The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

Boy, I would love to see 75 degrees again. I have so much cleanup to do and just not enough hours on the weekends to get all caught up.

It was one of those one day things so I'm glad I took advantage of it!

[GoDawgs]

Today will be another typical late July day, hot to trot with a heat index of about 105. I got some additional leaf mulch put out yesterday morning since over the summer it got thin in places. I'm also trying to keep the empty beds covered too. It sure helps to keep the weeds down.

The 'Bushy' cuke I'm trying has struggled but all of a sudden it seems to have new energy! Go figure with the heat and all. It's setting a bunch of wee ones. The description of 5' vines seems accurate.



Of the thirteen tomatoes planted along the fence after the herbicided compost fiasco, two more have succumbed to bacterial wilt so I'm down to three. They were just starting to set fruit.



I've noticed a big uptick in the stink bug population, mainly in the field peas and joined by some leaf-footeds too. The danged things sting the pea pods and ruin the peas inside. Yesterday's discovery of a freshly hatched batch of baby leaf-footeds was a call to action, get off my butt and do something about it. Just before dark I sprayed all of the various field peas I'm trying with pyrethrin and the squashes with neem for those and as a first treatment for a small bit of powdery mildew that has appeared.

It was a good time to give my new sprayer a test run. I had the old one for about four or five years and it finally died. Since it lasted longer than any others I've had I bought a duplicate to replace it. Then I got out the grease pencil and transferred all my formulas on it. It's a handy reference!



And finally there was a little visitor behind the garden bench. It was a baby mockingbird, sitting so still I almost stepped on it if I hadn't been looking down. I got my camera but this time when I approached it scooted a few feet and I couldn't get very close after that. It ended up in the patch of dead flowers. Good cover! The bird is in the center of the photo and hard to see but trying to crop the photo down closer only blurred it. I'm glad Lester cat was in the house and not playing Garden Supervisor! Good luck, little one and sing pretty for me when you grow up.

[GoDawgs]

It's raining today. and that's good. At least we haven't had a storm sit on us today that's dumping inches and causing flash flood warnings like they're having 25 miles away.

Earlier this spring after the tomato buckets were filled, we piled the excess onto two tarp-covered pallets as usual and wrapped it up to keep the fire ants out.



The excess is usually used for fall containers but not this year due to the herbicide taint in it. Since the tomatoes seem to have recovered somewhat, my theory is that the nasty stuff has gotten washed out over repeated waterings. So yesterday I used the mower cart to haul it to an out of the way sunny spot and dump it there. We'll see if Mother Nature will wash out and sun out the bad stuff over the winter.

Last Sunday I started six cabbage plants (3 Early Jersey Wakefield and 3 Early Golden Acre). The EJW is a 64 dtm and the EGA is 70-80 days so maybe there will be a natural stagger even though not much. I also started one of the Smooth Criminal squash, one of the regular OP yellow squash and a pack of scallions. Down at the far end is a baby oregano.



The tomato seed saving continues. They sit on wax paper covered paper plates for two weeks to make sure they're dry before I store them in small paper coin envelopes. On the shelf above the seeds I have containers ready to start more fall stuff today.



This morning I went to the feed 'n seed to get another bag of Happy Frog potting mix that works fine for me for seed starting. I also got a bunch of mustard seed for fall sowing in areas where nematodes are active again and some fresh National Pickler cucumber seeds. The ones I'm using now are from 2017 but still coming up fine. Still, I should have fresh seed on hand. Just 70 cents for all that mustard seed and 50 cents for the cuke seed. And I couldn't help it; I had to see how many cuke seeds for 50 cents. 154 seeds. I'm set for a good while!

Time to go fill those little pots, get out the seed and start some plants. Fall is coming!

[GoDawgs]

I started more fall stuff on Saturday. The first four broccoli, 3 Alcosa cabbages (a small savoy type), the first four cauliflower, two kales and 6-pack of parsley. Except for the parsley, the rest should be ready to go out near the end of August. The second of three broc and cauli sets will be started in about 2-3 weeks.



Since the first fall plants should be going out in about four weeks, it's time to start bed prep again. That will mostly consist of loosening them up with the broadfork. I bought more mustard seed at the feed/seed store and will be sowing it in unscheduled beds where nematodes made their presence known this spring/summer. Give 'em a good dose of brassicas!

There was a rusty colored moth by the backdoor yesterday so I took a pic of it.



It looked kind of familiar so I checked my butterfly/moth pics and sure enough, there was a pic of one I found in the garden back in 2019. It's an oakworm moth, Anisota stigma. The larvae feed on oak leaves, the adults don't eat at all. July and August is flight time here in the Southeast for these.

