Mystery Seedlings

[surviort_wwdnet]

If you lived close by, I'd take you up on that mulberry branch offer. Then again, I had to drive to the airport and back home this morning, and I feel like I'm done traveling for a while😂😂

I have the plans for a solar oven on my website, but never got around to making one. Maybe one of these days - I have all the materials around here. As for the sidewalk, my daughter said it was hot enough to cook eggs on the front patio. We didn't test her hypothesis, but it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. It's the hottest part of the yard.

I looked at the spaghetti squash from the pantry and then started grabbing dirty towels, sheets, etc., did 3 loads of laundry, and marveled at how 2 additional people in this house could create so much work! I spent the day moving my storage racks, soap making supplies, and miscellaneous junk back to the guest room, cleaning up my office, getting the guest room cleaned and ready for the next round, moving all my "stuff" back to the guest bathroom, and doing some general housecleaning, and then made a gourmet dinner of hot dogs and dill pickles, with some fries for my husband. It's kind of nice to be back to "normal".

It's raining again...⛈️

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Wife just came back inside from garden and told me the two largest watermelons have black spots on their bottoms. I have to investigate it. That is a hit in the belly as we were really wanting them to survive. But that is gardening...now to learn what happened and try and prevent it again. If we want melons we can still buy them so all is not lost....

[surviort_wwdnet]

That's a shame but it happens. Watermelons are succeptible to fungus (black spots on the shell) and blossom rot (solid black melon bottom; watering inconsistency issue). I have not run into that with melons, although I've seen it a few times in squash. It's not too late to start again, using "clean" soil and making sure to water consistently, especially when blossoms have formed and during initial fruiting.

I ordered 2 more bags of potting soil as I'll need a little more to fill up the empty bags. Unfortunately, no garden work today as it rained most of the day once I got home from grocery shopping, and at 7 PM it was still raining. I settled for making some sheet pan chicken fajitas and reinstalling my printer software, since my printer decided to hide itself from print requests and I had a form that needed to be printed😂 I have no running to do tomorrow and there are enough fajitas for tomorrow's dinner, so if the sun comes out I'll be able to get outside to get my transplants in the bags. I envision the weeds in the containers having become an inpenetrable jungle and the aphids being hopelessly entrenched...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

we looked up the watermelon issue and found out that low calcium could also cause the issue, so I added bone meal. Watering has been pretty consistent as they are in grow bags and I water them daily when we don't get rain. Have been doing fungicide weekly for the last month. The large one was on ground, but I had put a piece of cardboard under it (I remember my grandfather doing this) and the smaller one was just hanging about 18" above ground. Had some wind yesterday and the top half of a tomato plant bent in half. Actually broke the plant, so I topped it and we will see if bottom half keeps growing.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Looks suspiciously like blossom end rot...hopefully the bone meal will save your watermelon season!

Too wet outside for transplanting so I tore out the rest of the tomato plants and will start working on the weed pulling. I have a squash plant that's been in super-wandering mode, so I threaded it through a tall tomato cage to keep the blossoms off.the ground. Everything is showing the effects of too much rain. The only bright spot is an increasing number of lima bean pods. I wanted to do some weed whacking but the grass is still very wet and it's almost noon. More monsoons expected in...5...4...3...2...1...

Otherwise it's too quiet, with my husband out in the man-cave and no sound inside but the intermittent on/off of the A/C.

Update: I pulled out a huge dead squash plant in addition to the dead tomato plants, and weeded all of the containers, some of which were the inpenetrable jungle I feared. I had enough weeds, mostly spotted spurge, to fill a 30-gallon trash can and out to the curb it went! It's 1843 and finally the thunder and rain got here. If it dries up tomorrow, I'll pull out my weed whacker and do some trimming after I mop floors.

The dead tomato and squash plants had signs of severe parasitic nematode infestation, so solarization is the cure. Husband said there's a roll of clear plastic in the shed, and that will work.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

found a crooked neck squash on Monday...somehow we had both missed it as it was on ground. Had seen plenty of blooms and still do, but missed the fruit on ground. So yesterday we clipped it as we didn't want to take a chance on something happening. It was covered by a huge leaf.

