My cilantro always gets leggy before I have a chance to use it

6/21/2010 10:45:33 AM

What are you guys using for insect control?

6/21/2010 10:20:32 PM

Depends on the bug. For the aphids spraying the plants down with a peppermint soap solution has been working well.

When I used to grow pumpkins the best way I found to deal with squash borers was to use netting from preventing the moths from laying their eggs in the first place.

6/21/2010 10:28:52 PM

Fingers crossed, we haven't had a bug problem in the garden this year. They are destroying the leaves on the flowers, but leaving the garden alone. That being said, we have dozens of frogs that hang around the house and the garden, so I can only assume they are helping. We have tons of ladybugs too.

6/22/2010 9:53:52 AM

It's kind of of odd--we have one arugula plant that is getting absolutely terrorized by insects to the point where it looks like swiss cheese, but the bugs seem to be staying off the other plants.

The heat is becoming an issue on the other hand--most of the herbs and my potted tomato and strawberry all are looking like hell when I get home from work every day. They perk back up after watering, and the plants in the ground seem to be holding up better, but damn we could use some rain. For June Durham is at 1.7 inches--the average is 4.01 inches. And the forecast shows 3 days of the next 10 with the possibility of "scattered" storms but none of them over 40%. I'm sure the midwest is sick of rain, can they send some our way? They can keep the tornadoes and hail though.

6/22/2010 11:08:57 AM

yea our garden is in need of a good 2 inch overnight soaking rain, but somehow our beans keep producing....we have canned 60 quarts so far, but by the end of the day we should have about 90 quart canned

6/22/2010 12:02:52 PM

first squash



true story

6/22/2010 12:50:23 PM

WW!!! I hate to speak ill of such a magnificent specimen, but you really should pick summer squash when it's smaller. It'll be softer and tastier, and the plant will produce more.

6/22/2010 2:57:41 PM

^ AGREED!

and

Pics I just took:

One of the Baby Bell Peppers:


The Cantaloupe Twins (and there are many little brothers and sisters):


Baby Watermelon:


Big ass tomatoes......GETTING CLOSE!:


Tomatoes on the right, zucchini and cucumbers on the left:


My harvest today (zucchini, cucumbers, banana peppers, jalapenos):


We also have okra ready to be picked, but I just left it until we figure out what the hell we want to do with it. lol.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 5:29 PM. Reason : a]

6/22/2010 5:04:21 PM

how long after flowers should I expect some jalapenos?

i had a bunch bloom over the last 2 weeks and no signs of peppers popping up

6/23/2010 3:30:53 PM

I got tired of waiting for this guy to turn red so I decided to go ahead and make fried green tomatoes!! Also one of my tomatoes in the mixed bag of seeds was "Aunt Ruby's German Green" so maybe it's not supposed to turn red

6/23/2010 6:07:38 PM

How did the fried green tomatoes turn out? I am considering doing the same thing. Apparently all the rain is what has caused the tomatoes to take forever to ripen, or so I am told by my gardening gurus.


^^ probably ab out 2 weeks. And once they start, you will have enough to pick almost daily.

On a sidenote, anyone want any okra? Mine is going crazy and I am not even really a fan of it.

[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 7:44 PM. Reason : a]

6/23/2010 7:42:36 PM

Man Down!

The wind today caused one of our tomato plants, our biggest sungold, to fall completely over sideways, laying on the ground. There was no hope of getting it to stay back up in the wire cage it was in, which had two badly bent legs; they must have hit rocks on the way down and bowed, and then the high wind did the rest.

So the stem didn't break (well one looks crimped, but not right where it comes out of the ground) which is good. I cut the cage from around it. But the question is, what now? I have some sturdier narrow v cages instead of the flimsy tripod round it was in, but I attempted to get it situated in that, which didn't work because the damn thing doesn't have one or even two main stalks--it just kind of grew up leaning against the cage so it is coming out of the ground at a funny angle and has probably 6 or 7 big stalks which split off from the "main" trunk a few inches off the ground. This odd growth pattern also precludes using a single big stake, pole, etc.

If I could find one of those folding cages that you can make into a box, I could probably contain it and get it back standing up. What if I can't find one? Will the plant grow laying over on its side? I have it propped up over an old lawnmower at the moment just so it's not resting on the ground, and if that's ok I can just leave it that way--forget aesthetics, I just want it to live and for it to keep producing. It's got many, many small tomatoes on it, almost none of which are ripe. What can I do to keep this thing alive?

6/23/2010 9:31:07 PM

Luckily tomatoes are technically vines so they'll do fine laying for the time being while you figure out a way to prop them up.

We usually interlace a few stakes through the cage and push them into the ground to prop the cage up and further steady the frame. I hope that helps.

6/23/2010 9:49:44 PM

tomatoes will do fine on the ground, they are just harder to pick that way, and sometimes animals will bother them when they wouldn't if they were in a cage. you can put stakes in around it and tie it up with cloth ties if you wish, because they wont hurt the plant.

