What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

Don't you dare hurt that poor little thing!

You're not up to Maine matchmaker standards, Evo. You should be looking at him and thinking "How many meals can I get out of that rascal." And you should be thinking of creative ways to cook him. If we were in some primitive or post-apocalypse stage (due to some really nasty circumstances) you'd have to think about growing food, protecting that food from herbivores, and perhaps incorporating said herbivores into your diet. If deer and rabbits started attacking my garden, venison and bunny-parts would be on the menu pretty quick. Deer are really plentiful in the southern and coastal counties that restrict hunting. Funny how that happens.

 

[Astronuc]

Groundhogs are cute, but they are incredibly destructive to vegetable gardens. The one living here is about the size of this one, and I don't want him roaming around, taking little bites of this and that. I wouldn't mind so much if they would eat one item, finish it, and move on, but groundhogs don't do that.

They are a nuisance. I had to relocate a family of them to a nearby forest area. I used a Have-a-heart trap with lettuce and carrots as bait. Once I got rid of the mom, there were no more groundhogs.


Last night our dog had a run-in with a skunk, and she got squirted in the face. My son had let the dog outside, not knowing the skunk was lurking at the bottom of the stares, apparently just out of site. I warned my son just last week to check the backyard for skunks and other critters, who frequent the yard at night. Well, he didn't listen. When the dog was going after the skunk, he jumped down the stairs and grabbed, but after she got hit in face. He brought the dog back inside and let the dog of the lead, and she promptly ran through the house rubbing he face on anything soft like the couch and carpet.

I was lying in bed and started smelling eau d'skunk, which was surprisingly strong for inside. I briefly wondered if a skunk had come into the house, but then dismissed that. Then my daughter knocked on the bedroom door and informed by wife and I that the dog had been sprayed by a skunk. I opened the door and got the pungent aroma of skunk. If you wonder how pungent, just spray some onion juice in your nostrils - it was that pungent. The dog was standing in the hallway, beside my son who was trying to clean the carpet with spary and paper towels. I immediately picked up the dog and headed for the kitchen sink. My wife did some quick research on-line and we found the directions to a solution of 1 qt H₂O₂, 1/4 cup baking soda, and a tablespoon of dish soap. It worked to get the skunk spray of the dog. I had to clean her nostrils, since she must have had her nose right up to the business end of the skunk, and it was in her nostrils. After spending about 45 minutes cleaning the dog, I think proceeded to clean the carpet with Odoban and another solution of LOC/Pursue (Amway products). Now it's a matter of finding isolated spots where the dog walked and the rest of use stepped after dealing with the dog. I went to be again after 0200.


As for the breaks in tomato stalks, I've just tapped them up, and make sure they are supported at more points along the stalk. I've found tomatos do best if allowed to grow along the ground, which may not always be feasible (but I have a hill they can grow down), or build a frame shaped like a quonset hut or semicircle for them to grow over. Otherwise they need a frame to support them after they fruit. I've seen some people let tomato plants hang. Being a tropical fruit, that's probably what they do naturally.

 

[turbo]

They are a nuisance. I had to relocate a family of them to a nearby forest area. I used a Have-a-heart trap with lettuce and carrots as bait. Once I got rid of the mom, there were no more groundhogs.

My trap is a bit small for a 'hog as big as this, and I doubt that I would be able to lure a 'hog into it with succulent vegetables that came from my own garden where he could get fresher, crispier stuff with a few second's walk. Darn.

Sorry to hear about the skunk incident. They are cute little guys, and a bit of vigilance and respect can give them free rein to clean up a lot of grubs (think Japanese beetles!) and other pests. Personally, I love skunks, and would be very glad to find a mother denning up and and producing litters of kits every year. They are very effective insectivores and they are deadly against grubs.

 

[lisab]

Wow, Astro - what a pain in the neck!

I sort of like a faint skunk smell. It reminds me of the little town where I grew up...there was a skunk smell at least once a day there in the summer.

But what you describe sounds horrible - and I feel for your dog, too.

Thinking now about my hometown and dogs, the dog we had then loved to roll in cow patties and feces of other animals. What a dog. He would really reek sometimes...nothing like a skunk, though!

 

[Borek]

No skunks in this part of the world... No groundhogs too. Either they were never here, or we ate them much earlier.

 

[Astronuc]

turbo, I love skunks too, and they are useful as you mentioned. Like lisab, I sort of like the faint odor - outside - but the pungent aroma inside the house was a bit too much.

Our dog look pretty sad while I was washing her face in the sink. Hopefully she'll be more careful, but when I let her outside last night and this morning, she starts sniffing around about where that skunk was walking.

