden shops. And their garden centers are reduced to be able to bring in all the Christmas items. This year, probably because of the Union Pacific railroad and trucking shortages, the fertilizer and pest control sections of all of the big box stores are a lot smaller and some things have been very hard to get. Amazon won't ship things they used to ship before, so it is hard to source what I need. The local ag suppliers are not better stocked as they are also having a hard time shipping in bulky items that travel across country by truck or train. And the shipping is worse with every order.

People are trying to grow temperate or cool crops like lettuce, tomatoes, watercress, and cilantro in July and August. Like you said, they also plant in such small pots and never pot up. People also expect plants to give fruit when they have never fertilized and barely watered.

There are local you tubers, but the one I know of lives on the Big Island in Mountain View. That is a very different climate from what is here on Oahu. It is much cooler and he is on new land (lava field). There is a garden column in the newspaper and sometimes they do feature stories. They just did one on the hydroponic classes we just had.

[Gary350]

I buy a lot of seeds on Ebay $2 free shipping from China. Seeds arrive in 2 weeks. China seeds are more relabel 100% germinating compared to 50% to 60% germination from other places. I buy, Pac Choy, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, Carrots, cabbage, Chard, from China in 250, 300, or 500 seeds per package $2. or $2.50 free postage.

Farmers Co-op has best prices for larger bulk packages of BIG seeds, 1000 corn seeds $5. 5000 Carrot seeds $6. 1000 beans $6, 1500 peas $6. The sugar snap pea seed pack is 1/2lb of seeds I think it is about 1500 seeds for $6. Farmers co-op has 1/2 lb and 1 lb seed packs.

There appears to be a lot of Ebay sellers buying low cost Asian seeds then reselling them on Ebay. Here is a seller with reasonable prices. Scrawl down they have lots of other seeds.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266219510964?h ... R4D9yPe7Yg

[imafan26]

It is hard to get seeds especially from China. I had bought seeds on Amazon, not knowing they were actually from China. They were confiscated because the seller did not have the necessary certificates. Since, I did buy it from Amazon, I did get refunded.

Hawaii has requirements for phytosanitary certificates. I like Park Seeds, but I don't buy from them anymore because even for 1 packet of seeds there is a $20 surcharge for the phytocertificate.

[Gary350]

It is hard to get seeds especially from China. I had bought seeds on Amazon, not knowing they were actually from China. They were confiscated because the seller did not have the necessary certificates. Since, I did buy it from Amazon, I did get refunded.

Hawaii has requirements for phytosanitary certificates. I like Park Seeds, but I don't buy from them anymore because even for 1 packet of seeds there is a $20 surcharge for the phytocertificate.

Ebay seeds never come to me marked, seeds. They come in a brown envelope. Envelope address from 1 seller says. Mark Larson, 1166 97th Ln, Coon Rapids, MN. 55433. If you order seeds with a return address like that how will Hawaii post office know it is $3 seeds?

[imafan26]

They use beagles. They are at the airport too usually in the baggage area. They alert by sitting in front of the source. Dogs also sniff through the mail. Some packages just look suspicious to them and they are allowed to open any package to inspect it. If the package is confiscated they send a letter saying that it was confiscated and why. My amazon package of seeds was confiscated and I got a letter saying that it was because the sender did not have a certificate. I know someone who used to sell things on amazon and he was tagged because he was missing inspection stamps.

It is not impossible to send things through the mail, just very hard. the state dept of Ag is chronically underfunded and under staffed. You have to make an appointment with them to make sure they will be in the office. I would have to drive down to their office about 23 miles, with my plants or seeds and the packing material. They will inspect whatever you have. Some things can't be sent to certain places or not at all, like rapeseed, coffee, fruit seeds, banana pups. Nothing in soil or with soil on them. If they pass inspection, you have to put it in the package for mailing and address it. they will stamp the package and then you can take it to the post office to send it. Outgoing baggage and carry ons are inspected by xray machines. If they see anything suspicious they will stop you. They stopped me because they thought I had bananas in my bag. I didn't, it was frozen Portuguese sausages. Some things like fish sauce can't be taken because it stinks if the glass bottles break and that has happened to many times. You can't go to a store and buy and orange and take it back to the mainland. Mango and fruits can be taken on the plane if it is seedless and frozen. You can take pineapple you buy from the duty free shops at the airport. Those have already passed inspection.

