The Dawg Patch

[PlainJane]

I seem to recall trying those in the fall once and they didn't do well so I dropped them. I need to try again. What variety do you have success with and when do you plant them down there in Gator Land?

As soon as I see night temps in the 60s instead of 70s, which should be in another week-ish.
Sugar Magnolia, Royal Snap II, Green Beauty, Royal Snow, Shiraz. New to try is Honey Snap II.

[PlainJane]

Yes, it does feel like time speeds up and down over the course of the year. Definitely leaving the ‘slow’ lane and heading into the ‘fast’ lane now.

[GoDawgs]

I seem to recall trying those in the fall once and they didn't do well so I dropped them. I need to try again. What variety do you have success with and when do you plant them down there in Gator Land?

As soon as I see night temps in the 60s instead of 70s, which should be in another week-ish.
Sugar Magnolia, Royal Snap II, Green Beauty, Royal Snow, Shiraz. New to try is Honey Snap II.

Ah, thanks for that. We're there now and have been for a week or so. Feels sooooo good!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday was wonderful for forking beds and working in the garden in general. It was in the 70's with a cool breeze and I actually forked another bed without my shirt getting soaking wet!

I got an e-mail from the Sow True Seed folks up in Ashville, NC to let me know they'll be starting to ship their garlic on Oct 3. That means that today I need to get that bed forked.

The Provider bush beans are getting tall enough that yesterday I ran baling twine on each side of of the two rows so that they don't flop. That makes picking soooo much easier. I already did the string thing with the Blue Ribbon beans last week. This is my first time with them and boy, are those plants getting big! I'll have to take a pic of them. I hope the beans are as blue ribbony as the plants look!

There are a lot of web worms up in the trees this year. It's been a while since that happened. Some are finding their way to the brassicas so I sprayed some bT yesterday. Of all the plants out there they seem to be hitting the Early Golden Acre cabbage the worst. Something to make note of. EGA is something I don't usually grow but put a few in because I ran out of seed of something else.

Besides all the web worms this year, I've noticed a big lack of the huge orb weaving spiders that usually have webs everywhere in the woodsy area where Mt. Brushmore is. Usually I have to have my head on a swivel and eyes looking extra hard for webs when I take a load of dead branches or pulled plants to toss on the pile. I'll usually grab a stick when I get near there so I can knock down any webs that have been made overnight on the path around the pile. Not this year and that's a first.

And finally, I checked my old garden notes to see when I would need to plant carrots in late spring to cover the gap between the last of the spring planted carrots and the first fall planted carrots. That would mean carrots just starting to grow during the onset of summer heat. I do know that carrots planted in March will last in the ground just fine until early September. They've got a good foothold on life when the heat hits. We'll see how they do when planted in May and go into June at a young age. Another experiment.

[rxkeith]

i think you will like the blue ribbon beans. they will be a shorter purple streaked romano type bean.
i think they have the edge in production over jumbo, romano bush bean, another one you should like
if you haven't grown it yet. blue ribbon is fairly early which is good for me because i save seeds or try to.


keith

[GoDawgs]

The brassicas are loving this cooler weather! This is the first bed. The back half has the first brocs and cabbages planted and the front half has some of Round Two which is collards, kale kohlrabi and more cabbage. The rest are in a separate bed where Round Three will go.



This fall I'll have three each of four kinds of cabbage; Alcosa (dwarf savoy), Kalibos (a red upright, new to me), Early Jersey Wakefield (just a regular cabbage) and Early Golden Acre (just because I had the seed and was out of Stonehead). They are different days to maturity so the thought was to naturally avoid an avalanche of cabbages ready all at once. These are the Alcosa savoy and they're looking good!



The other dwarf cuke in a bucket is the Bushy. It's loaded with blooms and the first little babies. Go, little cukes, go! Hurry!



And finally this is a huge, sprawling volunteer tomato plant. I have no idea what it is. It has suffered in the heat but now that it's cooler it is loaded with blooms and the first baby greenies. I hope it makes it before frost!

[PlainJane]

I’m trying Kalibos too, seeds just started. Your fall greens look fantastic!

[GoDawgs]

Thanks, PJ! They've just loving this cooler weather! I started the last four cauliflowers and the second Red Robin three days ago and the caulis are up this morning. Today's task is to sow four more daikon radishes.

