June 2018, Week 1: Hot Time, Summer In The City

5 years ago

I'm getting worried we'll run out of weekly theme songs that relate to the heat, hot, summer, misery, etc., but here's this week's:

Hot Time, Summer in the City by the Lovin' Spoonful

So, somehow we just made it through a really difficult week with awful weather. At least we get a break for the next couple of days courtesy of the cold front that just made its way through the state over the last day or so. I hope everyone can enjoy the cool day or two. The weather certainly is starting out better this week, even though the heat will build in again after Monday or so. Let's enjoy the cooler day or two while we have them.

How's everyone's gardens doing? Mine is doing okay. I think it only is doing okay because I have it so heavily mulched because rain just isn't falling here, and we've had high temperatures as high as 100. Nothing much has changed since last week, so it is like the garden is in a holding pattern. We're just trying to keep it watered and mulched and hope the plants are strong enough and well enough established to make it through the never-ending heat.

I've harvested more onions as they fall over, and continue to harvest tomatoes almost daily. There's some beans to pick on Monday after Lillie goes home. Even with cooler temperatures on Sunday, I'm not going to drag her out to the garden. We might set up a wading pool in the shade and go out and play in the water though. Some jalapenos are about to reach full size and when they do, we'll harvest them. The sweet peppers aren't doing much of anything. Those plants are just sitting there sweltering in the heat. I'm thinking they might get 50% shade cloth put up over them this week.

The bush beans are holding their own against the spider mites, but didn't set any new beans last week. I'll be watching them closely to see if they set any over the next couple of days. If not, I'll yank them out. There's no use keeping the plants in the garden serving as spider mite incubators if it is so hot that the blossoms continue to drop. I don't know if a 2-day break in the heat, with only slightly cooler temperatures, is enough to make them or the tomatoes set fruit given that the heat has been so awful in general.

The okra plants are about 6-8" tall and starting to grow a little. They aren't as happy in the heat as they ought to be, but the grasshoppers have been chewing on them a lot. The Semaspore knocked back the grasshopper population a lot, and for a few days the garden seemed grasshopper-free for the most part. All those tiny grasshoppers that had been eating holes in literally every single plant in the garden disappeared. Then, as fields around us begin getting a bit brown and crispy from the heat, a whole new bunch of grasshoppers flew in from the fields, and these are about half-grown and hungry. It is going to be a very long summer.

The pole beans, bush lima beans and southern peas all are growing well and look pretty good if you ignore the grasshopper holes in the leaves, but none of them have bloomed yet. I suspect the heat is holding them back.

The squash plants are doing great and I didn't even grow them under netting this Spring. There's still no squash bugs (not that I am complaining) but I'm seeing SVB moths flying around, so it is likely that we've already got SVB grubs tunneling through the plants. I don't even care. It is too hot to care. We'll harvest squash for however long we get it, and then when they kill and destroy the plants, I'll pull up the plants, bag 'em and send them to the dump, and move on and plant something else there---probably Armenian cucumbers for the chickens. They're going to need all the moisture they can get if the summer stays relentlessly hot.

I'm starting to see an occasional cucumber beetle here and there. I squish them when I can get my hands on them. This really is a pretty good year with a very low and late-arriving population of them here. We usually have oodles of them arriving by early March and this year I didn't see any at all until late April, and only saw 1. Then, in the last week or two, I've seen a few more, but not a lot. Flea beetles are still around, but not doing enough damage to worry about.

We have assassin bugs and wheelbugs in the garden, but I'm not sure what they're eating. Hopefully they're finding something. There's also stink bugs. I hope something or someone is killing the stink bugs. They are doing a lot of damage to the tomato plants.

That's about all from here. So, let us hear about what's going on with you and your garden....your gardening life....here, in Oklahoma, in the hot summer in the city....or the suburbs, the exurbs or out in the sticks. The one thing we all have in common, in addition to being gardeners, is that we all are having relentlessly hot weather far too early.

Dawn

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LoneJack Zn 6a, KC

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Hi Okies! I haven't posted on the weekly thread for awhile because I honestly can't keep up with y'all.

We've been hot up here but so far the temps haven't been high enough to shut down fruit set, The last several days have been nice with lows getting down into the 50s. It's been on the dry side but we're getting just enough rain that with heavy mulch I haven't had to water much yet. We had a storm roll thru Saturday am. Less than 1/4" of rain but my garden had to endure 70 mph rains not once but twice, Some things got a little disheveled but nothing serious.

I'm getting good fruit set on my tomatoes and peppers and the eggplants are just starting to blossom. No blossoms on my bush beans yet but they should start pretty soon. My Yukon Gold potatoes are starting to die off pretty fast so I'll be digging those up by mid June.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

I merged 3 compost piles into 2 on Memorial day weekend and added some urea to get them cooking again. Looks like it worked pretty well !!!

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Sweet Success cukes, Guajillos, Banana and Hungarian wax, Jalapenos, and eggplants.

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Sungold is going to be a monster this year! Already 7 or 8 trusses set.

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Black Cherry is not nearly the beast that Sungold is yet.

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One bed of slicing tomatoes. 2 Big Beef, BKX, Carbon, and JD's Special C-Tex, Leeks on both edges are doing well.

Not pictured is another bed with Pork Chop, Indian Stripe, Rebel Yell, Orange Jazz, and Girl Girl's Weird Thing.

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Various sweet peppers plus a couple Poblanos. I experimented with starting some peppers a month earlier than normal and topped them about a month before planting out. The topped plants are on the near side of this bed and are loaded with fruit already even though the plants are shorter than the ones started a month later and were not topped.

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Comments (99)

jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Nancy, have fun on your trip! I'm sure your garden will do fine :-)

Dawn, the sungolds are loaded. I sure do wish I could save true seed off of a hybrid.

Jack, that's not good! I'm glad she is beginning to recover, and hopefully it stays that way. Will keep her in my prayers- and now I'll have to keep up with the website updates.

Im going to get some fall tomatoes started today. I really don't think I'll have enough garden space for them, so I'm sure I'll be planting them in containers. I have a spot behind our raised beds that I can put a few rows of container tomatoes. Will save suckers off of current plants according to Dawn's previous instructions as well as start some seed! Aiming for early July plantout for harvest starting Sept.

