Garden Notes - July 3, 2009

We've had an abundance of rain in the last couple of weeks, and the trend is continuing.

The stunted tomatoes had a mystery critter nipping away at some branches, and even completely removed a couple of small plants. I had a few volunteer hybrid tomatoes growing out of the compost pile that I used to replace the destroyed ones. I even tried planting a few more non-hybrid seeds on 5/30/09. I saved two of those out for an experiment to see how late you can actually plant tomato seeds in the ground. Whatever the critter was stopped bothering them at about 3 inches high. Some online research suggested I try moth ball crystals around the plants, which may have helped.

The surprise problem was an infestation of cucumber beetles. These yellow and black striped beetles gather & mate on leaves (especially tender, curly ones) and then lay eggs near the stem. The larva then attack the roots as well. I tried insecticidal soap, but this had no effect. I tried the recommended non-organic as a last resort, which is an insecticide called "Sevin." This would have worked, but the damage had already been done. Now, there's only 11 of the original 40 plants showing signs of growth. Next year, I will try inter planting radishes with the cucumbers, which repels cucumber beetles according the the book "Country Wisdom & Know How" from the editors of Storey Books.

Rather than waste the garden space left by the dead plants, I've tried my hand at "succession planting" described in the book "Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel. The idea is to plant certain types of vegetables in July that flourish into late September. So, I planted some hybrid carrots and broccoli. My first choice from the list on page 5 of the book was leeks and brussels sprouts, but Lowes didn't have them.

The peas are taller and heavier than I had expected, so I will be building a more durable pea trellis next year. The beans are doing well since I gave them a dose of Epsom Salts, separated the double plants to replace ones that didn't germinate and applied mulch. The beets are doing well since I thinned them to 3-inch spacing and used the unwanted plants for salads. The escarole is still an experiment. If there's enough to put-up in the fall, I will try an experiment with replanting a few in boxes for storage in the garage. This is a technique suggested in "Root Cellaring."

Finally, I need to make note here of the organic fertilizer I am trying called Espoma Plant-Tone. I picked this up at Lowes when I had actually been looking for fish emulsion, but they didn't have that. The Espoma website tells me there's a blend more specifically for gardens, but this is what Lowes had for now.