Weekly Update: Storms Batter Grange (GDD 1455)

More than two inches of rain fell in less than two hours, upsetting the delicate balance of the grange. High winds knocked over three tomato plants and twisted up the peas something fierce.

Weather channel fodder aside, it was a good week actually. The first ripe tomato of the season appeared while the squash plant finally set fruit. The peas set an incredible number of pods enabling the largest harvest of the season.

Like it is . . . The Week that Was
7/26 - Phlox blooms
7/27 - First tomato harvested. Sungold 60 Days
7/28 - First squash appears

Pholx Paniculata, "Orange Perfection" Blooms

First Tomato of the Season, Day 60

Sucker MCs, back up. The first tomato of the season, a Sungold, has arrived.

Jealous? Hate the game, not the gardener.

Weekly Update: Water, Weed, Pick, Eat, Repeat (GDD 1298)

It's been seasonably warm, but not too hot. Rudbeckia, echinacea, and astilbe are nearly in full bloom. The beans and peas keep producing while the squash plant continues growing by leaps and bounds.

Like it Is . . . The Week that Was
7/16 - Pholx buds appear
7/19 - Rudbeckia blooms, pepper blooms in 52 days
7/20 - All spring-planted beets harvested. If the beets themselves were small, the leaves were quite tasty. More lettuce planted by seed.
7/21 - Sungold tomatoes begin to turn a shade of yellow 54 days after being transplanted.

Black-Eyed Susan Blooms

Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii "Goldstrum"

Despite battling an early-season bought of septoria leaf spot, these black-eyed susans began blooming this week. Transplanted a little less than two months ago, it was a slow-grower initially, but began quickly filling out over the past two weeks.

Better Belle Pepper Flowers in 52 Days

Getting what is perhaps too much shade as four tomato plants tower around it, the pepper plant bloomed today.

Having never grown peppers before and nearly resigned to writing off this year's pepper crop, a post last week on The Compost Bin heralding the arrival of his peppers' first bloom gave hope that my pepper was right on track.

Can big peppers really come from such a relatively small plant? Shouldn't this plant belch fire and spread like kudzu?

Yellow Pear Tomato, Day 48

After a few weeks of trailing the other tomato plants, the yellow pear tomato surged this week, putting out lots of flowers and setting lots of fruit.

An heirloom variety, yellow pear tomatoes have been grown since the late 1800s. They take about 70-80 days to mature, which seems about right as these guys have been taking what seems like forever to ripen.

Sources: Cornell, Iowa State

Weekly Update; Sun Shines, Plants Grow, First Green Bean Harvested (GDD 1155)

Mild temperatures have given the garden a real boost this week. Remarkably, the peas keep on producing. Last week's mini-heatwave really prevented them from setting flowers and fruit. However, with the onset of relatively mild temperatures this week, the pea plant is once again flowering and setting peas, although it is starting to look a little worse for wear.

A few feet to stage right, the bean plant has reached the top of the trellis and provided the first green bean of the season. Tasted like . . . victory.

Like It Is... This Week in the Garden
7/10 - Beets sprout
7/11 - Lettuce sprouts, merit applied to lawn
7/13 - Savlia "Victoria Blue" planted
7/14 - Cleome planted, astilbe blooms
7/15 - First green bean harvested

All Flowers and No Fruit, Squash Plant Slow Out of Gate

Like any expectant gardener, it's hard not to worry about the lack of fruit set on my summer squash. Oh, sure, give it time they say. She's just a late bloomer. Well, there might be something to that.

As Mr. Miodownik informed a bunch of sleepy-eyed 9th graders during biology, plants, just like mammals, reptiles, and celebrities, need both sexes to produce fruit. (ed. note: apologies to any readers with a background in the hard sciences for the extreme simplification. Yes, celebrities can, and often do, hatch from eggs, much like the lovable Mork did before meeting Mindy.)

Squash plants, being no exception to my generalization, often fail to bear fruit early on because its flowers tend to be of one sex. As the season progresses, male and female flowers appear, the lights go out, and a few glasses of Drambuie later, a vegetable is born.

Writes, Hunter Johnson, Jr. of UC Davis' Extension, "Gardeners often become concerned when many flowers appear early, but fruits fail to set. The reason for this is that all of the early flowers are males. Female flowers develop somewhat later and can be identified by the miniature fruit at the flower base. In hybrid varieties of summer squash, however, the first flowers to appear are usually females, and these will fail to develop unless there are male squash flowers -- and bees -- in the nearby area." Source: UC Davis, "Summer Squash"

Echinacea Blooms

Transplanted right before Memorial Day, the echinacea bloomed this week. In addition to attracting bees, butterflies and hobos are likewise drawn to the flowers.

More information on growing echinacea: Taunton Press, Greenbeam, Sooner Plant Farm, Ohio State.

Better Boy, Day 43

Absolutely mammoth, the Better Boy tomato plant is loaded with tomatoes. Here are two of the older fruits. It takes 72-82 days for fruit to ripen, which gives us a target date of August 8 to the 18th. This was already quite big as a transplant, so it might very well come in ahead of time.

The other varieties of tomatoes are also doing well. The Sungolds have loads of fruit at this point, but the Brandywine is lagging behind a bit with only three or four emerging tomatoes.

More information and reviews from Cornell.

