July 2013 New England

Ah! Thank you.

Molly, Straight milk? Diluted? Instant? Thanks

Thank you all. I'm flooored that you take so much time to help me out. I'll let you know how it goes.m

The baking soda spray for PM too.

sanderson wrote:Molly,  Straight milk?  Diluted?  Instant?  Thanks

The formula I use is from here:

http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu/Forms%20and%20Publications/PDF/Home%20Remedies.pdf.

I know it did wonders at controlling PM on my volunteer pumpkin last year, though it didn't erradicate it.  I think that might be because I noticed it too late.

I think that I'm going to try the baking soda formula I posted earlier first, though, so that I can preemptively spray it onto the toms & peppers against blight.  I don't know if the milk formula is good against blight.

If the baking soda doesn't clear up the PM then milk it will be!

The baking soda/Ivory soap is working great for the PM on my squash IF I remember to do the underside of the leaves. I didn't know we could use it for blight also, and will try it.

CC

Molly, Thank you for the link.

We're having a heat wave week here in southern Maine with temps expected from 87-90 days.  I put up my shade cloth yesterday (hit 90 here) and will leave it up til Sunday when we'll be getting back down to our normal 70s daytimes.  Phew, I can't handle this heat.
I watered my garden with the hose this morning and all the container plants.  Couldn't cope with using the bucket and measuring cup since it would take too long and too much bending.  I pulled most of the weeds between the raised beds but a couple will have to wait for tomorrow morning along with the strawberry bed.
I'm curious to dump my potato bucket in the wheelbarrow to see if I can find any taters.  The foliage has all died back.
I even washed my floors this morning while I was on a roll with water.  I use a bucket and mop, old-fashioned cleaning.

camprn....I checked my shallots after weeding the squares and there are clusters of them together.  Shall I pick them this week?  They aren't too big but maybe a different square did better.  Do I have to dry them in the shade?

Wow QB, you're brave. I'm putting all garden activity off till next week. I see highs in the low 70s next week, amazing. (Or at least potentially on Weds.)

quiltbea wrote:We're having a heat wave week here in southern Maine with temps expected from 87-90 days.  I put up my shade cloth yesterday (hit 90 here) and will leave it up til Sunday when we'll be getting back down to our normal 70s daytimes.  Phew, I can't handle this heat.

 
And you are thinking about moving to the panhandle of Florida???

quiltbea wrote:

camprn....I checked my shallots after weeding the squares and there are clusters of them together.  Shall I pick them this week?  They aren't too big but maybe a different square did better.  Do I have to dry them in the shade?

Look at this thread for more info about shallots.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16047-harvesting-shallots-what-comes-next?highlight=shallots

yolos wrote:

quiltbea wrote:We're having a heat wave week here in southern Maine with temps expected from 87-90 days.  I put up my shade cloth yesterday (hit 90 here) and will leave it up til Sunday when we'll be getting back down to our normal 70s daytimes.  Phew, I can't handle this heat.

 
And you are thinking about moving to the panhandle of Florida???

Believe it or not, Yolos, I was just talking to someone in Miami and it's only 82 there.
It's 89 here, regardless of what my temp thing below says.

I'm watering tomorrow...and maybe will put up the burlap for shade.

CC

Molly,

For PM I double up with good results. In a 32-oz. hand sprayer I put 4 oz. milk (any kind, even sour, no chunks please) and a tablespoon of baking soda. Add a few drops of soap. Fill the sprayer to 32 oz. with water. This does a good job on PM. If it doesn't get it all, just spray again in a couple of days.

My tomatoes are showing some yellow leaves now despite the copper sprays. I'm thinking of trying a spray of baking soda in between the copper sprays to see if it helps.

I have to say that the hand pump garden sprayer is worth every penny. No more forearm fatigue from the silly spray bottles.

You're welcome, Sanderson.

Camp, when you get a chance to read it, I posted a question in that shallot thread that I could use your input on.

dvelten, it's funny you posted about doubling-up because I was wondering the same thing today.    Thanks for your formula--it might become "plan B".

I did go out and spray this morning, but unfortunately it was already mighty sunny & hot, so I'm afraid some of the leaves might have gotten burned, but I think they'll recover from that.

