Mystery Seedlings

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Recipe we used... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94GLKJfgdXM

Okay, need advice...inspected and watered yesterday morning, then inspected and did copper fungicide spray in evening. Went out this morning and my two largest cantaloupe had worms holes. OVERNIGHT! :mad: Clipped them off and cut open and found one green worm in the small one and two green worms in larger one. Is there a way to prevent and how do I treat? Kinda disappointing as the large one was about 2" in diameter. Had to clip off some dead leaves on the depressed sunflowers, but other than that they are still looking good. Transplanted two tomatoes from two different grow bags that each had three tomato plants.

Still fine tuning the settings on my all in one solar charger/inverter. Need to run some more circuits, but that requires me to get under house to run lines....not looking forward to that, not because of heat, but in sand, on my knees and back to run lines, install junction boxes and drill and fish up the lines....just have to wrap my head around it and get er' done...

[surviort_wwdnet]

I have 2 suggestions for your melon worm issue: Home Neem oil - spray the whole plant and the fruit with Neem oil daily. It should kill the worms on contact. Forum Bt - spray the melons and vines with Bt, which will also make them stop eating. Otherwise, if you want to go full-blown killer mode, sprinkle Sevin dust all over the soil around your plants, and spray Sevin spray on the melons and leaves. Be mindful of moths, from whence all nasty garden worms come.

Went out to replant my watermelon and darn! There is a sprout peaking through the soil. I stuck in a couple of extra seeds for good measure.

Spent 3 hours this afternoon being assembler assistant for my husband to get his new pull-behind cart for his garden tractor put together. After spending the morning at the dr, that pretty much killed the day except for watering the garden and checking my seedlings. The cart will be great for moving dirt, lumber, etc. Plumber comes tomorrow to fix the water inlet valve for the house - valve handle spins in circles (can't be tightened) and packing nut is spurting water, leaving a puddle in my flower bed. It never ends...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I have neem oil, so I will try that.

Going to transplant a tomato that I started from seed indoors today. Have to supply backup power, from my utilities, to my solar system. I do not like electrical work. In my EMS days I picked up too many "professionals" that made a mistake, and you usually do not get a second chance. Even though I can turn off parts of my house, I turn off the breaker to the whole house...and am still nervous. I really respect electricity and stay cautious. I do not listen to podcasts or music and just focus on task at hand.

I think my sunflowers that I moved are not just depressed, but bi-polar. They looked great yesterday, until they didn't...droopy and then a few hours later, standing straight up...craziest thing. I have a couple grow bags sitting empty so I may get some more potting soil and get some seeds in them. Have to run to Lowes for electrical project, so may grab a couple bags...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Let me know how the Neem oil works - you can spray it on anything in your garden to keep hungry bugs away.

I have 20 potting soil filled grow bags, and 6 empties. I've been tied up here with med/legal stuff so I haven't done much, except I picked 4 Bell peppers, 4 jalapenos, and 6 eggplants, plus one giant yellow squash and a few Roma tomatoes. If I can work it into tomorrow's craziness, I'll start processing everything but the tomatoes.If no time, they can sit in the fridge until Friday😂 Everything else that's growing looks fine and maybe next week I'll transplant my seedlings.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

well, bought 4 kinds of pepper plants yesterday and plan on getting them into grow bags. Looked like no rain on forecast at 6pm so I watered...then at 9:30pm it poured....

Bought sevin dust and plan on using that as well as neem. Found a pepper plant stripped of all the leaves, so something go to it...literally all the leaves were gone, but the few peppers were left.

Got three circuits ran from solar set up, and ran an AC line in to power if battery gets too low...seemed to work last night. I have unit set to only charge from solar panels for now, and if we are expecting a TS or hurricane, I will change setting to use the AC to charge the battery and not wait on solar panels to do the charge. That way I will go into a storm with topped off battery. Still have 3-4 more circuits to run, but that will be for another day. I will likely need more battery, but this will help in a crisis....and will lower our power bill a little.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I hope you find the answer to your leaf-devouring bugs. I gave up and got some Sevin dust and Sevin spray. We picked up some bug killer for the yard that I'll spray in the morning when it's not 100^{o, and maybe we'll have time to finish the shade cloth support structure before I melt. Husband has had time to think about it and says it will be easy to finish.}

Kind of a lost day otherwise, with errands to run and a ton of paperwork to complete. I got both gardens watered and checked over, nothing seems amiss in either. Threw some basil into the dehydrator. Tomorrow afternoon I should have time to get the peppers processed and into the freezer. After that, those durn eggplants😂 Yesterday they forecast no rain, and it rained. Today, no rain yet but it's still early.

