Oh...I'm sorry! Just after I posted my "happy" about the rain, I saw yours about the hail :(

Dorothy,

I am so sorry to hear about the damage. Y'all had some pretty large hail. How cruel Mother Nature has been this year with the weather!

I don't think it is too late at all for corn or potatoes, but you know that I say that with the assumption the first freeze will come in November. If an excessively early freeze occurs, all bets are off. You chances of success with corn increase if you plant a variety with a 60-75 day DTM instead of one with an 80-95+ DTM.

I just planted corn this week with a 66 or 67 DTM.

Dawn

We too had 2 1/2" of rain. Though I was really having a conversation with the Lord about it, since at my office (only 5 miles away) we had over 1/2" of rain and only a few drops at home. The first front missed our home entirely, while I could see to the South, that they were getting A LOT of rain! But last night the rain came back.

Dorothy, I've seen things like squash make a tremendous come back after hail. Hopefully some of those plants will recover. Sounds like you REALLY got hit.

I'm hoping to get time to plant some Brussels Sprouts and other such things, this weekend.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Dorothy,
Hate to hear about the hail you received. I have been there and knows how it feels. But like I said before we received the rain. I would take a little hail if that is what it took to get the moisture. Fortunately we got the rain without any bad weather knock on wood.

George glad to hear you got a good rain also. The beans I got from you are looking good. Jay

Shankins, don't worry about it. I can be happy for you and sad for me at the same time. And as I said Rain--Good News. Fall garden around the corner.

George, the Cherokee Stripe beans don't look too bad. They are just getting ready to bloom. So out go the weather beaten KW pole.

If I plant some fall bush beans at the other side of the garden with okra and tomatoes in between the Cherokee beans and the bush beans will I still be able to save seeds from the Cherokee.

Oh and George both the Baker's Family and the Tuxhorn plants you gave me have developed a wilt just as they started to bear. Any ideas as to what the problem is? The tomatoes I planted early have some lower leaf browning but these plants are wilted at the top. In all the years I've gardened I've never learned anything about tomato diseases. When a tomato wilted, I just yanked it out and burned it, but I was hoping to save seed from these.

Ah Dorothy, Sorry about the hail. Nothing here, not a drop, na-da. In fact, I don't believe that I have ever seen my garden area so dry. We were taking turns tilling this morning and trying to get things ready to add a few more crops for fall and there was no moisture. My little tiller goes 6-8 inches down and sometimes more, and it was totally dry at that depth. I ran the soaker hoses today on the part that has plants. I have been doing that a couple of times a week. I guess I will dig out the rest of the soaker hoses and stretch them out as soon as I plant. This is very rare since usually I have the hoses there and almost never turn them on. We need rain badly.

I didn't start seed form broccoli, cabbage or brussel sprouts and think I am now too late. Do you think anyone will have transplants for sale. When do they usually show up?

Dawn, Do you think I could still start brussel sprouts since they rather like the cold?

Carol,

When we lived in Texas, you could find broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts seedlings in 6-packs at Lowe's and Home Depot in mid-August, but I never see them here in OK. Those of you in/near larger cities might find them in nurseries or stores, but I don't see them here in southern OK. I'd go ahead and start from seed this week, and if I were doing it (and I am), I'd pre-soak the seed for a few hours so they get really moist and then sow in paper cups or flats. I think they do better in the fall if sown first in flats or paper cups and raised a bit there so you can (a) control the moisture they get, and (b) move them into shade if the temperature goes insanely high. If you direct sow, they may need to be watered twice a day until cooler daytime temps arrive in September because they are fairly shallowly rooted.

You're supposed to put your brussels sprouts in the ground 8 to 10 weeks before the date of your average first frost and I like to have plants that are 5 or 6 weeks old then. So, since my first frost comes around Nov. 20th, I hope to get my b.s. in the ground by Sept. 10-20th from seed sown in the next 2 or 3 days. I probably should have done it last week but we were busy getting ready for DS's wedding which was Monday afternoon, so all I was really focusing on last week was the wedding stuff. (I gained a daughter-in-law this week and her 2-year-old daughter is our first grandchild, and we've been having fun!)

It should be pretty easy to keep b.s. from being damaged by an early freeze just by covering it up, because they can take quite a lot of cold and I think the sprouts taste sweeter after a little frost exposure.