I also got the chain needed for hanging two more light fixture that will go over a table in the "office". Those will be for the indoor dwarf tomato growing experiment. Sophie's Choice is already blooming.

[GoDawgs]

The first nice tomato on the volunteer tomato was still green but big enough to bring inside to finish ripening. Alas, the back side had already been eaten out! I finally ordered a pack of 8x12 bags (white, no foofoo colors LOL!) to try and they arrived last week. I'm going to try them out on clusters on this volunteer plant by buzzing the blooms on a cluster first and then carefully putting the cluster in a bag.

I did get the twine down the sides of the bean rows. These are the Providers:



The Blue Ribbons are getting ready to bloom. They sure did need the twine as they were starting to lean. The other problem was that they are getting tall enough to push up against the top of the netting tunnel so I had to deploy my anchor extenders. Those are merely wooden stakes that have whittled-down ends so they fit into the 3/4" anchor pipe. Pull the pipe out of the ground, replace with stake, put the pipe back on the whittled end and slip the hoop back into the pipe. Plenty of room to grow now!



Rethinking this wooden extender business I got the idea that maybe using pipe sleeves to join a second pipe section to the anchor in the ground would work and give me better control of the height. Slip on, slip off as easily as with the wooden extenders but they would give me height flexibility. I have shorter pieces of 3/4" pipe that are mostly unused except for very low tunnels which I don't use that often. So I bought two sleeves to test the concept on one hoop and I think they'll work well. Will buy more next time I'm near Lowes or Home Depot in the city.

[GoDawgs]

Good morning! The smell of skunk is floating in the air out there. It's either one of them marking territory or one that got splatted out on the road.

Got another bed forked, this time for garlic to be planted along the edges. It will most likely arrive this week. I'm going to sow mustard in the middle for turning in later. Summer squash will be planted down the middle come spring and hopefully the turned in mustard will help with nematodes. We'll see. Mustard seed is cheap at the feed 'n weed.

Just for grins and giggles I planted two yellow squash plants in buckets on the tomato pallets. I can't remember if this is early Straightneck or Smooth Criminal but I'll know which when it stays smooth or gets bumpy. There are a few little ones starting.



The big tea olive near the garden is in full bloom and putting out such a nice sweet scent.



It's loaded with clusters of tiny flowers. So pretty AND so fragrant.



Today I'm going to hang two more light fixtures above a table in the "office". The dwarf tomatoes will go under there. I'm out of s-hooks so yesterday I made enough to use from a wire coat hanger.

This week's projects include transplanting out scallions, onions and shallot sets. And I'll be sowing another row of carrots along the edge of a bed.

[PlainJane]

I just love tea olive. Under appreciated imo.

[AKgardener]

When I lived in Montana for a few years my older sister came to visit and it was late we went out cause there were weird noises we both got sprayed by a skunk it was the worst thing ever! Anyway on the veggie question I keep having all my cauliflower turn color and not form heads so is that really normal because it happens every year and yet I read they like cooler climate so I was wondering what your doing haha

[GoDawgs]

I got the new lights up over a table in the office. Right now there are three dwarf tomatoes under way and the tallest ('Lahta', 3-4') is under them now. It's 23" tall with nice blooms on it.





The other two are not as tall yet. Sophie's Choice (left) is 17" with a few blooms and Premus (right) is 13" with some buds. They'll stay under the micro lights until the micro tomatoes are big enough to need them.



One by one I've had to clip the lower branches off Lahta as something is going on with the leaves. At first I thought it might be some kind of funk until I looked at the under side of the leaves and saw a lot of bumps. Some kind of edema? This one's new to me and I have no clue.





I got an e-mail saying my garlic order is shipping. Woo hoo! It's Polish White, a softneck and a new one for me. It will start replacing Siberian.

Right now the garden is pretty much a waiting game. Beds that needed to be prepped for fall have been done. The first two sets of staggered plantings are in and the third set isn't ready yet. Those last ones might get in too late but there's no telling what "too late" means here as it varies year to year. So I wait. I might get the first cutting of kale today.

[GoDawgs]

When I lived in Montana for a few years my older sister came to visit and it was late we went out cause there were weird noises we both got sprayed by a skunk it was the worst thing ever!

Oh boy, that's something I always think about when I smell skunk outside at night and carefully go out with a flashlight to see if it's out there.

