N & C Midwest--It is JUNE!!!! Garden Time!

Here's the echo from another Central Ohioan!

herblover wrote:Here's the echo from another Central Ohioan!

I had a seminar in Columbus today, at Easton.  Drove through 3 major storms to and from...20 degree drop in temps within minutes!  Then, SAUNA!  Hair =frizzed. Car=clean.  Lol

Dark as night right now, maybe I won't have to water.....

Gotta love Ohio weather!

herblover wrote:Gotta love Ohio weather!

Ha!  If you don't like it, give it a minute, it will change!

We're getting another June heat wave again this year.  Ugh - hate that.  The poor plants just don't see it coming.  Peppers getting sun scald left and right...  but everything else is doing better this year.  Tomatoes out the wazzoo!  (...so far...)

Ended up not planting the green beans or cukes... just had too much to do with building all the new containers this year.  And we likely will be moving in the coming year, so I'm probably going to have to take a year off from gardening next year.    Good news is, I likely will then have room for a bigger garden.  

CitizenKate wrote:We're getting another June heat wave again this year.  Ugh - hate that.  The poor plants just don't see it coming.  Peppers getting sun scald left and right...  but everything else is doing better this year.  Tomatoes out the wazzoo!  (...so far...)

Ended up not planting the green beans or cukes... just had too much to do with building all the new containers this year.  And we likely will be moving in the coming year, so I'm probably going to have to take a year off from gardening next year.    Good news is, I likely will then have room for a bigger garden.  

We too are on a longish term heat wave...not really good...

Lettuces are still going.  I too think no pole beans.  1. Late.  2.  Give the stupid Japanese Beetles something else to do.  Plus I am not a good summer cooker.

Gotta stake the maters, and trellis cukes. But had exponential rain here last night....maybe this weekend.

No real end in sight.

I am happy for you, Kate, that you will have space for gardening.  I don't know what it I is, but containers are "different" for me about gardening...

It's funny how we seem to be opposite weather wise.   When everyone else seemed to be getting poured on, we've be in a drought up here.   And or heat wave finally just settled down.   We first hit 90 this year 2 weeks before our last frost date. June second we hit 98.  Now are getting back to normal for this time if year: low to mid 80s.

My garden I feel it's doing well now.  Things seem to have waken up after the heat has gone down a little,  and after some fish emulsion.

Robbomb116 wrote:It's funny how we seem to be opposite weather wise.   When everyone else seemed to be getting poured on, we've be in a drought up here.   And or heat wave finally just settled down.   We first hit 90 this year 2 weeks before our last frost date. June second we hit 98.  Now are getting back to normal for this time if year: low to mid 80s.

My garden I feel it's doing well now.  Things seem to have waken up after the heat has gone down a little,  and after some fish emulsion.

That is true!  This region seems to have a little ebb and flow thing on the weather!  Good to hear, Rob!  Mine just needs tending....hope the heat and humidity give me the wherewithal to deal with that this weekend!

I always have a list that exceeds the length of my weekends....

Robbomb116 wrote:It's funny how we seem to be opposite weather wise.   When everyone else seemed to be getting poured on, we've be in a drought up here.   And or heat wave finally just settled down.   We first hit 90 this year 2 weeks before our last frost date. June second we hit 98.  Now are getting back to normal for this time if year: low to mid 80s.

My garden I feel it's doing well now.  Things seem to have waken up after the heat has gone down a little,  and after some fish emulsion.

Glad to hear your garden is recovering. Alaska Fish Fertilizer is my all-purpose go-to emergency Rx for plants that are struggling with malnutrition issues. I use it a lot when I have plants waiting to get transplanted into the garden or into large containers, and they've used up all the nutrients in their small pots.

ND seems to have quite a bit different a climate than the rest of the Midwest. About as "northerly" as you can get and still be in the Midwest.

Scorpio Rising wrote:
We too are on a longish term heat wave...not really good...

Lettuces are still going.  I too think no pole beans.  1. Late.  2.  Give the stupid Japanese Beetles something else to do.  Plus I am not a good summer cooker.

Gotta stake the maters, and trellis cukes. But had exponential rain here last night....maybe this weekend.

No real end in sight.

I am happy for you, Kate, that you will have space for gardening.  I don't know what it I is, but containers are "different" for me about gardening...

I got enthusiastic about container gardening before I decided to build Square Foot beds, when I was trying to make use of some little used patio space. Now that I have raised beds, I still stay involved with the development of container gardening methods because I see so many possibilities for it with all the urban folks who don't have any real ground to plant in, especially apartment dwellers, or people who just want to raise a few plants without having to build or dig garden beds.

ND seems to have quite a bit different a climate than the rest of the Midwest.  About as "northerly" as you can get and still be in the Midwest.

Yup! We are considered part of the Midwest for almost everything, but I think technically where I'm at I am part of the western mountains group for gardening... but I have a hard time saying that simply because or terrain is the farthest thing from a mountain ever. 

And as far as being northernly, I am actually further north than some of Canadian friends.  More north than TD for sure in Ottawa.

So it seems that clipping the onion stalks does encourage bulb growth.  I just pulled up a few of what I was raising as green onions, and they came up with small bulbs.  And now the onions I planted to grow into big onions, are starting to bulge up through the soil.   Another win!  