[Gary350]

They use beagles. They are at the airport too usually in the baggage area. They alert by sitting in front of the source. Dogs also sniff through the mail. Some packages just look suspicious to them and they are allowed to open any package to inspect it. If the package is confiscated they send a letter saying that it was confiscated and why. My amazon package of seeds was confiscated and I got a letter saying that it was because the sender did not have a certificate. I know someone who used to sell things on amazon and he was tagged because he was missing inspection stamps.

It is not impossible to send things through the mail, just very hard. the state dept of Ag is chronically underfunded and under staffed. You have to make an appointment with them to make sure they will be in the office. I would have to drive down to their office about 23 miles, with my plants or seeds and the packing material. They will inspect whatever you have. Some things can't be sent to certain places or not at all, like rapeseed, coffee, fruit seeds, banana pups. Nothing in soil or with soil on them. If they pass inspection, you have to put it in the package for mailing and address it. they will stamp the package and then you can take it to the post office to send it. Outgoing baggage and carry ons are inspected by xray machines. If they see anything suspicious they will stop you. They stopped me because they thought I had bananas in my bag. I didn't, it was frozen Portuguese sausages. Some things like fish sauce can't be taken because it stinks if the glass bottles break and that has happened to many times. You can't go to a store and buy and orange and take it back to the mainland. Mango and fruits can be taken on the plane if it is seedless and frozen. You can take pineapple you buy from the duty free shops at the airport. Those have already passed inspection.

It never occurred to me that there are seed sniffing dogs.

[imafan26]

The dogs are trained to look for anything that smells like a plant. Mainly they are after fruit, but they can find seeds as well. It is not full proof, the dogs still miss some things. I think my package was actually opened by inspectors because they were suspicious of the seed origin.

[imafan26]

It has been a long day. I spent two hours trying to get the computer to recognize my phone after the last windows update. 2 USB cables and a lot of running down rabbit holes later, I ended up having to connect the phone to the USC port since it won't recognize the phone on the USB port.

But, I did get some things done in the garden. I started filling up my green cans a couple of days ago. I cut off the dragon fruit off the fence. Cut off some of the neighbor's hibiscus that is coming through my fence, cut one of the ti patches near the cucumber down. It is a fruit fly roosting host. It will grow back later. And I have started cutting back some of the citrossa in the front yard. There is more to go, but the cans are full now.

I harvested more cucumber. Two of the cucumbers have significant nutritional issues. Magnesium, zinc, and nitrogen. So, I need to pull them out. The Jibai shimoshizaru is starting to put out cucumbers but it also has nitrogen issues. I have to side dress it more often I probably will have to alternate nitrogen with sul-po-mag, since the magnesium issues will probably show up later. The Beit Alpha cucumber has produced a couple of fruit and it has flowers. It is much smaller than it should be, so it is also getting boosted with side dressings. I probably have to do regular side dressings to stay ahead of this.

The corn I planted on July 22, is doing well. I have over 50 cornstalks and I had been watering them twice a day. Some of the corn is shorter because the neighbor's tree shades them for part of the day while the other side is in full sun. There is some Chinese rose beetle damage, but otherwise it is o.k.
I am thinking my bird netting fram may be too short. It might cause a problem for the corn tassels.

I have to change the soil in a few pots. Three of the pots had tomatoes with TYLCV, and just about every plant I grow is an alternate host (okra, sweet potato, eggplant, peppers, cabbage, and cucurbits).

I still have valentine tomatoes, most are dropping, because I can't eat them all.

I have emptied half of the tiers in the 7 tier tower, and got more soil to refill it.

Many projects. August is not much of a planting month, but it is a reset month. I have a lot of maintenance to do in the garden and prep for the next planting. I do have some tomato and pepper seedlings that need to be planted out, so I need to get those pots ready first.

[imafan26]

I harvested 2 eggplant from the garden yesterday ( I forgot to weigh it). I also had eggplant from the other garden where I volunteer so I made pork with eggplant. That will last a few days.

One of the eggplants I harvested from my garden had been pecked by birds. It looks like I will have to start bagging eggplant too. Normally, birds don't bother the eggplant. The society finches are eating the basil seeds, and I think they are also making holes in the kale.

The strawberries I transplanted into a tote and covered with a tree bag, is recovering and has new leaves.

I checked my worms. I gave them the carrots from my container and it had a lot of potting soil attached to the roots. When I went to feed them more bitter melon today, I saw the worms actively in the root/soil mass, so it looks like they enjoy it and the bin is not so muddy. A serendipitous discovery. I also added more paper egg cartons for carbon.

