What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

This is my first year doing serious gardening, and just a few questions for you guys: how the hell do you keep ants away from the raised bed + corn rows; why aren't my (three!!) huge tomatillo plants getting pollinated; what's your favorite heirloom tomato variety and why? Just curious

I love the taste of the Brandywines but the early blight is killing me. I decided to try a hybrid brandywine/big boy cross because it was supposed to be more resistant but now I've got blight earlier than I ever have so I think this is my last year trying. I just don't like any other eating tomato. I do grow San Marzanos for canning & while people do have issues with blossom end rot with them I haven't unless they didn't get enough water. *knocksonwood*. I also do single stemmed plants as I don't have much room so have to go up - even the Brandywines. For the most part, sometimes it gets away from me!

@Wee Farmer Sarah

X 2. Completely blocked off so they can't see each other for about a week.

Thanks for the advice, I was feeling guilty keeping her alone this long (3 weeks or so) as she starting to stress a bit pacing & a bit of a molt I think, but still laying. Unfortunately I don't have any way to block her off completely so she can't see the others unless something like cardboard zip tied to the fence or something would cut it? I'm not sure it will help anyway, she was never top hen & I don't think the littles will stand up to her as she is just brutal, but I will try. Got my brain turning on how I can make it so she can't see them. Maybe some plywood & her area reduced to coop & just underneath it. Hmmm...

Got up early and got all the grass cut except for a big patch of clover that I left for the bees.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that does that! DH thinks I'm crazy but obliges anyway.

How is your back today @Sueby ? You hanging in there?

K. I thought tomatoes were a perfect bloom and self pollinated by the wind. I've never seen a bee on mine, I do bump them if it is too still. I also have never taken off blooms because I am not necessarily growing for size and I don't have lots of room for lots of plants. But if i was, I probably would eliminate some blooms. When it gets too hot/humid here my toms can't pollinate, it sticks and/or dries. Just a little tomato pollen trivia

Well, Rosie hatched 10 out of 12 eggs last eve and this morning. I see some of Bruce's babies so I separated the chicks as soon as they woke up, climbing through neighbors junk pile to get to them of course... thank you Rose. Rose sat on top of brooder, on the hose holder (unplugging the heating pad) under the brooder all day long and attacked me every opportunity she had. Such a hormonal mess... poor thing. This eve I put her in the cat carrier and gave her three chicks that I don't want. That made all of the weird chicken noises and reactionary chicken noises quiet down, thank goodness. It was starting to sound like a bizzar jungle out there.
Only watered the yard today. I discovered that my chickens discovered the cherry tomatoes- think i mentioned they found the volunteer toms- but my shy pullet was seen raiding the cherry toms that I seeded and caged. I was wondering what was taking them so long. All else is good. Warm but good.
@TopazMaster91 I am very surprised that you can grow all of those heirloom varieties in Florida. I don't even waste my time here, it's bad for my self esteem lol. I love my Heilani and Kewalo and Sweet 100's. none of which are heirloom but they work and i don't waste time or space. IDK, summer is brutal here on the West side of Kauai. I regret planting my last set of tomatoes, really should spend my time doing other things beside fighting the elements... Summer always gets me in a funk . At least it is mango season, that part is good, that and south swells .
K. All, have an awesome day!!!

Thank you, I feel pretty good this am! & I do the same - shake the plants to pollinate. We had one summer a few years ago that was so humid that NO ONE, even the big farms, got tomatoes to pollinate & even the pepper plants crapped out! It honestly was good for my ego as I found out even experienced big farmers have the same issues sometimes! I do hand pollinate my squash.

