New England July 2014

I got to visit your part of the country last week of June and first week of July.  What beautiful country you all live in!  I got to see butternut and sassafrass trees!  That was exciting to me.  I did not know what sassafrass was.  Even the rocks were interesting, so much more angular than my own.  I was lost all the time, I am used to steering by the horizon and could not find it in the trees.

There were all these fields with a blue netting on some of the wide rows.  What is that about?

Turan wrote:I got to visit your part of the country last week of June and first week of July.  What beautiful country you all live in!  I got to see butternut and sassafrass trees!  That was exciting to me.  I did not know what sassafrass was.  Even the rocks were interesting, so much more angular than my own.  I was lost all the time, I am used to steering by the horizon and could not find it in the trees.

There were all these fields with a blue netting on some of the wide rows.  What is that about?

where did you see these fields? My first guess is they were blueberry bushes.

Since I couldn't figure out how are centipedes could bring down tomato plants I kept researching. I'm changing my diagnosis to this: tomato-pith-necrosis

http://uconnladybug.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/tomato-pith-necrosis/#comments

Now I know why the frass wasn't loose, it wasn't frass but brown pith. this is also why I couldn't find any in the earlier dissections, because it was white. I just thought that's the way they're supposed to look inside. This diagnosis feels bang on! So I took the plant that I pulled today, cut it back to solid stem and buried that in the garlic bed since the garlic has all been harvested. We'll see what happens.

Update on the squash with foil, it doesn't work. At least in my yard. Zucchini: I found an upper hole about 10 inches up from soil and a lower hole near the base of the plant.  I poured Ivory soap mixed with water into the upper hole until it came out the lower hole. The worms actually crawled out and I cut them in half.  I'm guessing all that soap will probably kill the plant but I don't care at this point. I hate those grubs!
 

CapeCoddess wrote:
Update on the squash with foil, it doesn't work. At least in my yard.

Well another internet myth debunked.

Frass is a new term for me.  What is it?  

I a having trouble with all my tomato plants also.  One is yellowing from the bottom, the others are getting crispy leaves.  Would love to take pictures and post but can't as I can't be online for long.  I managed to give myself a concussion the other day and am still reeling.

cpl100 wrote:Frass is a new term for me.  What is it?  

I a having trouble with all my tomato plants also.  One is yellowing from the bottom, the others are getting crispy leaves.  Would love to take pictures and post but can't as I can't be online for long.  I managed to give myself a concussion the other day and am still reeling.

Sorry about your concussion, Cindy. My mother did that a couple months ago and is still recovering from it.  

The only thing I know about frass is that it looks like sawdust and is usually at the bottom of a plant that is being invaded by worms or grubs. I guess it's what they leave behind as they crawl around inside the plant.

Uh oh. Bugs are probably fairly normal, I'm not sure what frass is, but bagged manure makes me nervous... Could the cows have eaten treated/pesticided feed that then went into the manure and into your garden?

Edit: Aha. Well there's a page 15 here. I guess you figured out your problem, being pith, which I never actually heard of before.

And sorry about the concussions! Ouch!

AND the SVB, CC. BLEH. I haven't checked mine really really closely yet. They're still producing so I'm hoping they're okay. Altho the butternut squash is still having a LOT of blossom end rot, so low calcium is really hurting those plants. I have some crushed oyster shell from last winter for chicken feed, maybe I should just sprinkle that around the soil, wonder if it would do any good.

I haven't seen any hornworms yet, which surprises me.

cpl100 wrote:I came across this and just had to share.  I know all of you will appreciate it.

Tree of 40 fruits

oh my how beautiful is that tree!!

thanks for sharing
happy gardening
rose

Frass is insect poop.
Pith is the soft spongy stuff in the stem of some plants.  

camprn, covering blueberries or some other berry sounds logical.  One place I saw them was a U Pick field, but it did not say picking what.  I think i saw them in each state. We should of stopped and investigated.

Oh darn. I just picked 2 beautiful cucumbers and they are both bitter. From what I'm reading, that's usually a lack of watering issue. And I also read once bitter, always bitter, and to chuck the plant. Well, I won't be that drastic, maybe they'll change their attitudes, but for now, that was disappointing.

