Garden

[Bill Foster]

This year’s garden has been frustrating again. Volunteer potatoes came up at the last week of May. They were strong looking plants and some started to fade in the past week. The ones that died back did not produce. My crooknecks, in a different bed, are healthy, strong plants with pretty blooms...no squash. The tomatoes are large and still green. I have enough cucumbers to start a store, giving them to whoever will take them. We have had lots of rain or I have kept the plants wet when not.

What am I missing with the potatoes? 3rd year in a row with nothing more than golfball size potatoes. I wouldn’t have wasted time with the squash this year, but they came up from kitchen waste that I buried last fall.

[wwdnet]

Wish I knew - but I am solarizing again this year due to root knot nematode infestation which killed my tomatoes and peppers last year. How have your temperatures been? It got hot early here and above normal for a month now. What I had planted in pots pretty much burned up in spite of the irrigation system. I'll replant next month but not while daily temps are 100F.

[Bill Foster]

It was warm, not hot here early. It has been moderate until the past two weeks. That’s likely why the tomatoes are still green. I suppose potato farming is not in my future. This is the first year that my squash hasn’t been destroyed by squash bugs. I usually get 8 or so, and then the bugs take over. This year, pretty blooms. Maybe the bugs help.

[rockriver]

i don't know answer to specifics... just a general recommendation..

use mulch... chipped tree branches, etc..
i stopped one day when i saw the power company's trucks trimming trees.
i volunteered our property for a place to dump their load of chipped product..
they loved the offer.
1. the drivers didn't have to drive to neighboring city to dump.
2. when i see them i walk over and tip the guys (usually 2 workers) 2 to 5 $ each.

we did not garden this year... the grass near the dump area is bright green. it has
many layers of chipped product...
we also use this product around the base of fruit trees. holds water, insulates soil. makes fertilizer/nutrients that slowly goes into soil as product breaks down.
allows oxygen to get into soil.