Jim41 said:Thanks for all the thumbs up and comments.

The tomatoes are all Bella Rosa. I've found they do best in our hot, humid weather. They will make as long as you keep them watered. They have the best taste of the hybrids that I've tried and are blight resistant. I have some tomatoes that will weigh in at about a pound and a half and are still growing. I'm ready for them to ripen.

Jim, do you find the Bella Rosa tomatoes will continue to set fruit thru the heat of summer? I'm always looking for one that will continue to produce throughout summer.

I'm currently growing Hispanola and had fairly good success one summer, this is the second test summer for me.

I love the looks of your raised beds and healthy gardens. Very nice!

Week 7:
It rained a lot last two nights, which makes my shade cloth stretch down to 4'. So I can't go in there till it dries up. I am surprised that the shade cloth only reduces the temperature 2 degrees. That's not enough to help the tomatoes keep producing this summer.


I put my winter squash in old cut up stretch pants. Anyone know if they rot easily?





My sweet potatoes are growing nicely



I think two pidgen peas came up. I'm not sure about this first one. Its in the wrong spot. Maybe some who knows about pp, like @greene can tell me.



I'm fairly sure this is a pp, but the rain has almost rotted it




I planted more seeds for the fourth time.
The boysenberries I've been transplanting when they pop up in the wrong spots are mostly surviving

texaskitty111 said:...the shade cloth only reduces the temperature 2 degrees.


I think two pidgen peas came up. I'm not sure about this first one. Its in the wrong spot. Maybe some who knows about pp, like @greene can tell me.



I'm fairly sure this is a pp, but the rain has almost rotted it




I planted more seeds for the fourth time.

I have dark green shade cloth on my front porch. The heat reduction is far more than 2 degrees; it's the difference between using the porch or running in fear of melting out there. What kind of shade cloth did you use? There are different colors and different percentages of shade, the higher percentage keeps your plants cooler.

Here are photos of my pigeonpeas when they were growing under lights.


Later they looked like this.

texaskitty111 said:

I'm fairly sure this is a pp, but the rain has almost rotted it

I'm sorry, I hit the 'finished' button when I was trying to do a 'preview'. Of the two photos, the first has serrated leaf margins and does not look like a pigeonpea. The second photo looks correct for pigeonpea.

When I planted the seeds I had about a 50-55% germination rate and yes, if conditions are too wet, the seeds will rot.

Greene

@texaskitty111
Kitty : Read up on kaiolin clay ( food grade ) for garden. Its a mineral clay from ground in Georgia. It sounds amazing. An insecticide and provides 10 to 20 percent shade for plants. I'm trying it out this year.
Im useing food grade. Since i can't find out if reg kaiolin is ok for vege use. Regular grade is alot cheeper than food grade, but since i can't get an answer from anyone, i'm useing food grade, to be on safe side. I've read 2 Tbls to a gallon of water, and up to 4 quarts to a gallon of water. Who's right ? I'll start out at lower amount.
😎😎😎

Well, , but here we are surrounded by sand with a little clay. Both blow all over everything. So, I don't have to buy it, or apply it.
Sorry, I do know its different.

Tk 😁: Thank you ! About useing only food grade kaiolin.
I guess you'll have to change color of your shade cloth. To what greene said.
Also ?😕? Are you saying you have a natural insecticide, blowin in the wind.

It is just an aluminum silicate, most prevalent is Kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4,) but several other similar minerals may be present. This is the stuff from which fine China and other porcelain products are made. The difference between food grade and regular is the degree of refinement to reduce impurities. It is benign, harmless to living creatures. It is not a pesticide or insecticide, but rather a coat of armor for your plants and fruits. It forms a hard coating, which many have difficulty penetrating. It is also one of the clays of legend being sought and eaten by pregnant women. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia... http://www.medicaldaily.com/cl...

Thank you : Dillard

My heirloom tomatoes are growing well. I'm experimenting with staked water bottles for slow watering. I just fill them with the hose and they leak water in around the roots gradually.

I have a water meter, so I can tell if the roots are in the "ideal" zone. So far, so good.

Sounds like a good method.

Yardenman said:My first crop is baby bok choy.



I've been harvesting individual leaves for stir-fries for 2 months. But here is a surprize! Some of the oldest ones bolted and I was pinching them off and tossing the flowers.

Well, I looked at one today and noted that it looked like a baby broccoli. I ate it. It was WONDERFUL! Sweeter than broccoli. I think I will keep them growing to bolting stage just for the sweet tips!

