What to plant in JULY - SO Cal

Ah! How did I miss the beginning o f July!

Anyway here is what to plant - do not let this limit you if you have other ideas...

Beans, Bush
Beans, Pole
Beets
Carrots
Corn
Cucumber
Lima Beans
Melons
Peppers
Squash, summer
Squash, Winter
Tomato plants


Have to move soon but have gotten lots of yellow and green beans and the cabbage is ready to pick. Have gotten quite a few Sun Gold tomatoes, too. So, got more from this garden than I expected with the bad timing of a summer move. But, it all works out - and I can relax knowing I can plant year round still.

Anyway, what are your gardens up to?

So far harvested lots of cukes and green beans. The tomatoes are slow. I have a few melons coming in, but the vines are small. The watermelon is really stunted.

Did some digging, apparently have been losing the watering war, so plan two is commencing. I should complete the buildout of the PVC hose/timer this weekend which will supplement the existing set up. Eventually, I'll turn off the existing and just keep the new rig.

The container plants, where the cukes are coming from are doing just fine. That raised bed, wet down about 1.5 inches, then drying out. So i did a resoak, now going to see if things spring up. I'll be ripping the green beans out and starting fresh ones this weekend.

And a volunteer potato that has sprung up in the box of half completed compost that I've had sitting around waiting to be sifted. I think it's blighting as the leaves are curling and getting blackish, but it just may have dried out too much, so I wetted things down and will see.

The okinawian sweet potatoes are finally starting to grow from the slips I planted in June. Transplant seemed to stall them quite a bit. A volunter tomato has sprung up from the compost in the box. May the best plant win.

I planted a second container two weeks ago, the original sweet potato host had vines running wild so I moved it from in the house to the container on a spot by the driveway. It seems to still be growing. Don't know what will happen with the root though.

No cukes for me yet. I can't even get them to sprout. Maybe it's just they're old seeds.... and no fresh ones.

No cukes for me either......mine come up a few inches and go into a coma......am giving them first aid and hope it works....
Your seeds sound old or not enough moisture on top.....I use fine vermiculite to cover the seeds and mist the tops....do you keep your seeds in refrig.....I have some really old seeds...the germination rate declines each year but I keep mine in plastic boxes with a rubber seal....I buy the boxes at Walmart for about $5 ...Home and Garden label....all sizes...I keep the boxes at the rear of the shelf .....out of the way of everyday use.....
But we are so lucky.....if all things are right soil wise.....we can grow all year long.....Ruth

I think they're just old seeds. I've got another packet of cucumbers that I'll keep trying with. Moisture isn't an issue. Deep pots getting plenty of water.

Anyone have any idea when to the average harvest time is for hot peppers and tomatoes? Like when you start them from seed?

lonewolfrissy.......top seeds with fine vermiculite and mist at least 2times a day.....the bottom of the pot doesnt matter at this point but the top drys out quick....Ruth

That's just it. They get plenty of water. Everyday just because of the heat alone drying out the top part of the soil. But that doesn't answer my question.

Four to six months, or there abouts.

For cherry tomatoes and hot peppers?

I personally hate 'days to maturity'. Really, can someone smack some sense into the seed companies show they all use a uniform days from maturity meaning day from sowing.

Cherry tomatoes range from 1.5 months to 3 months. I suspect that's from transplant which means add something between 2 to 6 weeks from seed. In your area, who knows. I've had volunteer beefsteak tomatoes pop up in the compost in the greenhouse in the summer when it's running 115F in there and they rocket from sprout to first flowers and set incredibly fast.

I also know that August/September plantings for the fall tend to rocket to a start too, but the waning light and October/November chill can stop everything in it's tracks.

lonewolfrissy wrote:For cherry tomatoes and hot peppers?

I gave you my opinion, not a fact. Try Folia . They say 140 days for Sweet 100s.

I was asking for the general plants. Sorry if I came off snappy.

Sooo I'm going to safely assume anywhere between 1.5 to 6 months.....

Haha! My current philosophy is they produce when they produce. I had some celery that I swear took 7 months. My solution is to have more boxes than I need and just plant each square as it empties. Once you have been going for 4 months or so there is always something maturing.

So it's all a waiting game.... *sigh* Oh well.... at least I knew the patience will be rewarded eventually. I'll just pray they last through our winter.

Yes, gardening is a waiting game. As the sign said at the Fair, a farmer has to be an optimist to be a farmer!

