PNW: 2015 July

boffer wrote:
 I don't know why I've resisted installing drip irrigation; even my wife says it's something she would expect me to do, and is surprised that I haven't.  I'm re-considering drip irrigation, but as the weather this year is an anomaly (assuming it doesn't become the new normal), my bet is that procrastination will win out, and little to nothing will get done.  

In the past, I've found that mulching is a slug magnet, and in most years, it can keep the MM cool enough in the early summer to slow plant growth.  This year mulch would have been helpful, but just the thought of mulching hundreds of squares makes me tired!    


P.S.  As hot as it's been, I still don't have red tomatoes on my outside plants, but I've been eating tomatoes from my greenhouse plants for weeks.

I relate to all of this. I've been talking about putting in a soaker or drip hose for years and never done it. Even if it's one on each bed and I have to screw the hose into each one to use would be better than hauling buckets. OH, I remember, the thing that stops me is that my hose is city water with chlorine in it. I fill the buckets so the chlorine will evaporate. A hose filter will filter out minerals. STOP

Boffer, I mulch with pine needles. They mostly fall onto the beds all by themselves from the trees above. They can be moved out of the way easily enough and the slugs don't seem to like them much. Still have a few slugs, but Im sure it could be worse. Spreading coffee grounds around in one bed worked really well in spring - no slugs.

Yeah, I usually have red or purple tomatoes by now, too. Not sure what the hold up is but the plants are loaded and beautiful and are growing like they are on steroids this year. Never seen this before.

More beans putting out flowers. I remember from previous years that a few cool(er) days resulted in so much more setting of fruits, so I'm hoping that's what follows. The scarlet emperor runner beans are as tall as I am now, and starting to make their way up to andover the fence-top boxes. It's going to be a gamble whether or not they eventually shade out some of the bush beans below them.

And the milk spray I applied looks to have dramatically slowed down the leaf skeletonizing and pin-holing. Will have to keep it up.

Halfway through July, I'm looking forward to August, which is usually the earliest I can get anything but a cherry tomato.

My transplanted mums suddenly started showing a lot more green -- at least if you know what to look for. Maybe the relative cool did them a lot of good too.

The borage died. *sigh* Guess I'm just not a borage guy.

CapeCoddess wrote:...Boffer, I mulch with pine needles....

Alas, the western part of the state where I live is covered with Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, and Western Red Cedar. Ponderosa Pines are found in the eastern side of the state where it's drier. It would be at least a 200 mile round trip if I wanted to gather pine needles from the national forest.

I remember camping as a kid, and making a thick bed out of pine needles. That was some cozy sleeping!

Marc, are the scarlet beans a "green" bean?  I'm sorry you can't get a borage plant to grow, even if just to know you can.  I removed mine from the beds earlier this week as they were using water, left stickers in my hands and no pollinator seemed to be interested in them.  I left the 2 in the flowers beds.  Maybe they are valuable in different Regions but not worth it for me anymore.  I'm just saying, maybe not the most important thing on one's list.  ??

Boffer "I've never had 1" seedlings curl up and die in half a day before due to the direct sun."  Bet you have also never seen a 5' 3" woman curl up and die in half an hour due to the direct sun!  I am so, so enjoying the break from the heat here at the coast.  Tee shirt and sandals in the day, sweatshirt and tennis at night.

sanderson, scarlet runner beans have huge leaves and get big fat pods if you let them reach their natural size. They look like big green beans when they're growing, but unlike those, can make people sick if eaten raw.

Nice to have some cool time, eh?

Our weather has been cooler, but the readings have been notably hotter in the last few days than what was predicted. Yesterday got to 95, for instance.

Hey all,

I planted my raised garden beds again this year after taking last year off altogether.  I admit I got around to it crazy late (Memorial Day) and only because my MIL is coming for a visit and I wanted to have something to talk with her about.  All the extra GDD's have more than made up for my late planting.  Kicking myself for not having corn this year.  Also the first year I've gotten sick of hand watering as early as June.

I refreshed my beds first: pulling weeds and scraping off all the moss, making a new batch of mixed compost to fill everything up again, and this time I added some water crystals (from some forgotten diapers I had leftover after potty training).  I think they are making a nice difference - the raised beds just didn't act the same as the same mix sitting on the ground.

