I got about 5 pounds of mixed cucumbers today and yesterday so I’m making a few pints of dill pickles tonight. I’m going to use Mrs. Wage’s Kosher Dill mix out of convenience.

I got 9 pints tonight

Cindy, that's really interesting. How much could you bring in for the garlic normally? I'm told it's a fairly high-paying crop if successfully done...

Jacob - Since I was growing garlic anyway I just planted more. And much of the time I received free meals because I didn't want to make money from it. I already had a career. The chef treated me very well.

Gardening for me was and is, after all, just a hobby. Now I donate my excess to AmpleHarvest.org.

My baby’s growing up! It was just 7 days ago when I posted the first picture. The melon was about as big as my thumb nail. Look at him now!

Cindy that is awesome that you did that for the restaurant! Thanks for sharing the info.

Itsmce - wow that thing is huge! Could you give tips on when to know watermelon is ready? I've heard that if you knock it it should sound hollow, and the underside of the fruit should turn from a yellow to whitish color.

Well, all the late June rain here has brought back an old nemesis despite what I thought was a pretty good defense system. Septoria is back in my garden... arggghhh.

I was spraying copper, daconil, and even mancozeb in a rotation about every 10-12 days, and also defoliating (thrown away in plastic bags) and using a bleach spray when I saw it starting, but after these last couple days of rain I've noticed it bloom all over the place and on just about every heirloom plant. Sun Gold and Big Beef don't seem to be infected, yet. I pulled the worst of the plants, Amish Paste, which had the spot all the way up to its new growth.

It didn't kill my crop last year (the disease only affects the leaves and stems, not fruit) but it certainly created a lot more work and spraying than I wanted to try to slow it down before the whole plant was defoliated. With around 45 plants this year I am really dreading going through that work again this year.

Bunching onions -- so far have gotten over 7 lbs of green tops from two containers that measure 12x18"!!!

here is pic from 3rd harvest on 6-24-2018

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today's pic -- 4 days after the cut they are about 7" tall alredy!!!

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Bolseno -- our favorite tomato to grow! In 40+ years we have never grown a more productive tomato plant (60+lbs per plant), best disease resistance, and having a superb flavor complexity, tangy taste, crisp texture and full of juice!

Tony

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After picking 4 more Bolsenos today....

... see how loaded it still is -- and that's just the lower part!

Kevin - sorry to hear that Septoria has arrived in your garden. I kind of expected it to show up in mine when we had a cool spell last week but so far I haven't noticed it but it could be that I'm not paying them enough attention. Right now I'm on high alert for hornworms. I pulled about 10 off the 2 tomato plants that I planted over in my friend's garden last weekend. I plan to spray my plants with BT again on Saturday morning before we leave town just in case.

My onion harvest wasn't very good again this year overall. Candy and Superstar both produced decent baseball plus sized bulbs. Red Candy were more tennis ball to baseball size. 1015Y, which is a short day type, actually did a little better than I expected and made some tennis ball size bulbs. Copra were somewhere between golf and tennis ball. Next year I'm going to stick with Candy, Superstar, and Red Candy and do a better job fertilizing.

Itsmce - wow that melon grew fast! I can't even see the melons I planted over at my friend's garden thru the corn jungle. It will be a surprise if there are any growing.

Jamie - another nice looking batch of pickles. Are those standard slicing cukes or pickling cukes or a mix of both. Since you are making dill slices it doesn't matter much but picking when they are smaller will make better quality whole pickle or spears. Did you use all of the brine for 9 pints? I sometimes can get as many as 6 qts. or 12 pints from one package if the jars are tightly packed but that's hard to do with whole pickles.

Cindy - you have a lot of garden space! I'm not sure if I'm envious or not! I struggle keeping up with my 20 raised beds totaling a little over 700 sq. ft. when the summer heats up. It's been especially hard this year with the onslaught of Rheumatoid Arthritis but I'm managing so far. Doc gave me a lovely steroid shot in my backside last week that's helped a lot and put me on a immunosuppressive drug that will take awhile to build up in my system.

ETA - Tony - those Bolseno tomatoes should be entered at the county fair...they look so perfect!

Ouch Kevin. I hate septoria leaf spot with a passion. It wiped out our tomatoes last year. Last year we had a super rainy, cool summer, and it thrived. This year I've been spraying with Daconil weekly as well as well as placing the plants in the spot that gets sun as early as possible to dry off morning dew, and so far it's working. It's also been a really dry spring/summer for the most part though, so it could be credited to that. I sure hope it holds out.

