Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Zucchini finished
Another milestone to note for future reference; the Zucchini are more or less over now, still one or two here or there, but the lower sun is definitely limiting the speed and amount of growth of the fruit. With the recent rain, a few are now showing mildew spots, so its game over. The season ends here.
Garden winding down for winter
Well the garden yielded a fair amount this year, but with the first rain of any significance last weekend, its clearly time to migrate from summer planting to winter planting. Last week I cleared out the shade bed with the beans and corn (both unsuccessful, but then they were started late in the summer, so I wasnt really expecting much. I did get some beans, but not many, and the corn was fist-sized. Before that, I had cleared the neighboring Swiss Chard and planted out the leeks I sowed much earlier in the year. After digging the bean/corn bed over and incorporating a couple of buckets of last spring's compost (looking nice now), I sowed some carrots quite rustically - by crumbling some of this years seedheads over the area. Then I added another thin layer of compost, and the soft rain got it settled in nicely. There should be enough warmth left in the year to get things going.
All the beans are pretty much over now - I was hoping for a second flush in the cooler weather, but that never really happened. All in all, the beans were pretty much a bust again this year, despite changing to runner beans from pole beans. The experiment next year will be to sow the pole beans much more thickly and quite early, and I'll be using the Insuk's Wang instead of the regular runner beans to test its heat resistance. I really want to get some beans working in this hot climate, not only because their green crunchy goodness is a welcome change from the Solanum family, but also because it adds nitrogen to the soil. And particularly as this garden is a new one, I want to build up soil nutriment as quickly as possible.
The tomatoes are still hanging on, but I havent really had much from the "Health kick", the "Beefmaster" or the "Champion" for a while now. The cherry tomatoes are still going relatively strong, in that they are covered in flowers still; the Black Krim is throwing out a few more juicy treats before it shuts down, and the Green Zebra remains consistently throwing out a few tomatoes each week.
The tomatoes I have had pest problems with are the Black Krim and Beefmaster, both of which get pecked by birds and creeping things alike. I'm not sure why these should be so attractive, while others like the Yellow Brandywine, the Green Zebra, and various others growing next to them remain untouched. However, the solution is fairly clear: The "Brandywine" I bought cheap (its probably not) was tested in both a topsy-turvy and in the ground, sprawling over a wall. The birds attacked the ones in the ground, but not in the planter. Therefore, at least part of the problem occurs when tomatoes are close enough to the ground that the birds have a firm perch. Creepy-crawlies then finish the job. So yes, staking would probably have prevented the problem. But that doesnt account for the preferences mentioned earlier, as only the planter tomato was "staked". The rest were equally exposed, but unequally attacked.
In general, I would have to say that growing tomatoes in planters was very worthwhile, especially the topsy-turvy, which outdid its ground-based twin twofold. Its another $10 per plant, but its yielded about 15 pounds ($50?), and I can re-use it next year.
Of course there's another $5 of compost in it, but now I have my own compost stream, I can cut that cost down dramatically. Next year I plan to have 4 or 5 installed, and will try out other varieties. Getting Black Krim off the ground, for example. Black Krim was definitely the tastiest, together with Yellow Brandywine (few, but large fruit, with a great taste), Green Zebra and Lemon Boy. The cherries also taste good, of course, but I'm finding them a pain to deal with as they sprawl so much and are tedious to pick. The cherry I left sprawling through the rose Bush was an exception - it scrambled happily by itself, bringing the fruit to picking height and requiring no staking. That cherry was suppose to be "sunsugar red", and it was nice and sweet, but it was an orangey-yellow, definitely not red. Another Nursery mislabel.
The bell peppers in containers yielded well, so long as you're OK with half-sized peppers, and they're still going strong (although, of course, with the waning sun they arent growing as fast as they were earlier). The peppers I left growing from last year in the ground survived, but didnt do very well, just got one or two fruit off them. So much for my dreams of a larger, more productive plant second year round. To be fair, they werent watered assiduously, so they frequently got dry. However Peppers are supposed to like it dry...
One of the best experiments was in snapping off small branches and replanting; I got a few extra tomato plants that way, its easy and definitely works. I've also been saving some heirloom seeds, so we'll see how that works next year.
From here on, I'll be thinking of sowing lettuce, radishes, broad beans.
All the beans are pretty much over now - I was hoping for a second flush in the cooler weather, but that never really happened. All in all, the beans were pretty much a bust again this year, despite changing to runner beans from pole beans. The experiment next year will be to sow the pole beans much more thickly and quite early, and I'll be using the Insuk's Wang instead of the regular runner beans to test its heat resistance. I really want to get some beans working in this hot climate, not only because their green crunchy goodness is a welcome change from the Solanum family, but also because it adds nitrogen to the soil. And particularly as this garden is a new one, I want to build up soil nutriment as quickly as possible.
The tomatoes are still hanging on, but I havent really had much from the "Health kick", the "Beefmaster" or the "Champion" for a while now. The cherry tomatoes are still going relatively strong, in that they are covered in flowers still; the Black Krim is throwing out a few more juicy treats before it shuts down, and the Green Zebra remains consistently throwing out a few tomatoes each week.
The tomatoes I have had pest problems with are the Black Krim and Beefmaster, both of which get pecked by birds and creeping things alike. I'm not sure why these should be so attractive, while others like the Yellow Brandywine, the Green Zebra, and various others growing next to them remain untouched. However, the solution is fairly clear: The "Brandywine" I bought cheap (its probably not) was tested in both a topsy-turvy and in the ground, sprawling over a wall. The birds attacked the ones in the ground, but not in the planter. Therefore, at least part of the problem occurs when tomatoes are close enough to the ground that the birds have a firm perch. Creepy-crawlies then finish the job. So yes, staking would probably have prevented the problem. But that doesnt account for the preferences mentioned earlier, as only the planter tomato was "staked". The rest were equally exposed, but unequally attacked.
In general, I would have to say that growing tomatoes in planters was very worthwhile, especially the topsy-turvy, which outdid its ground-based twin twofold. Its another $10 per plant, but its yielded about 15 pounds ($50?), and I can re-use it next year.
Of course there's another $5 of compost in it, but now I have my own compost stream, I can cut that cost down dramatically. Next year I plan to have 4 or 5 installed, and will try out other varieties. Getting Black Krim off the ground, for example. Black Krim was definitely the tastiest, together with Yellow Brandywine (few, but large fruit, with a great taste), Green Zebra and Lemon Boy. The cherries also taste good, of course, but I'm finding them a pain to deal with as they sprawl so much and are tedious to pick. The cherry I left sprawling through the rose Bush was an exception - it scrambled happily by itself, bringing the fruit to picking height and requiring no staking. That cherry was suppose to be "sunsugar red", and it was nice and sweet, but it was an orangey-yellow, definitely not red. Another Nursery mislabel.
The bell peppers in containers yielded well, so long as you're OK with half-sized peppers, and they're still going strong (although, of course, with the waning sun they arent growing as fast as they were earlier). The peppers I left growing from last year in the ground survived, but didnt do very well, just got one or two fruit off them. So much for my dreams of a larger, more productive plant second year round. To be fair, they werent watered assiduously, so they frequently got dry. However Peppers are supposed to like it dry...
One of the best experiments was in snapping off small branches and replanting; I got a few extra tomato plants that way, its easy and definitely works. I've also been saving some heirloom seeds, so we'll see how that works next year.
From here on, I'll be thinking of sowing lettuce, radishes, broad beans.
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