The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

@GoDawgs Ha’Ogen should be green inside. That’s a different melon, I believe.

Ah so! Thanks for that information. It was grown with MMMM seed I got this year. Maybe a cross? Perhaps I'll buy some when I order spring stuff and try it one more time. Or maybe not. Gotta see what kind of space I have next spring.

[GoDawgs]

The first round of fall stuff is out on the porch hardening off and getting to meet the real world in about ten days. Broccoli, cabbage, etc. Got a couple peppers too, 'Frank's Sweet' (56 DTM, new to me ). Started just one to play with indoors from older seed but all three seeds came up. Didn't have the heart to just cut them off so I fished them out and transplanted to their own pots. So one will grow indoors under lights when it gets cold outside, and the other two will take their chances in the garden.

24.08.24 First round for fall out to harden.JPG

The second round of fall stuff is under the lights, about an inch or so tall and just now thinking about putting out their first real leaves.

The second round tomatoes are coming along and the eggplants up front are just hanging in there. They're been real productive this year and are getting tired. Also in the mix are some peppers that are still producing.

24.08.24 Second round tomatoes.JPG

The SunSugar cherry tomato got ridiculously tall, vining everywhere and not flowering anymore. There were a lot of new shoots along the lower bare stems so I cut the plant back, the shoots grew and now there are new flower clusters. That's good news because they're so good they're now my favorite even though they are a hybrid! So sweet but with good flavor too.

[GoDawgs]

Well, the deer came back and finished off the sweet potato leaves. LOL! Nothing but sticks left. That's OK. They can't get to the beans and cow peas. Bwaaaaahahahahahaha!

24.08.26 Deer-defoliated sweet potato vines.JPG

I pulled out the dead Ha'Ogen melon vines and sure enough, when I pulled up the roots (what was left of them), suspicions of nematodes at work were confirmed.

24.08.26 Nematoded Ha'Ogen roots.JPG

When I went back to Mt. Brushmore to dump the vines I found two giant orb weaver webs. one build about a foot or two behind the other. The sun was just right to light them up. And it almost looks like a screaming face in that first one. Two big eyes and a round mouth hollering "Noooooooooooo!"

24.08.26 Big web behind Mt. Brushmore.JPG

These huge webs are made by some enormous spiders that have come to Georgia in the past few years. Can't remember the name but you sure have to watch that you don't get a face full if you're walking around back there.

I think the hummingbirds are maybe starting to head south. The feeders aren't emptying as fast and traffic around them is now more like a small regional airport, not as busy as Atlanta's Hartsfield International. The hummers usually leave out around the first week in September so it's getting close. We'll still leave a feeder up afterwards for any stragglers passing through.

[JayneR13]

Wow that’s an amazing web! A spider can catch quite the meal in that. Happily, not you lol

[MissS]

That web is crazy! I see a face and the head of a wolf in the lower left corner. Perfect for Halloween.

[PlainJane]

Yeah, I’d hate to walk into one of those webs.

[pepperhead212]

I saw a large orb web yesterday, up underneath one of the windowsill boxes on my deck - not really in the way, except that it's in the spot on the rail where I put my mug of iced tea all the time, so I almost put it there! Tried to get a photo, but it wouldn't focus on the web - just the wood it was near. Still there, catching things, so I'll leave it there, and try to remember not to put the tea there!

[GoDawgs]

Sometimes when I'm walking around back there I have a long stick with me and wave it around in front of me as I go, just in case there's one I didn't see. It's a real shady area and you can miss seeing a web if the sun isn't shining just right through the trees.

The week of 80's is over. At 10:45 this morning it was already 87 with a 95 heat factor already. This is Day 17 without rain.

[JayneR13]

I've read that orb weaving spiders actually consume and build a new web every single day! No wonder they have no time for computer games. LOL

[karstopography]

I've read that orb weaving spiders actually consume and build a new web every single day! No wonder they have no time for computer games. LOL

Interesting. I have a couple of Black and Yellow Argiope Spiders, orb weavers, that have their webs set up in the bed with half the eggplants and most of the peppers. The webs do seem to be new day to day and in slightly different places and positions. I thought the spiders were just having a rough time with things knocking down their webs each day or night, but apparently the spiders themselves are doing the demolition.

[GoDawgs]

The heat is back at least until Monday or so. Early last week when the cooler air was still around I set out the first batch of fall plants on the front porch to harden off (photo above) but it got pretty windy and was beating them up so after a day of that, in they came to go back under the lights.

The front porch now is like an oven and no place for babies. It gets about 5-8 degrees hotter than out in the yard. Yesterday the temp off the porch was 93 and on the porch it was 98 with 51% humidity for a heat index of 114! "They" say cooler weather is coming in Tuesday so out the plants will go again then. Meanwhile, they're liking being indoors! I hope to get these planted out around Sep 9-10.

24.08.30 Some fall brassicas almost ready.JPG

The second batch of plants are still babies. Sometimes when I look at them I don't see plants, just a bunch of holes to dig. These will go out near the end of September.