[imafan26]

I have a problem now. The corn was planted 42 days ago. It should not be ready to harvest until the third or fourth week of October. It is already too tall for the frame of the bird netting. So, I had to take it off. A couple of leaves were starting to go through the netting.

It has been hot and I get tired fast so I have been working slowly on the yard. I cut back part of the neighbors hibiscus that is coming through my fence. At least enough to fill my green cans. I can only cut back enough to fill cans every couple of weeks. I have other stuff in the yard that needs to be cut back too, so the cans are getting filled with whatever I get to.

I repotted the peppermint. It was looking leggy. It doesn't take long before it needs repotting again.

I took apart the 7 tier tower. The second tier was not set properly anyway, so I redid the soil and replanted the tower. I only kept one tier of green onions, leeks and chives. I have replanted red lettuce that was reseeding in my other tower, pak choy, bush beans, Swiss Chard, and Tokyo bekana. Some of the seeds have already sprouted. The seventh tier is the water reservoir so their are only 6-6 pocket planting tiers.

The Summer Slice cucumber, that had all the magnesium and nitrogen issues, actually made a comeback after I fertilized it and it is producing cucumbers again. Southern delight is also flowering. As the other pots are not ready yet for planting. I guess I'll keep these a little longer. Pickle worms are making a comeback though.

Strawberries are flowering. I don't know if they require pollination. If they do I will have to hand pollinated them since they are under insect netting.

I transplanted two of the Curly Vates kale from the tower into one of my TYLCV pots. So far, they are doing o.k. A little bit of yellowing on the leaves.

The peppers are starting to make peppers. They are the wrong kind of Thai peppers, so I just bought more pots to pot up the peppers. I will have to up pot some of them again. I also have to pot up the tomatoes and I still have more pots of soil to redo.

Yesterday I harvested some super chilies. The birds had eaten some of the red chilies.

I fed the worms the bitter melon vine that is a weed in my yard.

the zingiber looks like it is putting up a flowering stock and the sweet potato vine is making a break for it again.

I just emptied one large tub and 4 smaller pots and the bag of soil into the front yard. There were slugs under the pot so I will have to put out more slug bait and remember to bring a zip bag with salt with me when I go out to clean up again. I pulled out the stump and some of the surface papaya roots.
My rain gauge and thermometer pole is succumbing to being in a marine climate. The pole is rusting. I duck taped the connection and used a bamboo stake to support it. It is still a little crooked, but it may hold up a while longer.

[imafan26]

Yesterday, I started more seeds. I have some really old seeds so I don't expect some of them to grow. I planted minowase daikon (seeds from 2016 and 2019), De Cicco broccoli (2019), Curly Vates Kale (2019), Okra (2021), Partenon zucchini (2022), Italian parsley, perpetual spinach, Fukuda long purple eggplant, Carolina reaper, Red 7 pot hot, Tokyo long bunching onion, chiltepin, Soarer cucumber.

If the broccoli does not come up in a week, I will get new seeds. These seeds did work last year, but I can only plant 2 broccoli a year so a packet of seeds takes a long time to use up. Zuchhini will do better as a fall crop with fewer pests and Partenon has good resistance to PM. El Nino has drier winters. Zucchini seeds don't keep very long. I will be in a pickle if all that daikon actually sprouts. I have to plant the hot peppers when it is hot, they sprout better if the temperature is above 80 degrees.

I have made a little room, but now I have to refill those pots and plant out the peppers and tomato starts I have, and empty more pots.

[imafan26]

Some of the seeds I planted in the tower have sprouted. The lettuce seeds I collected from the bolted lettuce sprouted the fastest of all.

The cucumbers Southern Delight, Sweet Slice, and Jibai Shimoshizaru have all got their second wind and are putting out new flowers. The Beit Alpha is done and drying. Another bucket I have to empty.

I watered the yard late today. To my surprise the corn has started to tassel. I planted the corn on July 22. They started emerging on July 26. I thought this was an 80 day corn. I looked it up and it is 68-75 days. It is 46 days from planting and about 42 days from germination. This corn is going to be ready before 60 days. Usually corn is ready to harvest about 10 days after the tassels appear.

