How Does your Garden Grow?

[SmokyOkie]

Time for everybody to give their mid season garden report.

My tomatoes are doing the worst I can remember. The plants are stunted and they are only producing a fraction of what they normally do. I don;t know if it is the weather or what. We are picking 2 or 3 a day, and shuld be picking 2 or 3 gallons a day.
We were in the midst of a cucumber glut, but the monsoon flooding rains couple with the high temps while we were in Illinois has pretty we killed off both hills of plants. We may have one plant survive, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Now peppers, that is a different story. I have plante a few new tyes this year, mostly in the direction of New Mexican and Mexican varieties such as Guajillo, Pasilla, and Chimayo.

A hybrid Pasilla type called Holy Mole is the tallest pepper plant I have ever grown. It is over 6' tall.

The black blur in the lower left corner is my shoulder, so you can see how tall it is.



Here is one row of peppers. The tallest one is the Holy Mole



Here are some of the peppers that I picked today, japs, serrona ( both purple and red)

[BYBBQ]

Timmy, Timmy, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Your garden looks great.

Most of ours is almost dried up from the heat down here.

[Vermin99]

I have only tried growing hot peppers and tomatoes but gave up this year. The last couple of years my tomatoes look great then when the start maturing they start getting a big black spot on the bottom of them. Very disappointing to say the least.

[SmokyOkie]

I have only tried growing hot peppers and tomatoes but gave up this year. The last couple of years my tomatoes look great then when the start maturing they start getting a big black spot on the bottom of them. Very disappointing to say the least.

That is called blossom end rot John. It is caused by calcium deficiency in the soil and is easily fixed. Just mix a little calcium chloride in water and pou rit around the base of the plants.

[smokinok]

TIM my Tulsa tomatoes had been doing just great but this past week has really just about destroyed them. This one is completely gone and the other are not producing much.


This one was a beautiful plant and was covered in blooms but did not yield any fruit AT ALL.
BEFORE PICTURE

JULY 18th PICTURE.


My few pepper plants are doing well and my oregano, basil, rosemary, etc. are all doing fine. These 100+ days sure hurt tomatoes. I am going to plant my fall tomatoes within the next week to see how they do.

[SmokyOkie]

TIM my Tulsa tomatoes had been doing just great but this past week has really just about destroyed them. This one is completely gone and the other are not producing much.



My few pepper plants are doing well and my oregano, basil, rosemary, etc. are all doing fine. These 100+ days sure hurt tomatoes. I am going to plant my fall tomatoes within the next week to see how they do.

The heat shouldn't hurt your plants if they have enough water. They won't set fruit, but the will flourish.

LC, the plant pictured is most likely suffering from two spotted mites of fungal disease. If the leaves turn light green, the yellow then brown, it is likely mites. Think of it as having had the sap sucked out of the foliage.

If they show brown spots, then the leaves yellow then die, it is likely fungus, and the recent heat and rain will certainly breed that.

An application of Kelthane will get rid of the mites, and an application of fungicide will handle the fungus. I like to use Daconil as it is very effective and you only need to wit one day before harvesting and eating the fruit after application. Where do you buy your fall plants?

[smokinok]

I sometime get them from the Tomatoes Man Daughter or Southwoods. I live just a 1/4 mile or so from Southwoods so with the heat I will go there. There was a good article in the Tulsa World on Fall maters in today's paper.

[SmokyOkie]

I never plant fall maters. My spring plants keep producing and I can't remember to keep the young tender plants watered

[smokinok]

I have never done them before but plan to try a few by replacing a couple that have died from the heat. I still have several plants that have lots of green ones and they will keep on keeping on into the fall. I did all heirlooms this year instead of the hybrids. They don't produce as many early on but tend to keep on producing and I have an auto sprinkler system so they will get water. Both the NEW ones as well as the old ones. When I am home I use my soaker hose but for trips to lake, etc. I set my auto sprinkler.

[SmokyOkie]

I also only grow heirlooms. Been doing that for about 15-20 years.

Is the plant that is burnt up anywhere near a sprinkler head?