The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

Yeah, they do. I still have a few from last year. Lots of sprouts making them look hairy. I don't know about the quality either but if the balloon ever went up, I'm sure I could find them edible if I had to!

[GoDawgs]

Still no rain here. I see we're under some green on the weather map but it's still dry as a bone here. Any rain must be evaporating before it hits the ground.

The big Cucuzza squash vine has produced just one stinkin' squash so yesterday morning it was time to go.

27.09.03 First cucuzza squash.JPG

So this mess...

24.09.05 Cucuzza vine about to go away.JPG

...became this. And the sweet potato trellis (far upper left corner) got de-vined too.

24.09.05 Cucuzza vines down, trellis removed.JPG

This morning I wanted to plant the second row of Contender beans down the other side of that bed but I can't get the soil wet! The soil is powder dry at least shovel deep so I ran a trench, filled it with water and it just sat there, refusing to seep in. So I deadheaded zinnias and checked the trench. The water had been sopped up so I filled it a second time and went to dig up the sunflowers. The ground was so hard I couldn't even get a shovel in it! Back to the bean row. The water had soaked in so I grabbed the shovel to turn the soil in the trench. Powder dry below 1/2" down! GAH!

So I turned the soil trying to mix in that little bit of moist stuff and then poured water to it all twice more. Still dry. I've never in my life seen this. I'll keep running water on it but if I can't get it wet by this evening I'm saying to heck with the second bean planting. Time is running out. If I wait much longer the beans might not make by Mr. Frosty time.

[GoDawgs]

Rain.. sort of. It was very lightly raining early on but it soon stopped. 1/10" in the gauge and then the sun came out. No more rain for several more days. Heavy sigh. So I checked on the bean bed and most all of the row was damp so I went ahead planted the beans and watered them again. Done!

Pickles put up nine more half pints of salsa this morning. Good stuff! I've got a lot of jalapenos coming on and the first few tomatoes of the second round plants. Yesterday she made zucchini bread for the first time in ages. Oh soooo good! The zukes weren't grown here but rescued from the local grocery's marked down veggie cart. A bag of perfectly good zukes for about $1.25. Cheap eats!

One of the raised bed sideboards has been bulging and it finally gave way.

24.09.05 Rotted side board finally gave way.JPG

I have the boards to replace all of them in that bed. Having lasted 13 years none of them are worth a toot anymore, rotting on the inside that's up against the soil. That will happen sometime this winter along with rehabbing several more beds too.

Out in the garden there's a scrawny volunteer tomato plant that I have ignored and left to its own devices to survive. Well, it kinda has and is now actually making a few oblong cherry tomatoes, kind of like a stunted Juliet. The will to live! I might have to collect a few seeds for next year since it seems to have survived all this droughty time without being watered by me. One thing that stands out for me is that it never got hit by the bacterial wilt that seems to hit tomatoes planted anywhere in the garden. The wilt is the reason the tomatoes have been growing in buckets for the last five or more years. Hmmmmm...... Maybe it's time to experiment with putting a couple of tomatoes in the garden again next year.

24.09.05 Drought tolerant volunteer tomato.JPG

[PlainJane]

It never fails to amaze me how things survive in harsh conditions. Have you tasted that tomato yet lol?

[BlackKrim]

@GoDawgs. Golly, that is one hell of a garden (in size & neatness). Good luck with tomatoes in your garden next year. Mine in buckets are OK but no match for the ones in my garden. In any event, I find that volunteers, which always come up seemingly way too late, always do very well, and do indeed ripen in our relatively short growing season. Very odd.

I am rather intrigued by your oblong cherry tomatoes. I used to grow a pink, pointy tipped large cherry (maybe too large to be considered any kind of cherry) called Tip Top and I would kill for some seeds as I lost mine years ago. What are the chances of anyone here having any to part with...their flavour is OK, not bad at all, but it is such a pretty variety (grows in clusters) and I want it back for sentimental reasons.

[Whwoz]

@BlackKrim post your want of Tip Top seed in the MMMM wishlist thread, more people will see it there and you never know what may happen. Other alternative is to set up a separate thread.

[GoDawgs]

Golly, that is one hell of a garden (in size & neatness). Good luck with tomatoes in your garden next year. Mine in buckets are OK but no match for the ones in my garden. In any event, I find that volunteers, which always come up seemingly way too late, always do very well, and do indeed ripen in our relatively short growing season. Very odd.

Thanks for the kind words. I've been seriously thinking about reducing the planting list a little for next year. The older I get the more stiff I seem to get after garden sessions and the longer it takes to do stuff. Ibuprofen is my friend. LOL! But who am I kidding? There's always something new I just have to try. The problem is that instead of doing just a few of the new thing I end up doing a whole row. Mission creep!

I hope you find your Tip Top. @Whwoz has your best answer for asking about Tip Top.

Those couple of volunteer tomatoes will get a taste test today.

[JayneR13]

My wooden raised bed, which is <5 years old, has white rot that's spreading into the soil. The place I got it from doesn't treat their wood in any way, food safe or otherwise, so their beds don't last long. But it was $25 delivered and filled so what's not to love? I think I may replace it next year with a plastic or metal frame though. My plastic beds were placed in 2012 and are still going strong.

Good luck with your beans. Time is indeed running short! Up here, I'm not planting anything other than garlic anymore. We've had two fall days with nights in the 40s and frost warnings up North. The end is near!

[BlackKrim]

The end is near!

You mean...The Apocalypse?