Have a good day everyone.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Got tomatoes at the Wednesday Market this morning. Need a day or two on the counter, but then I'm aiming for a cucumber & tomato salad...
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October 2018, Week 3, From Summer to Autumn to Winter
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November 2018, Week 1
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Comments (32)
Good Morning, Y'all. We only dropped to 28 degrees so, surprisingly, many flowering plants survived and look half-decent. When I looked at the garden around 7:45 a.m., I still could see flowers that looked fine on the Cape honeysuckle, begonias, lantanas, marigolds, some of the Texas hummingbird sage plants, mealy cup sage, autumn sage and the globe amaranth plants. The remaining herbs (rosemary, sage, chives, parsley and basil) also looked fine. Even some of the remaining zinnias looked good. Everything else probably is gone though. If the butterflies that were flitting around the garden yesterday survived the cold night, and it is likely they did, then at least they still have some flowers for nectar. Jennifer, I need to give our dogs a bath. Maybe on Monday. I have one grandchild here for the weekend, so just don't want to mess with bathing dogs while she is here. Larry, Mud has us at a standstill here as well. I'd say that I'm hoping we'll dry up in this cold, dry air, but more rain (and snow) are in the Monday forecast so I guess we'll just have more mud. You're quite a bit colder than us this morning, but then you're quite a bit further north. Our Mesonet station went to 26 but at our house the Min-Max only shows 26, and it still was at 30 when I got up at 4:40 a.m., so we really weren't at 28 degrees for more than a very few hours. A mole has tunneled across our driveway, from the neighbor's pasture to our yard. I hope he or she isn't planning on sticking around. When moles show up here, the cats usually take care of them so they normally aren't a problem for us. I kinda felt sorry for the mole having to tunnel through all the mud. Some people that I know dig up their regular potatoes with some sort of attachment they pull behind their tractors. I don't know if it is some sort of mechanical digger or what, but it merely turns over the soil and then they can easily find the potatoes. I wonder if such a thing would work with sweet potatoes? George, I bet y'all were cozy and warm with that fire going. Jen, That's a lot of dogs. Are you dog sitting? Jennifer, If you know what caused the injuries to the dog, I'd just explain it to the vet. I suppose if the vet questions why you didn't bring in the dog you could just explain you used your own holistic methods to heal the wounds? Lots of folks here that have lots of animals do a lot of the routine day-to-day doctoring of their animals (not just cows, horses and such, but farm dogs and cow dogs as well) and don't take their pets in for every injury--not if they can heal it themselves. Wherever the hair is not regrowing there probably is scar tissue. We've had that with snakebitten cats---the hair did not grow back in the snakebite area. Our cat, Shady, is 18 or 19 years old and still has a circular scar that is white flesh with no hair growing there in the same spot where he broke out in a copper-colored rash after a copperhead bit him in the abdominal/groin area when he was only a couple of years old. I just think of it as his copperhead bite scar. In the early years I did think that hair eventually would grow back there, but then it never did. Today is sunny and bright and it looks so nice outdoors, but it still is very chilly. Looks can be deceiving, I guess. The leaves on the red oaks look a brighter red this morning, so at least there's that. Everything that had yellow or golden leaves left on the trees has lost them over the last couple of days. I expect the red oaks will lose the rest of their leaves soon, although some of the red oaks have foliage that still is 95% green. It is odd how some trees are so slow to change color and lose leaves this year. There's not much consistency. The post oaks are still green too, but usually are about the last trees to lose their leaves here and some of them will hang onto their leaves all winter long before dropping them in early Spring so new leaves can emerge. We had a lot of hungry deer waiting for deer corn this morning. They remind me of cows standing near a fence waiting for the rancher to show up with cattle feed. I don't go back there and put out food for them until they've all moved far enough away from the feeding area that I feel safe. Generally, I feel safe if they've jumped the fence into the adjacent pasture and moved at least 30 to 50' away from where I feed them. Deer that are too friendly can turn dangerous in the blink of an eye, especially bucks during the rutting season, so I'm always extremely careful. I hope everyone has a good day. Dawn
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hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

Yes, Jack, post more often...especially pictures of your beautiful garden.

Nancy, how long will you be in Mpls? Yes, I've heard "fit to be tied" around here. I think it's especially fun that you're growing 13 varieties of tomatoes. Someday I'm going to do that.

Right now I have too many SunGolds (can you really have too many?) and just harvested my first two fruit! My mouth is watering just thinking about them. I avoided popping them into my mouth in the garden this morning. They will make my salad especially enjoyable at lunch. And, Hailey, several more also have the slightest blush. Very exciting for us, right? It's time to look up recipes using SunGolds. I'm going to have a LOT. Sorry, you're feeling overwhelmed by your upcoming trip. There's never enough time to get it all done. I'm amazed at folks who have time to binge watch TV shows...and a little jealous. Or those who get to read often.

I need to get my life together so I can do more of both. I keep thinking that once I get it--the garden--built (with pathways and fencing), then I'll have more time to just enjoy it all. But, who am I kidding. Once I get that done, I want to beautify the backyard. And...I was eyeballing a nice spot behind the shop. It would make a lovely giant bed for wildflowers. The ground there is as hard as a rock. I should start dumping compost there...so maybe in a few years it will be softened up a bit.

Jacob, this might be interesting for you. I've let my radishes bolt--they make a pretty little flower that the pollinators are enjoying. I haven't had time to clean out that bed. Then, noticed last night that they are making little pods--similar to a pea or bean. I suppose it's the seed pod. I ate one and it was tasty enough that I'm going to harvest them. You were asking a couple of weeks ago about a friend/neighbor whose radishes made flowers. Anyway...I'll come back with a pic in a few minutes. It's on my phone.

it put them at the beginning of my post.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jack, Thanks for letting us know about Glenn and Linda. As far as I know, George hasn't posted anything here the last few days.

Hailey, Take a deep breath and then take it one step at a time. Do what you can before you leave, and don't sweat the small stuff. Things that don't get done before your vacation can be done after you get back. Spider mites are a constant here. I even see spider mite damage on Johnson grass growing in the pastures and on bermuda grass in the yard (we didn't plant that bermuda, don't like it, wish it would die, but the spider mites do not kill it). Usually the spider mites peak in mid-July and then their population falls. I believe this happens because the population of the beneficial predatory mites that eat spider mites catches up and it reaches the point where the predatory mites are winning and the spider mite population begins decreasing. Anything still alive at that point usually outlasts the spider mites.

Jacob, Many people have tried to save seeds from SunGold, grow them out and come up with an O-P version of SunGold. So far, no one has gotten close enough to be really satisfied with what they have, but some people like the OP versions well enough, at least two of which (Sungold Select and Sungold Select II) are available commercially from, I think, Totally Tomatoes and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, respectively. FEDCO Seeds has Honeydrop, an O-P selection made out of SunGold's sister tomato, SunSugar.

Rebecca, You'll be tasting the yummy flavors of summer very soon!

Jennifer, You can have too many SunGolds, but there are worse problems to have. When I have too many for us to eat fresh, I either dehydrate them for winter eating or mix them in with larger tomatoes when making sauce or canned tomatoes.

Radish seed pods can be stir fried. The variety that is deliberately grown specifically for the seed pods is Rat-tail radish. The flowers are really pretty too. They are a great companion plant for squash plants.

I worked in the garden as long as I could---until almost 11 a.m. By the time I came in, our heat index was about to hit 100, which subsequently occurred. It is too early in the day for it to feel this bad. I harvested the last of the bush beans and pulled out the plants and put them on the compost pile. They probably would have produced a few more (but not many more) beans, but they had stink bugs and spider mites and I was tired of looking at the pitiful plants. Then I harvested more squash and a lot more tomatoes. It is getting hard to keep up on harvesting all the tomatoes in a timely manner.

We've already hit our forecast high or 93, so I'm assuming we are going to exceed that by a few degrees. I watered the containers and the flowers. Lucky is hiding under the garden shed so I can't bring her indoors. The hotter it gets, the more she likes it. She is a silly cat.

I have a huge amount of beans to go snap and string. Then I'll set some aside for dinner tonight and blanch and freeze the rest. I'm not worried that we're not going to have beans throughout the summer. The pole beans are blooming and the lima beans are about to bloom. Hopefully it won't get too hot for them to form beans, but if it does, we have southern peas on the verge of blooming now. Having the crops mature one after another in sequence as planned/expected is the reward for somehow managing to get them all planted at more or less the right time despite the wacky weather. Sometimes things go wrong and all the beans are ready for harvest at the same time. I'm glad that didn't happen this year.

Dawn
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Hazel, RE radishes, that's really interesting. I just planted some earlier today in an empty bed, so I may have to let some go to seed and try it.

Dawn, I've seen some who save the Sungold suckers over the winter and plant them in the spring. Could be interesting.

I got a lot done this morning so far. Soaked some Pruden's Purple and also what was labeled as "German red and yellow" tomatoes for fall crop. I'm thinking the German is an Old German. I'll get them out of the fertilizer later today and sow them. Also did other random things that needed done outside.

Some of my tomatoes are really loading up on fruit. I fertilized again today and watered them in as it's super dry out. Still no rain on my 10 day forecast. I even tried a 14 day yesterday and see none. Not good.

What I do today will probably be fairly limited- I'm got an awful soreness in my chest area and I'm not sure why. Started this morning. I feel better if I'm up working though, not babying it. I don't have any shortness of breath so it doesn't feel like a chest infection at all to me....feels more like my bones are super sore. I'm wondering if I've just been doing too much lately.

86 here today but low humidity as is the norm recently so really it feels quite pleasant.

Gotta go eat some weeds after I eat lunch (that's how I say I've gotta use the whipper snipper by the way), maybe clean out some chicken manure. I'd love to get some posts driven for my cucumber trellis as well but that may wait for another day.

