What did you do in the garden today?

[Artichoke Lover]

Good morning! Im a bit perplexed at my garden. My radishes look great, but have no actual radish going on; my lettuce bolted before it came to any real size, like less tan a finger long; my pak choy did nothing but go straight to seed; my strawberries and eggplants arent bearing fruit after flowering and lastly my potatoes in the barrels are sopping wet and turning yellow and brown, the ones in the bag look fine though. Im at a complete loss as to whats going on.

Sounds like it’s way to hot right now. Lettuce and bok choy bolt in hot weather. Radishes only grow leaves and eggplant will stop if it’s too hot too. Idk about the potatoes unless the barrels don’t drain well or are under an overhang. The eggplant should start producing once it cools off if that’s the problem. Strawberries may have previous cold damage to the buds if you got a late deep freeze it should be pretty easy to see if you know what you are looking for though.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good morning! Im a bit perplexed at my garden. My radishes look great, but have no actual radish going on; my lettuce bolted before it came to any real size, like less tan a finger long; my pak choy did nothing but go straight to seed; my strawberries and eggplants arent bearing fruit after flowering and lastly my potatoes in the barrels are sopping wet and turning yellow and brown, the ones in the bag look fine though. Im at a complete loss as to whats going on.

Hmmm…that is frustrating!

I’m in west central Ohio. It’s been hot, but not for really long periods at a time. Not sure how much rain you’ve gotten.

strawberries:what year are you on with the patch?

eggplants: I have a thin Japanese type, and it took awhile before I saw fruit after flowering. Mine are just starting to fruit. My first fruit rotted at the spot it touched the ground, so that is disappointing.

lettuce and heat don’t mix, at all.

radishes: we’ve only grown them a couple times. Seems like they don’t do anything, then, bam! Roots expand, and often split. I do remember that some radishes are 2x the time to harvest than others. Some are 30 days, but others are 60 days. We’ve never had much success, but my neighbor grows them and they do well for him.

hopefully things improve going into July.

 

[Acre4Me]

So, no need to water the garden today. Lots of rain overnight/this morning. But we might be dry after mid morning sometime.

 

[Sueby]

@Fishychix True, lettuce does not like heat for sure. I have mine covered & it's on it's last leg, though it hasn't bolted yet. I wonder if radishes are like onions or garlic or carrots in that they grow all their greens first, then the goods come after - I have never grown them. Has it been super humid there? Sometimes things can't pollinate well if it's humid. We had a year a few years ago where it was too humid so there was no tomatoes or peppers - it was frustrating & bad enough that it was all over the news because big farmers had such a hard time.

Morning.

We got a tiny bit of rain last night, certainly didn't help with the humidity! It's not as hot as it was, but still icky. Supposed to be cool & rainy this weekend though & I'm looking forward to that!

I cleaned all the bird waterers & got them all topped off. They should be ok without ice today, finally. I turned the fan off in the coop.
I have a couple squash I need to pull. & some green beans. I need to harvest all the garlic, it's ready. Probably Sunday I'll get some time though the ground will be wet. I will go out now & check the gooseberries & blueberries - I haven't checked them in days & they are just about ready.

Have a good one all, going to be a busy weekend so I prolly won't see y'all! Enjoy the 4th! I've got my drugs out to sedate the poor dog for the fireworks.

 

[Iluveggers]

Yes, it is likely a vine borer although I haven't looked for the caterpillar. It was too dark by the time I realized what had happened. I battled vine borers last year but I've never seen them completely kill a plant in a matter of hours, let alone TWO plants. Hopefully they won't move on to the pumpkin and watermelon which are right next to where these plants were located....

They got 6 out of 8 of my zuccs & squash last year in one day. One Latino zucc and a butternut lasted through the attack. I used row cover this year until I saw the first female flower, & then put cut-up panty hose Around each stem secured with toothpicks. I’m petrified so I’m stalking twice a day,

 

[gtaus]

Good morning! Im a bit perplexed at my garden. My radishes look great, but have no actual radish going on; my lettuce bolted before it came to any real size, like less tan a finger long; my pak choy did nothing but go straight to seed; my strawberries and eggplants arent bearing fruit after flowering and lastly my potatoes in the barrels are sopping wet and turning yellow and brown, the ones in the bag look fine though. Im at a complete loss as to whats going on.

