Container veg doing well

[nltaff]

Caught sight of this yesterday, early:

We have many of these water troughs around the property. My hubby has his hops in 4 or 5 of them around his brew shed. This one, in front of the deck has one squash, one tomato, one pepper, and one, lone pea plant in it.

I like the troughs, but they certainly can't be moved easily. I sort of prefer growbags and pots on rolling trays. Little moving dollies from Harbor Freight let me keep my greens in the shade on these hot days.

[rainbowgardener]

Looking good! But I'm afraid in the long run a tomato plant and a squash plant are not going to be able to coexist in a container that size. It would be a bit small for either one of them separately. And the pea plant is going to burn up in the heat anyway, being a cold weather plant.

Personally, I would leave the squash plant alone and very gently dig up the tomato plant and give it its own container. When you transplant the tomato, bury it deeper than it was and it will grow roots along the buried stem. Remove any fruits that are on it (the plant would probably drop them anyway). It will thank you!

[applestar]

Nowadays, when I see a female cucurbit blossom, I hand pollinated it... Even while the bees are buzzing around my head in annoyance at being interrupted. I probably don't need to, but I do it anyway.

[nltaff]

RG, the picture is deceptive. The container is a 75 gallon water trough (holes drilled all over the bottom) that has been in place for about 4 years now. My problem with these is that they frequently turn up with ants in them in the spring. This spring, I planted about 25 peas along the back of it, but the ants ate all but one (the chipmunks and squirrels helped, I'm sure). Once I got rid of the ants, I put one squash on one end, a tomato (extra, but I just couldn't throw it in the trash heap) and a pepper on the other end. Also, those leaves are not in the least yellow, that's just the AM sun just coming up to the east (right of pic). Usually by this time, I'm spraying baking soda, but it's been so very dry here, that no powdery mildew has shown up.

[nltaff]

Applestar, is this what happens when the female blossom isn't pollenated?

That is what became of the huge blossom. Took the picture just as the sun was peeking up, and an hour and a half later, it was all shriveled up. Probably too late for the tired moths and too early for the bees. I get why you do that hand pollenating, you just never know, do you?

[nltaff]

Super Sauce and Sweet Seedless are definitely doing well.

Only have pictures of super sauce, but I'll get some of the others today. Very anxious for these and Fresh Salsa to ripen.
And we've been eating summer squash and green bell peppers every night in all ways imaginable (grilled with olive oil and rosemary, in salads, etc.). One tomato from the colder climate variety, Glacier. Not bad tasting, but it had huge seeds while the packet they came from contained unusually tiny seeds for a tomato.

[imafan26]

It looks really nice. I have ants usually around lemon grass and citrus trees. I expect them every year now, so I put out terro outdoor ant bait. That keeps them in check and I have greenhouse frogs in my yard and they pretty much live on a diet of ants.

[nltaff]

Thanks, imafan26, I am constantly buying those ant baits and adding/moving them to different locations as needed. Usually takes about a week and a half and the ants move out. I hate those sprays. I don't want the stinky stuff on my plants, pets, or in my food. The smell alone gives me heartburn and agita. Our soil is very rocky and silty with great drainage, but it is really conducive to ants. They are everywhere. Can't put a bag of mulch down on the ground-it is quickly invaded. Can't put a stick of wood near the ground, or they are chewing away! Forget about root veggies...they just gobble them up! Noticed yesterday, they are moving into my artichokes! Time to put out more ant baits!

[nltaff]

I have a bumper crop of Glacier (short-65-70 days) but, as I've said before, I'm not real fond of them. They taste ok, but they are small and seedy. The Super Sauce are continuing to get really large with no real signs of changing color. Fresh Salsas are getting bigger and are showing some sign of ripening, and the Sweet Seedless are all beginning to turn a bit. Also, the potted peppers are showing signs of turning red in spots.

We harvested 3 large artichokes this past weekend and ate them! They were great. So fresh and green. Already, on Monday, the remaining chokes on the stalk showed signs of growing bigger.

I'll probably side-dress the plants with composted manure this week.

[nltaff]

Oh, exciting! Three potted Sweet Seedless are almost ready!

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And this little beggar took flight (go eat the rudbeckia!) with a hearty flick of index finger right after I took the pic.