6/23/2010 10:05:05 PM

I am wondering now if I needed to trim off branches from my tomato plants. When I first planted them in the pots, I trimmed off all the lower branches to plant it deep. They have grown really well and look really healthy with tons of branches but just no tomatoes still. Starting to wonder if having multiple thick stems and a lot of branches is somehow hurting the production of tomatoes or something (like sucking up too much water or nutrients to just keep the plant alive...I dono).

Maybe I just need to try and self pollinate again.

6/24/2010 9:01:47 AM

It depends if it's a determinate variety or indeterminate. If it's indeterminate, you should be pinching off all the suckers and keeping it to one main vine. Determinate varieties, you just let them do their thing.

6/24/2010 9:22:25 AM

Indeterminate is where they just produce as they go along, and determinate is where they're all ready around the same time, right? Any way to tell which a certain plant is, other than observing if it does not continue to set fruit throughout the season?

6/24/2010 1:39:31 PM

Well my temple pepper plant is just plain sad looking. Aphids seem to be under control thanks to some lady bugs that have taken up residence but it's not looking like it's going to produce much of anything this year

6/24/2010 9:52:29 PM

try sprinkling powdered lime one the leaves, that often cures bug problems

picked another 2 bucketfuls of green beans today (10 gallons)

6/25/2010 1:26:26 AM

Most determinate varieties of tomatoes are 'bush' type and end up on the short side, like 3-4 feet. You can google the variety and it'll tell you if it's determinate or not. Usually, I'm good for pulling the suckers for the first month or two until I get busy doing something else and my plants run wild.


If you've got a lot of plant and no fruits it could also be too much nitrogen and not enough phosphorus.

Temperature can also be affecting the fruit set if it's blooming but then dropping the flowers instead of fruiting out, and it's been hot around here.

6/25/2010 8:40:35 AM

Quote :

"It depends if it's a determinate variety or indeterminate. If it's indeterminate, you should be pinching off all the suckers and keeping it to one main vine. Determinate varieties, you just let them do their thing."

ok. Ours is a Black Krim heirloom variety so I'm pretty sure that is indeterminate. I can take some pictures this afternoon maybe of how the plants look potted right now.

6/25/2010 8:43:42 AM

All my tomato plants have HUGE tomatoes, but they are still green. My friend's mom is a garden guru and said that they will probably take longer to ripen due to all the rain we have had this season. Any truth to that?

6/25/2010 10:46:30 AM

I'm not so sure about that.

If tomatoes don't get a lot of water, then they finally get some, they split.

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 12:36 PM. Reason : I'm certainly no expert on the subject, I just don't see how that would work]

6/25/2010 12:36:01 PM

everything else is blooming and producing fruit but my damn zuchini and squash plants aren't producing anything but tons of flowers.....

6/25/2010 1:01:53 PM

If you've got flowers, the veggies are right behind

6/25/2010 2:27:39 PM

my garden is doing pretty well but its mainly peppers and herbs
the lady that sold me all of my bells mislabeled and sold me something hot that i have yet to identify

my bells have yet to fruit from the flowers due to white flies and white aphids - any home remedy stuff anyone can post would be appreciated. soapy water isnt doing the trick


nice garden DJE...im envious of your space

6/25/2010 2:39:38 PM

covered up in tomatoes.....

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 2:41 PM. Reason : es]

6/25/2010 2:40:45 PM

^Big baller, smashin, making my ends!!!

I picked a tomato today but it was gooey and rotten on top!! TheBullDoza wanted to pick it yesterday and I didn't listen.

PS CalledToArms you should prune the "suckers" that appear below the lowest flowers. In this picture the arrows are pointing to baby suckers that I would pinch off with my fingernail, and the arrow is pointing to a sucker that has been allowed to grow too large. I've read that it's OK for a tomato plant to have 2-3 main stems (the extra stems actually being a very large sucker), but it sounds like yours is overgrown.

Since it's a bit late you could do "missouri" pruning where instead of taking off the whole sucker, cut it off right after the set of leaves closest to the stem. BUT this will allow more suckers to grow off the pruned one, so a bit more work!!

6/25/2010 5:00:04 PM

OOPS I had a typo, I meant that the X in the pic is an overgrown sucker

6/25/2010 5:56:54 PM

To me, the easiest way to identify suckers is to just look for a3-way split. The middle one out of any 3-way joint is almost always a sucker. Last year I didn't know that at first and my plants really sprang to life after i started keeping them clean. This year I just grew a determinate variety so i didnt have to remember to deal with it.

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 6:23 PM. Reason : q]

6/25/2010 6:22:10 PM

Here is what happens when you don't check the garden for 2 days:



So yeah, the HUGE cucumbers and zucchini will be treats for the horse and donkey. And I am starting a new batch of pickles tonight. Also, our tomatoes are starting to turn red, and we have 2 cantaloupes that are about a week out from nom nom nom.

6/25/2010 6:31:41 PM

I'm envious of you people with red tomatoes. I've finally got some that are starting to get large, but they're still a long ways away from turning red pink, orange, or chocolate brown. The sungolds are starting to yield a decent amount of little orange guys each day though, which is nice.