Good day
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Groan. . . . lost my post from earlier, and so so sleepy now. . . I'm reading along, at least. Enjoying your posts!
hazelinok
5 years ago
So sorry, Nancy. That is so lame when posts are lost. I hope you can get some rest.

SunGold talk. So, I have several volunteers coming up where the SunGolds were planted last year. These are not true SunGolds? Even though they came from a "true" SunGold fruit. I really am ignorant of this subject.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
I never have understood that either Hazel. It would make sense that the seed from a specific fruit would breed true, right? What makes a hybrid different from an open pollinated tomato being crossed? Two open pollinated tomatoes can cross and their resulting fruit will still produce true seed....Confusing. Guess I have something new to research.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
It was nice to see you here, Jack. Your plants look great; this is quite a different year than last year. . . . I'm seeming to remember you had a lot of rain and flooding. . . ? (We had awfully heavy rains. The difference in our plants this year is amazing.) Although folks aren't getting moisture and it's probably going to get brutal, I think we're going to have good production compared to last year. I'll wave when I go past you through Missouri on Friday.

I hope you're not getting the flu, Jacob. Be well. I enjoyed seeing part of your yard and the beds. Those are some big raised beds! Haha. . . take it easy whipper snippering if you're not feeling well. So very cool your folks thought to nab the seeds to keep in your family. What a treasure. Obviously the gardening runs through your veins.

Dawn, I'm glad your beds are mulched heavily and in pretty good shape, since it is so beastly hot for you. Doesn't it make a world of difference. Thanks to you, in part, mine are also pretty heavily mulched and have been much easier to deal with; and I just keep piling the clippings and mulch on where there are spaces. There was a gentleman on FB warning about too much mulch. . . but when the beds are as big as some of these are, no worry about over mulching. There would hardly be a time when I'd have as much as 8 inches of mulch piled around. I'm feeling good about getting 3-4 inches of mulch everywhere around the yard. Until this fall, maybe, when I'll add bunches more mulched leaves. Still, the mulch just has a way of breaking down and disappearing. . . funny how that happens. :)

We were discussing the recalibrating of our brains with the early summer after Rebecca brought it up. I also have to constantly recalibrate, remembering I do not live where you do. I am not going to be preserving red tomatoes yet and that's okay. (Now next week while I'm gone will be a different story, as I know some will be ready. I think GDW will be tickled to pick them--what he'll do then is the question.)

I'm wishing now I had beans. But don't and will see about fall beans. . . . don't know the timing, so will have to check that out. Garden grown beans are like garden grown tomatoes. Maybe fewer tomatoes and peppers next year and then back to beans, peas and brassica.

And the garlic tricked me. I was thinking they could wait until I got back to get them up; today, I think maybe I'd better get them tomorrow. Rats. I'll do a couple and then decide whether it's all or wait.

Loved the radish idea, HJ, of letting them go to seed. I did that with many greens when GDW couldn't eat them at the time they were ready. . . so I just let them go. They flowered prettily and saw the pollinators liking them.

HJ, was supposed to be in Mpls 9 days, with a day on end for travel. Ten days was a long time. Yay, plan changed. DIL in Mpls called today to say the ball tournament I had to stay for was cancelled; but on the upside, the grandson is on another league who is having back-to-back double headers next Mon-Tues and right in their back yard! Well technically, through their back gate and walking a couple hundred feet to the school baseball diamond. HA!!!! I was so excited I was squealing with delight. That will be SO much fun!!! Like the old times with them. The high school/junior high has the whole city block behind the row of houses we lived in (they still do.) The main building wasn't behind us, but rather all the playing fields. . . it was like a giant park area behind the house. Very fun. So up to see Evyn graduate from high school, and then Westie's ball games. And so now I'll plan to come back a week from Friday. So GDW will only have to be in charge of everything for a week instead of 10 days. LOL He laughed, too. Bummed he can't go with me. He is feeling so much better, I think I can finally say he is back. And I will have a blast with the kids and friends up north this next week. So excited to see everyone. So sad I won't be here for the wedding with the rest of them. Very rude of two granddaughters to have a graduation and wedding on the same weekend without consulting each other and us. LOL

I have no idea how I managed life when I was working 50 or so hours a week. I certainly don't have any time for anything now. My head's spinning. I was doing "save the garden" prep stuff today--watering, moving containers to a safe place (lol), last minute mulching. making a list for Garry of gardening and garden things to watch for. Typing up the list, realized I was out of printer ink, so we had to run to town for the second time today for printer ink. . . then what the heck, Mexican at Lopez Grille! First trip this morning, I got gas, a few groceries, cat food, got all the way back to our turnoff (6 miles) and realized I forgot to pay the water bill, so turned around, went back, did that. Meanwhile dealing with well-meaning Windstream folks on continuing problems, other stuff, laundry, cleaning car, blah blah. It was one of those "good thing my head is attached well or it would have certainly fallen off and gotten lost under mulch" kind of days.

And the plants are NOW going crazy. Tomatoes are as tall as I am now and blossoms everywhere; peppers MUST be caged or staked tomorrow and are like, "WOW--look at ME" all of a sudden. Gotta whack off the comfry and tansy tomorrow and spread the remains probably in the empty onion beds.

Sure hope my audio books that were supposed to be here today, come tomorrow. . . . Love and laughter, friends.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
It is all of a sudden, a jungle out there. . . I can't imagine what I'll be coming home to in a week. . . loving the ammi majus. Here's part of the jungle from NE/N central green country.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
I think Houzz cut me off. And here's the new enchantment for me, the Ammi. Aren't they pretty! I tell you, this gardening in Oklahoma Green Country is something else!!!
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Looking at pictures, I still feel like most of y'all are ahead of my, for a lot of things. Dawn is a given, but Nancy, you're way ahead. My nicotiana aren't anywhere close to blooming yet. And they're in mostly sun.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Well, Rebecca, are yours new this year? I have some new ones that are blooming, but most have re-seeded from 2 years ago. Strange that mine are so far ahead of yours, isn't it? Wonder how that could be. Crazy.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
I'm singing in the rain, singing in the rain. Be glad you can't hear me, I cant carry a tune in a bucket. I thought we were going to be in a donut hole for a while. But rain is falling off and on now.

Went back to Smashed Thumb yesterday. I decided I needed succulents for one of the front planters. These planters are from some kind of cast iron oil field tank. Welded to a pipe and set in the ground. (They came with the house.) Over the last 26 years, they've sunk deeper and deeper. He can no longer mow under them. He says he's going to move them, so I've been ignoring them. There's sedum ground cover (and weeds) in one that is too far to reach with the hose. I bought some succulents to fill out the holes. We'll see. Since we cut the trees down the yard is ugly. The other planter, which is in front of the house, will have moss roses and ice plants in it. It won't help with the fact that there's no grass, but maybe I will feel better.

Honey caught a rabbit, and brought it in the house. She could not understand why we took her toy.

I ordered a different cooling shirt than the one I linked, based on reviews I read. I'll let you know if they're miraculous or not ;)

Jacob, Four O'clocks reseed even if the original plant doesn't make it. A little mulch would probably take care of the mother plant. The patch gets bigger every year, an might be agressive, so keep that in mind.

Jack, I'm sorry to hear about Linda at Sandhill's health issues. I hope she is better soon!

Radish seed pods are the only thing radish I'll eat.

If the seed from 2 open pollinated plants cross they make a hybrid. Like the Cherokee Carbons that are a cross of Cherokee Purple and Carbon. It's a wonderful tomato, but saved seeds won't produce the same tomato. It may be good, but it won't be the same. I have heard it takes 6 to 9 generations before a crossed tomato can be considered a new variety of OP. Cherokee Purple often throws mutations, that have then been selected and eventually become a "new" variety. Here's a link on tomato breeding. I follow a couple of breeders on Face Book. It's interesting.

Nancy, those Ammi are very cool!

I don't know how much rain we finally got. I've been working on this post for more than an hour off and on.