[GoDawgs]

The first seeds started on Saturday poked up yesterday. That would be Green Magic, Packman and Piracicaba broccoli and the Alcosa savoy cabbage. I don't doubt more stuff will be up today.

The stink bugs and leaf footed bugs are messing with the field peas. I sprayed once with Pyrethrin and that's knowcked them back some but I'll probably have to do one more round in a few days to catch any hatchlings. They've been stinging all the pea pods which messes up the peas inside. The peas inside these pods had to be tossed. If push come to shove, they'd be eaten I guess but not right now.



Out of all the tomatoes that have somewhat recovered from the herbicide damage, the one standout seems to be 'Bill Bean' which is a new one to me this year. It came from Seed Treasures and has a reputed Italian heritage. There are about five of these nice sized ones coming along on the vines. Interesting pleated look. I can't wait to try one once they get ripe.



The sesame plants just keep growing. The tallest one has a ton of seed pods along the central leader and the side branches are also starting to make them too. I think I'm going to cut one open just to see how the seeds are arranged in the pod. It will be a while before they're ready to harvest.



Off to the doc this morning to have bloodwork done for an upcoming annual physical. At least it's a early appointment so I can get on with the day afterwards!

[GoDawgs]

It wasn't real hot today. 90 didn't feel like 90. The clouds floating through and a breeze made it quite tolerable. And we got 1.1" of rain in a late afternoon storm yesterday.

It was time to start more seeds for fall today. This morning I put up trellises on bed ends for rather dwarf cukes, one for Bushy cuke and one for Homemade Pickles and planted this afternoon. Because of the nematodes I'm experimenting with growing the cukes in buckets under the trellises and putting cardboard under buckets to keep nematodes out of bucket holes. Then I put leaf mulch down.



The cardboard under the cuke buckets was cut from the big cardboard box that the new water heater came in a few weeks ago. Also in the box there was a length of what looked like a black pool noodle. Oh boy! I had been wanting to buy one of those for a tomato experiment but Dollar General wanted $4 for one! Last year they were $1. They can keep it. Anyway, I cut a section of the black one I found, slipped it over the top wire of a tomato cage and moved a vine with a heavy load on top of it. I think the foam will prevent the vine from crimping in half due to the weight of the fruit. A nice gentle padded bend. I need to cut it more narrow.



I also planted five more hills of pickling cukes in that last empty corn row and started leek and onion seed in pots. Aug 19-23 will see a lot more fall stuff started including more bush beans, broccoli, cabbage, collards and kohlrabi. This means it's time for more bed prep with the big fork.

Meanwhile, the cucuzza squash is hot-footing it down the bed!



Several offshoots of the long vines started wandering outside the bed so they had to be moved back into the bed today. That long squash at the near end is what I picked this afternoon. Oops! That reminds me... I left it there! Rescue mission on the way!

[GoDawgs]

The recently planted cuke seed is popping up in the garden and the onion seed has germinated. Still waiting on the leek seed to push up.

At the far end of Tomato Row are two eggplants and a Cajun Jewel Okra. The eggplant on the right is a Poamoho, something developed by the U of Hawaii for commercial growers. I'm not impressed but will probably give it one more fair try next year due to the herbicide problem this year. The Cajun Jewel (on the left) is a dwarf okra I like and since I'm almost out of seed and need to collect more, this one is being grown away from the Choppee okra in the garden.



There's a whole list of fall seed to be started two weeks from now. They'll probably be ready to transplant out around mid September. I need to get out there and start forking up the fall beds so that I won't be scrambling in September when stuff has to get planted in them. Much better to take small bites of that elephant now than have to eat the whole thing at once later!

[GoDawgs]

This morning was humid but a bit cool with a breeze so I took the Mantis through the walkways of the Red Ripper field peas that popped up 11 days ago. They were planted where the corn was. The fourth corn row has five cuke hills . I usually thin to one plant per hill (18" spacing) but because I've spaced the hills out (3') I'm going to let both seedlings in each hill have at it.



Beyond the cukes is the trellis full of Red Rippers that are producing now. The new Rippers on the ground will cover the whole area. It should be interesting to see them and the cukes battle it out for space. Happy chaos!

Nearby, the U'us Mu:n Native American cow peas (NO idea how to pronounce that!) are a lot shorter than the Rippers and are starting to make pods.



Their peas are smaller and pods are tighter than the Rippers so shelling them has taken a bit more time. I think I'll just let them dry on the vine and use them as dry peas. The Rippers will be shelled and frozen. U'us Mu:n on left, Red Ripper on the right.



