Gettin’ It Started

Last week I put 60 or so seeds in the starter cups. These are my tomatoes for the backyard garden this year. I doubt all will make to the transplanting date. Last year I was a few weeks late on getting started. I also didn’t start any tomatoes from seed last year and did all transplants. I intended to change that this year and put sixty “Better Boy” Heirlooms in some starter soil.  They are all in an easy to maintain, mini greenhouse I picked up at a local hardware store. I have twelve “spots” left to start something else and may try squash, however it is awful early for those.  The weather we are having is extremely mild for Jan. ( Thus far, only five  of the 24 days of this month have had an average temperature below the seasonal normal.   We’ve been as warm as 69 degrees back on the 16th  and 22nd.  We are running about 10 degrees above normal through the 23rd.) I still expect February to be a cold month and we usually have most of our snows next month.   I am hoping to get most of the garden in the ground by the middle or late part of April this year. I waited till the second week of May last year.

Seed Green House

These will go in the ground around April 15-20th this year.  I will also buy a few plants that are already started and plant them too.  One will do better to “stagger” your planting, so your fruit will come in at different times.  Last year we had all of ours come in and then we had nothing left.  Being part of that market patch was a big help.  It allowed us to can several jars of salsa and put up some pickled green ones.  The pickled green ones are great.  They are kinda hot and pepper like and go good with a cheese and cracker or with a mess of peas and cornbread.  I also may to try and start some squash early this year,  as I have a sun room on the back of my house and it’s great for bringing in or starting plants.

Sun Room

It looks dark in that pic and it was right after daylight when I took it.  However, the room is filled with light after about 10 a.m. here.  Right outside that window are what is left of last years garden and if it will dry up I plan on getting rid of last years remnants.   I guess this milder than normal weather has me ready to start the garden project.  Really it’s weeks away.  !!!!!!UPDATE I DID GET THE OKRA STALKS AND ALL OTHER REMNANTS OUT OF THE GARDEN SPOT!!!!!!!

If you haven’t started your seeds yet, especially for the tomatoes, you might want to get to it.  I’m planning on that 4th of July mater sandwich.  (Bragging rights)  I have a small heater keeping the soil and seeds warm.  They need to stay as close or above 70 deg.  as possible.  It dips below that in my sun room over night, but it is the warmest place in the house on a sunny day.  At least 10-15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

I would like to thank the makers of this E- How Video

Click here for E-How’s You tube channel

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*******************UPDATE****************  The seedlings have sprouted as of yesterday******************************** I will post pics soon.  Most if not all have came up.  (I haven’t counted them yet)

*****UPDATE*****

These are the sprouts.  All but two came up.  Not Bad!!!

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Maters

The tomato is very popular in a backyard garden. I planted twelve plants in my backyard garden. Mostly I planted the Better Boy variety with one Cherokee Purple and one Sweet 100. I was proud to say I had some ripe ones before the 4th of July. The majority of them will be ripe in the next few days as most are just now turning. It looks like they will all “come in” at the same time. The Sweet 100, a cherry type, will be a little later as they got planted at the first of June. The 100 is mostly used in salads. I didn’t start any from seeds and bought my plants at a local store then transplanted them into the garden. I plan to start them from seed next year and plant more than I did this year.

The Waiting Game

I don’t really care for tomatoes that much.  I like fried green ones and I can eat a garden fresh ripe one on a hot day with mayo and cheese on white bread.  I usually ask for these to be left off my burgers when I order one out.  The wife really likes them and can eat them like an apple right out of the garden.  The ones in the above pic are all Better Boys.  The Cherokee Purple was supposed to turn purple or blackish when ripe but the ones that have ripened so far have just been red.

A Couple Of Ripe Better Boys 7/1/11

I am also partners with a friend on a much bigger tomato patch and we plan to sell them.  There are over three hundred plants in this patch at a secret location.  These also have had some ripe ones before the 4th and are really doing well and turning red as we speak.  We are selling 25lb boxes and are asking $20 for these.  Which is under a dollar a pound and cheaper than your local grocery store.

The Market Patch

These are mostly the Better Boy variety in this market patch.  It is a lot of work but it is fun.  I wish I had started planting a garden years ago.  As I have said before I did this as a kid (helping with a garden) but decided to go for it this year.  I have had some set backs but over all it has been a good year.  I had early blight and a few undesirable bugs but that is to be expected when growing a garden.  I just over plant and hope for the best and use what friends and family have told me they have had success doing.

I also pick sucker leaves just about every morning.  These leaves are small and sprout between two branches in the “V”.  This helps with overall plant health and circulation of air in an otherwise bushy environment.  You can also stick these in some soil and they will produce roots and make another plant of its own.  I have done that this year and I really don’t know what to do with them.  I have three in a pot that I put there about a month ago and they are doing very well and are producing new growth.  They are still really small and I doubt they will “make” anything before the first frost.  I have thought about bringing them inside and seeing if I can get them to bloom and make over the winter in the sun room.

