Moving into Harvest Time

As August comes to an end, I know there may be only a few weeks until frost, so I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Here's my colorful harvest of tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, patty pan squash, cucumbers, and a few mini red bell peppers.

Life is a Bowl of Cherry Tomatoes

Yum! Cherry tomatoes are plentiful and tasty. This variety is Tommy Toe, and they are big enough to quarter in salads... though they don't always make it to the salads. Lots don't even make it out of the garden before I pop them into my mouth.

The trellis they are growing on is a variation of the Florida weave, which has worked really well to support them as they continue growing taller and taller through the summer.

Vine Ripening

Pumpkins and melons are shaping up and filling out, becoming the beauties I knew they'd be when I first planted their seeds in the garden.

This shy Hercules pumpkin will be a star at the end of October when I turn him into a jack-o-lantern. Still growing even as he turns orange!

This petite watermelon has yellow flesh. Not sure how sweet it will be compared to the typical red-flesh ones but it is a cute little thing.

This melon is called "Moon and Stars" and also has yellow flesh. The leaves as well as the fruit are speckled with yellow moons and smaller stars. Really unusual and pretty plant to have. This one in particular is not very symmetrical, probably due to uneven pollination when it was just a little blossom, but it should turn out ok.

Blossom-end Rot

One of the most disheartening moments in my garden is when I plunge my hand through the tomato leaves, closing my fingers around a juicy red tomato...

... and pull it back to find the underside taken over by a nasty black splotch.

This is blossom-end rot. It occurs on the blossom end of the tomato (duh) and is a result of inadequate calcium at a critical stage during the fruit's growth. This deficiency means the cell walls are not sturdy enough, and results in a soft spot on the tomato, which then begins to rot while the tomato is still ripening.

What causes the calcium deficiency? It can be a lack of calcium in the soil itself, but it can also be a result of inconsistent watering or soil that is too dry or too wet, all of which affect how calcium is absorbed by the plant. Basically this disease is one that needs prevention, not treatment, since there's nothing you can do to reverse rot! If you get a lot of rainfall, unfortunately you may not have control over moisture levels, but in general it is something you can deal with by being diligent.

Fortunately the problem doesn't seem to be widespread in my tomatoes. These Amish paste tomatoes are an indeterminate variety, so they are continually flowering and producing new fruit throughout the season. So even though a few were deprived of calcium at one particular time, others seem to have gotten the nutrients they need and are ripening just fine.

Life Goes On

Unforeseen circumstances kept me from the garden for the last two weeks, though I was able to do a harvest a few cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash during that time.

Luckily everything is still doing well despite my neglect. Putting straw down between most of the plants earlier this summer kept the weeds at bay for the most part, and nothing seems to have dried up without watering.

The melons got a late start, so I don't expect them to reach maximum size/flavor this year, but they are looking great!

Mini-pumpkins are so cute tucked away in the shade. They'll be plentiful this year, and will be a nice deep orange color once they ripen fully.

My Hercules pumpkins are doing great! If all continues to go well, there should be four big ones for carving in October. Two of them we were able to turn on their ends early enough in their growth so they will be nice and round, but the other two will be oblong side-lying pumpkins. They just got too big too quickly, and I didn't want to risk damaging the vines by twisting them around.

My Aji Cristal hot peppers are thriving in the heat. Time to pick a peck or a bushel and freeze away, since I just don't have time to turn them all into jam right now!

I really love my tomatillos, they are such a neat fruit to watch grow and fill out their husks. I had absolutely no worries about them during the last few weeks; as a Mexican plant they can certainly handle a dry spell or two.

And of course, the zucchini is still prolific!

Hornworms Begone

Ew, what are these tiny little grenades? Deer droppings? Too small. Rabbit? Still too small. Let's consult the internet. Ugh...

This is caterpillar poop. Left behind by either the tomato hornworm or the tobacco hornworm, both big fat types of caterpillars that demolish tomato plants (and tobacco plants, judging by the name). A little grossed out, but determined that my tomatoes will not be destroyed, I set out in search of the invaders.

I found one! But... wait... this is not a tomato plant. It is not a tobacco plant. This is a tomatillo plant. Mr. hornworm, you are confused. While mocking the destructive little idiot, I was able to identify him as a tobacco hornworm (the stinger on his butt is red instead of black, and he has seven diagonal stripes on each side instead of eight V-shaped marks). I found some gloves, peeled this guy off the stem (they hold on tight), and dropped him in a bucket of soapy water. The soap keeps them from getting out, and they drown. Muahaha!

Moving on to the tomato plants... I found quite a few more. How? One, look for that nasty black poop on the ground. I usually found them somewhere on the top of the plant I found the poop beneath. You can also look for stems that look like the leaves have been pulled off. The guy below is in the process of doing so. They are thorough eaters, they consume an entire leaf and move on. Did I mention they are huge? They're huge. The size of my index finger.

Most of the damage I found was near the top of the plant, which is also where all the hornworms were. During the hotter part of the day they tended to be slightly in the shade, but as the sun started going down they were happy to be right there on top of the plant. The guy below was happily munching away on a tomato, even with all those nice leaves around him. Bastard.

So he went swimming. Adieu!

A Spacing Issue

So the instructions for the summer squash seeds I purchased said "Sow 3 seeds every 12" (thin to 1 plant), 1/2-1" deep, in rows 5-6' apart." Sounds good. Because I have quite a bit of space, I gave them a generous two or more feet between each plant in the row. Well... you can see below, not all squashes are created equal.

Here we have two enormous plants flanking a much smaller one. The big ones are my patty pans (Sunburst) while the one in the middle is a straight-neck yellow squash (Slick Pik). The poor straight-neck is barely hanging on in the shade from those big bullies! Clearly it was unwise to alternate varieties along the row, but still... imagine the tangle of squash I would have if I had multiple patty pans spaced only a foot apart! Next year I'm definitely growing patty pans again, but they'll be given plenty of room to do their thing without crowding the rest of the residents.

Baby Pumpkins

Pumpkins! These guys have it easy. I planted the seeds in low hills and laid landscaping fabric over the ground. No competition for water or space, and they are doing fantastic. First is a mini pumpkin... actually a gourd. They reach their mature size fast, which is no surprise because they are palm-sized. It will take a while for their rind to harden; they will also turn a deeper gold/orange color.

This little champ is of the Hercules variety. I plan for him to be huge and require more than one candle to light up the inside. 

The Big Picture

This is the most prolific part of the garden. The picture is a little embarrassing, due to the weeds that are, well, everywhere. But all the plants seem to be getting plenty of water, thriving actually, and I don't have 8 hours a day to spend on the garden, so there you have it. In the foreground are the summer squashes (zucchini in the lower left). Behind that is a row of cucumbers, but you can't see them. Behind that you can see bell peppers, and behind those are the tomatoes. I've used a modified version of the Florida weave to trellis them. Look it up! It works very well.

The first row of tomatoes has determinate varieties (meaning they have a pre-determined size they will grow, i.e. they will stay short). They are trellised using shorter wooden stakes (I think they are 4' stakes stuck about a foot into the ground). The two rows behind are indeterminate, meaning they will climb up to the sky if you give them enough time and a tall trellis. Those are staked with 6' metal rods, the kind that you can get at the garden store and are coated in green plastic. I also have metal T-posts at the ends of each row for reinforcement, so the whole thing doesn't fall over.