What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

You can have it back! I think turbo has been getting some of the same storms I have. It seems he gets hit the day after me pretty regularly, which is about how long it would take a storm system to get from here up to Maine with these slow-moving, torrential-downpour-soaking storms. Of course, I'd have thought the clouds would be wrung out by the time they got there they're dumping so much out here.

One of our problems is that when those little "disturbances" get here they are often accompanied by swirling air-flows that sweep moisture off the Atlantic and bring the flows into contact with cooler stationary fronts from Canada. The result is VERY energetic storms with torrential rains. I am losing tomatoes to rot, with stem-rot spoiling the fruit before they can ripen off. I need at least 2-3 dry hot days at a time, or I'll lose much of my garden.

 

[Evo]

One of our problems is that when those little "disturbances" get here they are often accompanied by swirling air-flows that sweep moisture off the Atlantic and bring the flows into contact with cooler stationary fronts from Canada. The result is VERY energetic storms with torrential rains. I am losing tomatoes to rot, with stem-rot spoiling the fruit before they can ripen off. I need at least 2-3 dry hot days at a time, or I'll lose much of my garden.

Oh no!

I'm pulling off tomatoes with split skins. Too much water too suddenly. This is quite the year for gardeners.

I'm going to post some "happy" pictures of my garden in a bit. Keep taking pictures of your gardens, so at least you have some "happy" memories. I've found taking pictures has helped me to spot several garden pests I would have otherwise missed!

The lawn people here are very cool about the fact that I've spread my garden into "unauthorized territory". My patio is too small and blocks the sun, so I've moved a lot of plants onto the grass around my patio, (it backs up against the ravine so no one sees it)the mower & trimmer guys told me to leave them (I was moving them whenever they came by) they just mow and trim around them.

 

[rewebster]

Nice shot of the clouds rewebster. Those are some of my favourite because they change so rapidly and often emit electricity, like a wonder of nature. Thank you!

thanks---the thing with those is that usually you can't watch them too long (rain follows them quickly) but they are interesting to watch as they churn.

When I lived in Minnesota, a storm came through. I was out on the boat, looked up, and I wish I had a video/movie camera. The sky turned that funny green color, and a horizontal funnel cloud (or whatever the true name for it is) was rolling just at the lowest level of the clouds, was really long and lasted the entire time that it rolled from horizon to horizon which was maybe 4 to 5 minutes as the cloud layer was so low.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm pulling off tomatoes with split skins. Too much water too suddenly. This is quite the year for gardeners.

Same here...too much rain and the tomatoes are cracking. Fortunately, it's not a lot of them yet, so there might still be some hope. Mostly it's the ones ripening now anyway, so I think I can keep them on the vine another day or two until they finish ripening. They'll look ugly, but hopefully will taste good.

 

[rewebster]

Oh no!

I'm pulling off tomatoes with split skins. Too much water too suddenly. This is quite the year for gardeners.

I'm going to post some "hapy" pictures of my garden in a bit. Keep taking pictures of your gardens, so at least you have some "happy" memories. I've found taking pictures has helped me to spot several garden pests I would have otherwise missed!

OH NO! (to quote Mr Bill)---water, water--too much water everywhere

I may have 'happy' photos of the peppers, but I think wilt/blight has hit my tomatoes--leaves are spotting, turning yellow, and dying--it's happened a few times--even with resistant varieties---another 'oh, well'----but they usually come back a little in the late fall.

my tomatoes are falling off still green

 

[Evo]

I'm hoping for an Indian Summer, a nice mellow fall would be nice so we can get some late harvests in. We had such a delayed summer with all of the cooler than normal spring and early summer, that everything was stunted and delayed. My luck, freak freeze September first. A few years back, we had a blizzard the first of October. This is the middle of the country, that shouldn't be happening!

 

[turbo]

My tomatoes are suffering, and the constantly-wet weather has me battling powdery mildew on the string beans. Meanwhile the Bell peppers seem to be loving this. Here is a shot of today's crop. They are now all chopped and bagged in the freezers with the exception of 4 of the largest ones, which we'll stuff and bake sometime in the next few days.

 

[Evo]

Nice batch of peppers!

 

[turbo]

Nice batch of peppers!