When trying to grow brussels sprouts in our climate, we have to try to plant them so that the sprouts will not begin to mature until the daytime highs are averaging 55-65 and I find it very hard to hit the temps just right here. Often we're still in the 90s in October here in Love County, so I have to hope the sprouts are starting to mature in latest Oct. or early Nov. in those hot years, and certainly no earlier. The prospect of an early frost hurting the b.s. plants just doesn't worry me because they won't be damaged until the lows are in the 20s, except several nights in a row below 40 degrees can cause them to flower and set seed.

I wouldn't bother trying to raise brussels sprouts here if you could buy decent ones at the store that taste as good as home-grown ones, but you can't. In the spring, it really, really goes from 'too cold' to 'too hot' too quickly for b.s. to produce, so I don't even try them here in zone 7b in spring.

That's all that I know about starting brussels sprouts for fall.

It's not too late for broccoli or cabbage either!

Dawn

Dawn, Congrats on the DIL and grandchild. Did they have a pretty wedding?

Thanks for the advice on the fall crops. I just put my seeds in to soak. I only had part of a pack of broccoli seed and will have to look for more. Except for spring time it is pretty hard to find seeds here. I picked up some very common flower seeds the other day. They took me through the "Employees Only" door and left me in the backroom to look through them.

I told my DH that we didn't have many bowls in the cabinet because I had 9 on the dining room table with seeds soaking in them. I will probably plant them in gallon milk jugs tomorrow. I have had good luck with that and they can grow there for a few weeks. I have lots of little pots, but it is harder to keep them moist.

Thanks for the help. Carol

Carol,

Thanks. It was a very pretty wedding, but a very small one. They decided about 10 days ago to get married before she left for her National Guard basic training. I think she leaves next Monday. So, I think it was on Tuesday that they got the license, and then on Wednesday they made arrangements to get married at a small wedding chapel here in Marietta. That gave us Thursday through Monday a.m. to get ready for the wedding, which was scheduled for Monday afternoon. So, considering that time was short, we did really, really, really well. Best of all, since it was small and simple, it was pretty relaxed and joyful---no one was all stressed out over this or that. And, we are simply delighted by the two new additions to our family and love them dearly and already considered them family members long before the wedding.

I ordered some seed from Johnny's for the fall garden, and some from Willhite, and picked up a couple of packets of Target's Burpee seed line which I was surprised to see still on display in the Denton store last week. (I can't walk past a seed rack without stopping to look which explains why I am growing 5 varieties of fall broccoli instead of 1.) It is hard to find seed here too any time other than spring, so I try to stock up then, but sometimes I forget to pick up stuff for fall. Or, even worse, I come home with seed in the spring but don't immediately put it into the seed storage box and then....when I need it in the fall, I can't find it. Of course, it always shows up in a drawer or something in the dead of winter.

I use coffee cups to soak seeds, but always make sure to leave one cup for Tim so he can drink his coffee.

It is so hot here that it seems insane to be planting a fall garden doesn't it, but eventually the weather does cool down. At least, I'm hoping it cools down soon. I am SO over the summer weather and ready for fall's more moderate temperatures.

Our purple martins haven't been around their houses the last couple of days, so all the babies have grown up and flown the coop, so to speak. To me, that's one of the signs that summer is starting to wind down.

Dawn

Cups.....why didn't I think of that. When you buy a place setting of dishes it always comes with cups. I always joke that in Mormon households they are there just to melt the butter for the popcorn. LOL Now they have another use, I can soak seeds in them. I don't own a coffeepot except for the one we keep in the bunkhouse. I tell everyone if they want coffee they have to bring their own coffee and make it also, because I wouldn't have a clue.

When I lived in Lone Grove, I would sometimes cook breakfast and invite my aunt and uncle. They had their own little "take out" cups that they would use to bring their coffee from home to have with their breakfast. LOL

When we have neighborhood things in my yard everyone knows it is BYOB (Bring your own bottle) or Bring Your Own Cup, which ever you prefer. We have a group of nice neighbors and I enjoy having them around.

One day at Church we were talking about people not even knowing their neighbors anymore. I laughed and told them that during that very week, one neighbor had come over and replaced a light switch for me, another had mowed my lawn (just 'cause he was doing his), and while I was at a different neighbors working on her computer, her husband had washed my car. The one that "always" helps me do things was out of town that week. LOL Everyone always asks my DH if he fishes, and he always says, "Why? My nighbors bring it to me already cleaned, fileted and in a little zipper bag ready for the stove or the freezer."
He did go out a few times this year so we could have plenty in our freezer. We love our neighbors.