Anyway on the veggie question I keep having all my cauliflower turn color and not form heads so is that really normal because it happens every year and yet I read they like cooler climate so I was wondering what your doing haha

It may be your timing. Maybe back up your spring planting some. I have no idea about your fall weather. Warm one day and snow the next? LOL! Maybe start your cauli a little later in the fall and be prepared to cover them?

Cauliflower needs to be forming heads when it's cool and it doesn't like a lot of temp swings between warm and cool. That's what makes it iffy here both spring and fall. Once you get buttons forming, something that helps is to blanch the heads by bringing up some of the big outer leaves and fasten them together so that they cover the heads and keep the sun out. I use good old clothespins to fasten them together. Whatever works!

[AKgardener]

@GoDawgs aww I like that idea definitely gonna try as far as your mater leaves mine did the same thing indoors didn’t matter what light I put them under my pepper leaves did the same thing as it seemed to do that after I watered them.i tried everything new lights fans humidity I just think some are more picky than others my mico never did that but the dwarfs and others did.

[GoDawgs]

@GoDawgs aww I like that idea definitely gonna try as far as your mater leaves mine did the same thing indoors didn’t matter what light I put them under my pepper leaves did the same thing as it seemed to do that after I watered them.i tried everything new lights fans humidity I just think some are more picky than others my mico never did that but the dwarfs and others did.

I've only done micros under these tall lights before and they've done just fine. This is a first with the dwarfs. Maybe you're on to something there. Maybe artificial light won't do for tomatoes bigger then micros. Although about five years ago I did try getting a good head start on a tomato (waaay too early as it turned out) and managed to keep it going until it went outside by hanging a shop light vertically and turning the plant daily.



And it may be a watering thing. I usually run my tomatoes indoors kind of on the dry side but these may have gotten a bit too much. Back to the dry side!

[AKgardener]

I would have to agree with you. I use to have shop lights still do but I have them put away but they never made the plants do that when I started my maters and I usally start them in march,I have all these stick tomatoes but the leaves are different so I cant tell maybe Ill buy a shop light that will fit one of my racks since I put the other large rack upstairs and just see if there is a difference.. I ll work on that when I start my other mater..good test to try..

[GoDawgs]

@AKgardener, I use two different tubes in each of my shop lights. One warm white and one cool white, supposedly for more light spectrum. They do just fine for growing all of my starts and have for years. I've read on here all the different kind of lights people use and why but what I have works for me so I stick with it. The only change I've made was from T-12 to T-8 a few years ago but I still have two of those T-12s hanging around in case of emergency!

[AKgardener]

@GoDawgs okay..will just do our best with what we got and hope for things to get better.. I did find new micro's this morning..and of course I had to order them..

[GoDawgs]

It's been a busy week:

Sunday - Besides putting up the new tomato lights indoors I got the rest of the carrot/onion bed forked and weeded/mulched the turnips. The first flowers on the Provider beans are open and I picked the first handful of Red Ripper field peas.

Tuesday - A kitchen day. Made breakfast sausage patties for the freezer and made a new pasta dish with bacon and broccoli.

Wednesday - Cut the first kale from the new plants and cooked them with mushrooms, onions and garlic to go with lunch. Good stuff! I also raised the netting on the two bean beds to let in the butterflies who wanted to get at the flowers. Zinnias got deadheaded.

Thursday - The first Apple Blossom camellia bloom is open! First of all camellias to bloom.



I also transplanted out the Texas Grano onion seedlings, mulched the new carrots and planted 12 of the shallots I harvested earlier this year. And the new Polish White garlic arrived. Yay! That will be planted next week.

Yesterday - I planted out scallions along both sides of a bed. 36' of scallions! Well, one pack of seedlings was a test of some 2017 seed I've had in the freezer to see if they were still viable. Yep! Good as new and seeing how I just couldn't toss them.... they got planted. Another 18' row of carrots was sown.

Dwarf tomato Sophie's Choice has three little green babies on it!



Since all the newly planted beds look like plain old dirt and the newbie scallions are so small I didn't take any pics as we all know what bare looking beds look like. LOL!

Today I'll bake more English muffin bread but I'm taking today off garden-wise as all that crouching to plant stuff has made one of my knees grouchy. Besides, it's FOOTBALL DAY! Some dandy games will be fought today and some cold brew consumed. Call it knee medication. Ahhhh, Saturdays in the Fall!