Thanks! They'll keep coming, and so will the Hungarian Wax chilies. We'll be getting batches of Bell peppers like this every week or sooner, as long as the weather cooperates. The jalapeno chilies are fruiting well, too, though the habaneros (my favorites!) have been suppressed by all the wet cloudy weather. Normally I don't fertilize peppers too heavily, since high nitrogen availability makes the plants leafy and suppresses flowers/fruits. This year, I planted the peppers in a richer part of the garden than previously, and it seems to have helped offset the cloudy-wet weather. The plants are bushy and have enough leaf area to make energy on sub-optimal days, and enough nutrients to develop nice fruits.

Did you notice that I'm trying to stick to "happy" garden pictures? No images of powdery mildew in my snap beans or black stem-rot in my tomatoes. I really would love a dry spell. I have a dug well and a drilled well, and I can water the garden if needed. I have no handy way to de-water the garden, though, and the constant high humidity and daily heavy rains are beating me up. With the soaring prices of food, I hate to see the waste caused by the horrible weather.

 

[Moonbear]

Nice peppers! We had MORE rain last night. Actually, a series of thunderstorms. I didn't sleep very well at all...just as I'd be ready to fall back asleep after one kept me up, the next would roll in and keep me up again (didn't help that between storms, Ember would snuggle next to me, and as soon as the next hit, she'd run over me to get off the bed and under it...she prefers to be under the bed during loud storms lately). And, the poor tomatoes look about ready to quit. All still standing, but looking just plain drowned. Another green tomato knocked to the ground too.

My zucchinis are huge though! I just need to walk through the mud to get to them though. They're ready to be picked.

 

[turbo]

My zucchinis are pathetic. This year, I planted them at the north end of the garden (more as an afterthought than anything). I should have planted them at the south end like a couple of years ago. It's the lower end of the garden, and I think that nutrients get transported their during rains. I had 4-5 plants that year, and we were swamped with zucchinis. We picked them rather small and were trying hard to give them away. This year, my wife has worked out a really great stir-fry recipe for summer squashes, and our crop looks to be poor. That's OK, really, because we'll have free summer squashes on tap from neighbors up and down this road - enough to keep us happy. It's just a bit ironic that now she has worked out a stir-fry with summer squash that I LOVE served on a bed of Basmati rice, the zucchini crop will be small.

 

[Moonbear]

I have 4 plants. They're not being crazy prolific, but just enough to keep me happy. Picked two of the zucchinis today. I didn't realize they had already gotten so big! The rain made them very happy apparently. There's another small one that will probably turn out okay, and a last small one that is looking a bit yellowish. That one might be suffering from the rain...it was lying right on the ground instead of propped up on stems of the plants out of the water. I moved it a bit, so I'll see if that helps.

I just enjoyed my first tomato too. It wasn't quite as ripe as I would normally let it get, but because it was starting to crack with all the rain, I decided to pick it today (I was getting impatient for tomatoes anyway...want some to eat before I leave on vacation and watering and tending the plants gets left in someone else's hands). So, dinner was a grilled zucchini and grilled hamburger with a fresh tomato. Yummy! Even the not-quite-ripe tomato was SOOOOO much tastier than anything from the store.

I'm collecting green tomatoes too...the ones getting knocked off by the rains. Not enough for that green tomato pie though.

 

[turbo]

My garden got soaked again today, but not as bad as some locations east of here that got 4" or more in less than an hour. One hospital was evacuated, with a foot of standing water filling the ground floor. Flood-water has to be cleaned up and the place disinfected before it can re-open.

 

[Evo]

Good grief! Moonbear if I was there (hint, hint) I would use my body as shield for your tomatoes.

Rew those pictures are sad, and poor turbo with mold. And I'm battling the caterpillar hordes from hell.

With my plants wilting a few hours after being watered, I don't know what is going to happen when I go back to work. I have decided to buy some large tubs and fill them with water and let the larger plants sit in the filled tubs during the day. It's the only easy way I can think of to keep them watered.

Next year, I'm going with much larger containers.

 

[rewebster]

evo---is the soil that your tomatoes are in really porous soil to dry out that quickly?--like almost all peat moss?

I've seen some type of an attachment to put on the end of a two liter soda bottle (filled with water) that when stuck into the soil (like a big baby bottle) slowly drips out the water to the soil.


I think tomatoes were originally 'swamp plants---so I don't think them sitting in water would hurt for a day or two--even swamps dried out and had some water circulating around the roots though.

my soil, so the experts say, should be sterilized, or the tomatoes rotated to new soil if they get this wilt.

 

[Evo]

my soil, so the experts say, should be sterilized, or the tomatoes rotated to new soil if they get this wilt.

