Calling Tucson/Southern Arizona Gardeners

[tuk50]

dice, I planted a 6ft strip of the alfalfa from Johnny's Seeds. It is looking good, and sprouted well a couple of weeks ago even though the temps have been above 100deg everyday. I put a straw mulch over the seeds and then covered it with a wire cage to keep the quail out of it and have been watering everyother day since. Its about 3in tall now and growing.

[dice]

Great.

I have a bag of mixed alsike clover and 2 kinds of alfalfa seed
that I used in paths between rows (experiment). This spring
someone claimed a stack of fairly rough lumber that was
sitting under a tarp for a few years. The lawn under it was
pretty much dead, but it was only lawn, moss, thatch, and
weeds on top of our NW clay subsoil.

I figured that it would need to be improved before using it for
anything else, so I scattered gypsum around on it, then I
broadcast the clover-alfalfa mix on it, and I covered that with
a few inches of the fairly fine, silty stuff sifted out of last year's
container mix (the cat was in seventh heaven). Then we got
a bunch of rain (like 10 weeks of on and off rain with temps
in the mid-60s F), so it all sprouted, and now it is thriving.

It might survive without watering it at our moderate summer
temperatures in our clay loam soils, and I will simply turn it
under next spring. New garden space, good to go.:-)

[tuk50]

Have any of you folks tried row covers in May to prevent squash vine borers from laying eggs? I do well with seeds planted in late June. Like now my early vines are gone after a few harvested early, but now the later planted squash are producing like mad. I checked the size of the adult moth and it is about 1.5in long, so I thought I might try using 1/4in hardware cloth to form a box 2ft square and set it over the early plants next year to see if it will work to keep them out till they are finished laying eggs.

[satya]

Tuk50, the egg layers I've seen are the size of a bee... wasp like... not moth like! They have orange backs and are quite agile... moving quickly and rapidly like wasps, and certainly able to fit thru 1/4 hardware cloth. I lost many vines last year to them. This year, I've been lucky till now. I just removed three this morning by splitting open the stems with a razor blade. As soon as they reach a certain size in the stem, they emerge and burrow into the ground for overwintering and emerge next year as the flying adults.

The only prevention I've found is police like inspection almost daily of all vines and slitting open the vine to remove the grubs at the first sign of any frass. I've also chased down the wasps with a can of raid, but that usually results in accidentally spraying a little bit on something you don't want to spray! They are particularly hard to get rid of... naturally! Try reading this page: http://tomclothier.hort.net/page30.html

All the best luck.

[tuk50]

Thanks satya, have you seen them make a second hatch in Tucson. So far my squash do very well if planted at the end of June. I have been planting three or four early and get a few, then plant a row the last week in June and I have no problem with them. This year I also tried leaving three plants in each hill and one of the hills only had one vine infected and that plant is still producing well. I am old and half blind, so chasing them down and/or splitting the vine is out of the question.... I may even try not planting early and hopefully eradicate them entirely,. there is no one else planting gardens within a mile or two of my garden and so there are only a few of them to deal with. I also found 1/8in hardware cloth on amazon, so might try that also. What do you think?

[tuk50]

Anyone in southern arizona want to brag about their garden this year?

Its been very mild in my valley this year and still picking tomatoes and even ate some okra in the garden yesterday, even though it has stopped blooming with the cool nights. One of the best years for winter squash.. got hubbard, butternut and a japanese variety that I haven't tasted yet. Planted garlic, cabbage, chard and onions about a month ago and they are all growing well with the good rain we got.

[awillie]

My summer garden was a disaster. Only got 5 or 6 tomatoes off of 8 plants. Was able to put up 8 quarts of dill pickles. I had bad fusarium wilt. I covered the garden with black tarp and left Arizona for 8 weeks(July & August). Winter garden of swiss char and turnips(purple and hakurei) are producing good greens. Snow peas has started blooming and the first of the hakurei turnips will be 2 inch and ready any day. Collard greens planted late and are just starting to get true leaves.

