Garden Report 07.18.2010

I believe my tomato plants have septoria leaf spot. They had this last year as well. Here's a link to the MU Extension office's website, with photos of the disease: http://ppp.missouri.edu/newsletters/meg/archives/v7n7/meg1.htm
I harvested quite a few vegetables yesterday. About 4 banana peppers, nearly a dozen anaheim peppers and about half a dozen cayenne peppers. Also about 2 cups each of yellow pear tomatoes and black cherry tomatoes. One Cour di Bue tomato, three Thessaloniki and 2 amish paste.  Two cucumbers.
The squash also have squash vine borers. I've been very diligent about applying diatomaceous earth, but they still got to them. No squash bugs though, just the borers! Sadly, The Hub's acorn squash may not make it, but I'll keep trying. I sprayed the squash, tomatoes and eggplant with a spray mixture of Garden Dust. I've used this the last several years. It is an organic pesticide and fungicide that can be used up to the day before harvest. There are little black bugs that have attacked the eggplant this year. I dusted them with diatomaceous earth several times but they weren't phased. We'll see if the Garden Dust helps, but the leaves are so holey that I don't know if they'll make it either....

Gardening is an experiment. It's a learning experiment. I know things now to improve my garden next year. The main thing I keep hearing is to stop trying to grow squash because the last four years I've tried to grow it, the squash vine borers have enjoyed more of them than we have. But I'll keep being persistent!

 

My dinner tonight: a Greek salad, about as Greek as it can get, with Thessaloniki tomatoes! And a new beer (new for me at least) from New Belgium Brewing called Skinny Dip. Reminds me of a mix of their Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat.

These next couple pictures are from last weekend's harvest:

 

Anaheim peppers, yellow pear tomatoes and cayenne peppers

 

I ended up taking these tomatoes to work with me because I had too many to eat.

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This is what's left of yesterday's harvest. The photo is so yellow because my harvest tub is yellow. Those are two Thessaloniki tomatoes and all the cayenne peppers, black cherry tomatoes and yellow pear I harvested yesterday. Also some tomatillos. We ate all the anaheim and banana peppers in fajitas last night.

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Garden Report 06.23.10

Oh boy, we have produce arriving soon!

 

This is the same bunch of cherry tomatoes that I photographed last time. None of them have turned yet. But the good news is that none of the cherry tomatoes have blossom end rot. Every other plant-Thessaloniki, Cour di Bue and Amish Paste- have blossom end rot. I read it's due to a calcium deficiency, but can also be caused by inconsistent watering.

 

This is a different cherry tomato plant, just to give some perspective of how many tomatoes are on one plant.  

Yes, that is a yellow pear tomato you see ripening! I wanted to eat it so bad, but it needs another day, so I'm leaving it alone until tomorrow.

 

While I was in Utah last week there was a big storm. When I came back on Saturday, the yellow pear tomato plant was lying horizontal, tomato cage and all. I tried staking it with two bamboo stakes and they held for about 5 seconds and then fell over as well. So I found a hammer and a 2x2 stake and showed it who's boss. It seems to understand that I, in fact, am boss!

 

So I'm not sure which pepper this is. I think it's the Corono de Toro that I bought at Bakersville (Yellow Bull's Horn), but the label stick is gone.

 

I believe this is the Olena Red pepper.

 

I know these are Anaheims. I'm trying really hard this year to let some of the peppers ripen to their final color. Usually I try to eat them as soon as they are green and ready, but I'm going to let a few of the Anaheims turn red. 

 

These are the Cayenne peppers from the MiL. They're her favorite pepper.

 

Tomatillos! They remind me of chinese lanterns. Next time I'll take a picture from the underside of the husk. It's really crazy how the tomatillos set on. The husks set on first, and get large, and then the fruit enlarges and ripens inside the husk. 

 

The cucumbers are blooming nicely!

 

And several cucumbers have set on. These are about 4" long and Marketmore 76 is supposed to get 7-8" long.

 

Green beans. I had two servings of green beans already this week. Not all of the seeds came up; they are three years old so I wasn't expecting a high germination rate. Next year I'll get new seed and probably plant half of a bed in green beans.

 

I can't remember if I wrote this last time, but last week before I left for Salt Lake City I came to the horrible realization that I completely forgot to plant zucchini. I didn't even have it in my garden sketch! Luckily, since the carrots and peas are done (and already pulled up and in the compost bin) there was some empty space where I planted several seeds. What you see above is NOT the seeds I planted last week. What you see is a volunteer zucchini that came up out of the compost that I incorporated into the root veggie bed.  

This is a better shot of that volunteer zucchini plant and how it's taking over the bed!

 

Lastly, one of the hanging planters with borage, dianthus and cardinal climbers. The large leaf plant in the center is borate. The spiny looking leaves are the cardinal climbers. I don't know if the plant to the center left is dianthus or a weed. There are several of them coming up in both planters, so I'm guessing dianthus!

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Is anyone else drooling yet?

It's summertime, because my garden says so.

 

This first picture is of a bumble bee, busy pollinating clover.(Having problems seeing it? Look at the flower to left of the middle.)

 

I've been dreaming of Greek salad ever since I started the tomatoes from seed inside in February. That dream is soon to be a reality!Above, cucumbers have set on.

 

These are an heirloom tomato, called Black Cherry. As the name implies, they are a cherry tomato that is "black", which is really a dark red-purple.

 

This is also an heirloom variety. It was free seed sent to me when I ordered the other seeds. It is called Cuor di Bue and is an Italian tomato for fresh eating. I will probably use it for slicing, for Greek salad, and will try canning with it.

 

Next are Yellow Pear tomatoes. These are the only tomatoes I am growing this year that I didn't start from seed. I forgot to order the seed and by the time I remembered it was April. I was afraid the seedlings wouldn't be big enough to transplant in time, so I bought a single plant from the Ace Hardware down the street. The following photo is also of Yellow Pear; the plant is LOADED with little green tomatoes.

 

Not all of the tomatoes have set on yet. This is a shot of one of the Amish Paste plants. These are similar to Roma tomatoes and are used for sauces and tomato paste. Lots of flowers = lots of tomatoes = lots of paste and sauce to use in the winter!

 

This is a kohlrabi plant. They are from the Brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower and the like. It grows above ground, but is a root vegetable. I eat them when they are slightly smaller than softballs. I peel the tough outer skin off and then shave them, or slice them julienne and put them in salads. Very crunchy, the texture of an apple, but the flavor is similar to broccoli.

 

This is a Chinese Red Meat radish, which is also referred to as a Watermelon radish because when they are sliced the outer edge is pale green and the inside is a vibrant red-pink. They are sweeter than typical radishes and aren't supposed to be eaten until rather large- 4" diameter. Not all of mine have gotten that big because it got so hot. They can also be planted in the fall, supposedly with better results because they have a tendency to bolt.

 

Last but not least, the Castor Beans. I planted these in with the vegetables. Moles found my raised beds earlier this spring and uprooted a lot of stuff. Mom used to plant Castor Beans to keep moles away, so I'm trying it. They are very poisonous to humans though; the entire plant contains a poison called Ricin which I've seen on a "top 10 deadliest poisons list" in the past.

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