Garden thread.

[Sassy]

   you try so hard but then the crazy weather ruins it...  I just have enough planted for what I can handle w/out Glenn around. 

Something is eating the leaves of my combination pluot/plum tree - only the the grafted pluot part, though.  It reminds me of when I lived in Ohio & we had a big mulberry tree - the silk worms loved it & the leaves in places where they were spinning their cocoons were all eaten - just the spines of the leaves are visible...  the pluots are kinda wrinkled looking & not getting very big.  Haven't seen a bug, tho.

We have been having wonderful weather for out neck of the woods - 70-80's last week, 80's this week - can't complain - it's usually in the 100's in July.

[gandalfthegrey]

peach tree borer.  They took out my pluot and apricot.  I tried asia pear ant they took them out also.

[rick91351]

We have had a real time in our orchard.  In the spring with that cool damp weather caterpillars were feasting on leaves and we could never find them.  Now we are finding them or a different verity.  The grasshoppers will hatch this or the next week if not already and the invasion of the locusts will start.

I wish I was retired so we could have chickens up there.  They are great when allowed to free range the grasshoppers and all the other six legged critters.  One thing about it if this weird weather continues here we will have frost in September and snow in October.   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Dang.  Lost a cherry tree, peach tree, and not sure that the vineyard is going to survive.  Praying hard for rain.  I have mowed TWICE the entire spring and summer.  Usually at this point, I'm still needing to mow twice a week in some areas (between the garden and goat pen, over the lateral lines, front yard, etc.)  I think a lot of our mock oranges may be dying, too.  Blister beetles taking over the garden and trying to eat anything left by the squash bugs, and this is with both chickens and ducks IN the garden eating bugs!!

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Read the other day that something like 74 out of 77 counties in Oklahoma have been declared an agricultural disaster this year.

[Sassy]

So sorry to hear that, HG    You work so hard to get the trees & garden going...

We've lost 3-4 fruit trees & the 4 way pluot/plum tree has something wrong w/it in the pluot part - think it might be peach borers.  The peach tree up by the house had a lot of delicious peaches but the birds have been feasting on them - everytime I go to pick a peach, just about, it has a hole in it...

I have to water everything everyday or it will be history.  Was gone a couple weekends ago to visit Glenn - watered Sat morn before I left & Mon evening when I got back & most everything was pretty stressed & wilted - most came back... 

Finally picked my 1st yellow crookneck yesterday & ate it for dinner.  There's lots of chard & the squash plants look good, just not putting on squash - lots of male blooms.  Glenn said he thinks he read that when you aren't getting female blooms to add some epsom salts, same w/blossom end rot on tomatoes & peppers.

[Gary O]

Seems the whole country is suffering from one produce malady or another.
Our clay is not much good for raising anything but bricks.
We do build the soil with compost and have pretty good success.
One year I broke down and bought a few yards of 4-part soil.
Amazing.
Love my maters. But this year they're havin' trouble without the early summer sun.
Everything else hasn't had much of a chance;
One word...slugs
Ate our rhubarb, our beans, our peas, and whatever else they care to.
Gave thought to building a beer moat.............

So, now dependent on the grocer (ptui)...however the Olathe corn is there.
Lawdy, best corn I ever et.
Tempted to move to Olathe Colorado..........

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Rain, rain, glorious rain!  Two days of it!!  Broke the fifty-something days of triple digit temps finally!!  It was wonderful, albeit a little late.
Overnight, I had tomatoes set fruit finally!!

[Redoverfarm]

Good that you got some releif.   We haven't had a good rain in well over a month.  The temps have dropped some in the last couple days.  Yesterday it was 48F in the AM.  My tomatoes have developed some kind of blight.  The bottoms are rotten.  Look good on the stem side but once you turn them over there it is a different story.

[Sassy]

Red, is that blossom end rot?  Epsom salts will help that.  With our clay soil w/absolutely no nutrients in it, we have to amend it a lot.  The Epsom salts helped our tomatoes last year. 

[PEG688]

2012 tilling work,

 




Added ten wheel barrows of compost, most grass clippings , leaves , saw dust . 



It lightens the soil a bit , not sure if it's good compost for nutrients,

[Sassy]

Glenn told me to tell you to stop posting last year's pictures    And that he has 40,000 lbs of manure but has only put 15,000 on so far   

I say your garden looks very nice so far    We need to modify our clay ground to get things to grow...

[PEG688]

#1: Glenn told me to tell you to stop posting last year's pictures 

  #2: And that he has 40,000 lbs of manure but has only put 15,000 on so far   

  #3: I say your garden looks very nice so far   

#4:   We need to modify our clay ground to get things to grow...

  #1: What I like about this thread is the record of events year in year out, sort of a journal of the garden, having it as a sticky really is nice.

  #2:   This is where I / we  can confirm that Glenn is full of $hit I guess

#3: Thank you Sassy.

#4:  I wonder if my compost helps much with fertilization, I should take a soil sample to the WSU garden  annex  over in Mt. Vernon to see what I need to add.  Our Radish's , spinach,  beans seem to need some help of late. 



   

[glenn kangiser]

1. Looks good every year, PEG, but I think you need to tear out a bunch of that grass and make it into garden too... you can't eat grass and what will you eat if the world ends tomorrow?   

