Rick, thanks for starting the thread. I just came inside form pulling onions and digging garlic. Some of the garlic has been the ground too long. The kids have taken all of today's harvest home with them. I am trying to teach them a little about garden, and I am happy with today's activity. They took several bags of bulbing onions, Egyptian walking onions, Elephant garlic, and regular garlic, plus a few bags of beets. I am so happy for the ones that are not afraid to get their hands dirty. Of course I love them all, but there just seems to be something special about doing things together. Daughter and grand daughter said that they would be back Wed. after work to harvest more onions and beets. I ask them what they would like to be planted in the spots they clean out, PEPH will be the seeds going in, and probably some summer squash.

I think I have had more germination problems this year than ever before. I have had trouble with okra, but it seemed to be weather related. My okra pods, I just place in a plastic bag, and hook the hand strap over a wire on a bakers rack on the back porch. I often use the okra pods as a "together thing" to do with my great grand son, he seems to like shelling the okra and peas I save for us to set and talk while working, but he can't enjoy it as much as I do.

I got home a little bit ago. Everything looked amazing thanks to 4” of rain while I was gone. I was concerned when I left if It was taken care of. Especially my sensitive tree babies.
All is well.

I have a lot of leaf roll on my tomatoes , too much water.

Aphids are about to carry my tomatoes off.

I planted another 26 sweet potato slips, brings me up to 80+ here at the house.

I’m really surprised at how slow my tomatoes are to set fruit. I planted early but it looks like I will be late to harvest. I did see that I have fruit set finally on a couple of beefsteak.

A couple of okra have finally popped their heads out of the ground. These are Clemson. I’ve tried some other varieties in past years and they’ve struggled in my clay, so I went back to Clemson this year.

I’m in Kingfisher this morning having breakfast and there was a table of old farmers in here having breakfast when I arrived. They were talking about how much rain they got but no one was complaining about it. That’s surprising! When we went to Weatherford for my uncles funeral a couple weeks ago we were noticing that the wheat was a lot closer to ripe than it should have been for mid-May. Hubs heard this week though that the cool weather had slowed it down, so hopefully there is time for the ground to dry before it does need to be cut.

Not much else from here. I have a chest cold so no energy to garden yesterday. Hubs still isn’t released to drive after his hip surgery so between him and my mom a played Uber so much on Saturday that I only had time to string trim the yard while kiddo mowed. Not what I consider gardening but I was outside.

I am going to replant okra. It came up great but has been stunted I think from the cool nights.

Looks like just about half of my onions have bolted. Bummed. . . but there's a lot--I'll have plenty of chopped frozen onions.

There is a bumper crop of sticktights--garlic looks good--I picked a couple good beets yesterday and will be anxious to get the rest of them. Weeding about has the best of me, but on we go. The greens on the deck did great! Now I'll pull them out and figure out what to put in. They might just be temporary homes for some of the many plants I have--shrubs, flowering.

And I'm not even sure I'll have a fall garden at this point. But all's good.

I saw my daughter today and ask if they got plenty of onions, garlic, and beets yesterday, she told me that they had stuff hanging everywhere in the barn. I will try to get the rest of the garlic and walking onion out of the ground this week. I planted well over 400 onions, and lost very few, I had maybe 5 bolt, a few washed away, and a few just died, maybe from a mole digging under them, but I doubt that I lost over 15 all together.

I have been to the Dr. again today. and was told that I would have to go to Little Rock, but have been told that there was little that could be done for my heart. I don't like not being able to run and play like I use to, but for now, I can still play, just have to play slow, and for short periods of time.

We had a nice rain last night and the stuff I planted yesterday in the north garden looks pretty good. I have not checked the south garden, or the wildlife garden, but, I expect they look OK also. We are told we can expect more rain this week, which we can use, but hope no flooding. We also had some pretty strong winds last night, and I have to go around and pick up things that were scattered.

Larry , sounds like you got a good harvest of onions at least.

I've been harvesting some of my onions and trying to figure out how to keep the rats from carrying it off. in storage.

I ran across one recipe of mixing baking soda and sweeten corn bread mix to set out to the rats. Rats can't burp or fart so when they eat the mix they bloat up and die. Good enough for them bastards.

I've had them pack rats carry off my potatoes and onions both. I'd like to set up all night with a shotgun and get rid of them but a good rat poison mix would be a little more efficent..

Rick

Still more rain than needed at this time, it would be nice if we could just place it in the bank, and just write a check on it when we do need it.

Too wet to do much in the garden. I hope all this rain does not damage my onions. Many have broken down and ready to harvest, I am not sure if the moisture content will be too high and cause them to not store well. I don't guess it matters, because I have no control over the rain anyway. If the rain continues I may just pull then and hang then as I normally do.

I hope everyone is OK.

