California - What are you doing this month?

I have Kale that is 3 years old.  It's not super happy in the summer but if you keep it somewhat sun shaded and moist it will survive and grow again in the fall/winter/spring.

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I have Kale that is 3 years old.  It's not super happy in the summer but if you keep it somewhat sun shaded and moist it will survive and grow again in the fall/winter/spring.

SWEET! Thanks, Audrey. We love kale (and so does our rabbit.) 

I have tree kale planted that has produced for the last 2 years and isn't effected by the summer heat. It does bolt, but sends side branches and keeps producing edible leaves while flowering. Most of the brassica family just bolts when the temp rises. I guess you could find a cold, shaded northern exposure and try, but I'd save the water and plant late August.

Well, I am going through a funk with the garden. It looks like something is going through the garden except for the peppers. Tomato stems/leaves are dying. I can't find any insect except for little green grasshoppers. Yes, there are sow bugs and earwigs and slugs but the Sluggo seems to keep them down. Most of the first round of tomatoes have BER except for Sun Gold and Snow Fairy and the over-wintered Atkinson. I hate to spray with Neem and I haven't gotten around to spraying with milk, yet. Hopefully, things will turn around and I can be perky again. Just venting. Thanks

Sorry you are having trouble with your garden.  Hope you figure it out.

sanderson ... Ouch! 

I hope you are able to resolve those problems very soon. 

My understanding of BER is that is caused by calcium deficiency which can be related to too much nitrogen which ties up the calcium. Could the other problem (leaves, stems) be some kind of blight or wilt (e.g., VM)? Do you always grow the tomatoes in the same location or do you use crop rotation?  Are other crops being affected? I'm asking these questions as if I am some kind of expert which I am not!

Hey Sanderson, sorry about your garden too. Funk is a very fitting word for what we are going through right now.
TD, please don't ever stop asking questions. You seem to find just the right questions to ask that make me think about things a little differently. That is what I like about this site, people ask the right questions which REALLY HELPS to solve or make a situation come to light so that the problems can be recognized, which lead to understanding and the solution. Rock

Sanderson, NO!   Your garden is supposed to perfect. You do all the right things and inspire the rest of us. I don't even know what questions to ask, much less have any answers for you.

I was under the impression the BER was primarily caused by calcium deficiency.  Which out in Cali sounds funny given our liquid rock we can water.

Have you been irrigating with rain water reserves?  Is the PH good?  Just ideas to check, PH can bind the calcium too.

(note to self, read whole thread before replying)

I spray 1 to 3 ratio of milk and water.  I spray on the leaves and  under the leaves and the ground around each plant.  I do that a couple times a year and have seen good results.

I do it in September when we start to see powdery mildew because of the humidity and cooling temps and once in the spring after the plants have taken off.  I will pull it out when issues arise as you really can't over do the milk. 

I have heard raw milk is best so I'm tracking down a resource up here in the mountains to buy some. We couldn't find it in town.

I found one store, can't remember the name , but it is kitty-corner from Hoover High, on the South West corner in the strip mall. It's been there forever. Kristina's Natural Ranch Market!!

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I have heard raw milk is best so I'm tracking down a resource up here in the mountains to buy some. We couldn't find it in town.

 Does Alta Dena still sell it? Are they just So Cal or do you have them where you are?

I think Alta Dena is still in business. The problem is to find a local source. I let my fingers and cell phone do most of the walking. Kristina's was the only store that carried non-pasteurized dairy but I don't remember the name of the producer.

I don't think I have a calcium deficiency so much as an uptake problem. I will be spraying everything with milk this evening. I sprayed some Dr. Bronners liquid peppermint on one eggplant and the Kiss-me-over-the-garden gate as an experiment. Photos to follow.

Eggplant pest damage:



Tomato pest damage:



Flower pest damage:

I found a little green worm turning one of my cuke leaves into a lace curtain this morning. The damage looked a lot like your pics, Sanderson. It's ridiculous how much damage one tiny critter can do in a very short time and how hard it is to find the culprit.  Hmm, I think I'd better go out and check again, in case there was more than one.

....and I found a little tiny hole in my little tiny zucchini yesterday.  Picked it, took it in the house & there was a little black wiggly worm inside it.  I CUT THE SUCKER IN HALF!  

Ahem...feeling very violent right now.  I think I'm the only person who can't grow zucchini.  That was my ONLY zucchini.  

However!  Does anyone need any yellow squash?  

Mellen wrote:....and I found a little tiny hole in my little tiny zucchini yesterday.  Picked it, took it in the house & there was a little black wiggly worm inside it.  I CUT THE SUCKER IN HALF!  

Ahem...feeling very violent right now.  I think I'm the only person who can't grow zucchini.  That was my ONLY zucchini.  

However!  Does anyone need any yellow squash?  

I THINK IT'S AN INVASION!   I just went back out to check on my cukes and found 8 MORE WORMS & A COCOON! 

 I'd love to try some yellow squash. (You mean seeds, right?  ) What would you like in return?

Sanderson: I have leaves with almost all the symptoms in your pics. What a drag. 

I spent the entire day with the aphids in my milkweed patch. I hope they appreciate all that special attention.   (Did somebody say something about feeling violent?)  

Actually, I was talking about ready to eat yellow squash.  I'm about squashed out and they don't freeze well.  I might try shredding & freezing it.  I read that this will work for tossing in soup & stew.  

