July 2013 New England

CapeC.....My white cukes are Miniatures Whites from johnnyseeds.
As for the tomatoes, I left the blossoms and a couple of tiny tomatoes on the large New Girl and Jet Star transplants when it went outdoors.  It didn't stunt its growth one bit.  In fact, those fruits were the first to ripen and others were green by the Fourth.  It might cut some production leaving them on, I'm not sure, since there is lots of tomatoes coming on the plant and I've never grown them before so don't know if I'd have even more fruit if I trimmed them off.
Can't help on the corn I'm afraid.  I'm not experienced with those.
As for the bean roots, I've never seen anything like that before so again can't help.

QB...thanks for the vid! so fun to see other's gardens. What is your Trifecta you're speaking about?

QB - another Thanks for the garden tour, really enjoyed it. You did good multi tasking too, moving plants around, walking, talking, and operating the camera. 
I'd probably trip over a nosey barn cat and fall in the beds.

Southern Gardener.....Trifecta+ (plus) is something developed by a young man named Luke who has the MIGardener channel on utube.  He's into botany and works at a nursery when he's not at college.  He developed this Trifecta+ fertilizer and asked for 30 volunteers to try it and report how it was working for them.
I posted an updated video on utube a week of so ago.
It works great as far as I can see.  The plants are taller and stronger and have more fruit on them in my test results.  I tested with 4 pairs of different tomato varieties; Jet Star, New Girl, Red Zebra and Indigo Rose.  There's a marked difference in the Trifecta fed plants.  I know I'll be buying some for my next year's garden.  
I even planted 6 tomatoes rather late in my rather shady flower garden and added a handful of Trifecta to each hole.  They are doing marvelously well, tall and green and blossoms and some Indigo Rose fruits even with less than 6 hrs of sunshine a day.  So far its working well.

Here's a Valencia tomato on July 6th in my flower garden besdie some glads.

QB...thanks for the info! My soil needs something for sure. I've added more compost on top, but it's not enough. My deeper beds with less plants per SF than the SFG recommendation are doing better than the 6" beds for sure. I have one corn stalk with "tillers" that has 5 or 6 ears on it! It's prob about 8-9 feet tall! My 6" beds are much smaller stalks with 1 ear and they are tiny also. So...I think I need something for a little "umfp" too. TY for the info!

Great video as always quiltbea. Thanks for sharing.  
Would love updates on the totem tomatoes (I think that's what they were called) They looked interesting.
Gardening must be in the Corgis blood. Our Corgi loves being in the garden too  

Garlic

QB, First time I have had a chance to look at your video. You have such an active and successful garden. I think your comments on why you planted certain plants, such as resistance to blight, are educational for new gardeners. Thank you

QB, great video! I hear you about the weeds between boxes, parts of my garden are getting that way too, mainly where I don't have it chipped yet. The woodchips work wonders in keeping the weed growth down.

I planted a couple new field-like areas this year, to see what would grow outside the SFG. Well, forget that. While the growth is great, the weeds are unbelievable. I am spoiled to the fairly weed-free SFG method. No way am I hunching over and pulling weeds for hours. Next year I think we'll just turn it into buckwheat like another 30x30 patch we have - the pollinators love the buckwheat, I can't even count the different types of pollinators all over those, including the honeybees.

Back to SFG, the peas are winding down (altho I have new ones coming up in another area), the fortex green beans are looking a little stunted, not sure what's going on with them but hopefully they'll get into growth spurt soon. Really excited about the new cucumbers forming. This year I trellised the cukes, and so far, so great. The squash are out in the weed field, but I did pick a small yellow squash yesterday - yay. There's also a zucchini that should be ready in a few days.

The strawberries need their "mow" (with clippers) for the season, they're done. 

My 4x8 onion box has been taken over by volunteers, mostly tomato plants. Ah well. There are still some strong onions (they didn't take that great anyway) and the volunteers always look so hardy.

The tomatoes are planted next to the (wire) fence this year, so the fence is their trellis. Still green babies, but healthy looking.

Is it time to reseed lettuce and spinach?