Later friends.
hazelinok
5 years ago
I checked my weather app when I woke up this morning, like I always do (and take a dumb playbuzz quiz as they always seem to show up on FB first thing in the morning and it's important to know which maternal goddess I am OR what livestock is my Southern Spirit Animal OR what country I should be queen of...to start my day.) Showed 0 rain, so got up and did my normal routine. On the way to work, it started sprinkling and the lightning was following me! It was so close so many times...finally just a little north of Indian Hills on Penn it hit right in front of me and sent up smoke. Scary.

That's a first for me.

Then something hit our building and it went haywire around here for a bit...but the loud squealing thing is fixed now. Alarm system?

Anyway...I'm glad for the rain. Ethan sent a pic and it looks flooded at our place. Luckily he went home from the gym and brought the dogs in.

I have a mental block to understanding the tomato thing...maybe I'm not smart enough for it? I understand that a fruit can be pollinated from another type of tomato, right? So a Sungold fruit could be pollinated from an Early Girl? But the fruit still tastes like a SunGold BUT it's seeds are something else. OR do I have that all wrong?

Rebecca, everyone is way ahead of me too. Amy, Dawn, Jacob, and Nancy...and everyone else who has posted pics.

Nancy, your property is just lovely. And that Ammi! Whoa! So pretty.

Okay. I should eat my lunch and get back to work.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Nancy, the nicotianas are new (one from you, two from my starts). Not much reseeded this year, if anything. No morning glories. The gallardia either reseeded some or came back. Purple coneflowers came back. That's about it.

Getting rain here. I probably won't check the ran gauge until tomorrow. At least I won't have to water this weekend now, just feed. And fungicide things. Daylilies have popped up.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
OKC friends, need any help with your arks? Check in.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Questions about all the pretty orange lilies I see in clumps in yards. Does bermuda and Johnson grass grow up in those clumps? Can you mow them down? One place says use them as a ground cover where you don't want to mow. It would offend DH if grass grew in the clumps. We used to have a couple in the drainage ditch, but the city has managed to kill anything pretty out there.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, SunGold is a hybrid meaning at least two parents (there can be more thanks to modern-day plant breeding) are crossed with one another to produce the seed. So, it takes input from Parent A and Parent B to create the F-1 (first filial generation) seed that we'll plant in order to have SunGold plants. When SunGold fruits set seed, it is not the same seed you get from crossing Parent A with Parent B., so it is second filial generation, or F-2 seed. With F-2 seed, if you save it and plant it, you may get anything. You may get fruit that looks like SunGold but doesn't quite have the flavor, or you may get (and people often do) red cherry tomatoes that do not resemble SunGold. You may get decent fruit, but weak plants that lack hybrid vigor. The genes can resort themselves in each seed that forms, so you can get almost anything. This is one reason why hybrid seed tends to cost more---because of the work involved in raising all those parent plants every year, crossing them and getting the seed. With F-2 seeds saved from SunGold, some people plant a lot of them, wait to see what they get, then save the best seed to replant and try again. Some people have carried out SunGold for 7 or 8 generations but so far do not have a dehybridized stable O-P version of SunGold that is as good as the F-1 hybrid. The parents of hybrid tomatoes tend to be a very closely guarded trade secret so that other companies cannot recreate an F-1 hybrid and sell it under another name.

Jacob, No, hybrids do not breed true (though occasionally they accidentally do, which opens another can of worms) because every single time you need to create hybrid seed, you have to cross the parent plants again. Think of it in terms of children. When parents have children, unless they produce identical twins or triplets (or quads or quints), each child will get DNA from each parent but in each child the genes resort in a unique way so that each child is unique from his or her siblings. It is the same with plants. Now, there are plenty of stable, open-pollinated plants that reproduce true from seed, but they aren't hybrids.

In terms of tomatoes, most of the pollination and fertilization occurs internally within the flower before it even blooms. This is because the tomato flowers are perfect (they have both male and female parts within the flower) and pollinate themselves, and it is why O-P varieties tend to come true from saved seed. However, insects can come along and travel from plant to plant and variety to variety, moving pollen from one flower to another causing insect-induced pollination and this explains why occasionally someone will plant saved seed from an O-P variety and get fruit that is not the same as the plant from which they had saved the seed. It can get even more complicated with the O-P types that have exerted stigmas that make cross-pollination extra-easy so folks who are saving seeds from varieties with exerted stigmas (or plants growing near them) have to bag their blossoms before they open to prevent accident/unwanted cross-pollination.

Sometimes a great hybrid disappears because the owner of the breeding rights somehow messes up and losses a part of the breeding stock that is irreplaceable. More often, seed companies just drop older hybrids in order to push some of the newer ones.

Nancy, Everything looks great and so green! We are already so brown and I'm sure that today's rain will miss us too because, y'all know, it never rains in southern Oklahoma in the summer time.

Amy, I'm glad you're getting rain. I wish we were. Well, maybe not today. The doe has left the fawn bedded down beside my garden for the day while the doe goes off to feed, and that fawn absolutely does not move one inch from the spot where mama leaves him or her. So, I'm not sure if the fawn would get up and go into the woods to seek shelter from the rain or not. I'd hate for it to just lie out there in a thunderstorm. The fawn, by the way, is left in an area that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, so the doe knows what she is doing because she doesn't leave it where it will be in the hot sun in the afternoon.

I believe the breeding info you linked is from Keith Mueller's website. His tomato varieties are some of my favorites. I just adore Gary 'O Sena.

Jennifer, The current year's tomatoes are pollinated/fertilized internally inside the flowers before they bloom, and the only way cross-pollination occurs is if insects transfer additional pollen from one variety to another after the flower has pollinated and fertilized internally but before the blossom falls off the tomato plant as the fruit forms. Insect-induced cross-pollination of tomatoes really isn't all that common which is why most people can easily save seed of open-pollinated varieties so successfully. So, this year's tomatoes from an F-1 plant would be true to type. You'd have to save seed from this year's cross-pollinated fruit, if cross-pollination of an F-1 hybrid even did occur, plant it and then possibly get fruit from a cross-pollinated seed. Unless the cross-pollination causes the fruit shape, size or color to change, you likely won't even know your seed was crossed.

I'm glad you got rain this morning and glad Ethan went home and let the dogs in. I bet the dogs were thrilled to get indoors.

Rebecca, Daylilies have popped up. Do you mean the leaves just emerged or that the blossoms are appearing? My daylilies are about to finish blooming, all of them....all 5 or 6 varieties that I have. None of mine are late-season daylilies though so they usually finish up well before the end of June. I might have daylily blooms for another week on some of the varieties and then they'll be done for this year.

I need to get back outside and do some more work. I have been doing more of the endless weeding and some deadheading, and I haven't done any harvesting yet. At least we are a little overcast so we are a bit cooler than usual---only 90 degrees and a heat index of 96 so far, so I think we're benefitting from the rain-cooled air to our north, even if we are not getting any rain ourselves.

Dawn
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Daylilies have buds but not blooming.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
No rain here either. Too bad. Isn't that odd? You Okies are getting rain but we aren't! :-)

Thanks for all of the info RE hybrids/OP plants Dawn. That clears up a lot! Now you've made me want to start experimenting with creating hybrids. I may cross some tomatoes that I like certain characteristics of this summer and try it.

Nancy, your garden looks great! I love all the flowers. I'm certainly growing more flowers next year, and I'm sure I'll be coming to either you or Dawn for advice! lol

The person I got my garlic cloves from last year may just have some elephant garlic this year, so I'm probably going to try and buy some off of her for planting. And I also would like to get some hardneck cloves to plant this fall as well. I'm loving garlic now.

That old tomato seed I put in yesterday? Well, it's already looking like it's beginning to sprout. I have it soaking with the paper towel method....and of course I had soaked it in fertilizer as per Dawn's instructions.

Fall cabbages are so tricky to start in the summer. They do fine with morning sun/afternoon shade, but they are very weak at the seedling leaf stage at this time of year and if not tended to correctly, burn up so easily. I'm glad mine are finally developing some true leaves, and I'm sure potting up is not too far off.

