What's Growing in the Garden

[trc65]

Busy couple days in the garden. Got 15 tomatoes, 20 peppers and 36 misc Cole crops planted. Even had time to mulch and put netting over the Cole crops to prevent the deer harvesting them. Also got herbicides down before the wind picked up too much.

 

[JerseyHighlander]

Powdery mildew got the yellow squash and zucchini and is creeping into the cucumbers. It doesn't care about my fungicide... First tomatoes came off today. Got a grocery sack full of green beans in the fridge, more to pick tomorrow. Cucumbers are still making but probably only for another week or two. Green striped Cushaw are doing great and we should have tons of them. I tilled up the purple hull pea and okra patch today and will plant them tomorrow. Red potato vines are starting to die, soooo... but they'll store ok in the ground for a little while.

Alan

Powdery mildew and several other diseases are almost impossible to control without some of the newest chemistries/active ingredients. Unfortunately, most of them are only sold in farm "sized" containers, may be restricted use and cost $$$$$.

I've had really good luck using a foliar spray of a simple solution of water & borax. Plants need the boron anyway and it is highly anti-fungal.

Last fall I made a sulfer solution reacted with Sodium Hydroxide (lye) I saw on a really good youtube channel, never did get a chance to use it but it's natural/nutritive to the plants and should work very well. I think the channel was Garden like a Viking.

 

[trc65]

And right on time after all those tender young plants were put into the ground, we get some hail.



It only lasted a minute or so, and was not overly heavy, so don't expect much if any damage. All the plants are also protected with buckets and field tile around them. We'll see in the morning...

They are reporting some softball sized hail in parts of NE Missouri, so we lucked out again.

Don't know why, but we are in an area that almost never gets significant hail damage. When we moved to this farm 50 years ago, Dad was pleasantly surprised when crop insurance was significantly less than the farm we moved from 10 miles north of here. Insurance adjuster said that we were in a small area that never got heavy hail damage.

 

[Fencemender]

The June full moon is the 4th I will probably wait until after that.

My dad has taught me to be fearful of those full moons! I will probably follow this too. Usually memorial day is our date.

 

[Fencemender]

Peepers predict May 20th as our last killing frost. Wife still wants to wait until June 1st for safety. We planted starters 2 Mondays ago, greens are just breaking ground.

What is the spring peeper calculation?
Haven’t heard of this this one, but we have one for when the catydids first sing and the first frost!
After 70 years of farming my dad can look at a 5 day forecast with no rain. I’ve learned to not second guess him much about why he isn’t mowing hay with such nice weather. It’s usually pouring before the second day ends!
I often think about the intuition one gains spending time so close in a job like farming that lets you become part of the world around you.
I feel there aren’t many out there that have that opportunity much anymore. Sad to see this knowledge and so much more like it be lost.

 

[sprucegum]

My dad has taught me to be fearful of those full moons! I will probably follow this too. Usually memorial day is our date.

I would think that you would be OK for the June full moon. We are up in the NE corner of VT. and usually the coldest part of the state. I remember a year that my grandparents farm got a frost in June and another in August, it was in a valley and a bit of a frost pocket. We are on a Southwest facing slope and tend to stay a little warmer.

 

[Mr. Peet]

What is the spring peeper calculation?
Haven’t heard of this this one, but we have one for when the catydids first sing and the first frost!
After 70 years of farming my dad can look at a 5 day forecast with no rain. I’ve learned to not second guess him much about why he isn’t mowing hay with such nice weather. It’s usually pouring before the second day ends!
I often think about the intuition one gains spending time so close in a job like farming that lets you become part of the world around you.
I feel there aren’t many out there that have that opportunity much anymore. Sad to see this knowledge and so much more like it be lost.

Not sure if it will work for you, but here when the spring peepers start chirping, we listen. They usually chime on and off for a few days or even a week or more, but when you get 3 nights in a row, mark your calendar 6 weeks out. That is often the timing of the last killing frost. Same rule in late July, 3 consecutive nights, 6 weeks out, about the time for a killing frost. It matches well with the katydids here as well.

 

[Fencemender]

I would think that you would be OK for the June full moon. We are up in the NE corner of VT. and usually the coldest part of the state. I remember a year that my grandparents farm got a frost in June and another in August, it was in a valley and a bit of a frost pocket. We are on a Southwest facing slope and tend to stay a little warmer.

Didn’t realize you were that far north!
However, it’s wasn’t many years ago we had a frost and I’m pretty sure it was 2-4 days after Memorial Day. Had about 50 tomatoes planted. Had to cover them all with sap buckets. Lucky I saw it coming and got them covered!

 

[DLJeffs]

Not sure if it will work for you, but here when the spring peepers start chirping, we listen. They usually chime on and off for a few days or even a week or more, but when you get 3 nights in a row, mark your calendar 6 weeks out. That is often the timing of the last killing frost. Same rule in late July, 3 consecutive nights, 6 weeks out, about the time for a killing frost. It matches well with the katydids here as well.