As usual I am behind schedule. I have an e-waste appt on Saturday so I have been gathering my old computers, cell phones, vcrs, dvd, and landline phone. I am not sure what they will take, but tomorrow I have to load it in the car and and get it ready to go. I have one old working computer and my last phone that still works so I have to see if I can donate it instead. If not, the computer for sure will go to the ewaste event. The phone I could still keep as a backup phone.

I am going to miss green day tomorrow because I haven't filled even one green can. I did go to Walmart today. The seed racks were gutted, but I was able to find some Italian Sprouting broccoli. The seeds I planted were from 2019 so I don't expect much from them. I can plant a few of the new ones. I only have room for 2 plants. They won't go in till the corn comes out. Garlic is sprouting in the refrigerator, but I don't have room to plant garlic this year.

I found a bag of slimy beans I picked from my garden. I really need to freeze them right away, so they will keep.

[imafan26]

It is 81 degrees at 2:30 in the afternoon. It's a hot day, but at least the trades were turned on. It actually rained overnight and while I was watering the garden today. I had 0.25 inches of rain in the rain gauge. I even had about 3 inches of water in my two rain barrels. I had emptied them to clean them out. Lots of algae!

Yesterday and today, I potted up some of the seedling peppers and tomatoes. I made cuttings from my mom's Persian lime, cuttings from citrossa, and lavender. I had to make the lavender cuttings because the plants had ground mealybugs, so the only thing I could try to save them was to try to make cuttings. I found ground mealy bugs in two of my finger limes as well. I will try to make cuttings from them as well. I may try to kill the mealy bugs with imidacloprid since they are too young to produce fruit.

I cleaned up my bench of pots and so far only one of those pots had ground mealy bugs in them. I cleaned and bleached a batch of pots.

Most of the seeds I planted a few days ago have sprouted. the seeds sprout fast in the warm weather. I was surprised the daikon seeds from 2016 sprouted very well. Now, I have too many. Even the DeCicco broccoli from 2019 sprouted. I am still waiting on the peppers, but I planted some of those the other day and peppers are slow to germinate even under the best of conditions unless the seeds are really fresh. Hopefully, a lot of these will be able to go into the main garden after the corn is done.

Most of the seeds in the tower have sprouted. I will need to thin those as well. I have emptied a few buckets and pots, but there are more. I am going to need to get more media to fill these big pots. I transplanted kale from the tower into one of the pots that had TYLCV. Although cabbage is an alternate host it isn't showing symptoms, and I want to try to save all of the good soil mixes I can. I pretty much have to grow TYLCV resistant tomatoes or tomatoes I can keep under net bags.

I harvested 4 cucumbers. I gave 2 to my mom and 1 to my sister, but I forgot to weigh them. My sister came over yesterday to raid my grape tomatoes. At least she can make use of it. The birds have been eating them and a lot of them are falling off the vine because there are too many for me to eat. My mom would not like them because they are tart sweet and she does not like tart tomatoes. I did plant two more replacements They are looking kind a sad, but hopefully, they will perk up.

About a third of the corn tassels are out. I did have to take off the bird netting because some of the cornstalks are already higher than the frame.

[applestar]

Sometimes the harvest avalanche can be overwhelming.

Beans — if you’ll eat them within a month or two, its easiest to just wash, snap the top and bottom off, remove strings if necessary, cut if desired (cut to fit freezer bag if too long) then freeze without bothering to process. They might suffer freezer burn if forgotten for 4-6 months and also lose texture.

I used to just take out and break them up into pieces while frozen to cook them.

Dehydrating them might be an alternative, too. I didnt grow any this year. I’m allergic and hubby won’t eat them. Only one of my DDs likes them… oh and our kitty. Maybe I’ll grow just a little bit next year.

[Gary350]

Beans are easy to freeze. I picked 6" long green beans, wife rinsed them then leaves them on a towel several hours to dry. Wife said, not to freeze wet beans, dry beans don't freezer burn? She put a good size hand full of full length whole 6" long beans in each zip lock bags. She has 40 bags in the freezer. Any time wife cooks in the roaster pan or slow cooker she throws in, whole potatoes, carrots, and 1 bag of green beans. Dinner is so easy. Today about 10am she put ribs in the roaster pan, about 3pm she put in the carrots, 4pm she put in the potatoes and beans. 5pm time to eat. Flat pot green beans have a different flavor than other green beans, we like them better. 6" long beans are easier to fish out of the cook pot than smaller snapped beans. No snapping is less work.

