What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Will Mesa be on your keeper list?

I intended to send all of the seed to you, which will be quite a bit (judging by what I can see through the mosquito netting, which limits my view, but my guess is there are TONS of pods! ). Anyway, maybe you'd prefer a set amount rather than the whole crop. Let me know.

Yes, Mesa will be on the 'save' list. It was dropped by Vermont Bean; this may be the last seed in circulation. I hope you have enough to taste a few, and tell me what you think of them.

 

[Phaedra]

I removed a lot of tomato leaves (especially the lower parts) and sent them to the compost. In just two weeks, they grew like crazy. Do you also remove some leaves from peppers and eggplants?

 

[digitS']

I don't trim any of those plants, @Phaedra Geiermann .

Their growth is their responsibility with me on the sidelines, providing encouragement, water and nutrition. Oh, I might trim off a bottom shoot (sucker) on an errant tomato plant. Things like peppers and eggplants, and to a lesser extent tomatoes, have enough trouble with our climate with temperatures rising and dropping so much through every 24 hours.

My garden task yesterday was similar to yours, however. I trimmed rhubarb leaves along one side of the 5 plants. With our perfect for rhubarb Spring weather, they grew like gangbusters! (Police Term ) There is no way that 2 people should have 5 rhubarb plants ...

I had to stop because there is only so much room in the stealth compost and nothing much to mix with them. That is changing with the current very warm days encouraging decomposing and the need to trim peonies as their flowers will soon all be finished.

Steve

 

[Phaedra]

I don't trim any of those plants, @Phaedra Geiermann .

Their growth is their responsibility with me on the sidelines, providing encouragement, water and nutrition. Oh, I might trim off a bottom shoot (sucker) on an errant tomato plant. Things like peppers and eggplants, and to a lesser extent tomatoes, have enough trouble with our climate with temperatures rising and dropping so much through every 24 hours.

My garden task yesterday was similar to yours, however. I trimmed rhubarb leaves along one side of the 5 plants. With our perfect for rhubarb Spring weather, they grew like gangbusters! (Police Term ) There is no way that 2 people should have 5 rhubarb plants ...

I had to stop because there is only so much room in the stealth compost and nothing much to mix with them. That is changing with the current very warm days encouraging decomposing and the need to trim peonies as their flowers will soon all be finished.

Steve

Thanks for your reply, Steve. I am now quite used to trimming tomatoes as I learned the hard lessons in the first year I lived in Germany - and that's my first time planting something in a garden. At the moment, I didn't know tomatoes prefer a shelter from rain and had no idea the poor ventilation would make diseases worse. So, I got bacterial wilt for the entire batch and was laughed at badly with very mean words from a gardening group about such kind of newbie mistakes.

I remember removing each tomato plant, crying in the garden alone; there were so many fruits already. But I promised myself I would not let this happen again.

Years later, I gradually understood that learning and growing from mistakes is crucial in the journey - the same in gardening. I am mentally much stronger after countless mistakes after that specific tomato-related thing.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Like Cosmo, every single one of my onions sprouted. They were mailed with LOVE, that is why.

 

[Zeedman]

I removed a lot of tomato leaves (especially the lower parts) and sent them to the compost. In just two weeks, they grew like crazy. Do you also remove some leaves from peppers and eggplants?

I only remove leaves from tomato plants if there are a lot of dead leaves, or if the growth is dense enough to inhibit air circulation. Early pruning of all but the strongest shoots (I use 3-5), and occasional follow-up shoot pruning, reduces the need to remove leaves later. The "Purple" variety I obtained from SSE last year was unusual, in that even after shoot pruning, it had such dense growth that I had to remove large numbers of dead leaves from the ground up.

Eggplant & peppers don't appear to need pruning, I've never done so & have had no disease issues. In fact, I would discourage pruning or leaf removal for peppers, since that would increase the chances of sun scald. You want dense leaf growth on peppers.

 

[meadow]

Yes, Mesa will be on the 'save' list. It was dropped by Vermont Bean; this may be the last seed in circulation. I hope you have enough to taste a few, and tell me what you think of them.

HA! I don't know if I could bring myself to taste them. This year's crop is too precious! Kind of like the good china that never gets used.

 

[flowerbug]

I removed a lot of tomato leaves (especially the lower parts) and sent them to the compost. In just two weeks, they grew like crazy. Do you also remove some leaves from peppers and eggplants?

i have only once tried removing leaves from tomato plants and it didn't make any difference in the prevalent tomato disease we get each season so i never have bothered with it again. the only differences i've ever seen have been from changes in the weather and some varieties seem to do a bit better, but that is measured by only a few days difference in disease progression. the drier the month of August the better the plants do, with how much dewfall we get and fogs that settle in late summer and early fall it's pretty rare that we get nice looking plants. we still get a decent harvest most years growing beefsteak varieties and that to me is pretty much the result we're after. if i weren't getting any crops at all then i'd be looking for something different to grow.

this year i've planted the tomatoes in a different location than the usual rotation and interested to see how they do, but i'm still expecting the usual disease to appear.

i think the two varieties we've planted are Big Beef and Beefmaster. i'm hoping that these are not the same as the ones we had last year because i didn't really much like those even if they canned ok, they were a hard tomato like the kinds sold at the grocery stores in the winter and i don't think the flavor was great compared to those in the past. unfortunately i didn't memorize the name so i didn't recall when we went to select the plants for this season which variety it was. if i did get some of the same kind then at least with two varieties this season the entire crop won't be the same. hoping i did better than that.

 

[ducks4you]

Last try was successful! Getting about a 50% germ. Real light colored and spindly look to them. The different variety isn’t up yet. Hated to lose the old variety as it was a dwarf that produced a lot of long pods that were tender to 6” long. Maybe it’s been inbred too long?

I think you're right. I always buy the okra that grows very tall throughout the season and I have NEVER had the problems you experienced this year.

Praying for your okra crop!!

 

[meadow]

I removed a lot of tomato leaves (especially the lower parts) and sent them to the compost. In just two weeks, they grew like crazy. Do you also remove some leaves from peppers and eggplants?

We also remove the lower tomato leaves to prevent disease (it's a necessity where we are). I also prune summer squash to promote air circulation and ease of access for the bees. We've had no powdery mildew since we began pruning the squash.

ETA: but I have no experience pruning peppers or eggplants since I've grown them so few times and that was long ago