What did you do in the garden today?

G’morning all. I wish Fall would start here! We have a few days over 110 this week and then it’s supposed to cool down next weekend. Hopefully I’ll have energy enough to get some stuff accomplished then. We didn’t get anything done over the holiday weekend because we all have/had covid :barnieDaughter got it from a coworker who had been to Hawaii on vacation; in just a few days it had spread to all of us but the teenager. He never got it the first time around either. I’ve had enough energy to water and keep stuff alive, but that’s about the extent of it. Hope all of us that need rain get some soon! We got a whopping .2” out of the last storm so we need a LOT more.
Even a mild case of Covid can be rough! Stay hydrated past the point where you think you've had enough. It definitely makes a difference ... and I speak from waaaaaaay too much experience!
 
So strange that people get such a bad case of COVID. My oldest daughter got it, then my son got it, then my husband got it. My husband kissed me on the lips and it was over 8 months before I got COVID. I had a headache for a week and nothing more. I feel so bad for all that have lost a loved one or their own life to COVID. I have been exposed to COVID so many times and yet I have only had it once. Everyone that I know that has had the vaccines for COVID has gotten it multiple times.
 
Well, my whole family has been vaccinated 4 times, I only 2 times cos every time I got the needle, I got 5 weeks of constant headaches/nausea/dizziness 🙄 the only one up to now to get it in our family of 6 is the youngest daughter, she attended the lawyer prom and a few others got sick alongside with her, she only had cold like symptoms for a few days . My son’s wife and kid also got it, he didn’t..🤷🏻‍♀️ my 81 year old aunt contracted covid a few weeks ago from her partner, he had symptoms of a long lasting cold, she was joking when she said ; maybe it’s covid, he called her that evening that he had it! A day later she got sick, spent 4 days just in bed and felt sick for 2 weeks, she said it was so awful she never wanted to get anything like that again 😬
 
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I watered my home garden and worked some on continuing cleaning up the branches from the downed huge branch(a month ago? 🤷‍♀️).
Got interrupted by having to deal with a very grumpy, tired 5 year old Grandson who was getting mean.
When my daughter -in-law got home from work I headed up to the hospital to see my husband. He and I don’t think he will get to come home until Wednesday but we don’t know for sure. He has an infection in the soft tissue of his foot/ankle. It had spread all the way up to his knee. They have him on IV antibiotics. But now his entire leg is swelling a lot!
I did see some cherry tomatoes that need picking and I need to get to the church garden because I’m sure there are slicing tomatoes ready there.
Edited to add: we got some unexpected rain tonight too!
Oh! I hope your husband gets better soon!
 
I’ve been fortunate that I have not experienced covid. Fingers crossed.
Neither hubby nor I ever got Covid. Everyone else on our road, vaccinated or not, did.
Everyone that I know that has had the vaccines for COVID has gotten it multiple times.
We got the shots and boosters. And even got flu shots, both of us, for the first time in our lives. I don't know if that has made a difference or not.

Yes, we know how lucky we are. If we could figure out the source of our luck, believe me, we'd share it.
 
Last year I used BT and hypodermic syringes. The plants survived but I didn't get much squash.

This year I grew my squash plants vertically, wrapped with cloth from below the soil level. I got more squash from that method than the BT method.

I bought my syringes from Amazon.

Ooo! Thanks for that tip!

Gerablic acid.
Parthenocarpy


A: Blossom setting sprays contain a plant hormone that induces tomato flowers to develop fruit without pollination. This is technically known as parthenocarpy. Tomato growers in cool climates use the spray to get fruit when nothing else works.

Tomato – Using Blossom Set Spray - Walter Reeves

One terrible year for tomatoes, no fruit set, temps too high, so I used this spray and it worked! I got tomatoes.




My SVB experience:

1. Plant a trap crop of C. maxima plants (Hubbard squash, some pumpkins, as examples). These are preferred by SVB.

2. Plant C. moschata for production (butternut, for example) bc they are less preferred by SVB. If only C. Moschata planted, SVB will attack these, but much less likely if there is a trap crop.

3. Plant earlier in season bc SVB come out later in the season, likely dependent on weather, so southern states would likely see them sooner. Here (west central Ohio, zone 6A) they begin to be active in July.

4. Cover with insect netting. The two downsides are the need for hand pollination, and large growth habit so need larger space under netting.

I’ve tried the stab and kill method, and cover with moist soil, but wasn’t very effective for fruit production. I’ve tried looking for eggs and wrap stem, but eggs hard to see, and wrapping them just keeps them from laying eggs close to ground on main stem -they will still lay eggs, just further up the stem.
 

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