2. Correct PEG and I am quite proud of it......

3. Always a pleasure to see your garden, PEG.  Always nice.

4.  Massive amounts of organics needed in our soil, PEG hence the need for so much crap.  Any composting you do is likely to help.  Uncomposted additions high in carbon will rob nitrogen from your soil to break down.  Alfalfa and chicken manure can add nitrogen.  Other animal manures are more of a all purpose fertilizer with some of everything in them.  I tried the soil sample kits with the separate pill tests for NPK and found our soil naturally has nearly nothing left in it or originally in it.  Manure and chips are changing that.  Finally getting some decent crop output.

Fresh manure can actually stop seeds from sprouting so composted is better in most cases.  PH can be a factor for different plants.  Blue berries want acid soil so we made our own in a big container for them this year - otherwise several had died previously and one done nothing for 4 years.  Lucky it was still alive.  The new ones are blooming now.

Keep up the good work buddy... and manure..... yup... I'm full of it.... [ouch]

[PEG688]

  Any composting you do is likely to help.  Uncomposted additions high in carbon will rob nitrogen from your soil to break down.  Alfalfa and chicken manure can add nitrogen. 

  Are you saying the leaves I grind in would be not composted / rotten enough so they could be "stealing" the nitrogen in my soil? 

If so I can get some chicken manure or chicken based compost from a chicken farm not far from here, or I could add some nitrogen rich fertilizer from the farm store.

If the latter what would be a good percentage of nitrogen in a bag type fertilizer?

[glenn kangiser]

Yes PEG.  That is correct.  I understand that as a mulch on top they won't bother much but in the soil they need nitrogen to break down as the decompose.

I think I would add something like a 15-15-15 as most plants need the last two anyway, and the nitrogen needs to be lower so as some is robbed for decomposition of the leaves it will be closer to the range the vegetables want.  Nitrogen makes green leafy things and fast growth but not so much on the edible part of the plant.  21-0-0 is a good grass fertilizer but not so great for the garden.  It could be used to aid composting though.  Otherwise Paul wheaton has said he likes to add alfalfa... at $22.50 a bale I won't  unless I get bad stuff free.  The high first number - nitrogen, makes lots of green plant but not much fruit.  An analysis as you were talking about is the most sure method for finding out exactly what you need.

The chicken fertilizers are high in nitrogen and would work well with the leaves, sawdust, straw etc or stuff that is high in carbon.  Horse manure is a perfect mix of carbon and nitrogen if clean for composting.  Just add air and water to taste....   Turn weekly or so if possible for fastest composting.  Horse manure with carbon such as bedding, straw etc, needs chicken manure added for the higher nitrogen for fastest composting.  Done properly it will heat up - compost and be don in about 6 weeks.

[glenn kangiser]

Onions are different than other vegetables  and they want high nitrogen after started.  I just studied up on them as I have had a rough time with them in the past.

21-0-0 is what onions want though after the first couple weeks.  A line of it along the plants after they are established.  When planting Onions want a high phosphorus fertilizer under them.

Fertilization of onion plants is vital to success. Texas A&M research findings indicate that onion growth and yield can be greatly enhanced by banding phosphorus 2-3 inches below seed at planting time. This phosphorus acts as a starter solution which invigorates the growth of young seedlings. Banding phosphorus, such as super phosphate (0-20-0), 2-3 inches below the seed involves making a trench 3 inches deep, distributing one-half cup of super phosphate per 10 row feet, covering the phosphate with soil, sowing seed and covering lightly with one-half inch or less of soil. Once established, onion plants should receive additional amounts of fertilizer (21-0-0 - Ammonium sulfate or Ammonium nitrate) as a side-dress application every month.

Good detailed info on onions.  Also for bulbing you need to know the day length onion in your area or they may not make bulbs.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/onions/oniongro.html

[PEG688]

 Got some things in the ground today ,  starts of lettuce, spinach , onions , some seeds spinach , radishes, carrots , etc , more to go , but a good start.

 


 

 

Some general flowers ,



Abby approved of the work.

   

[PEG688]

 First radishes of the season , been picking lettuce for a bit.



Planted bush beans , tomato plants , and a squash plant today. Finally getting some rain , been a dry May so far.   

[PEG688]

 Updated photo's,

 


 

[glenn kangiser]

Looks great as usual, PEG.  Ours is doing decent.  Picked a bunch of eggplant and peppers today.  More tomatoes are starting to put out.... but
I am working away from home a bit again so not getting as much done as I would like, besides moving and rocking the driveway.  Still need to find more time for the garden.



A tomato

and Amaranth from my cabin thread...



Amaranth leaves can be eaten or it is an alternative non-gluten grain, porridge, bread additive or many other things you can do with it.

[glenn kangiser]

Decent Mother Earth News info on Amaranth.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-04-01/Grow-Amaranth.aspx

[PEG688]

End of the season a few things doing OK ,

[glenn kangiser]

Nice carrots PEG. Many times I plant them but they don't always get big.  Water shortage stunts them I think.

[PEG688]

  6 April 2013 I was thinking I was way behind , but reviewing my posts I'm right on schedule.


 



 







And two eagles I shot,  with the camera,  a few weeks ago.