Where I had planned on planting new winter squash, I'm considering skipping winter squash and experimenting with some new fall greens we've not eaten before- Bok Choy, escarole, radicchio, etc. Any recommendations? I just don't think I have enough time for 110+ DTM winter squash I have, unless they would catch up with the heat!

Here is the left row of my tomatoes, just over 6' tall now! I'm starting to pick quite a few finally, and I'm following the recommendation of bringing them in once they begin to turn red and letting them ripen indoors. Close to a dozen ripening on our window sill and many more to come. The main producers at the moment are Cherokee Purple and I think Abraham Lincoln.

Meanwhile all my fall/winter cabbages have been transplanted as well as Brussel sprouts. I've got 20 Brunswick cabbages and maybe a dozen Jade Cross Brussel sprouts. Soon, probably mid month, I'll have Red Acre cabbage, Waltham 29 broccoli, and Snowball cauliflower to transplant. Brassicas grow so quickly at this time of year.

The Bolseno jungle -- over 6' tall already (they'll get 10-12' high by end of season).

Jack - hope you can get that RA under control and also hope you can take out those hornworms. Hornworms are something that I've never really had a problem with in the garden here. I probably just jinxed myself.

After tomorrow our forecast here shows 7 straight days of temps in the 90s and zero chance for precip. Im thinking I will wage an all out war on the septoria tonight and tomorrow - removing every single leaf that I can and applying another round of Daconil - and hoping that the warm dry weather will let the plants recuperate. Its the best chance that I have I think.

I am also thinking of using Surround (Kaolin Clay) both as a control against additional fungal spores and also to help keep the heat off the plants. Anyone with any experience on that? I've also read that people use it on cukes for beetle control... might give that a try too.

ETA - Tony - great looking maters! How do you support the plants once they outgrow that trellis? It looks to be about 7-8 ft high based on your description of the plants being 6 ft now.

Good luck, Kevin!

jack- it’s a mix of cucumbers- in this case Dar and Marketmore. I didn’t have enough of the Dars by themselves. I don’t like using larger cucumbers either but we weren’t going to be able to eat them all and I didn’t want them to go to waste.

I used all of the brine except for a little under a quart. And I just realized that I forgot to add some calcium chloride haha oh well- next time.

Nice looking tomato plants Jacob. I'm glad the critters left some for you and you are getting ripe ones now. You'll be eating that BLT soon enough! One tip...you don't really want to put them on the window sill to finish ripening. The sun exposure will only toughen the skin. Best to just put them on the counter, out of the sun with the stem end down.

Tony 10-12 ft.? I don't think I've even had a cherry tomato get that tall.

Bolseno will cover this structure (7' tall posts) and create a canopy on top! Last year they lasted and produced fruit till first hard frost killed them 11-11-2017 !!!

Tony

Jamie - the left over brine can be saved in the fridge for about a week. I just put it in a quart jar with a screw on lid and add it to the next batch. Sometimes if I know I won't need a whole package I'll measure out half a pack and halve the water and vinegar. Gotta use the Pickle Crisp! Just mark those jars to use up first.

Tony - the only tomatoes that make it to frost in my garden are cherries. Slicers are usually pulled by mid September.

Jack -- Bolseno and Think Pink (THINK PINK VFFNT HYBRID is an excellent tomato, but sweet... great for those who like sweet instead of tangy) were the only slicers that made it till frost last year. Bolseno was much more productive and tasted much, much better.

I have 6 plants with 3 stalks each. So, have strung up 18 strings from the top to train each one upright. Once they reach the top, which is a 4x4 foot square (with diagonal wires crisscrossing it for more support), I'll start training them to travel across. Eventually they'll reach the other end in September, and will start going down on the other side.

A stepladder helps...lol.

Tony

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p.s. first yellow zuke babies -- seeded 5-25 -- very happy!

Thanks for the tips Jack. I will do it! I picked another two Cherokee purples today. They're my heaviest producers so far, and one of the only producing this early. I think I'll have an Abe Lincoln ready for lunch today!!

We caught the big coon I've talked about last night. I'm thinking it may not be a good idea to release this guy. He is extremely aggressive, hissing at me and trying to attack me through the cage. He's going completely nuts inside the cage even if I'm not watching him....I can't risk him turning on me when I release him, especially if he's carrying a disease of some sort.

Tell you what, this has been a tough season lol.

Jacob - glad to hear you got the coon! I would put him/her out of its misery if I were you. Not worth risking your safety when releasing it.

That's interesting you are getting CP's already - I have always thought they were a very long DTM variety - mine just sat on the vine unripened for what seemed like months last year! Did you plant them out early or do anything different with them?

