State of the Season - interim report/observations

[nctomatoman]

This is a just a set of general observations on what is turning out to be a somewhat unusual, but pretty good, gardening season thus far. I will go from early to later crops.

Lettuce, Asian (and other greens) - started in my plug flats, transplanted - a bit later than I would have liked, but great harvest (cut short by mother nature, who turned on the climactic blast furnace in early June). Very pleased with the various greens - Kotsume, Savoy, Pak Choi, Mustards, Rabe - delicious, productive, trouble free - and they all transplanted fine from my thick planting method into individual plugs, then to the garden. Chard did fine; Red Russian Kale is easy, but we don't use it in cooking as much, and it attracts moths/worms.

Beets - spectacular, due to using transplants - no need to thin, great harvest of uniform beets - we especially enjoyed the beet greens!

Radishes - we give up! They germinate well, grew great tops, but useful bulbs on only 5 percent or so. We don't like them all that much anyway!

Garlic - easy and wonderful - perfect success, we are good with Garlic for months...we liked the size and growth habit of German white better than Ajo Rojo. Only issue is that it took up our bush bean space until early July.
Potatoes - a bit of a pain to prepare and plant, but, aside from the incredible weed patch out there, the tops grew well - we shall see what's underneath when I start digging (I do need to get in there and get the large weeds out).

Squash - in the middle of a great harvest, used transplants from plug flats I started.

Cukes - Poona Kheera went down early to disease; Diva is thriving and is our favorite, anyway - from plugs.

Bush Beans - we are in the middle of harvesting from the initial planting, with the two follow up rows (where Garlic was) coming along nicely.

Hot and Sweet Peppers - just insane success. Sweet and Hot peppers in 5 gallon pots are out of control with respect to yields - key is good potting mix and plenty of water and regular feeding. Incredible how many peppers are on the bell plants. We could burn the mouths of every person in Raleigh with the number of hot peppers on the plants!

Eggplant - more insane success- if the extreme heat troubled the tomatoes, it tantalized the peppers and eggplant. All plants are loaded up and yielding well. Get out the eggplant recipes!!!

Indeterminate tomatoes, garden - we got these in pretty late, in the back rows where the lettuce and beets lived - mid June. So far, so good - I've replaced six of the 44 plants - death due to disease or just inability to adjust in the extreme heat. Some are starting to thrive - I have realistic expectations - they are not in a great section of the garden, so whatever I get will be a bonus.

Indeterminate tomatoes, driveway pots - These went in late May, so we are now getting some of the cherries, larger fruited ones to come. Interesting - best fruit set by far is with the three Cherokees (purple, chocolate, green) - they are resisting disease and setting well in the heat - they also get a bit more shade. The rest are having issues setting fruit well so far. Of the 26 plants, I've had to replant two due to disease, and a few are really struggling and are touch and go. Two plants flat out died from disease early on - Stick and Silvery Fir Tree.

Dwarf tomatoes - Garden - the dozen in the front row, in cages are looking good - had to replant one due to disease, and two others are touch and go.

Dwarf tomatoes, driveway - once these keep loading up it will be plant flop city, which is typical - they all look so nice at 2 feet tall, but at 3 feet and more, with heavy fruit set, they tend to fall all over each other - I am learning to expect that. Of the 108 plants in the driveway, I've had to replace 7, and 3 or 4 are being watched as they look pretty bad - but that's not bad at all considering the heat this summer. I've had NO tomato spotted wilt.

General observations - the Snowy F2 from the pink hybrid are the most prone to Fusarium wilt. The Tasty and Frosty lines are also quite disease prone, but it looks more like bacterial wilt. The Porky line sets fruit insanely, and are floppy plants (not surprising - they are hearts). The Sneezy line is quite lanky/tall by comparison (right now they are 3 feet tall or a bit over - this is compared with the indeterminates which are 5-6 feet tall, to contrast dwarf vs indeterminate plant habit) - but some - the Sleepy and Snowy family - are only 1-2 feet tall, so are quite compact in comparison. I've got all sorts of fruit set everywhere - if I can keep these plants alive for another month, it will be a good evaluative season for my dwarf grow outs. already noticing some quite large Wild Fred, Sweet Sue, Summertime Green, Rosella Purple, Beauty, Kelly Green, Beryl Beauty fruit on the plants - nice striped Sarandipity fruits.....will be some intense taste testing to come (get ready, Lee!)

The main theme, though, has been watering, watering, and more watering......with staking/tying now coming into play.