Another update for the month of August.
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Tag: peppers
Mid-season garden update 2023
I waited too long and this turned into a pretty long update. Weekly updates are much more manageable! This covers July and the beginning of August. I was gone for the first two weeks of July and a lot happened! I was so lucky to have watering help at the community garden, and rigged up a water timer for my yard garden.
Plant updates:
Tomatoes
They got a slow start but they’re doing great right now. The pink ping pong (ppp) variety I tried this year is really vigorous and productive so far, and the tomates really are slightly pink and ping pong ball sized! The San marzano romas are another new addition this year and they look pretty good. The ones in my yard are doing much better than the ones in the plot. Just one issue with bacterial spot, new to me. Haven’t done much to tackle it.
Zucchini- black beauty and costata romanesco
I came back from Ireland to find a zucchini monster in the form of the costata romanesco (cr) squash plant. It has grown massively and produces a ton of squash. I even got a double squash!! The smaller black beauty zucchini plant isn’t producing much fruit. I grew it up inside a tomato cage as an experiment to help it grow vertically rather than rambling on the ground. I think as a result the flowers are too close together and packed in with the leaves making it harder for pollinator to do their jobs? I’ve seen a lot of female blossoms that haven’t matured to fruit. Good to know. Also have powdery mildew again. I treated with Biofungicide. Should have pre-treated sooner.
Winter squash/ gourds
I started these too early last year. I started them too late this year. I may get one or two fully developed squash this year. three of the four at least seem fairly healthy. The luffa is a weird dwarf plant for some reason and will definitely not produce useful gourds before season’s end.
Silver slicer cucumbers
Started out strong. Now getting weird pear shaped pale cucumbers and leaves are yellowing. Not a great cucumber year.
Peppers
I have lots of poblanos on deck. Not sure when they’re going to be ready, they’re still pretty wrinkly, but at the same time I have one turning red. First year growing these, we’ll see how it goes.
Shallots, leeks
First year growing both. Pulled about half of the shallots, various sizes. They’re drying and curing. Leeks are just going slow and steady. Wondering if I should pile up soil around them as they continue to grow since when transplanting burying them deep was important for development.
Lettuce, chard, arugula, spinach
Not a great success for me. Chard is the only survivor at this point and seems to be happy in the low tunnel.
Carrots, parsnips, and beets
So far so good. Mixed beet sizes, all delicious. First time growing parsnip, looks ok so far? Will have to investigate when to harvest soon.
Brussels sprouts and cabbage
First year for both of these, and they both really thrived. In fact Brussels plant would be about 3 ft in diameter if left unchecked. Still waiting on the little sprouts to keep growing. Harvested my one perfect head of cabbage and made a big batch of charred cabbage soup!
Plot:
Yard:
Garden Digest: end of June
Well, I harvested some radishes early this month and things escalated from there! A quick summary of what’s going on these days.
Preseason prep
The seed starting grow house is officially closed for the season!
This year I had no damping off issues like last year, I think in part because I treated all of my potting soil with an organic biofungicide (Bionide Revitalize Biofungicide). I bought it to treat powdery mildew on my squashy plants, but it works to pretreat soil for other fungus too. I also ran a fan regularly to keep air moving.
I grew the following from seeds started indoors or winter sown this year:
- Basil (tulsi, Thai basil), rosemary, parsley, mint
- Green onions, shallots, leeks
- Nasturtiums, marigolds, zinnias (all mostly died mysteriously after transplanting), coreopsis, calendula, chamomile
- Luffa, Honeynut, butternut
- Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts
- Peppers (poblano, biquinho)
- Tomatoes (currant, cherry, pink ping pong, San marzano Roma)
- Echinacea, poppies (winter sown)
Plot progress
In just the last 20 days a lot has happened in the plot!
- The tunnel went nuts! Radishes, arugula, and spinach are all basically done (gone to seed). Arugula got flea beetles. They’re staying in as trap crops/ ground cover to keep some shade and moisture in for the remaining parsnips, beets, and carrots. Cabbage and broccoli are heavily competing for space. I had to give broccoli a trim to back off. Obviously planted them too closely.
- Direct sown seeds – snap peas, Lima beans, string beans, zucchini, squash, luffa, and cucumbers all woke up eventually. I think this year I started the winter squash too late! Last year was too early. Next year, just right!