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So, OT, but the first fruit fly of the season arrived in my kitchen today. I broke open a little Terro apple shaped trap that I purchased in the spring anticipating this day. Never had a commercial trap before, just left a little bowl of fruit out with a cover nearby. Trap and release (out, out, out). Anyway, the ingredients in the bait are: 0.08% sodium lauryl sulfate, 94% or so water, and 5% vinegar.

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Curious me, I want to know what this sodium lauryl sulfate stuff is because the directions say to throw the whole thing out and get a new one after 30 days. OMG! what a can of worms. Apparently, there's a big debate about the stuff, and it is a surfactant, (and skin irritant) and is only used for suds,... bubbles,... foam... (what? they never heard of glycerine? ). So this is my idea. If it gets grungy with flies, I empty it out, wash it out and add my own mix-apple cider vinegar (5%) mixed with the 94% water, and a bit of ivory dish soap that I've got around for mixing up garlic-pepper spray. That's my plan, and I'm sticking to it! I'm such a tightwad!

[nltaff]

First sweet seedless out of the deck pots today! It was a bit too firm to pick, but I was tired of waiting (so impatient )

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Good tomato flavor! A little more acidic than I expected (based on the name), but not obnoxiously so. Definitely be growing this one again. I sautéed a bit of onion, pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, dash of white wine, dash of chicken broth, McCormick Montreal Chicken seasoning, chiffonade basil leaves, then dumped on the tomato chunks just to warm them at the end.

Today, I cleared the blueberry bushes of the last berries and turned them into jam. In past years, I've frozen them-lay them out on trays, freeze and bag. Toss them by handfuls into oatmeal before cooking, or pancakes/waffles, or in French toast casserole. The jar in front right did not get processed as it was the last of the batch and didn't fill to within 1/4 inch (great excuse to try it now, and use the dented ring).

[nltaff]

Mid-August. Seems like yesterday I was watching the weather and wondering if I could get a jump on this area's Memorial Day guideline for planting out. Overall, I'm very pleased with this year's container crops. However, I've never seen so many red tomatoes sitting on the plants, ROCK HARD! I'm dying to get a taste of these things, but they just aren't getting any softer. Fresh Salsa, based upon the catalogue pics, is supposed to be a deep, dark, (heading toward burgundy) color when ripe, so I guess I understand its staying so relentlessly firm.

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Sweet Seedless is very tasty, but it also takes about a week to soften up after it gets very red. I actually appreciate the "on the vine" longevity, rather than having them taking up space on my limited kitchen counters.

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These Italian frying peppers turned out nice. Hubby likes them, but I don't. They taste like jalapenos, without ANY of the heat. Not a favorite flavor for me. They sure are pretty, though.

Super Sauce (dying to know what it tastes like) is supposed to be meaty, with few seeds, specifically bred for making sauce. Every day, I go out and squeeze the red tomatoes. I want to grab them at just the right time to get them into quart jars.

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And, uh-oh! Just looked at the forecast for the next week. Mid-50s lows predicted with one night right at 50.

[nltaff]

Was going to show the after photo, but forgot to send it to my laptop. Later. Had about 8 more, outside of this basket, I guess 15-17 altogether. When these are ripe, they actually taste better than the Roma that I buy in the dead of winter. The trick is knowing when they are actually ripe as they remain quite firm.

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Folks around here have been griping about blight for two or three years now. Last year, 4 Black Krim I placed in the middle of the asparagus bed suddenly died in mid-late August. My neighbor raved about the tomatoes I gave her last week, saying that no gardener she knows has had any success with tomatoes in a long time. It just made sense to me to use containers with all the ants, slugs, birds, and critters around here.

[nltaff]

Here are the results-4 quarts and a pint.

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[nltaff]

Made salsa this weekend, using the Fresh Salsa tomatoes and peppers from the pots.

Used the Fiesta recipe in the Ball Blue Book. It called for fresh marjoram, but I'd just finished drying some-very fragrant.

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As we do not DO hot, I replaced any of the hot ones with bells and cubanelles to keep recipe amounts.

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I have to post this quickly as I've been having trouble posting/reading on here for about 2 and a half weeks. It seems my security program does not like this site.