lower south June 2016

Ran out of MM and money but still have about 8 tomato plants (gift) to get into buckets.  Don't know what variety.  but today is first of the month and retirement pay hit the bank.  Time to get a batch going.  

Planted some corn for the very first time, just because.  Well I got corn spouts and squirrels.  Not a good mix.     Was late getting things going but beans, squash, and cukes are sprouting.  Tomatoes are about 2 ft high and peppers are coming along nicely.  Both from purchased starts.  Garlic planted last Nov is still green but starting to yellow up.  I put bone meal on them late April.  Hope they clove up.  Last test only solid bulbs.  
The kale that I started from seed and then moved to a bed is trying to recover from the worm attack.  I can see a few new leaves coming out the middle.  Same with the chard and lettuce.  Spinach doing nothing.  Have a few radishes ready to harvest.

Parsley and chives came back nicely in their buckets.  Nice to have something that doesn't required a lot of fuss.

I'm slowing down and don't like it.

Kay

Kay, I know what your mean about slowing down.  I don't like it either.

Harvested my garlic today.  Most are golf ball size and a few didn't clove, but I'm happy.  Pickle worms are attacking my zukes getting some of the females before they even open their blossoms.  Spraying BT every 2 days trying to catch them as the hatch and before they start boring into the  blossoms and fruit.

Pulled some of my bolting radishes today.  Since they have probably gotten hot, I am putting them into a philippine pork soup along with the radish greens, some of the new garlic,  two of the first banana peppers and two jalapeno peppers.

Kay

FYI  I have 6 carolina reaper plants and 5 shisito sweet pepper plants to give away.

Kay - I would be interested to here how the BT works on the pickle worms.  They have not hit here yet, but I am sure it won't be much longer.  Have you ever tried putting stockings over the developing fruit.

yolos wrote:Kay - I would be interested to here how the BT works on the pickle worms.  They have not hit here yet, but I am sure it won't be much longer.  Have you ever tried putting stockings over the developing fruit.

I haven't been able to try the stocking as the worms are being hatched on the blossoms before they even open.  They eat into the immature bloom and just munch away on the innards.  I don't have high hopes of stopping them but I have to try.  I was reading about the stockings from another gardener and he said the worms ate right through the stocking mesh.  Since I am seeing them eat down the blossom and directly into the immature squash, I can see how the stocking would be bypassed.  I have picked most of the blossoms hoping to keep the parent plant alive and well until the current moth season passes.  But they say we get up to 3 sessions during a summer.  The squash that are doing the best were planted in the garlic bed.  I just pulled the garlic yesterday and the squash was already trying to take over the bed.


Kay

This is a fairly good article about pickle worm.  I have also read elsewhere that the moths are active after sundown.  So this year I may try covering with tulle in the afternoon and then taking off the tulle in the morning to allow pollinators access.  I do have a parthenocarpic cucumber and squash so for those two plants I can just leave them covered at all times.  Of course I tried trellising some of the cucumbers but they have exploded.  I may have to do some trimming to keep them under the tulle.  We shall see if I actually get around to covering the cucumbers.  I have already covered the summer squash and also planted some resistant varieties of winter squash.

Pickleworm moths are generally inactive during the day, Peak flight activity of pickleworm moths occurs 3–5 hours after sundown .


http://articles.extension.org/pages/60954/biology-and-management-of-pickleworm-and-melonworm-in-organic-curcurbit-production-systems