Weekly Update; Busy Week (GDD 992)

Somewhat surprisingly, it was a busy week. The peas keep producing, the tomatoes keep growing, and my fascination with Man vs. Wild deepens. Did he really eat a sheep's eyeball?

July 2 - Front hosta in full bloom; green beans begin bloom
July 3 - Echinacea begins bloom; Garden lightly fertilized with Colorburst 15-30-15
July 4 - Alpine strawberry; oregano, sedum, and mint planted.
July 6 - First green bean emerges; oxalis blooms; first beet harvested (big letdown); more beets planted
July 7 - Romaine lettuce Paris Island Cos and Grand Rapids leaf lettuce planted
July 8 - Spirea blooms begin to fade; daylilies planted, hydrangea macrophyla endless summer planted; hosta moved

Squash Flowers While Neighbors Check Locks on Doors

Started as a late-season transplant only 19 days ago, the squash plant has done its thing despite the cramped quarters and relative shade of the Grange.

Meanwhile, neighbors, fearful of an onslaught of squash, are beginning preparations that will quickly enable them to douse all the lights, lest they give the appearance that anyone's home when I come a-knockin' with a wagon of squash.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

First Green Bean (Kentucky Wonder), Day 65

While it might be a little late, perhaps because it was planted several weeks before the last frost, it's finally bearing fruit.

Interesting history about Kentucky Wonder: first introduced back in 1864 as "Old Homestead," it's been one of the most popular varieties of heirloom vegetables.



Interesting history from Halcyon; Sweet Pea's Louisiana Vegetable Garden, Iserv

Fertilizing Tomatoes

Vigorous and fast growing, tomatoes are heavy feeders and require fertilization from time to time during the season. There seems to be some conflicting information on just what type of fertilizer a tomato plant needs. How much nitrogen? How much phosphorus? How much, whatever that third number is? Potash? Potassium?

What Type of Fertilizer?
Assuming you're haven't gone completely organic, a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's presents several options: Vigoro's Tomato and Vegetable Plant Food (12-10-5), Miracle Grow for Tomatoes (18-18-21), Tomato Tone (4-7-10). They all offer differing N-P-K. So, which one's right?

A round up of the authorities suggests that a balanced fertilizer where all three numbers are equal or a fertilizer high in phosphorus, like a 5-10-5 is the way to go. While there is some variation between the extension services, all seem to point the home gardener away from high nitrogen, which makes sense. Nitrogen is typically associated with leafy growth. While tomatoes plants are among some of my closest companions, I like them for their fruit and not their wispy, whimsical foliage. Looks like my Vigoro 12-10-5 is going to be returned.

What the Experts Say . . .
Cornell University suggests, "On most soils, you can sidedress about 1/2 cup of 5-10-5 per plant and work shallowly into the top inch of soil when fruits are about 1 inch in diameter and again when harvest begins."

NC State calls for a balanced fertilizer: "For home gardens not soil tested, apply 5 pints of 8-8-8 per 100 ft of row and work it thoroughly into the top 8 inches of soil." Moreover, they suggest, "Sidedress tomato plants with 2 to 3 Tbsp. per plant of a complete fertilizer such as 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 after the plants have started to set fruit and 4 to 6 weeks thereafter throughout the growing season. Keep the sidedressing material 4 to 6 inches from the plant's stem to avoid fertilizer burn." (emphasis in original)

Similar to Cornell's advice, Ohio State tells us that, "Tomatoes respond well to fertilizer applications, especially phosphorus. Excess nitrogen fertilizer can result in plants with extremely vigorous vine growth but little fruit production. Apply 2-1/2 to 3 pounds of a complete fertilizer, such as 5-10-10, 5-20-20, or 8-16-16 per 100 square feet of garden area. Work the fertilizer into the soil about 2 weeks before planting. An additional sidedressing of a nitrogen fertilizer may be desirable after the first cluster of flowers have set fruit."

Lastly, Texas A&M offers this. "It is necessary to fertilize the garden before planting tomatoes. Apply the fertilizer again when fruit first sets. From that point on, an additional fertilization (sidedress) every week to 10 days is recommended. Plants grown on sandy soils should be fertilized more frequently than those grown on heavy, clay soils. A general sidedress fertilizer recommendation is one to two tablespoons of a complete fertilizer scattered around the plant and worked into the soil. If using a fertilizer high in nitrogen such as ammonium nitrate or sulfate, reduce the rate to one tablespoon per plant."

When to Fertilize?
In case you didn't get it from the passages above, fertilize before you first set out your tomatoes. This is probably critical. After that, give some more fertilizer when the first fruit sets and every few weeks after that.

Sugar Snap Peas, Day 62

Sugar Snap Peas, Day 62, originally uploaded by tpl108.

Peas galore! As to when to pick them, from my limited experience, don't wait too long. Really fat peas kind of taste like dirt. Smaller peas seem to taste a lot better. However, no matter what I do, a good bunch of peas seem to get lost on the way back to the kitchen.

More pea related entries here.

Weekly Update: Heat Arrives (GDD 866)

The peas are plentiful while the last of the lettuce was harvested.

June 26

• Rudbeckia treated with fungicide for septoria leaf spot.
• Daylillies bloom.
• First tomato appears on the Better boy.
• First sugar snap pea harvested

June 27

• All tomatoes set fruit.
• Cilantro planted.
• High temperature of 96.1

June 28

• Remaining Red Sails lettuce harvested

July 1

• Last heads of bibb lettuce harvested.