Have a great day all!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Let the heat wave begin. It was 61F when I woke up this morning. It's supposed to get up near 90F today. Good to hear your back is improving @Sueby. Yesterday I finished up the trimming and mowed the front yard. I raised the mower blade since we have had so little rain. Some spots in my front yard are totally brown and crispy. I did water the pepper and okra plants as well as the fruit trees and the flower bed. Today my goal is to move some more dirt out of my driveway. I only ordered 3 yards of dirt but I'm thinking they delivered 4. I do plan on watering the vegetable gardens and then put up some shade cloth for the cabbage and lettuce. Last of all, the AC units will get installed. I may not need them this evening but definitely will need them tomorrow. Welcome to the thread @TopazMaster91. I believe Romas would be my favorite tomato since I make a lot of sauce. I've never grown tomatillos but like squash, when it appears they aren't getting pollinated I do it by hand. A Q-tip would work to spread the pollen around. If you aren't seeing many pollinators buzzing about perhaps your neighbors are spraying pesticides that could be killing them. Just a thought. I don't use sprays or poison at all around my property. I have bird houses and feed the birds when the bears are sleeping and in return they help control the bugs in the warm weather. Especially the little House Wrens. They are song birds and love to eat bugs. They don't bother with bees. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WthrLady]

Thanks, glad to find this thread here!
Sounds like a funny idea, with the ants . So far they haven't built any nests in the raised bed, but instead climb up the side and check out my plants, it seems like. They haven't done any damage, but then again there aren't any fruits or veggies to eat yet, just branches and leaves! I did scatter diatomaceous earth around the bottom, but I don't want to have to re-apply it every time it rains, which is all the time in Florida, lol.

There are some bees around here, or at least things related to bees, they just don't seem to care about my profusely flowering tomatillos!
It's really frustrating, three plants three feet tall and nothing growing on them yet, ugh. Never have this problem with cucumbers, squash, or tomatoes!

Speaking of tomatoes, I've never tried Green Zebra or Black Krim, but I've got Paul Robeson, Abraham Lincoln, Black Plum, Pink Brandywine, Speckled Roman, New Yorker, Roma, Pink Oxheart, Pineapple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Pink Honey, and Moneymaker growing at the moment (wow, I forget how many varieties I have growing!) . I do want to try Green Zebra sometime, or some other green-when-ripe; never had one before! I've become obsessed with tomatoes, they're so easy to grow, so delicious, and extras become sauce- what more could anyone ask for . I've gone with staking and single-stemming indeterminates lately, much less disease and pest issues for me in hot humid Florida. Works well for most varieties I've tried it with so far, except pink brandywine, only three fruits on a three foot tall plant, lol.


The ants won't try to actually eat any corn on the plants, will they? That's what I'm worried about, besides stepping on and over mounds of ants, haha.

I've heard of mortgage lifter, it's a large beefsteak type, right? How are the yields per plant? I'm trying to find a good heirloom with good yields and disease resistance in my climate, Florida is very humid, very wet in summer, very hot, and bugs galore.

I'm from Florida. Tomatoes LOVE the deep south, the soil and the nighttime heat, which is what tomatoes need. My plants got to 8 feet tall. (If we avoided tropical season at the wrong time)
They did great. The mortgage lifter are a large beefsteak and made quick work of anything you needed a tomato for. I had enormous yields from the couple of plants I would set. I still prefer SanMaranzo for disease and yield for my canning purposes, but they aren't heritage.
=========
I mowed yesterday and then had DH sweep the cut short hay from the lower pasture and bring it up the hill.
I used all but one packed one gallon bucket on the garden. I spent from 8-10pm loading the garden rows and mulching around the tomato plants. and the cabbage row.
The last wind shield arrived yesterday. I HOPE to get it up today, but I have an unexpected trip to town. The mower sounds weird, so in it goes. And I found buffalobur in the pasture, so I need to get some things to take care of that. EVIL stuff.
Plan on making sauerkraut and canning it up this weekend. We shall see.
Have a great day all.

 

[WthrLady]

forgot......A LOT of your pollinators are ANTS.
We had one year where we had tons of blooms and no development. It was a damp year and the pollen wasn't transferring from plant to plant or even within a plant. I think that was two years ago.

