Applestar's 2017 Garden

[applestar]

I installed the overhead shelf trellis using the back-to-back idea for the TKKxSeminole squash bed. I think this will work. Once the two panels are zipped tight together, the vertical panels in the middle stiffen into strong non-warping structure. I needed to get this much done TODAY because some of the vines were already at the top of the lower kneefence.


...I just have to go back and secure the bamboo cross beams and frames to support the overhangs from flopping.

-- I'll put up the same other-side fence panels and the overhang support for the melons. Depending on how vigorous these get, I have some ideas for structural additions. This morning, they had ALREADY reached for and wrapped tendrils onto the new, upper fence panel.

[applestar]

I was searching for this but couldn't find it. It seems I wrote it in my gardening journal but never posted it.... ?

Here's what I'm doing to help keep the hanging basket Tomatoes from completely drying out when it's super hot.

I replaced the caps with liquid soap caps that fit and cut off the flip lid. They are on their sides and the water doesn't pour out. The idea is that when it's super hot, the expanding heated air forces the water to drip out. Drip by drip. So it's not the same as automated watering -- you still have to water them once a day, but I can get away with not watering them again later in the day, and so far they have survived until next morning's watering.

[applestar]

The tulle protection for the C. pepo Sweet REBA and C.maxima Sibley/Pike Banana squashes was becoming useless since they had clambered their way up by poking their tendrils through the netting.



When they are pressed up against the netting like that, bugs will poke their ovipositor right through the mesh and lay eggs on the plant. And I was concerned that they were going to lift the netting up and create gaps at the base, which would let the SVB moths in. And I already had to cull the volunteer C.pepo squash plants -- all theee of them -- due to signs of SVB infestation. So they have been and ARE here.


I decided today was THE DAY -- it had to be rebuilt.

It turned out that my concerns were justified, because when I moved some of the errant vines of the C.moschata TKKxS F3 {Thai Kang Kob x Seminole TKK#2Bkt F3 (SG'16)} to get them back in their bed and crawl towards their support trellis, I found a whole bunch of squash bug eggs (...and when I opened up the tulle protection for the SVB vulnerable squashes, there were leaf footed bug eggs on some of those leaves)



But luckily I remembered the duct tape trick -- what a joy! The duct tape makes egg removal ever so much easier. You just have to find them. Press on and pull off. Zip! Done!


... It took me until 2PM to get this much done -- and I think I still need to fortify the overlapped areas in the tulle netting, but I'm pleased with the result

[applestar]

Things are happening!

First Nutterbutter femal flower bud:


H-19 Littleleaf cucumber female flowers:


Orient Express F2 eggplants:


The earliest Japanese Striped Maize in the Spiral Garden started to grow their tassels a couple of days ago, and Today first of the silks showed up. I did not have my file folder pollen collector on hand because I didn't realize about the silks coming out, plus it was still kind of wet out after a wee hours of the morning sprinkle. But I didn't want to miss anything, so I improvised with a hosta leaf, which worked out surprisingly well. I wiped it dry on my pantleg, it had the right shape, and I was able to collect some pollen and sprinkle on the first couple of inches of silks.

I checked on the JSM in the VG.SIP -- a couple of them were growing tassels and there were first hints of where the silks will be growing, but they weren't making pollen yet. But oh boy these are gorgeous!

I really wish I knew what the difference is. I would think some people would be disappointed thinking they were not getting much stripes if they were growing in similar condition to my Spiral Garden. I'm so glad I tend to try different micro-climates/growing conditions when trying to grow something new.

Tomatoes

[applestar]

Cabbage White butterflies are out in force! Anything left out in the garden that is in the mustard family -- radish gone to seed, turnips, volunteer kale and Asian greens... is covered with the fuzzy frosty green caterpillars. It's been hot so the cabbage moths have arrived as well, and I'm also finding 1/2 inch long cross-striped cabbageworms... no loopers so far.

Since I want to try growing fall cruciferous veggies, I need to "clear the air". I'm going to try to reduce their local population by eliminating everything out in the open. I'm hacking down all volunteer Russian kale this year and will start from new seedlings I have growing under cover. I'll have to check on the garlic mustard that are growing along the back fence. Normally, they don't lay on those as much (because they find my veggies, I think)

[applestar]

A couple more I forgot to post yesterday --

CORN UPDATE:

I've been hand pollinating my little patch of Japanese Striped Maize. Tassels are dark burgundy red (pollen is still yellow).