All the trials and tribulations that us gardeners go through is what makes that first tomato taste so sweet!

As an aside, I had our first picked sun gold tomato sitting in a bowl on the ground yesterday while I was cucumber beetle hunting. My dog walked right up to the bowl, snatched the tomato and swallowed it in one gulp. So no-one got to taste the first tomato at our garden! lol!

Thanks Kevin. I planted these in early to mid May, maybe around Mother's Day, 7 weeks or so ago. Granted, I started them 8 weeks before in early-mid March, so they were big seedlings :-)

Also, I THINK they're a Cherokee Purple. I have no other tomato similar to the Cherokee Purple other than maybe Red Brandywine or Black Krimson, but Black Krimson isn't red, and the Brandywines are potato-leaves, not regular leaved, like this guy here; In other words, I think it's a Cherokee Purple lol.

Jacob - Cherokee Purple and Black Krim are both very similar dark tomatoes (purplish/brown). If the tomatoes you picked were red it isn't either one of those.

Congrats on getting the big coon! I say SSS.

Kevin - bad dog!

Well I guess it's a mystery tomato then Jack!! I will add it does have a slightly purplish tint to it. I had wondered if it could be my mortgage lifter, but then mortgage lifer has potato leaf foliage so I don't think so.

WOW, I just had the first ripe slicing tomato of the season, an Abraham Lincoln, and it's absolutely delicious. I'm not a tomato critic, but I like my tomatoes more juicy than meaty as it tends to add the acidity I like. This had the perfect balance of sweet and acid for my taste, and was VERY juicy. Not real big fruits, and they seem prone to scabs, but overall a great tomato. I saved the seed leftover on the cutting board.

I got a little over 2 pounds of beans today. I had these planted in a flower bed along hebskde of our garage in the front yard. They’re still blooming and there are a few small beans on the plants so I might get another half pound or pound next week. I think I will pickle these.

Jamie - Love pickled beans! I picked green beans today but only about a pound or so.

One of my favorite flowers and I was hoping that the pic would turn out better. Will try again tomorrow.

The sun was harsh here today.

It's HOT. 97! Looks like it'll slowly cool back to our more normal 90ish...I'm ready.

I ended up with 5 pints of green beans and I had enough brine left over for 3 more pints of cucumber pickles. Fortunately, I had enough cucumbers today to fill them up. These will be spicy because I added some cayenne pepper.

Cindy- I have a few of those also!

Tony - again, you amaze us with harvests from your bunching onions. I need to look into that bolseno tomato. It's a new name to me...but then again, most of those that you grow are!

Kevin - Harvesting watermelon is tricky. I have never gotten good at the thumping. To me when I thump a watermelon, it just sounds like a watermelon. What does 'hollow' sound like anyway? I rely on a few clues: I know it takes about a month from when the melon starts to grow until it is ripe. So, I keep a pretty close eye on the patch and when I see a melon starting to swell, I flag it and write the date on the flag. In addition to the date, I also pay attention to the tendrils closest to where the melon attaches to the vine. When the one at the melon dries up, its getting close. I read once to wait for that tendril plus two more down the vine to dry before picking. Also, the ground spot turns from white to more yellowish. That's a lot of info. Sorry. I hope it helps a little. I currently have 5 melons flagged. My problem with relying on the dates is that a vacation and being away for more than a week will really put a kink in the plan.

Jamie - What is the variety of your yellow beans? Looks like a nice harvest. My mom used to make "dilly beans". As a child I was often tasked with packing the jars. She liked them packed with the beans all standing up nice and straight in the jars. I'm not a fan of pickled anything, so when I have beans beyond what we can eat fresh, I can them. I managed to get 7 jars recently, nearly all Gold Mine.

Cindy - that is a very pretty flower. I am not familiar with the variety. What is it?

Jacob - I think I have tomatoes on every variety of tomatoes EXCEPT Cherokee Purple! That plant still has curled leaves. I haven't figured out why or what to do about it.

Used paper and mulch on top to prevent weed. Worked well.

Cucumber blues....

Very unhappy with H-19 Little Leaf -- production is extremely low. Over 2000 blossoms on 40 plants (at least 50 per) but only a dozen cukes for all so far!!! Picked the first ripe one yesterday....

By this time last year we had several dozen picked already from Northern Pickling -- and though the plants died by August 6th, we managed to pickle 4 gal and ate our full of fresh ones.

I went with H-19 this year because of their exceptional disease resistance, but I regret it now!

I'm thinking of pulling these by end of July and seeding Northern Pickle -- should have the first ripe ones mid Sept and with a mild October might get a decent harvest.

