California - What are you doing this month?

countrynaturals wrote:I planted 3 varieties of carrots on Aug. 1. "Ya-Ya hybrid" is up with enthusiasm this morning. "Little Sister" is showing a couple of sprouts. No action from the "Parisian" yet. 

I just found a Parisian sprout, so all 3 varieties came up on the same 12th day.

Reached 106*F today so definitely didn't do anything except water near sundown.  All the winter sprouts are up, 3 trays worth.  Received replacement seeds from CN for purple broccoli.  Talk about customer service!  Much better than Park.  Tomorrow, I will plant them before it gets hot.

Audrey,  How long before they need to be planted?  I'm looking at all the beds for winter crops and they are still in summer production.  I have 3 types of fresh beans growing in 20 squares, and we have had only 2 meals worth.  Really bad bean year.

Audrey, I can only keep the backyard picked up for so long.  Hope you can come by, maybe within the next 2 weeks??  It won't take very long to view the garden .  Maybe give a little advice, or a lot!

Yardslave, still thinking of you.

sanderson wrote:Reached 106*F today so definitely didn't do anything except water near sundown.  All the winter sprouts are up, 3 trays worth.  Received replacement seeds from CN for purple broccoli.  Talk about customer service!  Much better than Park.  Tomorrow, I will plant them before it gets hot.

Audrey,  How long before they need to be planted?  I'm looking at all the beds for winter crops and they are still in summer production.  I have 3 types of fresh beans growing in 20 squares, and we have had only 2 meals worth.  Really bad bean year.

Thank you for the testimonial.   Beans have been awful here, too. Hoping Sep/Oct will be better. 

Beans are iffy right now. The 6-square box of Dragon Tongues now has scale, and I'm seriously thinking of removing the vines, strings and straw mulch. Clean, amend and plant some Tendersweet carrots. I'll leave the other 14 squares with KY Wonder and Rattlesnake for now. I'm probably better off to buy some green beans from the Farmer's Market for blanching and freezing.

sanderson wrote:Beans are iffy right now.  The 6-square box of Dragon Tongues now has scale, and I'm seriously thinking of removing the vines, strings and straw mulch.  Clean, amend and plant some Tendersweet carrots.  I'll leave the other 14 squares with KY Wonder and Rattlesnake for now.  I'm probably better off to buy some green beans from the Farmer's Market for blanching and freezing.

I may plant some KY Wonder pole beans next week, just for grins and giggles. They can't do any worse than what I've tried so far.

Two years ago, 2014, I had the leaf curl virus where leaves on tomatoes and some peppers curl under. No canning that year.

This year, 2016. I heard from the grapevine about this disease, where the leaves roll upward. Could be what I have, along with nutrient deficiencies. Both diseases have a leaf hopper vector. https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/ipc/curlytopvirus/ctv_hp.htm

Okay, Audrey, garden guru of CA. What caused this? I had 5 little butternuts on the vines until I saw this today. I harvested all and will have to roast and freeze this one.

112 here, yesterday! . It was "only" supposed to be 107. At 6:30 last night it was still 108 and I had to water, so I put on my bathing suit and jumped into the hot tub (which we keep at about 95). I dunked my head under to get my hair wet, then got out and did my gardening chores. It was WONDERFUL! I didn't even know it was hot. I had to repeat the dunking (poor me) but I came back in the house cool and refreshed instead of wilted and droopy like I usually do.

WE HAVE A WINNER! Armenian cucumbers laugh at our heat (as long as they have protection from the sun). I planted 3 kinds of cukes in May/June -- lemon, burpless, and Armenian. The lemon cukes I replanted 3 times and got nothing. The burpless gave me 2 cukes before giving up the ghost. The Armenian took longer, but they've already given me 3 beauties, and I found 3 more coming along nicely this morning. (It was 112 here, yesterday.) Half the vines get about 3 hours of our direct sun every day. They are just barely hanging on. The rest of the vines are under shade cloth (75%). That's where I picked one day before yesterday and found the other 3 this morning.  Next year I will start them inside earlier and only plant them out under shade cloth. Finally, I can share a success story.

(It's not hanging straight down because I moved it off the fence top.)

NZ spinach is also doing great (thank you, Sanderson) in containers on our covered deck. The heat isn't bothering them at all. They get about 2 hours of late afternoon sun.

Pretty! Please let us know what you think of the taste, Country.
CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Pretty!  Please let us know what you think of the taste, Country.
CC

Hubby and I don't like it, but we haven't given any to Katie, yet, and she's the spinach lover in the family. If she doesn't like it, the rabbit gets next dibs, then the goats and chickens. If nobody likes it, it should make great compost. Right now it's a pretty ornamental.

Do you and H eat normal spinach?

CapeCoddess wrote:Do you and H eat normal spinach?

I don't. He does, occasionally, but doesn't cook it since I don't like it.