CUCURBITS UPDATE:

When this Nutterbutter female flower opened, her suitors had already opened the day before and closed up. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I tore open the male flower petals and found some pollen that were loose and not clumped so tried hand-pollinating. We will know in a couple of days -- so far she looked good today.


...after all my work building the climbing trellis for the melons, I found this good sized -- 4 inch or so -- presumably Korean Melon practically pressed into the mud. I gave it a rough pillow made of dried up grass....

[lakngulf]

Youve got it going on applestar! Viney plants LOVE a trellis and youve got a good strong one

[applestar]

You are not kidding @lakngulf! -- they have all reached the top of the trellises I put up.....



Here's that Nutterbutter -- still waiting to see if pollination was successful



VG Pallet Sided Raised Beds. Korean cuke vines are VERY vigorous. Balsam are way ahead of salvia, but if I remember correctly, they shut down after blooming last time, so if that happens again, the salvia can take over....

[applestar]

It was 60°F outside this morning! 60! I was ecstatic because I could finally do something I've been wanting to do -- take down the compost bin and move it along with unfinished compost to the other side of the yard. I like to alternate the plastic bin's location so the neighbors get fair share of having it near their side

I have a small pile of mostly finished compost. It's teeming with earthworms as well as rollypollies, sawbugs, and other detrivores, ants, etc. so I covered with porous landscape fabric for today and hopefully, I will be able to side-dress the melons, tomatoes, and corn with it tomorrow after sifting out some finished compost for the AACT.



After that, I'm moving the container tropicals over to where the compost bin used to be, so they can benefit from the enriched soil underneath.

[imafan26]

That is the trick with netting it has be placed over a cage high enough so the plant does not poke through it. I have the same problem with bird netting. Once the tomatoes poke through it or if the tomatoes are up against the netting the birds can get to them. I built a pvc frame for the netting and it worked as long as the plants stayed in side and bugs stayed out. I had problem with leaf footed stink bugs that ate everything to the midribs unless it was netted. The netting though does not last very long and I had to sew it together to get a wide enough piece. I also had to make a sock filled with dirt to put on the bottom to keep the bugs from crawling under the netting.

[applestar]

I don't know what's going on with my corn cross -- Mirai 350BC x (Kandy Korn x Glass Gem F1) F1. The group I sowed, selecting shrunken/shriveled kernels, are starting to tassel at ONLY 3-4 feet a couple of days ago.

None of them have silks yet, but since some of the tassels started producing pollen, I collected them on a big plantain leaf and hand pollinated these silks of Japanese Striped Maize marked with pink surveyor's tape.

[applestar]

Cucurbit update --

I added to the overhead trellis for the melons since it was already looking a bit inadequate. If you look at the fence panel from the other side, it's almost solidly covered by vines, and about half dozen female blossoms of watermelon, rock melon, and Korean melon are visible, visited constantly in turn by buzzing swarm of bumble bees, sweatbees, honeybees, and bee-mimic flies.



Top-right and bottom-left are the three cucumbers I'm watching grow. I believe the bottom-left one is the Super Zagross beit-alpha type I am growing for the first time. The one on top-right was *supposed to be* H-19 Littleleaf from saved seeds, but looks like it must have been bee-crossed. Does it look a bit like Japanese type to you?


There was a female squash blossom that opened in the SVB-protected tunnel, so I hand pollinated it. With the pointed petals, this would be the C.pepo -- Sweet REBA acorn squash, so I found a matching male blossom to pollinate with.

[applestar]

I got around to checking under the 2nd insect mesh cover in the Sunflower & House. The heat tolerant Asian greens were in shreds -- diamond back moth had gotten in and had been reproducing like mad. A cloud of adult moths that had been TRAPPED INSIDE flew out when I removed the cover. They are tiny.

Cut them all down, even the ones that didn't look badly infested yet. Left only the volunteer nasturtium and the pepper maggot protected pepper's in there. I may have to go back and move the cover away from the nasturtium -- Cabbage Butterflies sometimes lay their eggs on nasturtiums

[applestar]

It's always fun to see them grow when corn is in the Spiral Garden rotation. This year's corn growth habits are all over the place, however, especially with the odd "precocious" growths my Medley cross sweetcorn selection are going through -- not at all evenly matched for the "spiral" visual effect -- but they sure create an interesting sight.



The Japanese Striped Maize in the center of the Spiral are by no means small -- they are probably on the taller side ...I estimate at least 7 feet plus another 1 foot for the tassels... maybe taller.