Sucker Leaves

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of drduhgylie’s blog or WordPress.com

The Wicked Garden

I think my garden is wicked. It let me think I knew what I was doing in the beginning during planting and with the first of the blooms and fruit. Now I have went through the wet rot, Jap beetle, a few worms in the tomatoes, and now my cucumbers are turning its leaves yellow. Not so fast on my green thumb award. I hate to even lose one squash so the idea of a whole plant is going to drive me crazy. I have 8 cuke plants a long the fence of my neighbor and me. They started out great and started blooming and lil’ cukes are all over it. Now half of each plant has yellow and brown leaves. I water regularly and not too much and not too little. I hope. This gardening has almost taken over my life. I am in the garden early every morning looking and working on what I think needs to be done. I am virtually weed free and have some fertile looking soil, real dark and my seeds jumped out of it to form plants earlier than the seed packs said it should take to germinate.

Yellowing Leaves On The Cucumber Plants

You can see what I hope is a healthy cuke in this pic.(A little crooked)   You can also see the yellowing of the leaves.  This is happening on all eight of my plants.  I have four of the  burp less variety and four regular plants.  It is an ongoing struggle this wicked garden of mine.  Everyday something new to tackle.  It is a great learning experience and I will continue this endeavor and hope to become a backyard master.  I’m going to let these babies go and do what they are gonna do.  I’m thinking they need nitrogen and the only feeding I give them is a weekly dose of miracle grow plant food.  Just google yellow leaves on cucumbers and you can get lost with all the causes.  I am just leaning on the low nitrogen levels.  I haven’t started composting yet and I plan on doing that this fall and winter.  It will take the place of feeding for the most part.

A Week Ago

They looked a lot better a week ago.  They have really taken off and are at the top of this fence now.  I have added the coffee grinds we have been saving today to try and boost the nitrogen level a bit.  I put it around all of my plants and mixed it about two inches deep as this will help add nitrogen directly to the plant.  This is an “organic” way of feeding and time will tell if this helps with the yellowing leaves.  I hope it does.  I hope it rains soon also.

7/9/11 Harvest

As you can see the cukes look slim and sickly.  I have decided that my neighbors pool is the cause for the terrible cucumber plants.  Her pool when backwashed overflows into the cucumber patch.  It is a salt water pool.  She has had to backwash it several times in the past few weeks and I noticed the last time it was flowing through these plants.  I will move these next year or build a diversion around them.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of drduhgylie’s blog or WordPress.com

The Japanese Have Attacked!

The Japanese Beetle made an appearance in the back yard garden this week. A very unwelcome visit. My okra has been taking a beating and I finally caught them in the act. On Tuesday morning right after daylight I found the beetles feasting on my okra leaves. It took me several days to actually find one and the total count was six before I was finished.

Damaged Leaves And The Culprit

     I have six rows of okra and three rows had some damage to just about every plant.  I had some other friends saying they had them bad also.  One said she had them on her crape myrtle’s.  I went and checked mine and found several on just about every crape I had.  I went straight to the okra and found the one in the pic and five more scattered throughout the patch.  Nothing else in the garden has been showing any damage other than the bloom rot on my squash that was minor.  I found some eggs on the under side of an okra plants leaf at the edge of a row and found my first one a couple of plants down the line.  I crushed the eggs before I thought to take a pic.  I mixed up a spray of soapy water and soaked my plants down and then crushed the ones I found in my hand.  I hope I got all of them.  I sprayed the crapes down good with a stronger mix and a lil’ pesticide.  My wife said she saw some on the yellow bells today.   I suspect these have hit my cukes a bit but not as hard as the okra.

The Okra Patch

I have plenty of beneficial insects and honey bees in the back yard garden and hope they continue to do their thing.  I need them to pollinate and eat other insects as they do.  It seems the beetles over run me and I have got on top of the situation as of now.  The whole garden is looking nice and lush.  The okra is really starting to put some very nice looking blooms out in the early morning.

Okra Bloom

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of drduhgylie’s blog or WordPress.com

Watering Schedule

Squash is often affected by a Fungal infection called Choanephora Wet Rot.  It is caused by the fungus Choanephora invading the squash flower.  As the flower sets fruit the fungus grows and destroys the fruit.  Since the fungus enters the fruit in the flowering stage there are not sprays or treatments that are practical to prevent the infection.  Flowers open daily and at different times so spraying would be next to impossible to be effective.  I seem to have been affected by this by the daily watering that took place in the recent hot and dry spell we had earlier this month.  I was getting up and in the garden at daylight every morning and watering cause the days I didn’t I had some plants try to wilt on me.  Then the rains came and I had to back off last week and this is still a problem.  I have been told not to water at night because of this very thing so I did it in the morning.  The thing is when it started raining it really started raining.  Almost everyday for a week now.  After some quick research I found out my squash had bloom rot and this is the version that hit me.  I also have had some squash turn green as a result of the plants being sick from this.  However, it is still tasting great and is safe to eat.  I usually fry my squash and really don’t like it any other way.  In time and when the weather gets back to a more normal watering schedule of its own things should be ok.  I have kept the weeds out and feed my plants weekly and they do look great!  I have harvested about 30 nice and tasty squash already and my tomatoes are really looking good.  I also have my okra blooming and cukes too.  So I’m not really going to let this upset me and this will run its course.  Just an update on what is going on in the backyard today.

Wet Rot

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of drduhgylie’s blog or WordPress.com

Backyard Garden