The 2014 Get Dirt Under Your Fingernails Thread

[terrehautian]

Trimmed the plants today. Lost about twenty grape tomato starts but cut off a bunch of non veggie bearing stems. Three of my marigold plants can be seen now.

I knew of this bunch of big beef ones.

didnt know now about these though.

 

[BigMatt]

It never fails to "amaize" me how fast corn grows when it is tasseling. It grew at least a foot in 3 days.

This picture was from 7-1-14 -

And this was taken on 7-4-14

 

[nate77]

It never fails to "amaize" me how fast corn grows when it is tasseling. It grew at least a foot in 3 days.

how do you keep such a huge corn patch so clean?

I had a heck of a time with a patch only a fraction of that size.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

had issues with radishes bolting. starting to pick cherry tomatoes and green beans. will have peppers and sugar snap peas within a week.

 

[BigMatt]

how do you keep such a huge corn patch so clean?

I had a heck of a time with a patch only a fraction of that size.

I grow Roundup Ready sweet corn. They came out with it a few years ago and I love it.

I have been growing a lot of sweet corn for about 5 years and I would cultivate about every week with my Farmall Cub and I still ended up with a ton of weeds. When I fertilized, I was feeding more weeds than corn.

Even if you don't mind the weeds, this corn also produces BT so you don't need to worry about corn ear worm.

You have to buy 25,000 seeds minimum, so it isn't good for the small sweet corn gardener.

 

[CindyE]

I hate squash vine borers! They are after the zucchini again! I don't want to use chemicals.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Cindy, I suggest Captain Jack's Dead Bug Spray. Organic stuff and I've had better luck with it than 7-dust. It's awesome.

Haven't had much trouble with bugs this year, my domestic turkeys are wicked pest removers. Unlike my chickens, my turkeys don't devastate the crops themselves... they mainly target the insects/grubs & worms in the gardens. I have walked along behind the turkeys filming their behavior because it's really funny, almost like they are trained. They pick off a potato bug here and a grasshopper there... then grab a dandelion before scratching out a grub. I've never seen them eat a tender lettuce leaf or peck into a delicate vegetable. Don't ask me why. Cut 50 chickens loose for an hour and it looks like a drunk guy passed through with a weed eater!

 

[CindyE]

Cindy, I suggest Captain Jack's Dead Bug Spray. Organic stuff and I've had better luck with it than 7-dust. It's awesome.

Haven't had much trouble with bugs this year, my domestic turkeys are wicked pest removers. Unlike my chickens, my turkeys don't devastate the crops themselves... they mainly target the insects/grubs & worms in the gardens. I have walked along behind the turkeys filming their behavior because it's really funny, almost like they are trained. They pick off a potato bug here and a grasshopper there... then grab a dandelion before scratching out a grub. I've never seen them eat a tender lettuce leaf or peck into a delicate vegetable. Don't ask me why. Cut 50 chickens loose for an hour and it looks like a drunk guy passed through with a weed eater!

Do you know if it works on squash vine borers? I was thinking about injecting with BT.
We live in town and have 3 dogs, so no chickens or turkeys. Our town won't even allow chickens, although I still see some once in awhile. I have no idea why anyone would complain about chickens on the neighbor's property, unless it's a rooster crowing early in the AM, but it happened in our neighborhood. When I was a kid, we had chickens. My dad thought it was great fun to position a cage with the rooster in it, outside guest's windows...we used to get lots of visiting relatives from Chicago. I am not sure anyone else thought it was fun! Might be a good way to get rid of guests, although I don't think that was his intention.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I've grown garlic for several years now. I've never tried planting the bulbils before but have read that it can be done, just takes longer for the cloves to get big. The first year, I planted 10 pounds of garlic so I had a lot to harvest. I have done it both ways, cutting the scapes early and leaving them on and notice very little difference in the size of the heads. The last time I had bulbils, I ended up using them all in cooking and they were delicious...milder than the cloves but very good. The more I am reading about how long it takes the bulbils to produce matrue heads, the more I am thinking I should just use them for cooking. I have three 40 foot rows of heads to dig this year. Some of that will be replanted this fall and the rest will be used. I peel a lot and put it in olive oil and freeze it for cooking. It seems to store longer this way than just drying the heads. I also peel it and put it in a jar covered with honey. The garlic is great put through the press for cooking with and the infused honey is awesome in my sourdough bread in place of sugar or in marinades and such.

Next year, I'll leave the scapes on half of my plants and see what the difference is. I'm also gonna try putting some in olive oil and honey this year. Thanks for the info.

 

[mom45]

Next year, I'll leave the scapes on half of my plants and see what the difference is. I'm also gonna try putting some in olive oil and honey this year. Thanks for the info.