But the Pink-Purple Mexican, which I knew was probably going to be giants just from the size of the kernels, are making them look as though they are much smaller.

And then my crosses which were started and transplanted 10 days later -- I think the #popcorn# are probably on track and will be normal size, but the #sweetcorn# are tasseling at 3-4 feet as I mentioned before. I found the first of them with silk today.

[applestar]

First cucumbers of the season!



Left two are from saved seeds from H-19 Littleleaf fruit which is a small pickler-type. I guess there were some shenanigans going on, and these must be crossed. Fruit from #1 reminds me of a Japanese type but shorter, and #2 is closer to H-19 but too dark green or something -- not quite right. I was thinking the leaves were getting too big to be Littleleaf.

Right fruit is a beit-alpha type called Super-Zagrosse.

...

DD's and I had an impromptu tasting session, slicing the cukes into long quarters. Surprisingly, we all agreed the Super Zagrosse has a slight bitter flavor to it. I thought beit-alphas are "never bitter"? The smooth skin is softer than either of the H-19 crosses.

The shorter H-19 cross had hard skin and lacked flavor. DD1 originally thought she liked this one least, then changed her mind and downgraded the SZ after a second round of tasting. She joked that, "it's super za-gross"

DD2 who is my primary tomato taster was indifferent about the cukes and said the other two both taste same level of "good", but DD1 was adamant that the longer H-19x was better, and she decided after some thoughtful chewing that she likes the texture and flavor of the seeds. The longer one was really tasty with what I think of as good cucumber flavor and skin that was more tender than the short one.

So my initial assessment is that H-19x-short would be good for making strong-flavored pickles, SZ would be good for marinated cucumbers, and the H-19x-long would be the best one for eating fresh as crudités or in salad.

[wisconsindead]

How do you keep track of all that stuff Applestar?! Everything is looking very happy and healthy!

[applestar]

Thank you! It's been a weird year though. I have several beds -- two designated areas that were never planted, a couple more beds in other areas that also were left unattended.

I actually cleared all the weeds out of the Kitchen Garden today --I've been working with containers on the patio and planted the patio-side Kitchen Garden, but I didn't do anything with the main, circular Kitchen Garden except to harvest lavender and oregano, raspberries and strawberries. Hopefully the saffron crocus are still there and will come up later. I might plant some lettuce, etc.

I guess it helps to name the areas -- I have to surround them with rabbit-proof fencing, so I have carved out one area at a time. Planting schemes and logistics, work involved, etc are naturally organized into manageable chunks. I try to maintain accurate maps and keep records -- at least photograph projects. Otherwise, yeah, I forget. Everything runs into each other.

I like making maps and spreadsheets related to goings on.

...I really do cheat, too, though. I mostly report happy successes. Crop out anything that look bad in the photos, etc. So much is going on nobody notices or everybody is just too polite to point out my omissions. BUT it's a way to be satisfied with what you get each season, too. Sometimes you are really excited to grow something and spend days and months anticipating the result and harvest.... and something happens along the way and you are shattered. But if you have several things going on, you can just say-- "oh well, I have to try that again, next year/or soon" and move on to something else that is growing well for you. Gardening really is an "organic" "diverse" "living community" of entities.

[applestar]

I sifted and screened the harvested compost from the big black bin (not these tumblers in the photo). In addition to the mesh I made out of the wire fencing, I used a 1/2" screen to casually shift out finished compost and sorted out trash and worms.



The worms were put in the Can-o-Worms that I set up fresh with pruned, browned banana leaves in one tray, and green pulled weeds in another tray. Finished compost filled a 5 gallon and two 3 gallon nursery containers. Biggest chunks and unfinished ingredients went in the nearest tumbler, and the stuff that didn't go through the 1/2" screen (including a whole bunch of little worms that were too tedious to pick up) -- about 1.5 cu.ft. worth -- was used to side dress/mulch the melons, squash, corn, and tomatoes in the NE side garden.



...I didn't have enough for all of the garden areas, so I'm going to brew some AACT with the finished compost. I want to supplemental feed the pallet sided raised bed plants including the Korean cucumber that just started blooming female flowers.

[applestar]

Last night we had a pretty severe thunderstorm. Typical weather pattern so the system came up from southwest. It created some kind of a mini whirlwind and flattened the corn in the far arc of the Spiral Garden. So first thing I had to do was empty the catch trays, then harvest blackberries ahead of bugs and birds, then straighten up the corn.