I'm growing mulitples of broccoli, cucumbers, bell peppers, and black beans, and have one square each of baby watermelon, black cherry tomato, and grape tomato.  Also one square has my daughter's King Henry Venus fly trap, sitting in a saucer of water on top of the square.  I've pruned the tomatoes with the single vine method and have eaten a few of the first ripe ones just this week.  (Homegrown or no, still just taste like tomatoes to me).  Here's some pics:

Everything is beautiful!

Hey Gwen!  

Nice to see you.  Your garden is looking great; you picked a good year weather-wise to get your hands dirty again. Your TTs inspired a couple beginners this year.

Funny that you mention using water crystals in MM.  We were just talking about them here.

Are you having any pest issues this year?

Hi Boffer, nice to see you still kicking around on here.  

I read through the cooling towel thread and yes, that's what I did.
This Instructable came up on my facebook feed and my kiddos thought it was cool and reminded me we still had some diapers left over.  Since I had been unhappy with how quickly my raised beds dried out, I figured it was worth a shot.  I had no clue how many I should use to be most effective, but I turned out to have six left, so we put two diapers worth in each bed (remember my beds are six sq ft - the diapers were size 4's) and called it good.  I did not add the cotton with mine - we soaked the diapers first, then peeled back the cotton lining and scraped all the water crystals into the bed and mixed it up.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I do think it makes a difference.  I don't have any heaving, with such a small amount, and my beds can sure hold a lot of water.  During that last heat spell, I watered once a day in the evening, 2 gallons per bed and they would often not even begin to drip out the bottom with that amount.  

Don't jinx me by asking about pests!  lol.  My broccoli got huge before the cabbage moths came along.  Man, I got excited there for awhile.  But there's no stopping them once they showed up.  I sprayed BT right away, but it wasn't too long before my big, beautiful broccoli were as holey as swiss cheese.  Obviously my BT has gone inert and I need a new batch but I never got around to it.  I hand pick off the caterpillars and the wasps have since come along to help me.  One morning my broccoli bed was even chock full of little birds.

I keep seeing little black spiders on the watermelon and pepper plants, but I don't see anything amiss yet.  Something is leaving lots of little tiny black droppings all over my broccoli too, but I don't know what.

A while ago I bought myself a Kreg pocket-hole jig.  That's been a fun little tool and has expanded my building capabilities.  I would like to build a new table top using that tool - it would be sleeker.  I keep waiting for a friend or neighbor to want one so I have an excuse.  I may build another one for my son to use as a sand box, but I haven't figured out what I'd cover it with.

gwennifer wrote:...A while ago I bought myself a Kreg pocket-hole jig.  That's been a fun little tool and has expanded my building capabilities.  I would like to build a new table top using that tool - it would be sleeker.  I keep waiting for a friend or neighbor to want one so I have an excuse.  I may build another one for my son to use as a sand box, but I haven't figured out what I'd cover it with.

A new toy; how fun!  

As a little encouragement, I'll point out that you're waaaaay past due for expansion!

For a sand box cover, you could use the old school product that had two vertical posts supporting a frame that was covered with water-resistant fabric.  The cover was good for sun and vertical rain protection, but not so good in the wind.

Back to the heat -- supposed to be 97 today. Could be worse, but still no fun for the plants.

I have beans planted in two places -- my backyard and at my neighbor's place, who has given me a couple of his beds to use as I please. Pretty much everything at my place is in MM, and while I have buckets with MM at my neighbor's place, the beds he's given me are pure compost. Good compost, too.

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of flower drop in my neighbor's beds. I've had many flowers for quite a while on the Royal Bugundies, but so far only a single bean. The yellow pencil pod beans and Speedy green beans are producing more, but the yellow ones are quite mealy if I don't pick them very young. Pollination seems to be poor, too, so I am going to leave some water out to help attract bees. I do see some bees, but not many. There used to be a lot, but my neighbor cut down his many-flowered onions, and the bees aren't around as much now. I need some replacement flowers. Bees seem to love lobelias, but they can be very sun-sensitive, and that yard gets sun all day long.

