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I had decided this year to grow a vegetable garden to help off-set the price of food costs. I started late (end of May) for my area. I made four 4X4 square foot garden beds, due to the heavy clay we have as soil.
Things started off like gang busters, but then went south in a hurry. I’m hoping that some of you more experienced gardners may be able to let me know where I went wrong.
First bed…
Green Beans ( I think Blue Lake); I thought they were bush beans, but I quickly found out that they are pole beans. I then place four tomato cages inside the bed to give the vines to grab on to, as I didn't have any kind of trellis. They are spreading all over the place now, but I have yet to see Green Bean number one.
They seem to be healthy but some of the lower leaves have fallen off (only if they are close to the ground).
Second bed…
Tomatoes (early Girl and Roma), Green onions, and Carrots ;
Forget the Green Onions, they have never taken off and there is only a couple of very small ones still there (less then two inches in height). But the Tomatoes are growing like wild flowers, and they were, at first producing fruit. But then the fruit would ripen way too early and would not taste right due to the immaturity of the fruit. Now the plants are still growing just fine (even flowering) but no new fruit is developing.
I have grown Tomatoes for years and have never seen this lack of production before.
Third bed…
Corn (Silver Queen (White)) and Bulb Onions (Texas 10/18);
The Onions appear to be doing fine (maybe). The Corn, I thought was doing good, as ears of corn had grown, then all of a sudden they stopped maturing just like the tomatoes.
I picked a small dry ear yesterday and found out that it was completely dry and worthless. So now I am stuck with miniature ears of immature corn, and I’m afraid they will be just as bad as the tomatoes.
Fourth bed…
Bell peppers, Hot Banana peppers, and Jalapenos’;
First the Banana peppers have been losing a lot of leaves from the bottom branches, but they have done OK (not great), as far as production goes. I have yet to taste them, but they look normal.
The Jalapenos’ are doing fantastic in growth and production.
The bell peppers (green, red, and yellow), have been growing Okay, but have also shown a lot of leaf loss. I originally had all of the green bells with fruit on them, but all of a sudden the fruit started to turn way (way before) to early. In fact they were turning red at about three inches of length. If that wasn’t bad enough, they all have a big brown spot on them. The spot does not appear to be due to an insect, but something else. Now my red and yellow peppers are producing, and the same thing is happening. To add insult to injury, each plant has produced exactly one fruit each :-( Then it would wilt for a few weeks, before flowering again. Just to produce nothing.
I also have three pots for vegetables,
The first is a Cayenne pepper plant. This has done great and will give me some good Cayenne pepper powder, once I finish dehydrating them.
Then I have two additional Tomato plants (Beef Master?) They have been growing like crazy along with flowering, but not one fruit has even been produced at this point.
Please if any of what I have mentioned raises red flags to what I may be doing wrong, please feel free to give me suggestions. Not for this year, but maybe for next year anyway.
Things started off like gang busters, but then went south in a hurry. I’m hoping that some of you more experienced gardners may be able to let me know where I went wrong.
First bed…
Green Beans ( I think Blue Lake); I thought they were bush beans, but I quickly found out that they are pole beans. I then place four tomato cages inside the bed to give the vines to grab on to, as I didn't have any kind of trellis. They are spreading all over the place now, but I have yet to see Green Bean number one.
They seem to be healthy but some of the lower leaves have fallen off (only if they are close to the ground).
Second bed…
Tomatoes (early Girl and Roma), Green onions, and Carrots ;
Forget the Green Onions, they have never taken off and there is only a couple of very small ones still there (less then two inches in height). But the Tomatoes are growing like wild flowers, and they were, at first producing fruit. But then the fruit would ripen way too early and would not taste right due to the immaturity of the fruit. Now the plants are still growing just fine (even flowering) but no new fruit is developing.
I have grown Tomatoes for years and have never seen this lack of production before.
Third bed…
Corn (Silver Queen (White)) and Bulb Onions (Texas 10/18);
The Onions appear to be doing fine (maybe). The Corn, I thought was doing good, as ears of corn had grown, then all of a sudden they stopped maturing just like the tomatoes.
I picked a small dry ear yesterday and found out that it was completely dry and worthless. So now I am stuck with miniature ears of immature corn, and I’m afraid they will be just as bad as the tomatoes.
Fourth bed…
Bell peppers, Hot Banana peppers, and Jalapenos’;
First the Banana peppers have been losing a lot of leaves from the bottom branches, but they have done OK (not great), as far as production goes. I have yet to taste them, but they look normal.
The Jalapenos’ are doing fantastic in growth and production.
The bell peppers (green, red, and yellow), have been growing Okay, but have also shown a lot of leaf loss. I originally had all of the green bells with fruit on them, but all of a sudden the fruit started to turn way (way before) to early. In fact they were turning red at about three inches of length. If that wasn’t bad enough, they all have a big brown spot on them. The spot does not appear to be due to an insect, but something else. Now my red and yellow peppers are producing, and the same thing is happening. To add insult to injury, each plant has produced exactly one fruit each :-( Then it would wilt for a few weeks, before flowering again. Just to produce nothing.
I also have three pots for vegetables,
The first is a Cayenne pepper plant. This has done great and will give me some good Cayenne pepper powder, once I finish dehydrating them.
Then I have two additional Tomato plants (Beef Master?) They have been growing like crazy along with flowering, but not one fruit has even been produced at this point.
Please if any of what I have mentioned raises red flags to what I may be doing wrong, please feel free to give me suggestions. Not for this year, but maybe for next year anyway.
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