itsmce, The way to get rid of critters, brown rot, and such in peaches is to have about 5 years of little to no peaches because of the weather. I am enjoying a super bumper crop of clear peaches this year.

I have a bunch of cucumbers ripening finally, tomatoes every day now, sweet corn days away, zucchini still going strong, bell peppers, and about 25 Minnesota Midget/Hales Best Jumbo cantaloupes in various stages of maturity. Please let the cantaloupes have time to ripen!!

Yesterday evening we received just shy of 6/10" of rain. No thunder or lightening, just a good steady rain. Wish I could send it to the people who need it.

Just a sprinkle here last nite, another Hot one today so still adding some shade to the new transplants. The fall beet and carrot seeds are popping up ok so far. In the process now of removing the deadish Spring tomato plants so tomato picking is in a little lull until the fall plants kick in. Next I'll be prepping the rows for collards and turnip seed. Corn plot #6 should be ready to pick in 4-5 days. Late watermelons are still forming on the vines so I'll leave them intact a while longer. Just finished lunch so it's time to get back out there in the heat...btw, all rain predictions for the week have now been canceled by the local weatherdudes so it's dry times ahead.

Wayne - Congratulations on a great crop of peaches. I hope you're getting your fill! The last 2 years I didn't have any thanks to late hard freezes. I fear that even if I went 5 years with no peaches that I would still have plum curculio. I learned in the last year or so that the little buggers like crabapple trees too. I have 2 of those in the back yard too. I have started spraying those too early in the season. It didn't seem to make a difference. I'll keep trying though.

Cindy - Gotta love a nice steady rain, right? I will hope to plant some spinach seed in a couple months for next spring harvests. Spinach seed is so persnickety for me. Is super fresh seed necessary?

My watermelon are still putting on new melons. I think I've got about a dozen ranging in size from baseball to soccer ball right now. I have seen a couple that had started to grow bigger, stop growing and are now starting to shrivel up. I should probably cut them off so the plant doesn't spend any energy on them any more. The cantaloupe are still going too. So far I have picked 50 cantaloupe this year from 2 or 3 plants. I'm taking one to my manicurist today.

Sweet potato vine question: I have 9 plants total in 3 different locations. I believe I have seen only one flower. Should I be hoping for more? Does it mean anything if they produce flowers? My first time ever growing SPs.

Certain varieties of sweet potatoes bloom freely here. Others do not. Does blooming mean better health? I don't know.

I spent some time today prepping ground for my broccoli plants. I've got 21 or so seedlings up to about 6 inches tall. They were direct seeded into the ground in two separate small plots. Should I plant them all if I had the room?? Or I could give some away. But then I could also give them broccoli. Seems like spreading the plants around might produce more produce. What do you think.

Grow them all, John. Then if you want to share the broccoli, you can.

Itsmce, the flowering doesn't matter as far as I can determine over the years. What's most important is the growing time, depending upon the variety most SPs take about 100 days to reach peak production so it may be best to go by the in ground timing. Some folks wait longer and dig them up just before first frost too, but if there are late season heavy rains then some of the SPs may end up with splitting scars. What I do is here is dig up the main mother plant first (after 100 days) while leaving intact the vines that run from the main plant. These extra runner vine will re-root and produce more SPs randomly away from the mother plant. The hard part is locating these later SPs without slicing them up with a shovel.

John, broccoli can be fickle and if they are too root bound in the containers they might suffer stress and may "button-up" which results in small broc heads. 6" tall sounds like they need to be planted now, but be aware of the heat as even being acclimated to direct sun they can still be stressed when newly planted outside under a blazing sun & heat. I planted my broc last Friday and I'm still having to shade them during the heat of the day when clouds are scarce.

ps, itsmce, here's an example of one of my past SPs which was hit with heavy rain when I left them in the ground up until first frost...

Looks like a sea creature, vgkg.

