Garden Progress Pics!

I'm long past due to post some pictures of how the garden is coming along. In early June, it looked like this. Check it out now!
And forgive the weird picture arrangements as I try to figure out blogger - coding html into a WYSIWYG editor is killing me! When I figure out how to get the formatting the way I want it, maybe I'll post the code changes.

The pics face south. On the left, the moonglow tomato (left of wall of water) and the tomatillo (right of wall) dominate the pic. The wall is around my Sungold cherry tomato, a late addition that is a bit blocked from the sun by the huge tomatillos. On the right, the monster in the foreground is the papaya squash. The okra is in the wall of water in the foreground - it's producing , and has the most beautiful creamy white/yellow flowers!, but hasn't gotten that big. There's peppers behind it, tomatoes behind those, and the papaya squash monster behind those. The dying melon is to the east and underneath the papaya.

And, lest I forget to mention, the upside-down tomatoes! They are getting pretty big and have lots of tomatoes forming! Not as big as my Moonglow, but bigger than some of my other tomatoes in pots (probably because I started these earlier). I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do when the tomatoes get big and weigh down the branches, since squash are right underneath both plants...




Here's the delicata squash on 7/4, and then again on 7/28, AFTER I cut it WAY back so it wasn't blocking the entrance and walkways. This plant literally was growing a foot a day last week. I also discovered tons of squash forming!!!


Eggplant budding, ridiculous giant sunflower, my morning glories/moonflowers vining like crazy (hopefully both the sunflowers and the vines will have flowers soon!) The vines are now growing 6in-1ft a day. Some are reaching the top of the arbor (8 ft?). I am training them along twine strung in a sunburst pattern (hard to see in the pic) - hopefully it will be pretty! Both of the sunflower shots are taken facing north.

Inventory, updated

One of my earliest posts was an inventory of all the plants I was growing and planned to grow, both in my community garden plot, in pots around my house, or for grafting experiments. While most of the intentions were fulfilled, not all have come to full fruit(veg)ion. Some of the seedlings I got from friends didn't make it, some I played God with and killed on purpose (sorry!!!), others I killed unintentionally, and one I'm reading last rites to as we speak:

R.I.P.
Noir des Carmes melon
5/08 - 7/30ish/08
Taken from this world by cucumber beetles and naive garden planning (oops)

Moment of silence, please.

Alright, must get on with our lives... here's my plants that are alive and should be successful this season:

Tomatoes
Lemon Boy (upside-down pot)
Black from Tula (upside-down pot)
Better Bush (garden)
Moonglow (garden)
Sungold cherry (garden)
Big Beef (2, 1 garden, 1 pot)
Marvel Stripe (2 pots, 2 garden?)
Cavern (2, 1 garden, 1 pot)
Black Krim (pot)
Persimmon (pot)
Constaluto (genovese or other, we'll see, in pot)
Green Zebra (1 pot, 1 graft, 2 garden?)
Opalka (pot)
Stupice, barely hanging on after being strangled by unsuccessful graft attempt
Blondkopfchen (cherry) (2, in pots) - small, left over from grafting stock
...few other graft survivors:
green zebra, mentioned above
Blondkopfchen
Vintage Wine
Pineapple
Chocolate Stripe (sent to dad in TX)
Cherry (sent to dad in TX)
Ace (sent to dad in TX)

Curcurbits
Marketmore cucumber, 2 (one in garden, one in pot)
Armenian yard-long cucumber (garden)
Papaya squash (garden)
Patty pan squash (garden)
Delicata squash (garden)

Eggplant
Fairy Tale
Rosa Bianca
Gistada de Liada
(frankly, I've lost track of which is where but 2 are in my garden, one is in a pot)


Perennials (all in garden)
Black Raspberry Bush!
Hops Vine!
Black-eyed Susan
Bee balm
2 kinds of lavender
4 kinds of thyme

Peppers
Pasilla (Hole Mole) (garden)
Chocolate bell (garden)
habanero (garden)
Serrano (garden)
hungarian hot wax (garden)
Poblano (garden)
Santa Fe (pot)
Fresno (pot)
Red Demon Thai (pot)
Jamaican hot (pot)

Herbs
garlic (garden)
chives (pot)
lavender and thyme mentioned above
fino verde basil (pot and on top of upside-down tomatoes)
genovese basil (pot and on top of upside-down tomatoes)
catnip
chocolate mint
peppermint
rosemary (pot)
cilantro (on top of upside-down tomato)

Other
Okra (garden)
Tomatillo ( 2 pairs, 1 in garden, 1 pair in pots)
French marigolds (garden)
Nasturtium (garden)
morning glory (garden)
moonflower (garden)
red onion (garden and in strawberry pots)
portulaca (pots)
Taiyo sunflower (garden and one in pot)
Strawberry blonde sunflower (garden)
Velvet queen sunflower (garden)
zinnias (garden)

Attack of the Beetles III

As with recent wars elsewhere, my struggle against the beetles is ongoing, progress has been made, it wouldn't make sense to quit now, and I might have declared victory a bit too soon (see parts I and II).