You might also enjoy "Yu Choy Sum" varieties - "Flowering Bok Choy", bred just FOR those flower stems as a delicacy.
a.k.a
Brassica rapa Chinesis Group
B. rapa var parachinensis
B. rapa var purpurea / (Purpuraria Group)

Yu Choy (harvested as just leaves, before it bolts)
Yu Choy Sum (harvested after bolting, with flower buds just about to open.)


You might also like Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan, kairan or kailaan). There are fast and late varieties (40 to 80 DTM). It's more heat-resistant than broccoli, and has looser heads.
Gai Lan
B. oleracea var. Alboglabra
B. oleracea (Alboglabra Group)

Tainong Seeds and Kitazawa are where I would look first:

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/se...
http://www.kitazawaseed.com/se...
http://www.tainongseeds.com/yu...
http://www.tainongseeds.com/ga...

At Tainong, you have to call them or email, list what you want, and ask for the sample size ($2 per variety). The packet size depends on how expensive they are (hybrids are more expensive so you get fewer seeds) .

I already asked: "What is your next size up, bigger than the $2 samples?"
Answer: "Pounds."

They mostly sell to market growers.

Yardenman, what do you mean by "staked water bottles" ?

I use "aqua cones" that attach to 2-L soda bottles and poke down into the ground to water the plants at the roots.

I've also used 3" pots placed down in the ground near the plants for watering.

Front yard pepper bed after I worked on it today to spread compost and put out mulch.






A Pea trellis with fancy varieties of Hyper tendril Sugar Snap peas growing.






Area near the back door. Trellis will have pole beans but not yet planted. Front area has a row of eggplants and a row of peppers in front.

So I went out today with the intent to get my earthboxes at least prepped, if not planted. But, at 3:00 this afternoon, there was still no sun in that area (when previously it was getting a fair amount). We've been watching this area for the past couple of years--our trees have gotten so mature that they are giving us much more shade than past years.

So, I made the painful decision that I need to move my veggie garden. I have a great space back in my perennial garden. But, now I have to move perennials, fill in the holes left by that, and then move my earthboxes and re-establish my rabbit fencing around that garden. The downside to this is that my husband currently has 3 broken vertebrae, so cannot help me with heavy lifting. So, we've hired a neighborhood young man to help on Saturday. I hope this all works out, as I need to get this done fairly quickly. He's coming over on Sunday (weather permitting). Sigh.... I should have done this last fall.

mom2goldens said:So I went out today with the intent to get my earthboxes at least prepped, if not planted. But, at 3:00 this afternoon, there was still no sun in that area (when previously it was getting a fair amount). We've been watching this area for the past couple of years--our trees have gotten so mature that they are giving us much more shade than past years.

So, I made the painful decision that I need to move my veggie garden. I have a great space back in my perennial garden. But, now I have to move perennials, fill in the holes left by that, and then move my earthboxes and re-establish my rabbit fencing around that garden. The downside to this is that my husband currently has 3 broken vertebrae, so cannot help me with heavy lifting. So, we've hired a neighborhood young man to help on Saturday. I hope this all works out, as I need to get this done fairly quickly. He's coming over on Sunday (weather permitting). Sigh.... I should have done this last fall.

Lots of work!!!

Pod,
Last years Bella Rosa just kept making. I quit watering because I thought they were through. I was back out there about three weeks later and had all kinds of little tomatoes. Surprised me. If I'd have kept watering I think they would have made until frost.

Thank you Jim, I will look for some of those seeds. It is a challenge to keep tomatoes producing through the heat of summer. I hope your success this summer equals last year.

mom2goldens said:So I went out today with the intent to get my earthboxes at least prepped, if not planted. But, at 3:00 this afternoon, there was still no sun in that area (when previously it was getting a fair amount). We've been watching this area for the past couple of years--our trees have gotten so mature that they are giving us much more shade than past years.

So, I made the painful decision that I need to move my veggie garden. I have a great space back in my perennial garden. But, now I have to move perennials, fill in the holes left by that, and then move my earthboxes and re-establish my rabbit fencing around that garden. The downside to this is that my husband currently has 3 broken vertebrae, so cannot help me with heavy lifting. So, we've hired a neighborhood young man to help on Saturday. I hope this all works out, as I need to get this done fairly quickly. He's coming over on Sunday (weather permitting). Sigh.... I should have done this last fall.

No time like the present, Linda -- you'll be happy dancin' when it's all done!