Zenbaas's Gardening Thread (Picture "heavy" Thread)

[pepperhead212]

Glad to hear something is working, and hope it keeps working. Good luck!

[MissS]

I'm so glad to hear from you. It has been awhile and I was a bit worried.

I have learned that soil is everything. I had Verticillium wilt in my new beds too. It sure is devastating. I finally ended up taking some pool chlorine and saturating my beds three times then adding plenty of mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria back into the soil. After all of that, I finally got a decent harvest this year. I wanted to treat it again this past fall but things got in the way. Please keep us updated on how things work out for you. We all learn from each others pains.

[Zenbaas]

Am sorry to hear it’s been such a struggle. Rooting with you for a turnaround!

Thank you. Yes there's not much worse when you love tomato's and you simply can't get them going.

I'll upload some pictures later. We've been hammered with rain after a long drought so garden is finally looking better.

[Zenbaas]

I'm so glad to hear from you. It has been awhile and I was a bit worried.

I have learned that soil is everything. I had Verticillium wilt in my new beds too. It sure is devastating. I finally ended up taking some pool chlorine and saturating my beds three times then adding plenty of mycorrhizae and beneficial bacteria back into the soil. After all of that, I finally got a decent harvest this year. I wanted to treat it again this past fall but things got in the way. Please keep us updated on how things work out for you. We all learn from each others pains.

Wow I never even considered that as an option. I was thinking about using Hydrogen peroxide in a similar way so I guess I wasn't too far off. Yes it's devastating and it drives a person bonkers.!

It's so difficult to properly articulate how much actual effort it takes from seeds all the way up to a plant that can actually bear fruit and then "bam" they die, just like that.

I'll be honest I'm am expecting some drama still this year, I doubt one season will be enough to get the soil balanced but I'm working on it.

[Zenbaas]

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General overview. I have made some changes and planted a few dwarf trees on the sides of the beds.
As things stands there are 4 different varieties of figs, one white peach, Custard Apple, cherry, Anna apple and Persimmon.

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Some micro dwarf tomatoes just transplanted.

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More micro-dwarfs

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Planted blueberries in the pots next to the beds. Hopefully in 2/3 years they'll grow into nice bushes.

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[PlainJane]

Things look fantastic, actually!

[MissS]

Your plants are looking healthy and they are fruiting. That's a huge accomplishment. Mine would start yellowing as soon as fruit production started.

You are on the right track!

[Zenbaas]

So it seems like the initial inputs have yielded some results. We have had a lot of constant rain which has obviously triggered the associated early blight etc to start it's nonsense but I have manged to keep it at bay for now with constant pruning of affected leaves and mils copper sprays.

This year I went a diffent route with labelling everything and it had properly bombed on me with them deteriorating to a point where I don't know what is what any more. I'm honestly not too bothered. Next year I want to focus more on productive hearts.

That said it seems the thick mulching combined with the constant Jadam MS has definitely help swing the microbes away from the more pathogenic ones to friendlier ones.

The Jadam wetting agent is also helping for the ahpids, and there is a loooot of them.

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[Zenbaas]

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Some harvesting today.

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[Homegrwoninillinois]

Cute kiddos!

[MissS]

Your tomatoes look great as usual. You sure do have a lot of variety this year. Some big ones too!

What kind of fowl do you have helping you out there? I bet that they help quite a bit at keeping the insects down.

Those boys have grown so much. They are growing as fast as your plants.

[Zenbaas]

Your tomatoes look great as usual. You sure do have a lot of variety this year. Some big ones too!

What kind of fowl do you have helping you out there? I bet that they help quite a bit at keeping the insects down.

Those boys have grown so much. They are growing as fast as your plants.

The little ones are quails. There are about 12. They live in the space and yes they definitely get hold of a lot of the bad bugs. They're also great at destroying things on the ground so the raised beds have worked out well.

As for tomatoes I actually which I had some more larger varieties. I somehow ended up with a lot of cherry and small saladette size ones which I've been dehydrating. The missus loves the sundried tomatoes with pasta so they've been out to good use as well. I'm just happy to finally have a decent harvest again as its been almost 3 years. Spent most of today canning with the youngest one helping me as always. He is always keen to get his hands dirty.

[MissS]

I know that you have had a lot of disease pressure the past few years and I'm so happy that your family can finally enjoy a nice harvest after all of the time and effort you put in to build your amazing greenhouse. Your kitchen counter is full and the kids look so happy.

Enjoy both of those kids and the tomatoes too!

[MissS]

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you want some seeds of some huge competition type tomatoes feel free to PM me and I will send some out.