Enemy #1: Flea beetle
Status: new insurgents!
The tomatoes had outgrown the flea beetle damage and were/are taking off. Also, the upside-down tomato plants had completely avoided the first wave of flea beetles that were attacking all my in-ground plants (guess they couldn't jump that high - ha! outwitted you, didn't I, you little f*ers!) Okay, well, not so fast there, J... perhaps I outwitted them the first time, with help from some diatomaceous earth, but.... they're back! With reinforcements! They're all over my in-ground tomatoes. The beetles have also managed to make it up to my upside-down tomatoes, I assume by hopping up all the squash leaves underneath both plants. You're welcome.
Strategy: Management. Time for some more DE.

Enemy #2: Cucumber beetle
Status: buzzing around but are basically has-beens. However, I fear late-season comeback.
In my last report from the front lines, I gave up on sprays and was resorting to physical blockage involving walls of water with cheesecloth over the top, and row covers. The wall arrangement worked very well until the plants were too big to fit inside. At that point, I fearfully took off the walls/cloth and hoped for the best. The squash won: thankfully, squash is such a fast, strong grower that the beetles couldn't do measurable damage to the plants anymore.

However, the cucumber plants were under heavier attack, suffered more damage before I re-covered them, and probably continued to get eaten after I was forced to uncover them because they were getting too big, too, for the wall/cloth contraption. The covers allowed both plants to recover a bit and put on new growth, which I think was key to their survival. They are survivors! As shown in the last post, I harvested 2 lovely cucumbers from my Marketmore plant this week. Still no Armenian yard-longs, but I think I saw some babies on there a few days ago.
Lessons Learned:
1)cuc beetles can do terrible damage to really small plants. Physical covers like walls of water, cheesecloth or row cover material are the only good way to protect small plants from them. Cover your cucumber, melon or squash plant until it is flowering and/or can't fit under the cover anymore.
2)I am sure pyrethrin sprays have some efficacy but just aren't worth the cost, effort and potential to kill beneficial insects.
Strategy: feeling sense of impending doom about late-season resurgence of cuc beetle damage, not sure what to do! Come on, cucumbers! Produce! Hurry!

First Harvest! Squash, squash and oh, more squash....

Here are pics of my first harvests - squash! I'm now questioning what the heck I was thinking growing 2 yellow squash plants, because I'm drowning in squash. But, I was intrigued by the specialty shapes of both since I have only grown plain green zucchini before...

The papaya pear squash came first (maturity ~45 days) and continues... the patty pans (maturity ~50 days) were first ready 1.5 weeks ago while I was at a conference. I asked a friend to go get them if she wanted them, but she never made it over to the garden, so pic 2 shows you what can happen to a patty pan in less than a week if not picked: from 2-3in diameter to over 4lbs (a zucch last year topped out at over 7lbs! I made a stuffed zucchini boat out of that one, and my friend decorated another biggun for Halloween) I hope the patty pan will resume production now that I've picked all the giants off.


My first squash meal, made with the 3 papaya squash in the first picture, was a simple saute with some herbs. But now I'm focusing on bulk: Right now I'm eating part of a gallon of curried squash soup, have a squash-heavy lasagna in the fridge waiting to be cooked and another pound or two in the freezer, gave away 8lbs to friends and several to the neighbors... and there's more papayas forming now. I'm going to give the next big harvest to the EFAA, but I would like to eat as much of my "free" food as I can. Any recommendations?


Also, I found 2 perfect cucumbers yesterday! I don't know how I missed them before. I had one tonight and have to say: it was SO good! I made some hummus to go with it...

Upside-down tomatoes!

They're going great! You don't need any fancy product! You can make an upside-down tomato hanger for $8. Here's the setup:

• 5 gallon paint bucket and lid from hardware store $7
  
• permeable soil barrier scrap that fits inside bottom of bucket: scrap of landscape fabric, coffee filter, etc.
  