Sweet corn coming up, loosening up a bed for winter squash transplants today. Yesterday I managed to get the cucumber trellis set up, and I need to get the pole beans a trellis to climb maybe later today if time permits. I'm not sure if I have any string left though, so it depends.

That chest thing I had yesterday has improved today. Thank goodness; I really don't wanna be sick right now lol.

My tomatoes are also LOADED now. And I also had the first Sungold ripen overnight....That was the absolute best tomato I have ever had in my life!

Northwestern portion of my garden. Set to get to 90 today.
Lisa_H OK
5 years ago
I am safe 10 floors up, but Mia posted a pic of 4.5 inches. She doesn't live far from me. I'll have to check the gauge tonight when I get home. The pics they are showing from Penn and Memorial (around WM) are just north of my area. It was so dark here, it could have been 10:00 p.m.. I'm grateful for the rain. We certainly need it.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Rebecca, I bet they'll be blooming before you know it.

Jacob, SOME Okies are getting rain, but not all of us are. (grin) The weather did drive me indoors---strong wind, a 10-degree temperature drop (it felt so good), thunder and lightning. I am still waiting for the rain. If you were to look at radar now, it looks like we are getting pounded with rain, but no rain yet. I think it eventually will rain because the thunder really is picking up and the lightning is crashing all around us. Our 13 year old dog, Jet, is barking back at the thunder because that is what he's done ever since he got old and apparently senile.

I'm glad your chest thing from yesterday has improved.

It sounds like your garden is doing really well. Ours is suffering really badly in this heat and particularly the lack of rainfall. I've never seen so many spider mites and stink bugs this early in the summer, or so many tiny grasshoppers and crickets. I don't know if a rain shower or thunderstorm would help with any of them, but with the cooler air this afternoon and, really, all of today, maybe I'll get tomatoes and beans to set on the plants.

Before the lightning forced me indoors, I was having a very successful day out there. I had killed six or seven stinkbugs by smashing them or crushing them, and that alone makes it a successful day. I weeded several of the beds and pathways and most of the east fenceline and watched the fawn watching me. I hope the doe comes back and gets it before the rain starts. I broadcast sowed some dill and fennel seeds along the north fenceline and in the asparagus bed, hoping some will sprout in order to grow and provide late-summer food for the swallowtail caterpillars. I'm pretty sure the dill and parsley we have for them now will be gone from the garden by the end of June. My lilies are blooming and I was cutting back the Laura Bush petunias because they'd gotten about 4' tall and 4' wide and were swallowing up everything around them. I cut them back hard. They'll rebloom in no time. I only got about half of them done before the weather went downhill, but tomorrow is another day. I checked the squash plants for squash bugs and found none. No signs of SVB grubs either, though I've seen the moths around. Thus, I'm certain the plants surely have grubs tunneling through them, but there's no outward signs yet and no entry holes I could find. It just seems inevitable though. Right before the storm hit, all the hummingbirds went nuts. I now know exactly which trees have nests in them because they became a beehive of activity. I'm sure the hummers were preparing to cover up their babies and protect the from the rain, which just began falling. Yay! It is so exciting to get rain in June that I just want to sit and stare out the window at it.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
:) You do that, Dawn. Just sit, stare and ENJOY!!
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Amy, YOU know Bermuda grows through everything. It loves the daylilies, as it can hide and flourish in them and I can't get it. Naa naa, it's saying to me. I'm pulling the biggest clump of day lilies out in July though, after it quits blooming, and then I'll have my revenge.

Rebecca, two varieties of my daylilies don't have any spathes yet. Their bloom time isn't for another couple weeks. The stella d'oros bloom early--they began blooming a couple weeks ago. (Well, same day as Dawn's did. LOL)
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Nancy, I did enjoy the rain, but our weather still is broken here. We got at least three hours of thunder and lightning, and the lightning just wouldn't go away, even long after the rain portion of the storm was dozens of miles south of us. With that 3 hours of noise and light, we got about 0.35" of rain and most of it fell in a pretty brief period of time so that for most of the time we only had lightning and thunder. Not a lot to get excited about, but it is 0.35" more than I expected to get. The best thing was that the temperatures fell so much and stayed so cool for so long. It was a lovely break. Now, if only we could somehow get as much rain as thunder and lightning.

Of course, without fail, the fire pagers went off for a grass fire, ignited by lightning. This was when rain actually was falling, so by the time firefighters got to the grass fire, the rain had pretty much put it out. Then we got paged out to a wreck and then a medical call. It was all quiet for us until the rain came along....I wonder why we can't just have a nice rain storm without all the drama sometimes.

I believe Bermuda grass could grow through concrete.

My stellas are on their last blooms, but all the other varieties still have more coming along.

Well, what the heck. There's a big clap of thunder and lightning just now. What in the world? I need to go look at the radar.

Dawn
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
The radar shows a little storm approaching from the north, which does not appear to have much rain in it. Then, there's a big line of storms to the west/southwest with a lot of red in the radar. That might be promising and I think that is the line of storms we were told would arrive very late tonight. I don't consider this very late at night, but we'll take whatever rain we can get however/whenever it arrives. I hope this is not another one of those rainstorms that is all hat (noise) and no cowboy (rain). The garden needs more rain.
hazelinok
5 years ago
I'm glad you had a cooler day and a bit of rain, Dawn. We didn't get the ridiculous amounts that some others just down the road got, but we got over an inch and a half. Not too shabby. I wish I could have been home this afternoon to pull weeds.

I won't have time to work in the garden tomorrow night, but will on Saturday. I have to balance my introverted-work-at-home personality with Tom's extroverted-go-out-with-friends personality. We are going to dinner with friends tomorrow night and doing the Norman art walk.

I bought my running shoes tonight...so no excuses. I will start tomorrow.

The echinacea tincture is coming along. I added flowers and buds tonight.

I start my fast on Monday. If I act or post weird...please forgive me. These have been so good for me in the past...and I hope they have the same effect now.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Darn I hate that all hat no cowboy thing. Yep, my stellas still in sync with yours, Dawn. Last blooms. . . but I don't have as many plants and flowers as you do, so I deadheaded them a few times. . . . there will be more, as there were last year.

hahaha. . . re Bermuda. Well I know this. It can grow under a gravel driveway and then up through 12" of raised bed soil. No prob. I have the stubborn little monsters in my full sun raised flower bed.

I've also cut back a couple clumps of LB petunias--mine are mostly in containers, though there are a few escapees out in the beds.

Oh RATS. I have to plant the cholla segments in the morning before I leave! Wow. Glad I remembered that. AlTHOUGH, I bet I could get GDW to do it and he would be so proud of HIS cactus when it works. Good idea, N. I'm going with that.

We got probably 115 drops of this rain. So congrats to the rest of you. Looks I may be running into showers in NE OK tomorrow morning on the way out,.

I'll have to check out your singing voice, Amy. We'll have a couple of toddies and then break into song.

I'm so pleased for you all that you got some much needed rain. If you're there, Kim. . . check in!

Jacob! Those tomato seeds. AMAZING! Hahaha! Those are some strong tomato seeds! And thought of you with the garlic. Me TOO, loving the garlic!! We dug them all up today. Maybe a tiny bit early, but close enough. We had close to half, beautiful big bulbs, the rest ranging from very small to medium. I was pleased since I planted more than enough. GDW is certain they'll last a year. Not. lol

Yeah, Sungolds are like candy. I am beside myself with all our tomatoes this year. I really hate leaving for a week. . . I mean love the kids, can hardly wait to see them but why not 2 weeks ago or 3 weeks from now. . . not THIS week!

I have a cat giving me some real attitude. Laughing so hard. I let them in half an hour or so ago, and then I came out, so Tom decided HE wanted back out and tried to weasel through the door. I scolded him and said, "NO, you are NOT going out." He growled like attack mode. I laughed and said, "NO! You are NOT!" Then it was that strange half meow half growl like they do when they're about to get into a fight with another cat or dog, and I leaned down and said, "No no no no." He was still giving me lip; I laughed, and petted him and he grumbled and growled and carried on and on. I've never had a cat do that with me, and it was hysterical. He is a funny funny character. And his brother is my little shadow outdoors if he's not climbing trees or wrestling with or playing tag with Tom. Jerry is interested in every aspect of gardening. Titan and the cats were out in the back yard today, all 3 of them traveling the boundaries of their immediate back yard together, I wish I'd had a video of it. SO cute.