I was going to wear a fresh shirt this morning, but had changed my mind -- just as well because picking up downed corn from the mud was a pretty dirty job.

I did a quick inspection and found one ripe tomato on the ground -- at first I was concerned that some critter got hold of it but it was whole and un damaged except the mud. I noted a TKKx leaf with squash bug eggs and Striped and spotted cucumber beetles in Melon and squash blossoms.

I got the trusty duct tape and started for the eggs, but saw cucumber beetles on the way, and, on a whim, put the duct tape over the blossom -- they are quick and most often scuttle and fly off -- hard to catch, but it turned out that the duct tape can catch them by the hard shell wings. They also try to fly off and think they are clever when they land on the duct tape and then start walking funny on the stickynsurface, but if you are quick, you can squish them against the adhesive and they get stuck.

Then I saw squash bugs mating on the melon trellis. That made me look closer and they were everywhere -- or at least three pairs. Duct tape was handy for catching them, too. They do release their stink once they realize they are stuck though (Blecch)

Getting back to the squash, I got the eggs off of the TKK -- of course majority of the eggs were on the OTHER side of the fence trellis... two more pairs of squash bugs... a few juvies probably from stray eggs I missed... then noticed that what I feared had happened: There was a leaf pressed against the insect netting from the inside and and a squashbug had laid an egg cluster through the netting (top-left photo) --



-- another duct tape to the rescue! Also shifted the vines and leaves away from the netting and further inside while I was in there.

I will really need to keep an eye on the melons now. I had been expecting to find squash bugs and leaf foots on them because someone -- maybe toxcrusader -- had reported them on HIS melon trellis one year... and have been looking, but these were the first ones I have seen. But now, I'm sure there will be more.

Melons are setting fruits.

[applestar]

There is trouble in the VG beds. Several plants have been showing signs and now are looking like they might be overcome from mite infestation. It has happened before when I tried to grow tomatoes in VGA. They spread like wildfire, apparently traveling from plant to plant along the support strings. I don't know if this area is more vulnerable because it gets morning sun and morning dews dry out quickly -- mites LOVE dry wood -- or perhaps because it is adjacent to the fence border to neighbor's who uses a lawn service (my personal belief is that their use of herbicides and pesticides weakens the ecosystem and biosphere and sabotages build-up of a healthy Garden Patrol population).

It is somewhat curious the way the infestation is spreading -- or seemingly not spreading this time. I see individual plants that are fully infested, and individual plants that, as far as I can see, do not seem to be infested. Eggplants seem more vulnerable than pepper's or tomatoes. The VGA bed is very closely planted, and the pair of "Tim F2" in the top right photo -- so far only one is affected. Tim F2-1 is next to a Mite Survivor MR.C F3 (Maglia Rosa x Coyote F3). I'm wondering if there are predatory mites still left on that plant.



The mites are also in the VGD.PSRB (Pallet Sided Raised Bed). And the Marz Pulcent and Maskotka tomatoes are infested. I'm not sure if they will be able to finish ripening their fruits or if the fruits will be too damaged.


2nd year carrot blooming in VGA is supposed to be attracting beneficial insects, but I don't suppose predatory mites fly in. There is a farrow bed (VGC/D) of 2nd year celery that has been blooming since spring, but that is not helping VGD.PSRB. I wonder if there *could be* predatory mites on/in the celery? I wonder if it would have any effect to try cutting some of the celery flowers and plants and sprinkling them on the plants in the affected beds....?

[applestar]

Yesterday, I was out of commission -- caught some kind of a virus the night before and spent the day in bed... couldn't go out to the garden. Just one day, but the critters took advantage -- Chipmunk is the prime suspect.



I was happy to see the two Nutterbutter squash growing well until I realized one of them had managed to get stuck in the fence somehow. I used my pruners to pry the bars back and release it. Found 2 pairs of squash bugs on the vine and a leaf with eggs.



...there were more on the TKK cross squash vines and leaves and the melon trellis had 3 pairs and 2 more individual squash bugs as well as numerous cucumber beetles. No eggs on the melons as far as I could tell.


