Calling Tucson/Southern Arizona Gardeners

[desertlzbn]

I have been "seeding" all my tree wells with Navajo melon seed! Hopefully the bunnies don't eat them all! I may have to rig some kind of bird netting around them. I am trying to get as much out of my gardening this year as I can.
The cages that the squash is on is 7 ft tall. I don't know how I am going to harvest everything, but I guess I will have to figure that out then.

[tuk50]

Two years ago I had a nice crop of melons going and the evil bunnies waited till they were just beginning to get ripe and they ate all or pieces of everyone on the vines.. and that same year a herd of javalina broke through my garden fence and dug up a whole row of sweetpotatoes (20ft) and did not leave even one sweetpotato or the vines...
Needless to say I have the strongest garden fence in the county now. There has been a couple of mornings where there were a lot of fresh javalina tracks along the outside of the garden fence....

Yeah, brismith, Al was the name of the guy writing about the mixes.. I never posted there, but the reasoning and material sounded interesting, but like you I am a bit skeptical about the percentages of materials used.. I read as many of his threads as I could and just today mixed the large batch of basic mix and put a left over tomato in one pot, a few vinca in another and a couple other plants to experiment with.. if this fails I am going to put more peat in and try again till I'm convinced it will work here or not.

[tuk50]

Thought I might share a project pic .... I set some posts in the middle of the garden to tie my pole beans to as usual and then decided to try and make a cover over the top to grow gourds over to make an arbor. I used a piece of CRW left over from making my tomato cages. If it works I'll post pics of it later with the gourds growing over it. If not oh well! LOL.

[jhoganaz]

Originally Posted by desertlzbn

Anyone else having a whitefly problem?

I have tried soap, Neem, hort. oils, and DE.
to NO avail.
I am still trying though.
I just counted how many tomato plants I planted this year 70, yup thats right I have officially lost my mind!
It was 42 on Monday night and today we had a high of 102 in my back yard.

I had great success earlier with "Rose RX 3 in 1" fungicide, insecticide & miticide - with neem oil. I had a major infestation of white flies on tomato seedlings, gone with three sprayings. Also used on a new pear tree with mights, gone with two sprayings. Purchased at Harpers Nursery.

[desertlzbn]

I went and bought 3000 lady bugs, and 5000 green lacewing eggs. I am really happy to say I think it is WORKING!

[desertlzbn]

Well today it finally reached 100, it was danged hot!
I put the aluminet shade cloth up over two beds today. Found aphids on y the dill out front today. At least I did not plant that by the tomatoes. Feeling frustrated about how bad my squash are doing. I have been hand pollinating every morning, but am getting aborted fruit even on ones I have pollinated. Not sure why. cucs and melons not pollinating well either. Ah well that is the way it goes.

[tuk50]

I struggled with the same problem when I lived in the city... Just a guess, but I finally decided it was simply because there were not enough pollinators in my area.. neighbors and everyone around me sprayed and I think this simply killed too many pollinators. Out here in Catalina I don't have that problem ... I do use things to draw in bees and NEVER use anything that might kill a bee or worm. I line my garden fence with berries and of all things asparagus seems to draw more bees than anything else when blooming ... l've noticed in recent days that my humming bird feeder in the garden really attracts bees.... as you know its been really windy of late and this rocks the feeder and spills the sugar water and the bees love it. You might try setting a dinner plate in your squash row filled with 1 cup sugar in a cup or two of water I bet if you have many bees they will come to it. Be careful this time of year they are swarming and seem to be more active in early morning and late afternoon during cooler times. Also keep an eye out for ants because they love sugar water also.With pollinators I have good fruit set and much less misshapen fruit. I know its frustrating .. hang in there... I just planted my fall crop of tomatoes and finally have the first tomatoes just getting ready to turn red and getting excited about my first BLT...

[desertlzbn]

I have been hand polinatong, which is fine, but those are the ones aborting. Doing know why. Hot today too!

[tuk50]

Just a thought, but you might try hand pollinating them late in the evening when the temps get around 90. It might take better then. I'm not sure at what temp max is for squash, but mine are still setting now and it is in the 96 to 99 degree range this week in the hottest part of the afternoons and in the upper 60's as lows.

[desertlzbn]

I have been going out in the morning at around 7 that is when the flowers are open. I don't have many flowers open in the evening. Thee are a lot of bees too, but there are just a lot of aborted fruit.

[tuk50]

This article says above 85deg, but I know it is a little higher for max, but you may be just a bit warmer than my garden.
There are a few tips here and might be of some help.
http://www.freeplants.com/squash.htm

[AZRuss]

I posted something like this somewhere else. This has been the best tomato season for me since I arrived here 5 years ago. Probably has a lot to do with the weather, but I planted out later (March 1 - 15) than ever before also. I grow in Earthboxes and used 1/3 organic compost, 2/3 organic Miracle Grow and Kellogg organic fertilizer. Whatever the reason is, the combination is right for this year. I also grew fewer plants so I could manage them more effectively.

Tomato of the year: Neves Azorean Red. Flat out delicious. Moderately productive, but mouth watering good. Two years ago in my garden, it sucked. Tasteless.

In the same Earthbox as the NAR is the year’s biggest loser: Jetsetter. Productive, but every single fruit—100%--has had serious BER thus far. (NAR has had none.) Runner-up to biggest loser is Brandy Boy for high levels of BER and low production.

Rutgers (determinate): VERY productive, and very tasty if left to fully ripen on the vine, or even on the counter; sour if eaten before seriously ripe.

Nicest surprise: Sunset’s Red Horizon. Large, delicious and rather early. Low production, though.

Next task: to keep my still very healthy looking plants alive through mid September so hopefully I can enjoy them again in the fall.

PS: I beat the birds!! Bird netting is my tomato plants’ new best friend! Birds avoid it like death!

[desertlzbn]

I am having a HUGE problem with my leaves drying up on my plants, I have no Idea what to do. it starts from the bottom up, and the leaves turn yellow then brown then just shrivel up and are just dry. Some of the leaves are green and just shrivel up. I am just at the end of my rope. Two years ago I had a VERY productive green bunch of tomatoes and last year and this year it is just very frustrating not to know what is wrong and what to do about it.
The other problem is my plants are all very stunted. I planted out March 1st and most of my plants are no taller than 24-36 inches. I really worked a bunch of manure and compost in my soil this year too.
I just don't know what to do.
I feel like I know all this stuff about tomatoes, the different varieties, different diseases, fertilizer and composting, but don't know what is wrong with MY plants.
I keep hearing about how if your soil is healthy your plants will be healthy, I have amended my soil like crazy and in one bed planted in PURE compost, but still to no avail, my plants still look like crap.
I could just cry!

[dice]

Could it be the water supply? Salty, maybe? High level of aluminum
or zinc or something else that has built up in the soil and is blocking
uptake of other nutrients? (Soil test.)

[AZRuss]

Considering that your problem has occurred over the last two seasons, dice might be on to something. It sounds like it almost has to be a soil problem, maybe even a soil-borne disease which would not have been eradicated by the addition of compost and manure. Do you have anything growing in a container with a different soil mix? As you know, I'm only 10 miles from you and I'm having a very, very different experience than yours this season.

So sorry to hear this news. You are a dedicated, knowledgeable gardener. I hope you can figure out what it is.