At any rate, though the plants are busy and happy looking, I'm not getting many beans. I think perhaps the compost might be too rich; or perhaps the heat is just too much. There has been a bit of sun scorching, and my experience with beans in full sun hasn't been good.

Back home, I had huge success with beans last year and everything looks good so far this year. These beans were planted later, and are just starting to come into flower. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Unfortunately, a scarlet runner bean climbed the six-foot-high chain-link fence and almost overnight went from the top to a foot or more above it, and the wind broke it off at the top. Seeing that, I promptly wove the other ambitious tops back down through the chain link fence they were climbing. It's fun to see such vigorous growth! Can't wait to see the flowers on the SE beans, which can be so pretty. I wonder how decorative it might make that rather lifeless stretch of fence look.

Still waiting for some serious tomato set, but I don't usually get much until August, as it is just too hot here. And I planted later than usual, since July tends to be just a waste of time for the tomato plants. But at least the plants are still growing and most look pretty good. But waiting for tomatoes is torture!!! Especially once you see the blossoms for weeks on end ...

Marc, It seems you are optimistic about August and so am I. My beans have some flowers but not much is setting. I'm not seeing bees right now, not even on the zinnias. It looks like the tomato BER is slowing down, though.

Thank goodness your BER is slowing down. It can ruin so many tomatoes.

Today I was watering my self-watering 5-gallon bucket and, as usual, a tiny frog popped up to the top of the watering tube as I filled it up. But this time he(she?) had a friend with him!(her?) I guess I've got a frog family living in the bottom of my self-watering container.

The bucket is up against the fence, and I tie strings to the fence and use them to train my tomato branches. I didn't want the froggies to get trapped in the tube and drown, so a while ago I dropped one of the strings down the tube to help them get out, if they want to. I guess they don't want to.

Well, good for them if they like it there. I can't see many predators crawling down into the dark tube to try to get them, so they're very safe there. I suppose they come out at night and eat some bugs in the garden.

We get these guys all over the place. I've found them in our birdhouses, electrical boxes, behind and under and inside our outdoor storage containers, etc. I don't want the dogs to get them, so I usually try to move them to the grassy backyard, where the dogs don't go, when I find them.

Ugh supposed to get up to 107 in the next couple days. I do not look forward to that, and wonder if it will kill some of my beans off. It certainly will eliminate any more fruit-set on my tomatoes. *sigh* I was just starting to see a few little greenies at last!

Did eat some black cherry tomatoes at least. Very nice, and quite large for a cherry.

The beans I planted in my neighbor's garden are producing pretty much nothing, as has been the case for weeks. Just too much hot sun I guess. The ones at home, that get only the afternoon sun for a few hours, are doing well and starting to produce beans. *le sigh* again because I planted so many at the neighbor's place and I guess that may well be a wasted season for that bed. Thank goodness I did plant at least one tomato there.

Back home, the scarlet runner beans are aggressively twining through the other bean plants, making me a bit nervous about which beans I pluck. It isn't always easy to see which vine is which, and I don't want to get sick by accidentally eating the scarlet runner beans raw! I also wonder if they'll strangle any of the other beans, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. The flowers, oddly enough ... are white! I had been hoping for red. I have a mix of store-bought SRB seeds and ones I kept from last year's school garden, so maybe I'll get a mix of flowers. I do see some large yellow flowers, but they look like they're just oversize wax bean flowers. I dunno. None of my other beans have had anything but white flowers.

Marc I'm also growing black cherry tomatoes this year.  My mother-in-law is visiting and had never seen one before.  When she tried one she said it was good and it was sweet.  She also said she misses the old-fashioned acidic tomatoes.  *shrug*

Well I harvested my broccoli last week (and I've already eaten it all up ).  I think I'm going to plant some peas in their place.  I've only ever grown the Oregon Sugar Pod's but this time I'm going to try Little Marvel.  Anyone grown those?  