We have about 5 cantaloupes ranging in size from an egg to larger than a softball. One is developing the brown "hyde"? and the other large one is getting its hyde as well. A few small grape sized crimson watermelons showing up. Ali Baba watermelons are staring to bloom. I am struggling with blight again with tomatoes, as it seems I have some starting on all my newer plants. I cannot figure why, as I have been treating them for several weeks with a preventative spray weekly...I have made sure they have plenty of "breathing space" with good air flow, but it is still showing up. Peppers are chugging along like there is no tomorrow (do they know something...LOL). Still hot here, with highs in the upper 90's...95/97...and lows in mid 70s....still freaking humid. Rain has occurred two nights in a row. I need to spread some sevin, but things are wet in morning and then rain comes in afternoon.....will try and get fungicide in this morning and then sevin tonight if no rain...yeah that is not expected....:rolleyes:

[surviort_wwdnet]

The heat and monsoon rains are not kind to vegetable gardens, and no amount of treatment can prevent some negative effects. I'm just letting everything that's in the ground continue on its merry way, hoping for some moderation in the very near future. Keep an eye on everything and treat when you catch a rain break! Did you plant your tomatoes in new soil? Fungicide will take care of blight but you'll need to remove any affected leaves and fruit, and dispose of them in the trash! I never plant tomatoes in the same location year over year, as any issues will be magnified in the next batch. I had some tomatoes with no issues, and planted a different species in the old soil that I fertilized. My container tomatoes were infested with parasitic nematodes (the galls on the roots were 2" in diameter), and that soil won't be reused until it's solarized and then only for vegetables that aren't particularly succeptible to nematode damage, like cabbage.

After a late start due to a sympathy visit at our neighbors', I got the seedlings that were large enough to transplant put into the grow bags. I put in beefsteaks, broccoli, cukes, and turnips. There are small beefsteaks, more broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc. that should be ready to transplant in a couple more weeks. I'll start more of everything in a few days to stagger maturation. I sprayed some nasty invasive weeds and decided to defer the Sevin as it was threatening rain. The rain didn't materialize but I heard tell that around 8 PM it might get here after a 100^o afternoon. Peppers are still growing, spaghetti squash is wound around a tall tomato cage to keep the blossoms off the ground, and pollinators are still visiting the eggplant blossoms. My limas are looking sad but still podding. The okra is just hanging around doing nothing special, and some miscellaneous squash plants are blossoming. I need to get the clear plastic out of the shed and cover the empty containers, but the pool was calling me...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

well, fungicide went down in morning and sevin dust went down in evening with storm threats approaching. No rain came though as it all went around us. Before putting sevin down I found one more watermelon hiding, so we have a total of three now that we know of. We have five larger (jumbo size egg size to larger then softball size) cantaloupes and smaller "grape" size ones for a total of 15...we will see what we end up with in the kitchen. I have clusters of loquat fruit blooming now, so this is a surprise blessing. Picked a few peppers for the water guy...(we needed carbon filter rebed). He was appreciative. Kale seems to be trying to make a comeback after 90% of plant was eaten overnight b y a inset of some sort a few weeks ago. We have an Ali Baba watermelon showing (the others are crimson sweet) and a small 1" cucumber as well. All I am doing is watering when needed, fertilizer, fungicide and sevin weekly. Oh and of course weeding when needed....Watch and wait now...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Half of my limas are dying of something - looks like rust. I've sprayed but seemingly to no avail. There's always next spring, and heaven knows I already have an army's worth of beans put up. My squash plants are all sporting blossoms every morning, so there's hope for them.

After an early morning appointment turned into a full morning of running here and there, I came home and pulled out the Ryobi weed whacker. I did all the places my husband can't maneuver into, and then couldn't remove the battery. My hands need to be bigger! I may need to buy a different trimmer with a lower profile battery. I dug out the clear plastic and put it in a more accessible location in the shed but didn't pull it out to cover the containers, as it was once again threatening rain and already high 90s (BTW, it finally rained sometime last night). Tomorrow morning I'll get that done, and then harvest some more peppers and get some spraying/dusting done (before I have to run to the pharmacy again). I'm keeping an eye on the last eggplant and if it doesn't start fruiting soon, it'll be history! There are four full-grown onions in the same container that I can harvest at any time, so if the eggplant goes, so will the onions, and then that container will get solarized too. I'm going to pick up five 8' garden stakes to rebuild one of the trellises.

Sounds like your 'lopes are growing like crazy! I hope they all make it to maturity. Did your hidden watermelon have a black spot or does it look healthy?

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Hidden watermelon looks good, but a small one we discovered about 2 days ago developed blossom rot. One loupe we think is identifying as a pumpkin, LOL...all the loupe vies, watermelon vines and pumpkin vines are criss crossed and packed so its hard to tell, but the pumpkin seems larger and not showing a hyde in the making....

Planted eight different pepper plants in the aerogarden and one is about two inches tall and the others are still waiting to show themselves. It has been 13 days since planting, so they should be showing themselves soon...now, these are experiments as I used old previously used AG pods that still had medium in them. These were pods that just did not produce a plant or the plants were shaded too much from other plants or plants just petered out and I pulled them. So if they do not show themselves by day 20, I will pull them and put in some rockwool medium and try with new seeds....