Try putting a few sheets of paper towel or newspaper (wet first) on top of the seeded pot. It could help keep the ground moist for the seedlings. You might want to keep them in the shade too, so they don't get too hot. I use half a plastic half-gal bottle as a teepee over my seedlings. It keep the moisture circulating above the seeds, and they respond well. Remove the bottle after the seedlings appear. You're blessed to be in the desert where you can grow year round!


Chopper...about those melons...I keep trying, and the seeds are doing zilch. 2 types, too. I have baby Asian melons. One came up quickly, put out a small fist sized fruit, fell off and we had a few scoops. It had about 1/4" of fruit. Tasted like a mellow honeydew. Then the plant's leaves got brown and funky. It's a put out more fruit, and they look like cherry tomatoes. It is on a trellis, and is all of a foot tall.

They are next to the cherry tomatoes which are 4' tall and have some sets, but nothing ripening. Seems they fall off before they get red!

I've got some sort of beetle in my cabbage. I posted a question about it, but haven't heard anything yet. Another 'mini,' and they keep cracking before they get big enough to be mature! Nor more mini varieties!

I can't get my cantaloupe seeds to do a thing. I'll keep trying!

As for 'knee high by the fourth of July,' I harvested 8 ears of corn the last weekend of June. There weren't all pollinated, but what was there was tasty. There's more details if you want them in my garden adventure thread.

And I'm thinking about planting more, but I need to figure out if there is time for them to grow if before I revise my garden...and I'll trying to figure HOW to do that!

Ah, things to puzzle in the heat!

Ava

I wonder if you just have a bad batch of cantaloupes? Odd.

I know cabbages are best grown when it is a little cooler, but still. Beetles? What are you doing to treat? Just picked a really big head of cabbage the other day - while I was moving - and then forgot it in my car on these hot days. So when I remembered it it was already half steamed. However, it still ended up being a good formally steamed cabbage. I had some holes in the leaves and found a baby snail a few leaves in but no bugs found and pretty intact.

What kind of cantaloupe?

My heirlooms are really struggling. I'm hoping one melon makes it before the plant dies out. The water issue really messed them up.

My collective farm woman melons which were a late planting are doing really well. I have two good baseball size melons growing and a third racketball size one. From photos I've seen, I don't know how much bigger they'll get, most look pretty small.

The late plantings of Canary melons are taking off like a rocket.

NSR, are you growing heirloom cantaloupes? Mine are Sierra Gold by Ferry Morris, 2012 pack. I don't know why they aren't doing anything...I keep finding them on the surface of the dirt and now in the lettuces about 24" away!

Chopper, did you see this? https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13392-beetles-on-another-cracking-tiny-cabbage
It has a pic of the beetles and the cabbage.

Today I noticed the beetles are not visible and the Asian melon is turning yellow, even if it is the size of a GRAPE!!!

Would love to show pics but I am restoring images on my digital card! YIKES!

Ava

Well, I don't know if I'd say growing...

But I'm trying a couple of the old ones from Bakercreek. The Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon might give me a melon. And a collective farm woman appears to be doing well.

And Canary I took seeds from the melon in the store two years ago seems to be growing gang busters. I planted them when others failed.

Melons are a struggle.

I've had a similar problem with seeds getting dug up. I think it was an opossum.

omg omg omg omg my tomatoes have their first leetle flowers!!!!!!!!! Oh boy! oh boy! oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!


Now here's hoping the potential rain doesn't kill them. =x *knocks on wood*

Really. Rain in the summer. What a concept.

lol yeah rain. I dunno if it has rained or will rain but there is a lot of moisture in the air.

I might be the only one left here.  Anyway, revitalizing the July thread.  In addition to the list at the top.  Add sweet potatoes.  Still have slips coming and squeezing them in the empty spots.

My mini-butternut squash is really starting to take off and my cukes are fading. Luckily, my second round of cuke planting is just getting going and starting to flower so I blundered into getting the timing right there.

I've been having a horrible season with green beans.  Bush and pole, really, kind of shameful, the seemingly easiest thing to grow in the garden behind radishes and I haven't gotten a single meal of beans out of the garden this year.   I'll hide behind the weather doing everything from 108F to light misty rain.

Thanks for reviving this thread. I can't believe 108*F in Orange County.  Yikes.  What a wonderful blunder.  I should be so lucky.  My beans are also fighting to survive, heat, red spider mites and grasshoppers.  I'll have my first picking of tomatoes this evening.  A small colander worth.  Plus some various hot peppers to pick for drying.