Bill's Garden in June

[b54red]

I am loving my new support system for my tomatoes and I am trying it in a limited way on my bell peppers. I just got my tomatoes lowered in my first planted bed so here are some pics of the plants after lowering. The bed has two rows of tomatoes and one row was leaned in one direction and the other row was leaned in the opposite in order to lower the plants without breaking or kinking the main stems.

Bill

[Mojave]

Really nice!

[b54red]

I thought it would be easier to not put all the pics in one post so here are some more. All of my 3 main tomato beds are exclusively grafted tomatoes. I have a couple of the hybrid rootstock that I am using growing along the fence just to see how they taste and grow. My beans are about finished and I still don't have any okra in the ground and may not even plant any this year. I am unable to keep up with what I do have planted.

1st- My second major tomato bed that was planted a couple of weeks later than the first.
2nd- First fruit to blush on a BHN 640 which is one of my rootstock varieties.
3rd- Second fruit to blush on a Crista hybrid which is another of my rootstock.
4th- The tomatoes on the fence row that are recovering from iron deficiency.
5th- Newest tomato bed planted on 5/31.
6th- My squash plants.
7th- My main bell pepper bed with drop lines for support.

Bill

[lexusnexus]

Your garden looks great. What is the plastic piece between the stem and tomato? The 5th picture from the bottom.

Dan

[RayR]

Garden looks great Bill. Where are all those Alabama diseases that you tell us about? Everything looks so clean and healthy.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by lexusnexus

Your garden looks great. What is the plastic piece between the stem and tomato? The 5th picture from the bottom.

Dan

Those are J hooks. I'm trying them this year for the first time. The other plastic piece is called an arch and it is used to give the stem a gradual bend to help prevent kinking. I'm trying some of them for the first time this year. They both seem to work and they are fairly easy to use compared to tying up stems.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by RayR

Garden looks great Bill. Where are all those Alabama diseases that you tell us about? Everything looks so clean and healthy.

Ray did you see the tomato plant in the last picture in the first post I made in this thread? It has no leaves for the first four feet that is why 3 whole clusters are hanging in the open. I cut off one to two five gallon buckets of foliage every day or two. I will say that the diseases haven't gotten critical yet because we have had a nice dry spell for a week with lower than normal humidity during the daytime. Right now our humidity is only 67% at noon when it is usually above 80% this time of the year in the middle of the day and near 100% all night nearly every night. The plants are always dripping wet in the mornings til about 10 o'clock. I also think my new support system is forcing me to be more vigilant with my pruning and the plants are remaining more open to air flow and sunlight which helps dry them faster and reduces disease buildup.
Just as soon as we get a week with daily rain or drizzles the disease will appear with a vengeance. I'm just hoping that I have gotten a good amount of fruit off of them before that happens.

Bill

[heirloomtomaguy]

What kind of squash is in your picture Bill?

[peppero]

LOOKS GOOD TO ME BILL.

JON

[Brandon558]

Very nice... Everything looks great!

[MrBig46]

I also like it. Mainly clean, no weeds as by me.
Vladimír

[Karla]

Nice! garden.

[JJJessee]

Good work! The tomatoes look happy

This is my first serious tomato grow and I'm using about that same clip(Farmtek?) on hemp twine dropped from tensioned brace wire on my main tomato row. a few are on sisal, and a few are on synthetic "sisal" I am concerned about the #48 hemp holding a good stem of tomatoes. I've actually got an array of 5 brace wires already available, so I could maybe clip directly on to a lower wire if a problem(i.e.gravity) should arise.

Since you're a Zone ahead of me and more experienced, I'll be leaning over your shoulder this season.

I haven't strung my sweet peppers, but it's getting about time to do something. I can guarantee doing nothing will result in split branches laying on the ground with lots of green peppers on them.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

What kind of squash is in your picture Bill?

I don't know what kind it is but it isn't nearly as good as the variety I have grown for the past 10 years or so that for some reason Burpees quit carrying. The variety that was so productive and dependable was called Butter Bar hybrid and it was the most vigorous and productive squash I have ever grown. It was far superior to any type of yellow zucchini I have ever seen and I only really needed two or three plants to have all we could eat and give away. It would produce in a couple of days what this variety produces in a couple of weeks.

Bill

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by b54red

I don't know what kind it is but it isn't nearly as good as the variety I have grown for the past 10 years or so that for some reason Burpees quit carrying. The variety that was so productive and dependable was called Butter Bar hybrid and it was the most vigorous and productive squash I have ever grown. It was far superior to any type of yellow zucchini I have ever seen and I only really needed two or three plants to have all we could eat and give away. It would produce in a couple of days what this variety produces in a couple of weeks.

Bill

Thanks. Reason i ask is that i planted 6 orange glo watermelon seeds in my garden and 5 plants are watermelons 1 plant looks exactly like yours. Im letting it grow to find out what i get. I hate it when you buy a seed packet and one of the seeds turns out to be different. They all looked alike when i planted them. Oh well the wait is on.