That's interesting. I need to do some research for around here. The sierra pacific tree frogs just started chirping, maybe last week. I wonder if there's a connection to heavy frost predictions. We did have a couple days in the 70's and one that got well into the 80s when the frogs woke up. Haven't heard them since the temps went back to normal, 50's daytime, mid-upper 30's nighttime.

 

[Wildthings]

It's crazy the difference in all our areas. My tomatoes are 3' high and full of tomatoes. Had a small Lemon Boy tomato plant start growing late last fall and I protected it all winter. Picked my first tomato last week. Yesterday I picked 5 more. Onion and 'mater sandwich! yum yum good. That's the exception rather than the rule.

edited to add picture of said maters.

 

[JerseyHighlander]

What is the spring peeper calculation?
Haven’t heard of this this one, but we have one for when the catydids first sing and the first frost!
After 70 years of farming my dad can look at a 5 day forecast with no rain. I’ve learned to not second guess him much about why he isn’t mowing hay with such nice weather. It’s usually pouring before the second day ends!
I often think about the intuition one gains spending time so close in a job like farming that lets you become part of the world around you.
I feel there aren’t many out there that have that opportunity much anymore. Sad to see this knowledge and so much more like it be lost.

"we have one for when the catydids first sing"

Explain this one please?

 

[Fencemender]

"we have one for when the catydids first sing"

Explain this one please?

The old saying here is frost in 6 weeks from when the katydids first start to sing.

 

[JerseyHighlander]

The old saying here is frost in 6 weeks from when the katydids first start to sing.

Interesting. Here in the higher altitudes of Northwestern New Jersey, Katydids may start. their squawking anytime from mid August to well into September. Never noticed any correlation but then I've never paid any attention either. I have noticed their timing to start has been very off the past couple years and last year they were nearly non existent for the first time in the 21 years I've lived here. Likely due to the drought.

 

[trc65]

Lots of phenological indicators out there, and in reality it's all related to degree days. Of course the base temp for calculating degree days varies by crop and pest, so watching the development (flowering) of native plants and correlating that to pest/disease development has been occurring for hundreds of years.

For instance, when chicory starts blooming it is time to start treating/monitoring for squash vine borer.

When I was at the Univ of Wisconsin, the Urban Hort group kept a detailed list of phenological indicators from county agents across the state. Here is an article discussing Phenology.

Phenology

Phenology is a branch of science that studies the life cycles of plants and animals with seasonal changes and weather. Learn more in this factsheet.

hort.extension.wisc.edu

 

[Fencemender]

Interesting. Here in the higher altitudes of Northwestern New Jersey, Katydids may start. their squawking anytime from mid August to well into September. Never noticed any correlation but then I've never paid any attention either. I have noticed their timing to start has been very off the past couple years and last year they were nearly non existent for the first time in the 21 years I've lived here. Likely due to the drought.

Yes, it’s not perfect! Last two years I think our frost has been 3 weeks later than what it always had been. Lots of time it’s mid-late September. Last few years have been after Columbus Day.

 

[DLJeffs]

Lots of phenological indicators out there, and in reality it's all related to degree days. Of course the base temp for calculating degree days varies by crop and pest, so watching the development (flowering) of native plants and correlating that to pest/disease development has been occurring for hundreds of years.

For instance, when chicory starts blooming it is time to start treating/monitoring for squash vine borer.

When I was at the Univ of Wisconsin, the Urban Hort group kept a detailed list of phenological indicators from county agents across the state. Here is an article discussing Phenology.

Phenology

Phenology is a branch of science that studies the life cycles of plants and animals with seasonal changes and weather. Learn more in this factsheet.

hort.extension.wisc.edu

It's time to fish for big bluegill on their redds when the dogwoods bloom.

 

[sprucegum]

Plant potatoes when the elm leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear. They are and I have not

 

[trc65]

Old Irish legend says to plant potatoes on
Good Friday. Was too busy this year, so planted them the day after Easter.

 

[Sprung]

I do wish we had the space to plant potatoes. I might have to dedicate part of a bed to them next year.

Today the boys and I finished putting dirt in a couple small planters I built to go around the poles of the clothesline. There's two poles on each end, about 10' apart, so made a pair of 12' x 18" beds from some 5/4 x 6" cedar deck boards. One of them will have wildflowers, the other I'll do some pole beans and some other things. Put leek, bok choy, various lettuce, and green onion seeds in the ground. That's in addition to the snap pea seeds I planted about a week ago. Garlic that I planted in the late fall has come up real nice.

Seedlings are growing well in our basement. They've started to really take off after I built a small "greenhouse" for them to be able to add and contain some heat around them. The basement temp being only a little above 60 means that everything was progressing slow. At some point this week we'll have to pot up some of the plants from the seed starting cells. In about 2 weeks I'll start hardening them off and then get them planted at the end of the month. Our average last frost date is within the next few days, but it's been a colder than normal spring, so I don't want to take too many chances. At least this next week looks like really nice weather.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When the mesquite trees bud out, no more freezes. When the cut ants are working, it's gonna rain.

I'm going to start paying more attention ...

Alan