When it comes to gardening, I am still learning too. I planted some radishes this year, and so far the greens are growing but they don't have much of the radish filling in yet. Might be related to the heat we have this year which I expect is also affecting your lettuce. Sounds like your potatoes are not getting proper drainage if they are sopping wet. Our eggplants are coming along fine, mostly greens at this stage, but we expect the fruit to follow soon.

I planted Seascape everbearing strawberries in a new raised hügelkultur bed this year, and they are already producing strawberries. So that has been a big success story for me. My local nursery only sells the everbearing strawberries because she said people have more success with that type of plant here where I live. She told me I might get as many as 3 pickings of strawberries even the first year. From what I understand, the June bearing strawberry plants take 1 year to establish themselves and start producing the second year.

I don't have running water where my main garden is located. My plants in the main garden are not doing very well, expect for my hügelkultur beds. In theory, the wood in the bottom of the hügelkultur beds is supposed to retain water and release it later when the plants need it. I think that is what I am seeing this hot, dry, year so far. My "normal" raised beds are too dry and I cannot keep up with the watering they require.

I built a couple new hügelkultur raised beds in my back yard where I have access to running water. I have been hitting those beds with some water every other day. The plants in my new beds, with adequate watering, are doing fantastic. If you compared the new beds in the back yard to the plants growing in my main garden without good watering, you would think one gardener knows what he is doing and the other is struggling. Well, I guess that's me and this dry, hot summer has driven home the notion that I need better watering in my main garden.

 

[Swiss]

On the leaves on the flowering branch, I do get leaves on flowering branches. They don't usually develop into a full runner, but rather just a few leaves. I figure they help feed the fruit that is developing there. If it continues past a few leaves and goes full on runner pinch the growing tip and any extra foliage back to just two or three leaves.

On the determinates, I have some tall ones too. I just let them keep growing for now. If you pub the growing tip, you will trigger rapid fruit development and ripening all down that main stem. I like larger tomatoes, so I wait until they are big and start to ripen on their own, then I may pinch the growing tips to get the remaining tomatoes to wrap it up quicker for the sauce pot or to close the season out before frost.

That's good to know, thanks for the info!
I tied my largest determinates up to stakes yesterday, and pruned the leaves so they aren't all bunched together. They look much less crazy now.

I also had a chickadee land on my hand for a sunflower seed for the first time in months! A few weeks ago, I saw one for the first time in months, and it is still rare to see them. I'm hoping it means they will be a much more common sight again!

 

[Acre4Me]

Aaaanndd…. We have shade!

Just 6 days ago….

@gtaus -note the hose connection in first pic. We have a split valve (2 spigots) at the water source. We connected a 3/4” hose to it and brought it back to the garden and created a fixed stand with a hose connection. How far away is your main garden, and would a hose extension work for you?

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. The heat wave went out with a big bang up storm yesterday evening. I kept the chickens outside for an extra half hour so they all went into their coop and run a little after 4:30 pm. As soon as I relaxed into my recliner the "fireworks" and tornado warnings started up. We got a lot of rain and wind but no tornado and the trees are all still standing. This morning I only noticed one small branch on the ground so I feel very fortunate. No damage to the garden and although a bit humid, the temps are so much better. Scattered showers forecasted for this afternoon so I will finally be able to get some more work done on the coop expansion. While inspecting the garden this morning I did some weeding around the chard and the carrots. The green beans I planted in the cucumber bed are doing quite well. They are blooming and climbing. All the summer squash plants have new male blooms, so I'm hoping to see some squash babies develop soon. The leaves on one of my potato plants are starting to die back, so I'm hoping they will be at an edible size soon. I don't want to rush them. I'm sure your chickens are loving the shade @Acre4Me. That makes a big difference on really hot days.

 

[oldhen2345]

Need to do more weed whacking in the front yard this afternoon. My tulip tree has a lot of damage/ dead branches from Snowmageddon. I was looking it over and the stupid thing is trying to bloom- it only blooms in late Feb. Early March. I think this weather has everything confused.