Thursday, June 27, 2013

More Tomatoes and Some Peppers on the Way


The garden is, unbelievably, still doing great. I'm actually in a mild state of shock over how well everything is going. I cannot remember the last time something has not gone wrong by this time of year. I'm certainly not complaining though, I'm just pleasantly surprised.

Gardening maintenance continues, watering occurs every other day, feeding with liquid fertilizer occurs once a week, tomato trimming and tying up melon vines happens as needed. I've sprayed the pepper plants with Epsom salt once and will do it again in a few weeks.

If there are heavy rains 2 days or more in a row the plants get sprayed with Actinovate, an organic fungicide, to prevent any diseases from establishing themselves in vulnerable plants. I've done this 2 or 3 times since the beginning of the growing season. My hope is that if I make a greater effort at disease prevention I can avoid the consequences of diseased plants, poor/reduced yield. Last year's yield was terrible so I'm trying to compensate.


Planet F1 pepper plants.


The first sweet pepper of the season.


Minnesota Midget melons.



The Brandy Boy F1 tomato plant has fruited.


I'm very curious to see how large these tomatoes will get.


Jasper F1 cherry tomato plant. It's getting pretty tall so I'm going to cut off the growing tips on the tallest stems to encourage growth lower down on the plant.



Serenade F1 melon plants are steadily overtaking the trellis. Plenty of male and female flowers, but no signs of pollination yet. If I don't see any results soon I'll resort to hand pollination.


The Japanese Trifele Black tomato plant has fruited.



Ozark Beauty strawberry plants.



Beaver Lodge tomato.


Numerous blooms and fruits on this plant.


Giant Aconcagua peppers.


Flowers have finally appeared.


Yukon Gold potatoes. Last weekend I dug around the stems to check the growth status of the potatoes. I didn't find anything substantial so I'm going to wait until the plants die back to give the crop more time to develop before I harvest from the container.


With the weather heating up I've switched from hand watering to soda bottle drip irrigation. I've gone from daily watering to every other day watering, which is conveniently the schedule that the rest of the garden is on. Don't know why I didn't switch sooner.



On Deck F1 corn and Butterbean soybeans.


Cosmonaut Volkov tomato. I see plenty of flowers on this plant, but still no signs of fruit. I don't know if they're truly not there yet or if I'm just not looking closely enough. This container is in a tight location that makes it hard to bend down and examine the plant for long periods of time.

June 20-26:

Strawberry (Ozark Beauty): 0.5 ounces

Running Weight Total 2013: 4.875 ounces

FYI, I will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks so my next post will not appear until July 16th. I hope to see everyone back here soon to see how much the garden has changed within that time and to find out what pests have moved in during my absence, haha. Enjoy July 4th everyone!

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2 comments:

  1. Beautiful lush and healthy plants, and a nice variety too. Everything looks great and I look forward to seeing the growth when you return from vacation, have a safe trip and a great time.

    ReplyDelete

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