The wilt is just from getting dry, they perk right back up after being watered. I think you are thinking of the disease fusarium wilt.. that's not it.

 

[rewebster]

yeah---no, I should have said "as far as my plants are concerned..." before that last part.

Is your soil just not holding moisture? if its a bigger plant and the soil is almost all peat, the plant will wilt fairly quickly as tomatoes require A LOT of water up from the roots.

 

[Evo]

I planted them in too small containers because I thought "hey, I will just fertilize the more to make up for lack of space". I didn't think about how little water the container could hole for a large plant.

I will know I can't fool mother nature next year.

 

[rewebster]

I was thinking--if you have room (or can take a little of the peat out without harming the roots) , you can add some regular dirt or top soil to the pot and that may help hold some more moisture for the plant

 

[Evo]

I was thinking--if you have room (or can take a little of the peat out without harming the roots) , you can add some regular dirt or top soil to the pot and that may help hold some more moisture for the plant

I have some in peat mixture and some in potting soil, and the peat mixture retains more moisture.

 

[rewebster]

it may be that the root hairs may like growing in the peat if the peat is wet all the time, but the root hairs may draw the moisture out of the peat quickly, and the peat may not still hold the water like a denser soil would--like roots in a clean sponge. A sponge with dirt would hold water longer.---

 

[Moonbear]

By the way, I hadn't mentioned...Evo, thanks for mentioning blossom end rot back when I asked! I looked it up, and yep, that's exactly what was happening. The cure is simple...more lime! It's not a fungus, but a calcium insufficiency. I had added a lot of lime when I started them, but it's either been used up in small pots, or leeched out. (Now you can tell I'm NOT a botanist! ) I'd have NEVER guessed at that if you hadn't mentioned it. I've never seen it before (I guess when I've grown tomatoes in the ground, it's not so much a problem as in containers, or maybe I've just re-limed them sooner without really thinking about it), and I would've sworn it was a fungus from the look of it.

 

[rewebster]

I threw some 'pea gravel' into the garden for lime when I started it--but I think its sunk or something because I don't see it anymore-----I think mine needs potash to help fight that 'wilt'

 

[Moonbear]

I would definitely consider fertilizing if the plants are dying like that and it's not a water problem. Tomatoes are notorious for depleting nutrients in their soil, which is why people are told to rotate them to new locations each year. If you've planted in the same location a few times, a hefty dose of fertilizer may be the prescription.

 

[turbo]

I threw some 'pea gravel' into the garden for lime when I started it--but I think its sunk or something because I don't see it anymore-----I think mine needs potash to help fight that 'wilt'

If you have access to wood-ash, you'll get a two-fer.

 

[rewebster]

I didn't burn anything in the garage wood burner this last year to have ashes to throw on---that may be why I got the wilt back this year

----

and then there's the nectarines----I think there's a small wasp stinging/laying eggs in them---they're 'rotting' on the tree starting at one point on the fruit, then the whole fruit goes bad in a matter of a few days, then has a mold/fungus on it---back to the sprayer to see if I can save a 'few'

 

[turbo]

I would definitely consider fertilizing if the plants are dying like that and it's not a water problem. Tomatoes are notorious for depleting nutrients in their soil, which is why people are told to rotate them to new locations each year. If you've planted in the same location a few times, a hefty dose of fertilizer may be the prescription.

Tomatoes are nutrient-depleters for sure. Some plants (beans, peas, other legumes) fix nitrogen and their rows may be a good place to plant tomatoes in the following year.

 

[Evo]

OMG! The six largest and best tomatoes in my garden have disappeared! Without a trace! I found one half eaten one near the rocks, but the rest are missing. No squirrel could have reached that high, I doubt even the bunny could have, and to not even leave a speck of juice on the patio? I don't think so.

I'm devastated.

I have now positioned crossbows aimed at every tomato.

 

[Moonbear]

Don't underestimate those squirrels! And you should have known the squirrel and rabbit had a conspiracy going when you caught them swapping auras on camera.

 

[rewebster]

I've seen rabbits up on their hind legs munching on my tomatoes, and squirrels carrying off through the trees tomatoes 4 times bigger than their heads. Those rabbits leave behing half chewed one about 18 inches off the ground and then come back the next day to finish them off.

Don't feed the animals!---if there's no food in the feeding ground, they start following the scent back to the source---like a drunk when the bartender doesn't come back soon enough.