Don't throw it in the compost. If Katie doesn't like it, the pets may like it as a perennial treat. It can also be put in smoothies or juices.

sanderson wrote:Don't throw it in the compost.  If Katie doesn't like it, the pets may like it as a perennial treat.  It can also be put in smoothies or juices.

I'll try everything else before composting them. Right now I'm just enjoying the plants. They're so  . . . gentle looking.

I think I will try Armenian cucumbers next year, along with Muncher, which did good this year. Anything Mediterranean in origin should do good. I can't believe, CN, that you had 112*F the other day. Yikes. The weatherman said that the smoke from Big Sur is heading East towards Fresno, and the smoke from Bakersfield/Kern is moving north towards us. Oh, great.

sanderson wrote:Okay, Audrey, garden guru of CA.  What caused this?  I had 5 little butternuts on the vines until I saw this today.  I harvested all and will have to roast and freeze this one.

That's a pressure crack.  Once the skin starts to turn tan on the squashes, they lose the ability to expand.  Combine coolish morning watering with blazing afternoon sun and heat and *pop* like a balloon.

I'm glad I went ahead and harvested the other 4.  Even though the plants are under 75% shade cloth, can't do anything about the temperature.  Curious, the vines they were on are dead, though new side offshoots are lovely and green.  When the supporting stem dies, is that the sign to pick them?

This morning I found a nice cantaloupe on the ground and it looks and smells perfect. I think someone mentioned that they would fall off or be real easy to pick when ripe. Well, this one smells heavenly. Today we ate the one I cut off 2 days ago and it was perfect. I needed something to make up for the diseased tomatoes!

No_Such_Reality wrote:

sanderson wrote:Okay, Audrey, garden guru of CA.  What caused this?  I had 5 little butternuts on the vines until I saw this today.  I harvested all and will have to roast and freeze this one.

That's a pressure crack.  Once the skin starts to turn tan on the squashes, they lose the ability to expand.  Combine coolish morning watering with blazing afternoon sun and heat and *pop* like a balloon

That makes perfect sense!

I think the horrible heat is over for this year and I can get back to some serious gardening.  We still have 102 predicted for tomorrow, but after that it's all 101 or lower for the 10-day forecast, and after that we shouldn't have anything else close to what we've had. 

Today we went to an end-of-season 40% off plant sale. We bought 3 more little passion vines for the frits, a butterfly bush for all to enjoy, a trumpet vine for the hummers, and a nice big grape plant for Hubby. We'll put them all in the ground in a few days when the weather cools off a little more. I will also be planting my daikon seeds and my little melon seeds from Scorpio Rising. 

I have cukes and tomatoes coming that survived the heat. I'm going to plant some KY Wonder pole beans and see if they do any better than the asparagus beans. My favorite seed company just sent me a 50% off coupon, so I may just have to make another order. YIKES! I'm turning into a seed horder! 

countrynaturals wrote:My favorite seed company just sent me a 50% off coupon, so I may just have to make another order. YIKES! I'm turning into a seed horder! 

And there is no known cure!

Ripped out the Dragon Tongues with their scale.  Started taking out the cucumbers.  Ground and put up some seasonings. Takes forever with the little coffee grinder.

sanderson ... that's a nice grouping of seasonings. 

Sanderson: WOW! You grew and ground all those seasonings this year? That is impressive! What's your process? For basil, I wash and dry the fresh leaves (cut off at the base so there are no stems) sandwich them between 2 paper towels in the microwave, then nuke them in 30 second spurts, checking and turning as needed until they're crispy. Then into the coffee grinder they go. Hubby and I work together on it and when we're finished, the kitchen smells wonderful.

I tried to go back and see what's up with your cukes, but there was too much to go through. Why are you pulling yours out? Mine (Armenian only) are just taking off. The other 2 varieties (burpless & lemon) aren't doing anything, but they aren't dying, so I'm going to wait and see if cooler weather helps. The only thing I'm pulling up -- and I'm doing it with extreme prejudice -- is those gawdawful vine peaches. 

When I talked to daughter last night, she said, "Well, I know what we're getting for Christmas this year."  We have a family cookie exchange each year among the "adults" instead of gifts.

The 2 basil are not ground, just dried in the passive dehydrator, crumbled and stuffed in the jars.  I bought 3 sizes of jars to accommodate ground, excess, and leafy, etc.  The coriander seeds are from last year.  A special "coriander" cilantro from Baker's that produces large seeds and bolts quickly.

The cucumbers were fried by the Agribon-30.  Enough sun gets through the material to create a solar temp situation.  Same thing happened to all the pole beans but they seem to be recovering somewhat and are starting to bloom.  If the temps stay at 100*F or less, I may get something this year for freezing.

Note on Agribon - it washes up nicely.  

Oh, I heard there was a fire up in the Sequoias.