Garlic looking good, another couple weeks on those probably.

Okay - so now the heat this week. Anyone covering for heat? Looks like 5 days of 90 in these parts.

 Edit: Buckwheat flowers in my new avatar

I will not be covering for the heat and sun.

Hello,

I'd appreciate your ideas, please.  If the post is in the wrong topic, would you move it?

I've been cutting off tomato and raspberry branches that look sick because I can't identify the problem aside from a raspberry insect problem.  I've looked at the Cornell disease pictures, but nothing looks like the samples online.  I don't know if this is from all the rain lately.

The raspberry has both insect damage at the top and yellowing/browning leaves at the bottom.  I read that raspberries pass their fungi on easily, and don't want this to spread to the raspberries 3 feet away.  Here are the pictures:

 

 
Do I strip the leaves, or remove the canes?  Nothing's flowered yet.


Two different varieties of cherry tomatoes growing next to each other have what look to be different problems.  One is spotting and yellowing, and the other is yellowing between the leaf veins and curling. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.  Do you have any suggestions?





Thanks.

Can't tell you much about the raspberry plants
 The tomatoes: The yellowing leaves and green veins indicate nutrient deficiency. The brown spots with yellowing discoloration looks like blight. Contact your County Coop Extension Service for proper identification and remedy recommendations of all the troubles including the raaspberry plants. I would be interested to hear about those.

Yes!  Get those toms checked out ASAP to ID if it's blight.  Rainy weather is blight's friend, but you need to know for sure so it doesn't spread to other plants.

As to the raspberries & curly tom leaves, take a soil sample to the extension service when you have the spotted tom leaves checked out and they will be able to tell you if you have a nutrient deficiency.

Good luck & keep us posted!

I can relate to your tomato leaf pain, point.  I had early blight at the beginning of he season on my cherry toms and thought it was all taken care of after removing the leaves and feeding them aspirin water, but I just saw yesterday that it's back.  crud.  But we've been living in a fog for a while now so it's a wonder it's not everywhere.

Wow on all the shallots, Camp!  And here I was pleased with 11 from 2.  *lol* My basement is good for drying them as well as garlic & onions I believe.  The humidifier keeps it at is 55% and there's an oscillating fan constantly blowing.  (in the previous photo of my garlic the fan looks off but it's really on hi...that was kinda cool I thot)

The fog lifted and sun finally came out yesterday afternoon as I was sitting on the front porch, and I watched the grass grow about 2 inches as I was sitting there.     So I watered the SFG well, weeded the strawberry patch after eating what was left in there, and decided not to shade cover anything for this hot spell.  That may be a mistake as today we're already up to 89 here even tho 85 was the highest prediction for the week.

I planted more carrot seeds this morning - a fresh pack of Touchon, which are heirlooms & a first for me.  Something's gotta work. I'm determined to get some friggen carrots this year!

Most of my SFG onions have fallen over also...they look like a big mess.  I had started so many that they are in a few different places - the SFG, the herb garden(ground) & a lily bulb pot of straight compost.  The compost ones were planted last and are the furthest along with actual formed bulbs showing .  The SFG is in 2nd place but no bulbs showing yet.  The ones in the herb garden still look like grass.  

Here's the bottom half of one of the Supersonics (F2) and still all the toms aren't showing:
The 3 plants are ginormous to the point of being freakish, and so healthy.  

CC

Point:

If you want to try a homemade fungus remedy, try this one from my local organic hippy plant guru:  

1 Gallon Water
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil (he said he uses olive oil)
1 Tablespoon dish soap.

Spray as a preventive onto susceptible plants as well as a treatment to the ones affected (but after you've removed & discarded into the trash those spotted leaves).

He gave me the above recipe after I went to his nursery a few days ago to get some copper sulfate as a preventive for fear of blight.  He said he doesn't use "the big guns" until after he's used the baking soda mixture.  He said using copper sulfate might lower your pH too much, which then gets you other problems. 

He said try the baking soda first, then if I come down with blight that doesn't respond, THEN he'd sell me the copper sulfate.

As to the nutrient deficiency, try a home test kit & see what that shows you.

