Re: August 2012, New England

NHGardener 8/7/2012, 4:29 pm

camprn, do you have your own extractor, or hire out?

**camprn** 8/7/2012, 4:45 pm

I just got one at Betterbee last month, it was on sale. The small plastic one. Works good for me, I can do 2 frames at a time. NH Honeybee has extraction service or you can use the extractor. The charge is a minimum of $20 and it's $2 per frame. I figured it was a good investment to get the little one.

Addendum: NHG have you thought about going to the EAS Conference It's the Biggest, Bestest, most awesomest beekeeping conference east of the Mississippi River and rarely in New England. I am counting my pennies to see if I can go for the whole conference.... accommodation is of course so expensive, but I am looking into staying at the Burlington Hostel. I just may be able to pull it off. Very Happy

NHGardener 8/7/2012, 5:38 pm

Woo hoo! They've talked about it at the bee club meeting, but I think it's a little on the expensive side, including housing & parking, no? I'll bet it would be a great experience tho!

**camprn** 8/7/2012, 6:44 pm

NHGardener wrote:Woo hoo! They've talked about it at the bee club meeting, but I think it's a little on the expensive side, including housing & parking, no? I'll bet it would be a great experience tho!

Conferences are always spendy. If I go I will call it my vacation. Very Happy

cpl100 8/8/2012, 1:28 pm

Here is a picture showing my small peppers and also one showing the plant.

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Cubane10

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Cubane11

cpl100 8/8/2012, 1:30 pm

Was not sure how many pictures could be in a post. Here is a picture of the bell pepper plant showing the tiny peppers (and short plant!).

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Bell_p11

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Bell_p11

**camprn** 8/8/2012, 1:32 pm

Oh it looks good, Just keep watering it and it will continue to grow, so will the fruits. Very Happy

cpl100 8/8/2012, 1:40 pm

That is a relief. What's your opinion on the cubanelle plant that has only produced the 3" peppers and has stalled in producing anything now (for a while)?

Thanks for your input.

NHGardener 8/8/2012, 2:36 pm

That's basically how my bell pepper plants look too - tiny peppers and blooms right now. With colder weather coming, it worries me. They just seem to need a longer growing season.

BTW, I am really not ready for garden season to be over. I know there are fall crops, but I really need my tomatoes/eggplants/green beans, and they all really need more time...

I feel like I'm just getting started.

**camprn** 8/8/2012, 2:50 pm

NHGardener wrote:That's basically how my bell pepper plants look too - tiny peppers and blooms right now. With colder weather coming, it worries me. They just seem to need a longer growing season.

BTW, I am really not ready for garden season to be over. I know there are fall crops, but I really need my tomatoes/eggplants/green beans, and they all really need more time...

I feel like I'm just getting started.

There's still plenty of time. No need to fret about the garden, though you may want to work on the wood pile. Wink

CapeCoddess 8/8/2012, 2:56 pm

We have more time, NHG, don't we? I'm thinking at least 4 wks of warm weather, right?

I'm so busy planting tons of broccoli, onions, turnips, beets, carrots and such to freeze that I'll be ready for a break come winter. Altho I'm planning on extending the season with plastic over hoops if I can for my green leafies and their pals, as well as growing some lettuce and whatever else I can in the bay window indoors.

Lots of experimenting to do...
Onward ever onward...

CC

NHGardener 8/8/2012, 3:31 pm

Yup, the woodpile is about right.

I saw temps forecasted in the 70s with rain for the weekend and panicked, but it does look like they're saying closer to 80 now...

cpl100 8/9/2012, 9:55 am

Well, I am having a little success with my gardening this year. It's not *all* questions. Here is a picture of my ripening yellow pear tomatoes which appear to be growing as they should:

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Yellow10

August 2012, New England - Page 2 Yellow10

And here is a picture of ripening San Marzano which are not quite what they should be:
August 2012, New England - Page 2 San_ma10

You will notice the blossom end rot on the end. Also, none seem to be the size I expected as they are only about two inches in size. I thought they were a regular size tomato. I had been plucking all the rotted end ones but then someone said to try ripening them. I did put the epsom salts and dried milk into the soil once. More came with rotted ends but I think some of the newer ones have 'hope' to avoid it.

Any thoughts?

Later I will post a picture of my SFG which now does have some stuff growing though nothing to be harvested yet.

**camprn** 8/9/2012, 12:09 pm

Your fruits look good, despite the blossom end rot.

now, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but here it goes....

From what I can see from here, the brown spots and yellowing leaves look like you have a nasty case of blight, I'm sorry to say. Please use the search feature for as much info as you can find about blight so you can take appropriate action. I would also encourage you to contact your local extension service as they help to ID and track the spread of the devastating disease.