[imafan26]

I did freeze some beans. These were at the end of the run and I only had five or six. I meant to collect a few more before freezing them, but it ended up lost in the frig. Good tips on freezing beans, I can use that in the future. I grow mostly bush beans in the tower. I accidentally planted yard long beans in the tower and they were dragging on the ground. I like Poamoho pole beans, but unfortunately so do the birds. The beans I have grown are Poamoho pole beans, contender (nematode resistant), and Provider. I have some Jade bean seeds so when I have space, I want to try that one. I used to grow Kentucky Wonder but it is neither rust or nematode resistant, so I don't grow it anymore. Provider is the best bean for production and disease resistance, but it grows taller so it is better in a container and not in the tower. I grew Lima and Italian beans a long time ago. I did like them, but I have not planted them in a long time. Most people here only like the flat podded Italian type beans too. Round beans are a hard sell.

I would rather plant crops that have an extended harvest rather than all or none. If the crops can stay in the garden like the sweet potato, ginger, herbs and spices, komatsuna, kale, peppers, citrus, papaya, taro, eggplant, and chard, it is better because I can just harvest them as needed and they don't get lost in the frig or freezer. It is why I don't like to plant short crops like lettuce, because I don't eat it regularly and it only has a short harvest window. I do like cucumbers but to make it work and not get deluged with cukes, I have to stagger the plantings and plant in succession. Succession works best if I hade a fallow section in the rotation, but that does not happen and sometimes the succession plants but up against plants that are not ready to come out yet, so that has caused issues with timing.

That is why, I have emptied containers but I haven't rushed to plant them again, because all of these seedlings I started need somewhere to go.

[imafan26]

The birds have broken some of the corn tassels and the bees are busy collecting pollen. I may have to try to lift the garden frame about another foot to accommodate the corn. I will have to find a way to extend the netting as well. I think my frame is about 7ft tall and I can't really reach the top of it. The corn is about 8 ft tall. More of the corn ears are emerging.

I emptied another container in the yard and started taking the second tower apart. There were a lot of slugs in the tower. I emptied 2 tiers and I have three to go. It rained last night so the tower is heavy because the soil is wet.

I moved the peppers I potted up next to the corn.

I did some weed whacking in the front yard. I had to use the bush whacker blade to cut the grass which was over a foot tall. I stopped because it started to rain again. Some of the pots came out easily from the grass, but I have some pots that may be already into the ground that will be harder to get out.

Yesterday, I had a pest control company, clean out the nesting material and put vent caps on the roof vents. The birds were looking on my lanai for another place to nest.

I picked 4 cucumbers yesterday for a total of 1555 gms. I had one for dinner last night. I found 3 more baby cukes today. I bagged two of them. I will have to wait a little longer for the third cuke to get a little larger. They don't have a lot of necks so it is hard to get a bag on the smaller ones without snapping them off.

Some of th beans that sprouted in the first tower had the heads bitten off. I may have to come up with a different solution.

[imafan26]

Yesterday, I picked another large cucumber. It weighed 1.49 lbs./678 grams. 4 small tomatoes from the Burpee Supersteak. This plant is not TYLCV resistant so it is in a net bag. I have to give it credit for hanging in there through so much adversity since it is also not heat tolerant, but I probably won't be planting this one again. It did not have very good disease resistance either. I picked 3 calamondin to add to my tea. I have used two of them already. I have a lot more fruit left on the trees.

I got a lot of slugs yesterday and few large African snails. I am going to need more slug bait or find another toad.

The pak choy, lettuce, swiss chard, and onions are doing ok in the tower I just replanted. The beans have had their heads snapped off. I am not sure if it is because of birds or slugs. I will have to do some thinning in the first tower, so I started to take the second tiered tower apart. The thinning can be transplanted there. There were a lot of slugs there as well as slugs under other pots and crawling up the sides.

The bees are eating the pollen on the corn and helping to pollinate the silks in the process. I caught an Asian beetle on the corn yesterday, so I guess I know now which beetle is eating the corn leaves.

I weed/bushwhacked part of the front yard. I am still digging out some of the pots hiding in the tall grass. I have a grandiflora rose called Gold Medal that is lying sideways because of the weight of the citrossa plant. I am still cutting that one out and trying not to cut the rose branches in the process. The grass was over a foot tall, so I had to bushwhack it since it is too thick to use a string trimmer. It has been awhile since I have worked on these pots.