To finish this legumy post, there's a little 5' row of Yancheng Asian yardlong beans I grew from the MMMM sample I got. The description I read online says they grow bushy in cooler conditions and vining in hot conditions. They were planted 6/18 but seem to be staying bushy in this heat but they're starting to make. We'll see what happens.

[GoDawgs]

Today's haul from the garden was the first in a while. More field peas and scallions, jalapenos and red Korean gochugaru peppers, the first Asian long beans, another cucuzza squash and assorted tomatoes which will finish ripening safely in the house. Oh, and ...drum roll..... TWO okra pods! Hopefully the first two of many to come as the plants get bigger. They're late as I had a hard time getting them going this year.



While picking more field peas this morning I spied a freshly hatched batch of bugs all gaggled together on a pea pod. Probably stink bugs or maybe leaf-footeds? Too young to tell. But a circle of old cheap good-for-nothing duct tape that doesn't really stick to anything does have one good use and that's removing batches of baby bugs all at once.



Oh boy, oh boy! The first watermelon is ready. The pigtail is dry, it thumps right and the bottom is that very pale creamy yellow color. It's really hot today so I think I'll let it cool overnight and then go fetch it with the mower cart early tomorrow morning. Guessing 20 pounds.

It's that time of year. Time to paint the porch floors and railings. Well, it really isn't because of the heat but now that the house has been washed it needs to be done. A few days ago I did Dead Pot Patrol and cleared the porch of accumulated expired plant material and yesterday we cleared off the saw horse tables, watering jugs, window boxes and assorted empty pots. Last night I finally pried that big old dead wasp nest off the porch light. It was really attached well. Ready to go. Buying the paint today and by tomorrow everything to be painted will be bone dry.



The next project will be to prune all the shrubbery hard so that any new growth will have hardened off by first frost. So much rain lately! The grass is going nuts. Pickles is dealing with that today.

[GoDawgs]

Although it's been slow gardening outside there's been stuff to do indoors for fall. The first round of fall brassicas is coming along under the lights along with scallions, parsley and oregano. Also a small pot each of Texas Grano onion and Carenton leek seedlings.



The two yellow squash (one Smooth Criminal and one Ferry Morse Early Straightneck) are about ready to set out once this current heat wave pulls back some. The two packs in front of them are more scallions.



Both of the scallions are different years of collected seed that have been in the freezer so it's kind of a germination check. They're the same variety, one from 2017 and the other from 2019. If they don't come up, no big deal. If they do I'll either give them away or plant what there's room for. They last for ages in the ground, especially over the winter so if we get flooded with scallions, that's ok.

[GoDawgs]

Last evening I watered everything in the garden that isn't slated for the Big Yank Out. The cukes looked like they were parched beyond help but they looked like this early in the morning too despite being watered.



When that happens it's a pretty sure sign of nematodes at work. For the past week they've been struggling to recover overnight so last evening I pulled one up to check the roots. Yep, dastardly nematodes.



I'm playing with cukes in two buckets set under trellises. This one is Homemade Pickles and the other is Bushy. There's cardboard under the buckets to prevent any nematodes from getting in there. We'll see how that works. If it does I might have to play with doing that on a larger scale come spring. I'm tired of not getting any danged cucumbers!



There are brassicas scheduled to go in that bed this fall so maybe that will chase the 'todes a bit. Any fallow beds will get sown with mustard to be tilled in later.

I also tied red plastic ribbon on the cages of tomatoes that might make it a few weeks longer. The rest will be ignored, not watered and removed to Mt. Brushmore when I get a chance along with that herbicided compost in their buckets.

[PlainJane]

Dang nematodes are such a pita.

[karstopography]

RKNs are a total bummer, man.

I’m curious to see which beds of mine will have root knot nematode sign. So far in 2023, my 4’X10’ bed had zero sign of root knot nematodes, this I know from the condition of the roots of the tomatoes I dug up about a month ago. My original bed 9’x16’ six feet away from the 4’X10’ is evidently infested with RKN, this I know from the condition of the celery plant roots with masses of RKN galls. The rest of the beds remain unknown until I remove the current crops and plants.

Plan for fall and winter is to plant Cereal Rye in the 9’x16’ bed to clean up the RKN infestation. Everything I have read indicates that cereal rye is a first rate RKN trap crop. I’ll plant the Cereal Rye probably around the end of October and let it grow all winter and into the spring. I want it to be growing when the soil is warm enough to have RKN activity. I can always plant something hot weather loving like Okra or field peas once the Rye matures or burns up in the Spring.

Beds with minor to moderate RKN activity will get planted with the non-susceptible to RKN mustard/brassica family of crops over the fall and winter. I still believe and have observed evidence supporting that recent mustard and brassica cultivation is RKN suppressive to future plantings of susceptible crops.

