What did you do in the garden today?

[Minanora]

I left this in draft yesterday, felI asleep. I watered the strawberries that look dead. Most of them are coming out of dormancy. But there's a few that are probably toast. Time will tell. Not like I have enough anyway!

I'm healing. Slowly, but I'll take any progress.

The corn is starting to sprout!

I got all the algae out of the pool. Bringing the chlorine levels back up now. hopefully I'm done with major pool headaches.

Going to plant carving pumpkins tomorrow. *Today

 

[cj2024]

I've developed a new problem.... Wilting potato plants. They are not turning yellow or anything. Just seem to wilt and die suddenly. It started with one plant. Suddenly, in a matter of 2 days, it was the entire tub almost... The plants were perfectly healthy right before this happened. I'll try to get a picture later on...

The same thing happened to me. I think I over watered them, and my potting mix need to be adjusted. Plus, it's been raining daily. However, my sweet potatoes are thriving and love the rain.

I have a hard time growing regular potatoes in my area. This year I am experimenting with different varieties to see which one does better, Yukon Gold, Blue A, Viking, and Irish potatoes.

I emptied some pots and found that the blue variety had a lot of mushy potatoes, I think it had something to do with the wicking pot because the ones in grow bags were all solid.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

My garden tractor is working well. It started up right away. So the front yard is mowed and was able to do a little weed trimming until the battery died. The battery is charging now. I’m hoping to get a little more done prepping the kale and carrot bed for planting this afternoon.

 

[Smokerbill]

I fertilized one of my onion beds with some of my liquid weed tea/ chicken poop fertilizer yesterday, diluted 1 part to 10 parts water. I didn't use any on my other onion/shallot bed so I can find out if the homemade fertilizer really works. If I see a noticeable improvement in the fertilized bed I'll start using it everywhere in the garden.

Onions need lots of nitrogen, since they're basically all leaf, top to bottom.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I planted parsley, thyme, tarragon and a 16 foot row of Nantes carrots. It’s only 70F right now but the sun is so intense. I won’t be doing anything else in the sun this afternoon. I may try to do a wee bit more weed whacking later. The peach tree is filling out enough to make a little shade so I can trim up around that then call it a day.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I've developed a new problem.... Wilting potato plants. They are not turning yellow or anything. Just seem to wilt and die suddenly. It started with one plant. Suddenly, in a matter of 2 days, it was the entire tub almost... The plants were perfectly healthy right before this happened. I'll try to get a picture later on...

So.... To add to this strange mystery... We have a storm come through yesterday and drop about an inch and a half of rain. This morning I went down to the garden and my potatoes looked almost normal! I am confident that they were NOT underwatered because we've had a ton of rain this spring... So now I'm wondering if the wet (but not soggy) soil, combined with the mid-to-upper 80 degree weather, caused the wilt? The tubs are also black... When I first posted this, nearly all the foliage was either fully wilted or droopy so much it was on the soil. Today is cooler (about 80) and they have clearly bounced back a bit.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Anyone ever bagged fruit to keep pests/worms off of it? I know you can't use paper sacks on stone fruit... It has to be able to breathe. This is my first time doing it and I used panty hose. Note to self... They don't work. The bugs just eat through the nylon. I also bagged when the peaches were about thumbnail size. At least half of those have dropped and I had to move the stockings to new peaches. Hard to find anything that doesn't already have a bug bite in it (judging by the gummy gel on the peach).

 

[cj2024]

I did some research on ISA brown and found out that I need a Rhode Island rooster to keep the line high laying.

 

[cj2024]

Anyone ever bagged fruit to keep pests/worms off of it? I know you can't use paper sacks on stone fruit... It has to be able to breathe. This is my first time doing it and I used panty hose. Note to self... They don't work. The bugs just eat through the nylon. I also bagged when the peaches were about thumbnail size. At least half of those have dropped and I had to move the stockings to new peaches. Hard to find anything that doesn't already have a bug bite in it (judging by the gummy gel on the peach).

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I use fruit bags from amazon......

 

[TJAnonymous]

I use fruit bags from amazon......
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I've been doing a lot of reading on a reddit thread dedicated to fruit bagging. It seems this is a common struggle with stone fruit. Lots of people trying different things but nothing seems bulletproof yet. So far the best suggestions I've seen are Clemson peach bags and making bags from heavy duty frost protection material. I ordered the Clemson bags to try. Lots of people say they are difficult to use... I may try to make some bags with the frost protection materials too... The problem is 2-fold.... Getting it tight enough that bugs can't squeeze through (or eat through) and it not blow off in high winds... The other problem is rot/fungus because you can't spray through the bags. People also complain about squirrels, rodents, and birds removing the bags to eat the fruit... So far that hasn't been my problem. Bugs are my biggest battle.