The peppers are looking good. I did spray them with sulfur and pyrethrin (3 in 1 spray) for mites.

Some of the seedlings are starting to show their first true leaves and as usual, I am behind in my work.

Today while I was watering the one day wonder orchid was in bloom.

I'll take my phone out later today and try to get pictures to post.
I am having problems since Windows updated getting photos to upload. I have to use Legacy and the computer can only see the camera with a USC connection.

[applestar]

Too bad there isn’t a way to turn those slugs and snails into something useful….

I came across a big one while rummaging through some pots under the bench, and since I needed to go check the mailbox at the bottom of the driveway anyway, I took it with me and tossed it into the exact center of the street

Yes, Yeeees, very cruel. I get that urge sometimes.

[Gary350]

Too bad there isn’t a way to turn those slugs and snails into something useful….

I came across a big one while rummaging through some pots under the bench, and since I needed to go check the mailbox at the bottom of the driveway anyway, I took it with me and tossed it into the exact center of the street

Yes, Yeeees, very cruel. I get that urge sometimes.

There use to be a TV show about strange foods. A man traveled the world to eat odd foods. I remember him eating slugs & snails but don't remember which country he was in. He was in a country that had no wild life, no birds, no dogs, no cats, no mice, no rats, no bugs. People built traps to catch all living things to eat for dinner. He once ate eye balls cooked a certain way not sure what country that was. He also ate 6" long cockroach's once. There was a group of people that lived up high in the mountains they raised sheep and goats and road horses, no roads to drive cars. Wife drained blood from animals to mix with flour to make doe balls then boiled them in water to cook there. 90% of what they ate was blood dumplings. I think those people were, sherpas & lived in the Andie's mountains, they had lots of snow. When I was a kid in grade school I was told, eat everything on your plate people are starving in other countries.

[imafan26]

I tried to cut them in half with the pruners, but some of them were too small to cut easily. After awhile, I went in the house and got a zip bag with some salt to put the slugs and bugs in. I don't move fast, but in that short time, some of the slugs crawled out of sight. I may have to get more salt and go out earlier in the morning on slug hunts. Actually African snails are used for escargot. But the snails here have salmonella and rat lung disease. They were not a problem for awhile, but I haven't seen the toad. I am even seeing more aphids now. I need to redo the flower and nectar garden. It hasn't been getting enough water.

I raked up the dried grass I bush whacked the other day. It did not take long for it to dry. I have one green can filled. Tomorrow, I want to try to work on filling the second one. It is about 25% full. It should not take long.

[applestar]

I know your slugs and snails are at least 5 times bigger than the ones I have here, but FWIW, I used to keep a lidded tall take out drink cup (like ice tea or lemonade) of small amount of soapy water with a pair of bamboo chopsticks stuck through the straw hole of the lid near various garden areas. Take the lid off and use the chopsticks to pick up slugs and put in the soapy water. When the slugs exceeded the soapy water level (or if the dead slugs started to smell, I would dump them out in the compost pile and clean out the cup to refill with fresh soapy water. Bamboo chopsticks got tossed in the compost pile if too yucky or quick washed to reuse.

I also started using epsom salts as slug barriers while fertilizing the garden beds as well — so I would put down a line of the epsom salts along the base of garden structures like fences, hoophouse poly walls, raised beds, bunch of container pots, hard scapes like cinder blocks, bricks, pavers alongside garden beds, etc. All the places where they tend to congregate.

I do the same with Borax against ants, but with much smaller amounts than epsom salts. (Mantra : Borax is a cumulative toxin; be careful around toddlers and pets.) A little more around fruit tree trunks and around garden crops that can make use of extra bit of borax like strawberries and brassicas.

Less around salt-sensitive crops like peppers and avocados.

[imafan26]

I used to make yeast traps and that works. But I would have to empty it every day. Keeping a cup of soapy water around is not a bad idea and since the compostable paper goods are useless I have 1000 chopsticks. Enough to last about 10 years. I have cottage cheese and cool whip containers I can use instead of a cup. All the restaurants now are required to use compostable cups and utensils. It is better for the environment but not good if you want a hot plate lunch that isn't cold and soggy by the time you get to eat it, or the paper straw that doesn't make it for the whole drink. People used to drop salt on slugs in the garden. While that works, salt is bad for the garden and with the number of slugs I have, it would be a lot of salt in the garden.