Be sure to freeze the stuff in the olive oil. The oil creates the perfect environment for botulism to set in if left on the counter or in the refrigerator and freezing it kills it. I use it straight from the freezer. I scoop out a couple/few cloves with the oil and put it through my garlic press that way. The honey I just leave on the counter and let it ferment for a few weeks before I start using it.

 

[88GT]

I hate squash vine borers! They are after the zucchini again! I don't want to use chemicals.

My sympathies. I have had SVB woes every year. It's gotten to the point where I simply plan on at least two planting of zukes, and hope the second one comes well after the egg-laying cycle of the bastard moth.

I wouldn't worry about chemicals. I don't think they work. And I have no problem with using nuclear waste for SVB. They don't keep the moth off because it isn't interested in eating, and by the time the eggs hatch, most of it has been washed off anyway.

I have never used Bt (and its success from the anecdotes I have read keep me from investing the money and effort). But I have cut the offending larvae out of the stem with some success. You have to make sure you get it early, and it won't work if the plant is so infested you aren't left with much stem after excising them, but it does give the opportunity to save the plant. As soon as I see the orange "sawdust" or the hole in the leaf the SOB larvae used to get into the plant (this means checking everyday), I start slicing very thin sections of the stem where the larva will be. Once I get it out, and after I have mutilated it with prejudice (the larva, not the plant), I cover the exposed portion heavily with soil.

Interestingly enough, my first planting of zuke this year is situated right next to the onion patch and "buried" in the corn. A little too buried as the corn is shading the zuke too much, I think, but I have not had a SVB infestation this year. I don't know whether the onions are acting as a natural barrier or the corn is keeping the SVB from"seeing" the yellow flowers, but something seems to have worked. I just planted the second round this past weekend anyway, for insurance, but it may not be necessary.

 

[mom45]

We mix the Sevin with water and spray the plants making sure to get the underside of the leaves well. It kills SVB really well using it that way. Dusting the top of the leaves with the powder doesn't get the ones that are hiding under the leaves, and that is where most of them seem to hang out.

 

[teddy12b]

Tragedy has struck. Earlier this year I planted 6 grape vines around a trellis I put up last year hoping to get kiwi's to grow. Out of my six grapes it looked like one had died, four were doing just ok, and one was clearly the alpha male. These grapes are in a weedy area out back so every once in a while I have to get out the trimmer and knock down everything around them. Well if you haven't already guess, my trimmer caught something as I was getting close to my prized grape and vine and WHACK! It was over..... My favorite grape vine that I was all proud of went from hip height, back down to ankle height. It was cut off almost perfectly at the place where the new bud had turned into my prized grape vine. I was so disappointed when I saw what had happened. It was heartbreaking for me. I placed the section of the grape vine in a bucket of water hoping it'd be able to be turned into cuttings if I was lucky, but I haven't checked on it yet to see if it survived. That's been two days ago and the vine has been in water in the garage ever since.

 

[nate77]

Just a little bit closer with the the old weed eater, famous last words.

In other news; the corn, pumpkins, and green beans are doing great in my lower garden. Picked a five gallon bucket of beans on Sunday, and the corn is getting so close to being ready that the coons are moving in. I've live trapped 3 in the last two days.

 

[teddy12b]

Now that's a garden!

 

[UncleNorby]

Speaking of zucchini, I had trouble with blossom end rot this year. Zukes grow to about 3-4" long, then stop growing, then rot from the blossom end back into the fruit.

I got on the internet, and based on my symptoms, calcium deficiency seemed to be the cause. Purchased a calcium spray and applied to zukes, cukes and tomatoes and have seen improvement. Also read on the internet that a homemade spray can be made by hard-boiling eggs, then saving the shells in the water they cooked in for 24 hours, strain water and use as a spray like the commercial product. So, i did that as well. Think I have it cured for now, will need to add lime later. Thought I'd pass that on in case others were suffering from the dreaded end rot.

 

[hooky]

We've been eating lettuce, turnip greens, beets and finally green beans. Peppers are close, but my tomatoes and tomatillos are so far behind that I doubt I'll get anything more than just a few meals out of them. Sweetcorn at the folk's house should be ready in a week or two as everything was tassled out already the week of the 4th. My eggplants didn't make it and I'm not sure why. This is the second year in a row that I lost them.

 

[nate77]

Now that's a garden!

Thanks, that is just my secondary garden. My main garden has super sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, okra, egg plants, cabbage, peas, asparagus, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, broccoli ,watermelons and more green beans.

 

[terrehautian]

I have had about 10 grape tomatoes so far this season (ate six today for a snack). Have about 20 big beef tomatoes on the vine getting big but not turning red yet. I probably have close to 100 grape tomatoes on my plants.

 

[mom45]

We've been eating cherry tomatoes and cucumbers...a bit early for us actually in the northern part of the state. Zucchini are a couple inches long so need to keep an eye on those so they don't turn into baseball bats. Need to dig the garlic too.