So so busy today, doing last minute gardening things, writing out gardening guide for Garry while I'm gone, packing, blah blah. I told GDW about 2:30 today that the very next thing I was going to do was go wash my hair. Five minutes later, I threw a load of clothes in the washer and asked him if he'd help me to dig up the garlic. We did that, then I whacked off the comfrey and tansy and spread it in empty beds; then I had to check out the tomatoes, of course, and stake up a couple of the peppers. Then had to pull up a few weeds. Then had to finish mopping the dining room floor. Then had to call SIL in Wyoming about grave markers. Then, then then. I just washed my hair about an hour ago. GDW has caught on to the fact that when I tell him what I'm going to do next, it almost never happens that way.

HJ--just saw your post--how long do you fast? I love not eating! I'm always more energetic. So my once a day meal works out really well for me, all good advice from the health folks notwithstanding. For most of my life I bought it. What tipped me off to how I am is when I had a 4 day job and spent the other 3 days painting. On the painting days, I never even thought about eating until about 5 pm. (I have never ever, even as a child, done well with breakfast, no matter what it consisted of.)

I don't think one could reasonably mow down day lilies if a reasonable clump exists. Don't really think it'd be possible. . . never have cut mine down. I like the greenery. Has anyone else? I would think they need their green leaves to keep them healthy and productive.

My two biggest wonders this week are that Garry Dean is feeling GOOD and healthy, and is eating up a storm and working too hard. A long 4-5 months. And second, Windstream crew of 2 crackerjacks were here for 3 hours today. Went through the property and house with their fine-toothed combs. Bad wire/connection from our inside box to the modem. So Mr. Electrician/tech killed the old shorted-out phone line, put in a new phone line, put a jack on it and set the modem up on the top shelf in the art room, the line went right over the door, was only about 10 feet long. And we haven't lost the signal once today since, and not only that, they upped the speed to 12. We sailed along all day, with both TVs on, running Roku and both computers running, just to give it a good tryout. And for Windstream, it has been a long year or so. I had to get really ugly before they gave us their best, before I found the right people. I owe a lot to four GOOD people--the lady on Windstream FB, the Tier 2 tech she put me in touch with, and the two good good guys who were out today.

A very good week, indeed, and now the gardens are exploding. Life is good. Blessings to you all! I won't really be gone from HERE, just gone from home.
luvncannin
5 years ago
Nancy I am here. Just lurking right now. Trying to get my head straight. I have tried posting several times nothing comes out right. Have a safe trip wish I could go to Minnesota or anywhere right now lol
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Nancy, I hope you have a safe trip! You know, gardens are ornery sometimes. That is why yours is behaving the way it is right not---it wants you to regret leaving it. If you were leaving in 2 weeks or 3 weeks it would be doing the same thing at that point in time. This whole thing with all the tomatoes threatening to color up and be ready while you're gone is the equivalent of the cat growling at you because you told him no. There will be plenty of tomatoes waiting for you when you get back, so just enjoy your trip knowing you have a great garden and a healthy hubby to come home to, not to mention two cats and one dog who will really miss their mom and shower you with love and affection when you get home.

I'm glad GDW is feeling so much better. I know it has been a long few months and this is great news that his recovery finally has progressed to the point that he feels so good again.

So, your internet problem ended up being resolved just like ours---with a new cable. It makes me crazy that both of us had prolonged issues for quite some time and yet nobody thought to check that cable. The important thing is that it now is fixed and life can get back to normal.

I agree about leaving daylily and all other plant foliage alone to grow after the bloom period ends. That foliage is essential in order for the roots to be able to store up enough energy for next year's blooms. The only reason I'd remove green foliage would be if I was trying to make something go away on purpose. For example, if you mow cannas down to the ground over and over again weekly, they do stop coming back after a while, so that's one way to get rid of unwanted cannas instead of having to dig them out.

Sometimes I lose track of which day it is. Yesterday was one of those. Chris and his family stopped by for a while and we were talking about Lillie's swimming lessons ending today and that's when I realized yesterday was Thursday.....and I hadn't even checked the Drought Monitor yesterday morning. So, a while after they left, I got on the computer and looked, and my area had gone from the white drought-free color to the yellow pre-drought color classified as Abnormally Dry. This was not a surprise. I'd been expecting it for the last 2 or 3 weeks, and yesterday's piddly amount of rain was not enough to kick us back out of the yellow on next week's Drought Monitor either. At least the Drought Monitor caught up to my perception that we have been abnormally dry here. So for those of you who might be teetering on the edge of drought like I was, here's this week's Drought Monitor.

Oklahoma Drought Monitor

And, for a look at the big picture, here's the U. S. Drought Monitor Map:

U S Drought Monitor

Kim, I'm glad you're lurking, but please keep posting and letting us know how you're doing so we won't be worrying about you.

Jennifer, Honestly, I feel like you and I are better off with our rain amounts that are not so ridiculously high. While getting the rain is nice, that much rain at once can cause lots of garden problems like cracking tomatoes and melons, watering down their flavor tremendously and just flat ruining it if they are close to ripening, diseases, etc. So much rain at once even can cause physiological leaf curl and even can clog the roots with water temporarily (especially in poorly-draining soils) impacting the roots' ability to take up oxygen and nutrients. Oh, and that can lead to BER on tomatoes that were fine before. So, let's be happy with our smaller rain amounts because we ought to be able to avoid the complications caused by too much rain at once.

Enjoy your night out! I enjoy getting out occasionally, but am such a hermit that I still tend to be happier at home. We did all that socializing when we were younger and I enjoyed it then, but at this stage in our lives, I'm just as happy without it. Part of it probably is Tim's long commute. By the time he arrives home between 6:45 and 7:00 p.m. 5 days a week, the last thing he wants or needs is to go anywhere since his bedtime is so early due to that long commute, and our weekends are always crazy busy just with chores and errands.

I do socialize. For example, when the doe leaves that baby fawn to sleep beside the eastern edge of my garden every day, I talk to the fawn occasionally as I work around the garden so it will be used to the sound of my voice. It lifts its head and looks at me but does not speak back to me. Does this count as socializing? : )

I hope today's weather is pleasant, but I fear that all the wet ground in the state means we're likely to having higher humidity values and probably higher heat index values. That's not a good thing. On the other hand, maybe the rain-cooled air means we'll stay a couple of degrees cooler than previously expected.

I have to harvest more squash today. With no squash bugs and no SVBs so far, the plants are going nuts in terms of producing. Of course, we all know that SVBs can end the squash season in the blink of an eye, so I just intend to enjoy the squash for as long as it lasts. The pole beans are blooming right on schedule, so I have no regrets about taking out the spider mite-infested bush beans this week. The lima beans have buds and will start blooming in about 3 or 4 days, and the southern peas have buds but might be a couple more days behind the lima beans. At some people's houses everything might be coming up roses, but at our house everything is coming up legumes, and I'm glad.

The two okra plants hit by herbicide drift last week look pretty bad and may not recover. I'm trying to be patient and wait to see if they will outgrow the damage, but they look so awful that I'm tempted to pull them. I didn't plant that many okra plants in the first place since I had to squeeze them into the front garden after deciding not to plant the back garden (not a decision I regret either), but at least the variety I'm growing is Stewart's Zeebest and it produces tons of pods per plant, so losing those two plants won't be the end of the world if they don't make it. Everything else hit by the drift looks pretty good and likely will survive. I hope all my neighbors are done spraying. It is too hot to spray herbicides now, as the heat makes them drift so much more readily in the form of a vapor that settles on plants far from the target area. Too many people just buy a herbicide and spray it (or hire someone to spray one) without reading the labels and understanding how much damage it can do to other peoples' plants nearby. Based on my experiences with drift here every year, I know too many people are spraying when it is too hot, too windy or at too fine of a mist. It irritates me that our garden is constantly damaged by the actions of other people, but we sure cannot control what others do.