[surviort_wwdnet]

I planted pumpkin but haven't seen much action yet; however, my container garden spaghetti squash plant (the one with wanderlust) has several baby squash growing, and I hope they make it to maturity. This is the one I threaded through the tomato cages, and today I got the clear plastic down on 3 of the containers, so I had to unthread the squash plant, turn the tomato cages upsidedown, and rethread it. I weighted the cages down with firewood and a big rock. No harm, no foul! I'm going to leave the containers covered until mid-September (even though a week should be enough), then plant some cabbages, cauliflower, and other veggies that aren't so succeptible to parasitic nematodes. I'll reuse the plastic for other containers as they are emptied.

The vined plants have a tendency to wander all over the trellises, and it's a challenge to trace each vine back to the grow bag it's rooted in. Add to that the monsoons that washed off the plant marker IDs, so then it's a waiting game to see what's growing😂 So much for permanent marker...

I replanted a couple of cauliflower pots that never sprouted. Otherwise, in a few days I should have other sprouts ready to transplant. After rain threatened all afternoon but never materialized, I finally decided to water both gardens. Of course, it's now raining🙄

Picked half a dozen peppers and will get them in the freezer tomorrow, except for the jalapenos that I'll stuff with garlic cream cheese and wrap in bacon. These jalapenos taste like jalapenos and are slightly spicy but not obnoxiously so.

Let me know how your new pepper seeds progress.


Pumpkin and Zucchini w/a Stray Lima Bean


Peppers Still Hangin' In There


My Wandering Spaghetti Squash

[surviort_wwdnet]

I put in 7 starter pots of cabbage seeds - very stormy day so not much accomplished but at least it's something. I had to do the potting on the kitchen countertop and then wait for a short break in the rain to take them outside to the mini greenhouse. By the time the containers are done solarizing, I should be able to put the cabbage seedlings in the ground. While potting in the kitchen made something of a mess, I think I'll do that from now on because I can easily forego the blazing sun on the top of my head! A little vacuuming, a little mopping, and the evidence was gone. Then it was time to make dinner, and I made a brand new mess!

Morning trip to HD to get straps for the weed whackers and a pair of sprinkler head donuts was the big outing of the day😉

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Yeah, did nothing but inspect the garden...that I need to do daily for peace of mind. Looking specifically at the tomatoes for blight, and the watermelons for continued growth and blossom rot...so far good on what is there now.

Been helping a friend with what started as "replacing a toilet wax donut", but as I expected turned into a much bigger project. He and his wife bought a 1922 home and knew we have a 1900 home so he asked if I could help. Now my wife and I have done pretty much everything in our home as far as repairs go and know in these older homes there is always something hiding. Anyway, as soon as I walked into their bathroom I knew we had a problem. Floor had dropped 1/4" from outside wall and you could see where someone had tried to hide it with caulk. The entire floor had a slope in from both side and the toilet was in the middle of the depression. I could fell the floor depress just by walking on it, even though there was tile on top. My friend said the home inspector told him "probably just need to replace the wax donut". I told him."I think we have a bigger problem". So we started....

This was first day (see pics)...We removed the toilet and the home inspector was correct, the wax ring needed to be replaced :p ....BUT....we also found a lot of dry, but rotted wood (maybe previous termites?..hmm). Found a small, what appeared to be localized group of termites. He hired a pest control company needless to say. Yesterday, after treatment had been down, we were able to get back to work. We form fitted two 3/4" (really all HD had was 23/32") plywood boards one on top of the other after scabbing in new 2"x6" boards for support. Took us 7 hours as we were working in tight spot and all the cutting was done outside (and we made a run to HD for supplies), until the rain came down then we moved into garage. Next week we will put down the cement backed board fix the toilet flange issue, and then they will put down lifeproof flooring and reinstall the toilet. Wife helped the other wife paint three rooms while we guys worked on this project. So, today I will get to garden, likely weed a bit and relax some.

[surviort_wwdnet]

It's always good to help friends and neighbors! Stories like this one make me glad to have a slab foundation👍

I got all the plants sprayed with Neem oil, trimmed off some dead leaves, and pulled out the bean plants that were suffering from fatal rust. I'm going to mix up some Bt and fungicide and soak the soil in each of those grow bags. I got 3 pt bags of bell peppers and a qt bag of eggplant slices into the freezer, plus a pt of spaghetti squash. I made the 3 jalapenos into poppers and had them for lunch. 😋 I put 2 trays of blackberries and a tray of strawberries into the dehydrator.....

Husband put the strap on my weed whacker and I trimmed around the pool and deck to try it out - much better! It's too hot and humid to do yard work, so I'll try again tomorrow after my husband's appointment.

Thunder in the background and radar shows storms moving in, so I'll go find something else to do...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

nice haul...we had storms most of the afternoon. Have plans for this morning so leaving soon. Last night, between rainstorms, I checked on things and all looks status quo. Was able to fertilize yesterday morning, will tray and put on some neem oil or sevin this afternoon if I can....