2012 garden pics

[chancethegardener]

I mostly use 5 gallon pots.

[venturabananas]

I'm glad to hear the 5 gallon pots work well for you. I'm debating what size pots I should use for my ground cherries, which I haven't grown before. I got frustrated with having to water my tomatoes every day when they were in 5 gallon pots, so I mostly switched to 15 gallon pots for tomatoes. In my cool, humid, coastal environment they usually only need watering once a week.

[chancethegardener]

Well, you are lucky. I have to water them almost every day here. I think the trick is that in these pots the roots warm up easily and a depth of 10 inches looks like to be enough for tomatoes. The only problem is staking if you want to grow indeterminates.

[chancethegardener]

New pics from the garden:
Hickory King corn is coming up nicely. This is one strong plant with tight and long ears.

This year, I have been trying a different approach with peppers. After they form 3-4 leaves, I cut the stem at a point close to base to have thicker stems and root systems, and bigger yields later in the season. Looks like this works very well.

Diamond eggplant has lots of flowers and couple of fruits on it. So far so good.

I am very pleased with the Turkish bell pepper, Kandil. It has a lot of fruits on it. Blossom drops are rare despite the hot weather. Also, all the fruits are growing more or less at the same time which is great to be able to cook a batch of them at once.

I have learned a lot of things this year. Haven't been doing very good in terms of tomatoes since I had a long battle with viral diseases, and lost it. However, I am in the phase of planting a second batch of tomatoes with some precautions against diseases .

[janezee]

Chance, do you mean that you pinch out the growing tip on the peppers? I think I used to do that years ago back East. Peppers don't so well here, so I'm trying anything I can this year.
Last year, the deer got in and 'grazed' my bush beans down, but they came back stronger and healthier than ever. This year, I'm pinching them at 3-4 leaves, too.

j

[chancethegardener]

Yes, I simply cut the tops with my garden scissors. This way it takes more time for the plants to produce; however, once they start producing the yield ends up to be higher. After cutting the tops, the plants branch into multiple stems and I am guessing that the root system also becomes stronger.

[b54red]

Chance it was really great to see the photos of Paul Robeson. I forgot how dark they can get. Truly a beautiful tomato which just can't survive often enough in my garden because of the fusarium wilt problem I deal with. I have had to move on to more productive but less beautiful blacks.

Sorry to hear of your TSWV problems. I hate that disease. It always seems to hit my plants just as they are looking so good and full of promise. Found my first case of it yesterday.

I get that pepper problem on some of mine each year and the best thing is to just pull them up if the leaves are still crinkly and odd looking when the plant is a foot tall. They will live and produce a few peppers but they will be small and frequently stunted.

[chancethegardener]

Ventura, a correction: I have found out that my pots actually are smaller than 5 gals. Somewhere between 4 and 5 gals.

Some new pics from the garden. I harvested my first Hickory King corn today. Taste is outstanding; however, the size wasn't what I expected. Possibly, I harvested it too early.

Charentais melon produced only one fruit so far (before/after comparison is given below). This is not due to lack of pollination. The plant simply didn't produce any other fruits. Turkish Kirkagac 637 has been producing a ton of fruits. Most of them failed pollination; however, now I have at least one fruit growing nicely, and a few others on the way.

[BruceinGa]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

Charentais melon produced only one fruit so far (before/after comparison is given below). This is not due to lack of pollination. The plant simply didn't produce any other fruits.

My Charentais just put out blooms in the past three days. I'm keeping sevin on them to try to keep the worm out of them.
Your pics look great!

[chancethegardener]

Garden update:
Despite the fact that it is only end of May, it has been extremely hot lately (you can see Hilmi the cat laying and stretching under the table); however, garden is doing well.

Charentais melon still only has one melon. Now, I know that this melon is prolific (Bruce, I am assuming you have a lot of female flowers because I also have lots of blooms but they are all male) so I am not sure what the problem is. I gave this plant a lot of high P fertilizer (initially seabird guano, then when it started blooming, low N bat guano).

I am very happy with Diamond eggplant and Garden Salsa F1 pepper. These are both very strong, and so far productive plants. I will save some seeds from Garden Salsa to grow next season. Hopefully, I will get some "true" results. I also enjoy Dunja F1 zucchini a lot. Next time, I will give it a better spot that receives more sun.

Finally, tomatillo started producing some fruits. I think the secret with tomatillo is to have patience.

I harvested all my ground cherries so that I can make jam out of it. Some fruits weren't ripe as much as others but I think the sourness will add taste to the jam.

Also, soon I will change some of my beds along with the soil in them. I am not happy with the soil mixture I initially put in these beds (soil doesn't breath and drain very well, and unfortunately I used Miracle Gro garden soil in them which was I think a terrible idea). This happened due to lack of experience. Additionally, we have serious termite problems here and apparently the ones that attacked our house live in the ground and feed on the raised beds. I will totally go plastic in the near future. Initially it will be a little bit pricy but I will renew the beds gradually, and in the long run it will be cost-effective and trouble free. This link shows what I will buy: http://www.gardeners.com/Grow-Beds/3...q=raised%20bed

[chancethegardener]

I forgot to mention: I have a Long Island brussel sprouts plant. It looks very healthy and sturdy to me; however, I have a feeling that the plant should already be taller than its current height (it is in the ground for more than 3 months now). I regularly cut the lower large leaves to help it fruit (also regularly feed it with compost tea), and plant has tiny sprouts but I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, maybe the reason is the hot weather. Any ideas? What kind of fertilizer should I use at this stage?

[FILMNET]

Nice cute garden Chance!

[chancethegardener]

Thanks FILMNET. This year, I have learned a lot of different things for sure. I hope I won't end up spending $64 for a single tomato, though .

[chancethegardener]

I harvested Abu Rawan fruits yesterday. So far, I am really impressed with Iraqi varieties. The fruits were more on the acidic side with sweet undertones.

[chancethegardener]

Despite my failure with most tomato plants this year, peppers are thriving. Also, I think cutting the plants' stem close to their bases early in the season and regular feedings of compost tea do wonders (I am talking about Tunisian Baklouti and Tam Jalapeno in the pots). I tried to show in the pictures how the plants developed more branches loaded with flowers. Stems are really thick now and cutting the stems might have helped for better roots, too.

I am really impressed with the Turkish eggplant Pala 49. This plant looks like an eggplant tree, now. It is very strong, tall and has a lot of flowers. Hopefully they will all turn into fruits. I have to say that, I am also very happy with the soil mix in the bed where I planted this eggplant. Mix is light, breathes well and have a lot of compost/fertilizer in it. Probably it is why the plants in this bed do very well.