Have a great day everyone!

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Nancy, my fast isn't really a fast of all foods. (I have done that on occasion for a specific purpose usually for focus or some spiritual reason.) This fast is raw fruits and veggies--sorta like a juice fast, only I like to eat the entire fruit. Usually I'll do it for 10 days and slowly add stuff back in each day--Ezekiel Bread, then an egg, then yogurt. My skin usually improves during this time as well. Starting on the 11th (after my BD) and breaking fast on Summer Solstice just feels right to me. These times also help me get refocused. Have you ever done the Daniel Fast?

My area shows to not be in drought at all. Hmmm...

Good to see you, Kim.

I still do not quite understand the tomato thing. I'll have to study up on it. How do the people who make a hybrid like SunGold pollinate/cross their plants, if tomatoes are mostly self pollinating? I'm probably making this more complicated than it is...but that's what I do.

It is freezing in my office! I'm going to have to drag out my space heater.
luvncannin
5 years ago
Oh don't worry about me. I have had worse happen to me and I always come back. Ready to tear into it again. It seems to take longer the older i get lol.

Talked to a gardening buddy. She used to live in Tulsa, and Germany. She would fit in with us well. She understands that me without a real garden is like not breathing right. I am watching them break ground for the building.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, I am sure they hand-pollinate to produce the hybrid seeds. They'd have to do that to overcome the plants' ability to self-pollinate and self-fertilize and I assume it is enormously labor-intensive. The production of most seeds sold in this country now is done in certain foreign countries where poor people work for incredibly low wages. Otherwise, I suspect none of us could afford to buy hybrid seeds because of the labor involved in producing them.

For anyone who wants to go in-depth on tomato breeding, here's some great, detailed info on how it can be done.

How To Breed Tomatoes For Organic Agriculture

By the time the U. S. Drought Monitor finally shows us in the 'Abnormally Dry' category, I've been waiting and watching and agonizing over the dry conditions for ages. I feel like they are further behind in reporting it than I am in living it, but we have to remember that the Monitor reports on broad-scale conditions over a larger area, while each of us lives in/gardens in a very small area, comparatively speaking.

Tim and Chris both have the same issue at work most of the time, and they work in different buildings. It seems like their buildings are always freezing cold in summer and burning up in winter. You'd think we could make HVAC systems in this country that properly maintain a building temperature even when the building in question is a large commercial building.

Kim, What kind of building are you watching someone put up?

I worked in the garden this morning, and spent this afternoon making Chris an Italian Cream Cake (from scratch, of course) for his birthday. It has been a pretty pleasant day, likely because I made sure to come indoors before the heat index got too high. I think it was only 93 when I came in, and then it peaked at 102 and has since fallen a little bit. The weather still is a lot better this week than last week when the actual temperature hit 100. I'm over summer weather. Just totally over it and looking forward to autumn, which right now seems like it is a million light years away.

Dawn
luvncannin
5 years ago
The building is the

on farm commercial kitchen / classroom/ veggie processing area. It is a u shaped building with the greenhouse centered at the legs of the u. Inside the u will be a court yard full of medicinal herbs and edible flowers. It really is a nice vision.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
This seems like a dumb question to me, and I feel like I should know this, but how do I tell the difference between potato plants dying back naturally, and potato plants dying of something else? I'm seeing yellowing of lower leaves and a lot of leaf roll.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Kim, It sounds nice. This is the farm where you worked and still live? I didn't know they were building a new building.

Rebecca, It is not a dumb question at all and I think most of us have the same issue. I think it is almost impossible to tell the difference between potato plants dying back naturally or developing a disease. It all looks pretty much the same to me. When they die back naturally, they just begin turning yellow and gradually turn brown and the foliage wilts or collapses and they look dead. .Then they are ready to harvest. With a disease, about the only difference that is very obvious would be if yellow leaves are developing with some sort of spots on them that indicate something like bacterial spot, bacterial speck or Early Blight. With a more serious disease like Late Blight there are obvious brown lesions on green leaves and the whole plant wilts, browns and collapses almost overnight and you usually cannot save the tubers because they rot even after being harvested. Late Blight is rare in our climate because it needs colder weather in order to develop.

I just watch my potatoes when they start yellowing and I try to rule out the obvious things like Early Blight, bacterial speck or bacterial spot. (Essentially potatoes can get all the same diseases as tomatoes.) I compare how long the potatoes have been in the ground to each variety's DTM, and if we are at about the time of the year that they should be reaching maturity based on their DTMs, I assume they have begun dying back naturally. One thing I have noticed is that if they are dying back naturally, it seems to be a somewhat slower process than if they've been hit by a disease. Diseases also seem to hit more randomly whereas all the plants of a particular variety will start fading away together, more or less, as they near maturity.

If you have enough plants that you can sacrifice one, I'd pull one and dig for tubers and see if there are any. If you don't have enough to sacrifice one plant, I'd wait and be patient and let them die on their own.

Y'all have been pretty dry up there during the time the potatoes have been in the ground, right? If that is the case, and if it seems too early for your plants to be dying back naturally, maybe they've just gotten too dry? The leaf curl you mention could be a natural reaction to increasing heat or it could indicate they're getting too dry. Sometimes it is hard to guess why the foliage curls, but I've had leaf curl on tomato plants some this year, especially on hot sunny days following a cooler cloudier spell, but not on potatoes.

The color of my potato plants is not good. The healthier green color they had a month ago is fading fast to a yellowish-green. I've tried to keep them from getting too dry, but we're slipping back into drought here and their bed drains really, really well so I'm not sure I've succeeded in doing that. I believe mine are dying back naturally and I believe the harvest will be mediocre because of all the heat and the lack of rainfall, but I'm trying to wait patiently for them to die back on their own before I dig. We're at the point now, though, where it is so hot that I doubt they are forming any new tubers so I don't know if there is much advantage in leaving them in the ground much longer. In my case, it probably would be a better use of space to go ahead and dig them and plant a heat-loving, drought-tolerant crop of something else in that space.

Oh, and one more way you sometimes can tell (I don't know if this is as reliable with container-grown potatoes as with those grown in the ground) is that if it is one of the common nightshade family diseases, you often see it pop up on the potato plants and tomato plants at the same time. Here in my county, both are prone to start developing Early Blight at this time of the year and often the potatoes start showing symptoms before the tomatoes do. Right now, only a small number of tomato plants have what looks like the early stages of Early Blight and the potatoes do not. That helps me feel somewhat reassured that my potato plants' yellowing is just them dying back naturally.

I hope this helps, but I don't know if anything I said will help much. Sometimes when I cannot decide if my own plants are diseased or dying back, I ponder the matter and wonder if I should just flip a coin head or tails and decide to harvest them or to wait based on a coin toss.

Dawn
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
We finally got some much needed rain, and some UNneeded hail. I have damaged tomato plants, but some pruning and tying up should take care of the tomatoes. My potatoes are another matter. The potatoes have just gotten too dry. Along with no till I have been trying dry land gardening. I am going to have to use my irrigation no matter what type of gardening I do.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Does any one else hate the new format? Am I the only one seeing it? I went to their link for FAQ, but saw nothing there about format change. It appears I will always have to scroll through 85 comments to get to the most recent. If they have an up arrow, why can't they have a DOWN arrow. I don't like change. Is there someplace to go to put it back? There used to be options to how you saw the forum, but they don't show the last comment any more. Mutter mutter mutter.

Sorry about the hail, Larry.

We had strange wind last night. Blowing over the table with the umbrella in it. That happens regularly, but usually there's a storm. I have to get outside before it's outrageously hot.

Later, y'all.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
Amy, this new format SUCKS.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Amy, do you see a menu on your left that says 'your topics'? Oklahoma Gardening should be listed there. Click on that.

