Hi from SE PA! My first gardening post. I grew tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and cukes, red onions, garlic and a 2nd year fig tree.
Tomato leaves got black spot and leaves all fell off. The early fruit was fine, but short season and not as many tomatoes as I would have expected (not enough to make much sauce).
Peppers grew well, but didn’t get very large.
Zucchini, squash and cuke leaves got a white mildew and some veges had, I think, blossom end rot.
Red onions and garlic bulbs didn’t get very big, so I left them in the ground.
I had my soil tested and amended; good watering and plenty of sun in raised beds; the only think I can think of is that they were planted too close together.
Now on to the fig tree. It’s a brown turkey fig and I’ve protected it from our one night of frost. It has quite a few figs, they are all very green and hard, and I think they are supposed to be picked when soft.
Anybody have any fig ripening suggestions? Should I pick them before it gets frosty?
Welcome to the garden thread. It was a tough year for many of our gardens. Too hot and lots of drought.
I don’t really know much about figs, and Red Devil is the only one I can remember that has figs.
Red, do you remember who else raises figs? Would you be willing to give some advice? Thanks.
Try neem oil on your mildew. My zukes look like they die of blossom end rot, but it's actually that they didn't get pollinated. I've taken to going out in the am when the blossoms are open, picking male blossoms and shaking the pollen into the female blossoms.
This is a female that did not get pollinated. It is turning yellow and rotting.
This one got pollinated. The icky looking remains of the blossom can be gently scraped off or simply ignored. The fruit is solid, growing, and green.