24.08.30 The second flight of fall plants.JPG

Meanwhile the cow peas are safe and sound in their netting enclosure and growing fast. With that and the netting tunnels over the beans, the deer buffet is closed.

24.08.30 Red Rippers doing well in enclosure.JPG

Today I'm smoking a rack of ribs that will feed us today and tomorrow. No cooking tomorrow as it's the first day of football! Oh boy! The Dawgs take on #14 Clemson at noon so we'll see what kind of team we have this year. It's always a roll of the dice.

[JayneR13]

Wow! That's too hot for babies all right! The poor plants would fry in that, no doubt about it. We've been quite humid here for the past two days as well, but with the temps in the 60s-70s it's more of a clammy feeling. I can feel the powdery mildew and Septoria growing! I have bunches of tomatoes, both here and at the pantry garden, and I hope they ripen. We only have about 6 weeks of growing season left before the average first frost. With the birds already flying south, we may not even have that.

Go Dawgs!

[GoDawgs]

Today the weather starts turning. A cold front in moving through with a lot of wind today and tomorrow, hopefully some rain on Thursday. I have the first flight of brassicas ready to go out but not in this wind. Probably on Thursday when the wind dies down and rain comes in.

Meanwhile it's hole prep time so all I have to do on Thursday is plug in plants. I had forgotten (ignored) about half a bed that will be needed. It was just covered in weeds and Bermuda grass so in the evening I got out the big broad fork (The Beast) and loosened that whole half a bed. After that the weeds just came out easy in big mats. By then my shirt was just soaked with sweat and I was pooped but that's my punishment for being a slug and letting it get that bad. Pay the piper! Today I need to clean up that mess and finish the last few holes.

[GoDawgs]

This morning was an absolute joy for working the garden with a cool 10-15mph breeze out there! All planting holes for the first batch of plant are prepped. I filled all the holes with water to let it soak in as the soil was dry at least one shovel length down. And I'll probably refill them this evening.

This evening the sweet potato vines will get cut off their trellis and cut off near the ground. We'll be digging the sweets tomorrow before the "I'll believe it when I see it" rain that supposedly comes in on Thursday.

[PlainJane]

Envy you. Going to be a while before any cooler temperatures here.

[JayneR13]

It’s actually been really nice up here! I so enjoy working in the garden in the fresh morning air. We harvested 34 lb from the food pantry garden today, with at least 10 up for harvest tomorrow. Only a few short weeks to go! My how time flies during the growing season!

[GoDawgs]

It's sweet potato time! I grow them in a raised bed on a trellis to keep the vines from taking up a lot of space. This is what the vines looked like before the deer ate them all.

24.09.03 Sweet potato vines.JPG

A couple of sweets have been pushing up out of the ground so it was time to dig two hills and see what's there.

24.09.04 Sweet potatoes probably ready.JPG

24.09.04 Sweet potatoes, first hill dug.JPG

Wow! Time to dig them all. There be some monsters in there! These are probably the biggest sweets I've ever grown. We ended up with 46 lbs of sweet potatoes from 11 hills. These are 'Jewel', a nematode resistant variety I've been growing for years.

24.09.04 Sweet potatoes from 11 hills.JPG

Now it's time to cure them for two weeks. They need about 85-90 degrees and 85% humidity. I stack them crosswise in baskets and the baskets are put in plastic trash bags to keep the humidity high in there while the sweets are driving off moisture. There are holes in the bags to let excess moisture out. This is something I read about and it works pretty well.


I have two hills left to dig. They're 'Covington', a different nema-resistant variety I'm trying this year. They were planted later as an afterthought when I found some in the grocery store and grew a few slips from them so they're not ready yet. Seems like it's becoming the main commercial crop variety in North Carolina so we'll see how they compare to 'Jewel'.

We've just had night temps drop into the 60's so keeping them in the tool shed won't do. What I end up doing is putting them in the back of my car's hatchback during the day, window open some to keep the inside temp from getting too high. Then I'll bring them in at night. About every other day I'll check the potatoes to make sure they aren't wet from humidity. Don't want any rot starting!

[PlainJane]

That’s intense!

[JRinPA]

Stacked crosswise inside a basket inside a bag with ventilation holes. Got it. I have just been stacking in crates the back of the subaru in October, seems to work up here. Windows up and for I guess 3 weeks. I might have evac-ed them once last year when it was too cold.

They are big. I'm hoping for something similar or a little smaller.

I still haven't done vole traps this year. And since I didn't trellis, there is plenty of cover there. I don't know why I decided not to trellis. I was going to trellis on the back side...I guess I thought it would be hard to access that side, then. I should have just trellised down the middle. I know how well it works for you. Didn't really help me at the comm garden last year, though.

These pushed out over the bed wall and I threw the vines back up a few times. I have not kept up on the watering real well.

View from the kitchen window

sept4sweets.jpg

[JayneR13]

That's a whole lotta sweet potato! Do they keep well?