Good luck!

Thank you all for pointing me toward the correct diagnoses: fungus (blight is a fungus, yes?) and poor soil.  I found the first raspberry photo shows bug damage.  Two of you said to contact an Extension agent.  Which I would do but for the cost.

From what CapeCoddess is saying, I've not got much time to fix this.

When the County Extension agent program was begun, Massachusetts opted out so that it could fund agriculture education as it saw fit (I think in exchange for a lump sum).

I remember the the Connecticut Extension people were very quick, but we grew ourselves a bureaucracy in Mass!  They want me to send each sample along with a diagnostic questionnaire and $50 per sample for diagnosis to UMass. That's $150!  They will review it within some unspecified time and issue a written report.  By which time the crop will have either gotten worse, or died.

What's important is the tomatoes; we've been waiting for 10 months!  We're so close...

The way I'm seeing this now, I can go to Whole Foods for a while with $150.    

And, Mollyhespra,  I will try the recipe as soon as I can mix it and prune the leaves.  I'll get a soil-testing kit tomorrow at the only bona fide nursery left around here.  It's not Mel's mix. 

The tomatoes are in the EarthBox mix with its add-ins, and the raspberries have long been volunteers in soil where there have been raspberries, but also blackberries.  I read blackberries should not be in proximity  to raspberries, so I pulled the blackberry out.  Maybe not soon enough.


Oh, this is a complicated business!



Thanks

I have used that baking soda spry, It works for the most part for a while. The level if infestation really depends upon the weather. Last year I used copper and only sprayed twice with good results. No worries about the pH in my gardens. 
Plants are pretty good in showing consistent symptoms when they lack particular nutrients. In my opinion in regard to checking nutrient deficiency using home test kits... You would get better results for the same money by sending a sample to UMass lab.

A brief perusal of Google images of respberry leaf chlorosis leads me to believe your raspberries maybe deficient in iron. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/223.html

camprn wrote:...In my opinion in regard to checking nutrient deficiency using home test kits... You would get better results for the same money by sending a sample to UMass lab.

+1

Earlier this year, it was $15.

Molly, Had to jump in here.

Just last night I used my "home made solution" of dish soap (blue Dawn), grapeseed cooking oil, and baking soda.  We have such bad summer air quality that all the yard plants get coated with a sticky dust that can't be removed by the hose.

I used it last summer on the orange tree to get rid of the black mold.  Spray tops and bottoms of leaves and all the bark.  It cleaned so well that I continued spraying all the plants and small trees in the front and back yard, all the trellised star jasmine on three sides of fence, and all the plastic chairs and garbage bins.

I use the jar sprayer that attaches to the hose because of the enormity of the job.  I put the following in the jar:

1/4 c dish soap (the blue color of the Dawn lets me see when the solution has been used up in the jar)

1/4 c cooking oil (I heat-cook with grapeseed oil, but I think I will buy a cheaper brand for the yards)

1/4 cup of baking soda

Fill the rest of the container with water (1 1/2 oz setting) and mix well before starting to spray.  The 1 1/2 oz setting is just a guess.  It takes several refillings to do the front and back yards.  I am a dripping wet, slightly muddy mess when done because I also spray up under trellis and trees.  But, the plants are sooooo clean!

This year I did the same but, of course, included the SFG. I gently moved leaves and stacks around to get both tops and bottoms cleaned. No aphids this morning!!

I will have to use Neem on the roses when we get a cool spell below 90 degrees (been 100+ for a couple weeks).  By washing the roses first, I feel the Neem is better able to get to plant surfaces.

Point, while writing this I see you have responded to Molly.  You can use the generic plastic spray bottle for the solution on the tomatoes.  I didn't wait to remove damaged leaves because the dish soap is a surfactant.  It keeps the dust from flying as much, so maybe it can keep the fungus spores from flying as much.  

Just a suggestion based on what other members have replied.  Don't delay spraying just to prune first.  You can prune after spraying, and then spray again.

I'm a Newbie so I'm just guessing.  