Has anyone grown cukes in the Fall, and were they successful?

Tony

Itsmce - It's Crocosmia Paniculata and it's a perennial. Plus, and very important to me, the deer do not eat it!! That's why I'm still growing it. It's multiplying slowly and grows to about 4'+ tall for me. Also the small hummingbirds love it. Plus, it blooms for quite a while. Had to take photos with my camera to get the color to come out right. Phone camera just didn't do it.

Tony - I just planted another variety of cukes last week. Growing three varieties this year, planting them every two to three weeks. A good gardening friend told me to do that.

This year's varieties are Ancient Chinese Cucumber, a gherkin variety that I do not know the official name of, and Vertina. So far only the Ancient C. C. has fruit and they are just sizing up. They grow to around 15" to 18" in length and are quite prolific. I try to grow them every year. They hold up pretty well to diseases if I keep them sprayed. It's also an heirloom so saved seeds grow true.

I met some people (while traveling) who sell pickles as their business and they said the best variety for pickles is Kirby.

If you would like some seeds of the ACC, email me your address.

Itsmce those beans are yellow wax beans from Ferry-Morse. I probably got them from Lowe’s or Walmart. I raised a similar variety that I got from Baker Creek also.

I have a couple of eggplants that are putting on size:

I had flea beatles early in the season but a couple of treatments of pyrethrin helped. I still get some damage from them but the plants are big enough now that they don’t seem bothered.

Tony - sorry to hear about the H-19.... maybe they will come along and just need some time to bear fruit?. I’ll be curious to hear because I am also growing them for the first time this year (amongst 12 or so other varieties as a trial to see what works the best in my garden).

I have some H-19s, Excelsior, Tasty Jade, and Harmonie pickles (all parthenogenetic) started in flats right now, with the idea to plant them under a larger hooped structure covered in row cover or insect netting. Wanted to grab some vertina but Johnnys was sold out when I ordered. Next year.

Cindy, thanks for the kind offer -- but, I'll wait a couple of weeks, and if H-19 doesn't produce, will pull them and seed Northern Pickle (of which I have plenty seeds and also worked out great last year).

Tony

Hey friends! I survived the family visit and the lake house... Barely! The garden is going crazy and I've been spending early mornings trying to weed and pick bugs. I tackled a large amount of weeds yesterday and today found my first hornworm chomping on a tomato plant. Knock on wood, but Im not having a problem with many cucumber beetles this year like I did last. The scraping SB eggs seems to have helped as I haven't noticed too many.

I'm still trying to ID this tomato plant.. it's finally got a ripe piece of fruit... You can see the dark purple pieces next to it. They grow in clusters of 6-8.

A few other (horrible quality) pics from around the garden..

Okra, I think it's the prettiest bloom in the garden!

The tomato jungle..I bet there are 200+ blooms in this bed alone - 6 plants.

Cucumbers are outgrowing their trellises.

Bell peppers

Banana peppers - can anyone say "Italian Nachos!"

I'm thinking my mystery tomato plant is a "Brad's Atomic Grape" I plan on picking the ripe piece today to taste test it.

I really need to stay on top of this thread more often! lol

Jacob - it seems like your cages have been very busy lately. At least it's good that you can get a sense of what has been paying your garden a visit. I have heard that some raccoons can be very vicious, so definitely be careful.

Congrats on the first delicious beefsteak tomato! I think I've heard of the Abraham Lincoln variety, but never tried it!

itsmce - that watermelon looks amazing!! Thanks for giving advice on the harvesting too. I've never grown melon, but I might try next year.

Tony - The Bolsenos look great! I like how you have some of your plants strung up like that. I considered growing tomatoes that way, but I didn't want to build a structure for it this year. I decided to go the ole staking route.

Sorry to hear about the H-19 Littleleaf, especially since I'm growing it too! Hopefully they produce more or you're able to grow new plants. My cukes seem to be off to a slow start and I cut off some of the leaves on the Straight Eight that I suspected had Angular Leaf Spot.

Nice harvest of banana peppers!!

Kevin - I'm so sorry to hear about the Septoria Leaf Spot :-( Not again. I know you must be really bummed about that. I hope you can keep it under control. I'm starting to get a little nervous about late blight. There was just another report yesterday in York County, PA.

Squash look great!

The garden is looking great still and great arbors! I will just give you warning about the wisteria. They are beautiful, but they can get out of hand fast! Definitely stay on top of pruning them.

Cindy - awesome garlic harvest and that's a beautiful flower!

That's a lot of garden to maintain! Though I'm sure it's a ton of work, I would love to have the extra space.