Dorothy,

glad to hear that the Cherokee Striped Cornhill beans are getting ready to produce. I planted a good sized patch of them, fairly early on, and they are only now starting to produce. They didn't flower until about 1 1/2 weeks ago, which makes me wonder if they are day length sensitive. Last year I got them in late, so I didn't think anything of it when they produced late.

No, I don't know what to tell you about those tomatoes which are wilting. Mine aren't. I got Tuxhorn's Yellow & Red in so late that the plants, which won't set fruit in any sort of heat, are devoid of fruit. But they are getting ready to set on a big crop for the fall, like they always do. Our Baker Family Heirloom plants are bearing, albeit a bit lightly, but they are in good shape. I could send you some more seed if yours flop. The only thing is that I have one or two (can't tell) Arkansas Travelors right next to Baker Family Heirloom, so there is a possibility of crossing. I just never had time to move them, and left them where I had healed them in.

I've always followed your philosophy with sick tomatoes. "It's sick... yank it." Maybe Dawn can tell you what they have. Verticillium comes to mind. But I don't recall it affecting mature plants.

I had one Polish Pastel plant turn brown over the entire plant and start to dry up. Never seen such a thing before. I yanked it. But I have no idea what that was.

I hope I can still start Brussels Sprouts from seed. Been meaning to for weeks and never had time. We're rebuilding our hay barn and Jerreth needs me... frequently. She's the builder on our team. But she needs more height and strength from time to time.

This has been the worst year I can recall for beans and tomatoes. Production just hasn't been there. We're only now starting to pick pole beans. Till now they have been flowering (if that) and not setting pods. Tomatoes have produced lightly. I attribute it to the climate extremes we've experienced, and in some instances, to getting things in late.

George

Dorothy,

If the plant wilted at the top and then recovers, and then wilts a bit more every day but recovers, and then finally wilts and doesn't recover, that might be bacterial wilt. However it could be other things too. Is it only wilting or are the leaves discoloring and either yellowing or browning? Look at the leaf photoes in the attached TAMU Tomato Problem Solver and see if any of the photos resemble your plant. If nothing there resembles your plant, I'd bet on bacterial wilt.

George, Did your plant die literally overnight? And, if so, did it wilt/die overnight and then turn brown, or did it turn brown bit by bit and then die? If it suddenly wilted and died, and the almost immediately turned brown, it might have been Southern Blight, but I've only seen that once. And, since Tahlequah has been excessively hot and dry, and you didn't mention any black spots, I assume it wasn't Late Blight.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Problem Solver

My sympathy on the hail. I lost most of my garden this year to a hail storm in early July. It's so depressing to see all that hard work vanish in seconds!

But, it always comes back or can be replanted. Maybe you will have a bumper fall crop!

Best of luck,

Robert

Dawn, from your description, I'd say "late blight." But this was different from my previous experiences with late blight. The plant did turn brown, all over, and very rapidly, though it still had a little green (all over) when I yanked it. I'd never seen anything like it.

George,

If it was late blight, you should have had black lesions before it turned brown. I have had tomatoes die in just the way you described in some previous years, but I never knew what caused it. In my garden, it has only happened to a plant here or there in those years, and it never spread to other plants, so that is a plus.

Dawn

Dawn, thanks for the link, but no I didn't see any that looked like mine. So far the tips of the plants just look wilted, but no lesions and still green. We will see what develops.

And in other news--planted part of the fall garden yesterday--bush beans, lettuce, spinach, beets. In a couple weeks will put out radishes, both French Breakfast and Daikon and some Chinese Cabbage plants that I start. Also plan to get some turnip and mustard seeds next trip to town. And if we have another mild winter as we had in 05-06, but no fires please, I may pick spinach in Jan.

Dorothy,

I have had tips wilt and recover and generally it occurs on a very hot day, and they recover around sunset. The plants where I see this occurring are all in 5 or 10 gallon containers and I think they just can't absorb enough water in their small root systems to carry it up to the tips on a hot day. On a normal day they don't wilt, and the tomato plants in larger containers also don't wilt. So maybe your wilty tipped plants have a root issue going on or a moisture issue?

And, you never know about that first freeze. I wouldn't mind a mild winter, but like you, I want mine served up with no fires!

Dawn