[GoDawgs]

Good luck with your beans. Time is indeed running short! Up here, I'm not planting anything other than garlic anymore. We've had two fall days with nights in the 40s and frost warnings up North. The end is near!

Our first light frost is usually somewhere in the third week of October. I can protect the beans from that and it's usually followed by warm weather again. However there are some years when it's as late as mid November and those are usually a light frost immediately followed by the killer frost.

The Contender beans are 45-50 DTM so 45 days from planting on Sep 7 would now be Oct 22. Add two weeks of picking and we're into the 1st week of November. The row I just planted is the second row. The first one was planted on Aug 20 so I'm not too worried about those.

[JRinPA]

Sweet potatoes keep well if well cured well and then stored above 60F. Below 60F they want to rot/mold. I had sweet potatoes good until June this year and in fact made the "mothers" into sweet potato pudding after I had enough slips. I have GoDawgs to thank for much of my sweet potato success. I have grown them quite a few different ways, and for me, here, the raised bed boxes are the way to go.

[GoDawgs]

@JRinPA , I'm so glad you're having success with your sweets! Sometimes with plants it just takes a tweak or two with methods to get the best out of them.

I was going to post to you today about curing. I found an easier way to cure them (at least for now) and it was right under my nose all the time. The front porch faces east but is always about 5 degrees hotter than the out in the yard even after the sun swings around and the porch becomes shaded.
The plant tables on the porch shade the floor so why not just sit the plastic-bagged baskets out there in the shade and not tote them back and forth from the car? There's an indoor/outdoor thermometer in the living room and porch so I can easily monitor the temp out there. We're back to mid-upper 80's so that's perfect.

Indoor temp stays at 78 so when the outdoor temp starts cooling off in the evening and hits 78 I bring the baskets into the house for the night as it will get into the 60's overnight. Then I'm setting them back outside the next day when the porch gets to 78. It's been working great at least for now as long as the daytime temps stay where they are. Most likely they will through curing time.

This is so easy now!

[JRinPA]

I think last year I took them inside once for 2 nights, maybe. So pretty easy up here for me.

My south east exposure in the fall is very minimal, the neighbor's garage and silver maple still in foliage block the sun from reaching the carport as the sun drops further each day.

I still have my onions and garlic on the carport all this time, as I don't have a better place for them. They'll go downstairs eventually.

[JRinPA]

I kind of miss experimenting with the different ways/spots to grow them. If I am disappointed this year, after going all in with 12 ft of raised box...well I don't think I will be unless the voles got in. That 30 ft raised box is 12 ft of sweets and the balance is unharvested Lehigh yellows. I have lot of potatoes coming.

[GoDawgs]

Here are the sweets curing on the porch. Right now it's 83 and breezy.

24.09.10 Sweet potatoes curing on the porch.JPG

I also have started three Frank's Sweet peppers that I got in the recent MMMM. One will be potted up to be grown inside over the winter and the other two will be potted up for growing outside as long as I can protect them. There are already two little baby peppers on the one on the right.

24.09.10 Three Frank's Sweet peppers.JPG

[GoDawgs]

I've two cukes going in buckets. They're Morden Early, a 45 day cuke I've never met before but received in the recent MMMM. They're ready to lay down and run so I put up a trellis for them.

24.09.10 Morden's Early cuke ready to run up trellis.JPG

They sounded good for fall: "Nice bush plant, compact vines, short blunt fruit. Super early, nice pickler. Developed at the Morden Experiment Station in Manitoba. Plants are cold weather tolerant, great for northern and short season areas."

I've learned before not to mess with stuff developed up north by planting it in the spring. They sure don't like our heat. But sometimes they do well in the fall especially when it really cools off. These were direct seeded Aug 19 so 45 days later would be Oct 3. So we'll see. It would be nice to have some fresh cukes in the garden again even for a little while.

[GoDawgs]

It's that time of year. Time for the invasion of Southern army worms. I found a dwarf tormato with a section of skeletonized foliage.

24.09.11 Southern army worm damage on tomato.JPG

Sure enough, a closer look turned up a bunch of those little boogers in there just stuffing themselves.

24.09.11 Southern army worms.JPG

Two years ago when I first met them, I wasn't sure which type of caterpillar they were so I took some to the extension agent who identified them. Lines on their sides and red heads. When I asked about spraying with bT she said it would be effective only on those about a half inch or smaller. The 1" mature ones needed to be hand picked. So that's what I did and also cut off all the skeletonized foliage so I could easily see if I missed a few worms. So far no new damage.

But the good news is that the first fall straightneck squash is on the way. I spied a 3" baby when I watered plants today.

24.089.13 Baby straightneck squash.JPG

Speaking of water, old Francine decided she'd keep her outer bands to herself so we're still high and dry. Job security for Dances With Hoses!

[MissS]

Poor @Tormato, it looks like he's getting ready for Halloween. I hope you get all the worms off before the swap.

[Tormato]

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

That's a yes, maybe or no answer.

In the south, with a long hot growing season, the skins have time to thicken up, and it's a yes.

In the north, with a relatively long hot season, and an early variety, it might be a maybe.

My two times growing sweet potatoes, with mid to late season varieties, and very good weather, produced tubers with ultra-thin paper-like skin. So thin, that washing them with a hose removed the skin, and they'd need to be cooked immediately. They were grown on black plastic, huge production, even with voles feasting on about 75% of them.

[Tormato]

Poor @Tormato, it looks like he's getting ready for Halloween. I hope you get all the worms off before the swap.

I must have missed something.