The new tomato setup is really doing nicely.  Everything I have in the tomato bed is setting fruit like mad!  So far, the early heat doesn't seem to have affected them much. And we had a moderately severe thunderstorm yesterday, and the trellises have held perfectly.

This is a 6-foot trellis.  You can see the Rutgers in the middle almost reaching the top now.  The other really tall one in the back is the Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant.


Rutgers...


Early Girls... (that started late, but now out pacing all the others)


...and a nice cluster of cherry tomatoes...


Can't wait for the first ripe one!  

Ooooo dang, that is looking awesome, Kate!  

I know, I was watering tonight and saw an actual mater...

Can't wait!

Letting Daikon go to pods,,,,they are tasty 

Lettuce out, not sure maybe carrots.  More carrots.

Gonna get the turnips Out, they look great!  Hakurai Tokyo Cross!

CitizenKate wrote:So it seems that clipping the onion stalks does encourage bulb growth.

CK. I tried cutting the stalks of my Onions last year and lost all of them. It seems water gets down inside the stalks and even down inside of the bulbs and causes them to rot.  At least mine did.  Good luck.

MrBooker wrote:

CitizenKate wrote:So it seems that clipping the onion stalks does encourage bulb growth.

CK. I tried cutting the stalks of my Onions last year and lost all of them. It seems water gets down inside the stalks and even down inside of the bulbs and causes them to rot.  At least mine did.  Good luck.

I always wondered about those hollow tubes that are left....

Scorpio Rising wrote:

MrBooker wrote:

CitizenKate wrote:So it seems that clipping the onion stalks does encourage bulb growth.

CK. I tried cutting the stalks of my Onions last year and lost all of them. It seems water gets down inside the stalks and even down inside of the bulbs and causes them to rot.  At least mine did.  Good luck.

I always wondered about those hollow tubes that are left....

Yes. The water goes down through stalks and into the bulbs and the bulbs will ROT. Mine did.

Kate, your your tomato plants look awesome! Well done! Mine are still anemic and angry at me for putting them out in the cold.

CC

Mine are still unstaked!!!!!

So. Much. Else. To. Do.

Rained spotty hereabouts.  Cooler, which is good.  Opened the windows.  

Yesterday, I pulled one of my 2 Minnesota Midget starts, it was, shall we say, weird.  Kinda super small, spikey?  Leaves had spikes on them....yeah.  Gone.  Direct seeded a second Midget...will see.  They are a quicker growing muskmelon, but not sure about June direct sow.

Still have not done anything with staking the maters or cukes...maters are the big project.  Cukes are stunted by the (unbeknownst to me) LARGE garlic!  Not getting all day sun, but hopefully can be OK....

MrBooker wrote:

CitizenKate wrote:So it seems that clipping the onion stalks does encourage bulb growth.

CK. I tried cutting the stalks of my Onions last year and lost all of them. It seems water gets down inside the stalks and even down inside of the bulbs and causes them to rot.  At least mine did.  Good luck.

Last year, my bulb onions never grew more than about 1 inch in diameter, which is about as good as nothing at all.

I was aware from my research that there would be a risk of exposing the plant to disease if I trimmed the stalks, but some people claim to have gotten good results.  I decided to take the risk, because if I don't find some way to get larger bulbs, it won't be worth growing them at all.  So far, mine have stayed healthy, but the season is not over... thanks for the caveat.

CapeCoddess wrote:Kate, your your tomato plants look awesome! Well done! Mine are still anemic and angry at me for putting them out in the cold.

CC

A couple of mine are still mad at me for waiting too long to get them into their containers.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Rained spotty hereabouts.  Cooler, which is good.  Opened the windows.  

Yesterday, I pulled one of my 2 Minnesota Midget starts, it was, shall we say, weird.  Kinda super small, spikey?  Leaves had spikes on them....yeah.  Gone.  Direct seeded a second Midget...will see.  They are a quicker growing muskmelon, but not sure about June direct sow.

Still have not done anything with staking the maters or cukes...maters are the big project.  Cukes are stunted by the (unbeknownst to me) LARGE garlic!  Not getting all day sun, but hopefully can be OK....

Maybe if the cuke plants grow tall enough to stand over the garlic, they'll take off then... hard to say without seeing where they are.

Sorry if I missed any earlier references to this - been away a lot lately - but what's a Minnesota Midget?

Sorry if I missed any earlier references to this - been away a lot lately - but what's a Minnesota Midget?

It's a small cantaloupe variety that matures pretty quickly,  good for shorter growing seasons in the north.

OK, so question for the group:  since the garlic tops are the issue, can I pull them together with twine into a sort of pyramid to get them out of the way?  They will still get sun, just be more centralized.  They are in the 4 middle squares of my 4x4....

What do you think?  I think if I got more sunlight to them.....


And honestly, it has been impossible for me to load pictures since i got my new better high powered iPad.  I just can't do it consistently.  Which I hate, because pictures really help.

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, so question for the group:  since the garlic tops are the issue, can I pull them together with twine into a sort of pyramid to get them out of the way?  They will still get sun, just be more centralized.  They are in the 4 middle squares of my 4x4....

What do you think?  I think if I got more sunlight to them.....

I know what you mean, I've been thinking about how to keep garlic stalks under more control, too. I suppose if you bundled them rather loosely, to allow air circulation between them, there couldn't be much harm in that.