I was concerned about my onions to Larry. It rained while I was gone but they look fine. I will pull them all tomorrow and hang to dry. I think I have about 40

Kim, I went out between showers and planted a couple of peppers, couple of cucumbers, and pulled and hung about 50 onions. Many of the onions were smaller than normal, but I planted closer than normal also. I expected a higher plant loss this year because of what I thought were low quality plants, but up to this point I have had very low losses. I really think that excess rains may have damaged my production also, some many plants look diseased, which happens every year because of my microclimate.

Tooo much rain all at once. Grrrrr.......

Norman got 3.43 over the last 3 days. Over 5 inches over the last 10 days.

okmulgee got 2.5 over the last 3 days. 3.6 over the last 10 days.

And NOW it'll turn off hot and dry. After the gardens are drowned out. And the it'lll burn up.

Ain't that the way it always goes.

Wellll , then there's fall gardening.........

Rick

I don't know how much rain we got, but it is too much for now. Yes it always seems to turn off too hot and dry. We have worked so hard this year trying to get a garden in, but we seem to face issues every week that puts us behind.

I went out and pulled more onions when the rain stopped again. I may have 100 left in the garden, but I have to stop and build more curing space. The kids took a lot home with them, but should have taken more. Daughter has a large barn to hang them in.

I have been having deer problems, it looks like a doe and fawn have taken a liking to my house gardens. I have driven the t posts and started the wire to protect the south garden.

There are a few things we have to do in our gardens here and across the hwy, but the mud really has about shut down.

I need my normal life back. Sister leaves Friday evening... and daughter hasn't found a suitable house yet... but at least the two of us have managed really well so far.

It rained almost a quarter inch this morning... but yesterday while digging some weeds out, I realized the soil is dry below 6 inches.

The drought is not over.

Moni

I need my normal life too Moni.

Moni, be thankful you have soil you can get down 6" in, and I guess I should be thankful of the soil I have, even though, if I had soil like I think I want, I would stay stuck all the time.

It is hard for two families to live in the same house, it take some work on both sides.

I am still trying to deal with the onions. I think we are going to have 5 of Madge's 6 kids here this weekend, maybe I can give some of the onions away. As far as numbers go, and red onions, this is the best onion year I have had. I have added onto the garden since covid hit, and most of these onions were grown in new ground, but the red onions were on the edge where old garden and new garden meet, they were planted earlier and had a little better soil, and grew larger.

I drove over to the wildlife garden to check on things. I hated to see the erosion, but expected it. A lot of my cantaloupes have come up, but they are also in new, un-amended soil and may not do much. The cantaloupe plants look like the are sitting on islands, it is so wet over there.

Well, I have sit here and rested, I had better get back to work.

I hope all of you have as pretty of a day as I am having.

I don't expect to see normal again, I am not even sure of what normal is, it seems to change every year, sometimes, every day.

Larry you are right about that. Since my mom passed normal went out the window.
I pulled some onions last night. Not huge but I was very late planting them so I am happy with them. I will cook them down with a stick of butter until caramelized and freeze in little baggies. I don’t care for white onions raw.
I am going to plant cow peas of some sort today. As many as I can fit in.

Rick, I'm looking at the same weather. Ground here is saturated. There's standing water everywhere. Its not rained in over 24 hours but I still have water standing midrow in the garden.

And the forecast calls for mid 90's next week.

This is not tomato weather and so far, my tomato production numbers reflect that. And my plants show it too. I've got some plants doing well, others doing poorly, most somewhere in between.

I picked a bad year to experiment with pruning. Now I don't know if the weather is the problem or the pruning, or both.

I put more plants in the ground than I've done in a long time and so far, I'm not getting the numbers I expected.

I have two Mortgage Lifter's that are barely blooming and have not produced a tomato. That's pretty much been my par for the course with heirlooms, but they're just taking up space in the garden. But I've got two Cherokee Purple that are producing well. Go figure ?

I've got plants that are stunted. I'm afraid I've pruned the lead stalk instead of a sucker. IDK what's wrong with them. I've got plants that look like they over dosed on nitrogen. They're huge tall bushy plants with few tomatoes.

I think next year I stick to my Big Beef. Of all the varieties I've planted this year, them and the Better Boys are doing the best.

I'm also disappointed in my trellis experiment. I've got five plants on a cattle panel and they're neither doing well or producing many tomatoes.

What a crazy year this has become , and going to mid 90's next week is gonna shut em down.

Madge just told me that I could fish from the porch, water is everywhere. I know when I am able to get out, I will fins a lot of erosion. I am not sure I have ever seen the water this high here. I don't think the water will get up to the house, but everything we own may wash down to the creek.

Well, I went out to check the damage. I have lost tons of top soil, and it looks as though the water came up to within a foot of coming in the house, some of my mulch and compost have been washed up on the handicap ramp. I have damage to repair, but it will have to wait a while.