[tuk50]

sorry about the tomatoes.... it sounds like you have a good start on the winter garden.. chard is one of our favorites..
if you start your own tomatoes, send me your address by pm and I'll send you some tomato seeds that are wilt resistant and rkn resistant also... I have to use them because of all the nematodes in my sandy soil.. I planted 7 the last week of march and they are still producing now. These tomatoes are only about 5ft tall, but 5 or 6 feet wide.

[desertlzbn]

I have not even planted a garden this year. It has been so hectic, I seeds but have not really had time to plant. I have been working in my pottery studio, and taking care of my 6 yr old nephew. Maybe I will get some stuff planted next week.


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[Mike Maurer]

Originally Posted by tuk50

Anyone in southern arizona want to brag about their garden this year?

Its been very mild in my valley this year and still picking tomatoes and even ate some okra in the garden yesterday, even though it has stopped blooming with the cool nights. One of the best years for winter squash.. got hubbard, butternut and a japanese variety that I haven't tasted yet. Planted garlic, cabbage, chard and onions about a month ago and they are all growing well with the good rain we got.

[Mike Maurer]

Originally Posted by tuk50

Anyone in southern arizona want to brag about their garden this year?

Its been very mild in my valley this year and still picking tomatoes and even ate some okra in the garden yesterday, even though it has stopped blooming with the cool nights. One of the best years for winter squash.. got hubbard, butternut and a japanese variety that I haven't tasted yet. Planted garlic, cabbage, chard and onions about a month ago and they are all growing well with the good rain we got.

I have about given up on squash... the squash bugs are so bad here. Are you bothered? If so how do you fight them?
Mike

[tuk50]

Mike, yes squash bugs are a problem in my garden... they don't bother my butternut winter varieties, so they do great, but the summer squash varieties are all hit. Read Satya's post .. learn what you are looking for and check daily.. I plant 3 plants per hill, and plant a couple of hills every couple of weeks. Sometimes they get a couple of plants, but one will keep going. Something I haven't tried, but will try this year is to use a covering of Vaseline on the base where it comes out of the ground as often as I can. I grew some hubbards and this year they did great, but in past years I couldn't get a hubbard very often.

[tuk50]

desertlbzn, its amazing how fast time flies.. a couple of years ago I started doing no till ... I'm very impressed with the results. My son and grandson put about 4 to 6 inches of compost over the whole garden each January after the garden vines and plants have all been chopped and spread over the garden,. I'm just now cutting up the okra stalks, but about half of the tomato vines are still producing and a few of my winter squash are still hardening off. Its been unusally mild this year and only a very light frost so far that only nipped the top of some plants. I usually have a hard killing frost before Thanksgiving Day.
Hope you find time to at least get in a few greens and onions this winter.

[Mike Maurer]

Originally Posted by tuk50

Mike, yes squash bugs are a problem in my garden... they don't bother my butternut winter varieties, so they do great, but the summer squash varieties are all hit. Read Satya's post .. learn what you are looking for and check daily.. I plant 3 plants per hill, and plant a couple of hills every couple of weeks. Sometimes they get a couple of plants, but one will keep going. Something I haven't tried, but will try this year is to use a covering of Vaseline on the base where it comes out of the ground as often as I can. I grew some hubbards and this year they did great, but in past years I couldn't get a hubbard very often.

I love butternut, and have tried it the last couple years... but the bugs get it too!
do you seperate the different types? if so how far? I'll read Satya's post, is it in this thread?
Thanks for the quick reply,
Mike

[tuk50]

Mike, Post #334. Man, you must have a bunch of them if they eat the butternuts also. If there are no gardens close to you, you might try and not plant them for a couple of years .. I did this a few years ago and it seemed to help. My garden is about 2000sq ft and I rotate squash from one end to the other every year and, yes I plant my winter squash away from the summer squash. Another thing you might try is plant the squash late in the summer just so you will have enough time to harvest .. my squash bugs don't seem to be as bad as when I plant early in the summer. I read somewhere that they hatch only once or twice a year. Hope this helps some. I plant dill around my squash plants as a deterrent and when I walk by the dill plants just get a hand full and throw it over the squash plants. Also I plant squash in holes in the garden like when a tomato or pepper dies then I stick a few seeds in and this seems to help, by isolating them in with something else.