Posted on 08/06/2010 5:06:02 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. It has been extremely hot over a good portion of the southern U.S. this past week and the heat is expected last for another week or more. Freepers please stay safe when outside tending your gardens and keep yourselves well hydrated.
Also your gardens may experience some drought stress, but over watering, as Freeper and Master Gardener Daisyjane89 has been warning us, can be equally devastating, especially when drainage is poor. Poorly drained, soggy soil conditions combined with hot weather can wipe out a plant in a matter of days. Water deeply and infrequently.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
Today's High Temperature Map
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.
If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.
Plenty of those in New England...I donate them to the neighbors.
I have been lucky. Not one of those guys has visited my garden this year.
None last year; dozens this year...
My pear tree is loaded and I hope the possums and raccoons stay off the limbs.
HOT HOT HOT
Garden: not not not
Good Mornin CC! I haven’t noticed any on my tomato’s yet this year. I’ll be out there, later this morning picking tomato’s. I’m going to make some sauce tomorrow then I’ll can it on Sunday afternoon.
My squash must have gotten something, all the vines have died and now need to be cleared away. In my opinion they take up way to much space in my 18 X 20 garden compared to the yield I get.
Cabbage and cukes are doing well. Eggplant is horrible! Six plants and only four blossoms and no fruit!!!
Oh well, there’s always next year.
Thought I had gotten rid of all of those but a couple of weeks back found a few more small ones. Doing some research, the parent moth is a hummingbird moth or sphinx moth?? And here I thought they were so pretty...
Have not seen any of those this year (fingers crossed), but if I do my chickens love ‘em. Going to be canning some salsa this week-end..and maybe some more peppers.
I didn't expect them to become so tall, so they are a really messy sight. Good tomatoes, though.
My pink cow peas are almost done. I’ll be pulling those next week. My okra is over 6 ft. tall, help! Finally the tomatoes are turning, all at once! I’m planning my seedling planting for the fall garden. Unfortunately we really don’t have fall here in Florida so I’ll probably do more of the same with the exception of pole beans.
Hot, hot, hot!
Okra! Mine are about the same size and still growing. This is the first time I have grown them and had no idea they would have trunks like trees and grow so big!
Morning!!
Does anyone have a subscription to the Gardening How-To Magazine from GardeningClub.com? One of the issues I have from my SIL referred to an article about growing pineapples in the Jan 2010 issue. SIL cannot find that issue for me to read it. And the website doesn’t have it either.
Can anyone give me a scan of it? Thanks!
What variety of tomato did you plant?
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2008-06-01/Grow-Free-Fruit-Trees.aspx
So now I'm saving some pits from tasty locally grown peaches. I'll give these a try as soon as I can. The hard part will be finding yard space for them.
You can either spray the plants with the insecticide Malathion (soon to be removed from the market due to it’s effectiveness...Grrrrrr!) when the plants just start to vine, or you can use floating row covers at the same time. Or, do both!
The little moth/butterfly that lays her eggs at the base of your plant is flying around at that time, so she goes for your squash plants. You’ve probably seen them; they’re small, spasticly flitty and have white wings.
Funny, that. Mother Nature designs a plant as a host for specific bugs to use, and vice versa. Which came first? The squash plant or the squash vine borer larvae?
It’s a conundrum, but Hey! It helps me sell lots of Malathion and floating row covers, LOL! :)
I can't stand cutting it though unless I run the overhead sprinklers for about 10 minutes. Something on the leaves makes me itch profusely!
Happy gardening RD!
Fortunately, I buy malathion in 2-1/2 gallon jugs through our farm chemical supplier. Using it 1-2 ounces at a time, I'll be set for life. :)
Does Seven work on those pesky moths?
Thank goodness for high temps. We have finally dried out to a reasonable level. Trying to get in fall garden the next few days. What a bust of a year.
Anyone know how cabbage worms find me? My collard greens got ravaged by them and I had never seen them before this year (first year planting collard greens.) Do they eat another common garden/yard plant or do they just have psychic abilities to know that I have collard greens and seek out my yard from miles away?
I do a milk wash instead of egg. Actually it is a soaking in milk for about an hour drain and then coat in corn meal. I will have to try the Zatarains.