And, I hope my son learned a lesson here as well. When I warned him about skunks last week, he claimed not to know what they looked like nor what the smell was like. I was skeptical about that claim. Anyway, hopefully, he'll be more careful.

I'm more concerned about the dog encountering a raccoon, which we get from time to time. I saw one last fall passing through the yard. It tried to get into the upper garden (which is surrounded by mesh), but gave up. A few years ago, I saw a gang of 4 large raccoons next door in the neighbors driveway.

 

[turbo]

Well, my garden is a mud-hole once again. Rains came today at about the time I rolled out of bed and between 6am and 2pm, we've been hit with showers punctuated by intermittent calm. Some of the showers have been torrential, and we have picked up more than 2" of rain in that time, with more forecast for tonight. We are told to expect heavy thundershowers with high winds and damaging hail. I hear on the radio that some parts of Oxford County had tornado trouble today, and the storms that spawned them are headed our way. We may dodge the worst of that, though. The clouds are thinning a bit and the lower deck is moving from South to North. I don't even want to go down to look at the garden - the pounding rain has likely knocked off lots of delicate blossoms.

 

[Evo]

turbo, how's the garden? I hope not as bad as you thought!

Hail has got to be the worse thing. I've had so many gardens destroyed by a severe hail storm. I hope that other storm is going to pass you by!

 

[Moonbear]

Well, my garden is a mud-hole once again. Rains came today at about the time I rolled out of bed and between 6am and 2pm, we've been hit with showers punctuated by intermittent calm. Some of the showers have been torrential, and we have picked up more than 2" of rain in that time, with more forecast for tonight. We are told to expect heavy thundershowers with high winds and damaging hail. I hear on the radio that some parts of Oxford County had tornado trouble today, and the storms that spawned them are headed our way. We may dodge the worst of that, though. The clouds are thinning a bit and the lower deck is moving from South to North. I don't even want to go down to look at the garden - the pounding rain has likely knocked off lots of delicate blossoms.

Good luck! That sounds like the storms that hit here a few days ago have made their way East.

 

[Evo]

Oh No, we are under a tornado watch now. We are also about to have severe thunderstorms tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night...

Time to drag in what few plants I can still get through the door. This is really getting old. I was up at 3am moving plants during a violent thunderstorm the other night.

Moonbear, how are your poor tomatoes?

 

[turbo]

turbo, how's the garden? I hope not as bad as you thought!

Hail has got to be the worse thing. I've had so many gardens destroyed by a severe hail storm. I hope that other storm is going to pass you by!

The pepper plants are flattened! Luckily, the soil had been thoroughly saturated before the worst of the winds came through, so I might be able to save them. I'm running out of stakes to prop up plants, but a white ash that I cut down a while back is sprouting LOTS of suckers out of the stump. Tomorrow morning (weather permitting), I'll head there with my big bypass pruning shears and cut new stakes to prop up my peppers. PLEASE, no huge hail tonight!

 

[Evo]

I will keep my fingers crossed for you, Once you get the peppers propped up, they should snap back.

 

[Moonbear]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you too! Hopefully they're just lying down in soil too moist to support the roots, and not truly smashed. Looks like this storm is causing all of us trouble.

 

[turbo]

I just got back from tending the peppers. It's not blistering hot out there yet, but the 80% humidity has knocked the stuffing out of me. I cut at least 60 stakes from the white ash saplings and I needed every single one. Some plants I managed to right by gently standing them up and tamping the soil. A few branches on the pepper plants were broken beyond repair and I had to prune them off, and some peppers were dislodged by the shock of the plant hitting the ground. I estimate that we had gusts in excess of 70 mph. We had already gotten more than 2" of rain (the rain gauge was running over) before the big evening storm. I suspect that by evening we had gotten over 3" of rain since 6am.

As you might imagine, physics was working against me. The biggest, lushest plants had the most leaf surface and they all got flattened by the wind. The plants with the most peppers on them were top-heavy, so they were all laid over, too. Some of the sparser pepper plants that had not yet set fruit survived intact. Fingers crossed - I hope they all bounce back.

 

[Evo]

First Moonbear, then you turbo. I don't think there is anything (to a gardener) then to see your labor of love wiped out in a few minutes.

The storm last night went through without damage, I had either carried inside or pulled to the back of the covered patio all plants except the grape tomato which is tied to a trellis and can't be moved. Luckily the location it's in is against a stone pillar and that helps. If we get hail or intensely strong winds, well, I won't think about it.

 

[Borek]

Fingers crossed on both sides of Atlantic.