I've noticed on a few small tomatoes that the end where the flower was has turned brown--is this blossom-end rot? Anything I can do about it? It's not a big problem yet, but I don't want it to become one.

Also we have eggplant that have emerged from their leafy cocoon and are showing their purple and white striped selves. Still a while before harvest, as zebras are supposed to be about 8" long, but good to see some production.

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 7:13 PM. Reason : e]

6/25/2010 7:12:29 PM

Anyone who knows anything about okra..........how do I know when they are ready to be picked. As you can see in my picture I picked 2 of them that were big, but they don't look ripe to me. I have 0.0 experience with okra.

6/26/2010 11:25:56 AM

okra is "ripe" when the veggie starts forming. you can pick them very small and they will still taste fine. We don't usually let ours get as big as the ones in your pick..about 3-4" is when we always pick ours. If you let them get as big as the ones in your pic, they usually get a little bit tough.

6/27/2010 11:01:47 AM

both my zuchini and squash plants rotted

6/27/2010 8:45:56 PM

picked my first tomato today


just a wee little fella, but still proud of him

6/27/2010 9:10:35 PM

got about 6 watermelons on the vine, one of which I'm gonna pick off next weekend for some July 4th seed spittin

also, I have about 15 red bell peppers grown and still sitting on the plan waiting for them to turn red. Two of them are red on half of them, the other half is still green. Might just pick off a couple soon and have green bells. I had no clue it takes so long for them to turn red

the wife has a ton of squash, zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers growing as well. Quite a good harvest this year

6/27/2010 9:19:25 PM

I tried waiting last year for a green pepper on the plant to turn red, it never did and the pepper just rotted. Then the plant never produced again

I guess it explains why red peppers cost 3x more at the grocery store.

6/27/2010 10:50:21 PM

We had something that was allegedly a yellow bell pepper last year which also never turned yellow. It was green, and green some more. I let one sit on the plant until I thought it might rot and it merely turned a darker green; picked it while it was still good. Hopefully the red bell peppers we are growing this year will actually turn red.

(don't all green bell peppers turn red, theoretically, if you give them long enough? I thought a green bell was simply an unripe but still tasty red bell. I could be wrong though.)

The yellow bell peppers from last year also turned out somewhat hot, not sweet like a usual bell pepper. Not sure if it inadvertently cross-pollinated with our jalapenos and poblanos, or we just got something really weird that was mislabeled yellow bell.

[Edited on June 27, 2010 at 11:21 PM. Reason : d]

6/27/2010 11:20:39 PM

one finally pollinated. there's a few more on there atm, so I'm hoping they got some love also.

6/28/2010 11:21:41 AM

I was out of town this weekend, and while I was gone the deer were nice enough to pre-shuck and pre-eat all my corn for me. And the leaves off the last pumpkin vine. And the maters have stinkbigs to go with the snails and slugs eating everything else. I still picked ten pounds of nice tomatoes.


Next year I think I'm going to initialize gardendome.

6/28/2010 11:23:05 AM

did you see deer tracks around our corn? because that sounds more like a coon than a deer.

6/28/2010 11:29:36 AM

well i found out today what burpless cucumbers are, they are coming in pretty good now

didn't know they were not like the big slicing cukes

6/28/2010 12:01:33 PM

^^Naw, but I've seen plenty of deer around the neighborhood, and not so much raccoons. And there's a pile of deer scat on the remains of the pumpkin vine. Coulda been a squirrel, I guess. They got a few last year.


[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 12:18 PM. Reason : {]

6/28/2010 12:16:20 PM

if the ears of corn were still attached to the stalk, and the stalk pulled down it would be a coon....they climb up the stalks to get it...deer and squirrels like the corn after it has gotten hard.

6/28/2010 12:29:47 PM

Finally got the squash bugs and aphids killed off got some big flowers so should be producing soon already have a few jalapenos coming in nicely.

6/28/2010 12:34:13 PM

Bad week for me in gardening...

- My Cilantro died again (I even tried keeping it inside this year after I heard it does not keep well
in summer heat).

- A bird ate my almost ripe tomato.

- Moving I had a casualty of one of my pepper plants.

- The dumb 16 yr old chick that smokes with my roommate, knocked over my aloe plant nearly killing it.

In good news though I successfully moved my plants to my new place minus the one pepper plant.

6/28/2010 4:58:34 PM

Quote :

"- The dumb 16 yr old chick that smokes with my roommate"

def need to get that fixed

or at least post the story about the day her parents show up at your house

6/28/2010 9:54:13 PM

One of our squash plants has died, but it has already produced a TON so no big deal. Made a HUGE batch of pickles yesterday since we have more cucumbers than we know what to do with. Made 3 different types: Sandwich slices, halves, and spears.

I should have cantaloupe ready for July 4th. I think the watermelons are probably another 2 weeks from being ready.

The okra is now going OFF THE HOOK. Sad thing is, neither of us really likes okra. Not sure why we even planted it. I am going to try to give a bag to the guy coming to fix our outside faucet today.

6/29/2010 10:12:05 AM