Okra is one of my favorite garden veggies. Sometimes I’ll coat them but mostly I cook them whole with olive oil in tin foil (open top) on the grill.
It never gets too hot up here at 8,500 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies. It has been over 100F in Denver several times tis year, but rarely out of the 80’s here. No one up here even has air conditioning. The trade off is snow from October through May....8 months!!!
We yanked all the squash and some peppers and tomatillos last week. Will pull the remaining tomatillos and two tomatoes tomorrow. Then will amend the soil in prep for Fall planting of lettuce and spinach and chard next weekend.
Still getting peppers and roma tomatoes in abundance. Tomatillos too, but we are over them and they take up too much room.
We began horse manure composting last week as well. Have to go muck the equestrian center this weekend as well. Joy.
Now that sounds good.
That sounds better as the egg wash sometimes makes the coating a little thick in spots. Good eatin’ though. Do try the Zatarain’s. It’s great on everything including fried green tomatoes.
Thanks!
What about aluminum foil around the base? I’ve not tried it but heard it prevents egg laying?
Yes, Red. I am a “water cop.” LOL (not that you accused me of that!)
As I say all the time, overwatering has killed more plants than Roundup. Gardeners are far too nice; we kill with kindness.
Two incidents taught me this. First, my infamous experiment with lavender while still in Ohio. I am positive I killed 400 4” pots of lavender over ten years before I figured it out. Secondly, living here in the DESERT, six miles from the AZ border, high desert.
Here it is:
(Please learn from my expensive mistakes, then it won’t seem so bad)
It is crucial to allow plants to dry out between waterings; yes they will droop a little. Don’t worry, it won’t kill them. Go to the dollar store and get yourself a blank bound book to use for your garden. You’ll be taking notes. When you water, do so deeply* and infrequently.
*deeply = means one gallon of water per foot of plant height until you reach the “droop” mark. When you reach that part, you’ll be able to determine the frequency (keeping temperatures in mind). And yes, I’ve taken a gallon water bottle out in the yard to get the hang of it!
The reason I go into such detailed explanation is this: It is impossible to tell the difference between an under and overwatered plant, unless you have been keeping notes.
The symptoms are IDENTICAL.
An underwatered plant, stuggling in hot conditions looks dry, sickly, and not long for this world. SO DOES AN OVERWATERED PLANT.
But for a different reason. When a plant is overwatered, the root system cannot do it’s job, because the roots begin to dissolve, unable to deliver either water or nutrients (fertilizer) to the plant. See, you thought you would trick things with more fertilizer, right? No dice. This is, btw, why you might have a cherished plant...water it faithfully, fertilize it faithfully, talk to it “come on baby, just give me one bloom”, water it again for good measure...and it croaks. When you do, and pull it out, it has no roots whatsoever.
When you overwater a plant, it WILL die of dehydration, every single time unless you get a grip on yourself and that hose of yours. (and you know who you are! LOL)
NO PLANT, TREE, SHRUB should be watered every day unless it is named Celery or Rice. And it doesn’t matter where you live in the US. Period.
Let your plants droop a bit, then figure out their schedule. Water stress can be good for a plant, sparking flowering and fruiting. I’ll get into plant stress and while it’s good another time. LOL
If I can help, go ahead and FReepmail. :)
Here is the information the local Master Gardeners sent me on corn pollination. It comes from Ohio State and extends what Justadumbblonde told us before.
Ohio State University Extension
Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
2021 Coffey Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1044
Corn Pollination - An Overview
AGF-128-95
Unlike all other major grain crops, the corn plant has separate male and female flowering parts. The tassel and ear shoot are the male and female flowering structures, respectively, of the plant. The flowering stage in corn, which involves pollen shed and silking, is the most critical period in the development of a corn plant from the standpoint of grain yield determination. Drought, high temperature stress, as well as hail damage and insect feeding have the greatest impact on yield potential during the reproductive stage. The following is an overview of some of the key steps and phases of the corn pollination process.
Pollen shed usually begins two to three days prior to silk emergence and continues for five to eight days with peak shed on the third day. On a typical midsummer day, the shedding of pollen is in the morning between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.