Went to pick tomatoes Sunday after 4 days of rain and found a high percentage of ripe tomatoes were cracked open, bummer and knew better. Roma's were unaffected but I picked everything with a blush to turn indoors.

Used the ripe beef and slicers for juice on Monday, and went old style Italian on Tuesday with the Roma's for sauce. I got seven 24oz jars of sauce from 60 lbs of roma's, but well worth the work and will do it again next week. I really want at least 48 jars but cut back on the number of Roma plants and didn't plant any San marzano, a big mistake.

I planted Basil late specifically to add into my sauce jars but today I noticed they're starting to grow flower heads and I'm not done using it. If I cut the tops off will it still be good for another two weeks? @vgkg Z-7 Va, I'm truly impressed with your extensive knowledge on so many different items in the garden, and noticed you've mastered timing of everything you plant, any tips on basil?

I tried veggies I never grew before this year, like beets, kale and celery, and all I consider a fail. I Failed on beets and couldn't get them to even come up, the Kale grew good but didn't even think about the insects eating the leaves, and the celery was worthless because I started them to early and became root bound. Every plant is a learn experience but right now I need my basil to last

The basil will definitely keep trying to put out flowers. I read that Italians prefer the leaves during flowering but if you want a long harvest season, you should look for varieties that delay flowering. I planted Everleaf Emerald Towers basil and it's not showing any signs of flowering. Neither is the Rutgers Obsession basil.

Sorry Kevin but herbs were never really on my gardening radar although we do plants some on occasion. I'd go with Anna's advice above on the basil. Beets should be easy if the seed is viable, I plant beets as both a spring and fall crop, the fall planting popped up a week ago and it now needs thinning out. Here celery is impossible to grow (for me), tried it once, had to mail order the seed as it's nowhere to be found locally and probably for a good reason (like iceberg head lettuce, can't do that here either). I switched from kale to collards many years ago due to aphids loving it and hiding among the crinkles in the leaves. Still learning the tricks of the trade here too.

Another hot one here today (upgraded to 90F now Cindy) but at least it will be somewhat cloudy to take the sting out of it. I may not need to shade the broc/cabbage transplants now, sometimes it takes a week for them to acclimate to the heat and set in deeper roots. Should wrap up the fall planting today with the remaining collard and turnip seed.

Looks like it will be 90 and above here for the next six days. Temps look to break somewhat after that, hopefully.

Not looking forward to that at all, vgkg.

^^ Nope me neither Cindy, just came back in for some lunch sweating butterbeans...and I'm not growing them, nyuk. Was wrong earlier, had to cover the broc/cabb again today as it's too hot and the clouds aren't thick enough yet for natural shade today. Gave them all some water to perk up from their droopiness.

It's raining here. According to the weather channel we had a 1% chance of rain during the day. Guess they got it wrong again.

Drove through a downpour to get home. Got home and everything is dry as a bone sitting out in the desert. The seemingly constant misses are

driving me batty.

Four different varieties of lettuce sprouted today. Two were sowed 7 days ago. Two sowed 5 days ago. The Merveille Des Quatre Saisons, a 5 day sprouter, has the biggest sprouts and the highest germination rate.

I spent some more time prepping for my broccoli planting by digging up potatoes. Killed two stones with one bird. Got 13+ pounds. Twelve potatoes came from one plant. A volunteer plant!

These are all Kennebecs, except for the one Canela Russet and another CR that was too ugly for me to put in the picture. I'll have to eat that one myself as DW doesn't even like the variety!

Suggestion to this site. Please add these potato varieties to your spell checker. I checked my spelling with the Maine Potato Lady; who gets a free plug out of this request.

I was thinking, after my last post, that, for me, potatoes are a good plant to grow. Except for hosing them down; they're ready to eat. And without any work they'll keep for the winter. Last year I dug up 50 pounds of potatoes and I never dug them all. So they were the basis for some of this years crop. And then there's the boy next door. Who enjoys helping me dig them up. A gardener in the making.

I loosened up the soil with a fork and set in a bunch of scallion bulbs. I dug these up after the spring green onion season. I'm not sure what's going to happen. Will they go to seed; thinking it's season two. I don't even know if these are annuals or biennials. But I expect to get some green onions and will be happy getting a free crop. I'm guessing it's too late for them to successfully seed.

Today was corn picking #6, the last and the least due to smaller ear size and just 14 plants (got 24 ears in total). Smaller ears can easily make one think that the ears need more time on the stalk but not so. The deep brown silk is the main clue to ripeness and not the ear size this late in the season. But despite it's size (~30% smaller) Ambrosia corn is still Excellent.

Also noted is the invasion of corn ear worms on just about every ear. Plots 1-4 lacked pests, plot 5 had a few "worms". But they went gang busters on the this last batch, so Cindy keep an eye on you ears ;-). Normally I apply a few drops of mineral oil to the ear tips post pollination but didn't do it this year. I was predicting a Labor Day corn harvest but maybe the recent heat sped things up?

Watered all of the gardens deeply this morning, still covering the broc/cabb transplants during the heat of the day for the time being but they look good. Planted the turnip seed and just one more row of collards to go for completion of the fall crops, other than another bit of turnips plus the very last (in Nov) spinach seed plantings.

vgkg - I have no ears left. The wildlife got everything that was worth getting. Next year I will be planting it in one of my gardens that has more protection.

Sorry to hear that Cindy, last I heard (maybe incorrectly?) was that you were going to plant some late corn seed after July 4th. The way it looks I could have maybe planted a plot #7 for a Sept harvest. So many wants, so little time.

vgkg - I did plant a late crop, but unfortunately, I didn't get any usable ears.

Finishing # 5 sweet corn...Honey Select...very good. Starting # 6, Incredible...very good. # 7 Enchanted is finishing silking and # 8 is tasseling some. I planted tillage radishes today where the first five plantings were.

Wayne do you have a top favorite corn of those that you have tried? I still cannot top Ambrosia here. BTW, the Sweetheart watermelon seed I got from Willhite isn't the same variety as their old Raspa. It's smaller in size (more round) and not as productive as Raspa, maybe not quite as sweet either but will wait until the season is over to give a final judgement.

I think that Incredible is better than Ambrosia. Honey Select too if picked at just the right day.

As far as watermelons go, I find Sweet Heart a near twin to Raspa....although my very best watermelons that I have grown have been Raspas.....Sweet Heart doing good here. Sweet Texas Red is good too. Charlene is good too.

I tried frying tomato slices in bacon fat for breakfast today. They got too soft but did hold their shape, somewhat. The one that was the thicker, 1/4 inch thick, looked better on the plate. Need to try a thicker slice with more than medium heat to sear? it. The bacon taste was overwhelmed by the tomato taste of a meaty beefsteak. If it were deep fried it'd probably hold it's shape but then wouldn't have any bacon flavor.

Speaking of sweet corn. I talked to my brother, who gardens in Wisconsin, over the weekend and he said he has already frozen over 100 quart bags of sweet corn off the cob! Not sure of the variety but it is a bi-color and very good. He is bringing me a couple dozen bags this week when he comes down for my son's wedding. He said he probably has another 20 dozen ears still left to pick.

He also has three hundred ft/row of potatoes to dig but he can turn the rows over with some implement he built for his Kubota so he basically just has to pick up the spuds.

I have about 200 foot row of potatoes. The early crop was planted in April and is stored in the best place for now...in the ground. The late crop was planted in mid July and outproduces the early crop because the spuds size up in cooler weather...and these seem not to sprout during the winter

No potatoes are as good as home grown potatoes. Not the organic ones from the store, not the high end grocery stores, none of them.

You're so right Cindy. I've had people who didn't believe me do a taste test with my home grown and store bought and made believers out of them. I gave one of my brothers some Pontiac New potatoes and he described them as sweet creamy heaven. Had my first Burbank baked potato yesterday and it was the best since my baked kennebec a week earlier

Jack I made a three point potato digger for my Kubota from an old junked horse drawn potato digger. I can lift the potatoes from a 100 ft row in 30 seconds, but still need to pick them up. This is a stock Pic but what it looked like before I modified it. Works ok and beats digging by hand.

Do you have root cellars to store them over the long term?

I can't dig deep down because of my high water table so I built a highly insulated small storage bin (4' x 10') above ground but the floor is open and a foot into the ground. I had to vertically insulate around the perimeter down into the ground a few more feet to keep frost from creeping in and keeps it from freezing and allows the humidity from ground moisture to maintain a high humidity.

I added a small refrigeration unit, heating element, circulation fans, mechanical humidification and fresh air exchange when needed if the temperature and humidity fall out of controller set points as backups. If I had a hill to dig into it would of been easier but didn't have one, the land is flat.

I live in an area designated as a Special Flood Hazard Area designated by FEMA, which is just a rough blanket covering a large area, but I felt the house was inadvertently mapped as being in the flood plain. So I had the elevation of the house surveyed and applied for a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) to FEMA, and they determined the house was not in a 100 year flood plan. They amended the flood plan map to become an official map amendment and becomes public record. I did this because my mortgage was sold to another mortgage company, and out of the the blue they decided I needed to buy flood insurance because of FEMA's not so accurate map.

I sent copies of the LOMA to the mortgage company but they insisted I send the original LOMA and certified elevation survey. I told them to pound sand, lets go to court and you will lose and pay my attorney fees and never heard from them again, nor did I buy flood insurance. The survey cost $1000 in 1998, and the FEMA determination was free, was quick and they even called me to ask if I would measure the culvert sizes under roads in my area.

Rainy storms are forecast to hit here by dinner time today, sure hope we get at least an inch as the ground over the septic tank is brown again. Still shading the broc/cabb transplants in this heat and blazing sun. I used to plant potatoes but had to cut back on some things as the garden shrank to match my age, no more potatoes, butterbeans, onions, or okra.

That's too bad. Potatoes are my DH's favorite veggie. I will be planting them as long as I'm able.

I'm hopeful for the rain today, too. We really need some.

vgkg, I got a couple of rains yesterday that drained your water out...just kidding. Radar looks like you might get less than hoped unless you get repeated showers.

I spent some time last night researching watermelon to try growing next year. I came up with the following: I'm looking for a WM that can be harvested in a short growing season, and has excellent flavor.

Blacktail Mountain 65-75 Days

Golden Midget

Sugar Baby Bush 70 Days Baker Creek

Sugar Baby 76 Days Good flavor!!! Johnny's

Natsu Cocoa 65 Days

Mini Love 70 Days

Dark Belle 75 Days

The best flavor description I found is good flavor. I'm afraid to grow any thing with a longer season requirement as I think the summers here are cooler than the USDA zone would indicate. Plus I have no where with full sun. I'll keep looking but I'm thinking to only try Ambrosia Cantaloupe

John - YES to Ambrosia Cantaloupe. It's the only one I've grown. Nearly everyone that I've given it to says it's the best cantaloupe that they've ever tasted! I just check the Days to Maturity for Crimson Sweet watermelon - 85. It's the variety that I grow. Was developed by Kansas State University, I believe. Is very sweet. Pittsburgh looks to be very similar latitude as where KState is.

I was out of town for the remarkable event of RAIN in my neighborhood last Saturday. I could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered a solid 1" in my rain gauge when we got back home yesterday. It must have been windy...I lost a limb on one of my peach trees.

Margi - I believe the USDA zones are about frost days, first and last...I think. We get very few 90 degree days. 2 or 3 this year. Most 90 degree days only make it to 90 and no more. Average temp in mid summer is 83°.

I did some more searching today. I added:

Diana 76 Day

Tom F1 80 Days Flesh deep pink w/ excellent sweet flavor and dense, fine-grained texture.

Cherry Grande 79 Days has the most incredible, candy-like flavor won best-tasting.. in our trials

Mini Love 70 days

DW picked the first ripe tomato off of a plant that I grew from seed. It was a Garrison, didn't taste it yet. We're having BLT's tonight using a Red Brandywine I got as a seedling from Sewickley Creek Greenhouse near here. Both these tomatoes are new to me.

Speaking of cantaloupes, I raised Ambrosia in '84. It grew very well, but was too musky for me. Since then I have raised some really nice melons, but anymore I have a lot of disease pressure and unless I have some brand new soil...forget it. They grow well but don't finish with good vine health.

I sliced the Garrison tomato by mistake. I meant to slice the Red Brandywine. But the Garrison tomato had black seeds on one side of the tomato, Some of the seed cavities looked very black. Most looked OK. I looked it up and the result is that the seeds were over ripe. Supposedly sometimes some of the black seeds will have sprouted inside the tomato. Some even have cotyledon leaves. This tomato was a little soft. Surprised me because my recent ripening tomatoes seem to be ripening very quickly. From blushing to ripe in maybe as quick as a week?

But the black seeds could also be caused by blossom end rot or too much nitrogen. Or uneven watering. I discount the uneven watering because some folks grow tomatoes in the desert and if I never watered at all my plants would get more water from only rain water as what those folks plants get. I discount the too much nitrogen because the plants aren't all that tall, less than 6 feet. I think I'll sprinkle a little lime.

They say you can eat these tomatoes. I tried the good side of the tomato. Wasn't a great tomato taste, but it was a tomato taste! If you don't hear from me.................

Well as expected the rain passed us by last night, hardly a drop here but just a few miles away was a good soaking. A very dry several days are ahead, this is one of the worse starts to my fall garden planting that I can recall (too hot & dry). The main pest are tiny grasshoppers (~1/2" size) which blend in with the brown soil and chow down on the emerging carrot seedlings.

You folks are getting dangerously close to talking me into planting potatoes again. Yukon Golds were my past favorite but I stuck with growing sweet potatoes instead since they last much longer in storage. In fact for dinner last night we ate the last 2 sweet potatoes which were harvested last fall.

We only received 1/10" of rain yesterday. I was also hoping for more.

I'm surprised that your sweet potatoes from last fall hadn't sprouted, vgkg. I've had them sprout sitting on the counter.

vgkg, I find that sweet potatoes that I store taste good until the end of the year, but I don't like them much after that...stored much of the time at about 53° +/- a few degrees.

Cindy the SPs do sprout without a doubt, but the sprouts are just cosmetic and require removing every so often. By Spring I'll use the sprouts for planting slips. Wayne our SPs are stored in a dark panty at room temp all year round, maximum temp range varied from 65-75F. I grow mostly "Red Garnet" which stays the same as for the taste, sweetness, texture, or color changes over the year. One year I did have another variety (can't recall, maybe Ga Jets?) where over time the interior orange color became a mottled orange and beige resembling Colby Jack cheese (like pic below) we didn't eat those weird ones.

I pulled the Landis Winter lettuce plants that I let go to seed and then cut the sprigs into a big freezer bag. I rolled a couple of the seed pods (sic?) and white seeds were released. Looks good to me.

I finished sowing my fall lettuce seeds. Four varieties all considered with excellent flavor and all said to grow well late in the fall; and hopefully into early winter. I've got 4 eight foot rows. I sowed the seeds really thickly after seeing the results of the first planting. Lettuce seed is only expected to last one year. I think the seeds are getting long in the tooth.

Picked up some fall starts and started my own to have a sequential harvest. We need rain.

Here is my first Minnesota Midget

And some corn yay

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6301605/veggie-tales-september-2022#n=7

Link to September thread.