I have epsom salts but I did not know it could be used for slugs. Most of the slugs and snails I have are in pots, in the orchids, under containers, under rocks, in drain holes of other container plants, and they are under the water reservoir in the towers, and in the ground cover in the front yard. I have to get out in the garden around 6 a.m. to still catch them before they go into hiding.

[imafan26]

My strawberries bloomed and I tried to hand pollinate them. They are supposed to be self pollinating, but I may have to break down and take the time to lift the netting during the early morning when the flowers bloom so the bees can get in to pollinate them.

My vanda is blooming again. This is the third or fourth time this year. I must be doing something right. It is also growing crooked which unfortunately is what vanda like to do in nature. They don't like to bloom until they hit the top of the tree and bend. It is just hard to show this vanda because "people" like to do unnatural things to plants, like put them in pots.

I was going to harvest some of sweet potatoes to see if it is still good. But I was researching how to do it and found that I have to cure the potatoes for a couple of weeks. That might be dangerous. I have araimo I harvested on a tray that has sprouted and I will have to replant or throw them away.

It started raining while I was watering the hard enough to get it making puddles under the gutter outflow. I did get the inner courtyard and side yard watered. I'll check later today, if I have to water more. The rain barrel is up to about a third full. Actually, most of the time the rain barrels are full because it is not that easy to get the water out of the barrel. With full barrels (about 100 gallons) I can water the front yard once.

I cut back the sweet potato leaves (this one only makes leaves and no tubers). My can is already full and I have a little more to go. I will see how much of it I can get into the worm bin.

[Gary350]

My strawberries bloomed and I tried to hand pollinate them. They are supposed to be self pollinating, but I may have to break down and take the time to lift the netting during the early morning when the flowers bloom so the bees can get in to pollinate them.

I put bird net on my strawberries, bees get through but birds can't. Birds can't even land on the net. 8'x35' net $10 free postage on ebay. I'm not sure if anyone has a better price I never looked. I sell our yard sale stuff on ebay so that is like free money I need to spend it.

[imafan26]

The birds were not the problem, either slugs or beetles were making swiss cheese out of the leaves and some leaves only had skeletons of the the main veins.

[imafan26]

I thought I got a good start on the garden when the seeds (even the older ones germinated). But, most of the beans in the tower have disappeared and so have the Tokyo Bekana. I suspect slugs. I put out slug bait and at least the last two days, I haven't seen any more slugs in the morning. I may have to get up earlier.

The lettuce and pak choy are doing ok. There were extras so I may have enough to fill some of the other pockets that are now empty. The slugs also grazed my seedlings. So, some of them are thinned as well. I will have to replant some of them all together like the okra. Only one survived and I gave that one away. I need four for a container to make it worthwhile. I need to plant out the survivors and see what else I have room for. The corn will be coming out and I want to have seedling ready to go into the main garden soon after that. The marjorram bowl was probably too wet. I may have to start the seeds in a smaller container before transplanting out or grow something else.

This morning I did manage to cut another rose free and drag it out of the weeds. I have to prune out the dead branches. There are a couple of big pots and a few smaller ones that still need digging out. At least the green bins are empty now, so there is room for the trimmings.

I harvested another cucumber today. There are a few I could harvest. I just can't eat all of them in time. I may have to make some deliveries.

I have more aphids and mealy bugs now in the garden The mealy bugs are attacking the hibiscus and ilima which is a hibiscus relative. Leaf hoppers were on the bay leaf. I can't do much about it. Most of these pests are coming from the neighbor's hibiscus hedge. The roses have beetle damage, but they will survive it. They are not under the lights and if it gets worse I can treat them with systemic rose care. I haven't seen Chinese rose beetles and they haven't been a problem for years. It may be the Asian Flower beetle instead. I may be able to set up a light trap. I will have to get a few things to make it. The Japanese beetle trap will work, but I can't get the floral lure. Amazon won't send it and I can't find any Japanese beetle traps locally. The cucumbers have aphids, but they are old but still producing. My predators are not that active now. I don't like to spray, so it may be time to take out more of the cucumbers.

[applestar]

The birds were not the problem, either slugs or beetles were making swiss cheese out of the leaves and some leaves only had skeletons of the the main veins.

Ooh, when I planted strawberries along the front edge of a bed where I have the long-surviving-without-intervention Abraham Darby rose, the strawberry leaves were decimated by rose slugs… do you get those?

The rose slug infestation finally stopped when I hung a house wren box on the rose’s arch trellis and a family moved in for the season.