Husband says I got the wrong inverter (24v) so I need to get a different one (12v) to charge the motorhome batteries, which will be our emergency housing. Back to the drawing board. I should have just bought an expandable solar generator🙄

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I made so many mistakes, although I did do research. I bought a 48v battery for a 24v system...based on what I found on the web...I was wrong, so I had a 48v battery that I could not use with a 24v MPP all in one system I had....costly mistake. So I had to buy a 24v battery for that system and a 48v MPP all in one unit for the battery I had...not a complete waste as I plan on using the 24v system for our tiny home and the 48v system is the one I am setting up for main house.

Went to Lowes Wednesday to get some parts for solar system and wife found four pepper plants she wanted. So I got more garden soil and used the last four grow bags I had and transplanted them. I had a tomato plant I planted from seed growing inside so I planted that into a grow bag that seeds did not grow. So now we have 10 tomato plants and 11 pepper plants growing. I also shoved two corn into grow bag that other corn did not sprout. While at Lowes I also got Sevin dust and applied that last night as we were not getting ran for at least 24 hours. I clipped some oregano last night and wife has them in dehydrator.

Note...I planted Ali Baba watermelons, two in grow bags and 3 in square foot garden. Planted same time, and both gets at least 8 hours of sun. The ones in grow bags are notably smaller at this point (about two weeks in). I also planted Red Kuri squash in sq ft garden that are doing well.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I contacted the company I purchased the inverter from - waiting to hear if I can send it back and get a 12v; otherwise, I'll sell this 24v one online and just buy the right one. It's only money🙄 Convinced husband I need a charged LiFePO4 to keep in the house for minor power outages. 👍 I wish I hadn't made that inverter purchase.

Sprayed insect killer on the whole yard this morning (for moths), then headed to the shower. I'd already had an inadvertent shower, laundering of my clothes and shoes, because my hose-end sprayer was leaking like crazy at the hose connection😂😂Cooled off, I got the peppers sliced up and in for a quick freeze before they go into the vacuum bags. I decided to trim the neighbor's vines off our fence and level out some patio blocks my husband tripped/fell over yesterday. Once that was done, I headed for the pool - the thermometer read 103^o. Then I chunked up a yellow squash, 3 bell peppers, and a huge onion with some olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs to make roasted vegetables. Husband said it was delicious and asked if these were "our vegetables" - makes me proud!

Right now I have bell pepper seeds in the dehydrator to get them ready for the freezer, and then will dehydrate the jalapeno seeds. I don't want to get them mixed up!! I ordered some of those tiny ziploc bags to save the seeds in, and I'll have the bags this weekend so I can get everything in the freezer. I'll be saving a lot of seeds this year from my best garden produce.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

yeah, we have been saving seeds as well. I usually let them just sit on counter for a week then zip lock them for now. At end of season I will take all my "summer seeds" and will vacuum seal them and toss in freezer.

I still have those two bi-polar sunflowers...drooping part of the day, and looking proud other times of day. They both have the flower growing and I really want them to bloom. They are both about 6' tall and both in same grow bag, so I am wondering if they should be apart??? I have the other ones together and they are doing okay for the moment. My transplanted tomatoes and peppers are looking good. Ali Baba watermelons in sq ft garden are growing fast but the ones in grow bag are slower growth. Waiting on sweet crimson watermelons to produce fruit. They have plenty of vine and some flowers but no fruit. Same with cantaloupe, I have one small fruit but nothing else. except flowers and vines. Every time I am out there I see honey bees and wasps.
Question...will the sevin affect the pollinators?

Wife and I identified as washer repairmen yesterday...part coming from Amazon today so we will see what happens there...learned a lot about my washer, just hope our diagnosis of bad actuator is correct or we are out $40 for part...but if we are right we save $600-$800 for new washer...we think it is worth the risk...

getting ready for camping trip, so need to spool up my neighbors on watering as we leave Monday....

[surviort_wwdnet]

I'm not sure what to make of the drooping sunflowers. The normal cause would be a watering issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case for yours. Are there certain times of the day that they are drooping? Have you tried Prozac? Since your other sunflowers are growing well together, space wouldn't seem to be the issue either.