So my beans took a major hit.  My husband tried to help me, since I was picking up his mother from the airport and wouldn't be home until after dark, by watering my garden beds.  But he used the hose instead of the watering can and knocked the beans all over.  Then today they absolutely got fried by the excessive heat we had.  I think they fared so poorly because being all knocked over, the MM was exposed, whereas they had such dense coverage before.  Frustrating because I was home on and off all day, and certainly could have gone out there and given them an extra watering.  They've made it through all these hot days like champs though and I didn't realize it would happen.  Sad how quickly plants go from thriving to dead.

Sorry about your beans gwennifer. They're so tricky to water without breaking anything, and if they're at all withering under the sun, they seem even less resilient. I love the product, but get frustrated with them sometimes.

I miss the old acidic tomatoes too. They tasted so much like ... tomatoes! Sweet tomatoes are great too, but not as distinctive and savory, and sometimes they seem kinda flat, if that's actually a taste ...

I remember the first successful tomatoes I ever grew decades ago were cherry tomatoes, and I thought they were almost inedible because they had such a wild, fully tomato-like punch to them. I quickly grew to love them, though. And I would very much like to find a tomato with that kind of taste again.

I'm about ready to pull out my spring Dragon Tongues and just plant new seeds. I tried the trim and grow method for a second flush but the spider mites and heat are just killing them right now. Watering them with the wand didn't help, they just look half smashed now.

Marc Iverson wrote:
Did eat some black cherry tomatoes at least.  Very nice, and quite large for a cherry.

I was just remarking yesterday that mine are really large this year, too.  Remarkably so, like almost 2 inches so far.  I haven't eaten any yet but have been giving them away.  The next one is mine!

The heat you guys have is killing me.  Unreal!  I'm pretty sure I've asked this before but it this your normal summer weather?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:...I'm pretty sure I've asked this before but it this your normal summer weather?

CC

In the Seattle area, TV meteorologists are watching the thermometer very closely today: if it reaches a certain high temp, it will make July 2015 the hottest month in recorded history.  Today's high is supposed to be 90+ so there's a good chance of it happening.  If not, it's already the second hottest month in history.

Looking at GDDs year-to-date,  I'm 4 weeks ahead of average.

It looks like Gwen will be hotter than here today so maybe her area has already set records. Marc is always too hot in the summer!

sanderson wrote:I'm about ready to pull out my spring Dragon Tongues and just plant new seeds. I tried the trim and grow method for a second flush but the spider mites and heat are just killing them right now. Watering them with the wand didn't help, they just look half smashed now.

Maybe that's' the smartest thing to do.

The beans I've got growing in full sun have been around and sprouting flowers for quite a while, but I've gotten virtually no beans out of them, and some of the ones I did were small and/or withered. And they're the same type that grew so well for me last year in a more shaded area. The second succession planting looks stunted and miserable, and there's often a crispy leaf to pull off entirely, while other leaves are half-burnt and it appears to be only a matter of time.

I wonder if I should do the same thing you're doing, but don't know what else I would plant instead. Maybe something for fall? But I don't think tender seedlings would do any better in the scorching sun. We're due for 106 today after 105 yesterday and 107 the day before -- and those are temps that were predicted and that I personally saw ... usually the actual temps reach a degree or four more than that. Last night it was still near 100 at 7 p.m.

CapeCoddess wrote:
The heat you guys have is killing me.  Unreal!  I'm pretty sure I've asked this before but it this your normal summer weather?

CC

Normal around here is no rain all summer, 90's in June increasing to 90-100 in July and most of August. Sometimes the latter part of August starts cooling down into the low 90's. September stays hot but the heat starts easing up, and is generally when I get the most tomatoes setting. Unfortunately that sometimes doesn't leave them much time to grow and ripen.

We can get a solid month of 100's at a time in July/August, though, and seem to be setting heat records pretty much every summer now. And we often get hotter Junes.

We also often get a strange burst of heat up into the 90's in March or April that lasts a day or a week. Unfortunately that tends to make spring crops bolt and ruin them in a single day. Once in a while we can get that in September or October too. The weather can spike anytime almost, but July is usually near or over 100 all the way through.

The land is so hilly, with so many trees and valleys, though, that people in your own neighborhood can experience notably different weather. That's really noticeable especially in winter, when you can drive downhill a little way and find where the cold air has pooled and left snow on the ground and ice on the roads which just a little higher up would have melted away immediately.