IIRC, I used to spray the milk daily (or every other day) but how about the baking soda?  Should I spray that on a daily basis also?  And I only used up about half a gallon this morning.  I assume the rest will still be "good" tomorrow, or do I have to mix a fresh batch each time?

I just read the difference between seed garlic and regular garlic, something I'd always wondered about. Anyway, apparently seed garlic stays in the ground a couple extra weeks, to let the bulbs grow bigger. Has anyone heard of that? I'm going to keep my garlic in the ground for a while yet because I want to use a lot of it to double the garlic garden next summer, from 16 squares to 32 squares. Those scapes were really, really good. 

When the bulbs stay in the ground longer, their paper wrapper gets brownish and it isn't as pretty, plus if the paper comes off, their shelf life is shorter, but I can live with that.

Anyone planning on holding off pulling the garlic, to use as seed?

Not me. I pulled all my gRlic yesterdY. I'm putting tomatoes kn that bed. I pulled all the shallots the otherday. I planted leek seedlings in that box yesterday.

Putting tomatoes in this time of year? I assume they are large transplants.

NHG, I'm actually doing something a little bit different; I've let selected scapes on the best garlic plants of each variety stay on the plant because I had some problems with infected "seed" garlic I bought from a vendor online (basically just large heads of garlic which I separated into individual cloves & planted last Fall), which may have contributed to some significant root rot I encountered early this Spring. I made the drastic decision to pull 3/4 of the garlic I planted; which included all the garlic I got from that vendor, and some of the other varieties that were also infected which I got from other sources. I left only the plants that seemed to show some resistance to the rot. SO, my thinking is that if I let the bulbils mature, I can plant *those* in a different bed so as to even further decrease the likelihood of transmitting a disease via infected/harvested cloves, AND I'm selecting for resistance to the whatever-it-was. From what I've researched, the cloves I'll harvest are edible, so by planting the bulbils, it will just take me an extra year or two to get back to where I am now. Worth the wait to prevent further contamination.

I dont have a true sqft garden, since i deviated from the mix, but my garden is going well this year. But I've been lurking for a while here, and figured I'd start to try and contribute.

Yay ksyrium. I do a few different varieties of gardens - some SFG, some field, planning on making more sheet mulching mounds. Everything in this soggy has to be from ground up, pretty much.

molly - will be anxious to hear how your scapes planting goes! I've heard it can take a long time - is it 2 or 3 years? - for them to produce garlic. Still, if you stagger your plantings, I don't see why you couldn't perpetually be planting from scapes, just have to plan ahead. But heck, I planted asparagus that I know I won't eat for 2 more years. Not to mention fruit trees, etc. It involves a lot of faith in the future.....

Welcome, Ksyrium! We've all got to start somewhere. Glad to hear your garden is doing well!

 Ksyrium.   I, too, have a variety of beds, some SFG, some not.  I like to experiment.  
Your dog is a darling.  My son's Daisy is a Golden and I dogsit her on working days.  She's so smart and adorable.  She and my corgi Penny are inseparable and since I live in the in-law apt, they see each other all the time.
Enjoy your garden, that's the important thing.

I picked my one and only square of Georgia Sweet Onions this morning and set them in the workshop to dry (see photo below).  I checked my shallots in all squares and think they can go another few days before harvesting.  They seem small to me.

I also finished weeding between the raised beds.  I found some pepper fruits, one a Hot Red Cherry and the others sweet Redskins in pots.

Above: Hot Red Cherry

Above: two of the 3 peppers growing on my 2 Redskin potted plants.
And I even had a visitor today beside the coldframe.  A large toad (below).

I can't wait for the relief of 70's temps on Sunday and next week.  My shade cloth is still up between the sun and my tomatoes.  We might get a t-storm later so I didn't water the beds except for the potted plants and my cukes.

To have a spring harvest of a long-keeping hot/spicy garlic, should I be looking at the Russian and German varieties over the Italian and Californian?   One or two varieties only because of the number of cloves would be best.  Otherwise there's little room for the kale and Brussels sprouts and leeks (it's only a four-square garden).

Oh, for the tomato blight saga, I've cut off all affected leaves, but also pruned the tomato plants for better air circulation.   I'll be spraying the solution this evening.