Gonna test something here, trying to upload a document that is JPG

About 11 years ago, Mrs Dollar worked at Chesapeake. This was in the Aubrey McClendon days when he began a community garden on the campus. He'd hired a horticulturist to guide employees who wanted to grow plants. Mrs Dollar attended a seminar they gave on planting a winter cover. I still have the handouts and I'm hoping these upload in a readable fashion .

EDIT, and it appears they're too small too be readable, unless there's a way to zoom these pics larger

I can click on them and read them, Lynn, but someone on a phone would have difficulty. Maybe you could make them pdfs.

I haven't added up how much rain we've had.

Ron took all the stuff that was holding on the okra beds off and prepped them for okra. I need to put things in pots. I didn't look closely at tomatoes but from a distance they look OK. All my stuff is in raised beds. The native bed, which is in the lowest part of the yard is the only one in danger of not draining. The rudbeckia is blooming, and so is the little aster that is supposed to bloom in fall? The penstemon has been beaten down. We pulled a few onions yesterday but most of them didn't have softening of the necks. I don't think there was enough nitrogen in that bed.

Tomorrow we're taking the grandsons to Bartlesville.

Larry I am sorry you got too much rain. Seems like it could be spread out better. In pa I only watered once in two years. Every week we had the perfect amount. Lucky dogs.

I have had good luck with the cover crops listed. The one problem I have with them all, Is my soil stays so wet that It makes it hard to get the garden ready in the spring, but I often have that problem anyway, its just the price you pay living in a low area.

Elbon rye has been my favorite cover crop, mainly, because it was developed in Oklahoma. If I had used Elbon rye as a cover crop this year I would not had the erosion that I had this morning, because of the root mass would have still been somewhat intact in the soil, bonding it together.

While still on this point, I will say that the row of living mulch I am experimenting with ( Ladino clover ) held the soil together. The clover just was pushed down on the soil, covering it with a shield, and permitting the water to just flow over it. The trellis held the tomatoes in position, much of the other mulch washed away from the other plants. I don't think I had any plant to wash away, but I will have to toss some soil on some of the roots.

Some of the sweet potatoes I planted in the north garden a few day ago are buries, but they were just very small shoots, and with a little luck they may survive.

Anyone else think there's a difference in specific varieties and it varies by the supplier ?

I planted 10 tomato plants last year and this year I've planted 27. So far, I feel like I got better production from those 10 than this year.

The 10 plants last year I bought at Marcum's Nursery because I lost my Big Beef plants to a late freeze ( sort've ) . They came from a grower in Kansas, Sedan Floral. I was very happy with those plants. Those were Beefmaster and Better Boy.

This year, I got my seed from Totally Tomatoes. Same varieties, Big Beef, Better Boy, and Beefmaster and its been a totally ( no pun intended ) different experience.

In past years when I only planted Big Beef, I got my seed from Johnny's Select.

There's another month left of tomato season and we don't start canning till mid July. But right now, I don't see these plants setting a lot of fruit. I'm not optimistic.

But ... we all know weather is the big variable. The 90 degree temps in May, then these rains, then next week we're headed for mid 90 degree which shuts down tomato plants.

BTW, Marcum's nursery sells those plants for $2.75 while Home Depot and Lowes, etc get $4. And they're far better at Marcum's.

Lynn, I agree with everything you said, plus, another factor, the seeds may go through other hands before our supplier gets them, often the seeds may come from other countries.

I don't have a lot of choice if I buy plants. I seldom have access to anything but Bonnie. There is a Bonnie truck that runs a route to service the small towns around here. Sometimes you can get plants, almost, just off the truck, sometimes the plants have sat neglected at the stores for days. I try to buy fresh plants, and take them home and care for them there. I often end up with plants that are too large because I cant get them in the ground because of the weather. The plants I start are among the latter planting, and I always end up with too many plants.

Neighbor and I are trying to get set up to start all of our plants by using his greenhouse, but we need to get a lot more fixtures, etc.

We will have very few tomatoes at the normal time, we seem to be late on everything. The flood yesterday is not going to help either.

Lynn I do not like totally tomatoes at all. I experienced poor germination, pitiful plants, not growing true to package. When I was growing for market it was so important to have good plants and about 20 of mine were bad.

Kim, that's good to know about Totally Tomatoes. I will get rid of any of their seed I have leftover. I've got a wide array of plants that are the same variety, some big bushy, some sickly, some putting on a lot of fruit and some none, etc.

Related to my post on winter cover. After Renee got that info in Sept 2011, I started planting a winter cover. And I have my OSU soil tests for every year since then . Here's every year except 2021 which I've filed somewhere and can't find.

Starting with Feb 2012, this is the nitrogen, PH, and instructions, which are all that really matter from the results .

Every year, they told me to add nitrogen. I did not do that. I've not added any fertilizer in the 11 years.