Ripening tomatoes are everywhere

[applestar]

Since the chipmunk has been raiding the tomatoes in the garden, I have been taking our two kitties with me when I am in the enclosed garden space to do their best to sniff around and leave their scent. They are Indoor cats and only go outside on supervised outings wearing their lavender-filled quilted bandannas. Here is one of them -- she is looking very put out because it was drizzling off and on this morning

[applestar]

Yesterday, I accidentally turned on an auto-something or other that takes 4 photos each time I try to take 1 and set different exposure for each one. The brightest 2 are ruined because they wash everything out and can't be recovered, and the darker 2 are too dark and need fiddling to bring them up to viewable level.

Here' are a couple of photos I wanted to share -- I found a leaf-footed stinkbug egg cluster on... I think this is melon leaf stem, might be cucumber.

[applestar]

[Gary350]

There is trouble in the VG beds. Several plants have been showing signs and now are looking like they might be overcome from mite infestation. .

I had a problem with mites this year too. I tried several things, spraying the plant leaves with a hard spray of water with the garden hose knocks them off. I'm not sure where these tiny bugs come from, they don't seem to fly and they can't walk very far with those tiny legs. I don't like to water my garden that waters weeds and grass too. I hate to spray toxic poison on my garden but I am thinking malathion insecticide might be ok but have not tried it yet.

[applestar]

A gardening friend from Germany gave me her recipe for home-made mite remedy. I tried it on the mite-infested seedlings this spring, and the three seedlings 3-for-3 had recovered. I didn't include the 4th one in the count since it was munched down to stub by micein the garage the same night I treated it -- I told her and we agreed maybe best not to use Sunflower oil.

I left some mite-infested seedlings untreated, and only 3 out of 8? survived.

[applestar]

Korean cukes are coming in now daily or skip 1 day at most. These are probably hybrids. They came in thick foil or Mylar pouch-envelopes and I think marked good until 2019 or something. And the seeds were coated with hot pink fingernail polish-like stuff. I bought the seeds on a whim at H-mart.

My cucumber-loving DD1 at first wouldn't eat them and wanted someone else to try first. She likes them now.

[applestar]

Korean Melon -- Chamoe (common Korean word for this kind of melon) -- seeds from Hmart.

This is the first one to change color. My understanding is the melon is ready to harvest when it's bright yellow with green cast gone, and the seams are ivory to white... plus strongly fragrant aroma.... so... maybe 3-4 more days?

[applestar]

This morning the very first of the Thai Kang Kob x Seminole cross (TKKxS.F3) winter squash blossoms opened... and it was a female... and that was the ONLY flower.

I saw it from the window and couldn't see any other flower, so I looked over to the hill/trellis for Nutterbutter, which is C.moschata species like TKKxS.F3 and could be used to pollinate with, hoping to see a male blossom but I didn't see any blossoms at all.

So, when I went outside to the garden, first thing I did was rush over to look more closely. Luckily, there WAS a male Nutterbutter flower hiding on the other side, at the base of the trellis



Hopefully my hand-pollination was successful and I will have the first fruit-set from this TKKxS.F3, plus a fun new crossed seeds for next year. Since the Nutterbutter which was planted at the same time has already produced two fruits that are starting to color-break and blush, I'm hoping this cross will introduce the earlier maturing trait to the original cross of TKK and Seminole which are very late maturing. Nutterbutter is also considered a short vine variety vs. the garden-eating, rambling traits of the parents. Very promising.

[applestar]

Here is a great example of why it's a good idea to be observant in your garden so you can recognize it when everything looks normal and when something is out of place or not normal. When I saw the black/dark line on the string, I said to myself -- "What is THAT!?" On closer inspection, I recognized the leaf-foot eggs.

[applestar]

Another TKKxSeminole F3 female flower opened with no male escort. This time there was a Nutterbutter male from the vine that already produced the two fruits, so even though there was a 2nd male at the base of the trellis on the other side like the last time, I decided to only use the one male to pollinate with and label them differently.



In the somewhat blurry telephoto shot, you can see the green stem end of the male anther -- I usually leave in the flower so insects will transfer the pollen some more as they rummage around. You can see the black bumblebee or carpenter bee in the flower.

Bottom-right is picture of a REBA acorn squash I also pollinated today.

[applestar]

I picked the first Korean Melon/chamoe. I wasn't sure if it had yellowed enough, but when I turned it over, there were some cracks -- I think it was starting to split. So it was a good thing I harvested it.




... Korean Melon is a HIT with the family. I served it peeled and cut into disks, then half-disks, leaving the seeds and gel attached since there is a lot of sweet flavor in the gel.