Sevin and pollinators: All the pollinators are interested in is the blossom, not the other parts of the plant. Make sure not to spray/dust the open blossoms, but leaves, produce, vines, and the soil shouid be fine. I had aphids on my squash blossoms, but waited until they were closed to spray the outsides, and the pollinators in my gardens are increasing, not decreasing. They were angry when I was picking tomatoes today😂

I got all the seeds dried and waiting for baggies. Today was eggplant day, so I have a batch of long slices and a batch of rounds in the freezer now. There's another batch, this time eggplant bacon, in the dehydrator, and the maple scent is so good! They're at least an 18-hour drying time, so I'll just let them run all night. Picked a few more tomatoes that went straight to the freezer, which I had to reorganize to make room for the eggplant. I need to reorganize the whole thing. I keep a very large cooler ice pack (18x18) in the freezer, and it may need to come out. I keep it there for emergencies, but there are a lot of smaller ice packs in the freezer too that don't interfere with the food. I pulled out some bags of berries and green beens and put them in the side-by-side freezer to hold for dehydrating. Now I have a little free space for more frozen vegetables. I trimmed some dead leaves, watered the bag garden and the seedlings, and called it good because it was 103^o. I saw some new squash babies growing behind the blossoms, which makes me happy. The yellow squash in the container garden has a ton of blossoms, but not much in the way of squash. I still have 8-10 eggplants growing so I'll be processing those again. Until the beefsteak tomato plants start producing, we're about done for fresh tomatoes.

Husband wanted to go to Nu-Motion today but I was in the middle of eggplant processing, so I told him Monday, and we can refill the propane tank and gas cans in the same trip. Tomorrow morning I'll get up early so we can get the shade structure finished before it gets into the 90's. I can hardly wait for summer to take a break! We need to get it done while he is still able to work on it. My yard is full of weeds and thatch, but there are only so many hours in the day where the temperature is bearable. I may hire someone to rake out the thatch so I can dig up the rest of the weeds and get some St. Augustine plugs in.

Camping?? Good for you! I hope you have good weather and a great, relaxing time. I'd love to but we're pretty tied up right now. Once things settle down, we're going to take the motorhome to AL to visit the kids. Daughter and granddaughter coming in 2 weeks, so I have a lot of inside work to get done too.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I heavy watered the sunflowers yesterday morning and they seemed to do well. I am wondering if they are just getting dried out quickly as they are in grow bags. I felt down about 4-5" in evening and soil was moist deep but top three inches were dry. Will see what this morning brings.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Anything that's in grow bags will dry out quickly. I'm still watering the grow bag soil every day.

Woohoo! The shade structure is up!!! There's one row of shade cloth up and I'm getting the clips and line done so the second row can go up - and that's going to be it! We went out early around 8 am and it didn't take too long to finish the structure - and it hadn't hit 90° yet. Now it's 99° so not sure how much more outside work will get done today. I may try to do a temporary install of row#2... Or not😂

I hope y'all have a great camping adventure👍😁

Update: Both rows of shade cloth are up - temporary installation but I got the second row done all by myself😁 I still need to add another clip to both ends and tie them off to the structure so they don't sag too much. It's okay - everything is shaded and if need be, there's room for another row of shade cloth. It was much cooler working under the shade cloth than out in the blazing sun👍 Then I cleaned up some dead leaves and weeds in the container garden and decided that, with the temps at 103^o, it was time to go do some housewife stuff - in the house!

Eggplant bacon: It smells better than it tastes, but it's crunchy, it's edible, and I don't hate it. Next time I would add less vinegar and maybe some more maple syrup or brown sugar (all sugar-free ingredients). It did take the whole 24 hours to dry completely.

[surviort_wwdnet]

The shade structure is finished (yay!!!), and the shade cloth is tied off on the ends and sides to the structure. The drip lines have been reinstalled in the grow bag garden and seem to be working better than before. I tacked them down (gently) between the rows of bags so I wouldn't trip over them! I need to lay down one more length of landscape fabric to cover a strip that just couldn't make it under the existing lengths, and pull some weeds that have popped up at the seams in a couple places. I added a leftover strip of shade cloth to the top of my mini-greenhouse, and now I need to get more seeds started for what will go into the soil next month.

My daughter and youngest granddaughter are coming in about a week and a half, so I need to focus on getting the guest room ready for them. I also need to rake the yard and kill some weeds out there, and put in some St. Augustine plugs. I need 3 of me right now😂 The only viable time to work outside is early in the morning before it hits 100^o so I'm pretty limited.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Glad to hear shade is up....take it easy outside as it is really hot.

Good to hear family is coming into town. WE are still out camping and catching up with friends we haven't seen in years. Gonna hit the water for some stand up paddle boarding again tomorrow. Then head back home Friday...

Do not know what is happening with garden but have not gotten a bad text from neighbors, and I know we got some rain last night at home...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Husband said don't bother raking the yard, so now I can move along. I cut back some spent tomato plants and pulled up a couple of sickly looking ones: root-knot nematodes again, in spite of the landscape fabric under the container and all new soil. That container won't be used to plant tomatoes again, as they are so susceptible to root-knot damage. I pulled a trash can full of weeds and realized that I was about to float away under the blazing sun, so I turned my attention to more housewifely chores in the A/C.

Enjoy your camping trip and your friends - and be careful!