Also, for a great long climate season, like Florida, make sure you are growing INdeterminate tomato varieties.

 

[WthrLady]

The ant swap only really works with fireants and you have to shovel in the guard ants from one nest entrance and swap them with a shovel full of guard ants from another colony. Just swapping foragers doesn't do anything.

 

[Acre4Me]

Tomatoes and Tomatillos, Oh My!

My Tomatillo plant (singular bc the other plant died), is blooming well, but so far, no fruit.

My tomatoes: Looking great so far! Several have visible green fruit beginning. We've had poor and moderate luck with toms in the past. We made lots of changes etc this past year and when we planted them, we made sure to fertilize the holes with tomato plant food. We spread gypsum throughout the bed. We planted a slew of varieties, because we figured at least some should do well - hopefully all will! here are the ones we've planted:

1. Beefsteak
2. Raspberry
3. Crimson Cushion
4. Compari
5. Italian sweet
6. Park's Whopper
7. O. Ukranian
8. Krishna Vatcheve
9. Magnum
10. Zogola
11. Gill's
12. Yates Beefsteak
13. Bear Creek
14. Amish Rose
15. Purple Russian
16. Purple Hillbilly
17. Custalee
18. Big Set
19. Dester
20. Pioneer II
21. Fireball
22. Camp Joy (cherry)
23. Black (cherry)
24. Fox Cherry
25. Carbon Copy (cherry)
26. Early Cascade (cherry)

My kid is growing 3 additional kinds in their bed:
1. Brad's Atomic grape
2. Noir de Crim
3. Ludmilla's Red Plum


So, my hope is to report back and say we had so many tomatoes we were giving them away!! btw, the Zogola indicates that it can produce 2-3 lb fruit, but I'll believe it when I see it.

FWIW, we had terrible cucumber luck last year. So, we also planted 7 different varieties this year, hoping to be able to get too many cucumbers, rather than the 4 or 5 we managed to get last year before some kind of blight took them from us...we only planted 2 varieties last year. The cucumber varieties this year are:

1. Lemon
2. Dasher II
3. Marketer
4. Glorie de Parie
5. Crystal Apple
6. Sweet Slice
7. Space Master

We have picked two off of the Dasher II, and one off of the Sweet slice - both yummy! If you are short on space, the Space Master is definitely compact, with a lot of blooms, and already small/timy cukes, and it is hardly vining yet...pretty sure this could do well in pots!

 

[AllenK RGV]

This is my first year doing serious gardening, and just a few questions for you guys: how the hell do you keep ants away from the raised bed + corn rows; why aren't my (three!!) huge tomatillo plants getting pollinated; what's your favorite heirloom tomato variety and why? Just curious

I have heard grits are a great ant remover as well. Not sure what varieties it works best on as I have em from near microscopic to full on 1/2 inch ones.

 

[katiefloy]

today i planted some showy milkweed seeds around the pond and zinnia and cosmos seeds in my front flower beds.

I walked around the edible garden. I have baby beans forming and the carrots are starting to look like carrot foliage. i deadheaded my bloomerang lilacs and noticed a few reblooms.

let the chickens out for a little while. Olaf found a way out of the fence. i think i found the spot and blocked it off.

 

[Sueby]

Speaking of ants, I killed like 10 big carpenter ants in the house today & said that's it & put down the Terro liquid & within 5 minutes there was a trail of 20 ants marching back to the nest with it. Bye bye little ants! You're ok outside but come in & I will annihilate you!

I just talked DH into making a potting bench for me. . This is my inspiration, but he laughed at the stone top. He said we could do steel (he has a ton) & paint it. I don't want paint so we settled on steel with a clear coat. It must have a sink, just hooked up to the hose is fine & it will drain into a tub like this one does. So excited. Off to Marketplace to find an old junker sink! My back is going to thank us all for this!

Pic doesn't do justice (makes it look pink), but I got a pretty purple egg yesterday:

 

[pennyJo1960]

Brought 8 in this morning already very warm here