James 2014 Season - July snapshot

[JamesL]

Quick update.
Been harvesting cukes off an on for a few weeks. Nothing too exciting about that... Still in the holding pattern for the tomatoes. Plants appear to be well loaded!


I have one really large Pineapple that is starting to break. I was hoping it would be ready for July 4th, but it might need a few more days on the vine. I almost picked it today, and I might yet tomorrow as we have heavy storms rolling through and it would be a travesty to see it develop any cracking.
Hot and humid, no bugs, very little disease pressure so far.
Powdery mildew and a few minor issues on some of the toms. We will see what happens after the rains as it is supposed to be heavy for the next few days.


Garden Shots









Black Cherry pulling its usual “I must be the tallest plant in the garden” act – hitting 6 foot.





Bell Pepper starting





One of many Joe’s Pink Oxheart





Lots of Cherokee Purple hiding in this jungle





Poona Kheera – overripe, leaving it on the vine for later seed saving





Powdery Mildew on the cukes







Magnesium deficiency (I think) with a possible touch of something else.

[dfollett]

Impressive. Great looking plants. So, how tall will that Black Cherry reach by frost?

[rnewste]

James,

Looking really good. You are fortunate with no disease so far - - everything nice and "Christmas tree" green top to bottom.

Raybo

[JamesL]

Thanks guys! Perfect growing weather here until today. It was 90 and about the same with humidity. I sprayed the day I planted and they have had some sort of coverage ever since.

Black Cherry - I am guessing they will get to about 8 or 9 feet before they run out of root space. I might have to top it. Either that or break out the ladder....

[LDx4]

That Joe's Pink Oxheart is impressive! My JPO's are not that big this year. Your garden looks great!

Lyn

[tnkrer]

awsome garden. Love the bamboo fence. Is that to keep critters out or shade the containers?

You are already harvesting cukes for weeks? which variety? When did you plant it out? I have gotten 3 Poona Kheeras so far. How are you treating powdery mildew? I think I am seeing it on one leaf of one cuke plant. Last year I tried baking soda solution and it didn't really do much of anything.

for me, black cherry and sungold are fighting it out for the tallest plant. (at about 7 ft)

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by LDx4

That Joe's Pink Oxheart is impressive! My JPO's are not that big this year. Your garden looks great!

Lyn

Thanks Lyn! I have high hopes for JPO this year.

Originally Posted by tnkrer

awsome garden. Love the bamboo fence. Is that to keep critters out or shade the containers?

You are already harvesting cukes for weeks? which variety? When did you plant it out? I have gotten 3 Poona Kheeras so far. How are you treating powdery mildew? I think I am seeing it on one leaf of one cuke plant. Last year I tried baking soda solution and it didn't really do much of anything.

for me, black cherry and sungold are fighting it out for the tallest plant. (at about 7 ft)

Thanks tnkrer! The fence - critters or shade - neither!
This is the north side yard of my house and the only area that gets decent sun. Hurricane Sandy took out a large maple and a forsythia hedge that screened me from the street. When I got set up last year the tubs were glaringly visible from the main road a block away so I went and bought the generic 3 1/2 foot bamboo fence you can get at every garden center to cut down on the eyesore factor.
It got tedious walking around it all the time so I cut it in half with the sawsall this year so now I can step over it.

A "Sandy" Halloween



Cukes - Growing Poona Kheera and a mystery cuke that must have been an errant seed. Poona Kheera is great isn't it? I think they are better if you pick them when they are still yellow. Picked another 5 today!
Planted out mid May, but they were started indoors mid April.
Started putting out mid June which is definitely early.

The Plants on June 15th



Behind the foliage



Powdery Mildew -Switch from Sodium bircarb to Potassium bicarbonate.
Greencure is the ready made product - nothing more than Potassium bicarb and a surfactant. But you can buy Potassium bicarb for less and add your own castille soap to it.
Sprayed everything with it the other night and will spray Actinovate once it stops raining.

[luigiwu]

Looks great James! I'll had to add Poona Kheera to the lineup next year - do you help the buds pollinate? I'm growing a seedless parthenogenetic asian hybrid variety of cukes but its only starting to product. I think we got 3 so far but a lot of the babies seem to be getting yellow and dying off...

I am ridiculously excited for my FishLake Oxheart to ripen coz I've heard so much about it!. So far my Maglia Rosa tomato is taking top honors, its absolutely loaded.

Curious, do you leave your earthtainers outside during the winter with the soil inside them and everything? Do you reuse your soil?

[JamesL]

Luigiwu,
Thanks! No, I don't help the cukes pollenate. I think about it and then don't do it. The bees seem to love them so I haven't had any issues.
Can't wait for the tomatoes either! I have a big Pineapple that will be ripe in a few days, and will have to wait for the rush to start on the rest. Hopefully only a few weeks....

Earthtainers- They were stored in my covered porch, mix included. Properly covered I would leave them outside. I dump them all out onto a big tarp at the end of the season, clean out the roots, dry out the mix and then repack.
Third year with the mix all reused, other than some new mixed in as needed.

[JJJessee]

That looks like a very nice auto-fed SIP bucket system. Do you feed any nutrients in solution or just re-amend soil before using?

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by JJJessee

That looks like a very nice auto-fed SIP bucket system. Do you feed any nutrients in solution or just re-amend soil before using?

Some of both. Soiless mix. I had a fertilizer strip in each, ala earthtainer plus I feed them liquid Texas Tomato Food fertilizer.