Oh, hi there Camp.  It's seems this is a good topic because I can't get my reply finished before some else replies!!

point wrote:  Two of you said to contact an Extension agent.  Which I would do but for the cost.

...
When the County Extension agent program was begun, Massachusetts opted out so that it could fund agriculture education as it saw fit (I think in exchange for a lump sum).


What's important is the tomatoes; we've been waiting for 10 months!  We're so close...


Thanks

OK, so call one of the professors or grad students. Send a sample to the lab.

http://ag.umass.edu/umass-extension-your-community/extension-northeastern-massachusetts

http://soiltest.umass.edu/sites/soiltest.umass.edu/files/forms/soilless-greenhouse-media/Soilless%20Greenhouse%20Media%20Sample%20Submission%20Form-editable.pdf

Hi Point, your tomato leaves look much like mine. I am having major problems with a  fungus as well. I'm not saying we are having the same problem, but it looks similar. I have spent hours online, looking at photographs of fungus infected leaves, descriptions of symptoms and causes, etc. It has hit many, many plants in my yard. It appears differently on each type of plant affected. Since each plant affected looked different, and started at different times, I was looking at each type of plant as a separate problem. I researched pest infestations for the fruit trees and blight for the tomatoes. My plants don't match any of the picture of the blights and I couldn't find any pest related problems. Then I looked at my yard as a single unit.

So I looked at my tomatoes, apple tree, grapevines, crabapple, cherries, blueberries, raspberries and cucumbers and compared them to the photos of the leaves online. It appears to be Septoria leaf spot that I am battling. The damage to the leaves of each type of plant match the photo that is an example of that fungus on that plant. The symptoms are different for each type of plant, but all of the causes are linked to the type of weather we have been having for the past month or more.

My grapes started with it first then the apple and crabapple. I sometimes have problems with the grapes having a fungus but this year is horrific. The tomatoes started late last week. The tomatoes and the grapes seem to be the most vulnerable and affected the worst. I have lost all of my Concord grapes and it does not look good for my Roma tomatoes. Thankfully the rest of my tomatoes are planted elsewhere in the yard and are only slightly affected at this point.

The fungus spores can winter over in the soil or come in on a plant purchased and transplanted. When it rains the spores splash up from the soil or from other leaves and infect the lower leaves. Continued rain and humidity cause it to progress further up the plant. The fungus loves this type of weather. Caught early they say it can be controlled and the plant will grow more leaves and improve.

Do not spray anything on the plants until all infected leaves are removed. Water is the transport system for this fungus' spores. Remove all infected leaves, all debris in the soil, and all the mulch around the infected plants. Do not use any of this for compost. Wrap it in trash bags and dispose of it. Apply new mulch around plants to keep the soil from splashing up. Sterilize cutting tools often to avoid spreading. Do not touch leaves when wet, you can spread it to other healthy plants. Wash hands often. Trim back heavy growth to allow air flow and water very carefully and very close to the soil to avoid splashing. Don't water the leaves. Don't use a lawn sprinkler to water the garden. All of the above recommendations apply to battling any fungus.

You can try the baking soda, oil, soap sprays, many online swear by it or recommend it as an organic solution. I am experimenting with that and other combinations of solutions using Epsom salts, vinegar, mouthwash, etc. as of this point I have nothing to lose. The Romas and grapes probably won't make it no matter what I do. The other route is a copper fungicide spray. That will be my absolute very last resort. Unfortunately if this spreads any further I will be researching that option in order to save my other gardens.

This fall I will be spraying all of my fruit trees and vines with Dormant oil and then follow up treatments as recommend through winter and spring up until they bloom and set fruit. I am also going to research the oil sprays for the veggie garden to inhibit the spores from affecting the leaves of the plants. A lot of research to be done before next years garden is started.

I am no expert, I am merely sharing the information I've collected after the hours and hours I've spent researching online over the past weekend. I hope something here will be helpful to you, and good luck with the battle.  

Lyndeeloo

Point, also take a look in the diseases forum.

UGH!!!

First sign of PM on my young zucchini plant.  Begin milk-spray STAT!!!
 
(Well, tomorrow morning-STAT.)

PM?

powdery mildew