What did you do in the garden today?

[Justagalwithchicks]

Another 2" inches of rain last night. Surprisingly, my tomatoes are still alive with how sloppy wet it's been this last month. I grew Granny Cantrell this year. It's a pink variety and all her tomatoes are nice and big. The wet weather isn't slowing her down. I'm not throwing in the towel, spent the evening cutting diseased leaves off my plants. Mother Nature- Midwest summer called- she wants her warm, dry, sunny days back!

 

[OnlySympathy]

I used my own 1pee:10Lt water on my calla lillies one season. People said they didn't look real such was the beauty and size of them lol

I remember reading that mixing pee and wood ash 1:1 then diluting it 1:10 with water was a real good fertilizer. Not sure if it’s true but it reminded me of that

 

[Nym]

I remember reading that mixing pee and wood ash 1:1 then diluting it 1:10 with water was a real good fertilizer. Not sure if it’s true but it reminded me of that

Thanks, I'll give it a go. Those poor lillies are up for anything lol

 

[jerryse]

Scattered storms afternoon and evening. I have a lot of hollyhock seedlings in solo cups. I need to plant soon. Some cups are clear. I can see roots starting to reach the bottom. Want to get them planted before they become rootbound. I had 100% germination on the seeds I bought.

 

[Rick589]

Yesterdays harvest. Now, the question is: Are they fully ripe?

 

[Sally PB]

Ever have any trouble with your rhubarb. Planted Crimson Red last year and it died. Planted same this year and a Victoria both took off. Then something unseen began eating the leaves and eventually stopped, maybe because I used Neem on the plants. Anyway, weeks afterward the leaves just began dying with new sprouts continuing to emerge but the plants just seem to have taken a major step backwards, the Crimson seems to have harder time, it was planted from root stock whereas the Victoria was potted from a nursery.

I see some leaf damage on mine, but not a lot of chewing. Some of the old leaves turn brown and die, but they're still putting up new ones. I gave them all some chicken poop compost, and they got a lot of new growth after that.

My rhubarb history:
A neighbor gave me a split off one of hers. It's now huge and healthy. The next year (2023), I bought two plants. One did well; about August of last year, the other one looked like it was dying.

I read online about crown rot, assumed that's what the problem was, and dug it out. I *thought* there *might* be some mushiness to the root, but wasn't sure. That plant came back this spring -- tenacious, and I didn't get the entire root, obviously -- and I apologized to it profusely, claimed ignorance, gave it extra compost, and it's hanging in there.

Crown rot seemed to be the major problem rhubarb might have, other than something eating the leaves. I don't see a lot of bugs on my plants.

The rest of the saga...

This spring, I bought 3 crowns from a nursery. They were dried up and shriveled and about $50 for the three. Only one made it, and it is growing well. But... It's supposed to be the variety Canadian Red, and all of the stalks are green, like the variety Victoria. I really hope the stalks are red next spring and that the greenness is a juvenile plant phase it's going through. If not, I won't be buying plants from that store again. This isn't the first time I've gotten less than/not what I paid for.

Guarantee be damned; I'm not going to argue about the money. They can't do anything about me losing a year.

 

[Molpet]

Guarantee be damned; I'm not going to argue about the money.

They wouldn't know there was a problem if people don't say anything.

 

[Sally PB]

They wouldn't know there was a problem if people don't say anything.

I'll let them know, but I'm not going to ask for a refund. I don't have the receipt.

 

[Rick589]

I see some leaf damage on mine, but not a lot of chewing. Some of the old leaves turn brown and die, but they're still putting up new ones. I gave them all some chicken poop compost, and they got a lot of new growth after that.

My rhubarb history:
A neighbor gave me a split off one of hers. It's now huge and healthy. The next year (2023), I bought two plants. One did well; about August of last year, the other one looked like it was dying.

I read online about crown rot, assumed that's what the problem was, and dug it out. I *thought* there *might* be some mushiness to the root, but wasn't sure. That plant came back this spring -- tenacious, and I didn't get the entire root, obviously -- and I apologized to it profusely, claimed ignorance, gave it extra compost, and it's hanging in there.

Crown rot seemed to be the major problem rhubarb might have, other than something eating the leaves. I don't see a lot of bugs on my plants.

The rest of the saga...

This spring, I bought 3 crowns from a nursery. They were dried up and shriveled and about $50 for the three. Only one made it, and it is growing well. But... It's supposed to be the variety Canadian Red, and all of the stalks are green, like the variety Victoria. I really hope the stalks are red next spring and that the greenness is a juvenile plant phase it's going through. If not, I won't be buying plants from that store again. This isn't the first time I've gotten less than/not what I paid for.

Guarantee be damned; I'm not going to argue about the money. They can't do anything about me losing a year.

This Crimson Red I bought from Gurney’s. The first one started out well then died. They sent me another for free even though the guarantee had expired. This new Crimson Red and the Victoria took off but now seem to be suffering for no apparent reason. Maybe I’m not understanding or missing about growing rhubarb. If these two fail I think I’ll call it quits, the Crimson Red was $30.00 for a crown and that’s the one I really wanted. But, not enough to continue to throw money at it.

 

[Rick589]

Some chooks, they be bat-crap crazy!

Crap wasn’t the first word to come to mind, now was it?