I think it was tilling the winter cover back in to the soil, that kept the nitrogen level high enough

Last fall, I did not plant a winter cover and my nitrogen hit the lowest level in 11 years, but still considered " high " level by OSU.

2012 PH = 4.7 Nitrogen = 120 Add nitrogen but wait two months before adding fertilizer. Add lime to raise PH.

2013 ph = 6.7 Nitrogen 238 Add nitrogen applied monthly during growing season, do not fertilize for 5 months

2014 ph = 6.9 Nitrogen 119 Add nitrogen but delay 3 months

2015 ph = 6.5 Nitrogen 236 Add nitrogen but don't fertilize for 4 months

2016 ph = 6.5 Nitrogen 150 Add nitrogen but delay 3 months

2017 ph = 6.3 Nitrogen 153 Add in nitrogen but start in August

2018 ph = 6.3 Nitrogen 102 Add nitrogen beginning in March or April

2019 ph = 6.1 Nitrogen 117 Add nitrogen, no application needed until May, do not use a complete fertilizer , you need nitrogen only for years

2020 ph = 6.1 Nitrogen 151 Wait two months before adding nitrogen

2021

2022 ph = 6.6 Nitrogen 99 Your ph was good and all nutrient levels are high. Only nitrogen will be needed for the next several years .

Lynn, that is interesting. I have had my soil tested 3 times since 2006, none in several years, but the 3 test I had, all stated add 2 pound of urea per 1000 sq. feet. I ask the county agent about that and he said "we don't even test for nitrogen because it can vary so much under different conditions ". The PH varied over the 3 test from 5.9 to 6.7. I ask why the test would say to add nitrogen if they don't' even test fore it? I was told that a little nitrogen can help, and it is the easiest nutrient to leave the soil, and it is the nutrient most needed ( by volume ) by the plant. I just quit having soil test. I plan to have one from time to time, mainly to check the PH.

I think if your soil is getting plenty of organic matter, and the plants look and do well, that is pretty well test enough.

I might add that all 3 test were the free test done by the state. Seems like I have heard somewhere, that you get what you pay for. If I were farming for a living I would be more interested in soil test, and it might not be a free one.

I do think that a person can cause himself problems by using too much nitrogen.

Over the years, I have added a lot of leaves and grass clippings. That will return nutrients back to the soil.

But this last year was the first year in 11 years, that I did not do any of that and my nitrogen level did drop. Right now, I've got plants that appear to have gotten too much nitrogen. They have too much leafy growth and not producing much , if any , fruit. But right next to that plant, are plants that are stunted and not doing well.

I've made a lot of changes this gardening season, probably way too many.

Lynn, the past two years my neighbor and I have been gardening together, we have two very different ideas about gardening. I like organic matter, he likes chemicals. At this point I can do the gardening in the wildlife garden without him, so I sorta go along with what he wants. I don't mind a few chemicals, but I value organic matter very highly.. At this point I cant get enough organic matter for the wildlife garden anyway, but I think we are going to do more cover crops, or part ways. Last year we used turnips as a cover crop, which worked out for both of us, although they are not my first choice. Neighbor was able to sell turnips for $1.00 a pound, and the greens for $20.00 a bushel, and still had a good supply of organic matter to till into the soil.

I can see you wanting a cover crop, or adding compost every year, that is what I do in my two home gardens, and trying to work toward that in the wildlife garden, but my goal there is a little different.

I just pulled out a soil test that I had done in 2020, I had forgotten about that test. Arkansas has changed their test a little, but it is still enough like the old test that I can compare. The last test was of the north garden only, because I had peppers doing less than I wanted. My guess is that the peppers may have had a disease or too much nitrogen. I have not planted that area yet this year.

The test does not show nitrogen, but PH is 6.6

Phosphorus was 158 optimum is 36 to 50 PPM

potassium was 224 optimum is 131 to 175 PPM

zinc was 21.9 optimum is 4.1 to 8 PPM

These three elements are the ones that are most out of whack, but I still grow some vegetables very well. I tried growing corn to try to lower these elements, which seemed to help, but really all I was doing was feeding critters. Every critter in the country will stand in line to eat your corn.

The notes on the test still stated 2 lbs of urea, and no legumes.

I dont understand most of the stuff on the test, but I think that the garden being too wet early in the year causes me most of my problems.

I tried to start a new thread for this week, but found out that I did not know how.

It is 100 degrees here, and feels every bit of it.

I went out to pull the rest of my bulbing onions, if my count is correct there is 97 of then lying out baking in the hot sun. I will string them up when the sun sinks behind the mountain this evening.

Yesterday morning I took several buckets of near finished compost to the south garden to cover the roots of the plants that wee almost washed away. I will lose very few plants, but many look like their back is broken, they are lying down on the soil with their heads looking toward heaven.