Yeah, I don't like it either, but a board I used to frequent switched to the same format, so I kind of already understand it. It sucked there too. Lost a lot of readers over it.

I'm having a real Caprese salad for lunch, with local tomatoes and my own basil. Tastes like summer.

So, what are we doing about the Japanese beetles? They're swarming around here after dark.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
We've only seen 1 beetle so far Rebecca. Handpicking is effective if you keep at it, but if it gets too bad I've had to use Sevin in the past. That's a last resort for me though.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Not liking the format, either, but on the plus side, I think we have internet now. :) WIFI at kids' in Mpls is super duper. :) Reading along to keep track of you all.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Jacob...I'm talking swarms. Several dozen at a time. No way can I handpick that many, not to mention in the dark. They swarm on the sidewalks, porch, ground, etc.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Rebecca, they're like that here too every summer. Certain plants I can control if I go out every night with a flashlight and pick, but they still manage a lot of damage. That's when I have to bust out the Sevin.

We used to have a neighbor when we lived on the farm in Missouri, an older gentleman, who would go out to his garden every night very late with a flashlight and pick as many bugs as he could. Its a lot of work.

It helps to take a bucket of soapy water and just shake the plant to let the swarms fall into the bucket and die.

If they're on the ground, a game of hop scotch is in order. I used to love smashing those things when they'd swarm into the garage...

Oh, and one last thing: traps! Once you have them, they'll keep coming. Set up the traps as a decoy and they go for them rather than the garden. Many people are against traps due to them possibly attracting beetles to your property, but in my experience, the beetles don't give a crap if there's a trap or not. They're coming either way, so might as well lure them off.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
I can find OK gardening. It is bookmarked. But the old format, Desktop format, showed the first sentence of the last comment under the thread title. So if you clicked on that you went to the END of the thread instead of the beginning. When there's 90 some comments, it's a PITA to scroll through them on my tablet.

Now I have found that under "Your Houzz" you can see threads you've commented on, and I can see the last three comments there. But, if there's more new posts than that, back to the beginning. There are notifications, which I've always ignored. Ah, those are in reverse order, so if I click on the most recent it takes me to the bottom of the thread. It's a lot to wade through.

Apparently it shows me threads where people I follow have commented, so I got to see an interesting bean thread George commented on. Never knew it did that. Maybe it didn't before.

On the cooler days, things were going on and I didn't make it out. It is hot out there now, but I got my new umbrella, it helps as long as I'm just sitting. Put mulch on about a 4 x 4 section of the flower garden. When DH comes home I'm going to have him find me the weed block cloth I use for shade cloth. I'm going to attach it to the fence to keep the Johnson grass and weeds from poking through and seeding in the beds. Probably hopeless. How will I attach it to the fence? Zip ties?

The Lambs ear is very unhappy in that bed, must move it before it dies. So is the poached egg plant. I would say neither really like full sun.

I pulled more onions. I have come to the conclusion that the Red Rivers are just ready. Some of the copras still stand.

The potatoes look blighty. Took some blighty leaves off the Ramapo tomato, too. I don't have enough tomatoes set :P

The dog has caught 2 rabbits.

Time to go out for a bit more.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Rebecca, we use a small shop vac or a portable "crumb" vac to get squash bugs. I bought that little hand vac specifically for bugs.
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
My potatoes look about dead. They started looking bad about a week ago, I think. But now they're about done--disease or just time to harvest? I don't know. When that part of the garden is shaded, I'm going out to check for tubers.

I signed up for free wood chips from Chipdrop yesterday, but a tree cutting down (whatever they're called) was in our neighborhood today and Tom asked if they would drop them at our property. They were so happy to do that. I imagine we saved them about an hour of time. I'm not going to mulch my gardens with them, but put them in the pathways.

We went to the farmer's market in Norman this morning. I've missed summer squash and zucchini, so picked up some of that, along with peaches that were brought in from Texas. I am so disappointed. The peaches aren't that great at all.

My (non-bolted) onions are drying on the shop porch. When we got that rain on Thursday, they got wet. Does this change anything?

Chicken update. I forced Dolly to take some water by syringe last night and pulled her off the nest this morning. She moved around for a few minutes and maybe ate and drank a bit and went back to her nest. While at work yesterday, she must have gotten up because there was an extra egg in her nest and she had moved to another nest. Probably she got up and someone else went in, so she went to another nest of eggs. I put her back on the fertilized egg nest and just left the extra egg 'because I didn't mark the fert. ones. I wonder how long she was off the nest and how it will affect developing chicks....

Anyone's dog ever had a bee sting in the mouth? Woke up this morning and Josi has a swollen face and wasn't barking. (she is a ridiculous barker) She ate and drank. Looked in her mouth and there is a hard knot. Could this have been the sting site? I so hope that is all it is. I can't imagine that she has an abscessed tooth. Her teeth were fine at her last appointment in March. We gave her Tylenol and benadryl. And made her stay in this afternoon where it's cool. She does try to catch flying insects often.
hazelinok
5 years ago
I think I have a flippin elderberry on my back fence. That I didn’t plant.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, Could the dog have been bitten by a snake she was trying to bite? If you can look at the hard knot in her mouth, do you see any fang marks? When we have a dog with swelling around the mouth/nose/snout area, it usually is a copperhead bite. No treatment required except maybe Benadryl for swelling. The only time we've had a dog stung by a bee or hornet wasn't in the mouth---was in the facial area and there were knots at the sting sites and swelling. Benadyl was the solution.

With the onions that got wet, it probably just means they'll need a longer drying period. Watch them for mold though.

Amy, When Houzz changes things, I just roll on and work around whatever they've changed. I ignore notifications, FAQs, etc. in the gardening season because I don't have time for that stuff. I just come here to chat with y'all. I'm just grateful they saved GardenWeb when it looked like it was going to go away and disappear into the realm of used-to-be's. Someday it will go away and all we'll have left to help us stay in touch is the OK Gardening-related FB pages. I think it is just a matter of time.

I'm surprised your Red Rivers are done. When I've grown them they're usually about the last ones to mature, and it often is late June or sometime in July. This has been a weird year, and my onions are weirder than anything else. Half the 1015Ys fell over and I harvested them. The rest remain strong and upright and still growing. Normally they're done by now. One Candy has fallen over. None of the others have. Copra? Nothing yet and I wouldn't expect it. Either last year or the year before they were the last ones to mature and it took them forever. This has been such a weird weather year that I guess nothing should surprise us at this point.

Some of my tomato plants have great fruit set. Some do not. It appears directly related to how early I did or did not plant them. The ones planted in late March (I only planted 7 that early) have had a huge fruit set, and we've already harvested most of that fruit----dozens and dozens of tomatoes. The rest, the ones that were planted about 10-14 days later, have set maybe 1/5th as much fruit. Some have not set fruit at all. We went from too cold to too hot literally overnight here and the plants just sat there forever, shellshocked and doing nothing. It probably doesn't help that the rain mostly keeps missing us. For as bad as I think they look compared to most years, at leaste they are relatively healthy. We may be too hot now for them to ever set fruit and I'm not going to baby them through the whole entire summer, so if they want to stick around, they'd better get busy setting fruit. Next year I'll probably plant them all as early as possible and cover them, instead of planting in stages.

Rebecca, We don't have JBs down here. I guess they haven't yet made it this far west and south. We might see 1 or 2 stray ones each summer. Dorothy (Mulberryknob) lives in Adair County and I'm almost positive she mentioned buying and using some type of Japanese Beetle traps from someplace like Home Depot in previous years. I've never seen those traps down here, but it seems like they worked pretty well for her.

Larry, I'm sorry about the hail. I hope the damage wasn't too bad,

We don't get much rain here in the summer months, and I do try to grow dryland style as much as possible, but I still have to irrigate quite a bit. I wish I didn't.

It is a grandchildren weekend so I didn't step foot in the garden today and probably won't step foot it it tomorrow either. I'm okay with that. After working in it all week in the heat, as much as I do love it, I need a break and weekends are a good time to take a break and spend the time with family and friends.

Dawn