The tassel is usually fully emerged and stretched out before any pollen is shed. Pollen shed begins at the middle of the central spike of the tassel and spreads out later over the whole tassel with the lower branches last to shed pollen.
Pollen grains are borne in anthers, each of which contains a large number of pollen grains. The anthers open and the pollen grains pour out in early to mid morning after dew has dried off the tassels. Pollen is light and is often carried considerable distances by the wind. However, most of it settles within 20 to 50 feet.
Pollen shed is not a continuous process. It stops when the tassel is too wet or too dry and begins again when temperature conditions are favorable. Pollen stands little chance of being washed off the silks during a rain storm as little to none is shed when the tassel is wet. Also, silks are covered with fine, sticky hairs which serve to catch and anchor pollen grains.
Under favorable conditions, pollen grain remains viable for only 18 to 24 hours. However, the pollen grain starts growth of the pollen tube down the silk channel within minutes of coming in contact with a silk and the pollen tube grows the length of the silk and enters the female flower (ovule) in 12 to 28 hours.
A well developed ear shoot should have 750 to 1,000 ovules (potential kernels) each producing a silk. The silks from near the base of the ear emerge first and those from the tip appear last. Under good conditions, all silks will emerge and be ready for pollination within 3 to 5 days and this usually provides adequate time for all silks to be pollinated before pollen shed ceases.
Pollen of a given plant rarely fertilizes the silks of the same plant. Under field conditions 97% or more of the kernels produced by each plant are pollinated by other plants in the field.
The amount of pollen is rarely a cause of poor kernel set. Each tassel contains from 2 to 5 million pollen grains which translates to 2,000 to 5,000 pollen grains produced for each silk of the ear shoot. Shortages of pollen are usually only a problem under conditions of extreme heat and drought. Poor seed set is more often associated with poor timing of pollen shed with silk emergence (silks emerging after pollen shed).
Source: Aldrich, S. R., W. O. Scott, and R. G. Hoeft. 1986. Modern Corn Production. 3rd edition. A&L Publications (Chapter 1 - “How the Corn Plant Grows”).
Prepared by:
Peter Thomison
Extension Agronomist
I think that it is amazing that we ever grow any corn at all! A little miracle.
THAT is really pretty! :)
My favorite pest control device was my favorite pet ever....my brown hen Rhoda.
Get a chicken, let her roam during the day (but in the coop at night) and watch your pests disappear.
(My personal favorite was the japanese beetles on the roses, however. She would crack them open like pistachios. LOL)
Yep. I don’t know what they’re going to replace it with in our Fruit Tree Spray combo.
Stupid, knee-jerk uninformed Hippies! And Rachel Carson, that clueless author of ‘Silent Spring.’ Grrrr!
And let’s bring back DDT while we’re at it, too. I’m sick to death of being carried off by mosquitoes when I want to walk the dogs or hang out in my yard!
Savin might work - I don’t know...they removed it from our market in Dane County. Stupid Hippies, LOL!
Floating row covers are white sheets that are made of a membrane that lets in light and water and air but keeps out the bugs.
http://www.gardeners.com/Row-Covers/5111,default,pg.html
I would imagine any barrier method would work to slow them down.
What’s the straw bale tomato thing, again? How do it?
Great idea! I’ll check with the civic association regulations about harboring hens:)
Those are beautiful!
I found one of those suckers on a tomato plant once and never moved so fast in my life.
And I’m not particularly squeamish, but I didn’t know those suckers could come so big.
They’re DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the info on malathion. We don’t use much of it because we don’t need to, thankfully.
However, I’m going to be at a Wal-Mart anyway today, and will buy a bottle or two.
What’s the shelf life of the stuff?
Thanks. A sweet lady on a gardening forum sent me a bunch of cuttings year before last.
That looks great!
You don’t have a recipe to share, do you?
I know some people don’t like to share recipes, although I never could figure that out.
They must grow with astounding speed. One day they aren’t there, the next day they’ve eaten halh a plant and are 4 inches long.
They don’t bite or anything but they are surprisingly strong. I pluck them off and toss them to the fish in the lake.
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