**camprn** 8/9/2012, 2:17 pm

I found this amazing photo gallery of Eastern Massachusetts caterpillars.
http://www.pbase.com/spjaffe/massachusetts_caterpillars Shocked

hruten 8/9/2012, 2:31 pm

I have some wonderful tomatoes this year, but some of the large ones look weird on the bottom. Any suggestions? Also, is it too late to plant a fall round of sugar snap peas? I noticed some powdery mildew on my pumpkin this morning Mad

, any reccommendations?
August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1310

This is a brandywine tomato
August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1311

This is my first ripening Triple L tomato
NOTE: gratuitous bragging follows Cool

Some of my tomatoes are so heavy they are dropping off the stems.... I'm getting tired of fried green tomatoes!

**camprn** 8/9/2012, 2:48 pm

YOu know, you can let them ripen on the windowsill. Wink

NHGardener 8/9/2012, 3:02 pm

Amazing caterpillars! And some of those are downright comical.

And that's one ugly tomato. Hope it's just the ugly kind, and there are no bugs.

Had tomato (& cheese) omelets today, I'll be thinking of a million different ways to use tomatoes now that mine are getting ripe. But yesterday the chickens jumped my garden fence (yet again) and took chunks out of three of my prime beautiful tomatoes. Almost had chicken pot pie last night, but instead I just secured the fence better.

Found a laid egg in my green bean plants too...

Looks like rain, which makes sense since I watered today. boogie woogie

Oh, and last night I started sketching out next year's garden plans.

CapeCoddess 8/9/2012, 4:19 pm

OMG! Those catapillars! Some of them look like snakes! And some look like you want to cuddle up with it while others look like a nitemare that I hope I never run into. affraid

I watered today, too, hoping that would bring on the rain. I sometimes think that watering is the gardners Rain Dance. Rolling Eyes

CC

hruten 8/9/2012, 4:22 pm

My big beautiful pumpkin was eaten up with mildew. I pretty much scrapped 90% of the plant. I do have 3 nicely orange pumpkins that are full size. I tried to make sure their were support roots around them, but very little is left. Sad

I also saw it had spread to my cukes and zuchinni. I removed all the effected areas I saw and then sprayed with a fine mist of the baking soda recipe on the powdery mildew thread here in the forum.
Boy have I got lots of changes for next year!! NHG, I'm such a type A that I started the new plan around May this year! I guess it just shows how much the forum and failure has taught me Smile

BTW, love the egg in the pepper story!

NHGardener 8/9/2012, 7:26 pm

Found another egg in the green beans today, so those chickens are still hopping the fence.

So my squashes and zucchinis are disappointing. I've only gotten 1 squash and 0 zucchinis. I had had to replant because their seedling little leaves would disappear overnight - I'm thinking it was slugs. But now I see on the zucchini that it went straight from reaching maturity to vine borer. I said last year I'm kicking those out of the garden but kept them in, but next year I'm definitely kicking them out and putting them in a regular dirt patch that we're getting ready for some things next year, like potatoes. Maybe in regular dirt they won't be as susceptible to vine borers. I can't even see the vine borers, I just see the remnants of crumbly stalks. What kind of gardener can't grow zucchinis? That's un-New England.

**camprn** 8/9/2012, 7:30 pm

NHGardener wrote: What kind of gardener can't grow zucchinis? That's un-New England.

Er, I can't. The only summer squash I have left out of 8 is a patty pan.

NHGardener 8/9/2012, 9:03 pm

Well, there's always next year. Zucchinis or bust. August 2012, New England - Page 2 3170584802

hruten 8/10/2012, 7:15 am

Although my zuchinni has been supplying us with one every couple of days... I think that's over. I went from this
August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1312

to this

August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1313

And my pumpkin went from much bigger than this
August 2012, New England - Page 2 20120710

to this

August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1314

I do have 3 good size pie pumpkins and I left a root with each section. Is there anything special I need to do to get these to survive for harvest? sunny

August 2012, New England - Page 2 100_1315

P.S. Next year I'm going to hold the water when it comes to squash!

CapeCoddess 8/10/2012, 9:52 am

NHGardener wrote:What kind of gardener can't grow zucchinis? That's un-New England.

I'm glad we're all on the same page with this. I got about 5 zucchinis and it seems to be over now. Having heard all the jokes about people leaving zucchinis everywhere I had planned on having one in my smoothie every morning this summer into fall. Silly me.

Wish I found eggs in my garden. Guess I'd have to get chickens first tho, and the neighbors would freak...as would my Lilly cat.

CC

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August 2012, New England