• 100lb-test chain, S-hook for hanging, $0.69/ft, $0.30 (optional, if you don't have a hook from which to hang the bucket handle)
  

Please refer to my skillful Google Sketch diagram :)

1. Cut a 2 inch hole out of the bottom center of the bucket. I used a drill. I also drilled 4-5 small drainholes in the bottom.
2. Cut slits in the landscape fabric or coffee filter in an X pattern, like in the diagram. The slits should form a hole big enough for you to ease your tomato seedling through.
3. Ease the seedling, still in its pot, through the fabric slits - tip first - so the fabric is snugly around the plant stem near the soil line, or however deep you want to replant the seedling. I wrapped my seedling gently into a saran wrap cocoon to protect the little leaves.
4. Balance the bucket between two chairs so that it's right side up but off the ground and the seedling can hang freely from the bottom. Ease the seedling, tip first, through the 2 inch hole in the bottom of the bucket till the fabric is flush with the bottom of the bucket. While holding the seedling in place with one hand, carefully begin filling the bucket with soil around the seedling with the other hand. When there's enough soil to hold the seedling in place in the bucket, remove its pot and loosen the roots.


5. Finish filling the bucket with soil to the top.


6. Secure the lid and turn the bucket over so the bucket is upside down but the seedling is upright, sticking up out the hole you drilled. Let the plant 'sit' for a week or two so it can settle in its new home, extend its root system, etc.


7. Turn over and hang by bucket handle in a sunny location. I hung each of my buckets from my plot's arbor/pergola by wrapping the chain around the handle and an overhead 2x4, and securing the chain with the S-hook.
   

Here's some real-world pics! My roommate and I painted the 3 buckets. Like the bucket monster? That one is actually a 3rd right side up planter I have at my house, inspired by my 3rd roomate. I painted the sunflower and monster buckets, and my roommate painted the sun/moon scene bucket. The pic with the red flower is actually just the other side of the sunflower bucket. Notice my earthworm with sunglasses :)

I left my plant right side up for about 2-3 weeks, during which time it got cold, the soil got really cold, and both tomatoes experienced symptoms of phosphorus deficiency (really, just an uptake problem b/c of the low soil temperature) - curled, purple leaves, stems erect. I thought it might be a real disease, because these mimic some leaf curl virus symptoms, but as soon as the weather warmed up the symptoms subsided. My tomato plants probably doubled to tripled in size by the time I hung them upside down in my community plot. That's not saying much, as they were pretty small to begin with. But, when I took off the lids after hanging them, I found the roots had made it all the way through the 5 gallons of soil! Hopefully that's a good sign I'll have some big tomato plants soon!

UPDATE: Here's a pic of the bottom hole.

Coffee!!!

I've been waiting for this for 5 years! I've been cultivating my coffee plant since 2003, with dreams of one day harvesting my own coffee beans. I'm sure they'll be horrible and probably number in the single digits, but it's totally worth the years of wait. I read that coffee plants usually flower in years 3-4, 2-4, 4-6 - depends on the source - and berries form from the base of the flower. I could have berry buds right now! Sure, it takes 30-35 weeks for the berries to ripen. After 5 years, I can wait. Yeah!!!!!!

I wasn't sure if the plant would ever flower, as I've moved it around a lot, not always to the best locations. But guess what I saw one night recently???

This is SO exciting!

Here's more info: http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/coffeeplant.htm

Spent barley mulch +wall of water = vinegary plant death

Last year, I mulched with spent barley from a local brewery. It was great. It's free, natural, easy to spread, gives good cover, stays in place relatively well, and eventually breaks down to provide nitrogen, etc back to the soil. In fact, I still recommend it. However, I wouldn't recommend doing what I did this year:

I got the barley from bins outside the brewery early one morning (gotta get there before the flies do). The barley was still wet and stinky from brewing. I went straight to my community plot, removed the black plastic mulch (weather had definitely warmed up enough) and began spreading the barley around. I put a good 2in layer on top of the soil. This was all fine. The problem came when I a) spread thick wet layers around some of my smaller plants, all tomatoes; these were my 2nd round transplants that I planted where I realized there was room after the 1st round, then b) put the walls of water back around these small tomatoes.

I go back the next day to check on things, and what do I find? Brown, shriveled tomato seedlings. Completely gone. The walls of water around the wet barley had created a hot vinegar tomato-annihilation atmosphere as hospitable to plant life as the ammonia clouds of Jupiter. The tomatoes never had a chance. This pic is the Early Girl tomato, after 1 day in my unintentional death chamber. Look closely; the leaves are reduced to papery dead shreds. This was the largest of the condemned tomatoes. The stem of this one lived (the others were smaller so got totally boiled), but since I have so many plants at home, I pulled it out and replaced it with another fully-alive plant.

Didn't see this one coming!
Lessoned learned: it always pays to have 3x the plants you really need ;)

-jardinera de muerte