If you want yellow squash seeds I'm happy to oblige although I don't know if that's an heirloom plant since my daughter purchased it at the CSU Fresno plant sale.  I have some more fruit growing on the prolific plant.  I'll let one get huge & harvest the seeds.  Since I have never saved seeds, I won't require a "return".  If the ones I give you grow, we'll discuss a swap next year.  How's that sound?

As for those little caterpillars I see in your photos, check plants with a scissors & CUT them in half.  Very satisfying!

CN, Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt will help with the caterpillars. I don't like spraying it on leaves (lettuce, cabbage, etc.) that are eaten directly, but for fruit-setting plants like cucumbers, it should help. I get the cabbage caterpillar on bean leaves about the time the beans show up, and just hand pick them off. Different ways to handle them.

So, last evening I sprayed Dr. Bronner's on one eggplant, the lower part of the Kiss-me flower and the Dragon Tongue beans. Then 2% high Omerga-3 milk on everything else using the hose jar attachment. Then watered all the MM with non-fat powdered milk for calcium. May not have achieved a darn thing, but it felt good just doing something. Of course, it rained during the night. . .

Mellen: Sounds perfect. Since it was a college sale, I'm betting those are heirloom seeds, and since you're so close to our zone, if they do well for you, hopefully they'll do well for me, too. After researching this site, I found out I can't save seeds either. I grow 3 varieties of cukes together, 3 varieties of melons together, and 3 varieties of tomatoes together. That makes my sfg a casebook study in cross-pollination.   So, I'll just revise my plan and buy plenty of heirloom seeds, so I'll always have good stuff to trade. 

Sanderson: I picked off 2 more worms this morning.  I prefer the hands-on method to any kind of spray. That said, I have bigger problems with my cukes, so I did spray Miracle Gro all over them this morning, after gleaning the last of our wood stove ash as a side dressing and soaking that in with still more Miracle Gro. I know I'm overdoing it, but my cukes are really suffering and they're my favorite crop. 
Like you, I feel better for doing something. I just can't stand by and watch them die.  Nutz! My pics aren't coming over from my One Drive. I'll post them later, but it isn't pretty.

It's bit a bit since I wrote on this thread.

Mellen, have you tried "chopping, blanching and ice water plunge, then spread on cookie sheet to freeze" for saving summer squashes?  I have a Seal-a-Meal and it is nice to pull something from summer out of the freezer in the winter.

BER is disappearing with the newer tomatoes.  I don't know if the milk spraying and soil drench helped or if the soil got warm enough.  I'm kind of leaning towards the milk.  I've posted in other threads that I am having a heck of a year.

Last night it was 90*F at 10:30 PM and 80*F at midnight.  When I got up at 5:45 AM this morning it was still 80*F so I don't think it dipped much lower.  I finished cutting up the Agribon-30, 7' x 50', that I just received and finished covering for 7 boxes.  I really like the product, kind of like interfacing material for sewing clothes.  Light enough to float over the tender tips of the pole beans but substantial enough to handle.  The Home Depot 75% shade cloth is still the best for overhead shade for the patio area.  It eliminates the radiant heat that would otherwise come from the red brick patio.


The BTE tomato suckers and sunflowers are doing good. I'm considering planting more of the tomatoes in half of it next year. I'm one unlucky Californian with tomatoes. I have a neighbor that brought us some summer squash. She has everything on the west side of her backyard where there is shade from noon on. Everything is just stuck in the ground with some horse manure. If I had one thing to do different with my table tops it would be to silicon the interior cracks and crevices of the boxes and make only 1/4"-3/8" bottom holes so that more water would be retained within the boxes. Live and learn. Over time, I hope to retro-fix the boxes and make the new ones tighter.

To end on a happier note, I do have what I call successes (for me):
 
Abu Rawan tomatoes:
Romas:
Perennial NZ Spinach that needs to be harvested, gift seed that keeps on giving.    
BTE tomatoes and sunflowers as of 6-23-16. It's also serving as grasshopper nursery, but I hope to spray Neem oil this evening (when it's down to 100*F in the shade! :

Lookin' good, Sanderson. 

If you use the Seal-A-Meal, do you still need to blanch?

Okay, I think I qualify for the World's Dumbest Beginning Gardener's Goof Award.  I planned my summer crops, I planned my winter crops, I planned my compost, cover crops, and in-the-house crops. What I DIDN'T plan for was the transition period. The planting calendar says July is when I should be planting turnips, carrots, and broccoli, but the spaces I had allocated won't be available until October. DUH!  I've been scrambling all morning, figuring out what to relocate, what to get rid of, what to give up on, and feeling really, really STOOPID! 

Yes, blanching is important for freezing. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16490-blanching-and-freezing-vegetables

Yes, the first year is the big learning year. I hope other No. Cal folks chime in. At this point, I plant winter starts by Oct 1 now. So, don't pull anything out until late September. Sometimes, Sept is a bumper month with cooler temps. Back up from Oct 1 to find out when to start the seedlings. I still need to find a garlic and red onion that will be ready to pull by April 1. Short day varieties needed for my lat. The book California Fruit & Vegetable Gardening by Claire Splan may help.

Sanderson - your New Zealand spinach looks very green and happy.  I tried to grow some this year but couldn't get a single one to germinate.  I will try again next year after seeing how yours is doing in your heat.