We are past several days with thunderstorms and temperatures in the 20 deg C range, but it is changing fast - and there is already around 30 deg C. With high humudity after these rains it is not too pleasant, luckily my home is not that hot yet. Hopefully before it will get hot inside air will be much more dry.

 

[turbo]

First Moonbear, then you turbo. I don't think there is anything (to a gardener) then to see your labor of love wiped out in a few minutes.

The worst part is the helplessness when you're watching your garden getting whipped by heavy gusts. There's nothing you can do about it. The pepper plants are sturdy and could have survived some steady heavy wind, but in these heavy downdrafts the gusts change direction constantly, and there was no rhyme nor reason to the directions in which the peppers were knocked down.

Well, it's an expensive lesson, but next year, every single pepper plant will be in a welded-wire conical cage just like the tomato plants. Hopefully, we'll find them on sale somewhere at the end of the gardening season. It would be expensive to have to buy so many of them at full price. Failing that, I'll stake them early and keep them tied up. Option 2 is cheaper, but more work.

 

[turbo]

Here are some shots of the damage. The peppers have been staked up and supported for hours, but the tops of the plants are still drooping. I suspect root damage since there is plenty of water in the ground to provide the hydraulic pressure to straighten the plants.

Here is a tomato branch that was folded over a wire support by the high winds/gusts. I have since staked it and supported it against the wire basket and hope that it will heal.

Because I can tomatoes and make salsas, I need the tomatoes to ripen at about the same time, and not ripen gradually. Because of this, I grow indeterminate (bush) varieties, not vining varieties, and I need to provide the bushes with baskets to support the weight of the plant and the fruit. In this instance, the wind used the basket as a handy fulcrum to fold this big stem.

 

[turbo]

The garden is looking better this morning. The pepper plants have straightened up considerably and may all survive the ordeal (minus some branches/peppers). The leaves on the badly folded tomato branch are still dark and firm, so that branch may heal, too. Time will tell.

 

[Moonbear]

The garden is looking better this morning. The pepper plants have straightened up considerably and may all survive the ordeal (minus some branches/peppers). The leaves on the badly folded tomato branch are still dark and firm, so that branch may heal, too. Time will tell.

Glad to hear it's healing!

Any suggestions for something good to treat some sort of mold/fungus attacking tomatoes? I've lost quite a few tomatoes this week that seem to have developed a fungus/mold/rot on the bottoms of them (the fruits themselves), and then the bugs invade. I don't know what's safe to apply at this stage with fruits and flowers on the vines. I've been picking off every infected tomato and already pruned the yellow leaves (not sure if it was related or not at this point) to try to keep it from spreading, but since they're not in any cluster, I don't think that'll be sufficient. I'm suspecting mold or fungus just because of the timing of it starting up right after the plants were lying over on the ground and with all the heavy rain that they aren't getting a chance to dry between "watering."

I do think I got rid of the "bugs" at least (the mite sized things that were crawling all over the plants when I uprighted them). After spraying a couple days in a row with the alcohol/water/dish detergent solution, I haven't seen a return of them. Of course, I suppose the rotting tomatoes could be ones that the bugs got into before I killed the rest crawling around externally. Though, I mostly see opportunistic insects in the rotted tomatoes...in other words, it's not the same insect every time, so it's just whatever ones found the rotted part and crawled in (one day it was a very tiny fly, another day it was fruit flies, other times they weren't flying insects at all, but something wingless, etc.) If I saw the same insect every time, I'd be more inclined to believe it was the insect causing the damage. ALL of them have been rotting from the bottom side, around where the remnants of the flower or scar from the flower is located.

 

[turbo]

Thanks, Moonie! I just checked again and with all the bright sunlight we've had this morning, all the pepper plants have straightened up and most of the leaf-droop is gone.

As for mold and fungus, my first line of defense is dusting the plants with powdered sulfur. Mold can be residing on the stems and/or under the leaves and not be too detectable, so I try to dust as thoroughly as possible. Another possibility is that bugs laid eggs in the blossoms, and as the tomato develops, the larvae emerges leaving a hole in the skin, from which juices can seep, attracting the opportunistic bugs. To rule this out, I would try to inspect the bottoms of seemingly-good tomatoes to see if there are tiny holes there. The holes could be really small - for instance fruit flies are no bigger than black flies when fully grown. Good luck with this one. I'd really be upset if I started losing tomatoes.

 

[turbo]

On a less personal note, there was a long article starting on the front page of today's paper recounting the very wet weather we have been having and the lack of good "drying days", resulting in molds, fungal infections, etc decimating the state's commercial berry and green bean crops. Tending these crops or picking when the plants are damp facilitates the spread of infection, worsening the damage. I haven't picked green beans for a couple of days because the plants have been wet, and I know that some of the beans will be overly large, but that's the way it goes.

