2012 garden pics

[RayR]

I don't know, there could be a relationship somewhere. When I see aphids attacking a plant, it always seems to be the plants that are sick or under stress, and they leave the really healthy plants alone.

Your pepper problems last year look just like those in the Piegirls pepper disease thread last year, including a couple of my plants. I really think my two plants, which one was severely affected were from seed born Pepper Leaf Curl Virus since they came from the same packet of seeds. None of my other pepper plants were stunted like that.

[chancethegardener]

New pictures from the garden:

[venturabananas]

Chancethegardener, looks great. I've not noticed those green plastic connecters you've used between your green poles. Seems like a great idea. Do you recall who makes them and what they sold as?

[babice]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

...for tomato plants I always use BT to get rid of the worms...

So....what is BT? (learning the lingo 'round here)

[chancethegardener]

ventura, they are called "sturdy stretch tie" (by Gardener's Choice). You can find it at Home Depot and/or Amazon.

babice, BT stands for bacillus thuringiensis. It is a bacteria that kills caterpillars: organic way of killing some of the pests. Some available products include Safer and Green Light.

[venturabananas]

Chance, either I'm very confused or we are talking about different things -- not the green garden tape, the solid plastic things shown in pics 14 and 15, e.g., with the ground cherry.

[John3]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

Taryn and Salix, thanks much. I hope you both have a nice harvest this year. I also have spared one of the beds for other brassicas to narrow down my next year list. In this bed I have Napa, Savoy, New Jersey, Cour di Bue, Tete Noire cabbage, white kohlrabi, Purple of Sicily and Giant of Naples cauliflower, and De Cicco broccoli (first picture). Additionally I have 5 Long Island Brussels sprouts seedlings that I will grow in containers.

I have a problem with the brassica bed (second picture). Is this some sort of a rust or mildew? I sprayed the plants with copper-based Espoma fungicide. Any experience with this product?

It gets very hot and humid here at times - I have pretty good luck with cold press Neem Oil applied two ways:
1 - If you know it is going to rain spray the plants before the rain - be sure spray the underside of the leaves.
2 - Spray the plants early morning or evening (spraying in the hot sunny times may burn your leaves) about once week - even doing this still do 1 when it's going to rain. And - be sure spray the underside of the leaves.
NOTE: do not spray your bees as the neem oil will kill them.

[chancethegardener]

John3, thanks much for the advise. I will look into that.

lol ventura, I thought you were talking about the tie probably because the connector you mentioned isn't sold separately. It is part of the tomato cage. I think the brand is ultomato. I bought it from Home Depot, and Amazon sells it, too.

[venturabananas]

Thanks Chance, I did not realize that the stakes and connectors were sold together as a you-build-it tomato cage.

[chancethegardener]

I think I am having some kind of a nutrient deficiency problem with couple of my tomatoes. Can you help me identify the problem?

After looking at some pictures, I am guessing that the Principe Borghese in the first picture is having Mg deficiency, and Black Sea Man in the second picture is having nitrogen deficiency. What do you think? By the way, plants are actually vigorous and have a lot of flowers.

[Tracydr]

Ground cherries look great. Is that corn? Wow, you grow it close!

[chancethegardener]

Yes they are Hickory King corn (sweet corn is not really my favorite). It's growing very fast. I will see how productive they will be if the possum that regularly digs the garden lets them grow long enough. I will do an update for ground cherries soon.

[chancethegardener]

I took some picture to make a before/after comparison. "Before" pictures were taken 10 days ago. I also added a pic of my tomatillo.

[venturabananas]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

I think I am having some kind of a nutrient deficiency problem with couple of my tomatoes. Can you help me identify the problem?

After looking at some pictures, I am guessing that the Principe Borghese in the first picture is having Mg deficiency, and Black Sea Man in the second picture is having nitrogen deficiency. What do you think? By the way, plants are actually vigorous and have a lot of flowers.

I'm certainly no expert, but the one you think is nitrogen deficient seems unlikely to me for two reasons: if it was nitrogen deficient, you wouldn't expect it to grow vigorously; and the very green veins with yellowed areas between them is normally symptom of a deficiency of something other than nitrogen deficiency. In many plants, e.g., citrus, it is indicative of iron deficiency, but I've seen pictures of tomato leaves that indicate it could be Mg.

You might try a "complete" micronutrient foliar spray. They've worked pretty well for me on other plants. I learned the hard way that guessing at the cause and adding a little of this and a little of that often just exacerbates the problem because you guess wrong! If you really want to know the problem and are willing to spend the money, have the leaf tissue analyzed.

[chancethegardener]

Well I sprayed the tomatoes with epsom salts this morning. Next weekend, I will spray them with Earth Juice's micronutrient solution. I think by the weekend, I should be able to see whether the epsom salts worked on the new leaves, right?