I have 2 zucchini and so far, no eggs on the leaves and they're lookin' good. 
I've read that if you have SVB in your stems, you cut a lengthwise slit in the stem and dig out the culprit, then cover the stem with compost or soil and the plant will continue to grow.  I never tried it myself, but its something to think about.

I have one cucumber growing on one of my potted cukes and its lookin' good.  In a few days I will have my first salad cuke,  Yippee.

And lo and behold my first early Jalapeno pepper is yellow on the vine right now.  I'm waiting for it to turn red for picking.

My tomatoes are still in the green stage and fighting blight.  I'm out there cutting off affected leaves every day.  Last year I got my first medium tomato the last week of June and many more in July itself.  This year its nearly Aug and they are still green except for some grape toms that taste a bit too tart for my taste.  Too bad I had to transplant very small and stunted starts this year and a few purchased tomatoes.  Even those purchased don't have red fruits yet.  I hope to do better next year with a good starting soil as I've had in the past.

The lettuce and radishes are past it now, except for a few lettuce I still have in shallow pots by the kitchen doorway.

The Japanese beetles are damaging my dwarf Almalden Duke cherry tree so I have to go out each day with my jar of soapy water and knock them in to drown.  I find I have 3, yes, only 3 cherries left (birds) ripening to red so I hope to pick those and enjoy them in a few days.

The dwarf Fuji apple right beside the cherry tree has no beetle damage at all and the fruits are many and starting to turn red a little.  Hooray for apples this year.

That pretty much covers my gardening efforts for now.

T-storm approaching. Plant drink time.

You don't check for a day, and look what happens.


P.S. The rain was too short. And I think the cucumber/butternut lack of water issue might be in part because the cardboard I have down between rows for weed suppression is also keeping the rainwater from soaking into the soil. So hmm.

We are having a deluge!

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

Lucky you! We're getting spit on. It's insulting. How's your head today?

Dang, NHG...  ...what the heck?

FamilyGardening wrote:

cpl100 wrote:I came across this and just had to share.  I know all of you will appreciate it.

Tree of 40 fruits

oh my how beautiful is that tree!!

thanks for sharing
happy gardening
rose

cpl100, 

Many thanks for posting that.  How fascinating and wonderful!

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

+1

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

Looks like the Pittsfield (or nearby) is getting womped.

CapeCoddess wrote:

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

Lucky you! We're getting spit on. It's insulting. How's your head today?

Dang, NHG...  ...what the heck?

I'd say we got 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch of rain if I judge by my buckets outside.  (Is that how you all judge?)

Head (and the other symptoms) are not really better.  And I can't really garden with the symptoms (nor due much of anything) unfortunately.  Have never been so bored in my life!

RJARPCGP wrote:

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

Looks like the Pittsfield (or nearby) is getting womped.

Looks like Pittsfield (or nearby) is getting womped.

cpl100 wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:

cpl100 wrote:We are having a deluge!

Lucky you! We're getting spit on. It's insulting. How's your head today?

Dang, NHG...  ...what the heck?

I'd say we got 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch of rain if I judge by my buckets outside.  (Is that how you all judge?)

Head (and the other symptoms) are not really better.  And I can't really garden with the symptoms (nor due much of anything) unfortunately.  Have never been so bored in my life!

books on tape, or the digital equivalent.

Okay, hmm. Potato stems in various parts of the garden are being severed around the ground line. I had thought it was pesky voles, but on reading about it, voles mainly eat the potatoes underground, and cutworms would be more likely to snap the stem off around ground level.

DOH!   Now what do you do about cutworms again? I have to go back and read these posts.

Why just the potatoes?

Edit: Oh double DOH. Cutworms stop feeding in June apparently. So this *would* be a vole issue. And that makes sense because voles love potatoes. Back to the mousetrap idea.

Then again, I think I planted potatoes around 5/1, so they may actually be almost ready by now... 90 days would be 8/1. I wonder if there are any in there.

I got nearly a half inch of rain early, and then in the afternoon a deluge that measured another one full inch.  I won't have to water my gardens for a couple of days, thank goodness.

QB,  You got a half of a year's worth (Fresno, CA-wise).