- OH HAIL NO! We got a bad hail storm as late as last week (June 20th)! Luckily the plot suffered minimal damage but it could have been a blood bath.
- Surprises – some volunteer flowers that I thought were going to be cosmos are rocket larkspur (striking purple flowers that the bees like). My inherited rhubarb went downhill and is very sad, and inherited asparagus got a few spears. Dill. Is. Everywhere.
- Transplants are doing ok – two experimental sweet potato plants (started from slips) look quite sad, transplanted winter squash (from seed) looks pretty sad, probably got waterlogged, cabbage and broccoli (from seed) are crushing, poblano and biquinho peppers (from seed) look fine, nasturtiums (from seed) got some blossoms, tomatoes (from seed) look happy too. Last year nasturtiums didn’t do well for me.
Yard gard
I have a decent yard garden going on this year, somewhat in part because I started too many darn plants and even after giving away about half, still had some left. I’ve planted up my greenstalk vertical planter full this year and nasturtiums are absolutely taking over and thriving.
Also you might be thinking- what a nice fence! It was one of my spring projects:
April shower bring May vegetables?
Well it’s shaping up to be another year of trying a little bit of everything to see how it goes.
The garden
The community garden is having our second monthly work day this weekend. The water is officially turned on for the season, which means things will really pick up soon! I’m still planning to keep the sensitive babies out of the ground for another few weeks but will start hardening them off soon.
My new plot
I’ve settled in to my new plot, and started committing to a layout. I installed two very tall trellises on the north end made from concrete rebar mats and u-posts.
I’ve also added a low tunnel running north to south which I plan to use for all of my non-pollinating plants like greens. Last year I had some bug problems with greens, and I’m trying out a breathable row cover that will keep out the bugs. I’m not interested in having to spray them. I think neem oil is gross.
Soil gloop
Everything is going pretty well except the soil in this plot is VERY different. It doesn’t drain well and is quite “gloopy”. Cohesive. Sticks together, packs tightly when wet. This has some implications for irrigation. I don’t think my plan to use ollas is going to work well in this soil. It just seems like the soil will plug up the pores in the terra cotta. I’ve already employed trenches to channel the sitting water, and may pivot to a drip system.
I anticipate all new challenges and adventures this year as a result. I took my old soil for granted. My old plot was located where compost regularly got dumped for years and was much easier to work with.
I’m considering getting a soil analysis from the Colorado University extension, and trying to figure out what help my soil might need.
Progress
So far, in the plot: (as of May 1):
- Volunteer rhubarb, asparagus, dill, and cosmos
- Seeds: carrot, lettuce, spinach, chard, parsnips, beets, snap peas, arugula, radishes
- Transplants: cabbage, Brussels sprouts, shallots
Seedlings and prep
So far seedlings (as of May 1):
- Winter sown: echinacea, poppies
- Started indoors, brassicas: broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts
- Started indoors, nightshades: tomatoes (currant, pink ping pong, San marzano, cherry hybrid), peppers (biquinho, poblano)
- Started indoors, flowers: marigold (saved seeds from last year!), calendula, zinnias (saved!), nasturtiums
- Started indoors, herbs: pineapple sage, rosemary, Thai basil, lemon basil, tulsi holy basil
- Started indoors, alliums: green onions, leeks, shallots
Just started in biodegradable pots (May 1):
- Luffa
- Zucchini
- Winter squash
On deck to direct sow after frost:
- Beans
- Cucumbers
The great tomato-cide
I was out of town for 7 days. I left plenty of water for the tomatoes to be ok (not thriving but ok) for 7 days. Unfortunately I left a window open right by my thermostat and it went below freezing most of the time I was gone, the heat ran A LOT, and my grow room is the hottest room on the heat run.
So, I came home to a tomato blood bath. Even gnome was stressed.
I left a Timelapse running all week so I even got to watch them die. Luckily adding some water perked many of them back up, and after a week many recovered. In addition to the recovery, I started with so many seedlings that a few losses were not catastrophic. I am amused and undaunted at this point. Sorry, tomatoes.
Old friend
I swing by my old plot every so often. To my surprise the spinach I planted last fall is still alive! All of the alliums are also thriving like they never missed a step.