 

[Evo]

Glad to hear it's healing!

Any suggestions for something good to treat some sort of mold/fungus attacking tomatoes? I've lost quite a few tomatoes this week that seem to have developed a fungus/mold/rot on the bottoms of them (the fruits themselves), and then the bugs invade. I don't know what's safe to apply at this stage with fruits and flowers on the vines. I've been picking off every infected tomato and already pruned the yellow leaves (not sure if it was related or not at this point) to try to keep it from spreading, but since they're not in any cluster, I don't think that'll be sufficient. I'm suspecting mold or fungus just because of the timing of it starting up right after the plants were lying over on the ground and with all the heavy rain that they aren't getting a chance to dry between "watering."

Are you talking about blossom end rot, or something different?

Anyway, I used Ortho Garden Disease Control and it stopped the mold immediately. It's for fruits and vegetables, and for tomatoes it says use until zero days before harvest, so it's safe to use on them now. I just bought one of those large quart bottle sprayers with measurments on it (got this one at Home Depot) mixed a quart of it in the bottle and sprayed it on.

Are these just the tomatoes that hit the ground? They might be bruised also.

 

[Evo]

Glad to hear the peppers are recovering turbo! On that tomato branch that's bent over, try stuffing something to make a little pillow under where it's bent over the wire edge so that as it gets heavier it won't cut in two.

We've been under severe thunderstorm warnings off and on for two days. Sun is out right now but severe storms are supposed to hit this aftrenoon, tonight, tomorrrow... i keep dragging plants in and out and back and forth.

 

[turbo]

Be really careful with that Ortho Garden Disease Control, Evo. The warnings say that if you apply the stuff to any unlisted edible annuals, the plants must be destroyed and if you apply it to unlisted edible perennials, you must not eat any of the fruits for a year. I would stick with powdered sulfur.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp;jsessionid=C6E999C966970144C8659ABA4389F946?bodyCssClass=scotts+blade+product+detailusage+en&tabs=usage&navAction=push&bodyId=product_detail_usage&proId=prod70450&title=p_product_general_usage_title&itemId=cat50092&id=cat50080

More thunderstorms in the forecast for today, possibly severe. I can't bring my garden inside.

 

[Evo]

Be really careful with that Ortho Garden Disease Control, Evo. The warnings say that if you apply the stuff to any unlisted edible annuals, the plants must be destroyed and if you apply it to unlisted edible perennials, you must not eat any of the fruits for a year. I would stick with powdered sulfur.

I only used it on cucumbers, but it's safe for tomatoes also.

More thunderstorms in the forecast for today, possibly severe. I can't bring my garden inside.

I can't move my grape tomato, so if we get hurricane force winds and hail, I'm throwing my body over it to shield it.

 

[turbo]

I only used it on cucumbers, but it's safe for tomatoes also.

I can't move my grape tomato, so if we get hurricane force winds and hail, I'm throwing my body over it to shield it.

Please don't throw your body on anything. The maintenance guys will find your body impaled on the trellis.

 

[Evo]

Please don't throw your body on anything. The maintenance guys will find your body impaled on the trellis.

 

[rewebster]

"The invasion of the fruit flies"

for what little I've picked so far (maybe about 10 tomatoes and 20 green peppers), the fruit flies are in full force in my kitchen already. pesky little things--

I have a way to get rid of some of them--get a container, like a fruit jar, pour/drop in a little sugar sweetened tea and a couple pieces of tomato and be careful to not touch the outside of the jar with this stuff and try to drop it directly on the bottom. They'll go into the jar--when there are some in there, cover in quickly and then uncover it outside. It may take a couple times, or days, but you can get most that way.

I was awake some late nights, like at 3 or 4 AM in California when visiting Newport Beach and in the La Puente/Whittier area in the seventies and helicopters used to spray Malathion almost over the whole two county area if they found 8 or 10 fruit flies anywhere even in a small area or one orchard. Some TV person or city employee was shown drinking the Malathion spray to show how safe it was as some people were alarmed--you could tell when they did it from the light haze on the cars the next day. I imagine they still (have to) do it out there.


The powdered/dust Sevin seems to have helped or maybe even stopped those mites. The soapy spray didn't work.

 

[turbo]

The tomato plants survived that last violent storm pretty well. Had a few slightly damaged branches and one that was badly folded, but the crop looks good. Damaged branch propped to basket with a white ash stick is in the foreground. Looking pretty healthy.

Training the squash to a fence is helping to keep vines, blossoms, etc off the constantly-wet ground. The squash is jealous of all the light that the garlic gets, though.