[applestar]

Other melons are mostly hanging around


...I'm a bit concerned about the one in the yellow net bag at right. It looks like it is all scratched up/has tiny fissures all over. It should be Honey Rock Melon which is supposed to get netting, so I'm wondering if it has been infected by fungal disease in the netting fissures? I don't know what to do....

[applestar]

Third TKK x Seminole female blossom. This time with 2 male escorts. But for the first hour I was out in the garden, the male blossoms were packed with bees (and fruit flies) and the blossoms were in awkward position on the trellis that I didn't think I could snip them off without having the bees fly in my face.




The three bees in the lower male blossom just wouldn't leave and I gave up using it. I used the other flower after a bumble bee left it, LANDED ON ME to wash up a bit, then finally flew off. So glad to ensure I can carry this segregate forward.



However, IF there were traffic male -> female between the flowers, My hand pollinating shouldn't have been necessary.

[applestar]

Nutterbutter butternut squash -- the first two fruits are definitely changing color. I suppose you just do the thumbnail test to check for when to harvest? This is my first time growing butternut.



The one on the right grew upside down between the wire panels. I have been widening the gap as it grew, then when I had to open it wide enough to threaten it falling over, tied some strings to cradle it in place. It's stem attachment to the vine is slowly bringing crushed, but it couldn't be helped.


So far, only the Sweet REBA acorn squash have been producing female flowers. Sibley/Pike's Peak banana squash is supposed to mature about 10 days later. They are C.pepo and C.maxima, respectively, and inside the insect protection, so I have been hand pollinating. I think there should more than these three but I was in a hurry and these were the ones I could photo from the outside.

[applestar]

It feels like I haven't done this in a while.... a collage selection of 9 recent harvest photos



...yesterday, I had an eye doctor's appointment so I took a clear clamshell of cherry and cocktail tomatoes for her. I didn't know if she liked tomatoes or not. It turns out she grew up on her grandfather's home-grown tomatoes and only buys fresh Jersey tomatoes in season. I think she will like the ones I gave her.

[applestar]

We had a severe thunderstorm sweep over us at dusk. DD showed me the weather time lapse showing the storm system with large dark red band right over us, trying split but not managing it and getting pulled back/converging back again. Spark warned that the nearest lightning strike was 0.0 miles away (across the court).

And as the last rays turned the world golden.... my corn, the big Pink/Purple Mexican that I had been planning to post about because it is most certainly as tall as the 2nd floor floor level... I was going to take a picture when the top of the tallest showed when the iPad camera lense sightline is lined up to the bottom edge of the window.... have been blown over



...the medium-shorter ones in the front that are also down are the popcorn type segregates of my Kandy Korn F1 x Glass Gem x medley

[applestar]

I only had 1 hour to spend early this morning so concentrated on repairing the corn damage after hurriedly harvesting things that were ready and tomatoes that might split if left to absorb all the swampy rainwater remaining in the garden paths' swales. Three of the corn had kinked and where bent over while nearly a dozen were bowed nearly horizontal. I managed to splint each of the three stalks and stand them back up, then bundled with the bowed ones in small groups and guyed them to fence posts, etc. they look good so far. If we are spared from strong winds for a week or so, the kinked ones should heal enough to continue to grow and the bowed ones should be back to growing upright.



...added these photos from this morning to illustrate the repair work. Also, some of the supertall Pink and Purple Mexican and other corn were severely infested by aphids and I was beginning to wonder why the Garden Patrol were not arriving to take care of them, but this morning there were Ladybeetles on duty.

[applestar]

Other melons are mostly hanging around


...I'm a bit concerned about the one in the yellow net bag at right. It looks like it is all scratched up/has tiny fissures all over. It should be Honey Rock Melon which is supposed to get netting, so I'm wondering if it has been infected by fungal disease in the netting fissures? I don't know what to do....

I think it's looking better. Maybe it was just a phase....

[applestar]

The balsams I sowed in front of the tomatoes in the VGB.PSRB (Pallet Sided Raised Bed) are blooming now they are affected I think by the same mites that are attacking the tomatoes as well as having some fungal issues on the leaves but I keep pruning them when I clip off yellowed and spotted tomato leaves. A couple of balsam plants wilted so I culled them. You can see the sage -- so much shorter! -- down below, but I don't know if they will even get to bloom at this point. First of the tomatoes are starting to color break.



To my surprise, one of the balsams is blooming red flowers.


Here is the KG.Patio.SIP now.



Today's harvest: