The Dawg Patch

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#721

Post: # 73529Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Jul 10, 2022 3:04 pm

The blooms on the Chinese Python snake beans are getting bigger. The first one was 5/8" across. Now they're 1.5" across. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Comments on the Baker Creek site mentioned a scent of peanut butter and I finally encountered that while redirecting a wayward vine. It seems when the vines are touched they do give off an odor like peanut butter. This is a better pic of the flower:

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And it's not "one" bloom anymore. There are a lot of them now so I'm watching closely to see when the first snake bean starts forming.

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On a positive note (for a change!), we have peaches! It's a tree that was planted in 2014 and we've never gotten peaches from it before mainly due to the deer getting them. But the tree is finally tall enough now that they can't reach the ones closer to the top. Pickles got out a ladder yesterday and picked 13 lbs of them. They're finishing the ripening on some sheets of cardboard. We had some cut up peaches for dessert today and they are really good. Worth the wait and there are more still out there!

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We also got 18 ears of corn today but those along with the five I picked the other day will probably be all of it. A lot of ears in the bed have been ruined by the squirrels. I'm going to let the stalks go one more week just to make sure and then out they come. More field peas will go in next.

The garlic has been drying in a closet with a fan blowing air on it. It's taking longer than normal. The last two years the garlic has hung in the tool shed with a fan going and has dried faster in the hotter air out there. This year it was so darned hot in the shed with these high temps that I was afraid to leave them out there. Now I think the air conditioning in the house is slowing down the process. Highs for the next ten days will be between 85 and 90 so back out to the shed they go.

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Since we got that rain last week and another 6/10" yesterday, the deer have disappeared with things greening up. Tomorrow I am going to remove the netting over the bush beans, okra and the bush-type long Asian beans.

And finally, one of the cactus flower zinnias. Enjoy your day!

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#722

Post: # 73531Unread post PlainJane
Sun Jul 10, 2022 3:36 pm

Can’t wait to hear about the snake bean saga!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#723

Post: # 73761Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jul 13, 2022 7:12 am

Snake Beans! I was checking flowers closely trying to identify which were male or female when I spied the first several baby snake beans. They look so much like the rest of the vines that they were hard to spot. I read where sometimes people tie some kind of weight to the ends so that they grow straight and I can see why.


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It appears that there is a rust problem on the sorghum. Texas A&M extension site says there's no fungicide approved for sorghum. The grain is developing on the heads so I will let it go, harvest when ready and get those stalks out of there.


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The squirrels take advantage of every opportunity. Pickles went through the bed of corn pulling off all the damaged ears so the squirrels thought that was a grand opportunity for easy pickings. I think I will leave the stalks in place for a while so the squirrels will be occupied with the immature ears that will never make and leave the tomatoes alone.


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Re: The Dawg Patch

#724

Post: # 73937Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:05 am

Wow! That snake bean has grown a lot in the past two days! I see a lot more small ones now.

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This is that Tangerine Dream pepper. It's really cranking out peppers and yes, they get bright or If it ever was F1, it's most likely far enough out to be a stable OP now. We'll see.

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This is that cucuzza squash I started a little while ago. It's on a trellis at the end of the sweet potato bed and really taking off.

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Some kind of funk is messing with the zinnias along the fence at the near end of the bed. I've already had to pull three plants out. They start yellowing at the bottom and it works its way up the plant. Roots look OK as do stems at soil level. Even though the temps aren't blazing now, we're getting scattered showers about every day so I haven't been able to spray a fungicide or copper. This seems to happen sooner or later to my zinnias every year no matter where in the garden they're planted. Anyone have a clue as to what the problem could be?

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#725

Post: # 73953Unread post PlainJane
Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:06 am

My zinnias always get pretty funky looking too, so I just keep starting more and pull the old ones out.
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#726

Post: # 74014Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Jul 16, 2022 7:09 am

So where are all the tomato pics? Well, other than Rio Grande and Creole, the plants are just putting out a few tomatoes here and there. Those tomatoes are brought into the house at first blush to save them from the squirrels so they're not very photogenic. Even the plants aren't real pretty as they suffered through all the heat. For the past 7-10 days temps have dropped into the upper 80's and we've finally had some rain. A lot of the plants look much better and are starting to put on new growth. I have hopes they'll put out more flowers. Temps for next week will be back into the low-mid 90's. Meanwhile....

The Red Ripper field peas popped up at the tail end of the hot days and are now loving the cooler days and rain. They were planted where the Incredible corn was growing. The Blue Lakes are in the bed beyond these. They've been pretty plants but very few flowers and I had about given up on them. Now without the extreme heat they are finally putting out a lot of flowers near the bottom. Next to the Blue Lakes is one of the two most recently planted National Pickling cucumber beds

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The Stickless Wonder long beans have somewhat recovered after the heavy deer munch on much of the bed. You can see how unever the plant heights are. Some of the munched plants are recovering nicely but I'm afraid a lot are permanently stunted. There are blooms on all of the untouched plants and just some of the shorter ones so it looks like there will be some production. They are called Stickless Wonder because unlike regular Asian long beans, these are a bush variety and don't need support. They produce better for me than the climbers and are very heat tolerant, a big plus around here!

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This is a mixed trellis with Cherokee Trail Of Tears beans climbing and some test plantings of Beit Alpha and H19 Little Leaf cukes in the other half. The CTOT had been almost eaten to the ground as were the cukes but all are trying to recover. Lots of flowers on both kinds of cukes, lots of visiting bees but no cukes yet.. The H19 supposedly doesn't need pollinators. So far I'm not impressed with either cuke except their effort to recover. I'm glad I have more National Picklers planted and doing well.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#727

Post: # 74087Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Jul 17, 2022 6:57 am

I picked the first two snake beans yesterday. This is one of those things where the little info available varies on how long they should get before they are too tough to eat. One said 18-24" and another said 15-18". I erred on the side of caution and picked these at 14" and 16" respectively. One said they are good in stirfry but I'm going to saute them by themselves today rather than take the chance they'll rujn a whole skillet of stuff.

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This is Honey Drop cherry tomato. Unfortunately when I went to pick a bunch yesterday they were almost all split after the 2" rain we had. Most all got tossed. Too prone to splitting to repeat next year. Besides I have other cherry seed from MMMM to still try. ;)

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The two pigeon peas keep getting taller with no sign of any flowering yet. I think the description I found says these plants get about 6' tall. Behind them is the very grassed over watermelon patch and sunflowers with heavy heads drooped over.

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And finally, a shot of a Stickless Wonder bloom. Pretty flowers don't have to be big. :)

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#728

Post: # 74420Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Jul 21, 2022 9:13 am

It's a cloudy day and t-storms are headed this way, landing probably around lunch time. Thankfully there's a nice breeze ahead of them and keeping the temp at 83. We can use the rain we'll hopefully get.

I can't believe how fast these snake beans grow. This is the small trellis where I planted the soaked seeds left over when I planted the big trellis. These snake beans are 45" long! There's one on the big trellis that's 19" long this morning and I'll check tomorrow to see how much it grew overnight.

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The new cukes are ready to topple over and run, especially the one on the far right. It's headed toward a trellis that had some finished pole bean vines so I cleared those off and will train that cuke on it.

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Yesterday afternoon I set out two more eggplants and two more yellow squash. There was room in the squash bed for the squash.

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But where to put the eggplants? The 'Chinese String' got planted at the end of the newly planted okra bed since one of those didn't come up. Now where to stick the 'Millionaire? Ah ha! There's a spot where I pulled up a zinnia plant a few weeks ago. Now there's a 'Millionaire' among the zinnias. A quick check of the fall planting map showed carrots going in along the edges so all is well.

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I decided to leave the corn stalks up a bit longer since they're still green and some are putting out baby ears that will never make. The rationale is that the squirrels will play with those and leave the tomatoes alone. This morning I found one of the baby ears out in the yard all chewed up. No tomatoes missing in a while so I guess the plan is working.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#729

Post: # 74468Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:18 am

We got another half inch of rain yesterday so that and the resulting cooler temp and clouds made it a good day for the squash and eggplant transplants. The next thing to go out will be on Monday as another round of scallions is ready under the lights.

The new-to-me Cucuzza squash that was planted on 6/9 is scooting up its trellis. This is supposed to be a zucchini replacement with less susceptibility to squash vine borers though as of right now this is still the first summer ever when the yellow squash suffered zero SVB attacks. As a gardening friend of mine says, "Garden and learn". :)

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Meanwhile, the Red Ripper field peas are loving the milder damp weather. They were planted on 7/7 in upper 90 temps and covered with cardboard until they started popping. That really helped keep the soil cool enough for germination.

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The Stickless Wonder long beans are starting to make pods. The catalog description from Southern Exposure says:

"A rare dwarf type of yard long bean - think of it as being like an edible-podded Southern pea! Early harvests of 12 in. light green pods (best harvested at 10 in. or less). Bushy 30 in. plants don’t require any sticks…" They did well last year which was their first time in the garden because of their heat tolerance. They will remain as a summer thing as a stand-in for green beans. I think I can pick enough of the first ones to go with lunch today.

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Next week it will be time to start the leek, onion and scallion seed for fall planting.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#730

Post: # 74501Unread post PlainJane
Sat Jul 23, 2022 6:50 am

I harvested exactly 2 zucchini this season due to SVB. Maybe I’ll look into shrouding and hand-pollinating.
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#731

Post: # 74702Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:37 am

I did get the leeks, onion and scallions started yesterday. Since last year's leeks did well I decided to be adventurous this fall and do two other varieties, some of the older ones with longer days to maturity. The big kinds! One is 'Carentan' (100 dtm) and the other is 'Autumn Giant' (100-110 dtm). They'll get planted late September. Then I also started a pack of Shimonita scallions and one of Texas Early Grano onions. Those onions last year were almost as sweet as Vidalias and very few bolted so they're the only ones I'm growing this fall. Today I will plant out the scallions that are ready to go.

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Yesterday there was a mish mash of stuff from the garden. The 'Millionaire' and 'Chinese String' eggplants have avalanched again and sent me digging through saved eggplant recipes to find one that hasn't been done in a while. A few regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and peppers round out the day's pickings. The two yellow ones are the first Amana Orange.

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The new cuke plants have toppled over and are starting to run. I really hope they do well as the stashes of canned relish and a few pickles are running a bit low.

Today I'll plant out the scallions that are ready to go.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#732

Post: # 74833Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:56 pm

The scallions got planted out last evening so another check mark in the notebook.

There aren't really any pretty tomatoes to take pics of. I bring them in when they're blushing so they're not very photogenic. But there is other stuff going on in the garden.

This morning I noticed how big the Jerusalem artichokes were! All this from seven tubers planted in a short row this spring. I can't imagine how many tubers are underneath them. They are a late summer/early fall bloomer but today I found the first flower already. This is going to be so pretty when these plants are in full bloom. The flowers aren't real big, maybe 1.5-2" wide but should be quite a sight in mass.

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The two pigeon pea plants are getting really big with no sign yet of actual pigeon peas. No blooms. But that one on the left is definitely the 6' tall I read about. I wonder what the flowers will look like.That's the fun of planting strange stuff. :D

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The tithonia/ zinnia bed is hanging in there. I had to remove the middle tithonia two weeks ago as it was yellowing up. So far the other two seem fine. Although there's a slight bit of yellow at the bottom of the left one it hasn't progressed beyond where it is. Keeping fingers crossed. The zinnias along the pasture fence are having problems but the ones in this bed and one other are healthy. Go figure.

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And finally a mystery. This year I've only seen Eastern tiger swallowtails, black swallowtail butterflies and various small skippers. Eastern on the left, black on the right:

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I haven't seen the first Gulf Fratillary all year and they were here in abundance last year: They've always been here.

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Gardadore
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#733

Post: # 74862Unread post Gardadore
Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:41 am

Jerusalem artichokes are pretty but can get very invasive. I spend a lot of time pulling out those that have spread. They are now coming up in the veggie garden from the other side of a 5 ft wall! Very hard to get rid of permanently if one needs to. Like you planted a few tubers on the outside of the garden wall some 40 years ago! Now they are all along the one side and have moved around the wall where I am trying to keep them in check.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#734

Post: # 74868Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:10 am

@Gardadore , thanks for that. Having read about their invasiveness I planted them in a box made of big timbers but it sounds like that may not be enough! Oh well, there's always the lawn mower to keep them in check. If not, well, I'm out in the country so it probably won't matter. LOL!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#735

Post: # 74876Unread post PlainJane
Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:20 am

I’ve seen decent amounts of Gulf Fritillary butterflies here so that’s odd you haven’t spotted any.
What’s in short supply so far are Zebra Longwings.
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#736

Post: # 74878Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:24 am

@PlainJane , how's your bug population been this summer? I haven't seen the usual hordes of stink bugs or leaf footeds yet. Some are out and about but I've found very few eggs laid on squash etc leaves. We had that late freeze so maybe that had an effect on the populations. So far there are still plenty of pollinators around, all kinds of bees and other flying things.

The pickleworm has been absent but that might be because the cukes caught a fast funk and died during the 100 temps and the new ones are just starting to run. The pickleworms would have gone hungry here!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#737

Post: # 75442Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:32 am

The light unit is changing with the seasons with fall plants coming along on one shelf and seed saving happening on another shelf. The seeds are mostly tomatoes and some flowers.

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Yesterday I started the first of several broccoli and cauliflower plants. This fall I'll eventually have eight Packman broccoli plants and four Green Magics. I'm still playing with staggered start dates to avoid all the brocs being ready at once later. Notes from last year say to start them a bit earlier this year so I am. In eight days I will start four Green Magics and then about two weeks after that start the other four Packmans. The cauliflower will have three plantings of four.

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I also started four more micro tomato plants. The current six are all about done their run. I probably should have started these a lot sooner but there are cherry tomatoes still going in the garden. These will kick in right about when the ones in the garden fade away. I'm trying House and Hardin's Miniature, two I haven't done yet but got in the MMMM swap. Also doing another Red Robin and Pinocchio Orange.

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And finally, I spied the first sweet potato flower. Yep, proof that sweet potatoes are definitely in the morning glory family!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#738

Post: # 75636Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:30 am

We got rain last evening, a tad over half an inch! We don't usually have summer thunderstorms in late evening and although we were kind of on the edge of it, somebody somewhere sure got beat on. I will not have to water stuff today.

The Big Red Ripper field peas are growing fast. Six days ago I ran twine along the sides of the bed to keep them from eventually flopping into the walkways and they've grown about 5" since then.They're fast buggers! I will eventually be adding a second twine up near the top of the stakes.

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The remaining four okra plants are finally starting to produce. They were set back earlier in the season by munching deer and with all the heat they took a while to recover. There are two Jing Orange in the middle with a dwarf Cajun Jewel on each end. The scallions in the bed are almost gone.

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There are a few new okra plants I started July 5th when I didn't think the deer munched plants would make it. That was kind of late and it's going to be a race with Mr. Frosty, I think. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained. Pushing the envelope. There's also a new spare eggplant I stuck in on the far end of the bed. The sweet potato trellis is on the left and the pepper bed is in the background.

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The April planting of cucumbers succumbed to funk during that stretch of 100 temps. They had just started producing so that canceled any relish making plans. In late June after the heat wave broke I planted two more beds of cukes and right now they're looking good and loaded with flowers. This is one of the two beds. The plant on the far right is headed for the empty trellis so it's welcomed to climb!

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Now that temps have settled back into the low 90's the tomato plants are liking the change, putting on new growth, setting new fruit and the tomatoes themselves are finally sizing up. And the squirrels have finally stopped raiding them! Do wonders never cease! This is Fish Lake Oxheart and a pair of German Johnsons that are sizing up nicely, probably the prettiest we've ever grown. I just wish there were more of them.

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Tomorrow I will start some cabbage and kale plants.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#739

Post: # 75639Unread post PlainJane
Sun Aug 07, 2022 7:55 am

Glad you had rain. We’ve had some too at least every few days, always thunderstorms.
In New England you’d get a whole day of rain at least a couple of times over a summer. Made for great transplanting weather.
Not so in Florida unless there’s a cat or tropical storm.
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#740

Post: # 75854Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Aug 09, 2022 7:06 am

We had a half inch of rain Saturday, a sprinkle on Sunday and again late afternoon yesterday. Just enough to encourage funk formation. Now we're in a supposed dry stretch for a few days so I need to get out there this early evening and get some Serenade on the cukes and squash.

Yesterday I pulled up the two bean rows as they were done with yellowing leaves dropping all over the place. After pulling off the last few beans on the plants I added their weight to the record and totalled up the spring/summer take. Just 5.5 lbs from 36' of rows. Sure enough, I found the reason for the poor performance. Nematodes.

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Being legumes, beans have nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots. You can't rub them off but you can rub off nematode nodules. That's how to tell which is which. On Friday I'm going to plant two different beds with beans on each side of both. That will be 64' and hopefully I'll get something to can up. Fall beans usually do better for me than spring-planted ones.

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