Virginia Gardeners

[shelleybean]

Are you guys wondering what I'm wondering? WHERE IS SPRING??? The flowers and trees say spring is here but the temperatures don't!

I have a few tomato plants that have grown so tall they need to come out from under my grow light because I can't set it any higher. I think (pray) I can begin hardening my plants off on Tuesday. My own forecast looks promising with lows of at least 50 degrees starting on Wednesday, I think.

I didn't start a spring garden this year, meaning my usual lettuce, spinach, beets, peas, radishes. All I have to put out is tomatoes, peppers, parsley and basil. After that, I'll start on beans, cucumbers and squash.

My sister and I have started a farmers market in Norfolk with about 20 vendors and last week was our first week. The forecast made us nervous but the storms stayed away, though it was windy and our honey person lost her tent. But it went very well and we had a good turnout of new customers. Great responses on FB.

With this new market and getting deliveries from Seasonal Roots to my house on Thursdays, I decided not to grow a spring or fall garden this year. I'll just support my local farmers and buy from them!

[TomNJ]

It's been cold and snowy here in the mountains of SW VA, and the last snow in the forecast is for tomorrow morning. So my onion planting has been delayed from the usual April 1st to the 10th! I put out onion plants, not seeds or sets, so I didn't want to give them the mid 20s temperature we had last night. Should be smooth sailing starting on Tuesday.

[shelleybean]

TomNJ,

I spent Fourth of July in Gatlinburg and drove past the Floyd exit on the way home. Thought of you. Hope your garden is doing well.

I'm having a good cucumber and bean season. Tomatoes are late and I've just begun picking those. Mostly cherries. All my squash died while I was in TN. I replanted yesterday.

My sister and I were so focused on the getting our farmers market off the ground, I didn't even have time for a spring garden this year. I have ordered seeds to grow a few things this fall when the summer stuff winds down.

Anyone else feeling the effects of a cold, wet spring?

[jtjmartin]

Definitely a cold wet spring here in Williamsburg too. My dwarf tomato plants have a lead in early production over my full size. Looks like heat and dry are returning soon too.

[TomNJ]

Hi Shelly,

You must have come home via Rt 81, so you passed just 20 minutes from my house. Would have loved to have you stop by and see the garden! It always looks so good this time of year (see photos).

As I posted earlier, my onions were affected by the early wet weather and got some kind of fungal disease, but recovered nicely with only a 10% loss. Then two weeks ago they got a foliage blight - not sure if it was related to the original infection or not, but fortunately the bulbs were full size when it struck, so I started harvesting this past week. My Candy onions are pulled and mostly 3-4"; the Copra will come in today and are not far behind, so I have enough to get me through the year (about 400).

Garlic in the next bed over was not affected and are looking good. I have about 200 pulled and another 350 to go. I dig them individually as they hit my criteria of four mostly green leaves. And the rest of the garden is also on target, except for the cauliflower which refused to head, and the corn which got attacked by critters. I had to plant the corn three times and still have only about half that made it.

The tomatoes are looking good and full of green fruit. Looking forward to canning salsa, sauce, and soup later this month. Today I will harvest beans, beets and cucumbers and make some borscht and pickles.

[shelleybean]

Everything looks great! So healthy and neat! Wish mine looked that good but I'm working on it. Been so busy with work and then the heat and humidity are miserable.

[rdback]

We sure had a wet Spring here in the northern Shenandoah Valley. For a six-week period, starting around May 1st, we received almost 20 inches of rain. River came out of its banks twice in 10 days, which is over 18'. Usually trickles by at a foot or two. Rained every day, or every other day. Couldn't work the garden at all until 3rd week in June. So, I'm a good 4-6 weeks behind on everything. I'll be lucky to get much of a harvest before frost, but fingers crossed.

On a brighter note, your garden looks fantastic Tom! lol

[shelleybean]

Yeah, because we had that cold, wet weather, and then went straight to HOT here, I didn't have many tomatoes set at all. And now I am seeing the first signs of Fusarium in my main raised bed that's being used for tomatoes this season. I had Fusarium bad at my old house but have enjoyed being without it the last few years here. We had just talked about adding four more raised beds and I think we'll do that so we can go to a five year rotation instead of a three year. Maybe that will help. And cleaning all the cages and tools really well from season to season to keep it from spreading.

[shelleybean]

With all the rain and humidity, I had a big mildew problem in my summer garden. So I yanked out most of the zinnias, the squash and all the older beans. That leaves two new rows of beans, some nice peppers and some cucumbers and tomatoes limping along that will probably have to be pulled soon. This weekend I planted Danvers carrots and Golden beets, Premier kale, Yellow Cabbage collards and Broadleaf Batavian escarole. When the cucumbers and tomatoes are done, I'll put in a few kinds of lettuce.

Anybody else start their fall garden yet?

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by shelleybean

Yeah, because we had that cold, wet weather, and then went straight to HOT here, I didn't have many tomatoes set at all. And now I am seeing the first signs of Fusarium in my main raised bed that's being used for tomatoes this season. I had Fusarium bad at my old house but have enjoyed being without it the last few years here. We had just talked about adding four more raised beds and I think we'll do that so we can go to a five year rotation instead of a three year. Maybe that will help. And cleaning all the cages and tools really well from season to season to keep it from spreading.

Same here as far as tomatoes go. Horrible tomato weather especially for the larger tomatoes. Danko, Eva Purple Ball and Arkansas Traveler are nice to have in a season like this. Last year had ripe tomatoes on everything at the end of June. This year I still haven't had a ripe Earl's Faux, at least not one that hasn't split, but plenty on the vine. Coastal Virginia Bay Side


Everything else has done fine although everything was few weeks later

[jtjmartin]

It's been a pretty good year in Williamsburg:

Garlic - matured & harvested before the unusual "rainy season" started, thank God

Squash - rolling in in by the bucket loads - just starting to see some disease (I did not use the bleach spray like I normally do).

Tomatoes - I grow most of them as grafted, trellised single stems on hugelculture raised beds (tiring to type - but even more tiring to dig!) These weathered the mini monsoons and mini draught really well. Less disease than last year. Better than average harvest.

Eggplants - a lot like the tomatoes - good harvest and great taste

Peppers - I just grew two varieties - cheese and elephant ears. Both did and are doing great.

The only thing that was a HUGE failure were ungrafted tomatoes planted where I usually grow tomatoes. Almost 100% died from bacterial wilt. I was surprised that even my hybrids couldn't handle it. (Just about all my ungrafted tomatoes survived on the virgin land I prepped this year.)

Jeff