Beds with zero RKN sign will get lettuce, carrots and other RKN susceptible cool weather crops over the fall and winter.

It’s a plan.

[GoDawgs]

@karstopography, that sounds like a plan with the cereal oats. These danged nematodes really keep you jumping with switching crops around, trying not to grow susceptibles where 'todes haven't been treated yet and at the same time trying not to plant the same family of things in there. heavy sigh.

I can say that things planted this spring in beds that had fall '22 brassicas in them did OK. That was encouraging. I'm purposefully planting brassicas in known 'toded beds this fall. That's only two beds worth so mustard will be sown in other beds where known 'todes are, including the one with this most recent cuke failure.

[GoDawgs]

@Tormato, FYI....

One of the things I'm playing with is an MMMM sample of a yardlong bean labeled "a stickless wonder type". There is a named Stickless Wonder out there, the name meaning it doesn't need support like most yardlongs and so is a bush type. I got that from Southern Exposure and planted it 7/6/21 to test heat tolerance and productivity and it did pretty good. Here they are in early Sep '21:



This is the MMMM sample that's doing really well!



Right now it's really loading up and I picked the first ones yesterday at a stage where they can be used like green beans. When they fill out more they can be shelled for fresh eating. The rest will dry down for use as dried beans and saved seed for future plantings.



On the other hand, I planted some Yancheng yardlongs also from MMMM but they're not doing so well. Catalog descriptions say they're rather bushlike in cooler weather and like to climb in hot weather. These are bushlike in hot weather. They turn really quick from green bean use to large shellies and beyond. I may or may not save seed from these.



Meanwhile the vines of the volunteer watermelons have died back so I can see the okra better. It almost looks like the volunteers are one Crimson Sweet and one Charleston Gray from last year in compost that amended the planting holes this spring.



It took several sowings to get the okra going this year. No idea why but they're now starting to take off and I'm getting a few pods here and there. It's about time!

Got the front porch taped up to protect from floor paint but it got way too hot too soon this morning so I'll start cutting in with the brush around 7pm this evening and hopefully get the rest finished with the roller by dark. Or finish painting by porch light!

[GoDawgs]

I'm trying to decide if the stickless wonder-type long beans have flopped because of the heat or if they're falling down due to the huge weight of all those beans! They're received enough water and the Whippersnapper field peas to their right are still upright.



I picked a bunch of them but there are still a ton of them left. They're the light yellow beans in the middle of the pic. I might pickle them today. To their left are some Ripper field peas and to their right are some past prime eggplants and my garden supervisor.



The zinnias have had their hay day and are on the down side of life. Yesterday I collected the dead heads of some I had marked with ribbon and then after I took this pic I cut them hard hoping for one more round of flowers for the butterflies. It will still be a little while before the asters start blooming for them.



Last night I pruned the long and funky tomato vines back to fresh new growth so we'll see if they can be extended a while. I don't want to spray for funk until the high heat of the next two days has passed.

[PlainJane]

You’re reminding me I need to start new batches of zinnias and marigolds.

[AKgardener]

We’ll keep on keeping on what a garden this year I’ll live through all you guys that’s are still going haha! And just show off my indoor plants if they do well of course.

[GoDawgs]

You’re reminding me I need to start new batches of zinnias and marigolds.

Hmmm, I don't think there's enough time here to get them blooming before frost.

OK, I just checked my garden records and it seems that they start blooming here about 6 weeks after sowing. That would be early October now. Checking weather data.... high temps in October look fine all month. Lows aren't too bad except a light frost maybe around the third week some years.

I think I'll try some! It's collected seed so no big loss if they don't make!

[GoDawgs]

It's day two of the latest high heat stretch here. They're talking about a 113 heat factor this afternoon but there's a 30% chance of late afternoon storms and 60% chance tomorrow afternoon as a cool front will be coming through.

With rain chances and better temps most of next week and even a possibility of some tropical stuff, I'm going to take a chance and plant the fall green beans Sunday afternoon or evening. The soil's been so hot they wouldn't germinate and even if they did those poor little seedlings would just burn up.

I've been doing clean-up putters like tossing old plants and pruning the funk out of the tomato plants still left in the hopes that I can get a few more tomatoes out of them. I also yanked the tomato plants out of two buckets and planted in them the two squash plants that were ready to go out. It will be a good test to see if the herbicide has leached out of that compost. Squash on the left, getting a little tomato shade:



The front porch has been de-wasped, cleared and painted so it's ready to go for fall.



I collected some field pea pods yesterday and since a few aren't totally toasty dry they'll get a dose of sun this afternoon to do that before I shell them out and sort them.



I didn't get to cleaning zinnia seed yesterday so that will be this afternoon's air-conditioned project.