Jack - sorry to hear about the bean plants and that your potato harvest wasn't as good. I'm still impatiently waiting to harvest my Yukon Golds.

Wow! That's a monster Big Beef. I'm growing a Big Beef plant too and hopefully I get some giants too.

I can still make out the design of the Calliope and they look awesome! I'm still waiting for my eggplant to fruit. Just a bunch of flowers right now.

Jamie - nice bean harvest and that's a lot of pickles!! I feel like everyone is pickling like crazy!!

Edit: Heather - great pics and the okra flower is so cool!

I grew some Brad's Atomic from seed, but they went to my friend. They definitely do look like Brad's Atomic, so you may be right about that!

Some pics of the veggies.

Okra plants do have nice flowers and they are actually a variety of mallow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvaceae) which includes hibiscus (if you didn't already know that). We have some native hibiscus species in North America also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_moscheutos 

Jamie - I did not know that! That's cool! I just saw that they are also in the same family as cotton and cacao!

Here's a Cotton flower

They are actually quite pretty but it's illegal to grow them as ornamental plants in Tennessee and other cotton-producing states as part of the boll weevil eradication program.

" Tennessee Department of Agriculture promulgated rules
(Chapter 0080-6-22-.11) pursuant to T.C. A. 43-6-401, which require a written waiver to be obtained from the commissioner if noncommercial cotton is to be grown within the state of Tennessee. These authorizations may be given if a substantial public educational purpose exists. If authorized, the gardeners will be required to allow a pheromone trap to be placed near the location, must allow access to the garden during the growing season, and must destroy stalks after harvest. Additionally, the cotton plants may have to be destroyed midseason if weevils are found."

Jamie - That's interesting ... about the cotton plants. I had never heard of such a thing.

I wasn't aware of it either until a few years ago when I was thinking about having some as ornamentals haha! Boll Weevils were a serious threat to the cotton industry and almost destroyed it in the first part of the 20th century. Up until the 80s or 90s, cotton farmers still had to use a lot of pesticides on their crops, but with the eradication of that insect in most of the US, they reduced their pesticide use by 80-90% (according to what I've read)

I just ate the first ripe Brad's Atomic Grape tomato...holy moly!! It was absolutely amazing!

Chris, I'm putting the Jimmy nardello on my planting list for next year. I've got several recipes for them and love sauteed peppers.

Heather, congratulations on the tomato!

Chris, your garden looks great. I really need to grow more beets. I love pickled beetroot, and I tried to grow a great big spring crop to pickle, but they just didn't do well. I have so many other things going in I may not do them this fall, but who knows. Next spring for sure.

I sliced up two ripe cherokee purple tomatoes today. I'm really quite sure that they are cherokee purples now; they look almost exactly like the ones we've gotten at the farmer's market in past years. Anyways, it was delicious. I had a tomato sandwich- first since last summer!! What a treat. I like the Abe Lincolns better in terms of flavor, but these purples are blowing them out of the water in terms of production. Picking a couple a day in late June, which is crazy for being so early.

Jamie - A few years ago I grew a cotton plant that I picked up at a plant swap. It grew and produced cotton most of which is in the basement. Seeds would probably not germinate at this late date.

The flowers for both plants, the okra and the cotton, are really neat looking.

I can just see it: Three hard core inmates at the local jail are watching as Jamie is brought into the Cell. They ask, "So what are you in for?". Jamie answers, "Growing illegal cotton, so don't mess with me."

I potted up the second wave of micro tomatoes this morning (all but 4, I ran out of pots) they all look pretty good except that the Elfin seedling is leggy - in spite of having the same lighting conditions as the other plants. The first Elfin I tried had (and still has) the same issue.

The first two Orange Hats and the first Elfin (my sun counre decorated the pots with shredddd newspaper and I was too lazy to pick it out for the photo - I guess he through they needed mulching). That spindly, leggy plant in the distance is the first Efin.

I’m feeding them with Schultz Liquid all purpose Plant (10-15-10) food.

I am going to use some reflective garage door insulation to add some reflective surfaces to the sides of the shelves. I also placed the pots on disposable aluminum oven rack liners to help reflect some light back onto the plants.

That’s a north-facing window also, so the plants won’t get any bright, direct natural light. They will be relying totally on the grow lights. You can’t tell from the photo, but i have a double row of lights on that shelf with the majority of the plants (4 bulbs total)

those pots were $0.97 each at Walmart. I was going to order some nursery pots online but these seemed to be sturdier and were more convenient - and I think they were a bit less expensive.

This is going to be a fun experiment.

July link?

thanks

I made one https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5374944/veggie-tales-july-2018